Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (15 page)

Done,
Aarion
answered, his eyes on the bloody surf. 
Theron took out the entire dark
horde from the beach with only his wind magic.

How is that possible?
Furee
asked the question even as he searched for his connection to Riva. 
He was
never this powerful before.

You said it yourself,
Solan
answered, his voice dark. 
He carries a blood stone.

Furee shook his head; he
would worry about what a blood stone was doing to a dragon-mage hybrid when he
had his mate back.  He had a general direction, but she felt farther away than
she should be.  When the rest of the mages and the dragon seer spilled out of
the keep, he dived for them, shifting as his feet hit the sand and dirt flew
around him.

“What did you see?”  He practically
spat the words at the seer, even as he felt Theron arrive, shifting and
standing between Furee’s angry fire and his sister.

“Watch yourself, dragon,”
Lord Theron warned.  Even his voice seemed to have eroded, turning raspy and
raw.

Asha had opened her mouth
to answer, but the sight of her brother had horror darkening her eyes.  In his
leathers, you could not see the blood stone, but he pulsated with dark power.  Always
a big hard warrior, now his black eyes flashed the red of old blood when the
light hit it, and his hawk-like features took on an even sharper cast, as if
the magic was both wearing him down and bulking him back up.  But he had his back
to his sister, so what she saw with her seer eyes from looking at just his back
was not what Furee saw.  It was enough to have her hand covering her mouth as
if to hold back the cry of pain Furee saw in her eyes.

Braedon moved fast,
wrapping his hands around her and pulling her into his chest.  Asha clung to
him, burying her face in his chest.  He held her tightly and then just as fast,
she nodded her head to something her mate must have communicated because she
looked up.  Whatever horror she felt, it was wiped from her eyes and expression
before she lifted her head.

Furee switched his
attention to the dragon mage challenging him with blood in his eyes, but before
he could answer the challenge, Asha was talking, her voice as cold as her
diamond-bright dragon eyes.  “I know where Riva and Clare have been taken.”

At the words, everything
seemed to stop, and then in slow motion, every muscle in his body going rock
solid, Lord Theron of Seatown turned and looked at his sister.

The wind was already
beginning to whip around them in agitation when his voice ground out
one knife sharp word.  “Clare?”

Riva woke up with a
pounding head and what she knew had to be a few broken ribs.  She looked around
first and found Clare not far from her, looking far worse than Riva felt.  She
sat up on the rock-hard ground knowing that while she was still in a cave, she
was far from the one she had started in.  After a moment, she realized why the
stones around her felt familiar to her.  There was a wrongness and broken
feeling in the air she recognized.  She was back at Isolation Mountain, though
not in any part of it she had seen before.

When Riva verified that
they were alone, and the light was a slow burning candle in the corner, she
sent her light through her body, examining and fixing problems as she went.  Then
she moved to Clare; with one touch of her healer light, she knew Clare had a
brain bleed putting pressure where she did not want it.  She sent power through
the girl, knowing from experience that she would be useless when she was
finished with the meticulous healing Clare needed, and that it would take her
longer than they probably had.  To her surprise, her power moved through the
girl, fixing everything in one wave of healer power that needed very little
thought or direction on Riva’s part.  When she pulled back a few moments later,
she looked at her own hands in awe and remembered what Furee had said. 

With a deep breath of
shock at the ease of the healing, she looked at Clare just as her grass-green
eyes opened clear and free of pain.  “Where are we?”

“Isolation,” Riva
answered in a whisper, her eyes going to the darkness just beyond the light
when a door they had not seen opened and a ball of magic light blinded them
momentarily.  When the spots cleared from her eyes, Riva expected to see
another deformed and mismatched beast, or Lord Graedon himself, but it was Lord
Rendal who stood at the door of their prison, looking them over with dark
satisfaction.

Riva heard Clare suck in
a shocked breath similar to the one she bit back, and felt Clare tense in
preparation to act when Rendal spoke again.

“I would prefer it that
you don’t heal the Lady Clare just yet Lady Riva,” he said, looking over the
girl still on the floor.  At his words, Clare held her place, not giving away
that she was already healed.  “There will be time enough for that later.  You
have much to accomplish this day and you are no doubt already tired from your
own healing and the battle at Seatown.”

Riva sat back from Clare
and looked over the Lord of House of Earth, though not nearly as thoroughly as
he was looking her over.  His eyes made her feel dirtier than the dust and
grime coating her skin already did.

“For now, allow me.”  He swept
his hand out and she could feel the magic of Dracon cleaning her, and then
transforming her clothes from tunic and trews to a long blood-red dress that
formed over her shoulders and hugged her waist, flaring around in sheer layers
that left her arms and neck bare, but managed to cover everything else.

Riva looked over the
dress and then felt the up-sweep of braids form in her newly clean hair.  She
moved her hands over her hair and then down the soft skirt of the dress, trying
for blank face as she looked back up at the dragon lord from her kneeling
position beside Clare.  “Is there something besides a healing planned that
calls for a fancy dress?”

“Perhaps,” Lord Rendal
said with a laugh that suggested he had a delicious secret.  “But not until
after you heal Lord Graedon.”

Riva licked suddenly dry
lips and felt Clare tense beside her.  “You are working with Lord Graedon?” 
She kept her voice as lacking in inflection as she could, but he must have
heard something anyway because his face darkened and he took a step into the
room.

“I realize you have heard
many terrible things about Lord Graedon from Kinkaid and the rest, but I assure
you, it is all lies.”

Riva looked at Clare who
shook her head minutely and rolled her eyes.  It almost made her smile.  Riva
cleared her throat and looked back at Rendal, trying to read exactly how bad
their situation was.  “Are you saying you cannot feel the dark things he plays
at in the very air you breathe here, Lord Rendal?  Because I assure you, I need
no one to tell me that it is not a lie.  I can feel it, here at Isolation, and
in the creatures that attacked us to bring us here.”

“That.”  Rendal shrugged
that off as unimportant.  “He hardly had a choice but to research the black
arts if he was to take down Kinkaid.”  Rendal shook his head feigning sadness
that was as transparent as the lust he perfumed the air with.  “He has
sacrificed everything to try and save Dracon from Kinkaid’s bid for power.”

Clare snorted and Riva
spoke to distract Rendal when he turned suddenly angry eyes on the girl.  “If
it is as you say, Lord Rendal, and Graedon only wants what is right, why have I
been brought here during a savage attack on Seatown, and why am I being asked
to allow the Lady Clare to suffer when I can heal her?”

He turned his eyes back
to Riva and she watched greed darken them again.  “All will be explained,
Lady.  For now it is enough to know for the good of all, Graedon must be healed
first.  If it makes you feel better we will make it so she feels no pain.”  He
threw magic at Clare even as Riva held up a hand to stop him, but by the time
it hit the ground, Clare had already moved, shifting into a small shimmering
bronze ferret.

Riva jumped up yelling.  “Go
Clare!  Get Furee and Braedon!”

The ferret scampered for
Lord Rendal while he screamed in fury.  Clare ran between his legs and out the
opened door and into the dark beyond.  Riva heard roars and smelled the stink
of the unnatural animals beyond.   Rendal followed after the escaping ferret,
slamming Riva inside the room before she could make it to the door herself. 
She slammed into the wood and wasted no time using her hands to find the latch
in the dark.  She only breathed again when it moved beneath her hands and the
heavy door opened with an effort.  Riva shoved her way through and closed it
behind her; looking around quickly, she headed away from the noise of pursuit
down one cavern and into the quiet of the only other one available.

After a few turns, it got
darker and quieter; she started climbing in the dark hoping that she was right,
and then ahead saw a good sign.  With her hands on the wall leading her on, she
only slowed down when she saw light glowing in the distance and realized she
was almost . . . somewhere.

As Riva worked herself
slowly and quietly to the wall to peek at the next room, a voice came at her
from beyond the corner. 

“You might as well come
out, healer.”  The voice was old and coated with power, and she knew instantly
that she was in serious trouble, even before she felt the tainted dragon magic
wrap around her arm and pull her into the cave.  But she had no doubts left
when the evil taint of his magic burned like a brand before he let her go. 

Riva looked at her arm
and could see a perfect handprint seared into her skin where he had pulled at
her.  She healed almost instantly, the mark disappearing even as she looked up
into the mild brown eyes of a House of Earth dragon.  She could see a vague
resemblance to Aarion in the gold color of his hair, but with his stooped
shoulders and parchment-thin skin, he looked more like a human cadaver than a dragon
lord, and Riva had no doubt he was more than willing to kill her painfully to
get what he wanted.  He must have seen something of her thoughts in her eyes,
because he smiled, and she knew with everything in her that she could not heal
this thing masquerading as a man, even if it cost her her life to refuse.

“Lord Graedon,” she
greeted quietly, raising her chin despite the fear kissing cold across the back
of her neck.  She really hoped Clare brought Furee and the others fast.  She
had a feeling she was only going to be able to stall for so long before those
cold dead eyes saw through it, and she got a strong feeling from that smile
that he was just aching to cause her pain.

***

Furee was doing his best
to keep up with Theron but there was no catching a dragon who was also a wind
mage.  So Theron made it to Isolation well ahead of the rest of them, and Furee
followed the sounds of death deep into the bowels of Isolation Mountain.
General Solan, Lux, and Aarion hopefully followed, but Furee had left while
they were still telling the dragon seer that she should stay behind at Seatown
with her mate.

Furee had not waited to
see the outcome. The words she spoke about what they would find were burned
into Furee’s brain.  Riva would face Graedon alone, and though he would torture
her, he would not break her.

Furee had waited to hear
no more but followed Theron who had already left on a hard north wind, his
dragon form riding the currents he created.  He was barely a flash in the sky
when he passed, he moved so well with the wind he called.  Now Furee followed
the sounds of pain and he had to admit the great plunging hole Theron’s wind
blew down into the depths of Isolation made Furee’s own flight easy.  But
ironically it was Furee who found the Lady Clare first.  Or rather she found
him.

“Furee,” he heard Clare’s
voice just as he was passing a flash of light in a far corner.  He turned
nearly taking out what was left of the stairway and saw Clare in her warrior
leathers and armed.  He knew from the mage light in her eyes that she had
transformed just then.

“Are you well?”  Furee
asked looking her up and down, and then he growled the question he needed
answered.  “Riva?”

“We separated so I could
go get help, but I lost my way in the labyrinth and there are no creatures left
alive for me to ask.”  Furee ground his teeth at her words.  If she was lost,
the chances of her leading him back to Riva were slim.  “I can find Riva
though,” she said when she caught his look.  “I was already backtracking scents
to reach her when I realized I was wasting too much time trying to get out.” 
She moved with purpose until she had led him to the next branch off.  Then she
spoke again.  “I’ll shift so I can smell better.  You follow me until you get a
lock.”  She met his eyes firmly.  “I have seen the connection dragons have with
their mates.  If you sense her, don’t worry about me, just go.  I’ll be right
behind you.”  Then before he could agree, disagree, or tell her she was wasting
time, she shifted into a large mouse and followed her twitching nose.

***

“Enough stalling.  Heal
me now.”

The words were a death knell
on her stretched nerves.  She was right
–
stalling did not work for long.  The only bright spot was when Graedon called
for Rendal.  The man arrived quickly but when asked to produce the other mage
captive, he was forced to admit the Lady Clare escaped.

“But we have everyone
looking for her, she will not get past our guards.”

Graedon hissed his
displeasure.  “Fool,” he spat at Rendal looking like he wanted to torture him. 
“The Lady Clare can transform into any animal, you will not capture her until
she burns herself out.  There is no time.”  Then he narrowed his eyes back on
Riva.  “We will have to do this the hard way.”  Then he smiled and Riva felt
her belly go cold at the look in his eyes.  “I understand you have a fear of
fire healer.”   Riva sucked in a deep breath trying without success to show no
fear.  “I am going to burn you until you agree to heal me, and if you burn so
long that you have nothing left for me, I will dispose of you and go after the
boy.”

That had Riva’s eyes
snapping back to his face. But though her mouth quivered, she firmed her chin
and stared him down.  “I will not heal you.”

“You will,” he said
smugly.  “Or you will die healing yourself.  But I do not think you will wait
that long once the pain begins.”

“My Lord,” Lord Rendal
said, stepping forward looking anxious.  For a moment Riva thought he might
actually help her, until he spoke.  “You promised me the Lady Riva for my
mate.  She is no good to me dead or scarred.”

“She is a healer. 
Eventually she will heal and if you had kept the other mage, I could have used
her to get what I want.  Be grateful I still have use for you or I would just
kill you and be done with it.”

Then he turned back to
Riva, and transformed into a fire-breathing gold dragon of House of Earth, but
even his dragon form showed the sickness that ate at him.  His scales looked to
be sloughing off and there was a dullness about him she had never seen in a
dragon before.  And he looked thin; you could see every bone protruding.  But
when it came, she would bet there would be nothing wrong with his fire.

Riva tried to breathe
through the panic clogging her throat.  Her hands tingled and she shook them
out to try to get her blood flowing.  The tears in her eyes she could not
control, and she had started shivering so hard her teeth chattered. But she
held her ground, telling herself she had survived burning more than once, and
he would not kill her right away.  He needed her to heal him.  The true killing
would only come when he had exhausted every other persuasion.  Somehow it did not
make her feel better because even knowing the fire was coming, Riva refused to
heal him.  So unless someone came, she would die by fire this day.

The first wave of fire
washed over her and she screamed in remembered agony even before it touched
her.  She fell to the floor because her legs refused to hold her.  This was not
Furee’s warm power surrounding her in warmth and protection.  This was dragon
fire meant to maim.  Riva ducked her head into her knees and screamed in terror. 
Knowing what it felt like to have your skin boiled from your body and smell
your own cooked flesh in your nostrils, being attacked with flame was torture
for her mind; she shivered and shook, refusing to open her eyes, and waited for
the pain to start.  It was only when the wait for the pain became unbearable
did she realize she was surrounded by power already.