Realm of Dragons

He needed to talk to his parents.

Devin set off through the castle, seeing that while the servants were up, many of the nobles and commoners were still rising in the wake of the prematurely finished festivities. The servants were tidying away all the mess the feasting had created, which meant that Devin was able to slip out unremarked. He spared a glance for the tower belonging to Master Grey, knowing that he would have to return there soon. For now though, the only answers he wanted were at home.

Royalsport was starting to wake up around him, so Devin found himself hurrying, wanting to get home before his father left for work. He passed an apple cart and brushed it accidentally, sending one of the apples within to the ground. “Sorry,” Devin called, and tossed the man one of his few coins.

“That’s all right, milord,” the man said, and it was only then that Devin realized what he must look like, still dressed in Halfin’s spare clothes. He hurried on quickly. He was getting closer to home, crossing the bridges from one district to the next, moving from cobbled streets to stones and dirt, having to watch more carefully around him to make sure the spaces between the wattle and daub houses contained no cutpurses.

There were signs of activity when he reached the small house his family called home: smoke from the chimney and sounds of people moving around within. Devin opened the door and went inside to find his parents at the dinner table, almost as he had left them. It seemed strange to him that everything should just be a normal morning then, especially when he hadn’t been home for… well, days now.

His mother turned, and in that moment, Devin could see no real concern, only annoyance.

“Where have you been? Why are you dressed like one of the rich folk?”

His father stood up. “Well? Where have you been?”

“I’ve been up at the castle,” Devin said. “They wanted me to work some special metal for them.” He could have left it at that, but the dream demanded more. “I was traveling with Rodry and the knights.”

“You were what?” his father said. “Who are you to go talking about your betters like that?”

“I don’t know,” Devin said, the words almost seeming to slip out. “Who am I?”

The words stopped his parents short. At least, the people he’d always thought of as his parents. In that moment though, he could see what was obvious: there was no resemblance there with him. There had certainly never been any love.

“What do you mean, who are you?” his mother demanded. “You’re our son.”

“Then why can I do magic?” Devin asked. “Why do I have dreams of being given to you? What happened on Sarras?”

His father stared at him then, his expression darkening. “I told them. I told them when they brought you to me that you were too dangerous, that you’d find out…”

He stepped forward, and instinctively, Devin flinched. How many times had his father lashed out when he was drunk? How many bruises had Devin suffered?

“Well, now that we know you’re something twisted,” his supposed father said, “at least I don’t have to hold back anymore.”

He lifted one meaty hand, fist closed, and Devin reacted on instinct. He knew the feeling of power rising up in him now, and once more the world around him seemed to slow as he saw it, understood it, saw all the things that he could do in it. He lifted one hand, feeling the power pulse up inside him, and it took all his control not to fling all of it the way he had with the wolves. Even so, it was enough to send his father flying back, tumbling into his chair and then over it, to lie looking up at Devin from the floor.

“Get out!” he yelled. “Get out, you monster!”

***

Devin left, mind still reeling from what had happened, barely able to comprehend how quickly he’d gone from asking questions to not having a home. Yet in another way, it wasn’t quick, because it felt as though this had always been coming, as if everything had been heading this way Devin’s whole life.

It didn’t make anything feel any better, and he rushed out into the street, not knowing where he was going or what he was doing. And yet he did feel driven by something pulling him this way. What, he was not sure.

He was so caught up in the shock of the last few seconds that at first he barely noticed the fog that had swept up, surrounding him until he couldn’t see the buildings on either side, and the world became a thing of shadows and echoes.

The city around him faded, so that Devin barely knew which way he was going. He could hear the sounds of it at first, but now even those started to be swallowed by the fog. Mists were common enough in a city intersected by so many river branches, but this… this felt like something different.

How long he walked, Devin didn’t know. In a space like this, it seemed that time itself stood still, so that he walked forever between one heartbeat and the next. He thought again of his dream. And he felt that force pull and pull him.

And then he spotted something ahead where the mist thinned. It seemed to summon him.

He started toward it and eventually came out into a clearing. It stood in the midst of thick sections of what seemed to be a forest, far from any spot most people would find, and there seemed to be a cave entrance there. Someone had pushed rocks in front of that entrance, rock after rock until it was tightly sealed.

Devin could hear sounds coming from within, and he guessed that they must be those of an animal, except that they were like no animal he had heard before. There was snuffling and roaring and scraping there, as if something was trying to get out.

Except… he had heard those sounds before. He’d heard them in dreams. It sounded primal.

Dangerous.

He knew, with complete certainty, that he had to help the creature that was in there.

Devin started to pull away some of the cave’s covering, and it was anything but easy. There were plant fronds covering it, and those were easy enough to remove, but the rocks there were larger and harder to shift. Devin had to squat to wrap his arms around them, and then shove them to the side one by one. He got several of them clear, and then something came out to swipe more out of the way: a claw.

Devin leapt back, and the dragon came out through the mouth of the cave. It looked almost exactly as it had been in his dreams. It was huge, but somehow Devin knew that it wasn’t yet full grown. It towered over him, wings folded against its back, blue scales flickering with iridescent rainbow colors. The dragon was large enough that Devin half suspected it wouldn’t be able to free itself from the cave, its body scraping against the side as it pulled itself clear. Devin heard the crack of shifting rock, and several rocks tumbled down around the dragon as it exited the cave.

More than that, it was growing larger. With every second that Devin watched, it seemed to be growing, and Devin’s eyes shifted, letting him see the clouds of light and power flowing into it. He didn’t know much about magic yet, but he knew that was what was fueling the growth of the dragon, making it bigger, turning it into something impossibly huge.

He could only stare at it as it towered over him, rearing up on its hind legs, with its wings stretching out, bat-like, in the sun. Its neck stretched up sinuously into the sky, and then came down, so that its head wove in front of Devin like a snake’s before its prey. Its mouth opened wide, revealing teeth that would be able to bite through him without any effort at all, while its hind claws left gouges in the dirt as it moved. It roared at him then, in a sound that all but deafened Devin as he stood there.

The dragon stared down at Devin as if trying to work out exactly what he was. Huge, reptilian eyes stared down at him, flicking back and forth. A snakelike tongue flickered out as if tasting the air around Devin, then scraped across his skin. The dragon blinked, as if not quite understanding, then paused, as if listening to something that only it could hear.

It roared again, and those great wings beat at the air, producing a rush of wind that almost knocked Devin from his feet. He had to brace to keep standing as the dragon’s wings beat again in great swings of leathery flesh. The first couple of wing beats seemed to be as if the creature were testing what it could do, but the next ones were more serious.

Devin saw the dragon’s muscles bunch, and then it leapt into the air, taking off and soaring above the trees.

Devin stared after it, trying to make sense of it. He didn’t know where the dragon had come from, or what it signified, but right here, right now, that wasn’t what mattered.

What mattered was where it was going.

That he, Devin, had a role to play in whatever happened next.

That, somehow, he had unleashed it.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Nerra was held up only by the tree against which Bern was pinning her, holding her in place with one hand while the other was raised to strike.

“Where is the dragon?” he demanded.

Nerra shook her head. She wouldn’t say, she mustn’t say.

He struck her, and Nerra’s ears rang, as it left her tasting blood.

“Won’t be able to ransom her back if she’s hurt too much,” one of the others said.

“Think this is about ransom?” Bern shot back. “Try to do that with a princess, there’s a rope waiting for your neck, or worse. We kill this one and lose the body when we’re done, that’s what we do. The dragon is the important thing.”

All the more reason for Nerra to say nothing. They were going to kill her anyway, so it was better to hold on, to say nothing, and hope…