Page 15 of Galadon (Dragon’s Breath #8)

Galadon

My head pounded as I slowly awoke on a strange bed—in human form, which was unusual for me. The bright sunlight streaming through the window tempted me to pull the blanket over my head, but then my memories came flooding back. Rayna was in trouble.

I shot straight up, immediately regretting it. A sharp migraine beat at my temples, and my stomach roiled. I stumbled to the chamber pot in the corner of the room and released the contents of my stomach. Sinking to the floor on my knees, I caught my breath and, after a few moments, felt marginally better.

Once it felt safe to stand, I moved to the water basin on the dresser and took a folded camrium cloth, scrubbing myself clean as best I could. Afterward, I pulled a fresh set of clothing from shiggara and a water flask. Gulping that down helped ease the ache in my head.

My internal clock told me it was around noon. If my rough estimates were correct, Rayna had been taken nearly ten hours ago. Vague memories of my dreams told me I’d continued to have visions of her even in my sleep, and each had been worse than the last. I didn’t remember much of what was said, but some of the visuals were engraved in my mind. The worst part was knowing the Kandoran who had her was only getting started, and things would likely get worse once he rose later today. I needed to find her fast.

Whatever she thought of me, I couldn’t leave her like that, even if it was a trap.

I left my room and hurried down the hall to the quarters next to mine, pounding on the door. Two whole minutes passed before Lorcan pulled it open, squinting at me with annoyance. His head likely hurt as much as mine, but I couldn’t afford to be considerate.

“The Kandoran have Rayna. She’s chained down, and the same man who tortured Bailey’s father has begun torturing her. I must leave immediately to rescue her,” I said gruffly.

Lorcan rubbed his face. “Wait, what? They took Rayna? How?”

“They invaded her tower while she slept, used a spell to knock her out, and stun her horse. By the time she woke, they had her chained to magical stakes, so she can’t move or use her powers to get free. Onyx snuck over to her after they went to bed and tried to break the chains with his hooves, but he couldn’t do any damage.”

“Only that horse would have tried,” Lorcan said, sighing. “What can I do?”

“Get a group together if you can and follow me out there, but I’m not waiting any longer,” I said, hating every moment I delayed leaving.

Lorcan shook his head. “They’re never going to agree to a rescue mission for a slayer.”

Of course, they wouldn’t. If it were anyone else, except perhaps Bailey, I’d never consider such a thing. That didn’t make it any easier to handle that they likely wouldn’t lift a talon to help me.

“Fine. Then get word to my mother of what I’m doing. If I’m successful, Rayna will need a healer when I bring her back. If I’m caught, then at least she’ll know what happened to me,” I said and spun on my heels.

“Wait,” Lorcan called.

I paused at the top of the stairs. “I would be happy to have your back, and I think Rayna is worth saving, but I’m the only one here who does. So, I’ll let your mother know what has happened, and then I’ll travel to the Taugud fortress and see who is willing to help because we know there are people who care up there. It will likely put me a couple of days behind you, but I’ll bring as much help as possible in case you don’t get out.”

“Thank you, Lorcan,” I said, dipping my chin. “That means more than you know.”

The shifter shrugged. “Gotta keep you happy and alive before the bitkal.”

I snorted. “Yes, of course.”

Without another word, I raced down the stairs. A servant waited at the bottom of the steps with a sandwich in her outstretched hand. I gave her an inquisitive look as I took it.

“Voices carry here.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “We only met Rayna the one time, but she’s a good person. Save her and bring her back alive.”

“Thank you. That’s what I intend to do,” I said, hurrying out the door.

If anyone wondered why I tore into a sandwich while racing through the jakhal, they didn’t dare ask. By the time I reached the landing pad, I had finished chewing the last bite. It wasn’t much, but the heavy drinking last night was going to slow me down, and getting some food in my stomach could make a critical difference in a fight.

This was a trap. I was under no illusions that I’d get the slayer and escape without running into trouble. Some would say it was stupid to race there without help, but the driving force in me couldn’t wait another moment. I had to get to her now, and at least I would have help coming eventually. That gave me hope we’d save her one way or another.

Shifting took longer than I liked. My body was sluggish and dehydrated, but if I’d been able to predict anything bad might happen beforehand, I wouldn’t have gone on a binge last night. I hadn’t touched the stuff in years, and this was my reward.

My dragon form took up most of the landing pad by the time I finished. While I wasn’t as large as a pure dragon, I wasn’t much smaller. I launched into the air. Rising into the sky took more effort than usual, but I willed myself to climb higher and move faster. Though my muscles screamed at the exertion, I didn’t let myself take a break until I reached Lake Texoma. It was in the neutral zone between Faegud and Taugud territories.

Only then did I allow myself to stop, drink my fill of water, and force myself to rest for ten minutes. If I used up all my energy on the flight, I’d have nothing to give if I ran into the enemy. No matter the urgency riding my every thought, I had to try thinking strategically.

Next, I calculated the safest path to Rayna’s tower. Since I’d flown through the area recently, I had a good idea of where to go to avoid any Kandoran dragons. Few would be out mid-afternoon, but there could be some. I ended my break and flew as fast as I was able without overtiring myself too much.

Thanks to my planning, I didn’t run into any trouble until I neared Rayna’s tower. I had no idea where she was located at present because the details in my visions didn’t give me any landmarks. Instead, I had to start with where they took her and track their path from there.

Three Kandoran dragons waited for me as soon as I caught sight of the structure and lake beside it. My muscles already ached from flying hard for two hours after a single ten-minute break, but rage filled me. They’d targeted beautiful, fierce Rayna, and whether I wanted a relationship with her or not, no one was allowed to hurt her.

I considered bringing a storm on them, but that would announce my presence on a wider scale and draw more of the enemy. Without the slayer’s precise lightning strikes, my storm-wielding ability had limited benefit while I was also in the air.

Instead, I blew a wide arc of flames to blind two of them and attacked the third. He didn’t have a chance to strike first before I sank my fangs into his neck and ripped his throat out. As he dropped, one of the others grabbed my wing. I swung around quickly to free myself, but it tore in his grip, sending shots of pain all the way to my shoulder.

Gritting my teeth through the discomfort, I grabbed his head. Pure dragons had short arms and long necks, which gave shifters an advantage because we had better reach. The third Kandoran was flying up behind me, but before he could damage my wings further, I used the leverage from holding the one in front to kick my legs backward. My feet hooked with the rear opponent’s neck, and I dragged him down so he was locked between my ankles below.

The front dragon snapped his teeth, tearing into my right forearm. As the pain ripped through me, I pressed my talons into his eyes and gouged them until they were destroyed. Then, I used all my strength to fling him down to the ground hundreds of feet below. Though his wings still worked, he couldn’t get any sense of direction and tumbled as he went down.

The third dragon twisted his head back and forth, trying to bite my legs. His short arms reached up as well, but they merely grazed my toes. I lifted my feet and dragged him up until I could take hold of his wings. Fighting through my pain and exhaustion, I grabbed one in each hand and pulled them hard apart until they were half torn from his back. He let out a shriek that pierced my ears.

I flung him to the ground toward the other one. After killing the first, my priority had been to get out of the air as fast as possible, so I didn’t have to use my injured wing any longer than necessary. As he went down, I glided toward him, only flaring my wings at the end to slow my descent.

He crashed into the ground and rolled a couple of times. I landed at a walk, going straight for the other dragon as he attempted to get himself untangled from his bad fall. His back bled profusely as I stomped up his spine until reaching his large neck. He tried to swing around and snap at me, but I grabbed his head and thrust my talon into the soft spot at the back of his skull.

Instant death.

Leaving him, I hurried to the struggling one whose eyes I’d destroyed. Dragons were resilient creatures. We could grow them back, but it would take four or five days. I grabbed him by his upper and lower jaws and wrenched them apart until they broke, leaving them gaping open. He panted and struggled as I punched my fist through his throat to sever his spine. As I pulled my arm free, the Kandoran slumped to the ground.

Searching the skies, I didn’t see any dragons in the air, nor did I sense their malevolence as I usually did if they came anywhere near me. Injured and bleeding, I walked to the lake and dove into the water in my dragon form. It cleansed and refreshed me. I gulped some of it, knowing I was even more dehydrated after the battle.

A part of me felt guilty for taking this break, but if I’d been in better condition, that fighting would have been easy for me. Three dragons rarely proved too much of a challenge and none of these had any true warrior skills. It was an embarrassment that they injured me at all.

As much as it irked me, I had to give myself a couple of hours to let my wounds close. It would take a day for them to fully heal, but I would be in much better shape to fight again if I wasn’t bleeding and the tear in my wing could seal enough to hold my weight better. Going out now, I’d struggle to face any more Kandoran. One thing the month-long war taught me was to pace myself and take breaks whenever possible.

I searched the skies again to be safe, and then I shifted into my human form. My primary goal now was to study Rayna’s current home and see if I could find any clues inside. The first thing I noted was that the door had been pulled off its hinges. Stepping into the dim interior, I found a cot against the far wall. Onyx’s saddle, bridle, and other things were over to my right. One odd thing was that I couldn’t find any of Rayna’s clothes, personal effects, or the pack she used to store them when traveling. A quick search of the circular space turned up nothing.

Kneeling next to the cot, I caught sight of something underneath it, close to the wall. I managed to grab it with my fingertips and pull it out, setting it on Rayna’s little bed. It was some sort of book—a human-made one. I pulled a camrium cloth from shiggara and used that as a barrier while I opened it. The last thing I wanted was to melt the plastic cover with my heated skin.

What I found inside caught my breath. It was a lifelike photo of Rayna in her teen years with a stern mother on one side of her who had the same hair color and a smiling father with thinning black hair on her other side. Next to him, I saw a young boy. He appeared to be ten or eleven for a human, and the resemblance to his parents and sister was uncanny, including Rayna’s smile where their lips turned up at one corner more than the other. She’d mentioned her parents once or twice but never her brother. Where was he now?

Turning more pages, I found her with friends at various places, appearing like she didn’t have a care in the world. Perhaps she hadn’t back then, with no dragons to trigger her instincts. It was shocking to see the innocence in her hazel eyes. Her coppery-brown hair was longer as a teenager, too, going most of the way down her back in gentle waves, compared to how she kept it near shoulder-length now. It was likely easier to take care of while traveling if she kept it shorter. She was also thinner back then with far less muscle and curves. I liked that she had filled out some since then.

Continuing to use the cloth, I kept turning the pages. One had me growling as Rayna gazed adoringly at a boy close to her age at the time. He had short, blond hair and a look in his green eyes as he smiled at her that said he knew her in intimate ways. I couldn’t miss that expression. Would it be possible to track him down and kill him after I rescued her?

I rubbed my face as if I had any right to such thoughts after she came to me and poured out all her feelings while I rejected her. I’d told her to find someone else. Though I knew that was still the best decision because trying to make it work between us would only end in heartache or death, I didn’t like that it had to be that way.

In all the long centuries I’d lived, she was the only one who tugged at my soul and truly made me feel. I glanced down at my favorite photo of her in the book on a brown mare with a carefree smile on her face—so innocent it killed me to see her that way. The thought of her out there writhing in torturous pain twisted me inside. She didn’t deserve this, even as a slayer.

I sat on her cot, thankfully covered in a camrium blanket the Kandoran didn’t steal, and forced myself to rest while staring at her photo book. It occurred to me how little I knew about Rayna. Of course, I’d avoided asking because the more details I had would only endear her to me more. It was easier to envision her as someone who’d slayed dragons since she was old enough to hold a sword. With her, it could have been as early as three, which made me chuckle at the image that formed in my head. Such a formidable force.

When my break was up, I sent the book to shiggara and checked my injuries. The bleeding had stopped soon after the battle, but the wounds hadn’t closed until the last ten minutes, though they remained tender and pink. I’d also drunk the full contents of my canteen. That helped with my dehydration, which had been exacerbated by blood loss.

I found renewed strength as I stood and headed for the exit. Checking my surroundings when I stepped outside, I found the sun was low in the sky. Nothing stirred or set off my senses. I found tracks where several sets of human footprints must have carried Rayna.

Without hesitation, I followed them. They led away from the lake and down the hill, along a well-worn dirt path. The terrain in this area was quite rugged and sloped with many rises and falls. If not for the recent spring rain, it might have been difficult to follow the boot impressions that the Kandoran left in the red clay.

Half an hour passed before I lost the tracks, and the sun had just vanished behind the next hill. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find where they may have continued, which led me to believe they had changed their mode of travel. I sniffed carefully through the wild brush, faintly catching traces of several infected dragons.

Right after that, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I could not see my own future, but my senses often gave me a few seconds of warning for impending danger. That had saved my life more than once. I drew my sword and crouched low as I scanned the area.

Nothing moved or looked out of place. Then a bright flash of light directly to my front blinded me, so I lifted my blade to protect my face. All that I could make out was several figures covered in robes with hoods and red-rimmed eyes. That was enough for me. I stood and charged them, swinging my sword with the intent to behead them.

When I was a mere six feet away, the one in the middle threw something at me. A cold splash of liquid hit my face. Having witnessed what happened to Rayna, I knew what it must be. I stumbled and tried to strike anyway, but my strength had left me.

As I landed at their feet, the one who threw the potion at me laughed. “Foolish, shifter. It would have been wiser to keep your distance from me, but I suspected you weren’t smart enough for that. I almost hate that I’m always proven right about people.”

Everything went black at his last words.

It was nearly eight hours later when I awoke. If not for my internal clock, which rarely failed me, I wouldn’t have guessed since it was still dark outside. I knew they had a potion to knock me out, but I didn’t think it lasted that long. Had they dosed me again or used something else? The unusual grogginess told me they’d kept me in a deep sleep for some time.

Awareness finally kicked in, and I growled as I took in my situation.

I was chained between two tall poles so that I was fully upright, with my arms and legs splayed wide. They left me in my pants, but my tunic was gone, so I was bare from the waist up and lacked my boots. I tested the chains, finding no give whatsoever. Next, I tested my magic and couldn’t feel a trace of it. In all my life, I couldn’t remember being more vulnerable, but then my gaze caught on a figure twenty feet away that was splayed across the ground.

Even in the darkness, I could make out her blood-covered skin and countless wounds. Since my last vision, they’d tortured Rayna even more. She lay with her eyes closed, drawing in ragged breaths. The knife protruding from the left side of her chest likely explained her discomfort, yet she appeared to be in a deep sleep. Had they used the potion to keep her from waking when they brought me? I couldn’t begin to imagine her pain despite being unconscious.

Once more, I tried tugging at the chains, but they’d been pulled taught and didn’t budge. It was another kind of torture to see her lying there, horribly injured and unable to do anything about it. Using all my concentration, I tried shifting to my dragon form, but nothing happened. They had found a way to stop that, too?

Footsteps scraping across the dirt drew my attention. I turned my head as far to my left as I could, catching a glimpse of the Kandoran sorcerer coming my way with several robed figures behind him. What had he called himself in the vision? Astaroth?

“Ah, good. My timing was accurate as usual, and you’re awake. I love it when plans come together nicely.”

I scowled at him. “What do you want?”

“Oh, my desires are simple now that those other three sorcerers are out of the way,” he replied with a smile that could have been mistaken for friendly if not for the malice in his eyes. “I’m no conqueror like them and only want a bit of territory for myself, loyal followers, and peace.”

I knitted my brows. “Are you referring to the trio we killed last fall?”

“Yes, perhaps shifters aren’t so dense after all.” He gave me a patronizing look. “I was willing to follow them until their plans grew too grand, and I knew they’d fail. When the right time came, I may have fibbed a little on how to defeat your side and left out a detail or two. They should have respected me more.”

I wanted to tell him he was just as much of a fool, but that wouldn’t help matters. He had Rayna. For her, I would keep calm and look for an opportunity to save her. Despite my reputation as fierce and frightening, I could remain cold and calculated when necessary. It was the only way to survive when one lived alone.

“What do you want with us?” I asked.

He reached out a hand, and one of his followers handed him a whip with metal barbs at the end. I ground my teeth, understanding the pleasantries were just part of this man’s performance. He enjoyed playing with his victims.

“I meant it when I said I want peace. While there are many Kandoran still roaming other areas, my people and dragons stay within the territory I’ve claimed. We don’t cause any trouble outside those borders, but anyone who comes within them is fair game. The magic inside me that you believe is an infection requires me to feed on pain, fear, and death, but I’ve found the more I drag those out, the more it satisfies my needs. I can then share bits of that with my followers.”

Until now, I hadn’t realized that was part of what the infection did, but it made sense. It was why the Kandoran never stopped conquering for long. They would take land, assimilate some of the people on it, and kill the rest to sate their need for death—especially those not susceptible to the infection.

“And you think Rayna and I will sate you?” I asked, lifting a brow.

He grinned. “Oh, yes. No one can remain strong for long when I’m working on them.”

The Kandoran gestured at the others to stand back and uncoiled the heavy whip, letting it fall to the ground with a thump . The metal spikes were thick and heavy. While I didn’t look forward to feeling those strikes on my body, I’d endured pain before and would this time, too.

“I’ll make certain Rayna has plenty to look at upon waking.”

Without another word, he sent the whip flying at my chest. It hooked into one of my ribs and tore through it as he yanked it back. I had to grit my teeth to keep from shouting. The next lash struck my other side, inflicting the same sharp pain. On and on, with only a few seconds between, the sorcerer tore into my body until I was heaving painful breaths and blood soaked my chest.

Then, he started on my back, and I knew nothing except blinding agony.