Verdant Magic: A Standalone Dragon Shifter Adventure (Dragon Mage Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Here, stairs gave way to ladders and she and Jasmine had to half coax and half carry Thea down between them. “Crew quarters,” the boy explained shortly as they entered a much narrower hallway without the paint and ornamentation that graced the levels above.

  The mini-Nubian took the lead as their guide spoke, cantering gaily down the passageway before skidding to a stop at the edge of another hatch leading down. All descended as before—Charlie and Sarah first, then sailor and goat, before apprentice and mentor formed the caboose.

  Unfortunately, the ship swooped and shook this time while Amber was still on the ladder, sending her flying against the hard metal decking as she flubbed the dismount. And as she fell, she could almost see a golden dragon tumbling through the air before disappearing into the Green....

  Here and now, she reminded herself. There was nothing she could do about Zane’s safety, so instead she leveraged herself back erect and peered into the dim space to see how her companions had fared.

  Jasmine and the sailor were nimble enough to have been unaffected by the abrupt change in orientation, and Amber knew without looking that walnut-strong Charlie and fleet-footed Thea would be equally steady on their feet. Sarah, on the other hand....

  The Watcher cringed before glancing further down the corridor in the direction the older woman had gone. She’d only known the dragons’ foster mother for a short time, but she already felt protective of a woman who was willing to spoon broth into the mouths of strangers and—Amber had later learned—to give up her own cabin so a captured earth witch could sleep in blissful solitude.

  Unfortunately, that wisdom and grace walked hand-in-hand with an age where one bad fall could mean a broken hip and the beginning of the end of a long, full life. Still, it was better to know the worst now rather than to guess at potential disasters. So Amber strained her eyes to peer into the darkened corner and was surprised to find a more heartening sight than she’d originally expected. Sarah was still standing...or at least leaning into the body of a farmer who had instinctively pulled her close as soon as the floorboards shifted beneath their feet.

  Thank you, Amber mouthed at her best friend. Then she instantly regretted the impulse when his brow lowered into what was becoming a habitual scowl. Charlie didn’t push the older woman away, though. Instead, he merely set Sarah more firmly on her feet and latched one strong arm beneath her elbow to protect against future mishaps. “Are we almost there?” he growled at the waiting sailor.

  “Almost,” the boy replied. He led them to the end of the final hallway before reaching down to heave open a hatch nearly too heavy to lift by himself. And as the thick wooden barrier rose, Amber gazed down into the bright light of the outdoors...directly toward the distant Green.

  ***

  Faster than she could react, the boy leapt through the hole. Amber gasped, fully expecting the youngster to plummet to his death. But instead, his feet landed upon what must have been glass, or hopefully a synthetic material that was both stronger and more shatter-resistant than super-heated silicon. Whatever it was, the surface proved to be both solid and transparent, and Jasmine didn’t hesitate to follow the other teenager’s lead.

  “Thea next or Sarah?” Charlie asked, coming up on her left side.

  “Sarah,” Amber answered, acknowledging the older woman with a smile. “She’s not going to kick anyone in the face.”

  “Well, I certainly hope not,” the dragons’ foster mother said. True to her word, she was slow but sure as she lowered herself onto the ground to sit at the edge of the hole with her feet dangling down into the chamber below. Amber wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if the older woman was able to make the drop without any assistance at all.

  Luckily, that level of agility didn’t appear to be necessary. “Just a minute, ma’am. There’s a ladder,” the boy said before ducking out of sight and stirring up a round of sustained thumping from below. Meanwhile, Charlie took advantage of the momentary lull to draw Amber back down the corridor until they were invisible to all but Sarah, who seemed far more interested in the view beneath her feet than in a whispered conversation in the corridor behind her back.

  Finally, for the first time in days, Amber and her best friend found themselves entirely alone save one heel-hugging goat.

  The Watcher should have been thrilled at the opportunity to plot an illicit departure, but instead she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot as she waited for Charlie to speak. From her single glimpse of the glass-lined chamber, she’d seen no escape pods or other flying apparatus. Which meant the captain’s emergency evacuation plan likely involved parachutes. A dicey proposition with a teenager and a goat in tow...but possible.

  Still, Amber wasn’t quite ready to abandon ship. On the one hand, she didn’t want to cut off the tenuous connection forming between herself and a strangely enticing shifter. And she also wasn’t willing to leave Sarah behind when their dirigible could be boarded at any moment, putting the older woman at risk.

  So Amber was glad to see her friend drop down to tie his shoe, providing a moment of reprieve before she was faced with explaining decisions he was bound to disagree with. Only his laces were already knotted into perfectly looped bows and he was fumbling in his pocket instead of at his feet.

  Thea joined in the hunt, clearly thinking the human had something tasty hidden away within the folds of fabric. And for once Charlie didn’t push the pet aside. Instead, his lips curled into a secretive smile and he scratched Thea’s head with one hand before continuing to dig into his pocket with the other.

  A chill ran down Amber’s spine as she realized what was happening. Oh, Charlie, don’t, she almost said aloud as her friend pulled forth the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen.

  It was walnut, carefully carved and polished so every surface shone while the entirety glowed like the metaphorical heart of a tree. Meanwhile, even from three feet distant, Amber could feel the Green’s power imbuing the jewelry-turned-storage-device. I could have used a dose of that magic reserve yesterday, Amber thought.

  But the tears in her eyes had nothing to do with either the beauty or utility of the item. Instead, they stemmed directly from the gift’s source. Because Charlie possessed barely enough affinity with the Green to ask a well-watered seedling to sprout. He certainly couldn’t have powered up the glistening circlet by himself.

  Her friend was usually so stubborn about not needing magic for anything, so unwilling to discuss his lack thereof. Despite that, he must have overcome his habitual defensive mechanism for long enough to beg a stronger witch to imbue this ring with power. That act of unselfishness alone meant more to Amber than a gift of the biggest diamond ring from the Before, and she found tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Charlie...” she started.

  “I believe it’s my turn to talk,” her friend interrupted, speaking over her the way he used to when they were both children and his three-month head start on life gave him a similar advantage in their frequent battles of will. Amber realized she’d missed that firmness in recent years, had resented the deference he’d accorded her in the last decade since her parents had died and she—but not he—had come into her full power.

  For a split second, the ramrod-straight line of her companion’s back reminded her a bit of Zane.

  “I know I haven’t been clear about my intentions,” Charlie continued, speaking slowly as if recalling a much rehearsed speech. “I thought that our parents’ agreement would descend to us naturally. That we’d reach our own understanding when the time was right, like a sapling waiting patiently for a gap in the canopy before it receives the sunlight needed to grow.

  “But I didn’t expect us to end up here like this. I didn’t expect to be stuck in an airship with dragons breathing down our necks and no way to reach solid ground. So I’ll ask you now in case I never get another chance....”

  He paused, took a deep breath, then spoke words she would have given anything not to hear. “Amber, I want us to get married as soon as we�
��re off this junk heap. I’d like you to accept this ring as the token of the life we’ll build together in the future. I hope you’ll do me the honor of promising to become my wife.”

  At the far end of the corridor, metal clanged against metal as the ladder fell into place. Amber knew she should have kept her attention riveted on the man—the good man—kneeling at her feet. But instead, she glanced over his head to where Sarah had turned to face them both as she carefully worked her way down into the glass-lined room below.

  There was something about the older woman that reminded her of Momma. Perhaps that’s why the sadness on the former’s face bit into Amber’s heart as deeply as the curved thorn of a black locust had once dug into her bare heel. And just like that long-ago thorn, Sarah’s sadness deepened and festered as it transformed into resignation.

  It was almost as if her audience of one knew Amber’s answer before she even spoke. As if the dragons’ foster mother accepted the Watcher’s reasoning and understood why she might choose the safe and easy path. Amber hadn’t even made up her own mind and already Sarah was forgiving her for picking past allegiances over future possibilities...possibilities like the one who currently flew outside the ship on wings of fire.

  Then Jasmine’s high-pitched voice drifted upward as Sarah slipped down out of sight. “Which one is Zane?” the girl asked, her companion’s murmured reply lost to distance as Amber’s stomach clenched painfully around the name of the dragon she’d collared the day before.

  Don’t be a drama queen, she told herself. A day, a week, a year ago, she would have been thrilled by Charlie’s proposal. Sure, their first kiss hadn’t set off fireworks or awoken any over-powering sense of passion. But that was to be expected, right? She and her friend were both inexperienced in the art of love. Still, earth witches knew how to grow into a partnership like woven tree trunks that rubbed bark against bark until a wound appeared then merged two branches into one. They’d figure it out.

  Amber wasn’t so sure she wanted her marriage to be a gradually healing wound, though. For an instant, she imagined what it might feel like to soar in the arms of a dragon. To accept the raging flame kindled by a shifter’s overpowering touch. To become more than the Watcher she’d been led to believe was the entirety of her identity and existence.

  “You coming?” The sailor’s young head popped back up in the spot where Sarah had so recently descended. Ever interested in strangers, Thea cantered over to investigate, and the young man took advantage of the goat’s proximity to grab onto forequarters as if he planned to pull her over the edge unassisted. That wouldn’t end well.

  “Charlie, we need to....”

  In an instant, her friend was standing again, fingers brushing across exposed hip as he slipped the ring into her pants pocket to rattle against the kudzu seeds his sister had so recently provided. “You don’t have to answer me now,” he said, but his body language relayed a different message entirely.

  Your answer is irrelevant...or at least a foregone conclusion, his cocky stance told her. Charlie had decided they would marry, and walnut-like he was already marking that celebration down on his internal calendar.

  “You have a lot on your mind,” he elaborated kindly. “For now, just keep the ring with you in case you need it.”

  Then, striding toward the sailor, her fiancé gently disentangled Thea from the boy’s well-intentioned but badly placed grip. “You don’t want to hold her there,” he explained. “Let me show you how it’s done....”

  Chapter 16

  Amber is back there. Defenseless. Alone.

  For once, even mustering a few short words within his own head was nearly beyond Zane’s mental abilities. Instead, he lost himself in air currents. Fire and wind merged to stoke his anger, leaving him less sentient being and more avenging force of nature. The black dragon was no longer his brother. Instead, the beast had morphed into a faceless enemy to overcome. Overcome...or slay.

  “Slow down.”

  A red dragon banked before him, scales flashing in the simple pattern language foster siblings had developed during their shared childhood. Zane translated the words with ease, but the communication still barely made any sense. Why would Nicholas tell him to stop when the danger was obvious and right in front of their noses?

  Then another red dragon knocked against Zane’s opposite shoulder, shaking a bit of rationality back into his rage-sodden brain. That was Alexander, the shifter’s usual clown-like demeanor lost in the drama of the moment. “Calm down,” the second twin admonished with another flash of colored scales.

  If both brothers were in agreement, they were probably right. So Zane tried to heed their advice.

  But how could he obey when the black invader was close enough to smell the soot on his foul breath? When over a dozen humans hovered midair less than half a mile away, no fire or claws available to protect them from a feral dragon’s dubious mercy.

  When his apple-scented earth witch had last been sighted standing at a not-so-distant railing watching Zane disappear around the side of the ship. When the only way to ensure Amber’s continued existence was to drive away the danger now in front of his face?

  He couldn’t, of course. Instead, Zane ignored pain shooting through muscles as he momentarily quenched his own inner fire and dropped like a stone out of the brotherly huddle. Then, letting rage fill him to bursting once more, he dove earthward and used that momentum to turn and soar directly up toward the easiest-to-injure spot on the black dragon’s hide—his exposed and softened belly.

  The last time he and his twin had met in battle, Zane had exercised admirable restraint. He’d reminded himself that this was his blood brother, a lost soul who lacked Sarah’s civilized upbringing and didn’t understand how to communicate beyond tearing with tooth and claw.

  Plus, Zane’s pulled punches stemmed from a more personal reason layered on top of his instinctive sense of fair play. The moon-marked beast might be the only shield currently protecting him from being pulled under by the much-dreaded Fade. He’d be damaging his own future if he returned each blow with equal vigor.

  None of that rational reasoning mattered now. Instead, Zane felt his body expand as electricity from the air fueled his inner fire. Lightning danced from cloud to cloud, proving he’d stolen too much and unbalanced the natural order in the process. But he couldn’t quite find it within himself to care. Instead, he poached yet more energy, extending claws to killing length in the process. Then he prepared for the one solid hit that would send his sibling plummeting out of the air, never to threaten innocents ever again.

  The golden dragon’s headlong approach was anything but a surprise attack, yet his brother didn’t attempt to twist or swoop aside. He didn’t lash out with fangs or tail. Instead, he waited patiently as if accepting the inevitability of his fate.

  And something about that passivity reminded Zane of the way Amber’s eyes had mourned when he’d struck out against her knife-wielding friend. Violence isn’t the solution, her straining neck muscles had seemed to say. Please don’t harm someone I call friend.

  As quickly as it had come, Zane’s mindless rage disappeared in a puff of smoke. Instead, he pulled up nose-to-nose with his twin, pausing, pondering. Was he missing something important? Would he soon come to regret an immediate, remorseless attack?

  Then red dragons settled against his flanks, close enough that their heat licked out to warm his cooling hide but far enough away so all could easily maneuver should the tables abruptly turn. Earlier, his siblings had done their level best to talk sense into Zane’s over-protective brain with their limited draconic vocabulary. But now that he’d committed to the offensive, they followed his lead without question. Brothers united until the end.

  Wings rose and fell in tandem while cascades of buoyant summer air drifted across shoulders and face. The quartet had drifted lower than the airship’s lofty elevation over the last few minutes, and now the heat of earth and plants lay like a smothering blanket atop them all. In fact, the sli
thering sentience of the Green was visible only a handful of yards beneath tails and feet.

  Danger above and danger below, Zane thought, peering at the dragon who lingered one neck-length higher than his own spreading wings. His darker counterpart didn’t appear quite so scrawny now that Zane considered him without battle rage clouding his vision. Sure, the feral beast was significantly smaller than the three dragons facing him. But his talons shone and the arch of his neck was regal. And for the first time, Zane noticed keen intelligence glinted in the stranger’s ebony eyes, the realization spurring him to reconsider initial intentions.

  Because back when he’d first left the Aerie in order to track this dragon down, Zane had assumed his twin was more animal than man. How could the black dragon have developed human speech and conscience when living hand to mouth like a wild beast?

  With that information in mind, Zane had planned to trick his blood brother into the collar that so recently graced his own throat. Then, once the enemy’s magic was safely neutralized, his twin could be eased into the culture the others had learned at Sarah’s knee.

  Eventually, the twins could meet as equals. But that time wouldn’t be here and it wouldn’t be now.

  Or so Zane had thought the day before. Currently, though, the moon-marked dragon’s strange stillness made him wonder whether he’d given their shared upbringing too much credit for the men he and his siblings had become. Sure, Sarah’s maternal presence had certainly made their lives easier and more meaningful. But perhaps this feral shifter had found a similar mitigating influence somewhere in the uncharted wilderness covering the land below. Perhaps the black beast had grown up with morals that matched or exceeded those of Zane and his foster brothers. Perhaps he’d returned now to greet his sibling rather than to kill him.