Dragon Frost Read online

  There was no avoiding the worry he had that his Pack may have taken Xirel's treatment a bit too far. When they attacked the Efereal Mountains, their orders were to kill the stag Awl first. What no one expected was that the chimera leader had built a new Gate, and was on Earth at the time of the attack. By now, all of the Awl Tribes across the Continent would have heard of the attack. That, in turn, put the Atrum in the center of a whole lot of dangerous enemies.

  What was supposed to be a simple plan was now a complete mess. On top of it all, they did not expect that the Deathmare would show up. It effectively blew apart what ever might be salvageable of the situation. The Caelestis' kyrie had been a laughed-at fairy tale with the secret power it was rumoured to have. Kenshe wasn't laughing now.

  The Awl had remained a dozen steps ahead of him, but this was where it would end. Xirel was still bleeding from a wound to his side, yet he refused to let any of their healers' aeri energy heal him. The griffin metal that held him prevented him from using his own energy.

  "You pray for all the wrong things...Kenshe," Xirel said as he locked his purple eyes on the Atrum Lord.

  "And I suppose she answers your prayers?" Kenshe replied.

  "The Caelestis speaks to me all the time. Even now, I can feel the gentle breeze of her psi...reaching out in concern for me. She will return from the realm of death. If you harm me further, then that will be the end of the Atrum and all concerning it, including you," Xirel warned.

  "If you hadn't left the Atrum's Order, then none of this would have happened to begin with," Kenshe replied.

  "I do not answer to you. None of my chimera ever will trust your kind again. I had hoped that Sybl's memory might be enough to unite us, but you have forgotten her. Therefore, the peace between our kind has also been forgotten. "

  "Your chimera Awls will not be a problem once you are dead. Though, I am curious to just what you were looking for on Earth to have left them so vulnerable?"

  "You are a fool, Kenshe. Once you might have been a great leader, but you have become corrupt. The blood of Solar that runs in your veins from your dragon mother has betrayed you. Why I was on Earth is none of your concern, for I have nothing more to say to you." Xirel's eyes flared a bright purple for a moment before fading.

  Kenshe got to his feet and started to leave. "Then die for all I care."

  Xirel had drifted off for an unknown amount of time when a small voice woke him. Only after opening his eyes did he realized that the gentle voice had not come from his head, but from in front of him. "You should not be here--it is too dangerous."

  "It's my fault that you're here," the small voice replied.

  "You have not received any training with your powers. You need to get out of here before anyone sees you."

  "And go where?" the girl asked as she pulled over the stool and stood on it to try her luck with the shackles that hung him up. "Where are the keys?"

  Xirel only sighed and dropped his head as Ubi looked in the direction that the phelan shifter had left in.

  "I'm not leaving here without you," the girl insisted and pulled her black hood back over her head. With a quick look back, she followed after the Atrum Lord.

  Xirel pulled harder at his shackles, cursing the fact that they were made from griffin metal. He closed his eyes tight as he tried to think of how to save her, chorused by prayers to Sybl for a miracle.

  FOUR

  Nafury didn't know how long he had been out for when he opened his eyes. It could have only been a while, as he had been dragged into a cell. The cold, dark energy that surrounded him meant that he could only be in the Atrum's dungeon.

  "Took you long enough to wake up." The voice registered familiar before the dark figure standing in front of his cell did.

  "Here I was truly starting to believe that we were becoming friends," Nafury replied.

  Kenshe grabbed one of the cell bars. "You took everything from me, yet I went on believing that there was a reason somewhere to keep you alive. It would seem that you are incurably cursed with how you always manage to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm out of patience."

  "Everything to you?" Nafury laughed at the idea of his sister holding a phelan shifter equally in such high regard. Let alone a kid as messed up as the current Atrum Lord.

  "You know nothing," Kenshe said bitterly as his eyes glowed momentarily red.

  Nafury lifted his hands in mock surrender to the argument. "Seeing as you haven't already killed me, I can only guess that I'm still important to you. No one has to know of the assassin squad you let loose on the Efereal Mountains. Besides, there are few who would hear any of my words at all."

  "The chimeras and Awls were proving too complicated to reason with," Kenshe explained. He crouched down before Nafury's cell to get a better look at him. "I was going to keep you alive for the sake of Sybl's sacrifice, but you have gone out of your way this time to find that death you seek. Tomorrow, you and Xirel will be executed for treason."

  Nafury rested his head against the back of his cell and laughed. "Treason? Don't I have to pledge allegiance to you first for that to happen? Come on, Kenshe. That is so unfair. We were supposed to die with a mortal grip on each other's throats as we fell straight into Hell. Now you're going to what? Behead me? How uncivilized. My sister is not going to be happy about any of it."

  Kenshe stood up and didn't answer him.

  "But if Sybl wants my soul next to hers now, then I'm not going to fight to live. You just really need to tell me what in all the Hells she ever saw in you."

  "If she doesn't like who I've become to hold Kas' legacy together, she is welcome to take it up with me personally."

  "How about I make this personal between us?" a voice said from down the hall.

  Kenshe looked at the young teenage ayame. "What are you doing down here?"

  "You hurt Xirel, and now I'm going to make you pay for it!"

  Kenshe wasn't phased, and he didn't bother to reach for his blade.

  Nafury got to his feet and looked from the other side of the bars to his little rescuer. There was something about her that she was using a great deal of her concentration to keep hidden.

  "I have not called for you. Leave," Kenshe ordered.

  "How dare you speak to me like I'm one of your dogs!" the voice hissed back and bright blue eyes replaced the red glow as the girl's hood lifted. Her eyes focused on Kenshe's wolf-like shift that stood just a little ways behind him in its spirit form.

  Kenshe's right hand was on the Threads around him to form a defence now. The blue glow of her eyes was uncanny. But she didn't attack him directly. Instead, his own shift came straight at him from behind with a mouthful of teeth that caught his shoulder and arm in a vice grip. Unable to fight back as he was, his shift dashed down the hall, carrying him as if he were a mere corpse.

  Nafury was on his feet now, certain that he was the next to die.

  The girl picked up the keys that had been dropped by Kenshe and looked at Nafury. Then she looked around his cell, likely looking for his spirit shift. "You don't have one, do you?"

  "Your power..." was all that Nafury could say. "You are who Sybl was talking about--the other Fay."

  The girl's blue eyes dimmed and returned to being red, as if by reflex to defend her identity. "Can you use aeri energy?"

  "Yes, but these bars are griffin metal," Nafury stated as he eyed the keys in her hand.

  "I need you to help me heal someone, and in return I will help you to escape," the girl said.

  "Xirel," Nafury concluded, and watched as she unlocked his cell.

  "Yes."

  He followed the girl down the halls and up a set of stairs. They soon found Xirel strung up in chains in a larger cell like meat left in the freezer. "You weren't kidding," he said to the chimera Awl in regard to their newest Fay. Nafury caught him after the girl released the second shackle lock. The Awl was tall, but couldn't have weighed half of what he did. He channeled some of his aeri into Xirel's wounds. He started with the fl
esh that had been ripped away with phelan teeth at his side. Within moments the Awl began to come around.

  "I never obtained much of a sense of humour..." Xirel confessed. "Ubi," he continued, looking at the girl.

  "I'm okay. Right now we need to get you out of here," she replied.

  "Why would you need a sense of humour?" Nafury thought aloud as he pulled Xirel's arm behind his neck to help keep him upright. Then they slowly started out of the dungeon.

  "Because...this is the third time a human is rescuing me."

  Nafury looked the way they came as several shouts and screams went out.

  "I've turned their shifts on them. We need to use the commotion to escape," the young woman said.

  Nafury looked at Ubi, taking note that Xirel said that it was the third time.

  Ubi's eyes remained red. She fluttered around Xirel, as if trying to generate enough wind to propel him back to his own feet. "Is he going to be okay?"

  "He's peachy. But the whole Atrum is likely to come down on us now." Nafury said.

  They passed like silent shadows as the phelan shifter guards battled it out with their own shifts in the halls. None of them seemed to have the slightest idea to just what was going on.

  Kenshe's secret assassination plan was still a secret. It was fortunate for them, for none of the soldiers looked long at them or saw three prisoners making an exit. They made no eye contact with any one, until they were well out of the black castle, through Ubi's means of entry.

  Sial met them not far from the courtyard. Nafury helped the girl onto his back, and pulled himself up behind her. Xirel staggered a moment, but soon managed to shift into his white stag form. Giving the stag only a moment to count the legs under him, they hastily made their way for the trees.

  FIVE

  Nafury opened his eyes and glanced around the rubble they sat amongst. It was all that was left of the Sanctus now. A part of him regretted not seeing the Temple in its glory before the Phoenix burned it to the ground.

  "You humans sleep far too much."

  Nafury looked across from him, where Xirel held the sleeping girl in his arms. Nafury's once-white, now-battered cloak covered her. She seemed perfectly content to make the chimera Awl into her personal pillow. He checked that the fairy pendant on his neck was still there, and let out a breath of relief as his cloak was all that she took. "She's like Sybl, isn't she?"

  Xirel pulled some of the almost-black hair from Ubi's face and studied her closer. "She looks just like Kas, but she has her mother's character."

  So this was Xirel, the chimera's leader. He would never have guessed such a frail looking Awl to be capable of achieving much. His long white hair, purple eyes, and bone-thin physique left a lot of questions to how he led anything.

  "How insulting of you. Your sister thought that I was truly beautiful," Xirel replied nonchalantly to Nafury's thoughts. He stared at him now with purple eyes that were hard to read. "It would seem that the memories you retained after Daath's exorcism are limited."

  "I try to not think about how I nearly destroyed two realms too often. Has a rather depriving affect on my mood," Nafury replied, trying to not let it get to him.

  "And so it should. I would have seen to it myself that you were killed for what you did. Sybl was irreplaceable, both as a Fay and who she was."

  "It wasn't my choice to stay alive, it was hers," Nafury replied, trying to keep his tone neutral. An Awl was not something he could fight and hope to live. He looked at Ubi for a change of subject. "This Fay can only be her daughter. But how?"

  "Her soul is of the Fay who was born to Erebus and Asil on the first Aster. As such, she is also Sybl's daughter," Xirel explained, his tone once again neutral.

  "If this is true, then why are we finding her now? She must be at least fifteen."

  "Her past is a tragic and complicated one."

  Nafury rubbed his cold arms as he gave a quick look to the Threads around them, sensing for any danger. "She was reincarnated on Earth?"

  "Indeed. But she has been made fragile and hateful. Earth's Sentries have slaughtered her countless times over the millennium. Everyday a bit more of her dies as she remembers the injustice done to her."

  Nafury looked at Xirel. "Kas supposedly had all his memories of his life on the first Aster as Erebus. Why didn't he do something about that?"

  "Because Kas was the one who banished her there," Xirel answered.

  "Why would he do that? Who could do that for that matter?"

  "Her power is very dangerous, and while she is a human now, I cannot speak for how she may have been as a complete Fay. I do know, however, that Kas never did anything without carefully calculating its repercussions. He was the exact opposite of his soultwin in that respect."

  "Does she know who I am?" Nafury asked and finished with a gulp.

  "Yes, I told her while you were asleep."

  "Does she blame me for what happened?"

  "No. I told her that you were possessed and Sybl saved you. That's all I told her of you," Xirel replied.

  Nafury relaxed a little. The rest of the story could wait, for now. Or forever.

  "She believed that Sybl purposely left her alone and motherless. Only, it wasn't your sister's fault. Kas took the memories of their daughter into death with him. It was why he never became close with Sybl, lest that memory return to her."

  "But why would he do something like that? This is their daughter we're talking about!"

  "Erebus was the one to cast out Ubi from the first Aster and send her to Earth. She was an abomination; a threat to the stability of the planet and considered a monster. As you have already seen, she can bend shifts to her will. I made the mistake of touching her when I found her on Earth. Without warning and entirely by reflex, she ripped my Awl self right out of my shift. If I didn't look so horrifying in that state she might have killed me right there. Fortunately, she remembered me from her previous incarnation, when I was still a Sentry. So I got a hold of myself again and grabbed her quick and brought her back through the Gate. But Kenshe's army was waiting when we returned and we were separated. She utilized one of the True to reach the Atrum and rescue us."

  A howl went out from the True in the distance. Nafury wondered if they could hear this far. "If she wasn't right there, I wouldn't believe any of it." He focused back on Xirel's unreadable eyes. "How do you know so much?"

  "Awls were once Sentry on Earth. I once watched Hino kill one of her previous incarnations before my very eyes. It was on that day that I made the choice to come to Aster. Asteria once granted you and the other Three Generals a soul and a place on her world. Similarly, the Great Dragon allowed me to live in a body that the Chimera Mother had killed in her fury. The will of the Caelestis within the Great Dragon makes Him merciful."

  "Next to your sickly appearance, what was your flaw?" Nafury asked, curious. He remembered bits and pieces of the Last War when he was Damek. The chimeras had retaliated for being slaughtered for their imperfections and the Feharin had won the War, but lost their Golden City and the Third Continent. More importantly, they had lost Sybl when she was Asil.

  Sadness darkened Xirel's purple eyes and he didn't answer him. Instead, he looked at Ubi. "Time is against us. We only have until all her memories return to save her, and there is another problem as well."

  "Like the entire Suzerain Continent now hunting us down?" Nafury said.

  "Your adopted father is still alive. In saving Ubi, I also unavoidably opened the Gate for his return here. He is going to come for her."

  "Oh just great," Nafury replied. "Of all the damn problems we have to deal with as it is, that bastard has to still be alive." He looked at Ubi as she slightly tilted her head their way. She was likely listening in on their conversation while pretending to be asleep.

  "Mind your words, Fallen Prince, for Simera has been keeping her safe until I found her. He will come for her. If she falls into his hands on Aster, he will use her to burn the Suzerain Continent to the ground."


  "Then let him, why should I care if he does? Kenshe would have seen us killed in a cold corner of his spire. Then he would have dumped our bodies amongst a heap of garbage."

  "Yes, but with Ubi things have changed. Kenshe will have likely guessed by now who he was attacked by. Then there is the matter where I do not believe that the Simera I fought was the same dragon king who left Aster," Xirel said.

  "What do you mean?"

  "He seemed different. If not, out of touch with himself. If something has overcome Simera, you would likely spot it much easier than myself."

  "So we can't run to Toria, and we can't stay here or at the Efereal Mountains. Just where are we to go?" Nafury asked.

  Xirel looked to Ubi as she sat up and let out a huge yawn.

  "All right, I'll ask her," Nafury said and looked at her. "Where are we going, Princess?"

  "I'm not a princess," she replied. "So spare me the little girl talk."

  The side of Nafury's mouth twitched at her razor-edge response. He gathered up his cloak from the snow to momentarily disengage himself from the war spark before him. Then he looked towards the trees on sensing someone watching them.

  "Kenshe's Pack is back, which means they are here to finish what they started," Xirel said as he got to his feet.

  Nafury caught sight of the slender wolf-cat like form of the ayame. It was now their biggest problem, as a Call from her could send the Pack into an unstoppable killing frenzy. "I don't suppose you can take her on?"

  Xirel didn't answer, as his fingers moved to defensively organize the Threads around them.

  Nafury unsheathed his blade and looked at Ubi who was already a step ahead and flustering the phelans.

  "Don't move," Xirel instructed, and lifted his hand to grab and pull down on the invisible Thread around them.

  A scream of pain went out, then the furious barks and howls of the Pack as they rushed towards them.