"The Dragon Isles Chapter 08 Family" by Katherine Bates

Jasral Black looked up from his desk and turned his head to the window. There was something strange about the air tonight.

“Kader?” he asked, “What is that?”

As usual the black dragon didn’t respond. He hadn’t spoken for twelve months now. After Jasral had been given the trinket necklace by his hunters, Kader had taken the view that after twenty-three years of searching it was time to give up. Jasral could never accept that search was useless, fruitless or pointless; and so he had tricked Kader into one of the caves, blocking the entrances that the black dragon could have used, leaving the smaller ones open for light.

Kader stayed silent.

“I wish you could forgive me, Kader.” He said aloud to himself, “This is my last chance, there’s nowhere and no one else left. If you could have felt that just then, then you would understand. There it is again. It has to be magic, strong magic too. Even if it isn’t them…”

“Power, Kader, that’s what it is.”

He turned from the window and set off back to his rooms. There was a dance to be held tonight; Jasral had called it as an attempt to calm House tensions down. He felt that the five houses were restless, that they needed a shift in the social structure, a creation of political intrigue.

Jasral was never sure how the Houses had formed in the first place; all he knew was that they had led to the downfall of the dragon dominated society Jasral had originally wanted.

For the moment the House of Clover was strong; but Jasral did not like the young man who stood to inherit the Seat of Clover, had a cruel streak in him that ran against what Jasral truly believed. Halloran was next highest and the only choice he had for switching his allegiance; they had a strong family line, with a single first daughter, and a married second daughter with son.

Yes, that was the only way forward. The Houses of Vech, Lodan and Knoll were not options. To choose Vech would mean that he picked no house, for Vech was married into every other house; Lodan and Knoll would see a rebellion against him for choosing a house with no social standing.

He smiled; as he remembered that the Halloran Seat’s eldest daughter was quite a treasure, it would be nice to take first dance with her.

What he really needed was a ‘Mystery’, a woman nobody knew that he could bring to the dance, veiled and expensively ornamented, someone that would set everyone talking.

His second wife had been a Mystery, she had borne his only child, and it had been she who had let the child be taken from the Isles. He hadn’t killed her though; she was on the Freelander Isles, managing a large castle and estate. Despite his reputation, Jasral was not an overtly cruel man.

It was said that he killed for pleasure, took delight in seeing others suffer, and led the rebellion only for the bloodshed that it would cause. Jasral hated killing and had led the rebellion because the Dragon Rider and Dragon who had been nominated for the position of leader of the Kin wanted to destroy the main-land of Elnoon. Jasral could not have let that happen, the destruction of life for not just cause was not his style.

Jasral loved life, had loved Arian when it had been full of life, its plants, its forests, its gardens. It seemed dead now; the gardens had been linked with dragons; once the dragons had stopped living on Arian the gardens had died. Only Kader was left on Arian, and he was not exactly what you could describe as the loyal dragon of a Kaiser.

The rebellion… had been a mistake. Jasral saw that now. It had originated when the first leader of the Kin had died. Orion, who Jasral and Kader had backed, refused to take the position; the other candidate was, in Jasral’s opinion, unsuitable. It had been a very dark night, Jasral and Kader had been on one of the smaller islands, hiding, when another dragon and rider had appeared. They had been challenged to a duel and Jasral and Kader had killed the other; out of nowhere a dragon appeared. The dragon had talked with Kader and it had come to pass that Jasral and Kader had placed themselves as candidates.

They had been turned away by the high court, but by then they had a following. The rebellion had followed, they had won and the Blood-kin had been formed. Jasral had never wanted it.

A gentle knock came at his door and he smiled, opening it to a tall blonde women. He hissed her cheek and gestured that she should sit.

“What can I do for you Laura?”

Beautiful with large, soft green eyes Laura was one of the most beautiful women in the whole of the Dragon Isles, but she was of the Lodan House, the bottom house and was ignored by almost everyone. Jasral hadn’t noticed her for her beauty though; he had noticed her because she had magic. If the world had been fair, and this had still been the Kin then she would have been a dragon rider like himself; but the world wasn’t fair. At most now she could hope to marry into the House of Vech; Clover and Halloran were out of reach, the Kaiser not even to be thought of.

“I felt something in the air; it was almost a storm, but…”

Black nodded and smiled, sitting down opposite her. “I felt it too. It it’s what I expect when I’ll know by morning. That wasn’t why you came though, was it?”

“The Houses are restless.”

“I will change allegiance tonight. My first dance will be with the Halloran’s Seat’s Eldest daughter.”

Laura smiled mischievously and raised her eyebrows. Jasral grinned back; in his heart he knew he wanted Laura for his third wife; but since the end of the rebellion society in the Blood-kin had become so rigid, far more of a hierarchy than Jasral had ever intended, marriage to Laura was impossible.

He had not kept control properly, he had unwittingly let the houses form, almost been forced into a political game of House control. He wished now that he had enforced Kin rules on the Blood-Kin society. After all what sort of dragon led world had no rules involving dragons and only contained four dragons? Not any one he wanted to be in.

“Are all the Houses invited?”

He nodded, “I’ll meet you afterwards, and you can choose one of ‘my’ girls’ costumes, if you want.”

Laura smiled grateful, kissed his cheek softly and left. Jasral watched her go, resting his chin his palm. He hoped she would pick tastefully and not flamboyantly as she had done before.

‘His’ girls were a collection of women that he had chosen to belong to him and no one else. They were usually women with no house or family that would have ended up scratching a living in a backwater town. He couldn’t remember who came up with the idea, but he had a feeling it had developed from his occasionally giving orphans to richer families. He used to choose them because they were pretty, now he chose them because they were intelligent, funny, or had magic in their veins. A subset were the collective, all magic users, and they were his to command; a very powerful weapon if ever there was one.

He sighed and stood; he shouldn’t need a magical collective to protect him, he had only wanted to free the Kin from its constrictive laws and now… He sighed again, turning away to dress for the dance.

Fabian Brocavich opened his eyes and stared into the darkness. The rain hammered on the roof, and outside in the hall there was the soft clang as droplets from the ceiling hit the metal bucket in the hall. He listened to the storm a moment longer and then shut his eyes, it was just the storm.

“Brocavich!” Someone pounded on the door and Fabian leapt to attention. Grabbing his coat from the floor he dashed into the next room.

“Alec!” he hissed, “Get up! You’ve got to hide!”

He ran out again and hurried down the stairs. At the bottom he paused, waiting for the slight vibration as Alec closed the trap door. He approached the front door cautiously; he’d had too many bad experiences with late night visitors.

“Brocavich!”

He wondered how long he could hold them off for, and whether Alec would have the sense to stay quiet.

“Alright!” he called back, “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

“Open up, Brocavich!”

He opened the door slowly, cautiously. He was knocked into, and a tall, wet man barged his way past. Fabian shook his head and shut the door quickly,

“What do you think…?” The man spun and Fabian froze, suddenly seeing the girl cradled in the man’s arms. “Tormder! What happened?”

The man shook his head, “Please, she needs help, I haven’t got time.”

Fabian ushered them into the front room and looked the girl over as she lay on the chaise-long. “This is wild magic damage. Who… who are you?”

The man shrugged, “I’m an eastern half-human, if you want an answer. Can you help?”

“No, I’m not strong enough in the channelled talent.”

“What is dragon magic?”

“Dragon?”

“Just tell me what it is?”

“Wild, well channelled… well a bit of both.”

“Will it help?”

“No… wait a moment. Alec! Alec has channelled.” He ran from the room., returning a moment later with Alec in tow. Alec frowned sharply at the tall, wet man, but his gaze quickly fell to the girl, dashing to her side.

“Wild magic?” he looked up at his father, confused, “but she shouldn’t have been able to use that much; I mean, this much damage meant she used… used… I can’t even think how much.”

“Just heal her.” The man snapped.

“I can’t,” Alec turned to him, “I don’t have that much control, and she’s used too much.”

“”Do what you can, Alec.” The hand was warm on his shoulder, bolstering his confidence. Alec nodded and took her hand in his, closing his eyes. Fabian removed his hand and moved towards the stranger.

“Come on, there’s nothing we can do, leave Alec to himself. Come and tell me how this happened.

Marn finished telling Fabian and then sat back. Brocavich scratched the stubble on his chin and frowned,

“Let me get this straight. She is a dragon rider, you are a half-dragon, and she has your soul and this other dragon’s soul.”

“That’s about right, yes.”

“You then ran away from this Orion, who sounds like he was trying to help, and got caught up with the people who tried to kill you in the first place. That sounds fairly ridiculous if you ask me. Why come here? Why not stay in… what was the place? Shenan’da?”

Marn sighed, shook his head. “I’ll agree with you. It was mostly my fault, Orion took offence to me. Tehal hated Orion for it, she wanted to see you, and so I agreed.”

“”You agreed? Ah, I see. I suppose you’ll want to get some rest, they’ll both be asleep by the time Alec is finished.”

“But…?”

“Tehal is still awake at the moment. Wild magic is very strange, very powerful. It’s keeping her alive right now, but in the process it is slowly killing her; that why wild magic is so dangerous. Alec is controlling and channelling as much as he can, it will help.”

“And if he can’t channel it all?”

“I’ll try, if there’s any residual after that then I’ll have to find someone else. Now, you and I should sleep. We’ve a spare bed in the attic; might be a bit damp, but it’ll be a place to sleep. Are you listening?”

Marn nodded curtly, but he kept his face turned towards the front room. “I want to stay with her.”

“Boy, you’ll be no use if you’re dead on your feet, you will go to sleep, even if I have to knock you out.”

Marn stood, indicating that Fabian should show the way; he did not doubt the older man’s strength

An hour later Marn lay on his back, another droplet fell on his nose and he sighed. Damp and warm was somehow worse than damp and cold. Swinging his legs out the bed he padded in his bare feet across the floor and down through the trap door.

The house was quiet; the only sound was that of the rain and wind outside. He crept into the front room, stepping over Alec’s slumped form as he slept on the floor. He touched Tehal’s face gently but she didn’t stir. Sighing, he curled up beside her, face buried into the long hair.

A moment later Fabian was at the door, he smiled gently as Tehal shifted herself deeper into Marn’s arms. When he had first adopted her, he had wanted her to live with them, but time came and went and she had stayed at the temple. He regretted it now; she was a nice, pleasant girl, she was his daughter and he knew that she had always wanted a family. He smiled and chuckled; it looked like she had found one by herself, though one with a fair bit of responsibility thrown in, two dragon souls. He walked away, yawning loudly and cursing the weather as yet another leak started up. They needed to find somewhere else to stay soon, before this house fell apart.

Marn smiled gently and tucked a loose strand of hair behind Tehal’s ear. She stirred slight but didn’t wake. He sighed and turned his head to the mirror. His reflection grinned back and for a moment he had feeling that it might have spoken, but he was distracted by the door opening.

Alec stumbled in, looking as if he’d been drinking all night. He massaged his temple, frowning. “How is she?”

“Still asleep. How come you’re awake?”

Alec shrugged and slumped down into a chair. He studied Marn with blurry eyes and scratched his head, “Um… are you two…?”

“Now is not he time.”

Alec smiled, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then. What happened?”

“We broke out of a Temple Guard stronghold. That enough?”

Alec shivered at the thought and looked away. “Yes.”

Silence fell between them and Marn turned to look at the mirror again. His reflection didn’t grin back now, in fact it wasn’t even facing him; it was bent over Tehal protectively.

“That mirror…”

“Tom!” Fabian’s voice called from down below, making Marn turn. “Tom! Where are you?”

Marn leapt up as Alec cursed.

“What do I do?” he asked as Marn faded into the large tabby cat, Tom. Marn shrugged his shoulders and twitched his whiskers,

“I don’t know, but you had best keep her safe.” He dashed from the room, looking up at Fabian and then scampering down the stairs as a knock came at the door. Fabian, moving as quickly as he could, followed after.

The Temple Guards always stuck a chill through Fabian’s heart. He knew them for what they were: cold, heartless men who paid no heed to the law of the Temple. Yet with an ordinary looking cat at his side, Fabian felt more at ease, he had back up now.

Opening the door, he watched as three of the grey cloaked men strode in.

“Can I help you?” He made himself as small as possible, eyes downcast so as not to raise suspicion.

“Yes, I believe…” he looked down, annoyed at the presence of the cat as it weaved around his legs, pushing its head hard against his calf. He nudged it away with his toe and stared again. “I believe you can, yes. We are looking for a daughter of the Temple, we believe she may be here.”

“There’s no one here but me and old Tom.”

“Tom?”

The cat rubbed against his led; he pushed it away again, but in its catlike way it moved back again, purring. “Tyler! Remove this… cat.”

Stooping, Tyler picked the cat up. It was heavier than he had expected; it hadn’t looked like one of those fat Tom-cats.

“Do you mind if we take a look around?”

“Not at all.”

Tyler yelped loudly and dropped the cat. “It grinned at me!”

“Don’t be silly, Tyler. Check upstairs now, will you?”

Tyler obeyed dutifully, but he hadn’t taken three steps before he collapsed down onto the floor. The other two stared as the cat, quite naturally, grinned.

Fabian nudged Marn and he scrambled away up onto a bookshelf, hissing.

“Is your friend alright? Should I fetch some water?” Fabian was halfway down the hall when one of the Guards grabbed his arm.

“Your cat…”

Fabian squired in the man’s vice-like grip, trying not to meet his gaze and knowing that at any moment he would have to.

“Your friend…” he reminded the Temple Guard, but the man did not take the bait.

“He will be fine, I’m sure. Now, we shall take a look… What was that noise?”

Marn instinctively looked up at the ceiling and started to make his way across the hallway. Fabian feigned deafness and shrugged.

“You were saying?”

The Temple Guard ignored him and continued to stare at the stairwell.

“…off… get… off…” the voice seemed to quiver through the house, desperate and pained. The Temple Guard turned to Fabian, who smiled weakly.

“Virgil! Upstairs! Now!”

“It’s just the old house creaking.”

“Virgil!”

Marn leapt for the Guard, knocking him to the floor, whilst Fabian slipped away and went for Virgil. The scuffle was brief and quiet, the two guards lying flat on the floor next to their comrade. They looked at each other in stunned silence: Fabian, surprised that he had had it in him to kill a Temple Guard after years of being scared stiff; Marn, that he could have done it with such cold malice.

“…off…”

Their eyes opened wide and they made a dash for the stairs, Marn bounding up, long legs covering the distance easily. He threw the door opened and stood there, frozen.

The mirror bulged, wrapping itself around Tehal, covering her mouth and pinning her arms to her side as Alec struggled against it. And yet it wasn’t the mirror, it was cold, grey, lifeless hands that drew her in. She wrenched her head free.

“Off! She shouted, twisting and turning as her feet slid across the floor, “Get them off!”

Alec turned to Marn as grey hand delivered a stinging slap to the side of his face. “I can’t get them off. I just slide off them.”

Marn leapt forwards, drawing his hunting dagger and then froze again, catching a glimpse of his reflection. It tore towards the grey hands, ripping them from Tehal with merciless violence, leaving deep gouges in the lifeless flesh.

Tehal fell forwards towards Marn and he wrapped her in his arms. She stayed there, panting for breath and choking on the tears that ran down her face. Fabian stumbled into the room and gestured for Alec to leave Marn and Tehal by themselves.

Marn knew that right now he should be telling her that everything was alright, that nothing else would happen, that she was safe; but he was still staring at his own reflection. It looked back with a rugged grin, its mouth was bleeding and there was a large gash above its left eye.

Marn put a hand to his own mouth and then gingerly touched his forehead. He looked at his fingers, clean.

His reflection shrugged and mouthed, Glad to be of service. It slunk back to where it should as a reflection: cradling Tehal with a blank, confused face.

Marn left Tehal sleeping and joined Fabian and Alec in the kitchen. “She’ll be alright; she’s just a bit shaken.”

Fabian passed over a cup of tea, “We’ve all had a shock. What did you do? From Alec’s description they were wraith hands, nothing can touch them.”

Marn sat, played with the handled on the cup and frowned thoughtfully. He wasn’t sure himself what had happened.

“A reflection can touch them, yes?”

“Yes, but no one has been able to combat them that way before.”

A silence fell over the three of them. Marn could feel Alec watch him, waiting for the reply that would show them a way to attack wraiths. Marn paused in his thought; wraiths, it couldn’t have been wraith hands, wraiths were shadowy and moved like smoke.

“They weren’t wraith hands. They were solid, but grey, like they were… dead.”

“Think carefully now, Marn. Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Look, Fabian, I need to…”

He was cut off as Fabian leapt to his feet. “We have to leave, now. Alec, pack anything you need; Marn, fetch Tehal and try to catch some of the horses in the meadow.”

“Fabian, I…”

But he was gone. Marn sunk down in his seat and sighed; maybe it was for the best, they might have thought him dangerous if they had known about his reflection.

Marn leant on the rail of the meadow next to Alec and watched the graceful movements of the horses. “I’ve gathered that you move around a lot. How do you keep these horses?”

Alec smiled slightly, “My father’s magic is really only useful for animal taming; he can make these horses follow him.”

Marn narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of one of the horses, “That white one? Where did you get it?”

“Papa found it in a village near to the Temple Guard stronghold; he said that the villagers couldn’t ride him. Why?”

“That is Dilwyn, I last saw him in the Shenan Valley.” Marn whistled softly and the horses came over, displaying proudly the hazel mark on his chest. Alec stared,

“How did you do that?”

“We’ve been together for a long time.” He let Dilwyn nuzzle into his hand. “I’ve missed you old friend, where did you go.”

“I followed them when they took you.”

“It’s good to see you. We’re heading north, would you like to come?”

Dilwyn snorted, tossed his head, “How is Tehal?”

“She’ll be alright in time, I hope. She… well there’s a lot of stuff happening that none of us understand.”

Dilwyn nodded, “I hope you’ve kept my tack, I wouldn’t feel right only carrying a rider.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got everything.”

Alec frowned at Marn but only said, “Don’t forget the other two; the tack is in the shed in the garden.”

The landscape stretched out far into the horizon, miles upon miles of flat, almost featureless farmland. In the distance Dilwyn said he could just see the edge of a forest. Marn could have checked if he wanted, but he distrusted his magic at the moment, ever since he had met the red dragon in the Shenan Valley.

Marn drew Dilwyn to a halt and looked back to where Alec was slowly following his father’s horse. Tehal slipped slightly and Marn shifted his hold on her. She was asleep again, and he didn’t blame her. He could feel the damage in her mind; there were memories in there that didn’t match up, connections that had been broken, Alec had done the best he could but it wasn’t a full recovery.

Fabian trotted past, kicking up the dust from the farm track, and they nodded at each other. Fabian seemed to accept that Tehal had placed her trust in Marn, that for now Fabian was only the distant father figure, part of a life she was drifting away from. Marn preferred Fabian’s attitude to Orion’s.

Alec plodded up on the other side of Marn. Marn couldn’t figure out the young man: In some ways he was very mature, his magic, for example, was carefully regulated, not at all like the magic of Eastern Tribes where everything was free until you were in your late forties; but then again he was naïve, he knew little about the world or anything that Marn had always taken as things you needed to know, something you should be taught as a child.

“Alec?”

The young man looked up, shaking out his brown hair. He tried to give a smile and failed. Marn smiled back,

“You look… despondent.”

“Why would you care?”

“You are Tehal’s brother, you have magic as well.”

“I…” Alec looked the other way, his eyes glazing over. “She recognised me, and I need to explain.” Marn raised his eyebrows and waited; at length Alec started to talk again, “When we were younger my father and I were visiting Shana’dun, I… I kissed her. I was foolish and young, she was beautiful, and I didn’t know she was my sister.”

“Ah, she told me. When you explain, try and say it in a nice way. Don’t say you were foolish; tell her you thought her beautiful and that you were young.”

“I don’t need your advice” he snapped and then looked away, “… sorry.”

Marn decided it was time for a change of subject. “Do you mind the moving?”

“It’s never really occurred to me, it kept us safe, especially after mother…”

Marn nodded and realised that the conversation was at an end as Fabian drew level with them.

“Could I talk with you Marn? Alec can take Tehal.”

Marn nodded and woke her, she moved over to Alec’s horse with little complaint and soon Dilwyn, Marn and Fabian were riding a hundred yards ahead. Fabian frowned to himself.

“What did Alec tell you?”

Marn averted his eyes for a moment and patted Dilwyn’s neck. “He spoke of the only time he had met Tehal.”

“What did you tell him?”

“The things to say to explain, I… understand what he’s going through.”

“You kissed your sister?”

Marn laughed, “No, but I kissed Tehal when she didn’t want it.”

Fabian nodded slowly and stroked the neck of his dun horse slowly, “I want you to promise me something, Marn. Tehal is special, and this isn’t just me talking as a father, the Temple Guards pursued her across this country, Orion chose her as a rider. I would like you to promise me that you will always do the best for her, protect her and keep her best interests at heart.”

“I promise that, I promised it the moment she…”

“Good.” Fabian cut in, ending the conversation, “We’ll stop in about half an hour when we reach the woods ahead; once it’s dark we’ll push onto the coast. Go and fetch her back, Marn, and remember what you promised.”