Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12 (Dragon Chameleon Omnibuses Book 3) Read online

  Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2019.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  DRAGON CHAMELEON: EPISODES 9-12

  First edition. May 16, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  To the intrepid reader:

  Behind the Scenes:

  For the friends who stand side by side no matter the odds. This one is for you.

  Chapter One

  I felt as if the golems were calling to me.

  Maybe that wasn’t the right word. Maybe it was just that I could sense them behind me and under me as we fled through the descending darkness. I could see more than just the reflection of the full moon on their scuttling carapaces. I could have sworn I could see every pair of glowing eyes.

  What I couldn’t see or understand was where the Magikas were.

  They must be somewhere close.

  And it worried me that they didn’t seem to need too many of them to control so many golems. I could almost see the future spinning out, weaving in front of me. A future of waves of these things rolling across the Dominion like a swarm of locusts, tearing everything living apart with their snapping jaws.

  It chilled me to the core and made my insides roil. Why did my scar always have to flare with the truth of bad things? Why couldn’t I think about a warm fire and hot bath coming up and feel that cold pulse then?

  Doesn’t it always flare cold for the truth and hot for lies? I don’t think a warm bath is in your future.

  My clothes were stiff from drying out in the air after being doused with swamp water. I must stink.

  I have been trying not to mention it.

  Zyla shifted uncomfortably in the saddle ahead of me. As the moon rose, she stole glances behind her at my face.

  “Just tell me how bad it is,” I said eventually.

  “How bad what is?” she asked innocently. “We are being chased by golems, you know.”

  But the flying ones had either retreated to regroup or been left too far behind to catch us. The gold dragon was nowhere to be seen. That suggested that they were regrouping. The golems were slower than dragons, but the Gold should be able to keep up if he wanted to.

  “And they will kill you unless you find a skycity to hide in,” Katlana said from where she was tied over the saddle in front of me. I leaned an elbow into her back and she grunted. I might not have killed her, but that didn’t mean I wanted to live with her threats.

  “The tattoos – or marks – or whatever they are. I still haven’t seen them,” I said. “How bad are they?”

  She smirked and I could tell she was going to tease me. I held my breath.

  I felt more emotionally invested in this than I usually did in my appearance. Why should it matter? After all, I’d never been the best looking guy around. Having my face all but destroyed shouldn’t break me ... right?

  Her smirk faded and instead she looked at me with gentle eyes – almost as if she could tell what I was thinking.

  “They aren’t actually that bad. They also look like a crown wrapping around your forehead – a firm band with tendrils of smoke curling through it. They kind of shine like silver in the moonlight. There are roots branching down from the crown along the sides of your face, wrapping down your jaw toward your face and about a quarter of the way across your cheeks. If you could grow a proper beard, you could probably hide the face ones completely and just be left with the crown.”

  I felt my face heating. I couldn’t grow a proper beard. I hadn’t shaved in weeks and no one could tell.

  “I guess it saves me the trouble of growing one, then,” I said flippantly, but my heart squeezed just a bit thinking about it. Silly. I was being silly.

  It’s okay. No one likes having their appearance altered against their will.

  I had bigger problems to worry about. I should focus on them. After all, we were still seeing golems creep across the ground as we followed the road. How far did they extend? How much of the Dominion had already been invaded?

  I should ask Katlana these questions, but I wanted to wait until we landed. I wanted Nostar’s help in knowing what to do with her. Greens weren’t war dragons, but Nostar was at least ten years older than me and the veteran of a Truth War. Maybe he’d have some ideas on what to do with a prisoner.

  We flew through the night until Zyla was nodding in the saddle. It wasn’t until we’d left the last golems behind that I breathed my first sigh of relief. It wasn’t until we reached the foothills of the mountains to the southeast that I finally began to relax.

  Just when I began to feel some of the tension ease in my belly, Tachril dove down to the ground, Nostar shouting on his back. I tensed again.

  What could be wrong?

  The other Green dragons followed him, descending over a grassy forest clearing and flaming the grass with so much enthusiasm that I drew my knives, clenching them in my fists – as if I could do anything to fight with them from the back of a dragon.

  Saboraak? Are we under attack?

  I scanned the skies and the ground below, but all I could see was the burning grass. It made a strange symbol with a ring around it and in the center of the ring, Tachril stood on his hind legs, his wings spread out and his throat frill expanded
as far as possible in any direction.

  I clenched my jaw. Perhaps he was under a magical restraint. Perhaps we were under an attack I couldn’t see.

  Saboraak?

  My heart was pounding in my ears and my head whipping in every direction. Searching ... searching ... searching ...

  Zyla had woken up and she was doing the same, a mirror image of my sudden panic.

  Saboraak dove from the sky like a rocket from heaven and I sheathed my knives quickly, focusing all my efforts on holding on for dear life.

  Whatever was going on had to be more serious than I could possibly imagine.

  Chapter Two

  We hit the dirt, skidding over needles and tumbled debris in the pine forest. We were on top of a hill, looking down over the burning grass below.

  “Are we under attack?” I asked aloud.

  Saboraak was silent, her head turning back and forth as if she watched Tachril strutting back and forth on his hind legs, wings extended and frill puffing rhythmically. I could hear the Greens in the glen below us yelling at their dragons and calling back and forth to one another.

  “Saboraak?”

  Still no response. Maybe she was under a spell, too.

  “Watch the prisoner,” I said to Zyla and at her brisk nod, I leapt off Saboraak’s back and down to the ground, rushing in front of her and grabbing her huge head in both hands so I could stare into one of her mirror-like eyes.

  Zyla had been right about the tattoos. In the brilliant moonlight, I could see them reflected in Saboraak’s eye. They were ridiculous, but not actually all that bad. It almost looked like I was wearing a crowned helm that fastened under my chin.

  “Saboraak,” I said gently, “Are you okay?”

  Yes. Her voice was sheepish. That frill distracted me.

  “Ummm ... are we under attack? Should we maybe fly again if the danger is past?”

  No. We camp here for the rest of the night.

  “We can’t camp here. The golems are right behind us. We have – maybe a few hours on them. Maybe. We have to fly. Are you injured?”

  I risked a glance up at Zyla. She mirrored my concern, one hand brandishing her polearm, one hand on Katlana’s back to keep her in place.

  “If we could just make it a few more hours ...” she said, trailing off when Saboraak huffed.

  I jumped back, but it was only a puff of smoke, no fire.

  We camp here tonight. A few hours won’t hurt you. I have ... things ... to think over.

  “Things? Like a golem invasion and how we need to get to the next skycity to warn them and send a message to the Dominar? Things like the prisoner we have here who needs questioning and the traitor back there who healed me? Those kind of things?”

  I felt hot, like my temper could explode at any moment. I took a deep breath, my hand over my face. You couldn’t move a recalcitrant dragon. You couldn’t force her to fly. And it didn’t look like the Greens would be any help, either. The five other Greens were gathering around Tachril now, circling him as their riders leapt off, unsaddling them while they were still moving and dragging their saddles and gear off to the side.

  As soon as they were clear, the five green dragons spouted fire around Tachril as he leapt and somersaulted in the air, his own flames spouting from his mouth in a rhythm that matched theirs. It looked more like a tumbling act or a complicated dance than anything else.

  And anyone looking for us could probably see it from miles away.

  I signed, rubbing my tired face with a hand again.

  Whatever was happening had made all of our dragons crazy.

  “We might as well build a fire and set up camp,” I said to Zyla. “It looks like the Dragon Riders are coming to join us. Until these crazed lunatics are done with this display, we’re stuck here.”

  “Do you think it’s religious?” Zyla asked as she threw the saddlebags down to me.

  “Are dragons religious?”

  “Don’t ask me. Skies and stars! As if it couldn’t get worse!”

  “That’s why golems are better,” Katlana said wryly. “They do what they’re told. Now, more than ever, you will be forced to fly straight to a city.”

  Saboraak’s neck arched around lightning fast. She plucked Katlana off her back and tossed her into the needles at my feet and then turned back to the display below.

  “Come on,” I said, reaching down to drag her to her feet. I wanted to ask her if she was okay. Should I ask her that? She wanted me dead.

  Zyla had a fire lit by the time I settled Katlana on a falling log and I was already starting to pull out bedrolls and a pot for tea when the Dragon Riders arrived.

  “They’re crazy,” Nostar said with a pale face. “The whole world has gone mad.”

  “About that,” I said, putting the pot on the rocks by the fire. “Why don’t you boys and girls take a seat. I have a few things to say that you might want to hear.”

  Chapter Three

  “So, you’re not who you said you were,” Nostar said at last.

  The fire had died down and everyone else was asleep – even Katlana. We’d tried to question her. She wasn’t saying anything. Not about the golems or how they got there. Not about if more were coming or how many Magikas were back there operating them. Not even about if she could operate them from here. Nostar had given her a herbal remedy that she’d taken without complaint.

  “We didn’t have a choice. We didn’t know who to trust and our mission is too important,” I said, sipping my tea.

  I was tired, but like Nostar I was having trouble leaving my dragon. Despite my exhaustion, I felt on edge, as if what was going on with them was more important than a mere display of athletics.

  “I don’t blame you,” Nostar said, rubbing his scruffy face. He looked at my silvery one from time to time when he thought I couldn’t see him. “And we believe you. I mean, those marks on your face are strange. And I don’t know how else you would have got them. And the girl and the golems back your story.” He sighed. “I did not think war would come again so soon. Did you fight in the Truth War?”

  “I watched my city fall from the sky and then burn.”

  “Vanika?” he shot me a concerned glance.

  “Yes.” The wind was picking up and the smoke flickered back and forth between puffing in my face and blowing away. The embers were bright.

  “I heard a rumor that the Dominar set it on fire on her way through your city.”

  “It’s truth,” I said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

  I pushed back the memories that threatened to crash in, my hand shaking slightly from the effort. As if called by my pain, the mimic flickered into existence, raising a single eyebrow at me. Angrily, I pushed him away.

  I thought I could hear him whisper, “You’ll have to do better than that, Tor.”

  “She’s an impressive one,” Nostar said.

  “You’ve met her?”

  “No. But I saw her from afar. Our wing fought in the Ifrit battle under Dominion City. There were fifteen of us then. We were part of a larger wing of loyal dragons.”

  His words were heavy, as full of memories as my own.

  “An Ifrit killed many of my friends,” I offered. “Smashed them against buildings. Broke them.”

  My whole body tensed as I fought the memories. I took a deep breath deliberately, forcing them away and sipping my tea.

  I looked up to see Nostar watching me, nodding.

  “You have that look to you. You’ve seen adventures. I could tell you weren’t really a Purple.”

  My eyebrows shot up and I almost dropped my tea. We’d told him about everything – except that. We didn’t dare tell that.

  “How – ?”

  He nodded his head to Saboraak and I froze. She’d shifted from Purple to Green. I cursed quietly.

  “Skies and stars!”

  He chuckled. “I think you should tell me about that.”

  “She’s female,” I said quietly. This was for his ears only. “They change co
lors.”

  He grunted. “Well. That might explain a few things. Have you ever watched grassling birds in the spring?”

  I shook my head. What a strange question

  We sat silently for a few minutes before he clapped me on the shoulder.

  “In that case, Tor Winespring – that is your name, yes? – I think I’ll get some sleep. This will either work itself out by dawn or we’ll be forced to find alternate transportation.”

  We had no other options, but I could see what he meant. I nodded, but when he waited for me to join him, I shook my head. As he left for his blankets, I walked forward and joined Saboraak on the side of the hill.

  She didn’t look at me. Didn’t even seem to notice me. I sighed and sat down beside her.

  “I think it’s time you told me what is happening here,” I said.

  They like me.

  “And they can only show you that through feats of athleticism?”

  Sort of. She sounded embarrassed.

  “And you can’t just ask them to do it later?”

  Once the dance has begun, it cannot be stopped until it is completed.

  “Well, that’s very inconvenient. And they couldn’t have waited until later?”

  She shifted uncomfortably.

  “What does it mean? What do they want?”

  They want me.

  “Well, they can’t have you. You’re my dragon.”

  She snorted loudly. Was that a laugh?

  Of course, you’re my rider, Tor. They want something else. They ... well, they’re courting me.

  “What, all of them?” I felt shocked. If a bunch of other guys showed up and wanted to try to court Zyla while I was getting her attention, they could look elsewhere. In fact, I still owed Eventen a good fist to the jaw for proposing marriage to her right under my nose! The nerve!

  It’s not like that.

  Maybe I needed to go punch a few dragons while I was at it. See if I could show them some sense.

  You are always forgetting that we are not human. Dragons do things differently.

  “Okay. Why don’t you explain?” I tried to keep the frustration out of my voice. I probably didn’t succeed.

  She huffed again.