Asher: Dragon's Savior (6 page)

“You’re going to take us there?” She nodded at Asher’s question and turned to look at them both when he said her name. “I wasn’t going to ask you, but I think it’s important.”

“You’ve been there a lot, to the tomb?” Essie nodded at Kiaran’s question. “Thank you for this then. I wanted to go and see it, but I had no idea where it was.”

Kiaran stood up and looked at them both. Essie wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not, but it was beyond her control now. The sigil on Kiaran’s arm had told her what she was to do.

She was going down the long path that she’d cleared as she spoke. She told herself she was going to get this over with. It was why she didn’t look at them, but the truth was, she didn’t want to see the disbelief or even fear on their faces when she told them.

“Your mother knew I would come into your lives. She even knew my name. Of course, she called me Esmerelda, but I guess nicknames weren’t all that common back then. Anyway, she said that I was to take you there and that you’d understand.” Asher asked her what they would understand. “I have no idea. Just that you would. She warned that I shouldn’t touch anything.”

“But it’s too late for that, isn’t it, Essie?” She nodded and realized that they might not see her in the darkened tunnel they were currently in, and told Asher yes. “What did you touch? Whatever it is, my dad said that you got something from it. Magical, he said.”

“It knocked me on my ass. Then when I woke up, I could see things. Not with my eyes, but by touching them. I could do that before, somewhat, but not like now. It’s like I have a connection to everything I can feel.”

Asher said nothing, and neither did Kiaran.

The air down here was dank, not nasty like she’d expected, but the smell of old and maybe a little wet. She’d noticed too that the closer that she’d gotten to the large chamber, the more it smelled of a female. A very expensive female that liked very nice perfume.

As they made their way down, Asher stepped in front of her. He never took over leading them, but he did go first through the rest of the tunnels, as well as helped her over the larger stones that she’d been unable to move. Twice Kiaran helped her when she started to slide back on the somewhat slick path, but he never got in front of her like he, too, would take over. It was like they were protecting her or something, which was strange to her since she was pretty sure neither of them cared all that much for her.

As soon as they were at the opening of the chamber, she stopped them. Essie was sort of afraid to take them in. Not that they’d bother anything within, but she didn’t want them to discard her just yet. She knew that once they found the chamber, they’d no longer have any use for her.

“I’ll just go on up now.” Asher took her hand when she turned. “You no longer need me to show you where it’s at. Just go beyond this small opening and to the left. Not like you can go right, but it’s right there.”

“I want you to be with me. We both do.” Kiaran nodded and took her other hand. “Come with us. Show us what you found for us. I’m sure that we’re going to…Essie, I want you with me when I go there. I need you with me.”

“As do I.” She started to shake her head no to Kiaran, to tell him—well, them—that they were big bad assed men and she wasn’t, but they pulled her along with them until they were in the room. “Holy shit,” Kiaran said, and she had to agree with him.

The room was the largest place she’d ever been in inside of the caves. Actually, it was larger than most houses she’d been in as well. The walls were solid stone that reached to the top at about two hundred feet. The floor, even covered in broken stones and sand, was wider and longer than a football field twice over. There was light here, however, shining seemingly from every corner of the place.

Essie had found the source of the light the second time she’d come down here. At least a little of the light that was needed to brighten the room. Diamonds and other gems lined the walls, the light reflecting off them until it made a beautiful pattern on the floor that changed with each passing hour. Even at night—because she’d stayed once to see—it was as bright as the fire that she cooked with.

Both men stood in the opening, not moving beyond the door. She did, however, and moved to the six broken eggs that were there. The first time she’d been here, it had taken her a bit to figure out what they were. But it was the skeletal remains of the woman that had taken her breath away.

“I didn’t know what had happened at first. I found her just like she is, laying outstretched as if she were pointing to them, her other hand holding onto the first one like she wanted to pull it to her. Then after talking to Mr. Jacob, I realized what she was. The dragon queen. And she’s not pointing, but protecting.” Kiaran came closer to the body but didn’t touch her. “She’s laying over the first egg. It’s as if she were covering it with her wing when she died. I would imagine that when you were born, you had difficulty getting out from under her. She would have been a dragon still.”

“She would have been. Her form wouldn’t have gone back to human until much later.” Asher said nothing as Kiaran continued. “My father and she thought that they were the last of their kind, I think. They must have been a sight to see flying together over the fields and mountains.”

“You said that she told you to bring us here.” Essie nodded at Asher, who still had not come completely into the room. “Do you know why? Or is seeing where she lay what we needed to understand? My father just told me of how Kiaran came to me. I can tell him now why it took him a week. He had to…it must have been hard to come from under her.”

“I don’t remember.” Kiaran stood up and moved to where his mother’s hand was over his long forgotten shell. “She was marking me, I think. Putting this on my arm so that you could find me.”

“I don’t know.” Essie stood up and moved to the other side of the room. “But this is what I need to show you. I haven’t seen it myself, but I know that something is here.”

The key was just where Eve had told her it would be. Lifting the stone up was easier than she’d thought it would be, and she picked the large key out of the broken stone. Before she put it in the opening that was hidden behind another stone, she turned and looked at Asher.

“She had a message for you as well.” Asher nodded and finally moved into the room. “The riches beyond are yours to use. Use them, she asks, to rebuild what was once theirs, what was once yours.”

“She wants me to rebuild the castle?” Essie told him she didn’t know. But she had a feeling that that was what she wanted. “I can do that now, Essie. I don’t need whatever is on the other side of the wall. Whatever is in there is Kiaran’s and the other dragons’, not mine.”

“Maybe so, but she said it is yours.” She twisted the key in the lock. It turned easily, the clicking of the lock loud in the chamber that was so large. When the door started to move, sliding back on unseen hinges, she took a step back and bumped into Asher. He held her to him as the door opened completely.

“Oh my God.” Asher held her as Kiaran walked around her. Even as the room brightened little by little, the stones on the walls capturing as much light as they could, she could see that the room was filled with more than just monetary riches, but things that would mean so much more to all of them.

Chapter 5

Helena was standing over her book when she stilled. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong, and she had to sit down or fall as the wrongness of it took her breath away. The word Esmerelda touched her mind, and she felt the hatred of her daughter’s blood as if she were standing before her right now.

The book she’d been working in was forgotten as she tried to concentrate on what had disturbed her. At one time she’d been able to reach into the earth, ask it for information, but since those people had come, she’d not had any luck with it. Not that she was ever going to give back what she took from them, but they were too stupid to know that. Now she knew that the man and his servant were the cause of her crisis.

Nothing answered her—not the stones on the ground or beneath it—nor did the trees sing their information to her. It was as if she’d been cut off from everything she needed. Going out of her home, she stood still, listening for anything that might help her. It wasn’t until she stood there for several minutes that she realized that there were no sounds; not even the crickets were chirping.

The shadow that covered the ground seemed to grow as it came toward her. Backing up, she hit the wall behind her rather than going into the house as she’d planned. But before she could turn and get her bearings, the first of them flew over her head, and Helena covered her mouth so as not to scream.

There were five all together that darkened her sky, and each of them carried a man with them, caught hard in their claws. Fear like she’d never felt before settled over her. Not just over, she realized, but into her skin and bones. Even, she thought, into her blood. They were there for her to see. The dragons had returned.

When the sky no longer put them in her view, she hurried into her house and hid deep within the shadows. The fire in her house didn’t remove the chill that the sight of the dragons had given her, and she doubted that she’d ever be warm again. They were back, her mind kept telling her, but her mind was still dealing with what it had yet to process. The dragons were back and they’d know.

Long ago, well before there were so many people in the world, Helena had been working in the castle. She’d been a cook for the king and queen, a job that she’d detested almost as much as she did them. But it was the only way she could get close enough to them to get what she needed. And still that prize had never been hers.

She’d not been there the day that the castle had fallen. Had she been then things for her would have been much different all these centuries later. Helena could have been the greatest witch in the world, but the storm had taken its toll and had ruined it all.

“I would have gotten their hearts but for that.” She stood near her table again and looked at her notes. For centuries, even before the king had taken a wife, she’d been plotting to take the heart of the man who had the magic she desired. The magic that she deserved. Turning back the pages, far back almost to the beginning, she read her notes there.

“Heart of a dragon, oh so hot. The scale of a female, fertile and mine. The toe of a man, in love so strong. The hair of the woman who would be dead before long.” She smiled at her rhyme, thinking herself quite clever even then. “Put them in a pot, stir them up hot. When the brew is done, all should be yours.”

“Not the best rhyme, I suppose, but it was just a working spell.” And it might have worked but for the fact that they’d both died in the flames that had consumed all that had been inside the castle when it fell. All but the scale that she’d found one day, which she’d snatched up before anyone could see it.

Helena went to her hearth and pulled the loose stone. With a quick look around, she reached into the hole and pulled out the leather bag and laid it upon the table. Wiping off the collection of spiders that had dared to be near her things, she dumped the contents of the bag on the book and stared at it.

The scale was perhaps as large as her book at about a foot long. The width of it was only about half that, but it was a nice one. From the belly, she thought. Helena didn’t touch the scale this time but poked at it with a stick. The last time she’d been stupid enough to touch it, twenty-some years ago, she’d ended up with her daughter. The fertility spell was very powerful.

“A heart. All I need is a heart and a couple of humans and I can take what is mine.” Helena didn’t know what it was that she wanted. It changed from day to day. To be honest, she thought, perhaps it changed more than that, whenever she saw a new bauble or something shiny. It was why she was living where she was. All her money would be gone as soon as she made it.

The knock at the door had her leaping from it in fear, and a small whimper left her mouth.

The house that she lived in was not much more than a lean-to. There were walls, of course, on all four sides, two of them buried deeply within the mountain that she gathered her herbs from. There was only the one room, with a hearth that she used daily for her brews or magic and a cot, which was nothing more than a tick mattress lying on a stack of hay bales. She’d had more—a bigger house, of course—but that had taken more magic to keep up than her appearance. And she needed her looks like she did her breath.

“Miss Helena? I’ve come for the potion you said you’d make for me. It’s Judy Wade. Do you remember me?” Helena rolled her eyes. She remembered the homely girl. “You told me to come back today. I have the money.”

Helena asked her to wait. Scooping up the scale with a stick and spoon, she put it back in its hiding place and went to answer the door. Helena changed her appearance just enough so that the woman would never recognize her if she saw her again. She opened the door.

“I have the money you said you’d need.” Helena nodded and took the cash. It was stolen from Judy’s neighbor and from her husband’s wallet. Not that Helena cared where the money came from, but it was nice to know that the woman would go to such risks to get what she wanted. A woman after her own heart, she thought. If not for the fact that she was stupid.

“I want to have a child with my husband, like I told you.” Helena nodded and asked her to have a seat. To be honest, she’d forgotten to make her something up and now had to think what she might have on hand to pretend with. “I was hoping for a new baby for Christmas. Do you think I’ll be able to make an announcement by then?”

It was four or five months away, but Helena doubted that if she had years before the requested date that she’d ever make it. Judy’s husband had been snipped and burned. There would be no child from his body. Picking up the spoon she’d used to push the scale into the bag, she had a sudden thought.

“I need for you to trust me on this.” Judy nodded, looking at her as if she thought her a goddess. Well, right now she felt like one. “I want you to hold this spoon in your mouth for five minutes. Then you have to go home and fuck your husband.”

The woman looked shocked but eager. Helena handed her the spoon, only to snatch it back at the last second. She didn’t want her coming back when it didn’t work. Capturing her eyes in her own gaze, she pulled the woman under her spell. “See a man, fuck him good. Ride his cock hard and quick. When he comes, suck him off. Then take him back to fuck again.”

When the woman blinked at her several times, Helena handed over the spoon. It was in her head to say some words over the woman, just to make it look good, but the spoon popped in her mouth as if it were attached to her there.

As she left, Helena thought of asking her to return the spoon, as she only had two more, but instead told the woman never to return.

“It will work or it will not. But know this; if you return here to my home, all that is yours will be mine, and I will kill any issue that you have as well. And you should know that any man you fuck will fill your belly with a babe.” Judy’s eyes brightened, and Helena nearly asked her who she was thinking about but didn’t. “Go, and as I have warned you, never return.”

Returning to her book, she sat down. There was only so much she could do with her book right now, but the money in her hand made her think of all the things she could get to help with other spells. Like the one to kill her daughter.

“Elsie, or whatever you call yourself, you are going to die if you aren’t close to it already.” Helena thought of the girl she’d seen a few days ago. The nerve of the chit to yell at her like she was nothing more than a common person. “If you were a daughter of mine, I would have ripped your heart out and boiled it for my supper.” She never would. Eating a heart was for trolls and other creatures, not for Helena, the blackest witch of all time.

When she’d tried to burn the girl days later at the house by tossing her magic at the door, Helena had failed at that as well. Her magic was very powerful, but only when it touched the person. Helena had followed her scent that day, all the way to the house. It had surprised her when the creature had leapt to save her. Helena would have sworn it was a dragon from the brief glimpse she had of it, but she knew they were all dead. The way it had wrapped around her, keeping her from the worst of her magic, had been heartbreaking to Helena. But she’d find out soon enough. Both the man and the woman would die before it got around that she was a failure at magic. That just would not do. It was hard enough finding work when there was so little call for a witch nowadays.

~~~

Asher hugged his brothers. He’d never been so glad to see them in his entire life. But he also had so much to tell them, more than any of them would believe. But first things first, he had to find Essie.

Jed sat at the table now, groaning from the amount of food he’d eaten. Elbert must have made several trips to town to bring in even a part of what he’d cooked. Christ, it looked like he was feeding several hungry troops gone to war. But the dragons were joining them tonight, and they were a hungry lot even on the best of days.

His brother asked him what he was looking for when he got up to look in the kitchen again. “Whatever it is, I’m sure that it can wait until you tell us why you summoned us here. Not that I’m not thrilled to be here, but we left work undone and some things that needed taken care of for you.”

“I have news.” Shane laughed when Asher sat down, but then quickly stood up again as he tried to explain. “I have a lot of news. Some of it is going to be hard to believe, but I can tell you, it’s all true.”

When all of them stood up, dropping whatever they had in their hands and staring at the doorway behind him, Asher turned as well, smiling. He knew that she’d come to him, and was glad to see her. Taking her hand, he pulled her along with him as he stood closer to the head of the table.

“Everyone, this is Esmerelda Hahn Benson, my wife.” She slapped him and tried to pull away, but he held her firmly. “She’s still getting used to the idea of being married to me.”

“Christ, man.” Gideon put out his hand to touch her, and Essie moved back. “Just wanting to know if you’re real or not, love. I’ve never seen a more beautiful creature in my life.”

Asher felt her embarrassment and asked them all to have a seat. Jed kept standing and once they were all seated, he came toward her and bowed. Essie looked at Asher, then at Jed again.

“My lady, sister. I welcome you to this family.” Jed stood and took her hand. As he kissed it on her palm, Asher realized what he was doing. He was getting her taste, and he was glad that someone had thought of that. “I am Jedidiah Benson, second son to Jacob and Sally Benson. My dragon is Zak, also second son, but to the King Anthony and his wife Queen Eve.”

Elam stood next and kissed her palm, but Asher noticed that it wasn’t in the same spot where Jed had kissed her. “I am Elam Benson, third son to Jacob and Sally Benson. My dragon is Casdon, also third son but to the King Anthony and his wife Queen Eve, and the best friend of myself.”

When Shane stood up, Essie put her hand up. “I get that you’re all the sons of Jacob and Sally Benson. And if you stay in order, I’ll get that too. But if you introduce yourself so formally, we’re going to be here a long time.” Shane laughed and kissed her hand. “That’s not necessary either. You don’t have to kiss me just because Asher thinks we’re married.”

“Ah my dear, but we do have to kiss a part of you. And your hand is much safer for us all than anywhere else on your pretty body.” Shane winked at her as he kissed her other palm. “We are taking in your taste, my dear, so that we can find you no matter what. Our magic from our mother gives us the ability to do a great many things that will keep you safe. And my dragon is Keion.”

Gideon stood as well, and as if she’d not asked him to keep it simple, he told her his name and his parents’ names, as well as that of his dragon Onimia. But instead of kissing her palm, he took her into his arms and dipped her back, kissing her soundly on the mouth, much to the amusement of everyone but Asher. He would make Gideon pay for that later.

Simeon was last, and he didn’t kiss her palm but put his nose into her throat. No one said anything as he pulled back and licked his lips. Asher was afraid that he’d bitten her; the magic that was his and his alone would require him to do so. It wasn’t until he sat down that he noticed the drop of blood on his lip. Asher wanted to ask him what he’d found but didn’t. This was not the time.

“I’m so happy to meet you all.” Essie moved to the window before she continued. “I’ve heard so much about you. Your powers and magic. I wasn’t told why I was supposed to live here, but when your brother showed up, Mr. Jacob finally told me.”

“Mr. Who?” Asher started to explain but Elbert came in. He was holding a large platter of ham and was hurriedly helped to place it in the center of the table. Elam asked again who Essie was talking about.