Dark Sun-Chapter 1

         My eyes adjusted slowly. Too slowly, I had to move blind. This is not a good thing in battle. Even when you can sense the life force and hear your opponent, there are no substitutes for clear vision. I saw a blur and didn’t wait for the whistling of a blade striking through the air. I leapt to the side, slamming into the wall.

         He may have the advantage in sight but I would win this battle. He didn’t know the scent of my kind which meant that he didn’t know what I was. That meant he would lose. In the few second in which I was immobile during the shape shifting he would probably be shocked and thus still until I was completely in dragon form.

I hadn’t returned to my natural body for some time now and my Humani form was becoming worn, like a pair of trousers thinning at the knees. I was itching to fly again. But I had to wait, now wasn’t the time.

The sword snapped at my neck and I ducked, sparks flew above me.  To slow, he would have to be much faster to catch me. I shielded my form from his eyes and nearly laughed at his confusion when I disappeared. I slid quietly around him and began my transformation. When he realized I was behind him, he turned and almost dropped his sword. Then I did laugh, though without joy. He was very new indeed.

I grimaced as my bones stretched and shed the skin that had kept them captive for so long. My skull elongated and my teeth sharpened into fangs. New flesh covered my now bare skeleton and silvery white scales as harder than diamonds slid out to protect it. The worst part was my spine lengthening. It stretched and squirmed and pushed out past my hips, growing into a long, barbed tail.

Finally in my natural form, I growled. The sound rumbled from deep in my chest and succeeded beautifully in frightening the creature I was fighting. Now that my eyes could see him better, I went on the offensive.

Leaping, faster than I had any right to at my size, I extended my front legs to try and pin the boy to the wall. He had recovered though, and I only managed to nick his shoulder. The impact was enough to put me slightly off balance. I corrected and pushed off the stone with my hind legs. He would not escape me a second time.

He ended up behind me, ready to strike with his blade. I whipped my tail and caught him in the jaw. Blood spattered as I slammed the soldier into the ceiling. He dropped, and did not rise again.

I turned and slowly picked the body up. He wasn’t old enough to be the army. I moaned in realization of my mistake. The poor boy had been playing warrior, hunting before he was trained. He was no older than my little sister appeared. He had been no danger to me. I had murdered a child.

I shook it off, needing to bury the body and get back to the council for debriefing. They had a new mission for us and if they knew I was enemy territory they would have my hide. In truth I was supposed to be back at the Academy training with my siblings. I was restless today though and needed to find a new place to explore. I had snuck into these caves and wandered around for about an hour before I ran into the boy. He was dressed in a soldier’s uniform and it was dark, so I didn’t know he was so young. I hadn’t thought to look into his mind. It was a stupid mistake, one I hoped I would never repeat.

I swallowed when I emerged from the tunnel. The sun had set while I was inside. I should be leaving soon. I shrank back down, putting on my vampyre body. This was my least favorite but it seems like I wear it the most often. I wear it well too. Or so the council says, and since they need a dragon who can wear it well enough to fool the real thing, I got the job as spy.

I quickly walked toward the village just over the rise. I wasn’t worried about anyone seeing me with the body. Murders are quite common in a vampyre town. No one except perhaps the parents of the boy would bat an eye at me, and even that would surprise me.

The streets were just beginning to fill as the tenants of the village began their day. It wasn’t that sunlight hurt them; they were just more comfortable at night. It was more suited for their sensitive eyes and pale skin, though some argued that their sleeping habits were the cause of those features.

Every sense on high alert, I walked warily down the street. The graveyard would be in the center of town.  As his killer, it was proper that I bury him after informing his parents if I can locate them. I sniffed the body softly, and tried to locate any scents that were similar.

By breath caught on a female. It had to be his sister or mother, so I followed the trail. It was difficult in the town, there being so many other smells that masked the odor at places. When I finally arrived at the woman’s house I was tired and eager to get home. I was already late.

Knocking on the door, I caught my nose sniffing at something the wind carried.  It smelled of peppermint, but alcohol and blood nearly overcame the fresh scent. I was surely puzzled by this. It was so different from any other thing I had smelled near vampyres. They didn’t always smell bad but never like that.

The door opened and I heard a little girl’s voice, “Jak?” Her voice shook.

I groaned inwardly. If she had no one else… “It is.”

She looked up and caught my eyes. The dark grey irises gazed wretchedly at me. “Who will take care of me?”

My heart sank and I knelt. “Where are your parents child?” I was hoping against hope that she had someone close. “Other family?”

A tear escaped her and she clutched at her brother’s corpse. She didn’t need to answer. She was alone now. I looked into her mind, to find her name. “Elsen? Would you help me bury him?”

She didn’t even question how I knew what to call her. She just picked up the dead boy and began to walk towards the graveyard. Vampyres were very strong, even when young. I started after her.

My head was at battle with my heart. I couldn’t leave her to fend for herself, but if I took her… it wouldn’t be pretty. As I shoveled dirt from the hole, I watched her sitting on the edge of the grave, stroking Jak’s hair. “Oh just throw it down a river!” I thought angrily, “I have to take her with me.”

The ceremony finished, I took Elsen by the arm and crouched beside her. “I can’t promise anything child, but if you come with me I might be able to take care of you.”

This time her eyes were angry, her small mouth pressed in a thin line. She nodded, though it obvious she would rather starve. “I’ll come, if you swear to me that you will not harm another from this village.”

I smiled. The girl was very mature for her age. That was not surprising though, since her entire family was at war. “I swear on my honor that I will harm none from this village as long as you are a resident in my home.” I had to have a loop-hole; the council would order me to destroy this place eventually. When they learned of our presence, the vampyres would not hesitate to attack us.

She nodded, and took my hand. I rose and began walking back to the caves. I would be able to find my way back easily once I arrived there.

She tensed when we entered the woods behind the tunnels. Like the rest of her people, they had heard ghost stories about this forest, stories that we used to our advantage. Dragons are very skilled at hiding from people. I sighed and put my hand on her shoulder. She would be safe with me. I had to see to that.

When I came to the gate, I began to search for Kyren. He supposed to be on guard duty. Kyren? It is me, Allia. Will you let us in? I called out with my thoughts.

He must have heard me because a moment later I caught a glimpse of his muscular body and red/gold coloring. He peeked from behind a boulder and grinned at me. What did you catch today sister? He asked me.

Elsen screamed and started to pull away. I grabbed her arm and held her beside me. I tried to speak calmly so as to not alarm her further, “Elsen, this is Kyren, my brother. He will not hurt you. I promised you would be safe.”

Still struggling, she replied, “Your dragons! You’ll kill us! That’s why you killed my brother and now you’re going to eat me!”

I winced. Seemed they had tales about my kind as well. I tried to reason with her, “Child, I made a mistake with your brother. I thought he was a soldier. And if I was going to eat you why haven’t I done so already? I wouldn’t say the same for all dragons but I am a nice one.”

She gazed at me, frightened and confused. Kyren padded up to us, shrinking in size until he was about as tall as a large dog. He smiled as non-threateningly as he could (which isn’t very much due to the fact that he has a very frightening face) and lowered his head to show submission. Elsen didn’t know what to make of him.

Kyren looked up and began to shift into humani form. It was a sign that he trusted her since humani is the weakest form we have. Its senses are dull and while it is very resilient I would not want to enter any sort of battle as a humani. If they actually exist somewhere then it would seem to me that they would be a peaceful race.

His mane of messy red hair grew first, much to the amusement of the girl. She couldn’t help but smile. I laughed, his transformations were always awkward. When he was done he knelt in front of her. “Allia and I will make sure none of the others so much as look at you funny.” He winked.

The he stood and turned a serious gaze onto me. I lowered my head, ashamed. What have you done now little sister?

I gulped, feeling vulnerable. The girl’s brother decided to play soldier and stumbled onto me in a cave. I didn’t know he was all she had. I had no idea how young he was.

He grimaced. “The council is not going to be pleased with you.”

Then he began to laugh, it wasn’t long before I joined him. “Since when do you care how the council feels?” I teased. “Has Ferra finally gotten her claws into you?”

He doubled over, “God no!”

I sighed, and Kyren straightened. “I suppose you want to get to the academy?”

I nodded and he walked over to the boulder he had been lying behind. He reverted to his dragon form and shoved the massive rock out of the way. The blue light of a portal fell upon him and gave him a purple hue.

Elsen tensed further and leaned back. I nudged her forward, muttering that she would be fine. Before we entered the light, I picked her up so I didn’t lose her on the way. Travelling through portals can be dangerous if you don’t know where you are going. It measures the intent and takes you where you want to go.

The swirling light and wind chime sounds were very disorienting. Even after I had used portals for three hundred years it still made me dizzy. When it finally spit us out at the Academy’s door, I stumbled and almost dropped Elsen. As it was I barely managed to sit her on the ground without falling over.

“Allia!” A voice I knew very well, hollered from the entrance. I looked up and sure enough, Terell was making his way towards me. “Allia, do you have any idea how late you are?”

I stood and tried to steady myself. “I know very well how late I am and yes I will accept the punishment, but right now I need to find this little girl someone who is willing to teach her and a place to stay.” I nodded firmly. “And something to eat.”

Now he seemed to notice Elsen for the first time. His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. I groaned and stepped in front of the her right in time to block him. Terell tried to push passed me, saying, “It is a vampyre! How could you bring that beast into our halls?!”

I shoved him back, glaring coldly at him. “She is less of a beast than you if you would think to kill her.”

He snarled and turned, his tail spade cutting through my breeches. “Be in the Council room in five minutes.”

I sighed. “What a pity he is such an extremist. He might be handsome otherwise,” I thought to myself.

Elsen gulped and I remembered that I had promised her a place to stay. I growled, it would take all of those five minutes just to get to the council room. “Elsen, you will have to accompany me to the meeting. I will find you food and shelter as soon as I can but I am afraid Terell will only make things worse for you if I don’t show up on time.”

She sniffed and clung to my hand. I walked up to the doors. They were tall enough to accommodate the largest dragon and light enough that a humani could easily open them. The twisted handle had been wrought in an ivy shape. I grasped the cool metal and slowly pulled it open.

My eyes took in the entry hall with awe. No matter how many times I saw it, it never failed to take my breath away. Elaborate tapestries hung on every bit of bare wall, showing stories from our Bible. Bookshelves and chairs lined the walls and creatures of nearly every sort browsed the largest collection of literature in all of the worlds. Right in the center of the colored stone floor, there was a fountain in the shape of the dragon Serin.

Serin was a fierce dragon of the light who was considered by many the reason our race was still around. It was said he had pure white scales and fire as golden as our sun. He was the one who taught the dragons to fight when the Darkness attacked. He is the one who, with the help of our father, imprisoned the Darkness in a mortal body. He gave his own life to defend what was right and good in the world. But the price was a high one. There has not been peace for hundreds of thousands of years. That was why Terell reacted so strongly to Elsen.

We hurried through the hallways, up a flight of stairs and down three more. When we reached the Council room, all of my siblings were present and the council was waiting. When my brother Illien saw Elsen, he raised his eyebrows in a way that said he was going to have a few words with me later. Although he was younger than me, he was often the voice of wisdom when I was about to do something stupid. I didn’t really listen to him much.

I sat down beside Aunie, my younger sister. I put Elsen between us. Aunie appeared closer to her age than I did. Kyren was on my other side, looking pleased with the Council’s reactions. They were aghast at the thing sitting next to me. One of my best friends, Glacies, was giving me the death stare from his seat at the head table.

Terell tapped the table top, calling our attention. He glared at me. “Now that all five of you are here, we can begin.”

Ferra leaned forward and shuffled her sheaf of papers. “Yvonne, would you do us the favor of presenting?”

My older sister stood, her blue/green scales shimmering in the torch light. She turned to face us. “Those are letters are from Galend, the informant we placed in his city.” She took one of the letters from Ferra. “My friends, the party is on the ninth day of June. I do so hope you will be able to make it. My father has been travelling lately but should be returning for the event. The wife has taken ill and I find that I must go to the next town to see if I can find a cure or else a place to wait it out.”

A hush fell over us. We all looked to Yvonne. “What does it mean?” I asked.

Her eyes pierced mine, “It means we’re going to a party. It means the commander will be there. And it means that we will have no assistance from our insider.”

“Damn,” Kyren whispered. Aunie gave him a dirty look.

I sighed. Parties were the best place to gather information from, especially if you could get a commander drunk. I hated parties, the dresses that their kind wore… painfully tight and revealing.

“When is it?” I inquired apprehensively.

My sister smiled, “In three hours.”

After one hour, Elsen was fed, bathed and sound asleep on my bed. I wouldn’t be back tonight so it didn’t matter. I had rushed out to the market just on the edge of the Academy and bought a strapless green silk dress, with an amber/green patterned bodice and a simple velvet mask of the same colors. One of the letters had specified that it would be a masquerade.

I put on my vampyre form and pulled the dress on and slipped a flat blade into the sash. I combed my black curls back from my face, making sure that they still covered my neck. If anyone saw that I hadn’t been marked then they would know that I was not one of them. Sadly, I could not fake the bite marks on the left side of the neck that all vampyres of a certain age have.

Three of us gathered at the portal. Illien, Aunie and I were the ones selected for this assignment. Kyren and Yvonne were more suited to straightforward battle than espionage. I was shaking with anticipation. Maybe he would be there. No dragons had seen the commander and live to tell about it. If we could avoid detection, this could be the chance of a lifetime.

As we made our way down cobbled streets towards the tall grey towers, we caught up with a group of nobles heading the same direction. They were dressed even more ridiculously than we were. The man had on a tall plumed hat with more feathers than a bird. It was all I could do not to giggle.

When we arrived, I felt a sense of foreboding. I didn’t have the gift of telling but my feelings usually came true so I tensed and swept my gaze over the grand hall. It was filled with vampyres, some dancing, some mingling and some laughing over a blood donor. Bile rose in my throat, disgusting. How they could take life so casually was beyond me.

I walked casually across the room, staying off of the dance floor as best I could. I scanned the room for any officers or politicians. They were the ones I was to target. I caught the eye of a young man, he was wearing a black and white mask, and a long black overcoat. ‘Definitely an officer,’ I thought. He had a way of carrying himself, calm and confident and yet poised like a snake preparing to strike. I glimpsed an old scar on the right side of his neck, which was odd because it wasn't a bite. It looked to be more like three claw marks.

He grinned viciously and stepped in my direction. I flared my nostrils to get his scent. I gasped as peppermint filled my head. Where was that smell coming from?

“Would you care to dance?” He had a rich, deep voice that probably made most women swoon.

I smiled flirtatiously and held my hand out. He took it, pulling me out onto the dance floor. I studied him thoroughly. This was not a man who would easily be intoxicated, though he seemed to be a very skilled dancer.

He took my chin in his hand and turned my face to meet his. He looked into my eyes and I saw that his were entirely black. Fear began to stir within me. He was one of the ageless, one of the original vampyres. He would be very powerful indeed. “May I learn your name?” He asked, the picture of civility.

Shaking off my dread, I answered, “I am called Arlyn. Who might you be?”

He smirked, his full lips puckering into something I could hardly look at. Or look away from. “Clever aren’t you? You may call me Orin.” I shuddered, he had seen through me easily, how long before he discovered what I really was. 

As we spun around the ballroom, he began to talk to me about the war. I saw my chance and launched into battle tactics and strategy, seeing that as my best way to impress him. Leading me by the arm over to the bar he said, “You know a lot about strategy Arlyn. How?”

I shrugged off his question, “I am a soldier. It is my place to know these things if I want to survive to be a general.”

He laughed. It was a hollow sound. “You wish to be a general?” He asked incredulously. “A young woman has better things to do surely.”

I leveled my gaze at him, taking the drink he offered. “Would you be able to consider anything else if you were raised in war?”

His irises lightened to a dark grey and he grimaced. “I suppose not.” He gulped at his drink.

I sniffed at the alcohol in my glass. Its sourness nearly made me retch, though there was no poison that I could detect. I sipped it cautiously, not wanting to become light-headed and gullible.

We sat on a bench next to the wall. I had conveniently maneuvered him to the side opposite the fresh blood. I did my best not to look at the pitiful, gaunt creatures. They had been bred for the purpose of being drained dry by the vampyre royalty. Most were held upright by chains and bars. It was beyond cruel.

Orin pulled his ponytail loose and shook out a mane of black hair that just brushed his shoulders. I had no doubt that if he removed his mask he would be devastatingly handsome. Most of the ageless were. That had been the downfall for many who could not fathom beauty could be so evil.

I reached up to touch my mask. The emerald green cloth fell off under my fingertips. I reached back to secure it. I almost jumped out of my seat when warm hands brushed mine and took the string from me. Once the mask was secure, Orin brushed the hair from my face. I was stunned, all of my teachers had told me that the ageless were colder than ice and yet I felt warmth on my cheek. He was alive and not the waking dead. Could I have been wrong in my original assumption?

I turned to face him and saw that he was frowning. “What is a lovely thing like you doing unmarked? Surely you are of age?”

I just stared at him. ‘No…’ I thought, panic rising. He leaned in close and breathed in my scent. He stiffened and sat back, staring at me. His expression hardened.

“How long did you think to fool me?” He growled.

I couldn’t move, there was no point in trying to escape. If someone saw me running, they would give chase. “I said not a false word to you Orin.”

He snarled at me, his eyes becoming darker than they had been all night. I cast around to find my family. Illien kept looking at me over the shoulder of an older noble woman. I found Aunie flirting with a man in a lieutenant’s uniform. I could expect no help from them. ‘Why hasn’t he called the guard yet,’ I wondered. As I turned back to my enemy, I saw that he was no longer there. I looked around in wonder. Where was he?

I had to get out while I still had a chance, but I couldn’t leave without at least a bit of information. There, a door was open in the corner; it was too good a chance to pass up. I rose and strode over to it as quickly as I could. Glancing over my shoulder, I entered the side corridor.