SALT, SKY, AND FIRE

By

SERENA DRACIS

© Serena Dracis April 2023

All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, place, or location is purely coincidental.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part—excepting limited quotes for purposes of review—without the express written consent of the publisher.

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CHAPTER ONE

I was the Bestiary’s first Candidate.

I knew the Founder.

I fought in all the wars.

I’ve seen far too much.

From the personal journal of Ozora

Dean of Magics

The Bestiary

****

“Enjoy your walk, Ozora!” Cedric called as I closed the door to my little cottage. I smiled and waved back as my neighbor continued on the path to his home, out of sight behind a stand of trees.

The sun was headed towards the sea, but there was still enough light for a walk. I needed one.

I’d been living in Emberglen for a year now and was feeling restless. I hadn’t stayed in one place for years and was considering moving on, even though I’d grown to love it here. Emberglen sits on the shores of Alurenth’s west coast but it’s not a fishing town. Instead its folk were farmers and vintners of some of the finest wines in the kingdom.

When I’d passed through last year with a caravan of traveling entertainers they persuaded me to stay when the mayor’s eldest son sought my help banishing a particularly nasty demon that took up residence in the mayoral mansion and made the fine house unlivable. Along with some nearby homes.

As added enticement, the grateful town gifted me the empty cottage of their late midwife, who’d passed just the season before.

How could I say no? Especially when the mayor’s handsome son went to extravagant lengths to express his gratitude.

It was a pretty town, supported by both the wineries and a steady stream of visitors come to taste them. My cozy cottage sat at the far edge of town away from the bustle of the café’s and shops. It was a short hike from where my home sat on a bit of a cliff overlooking the waves down to the beach itself. I followed the packed dirt path through tall waving grasses that brushed against my light cotton skirts. The salty breeze lifted a few locks off my face and I inhaled, trying to let go my heavy thoughts.

I followed the trail down a set of stairs cut into the cliff side and once I reached the sand, I peeled off my sandals and walked through the shallow wavelets that ran up the beach.

The ocean against my skin was soothingly cool. I took another deep breath and released all my worries into the sea. It was a trick I had to help me clear my mind.

It helped that this section of the beach was completely deserted.

Perfect.

Strange to think how calming I found the ocean, considering how far it was from my home and family. The Caradare Mountains were several months journey from Alurenth, and none here had ever seen the giant eagles my clans raise and ride. Stranger still to say it feels like I’ve been called here.

Hence my dilemma, should I stay or go? I was comfortable here, but I longed for more.

Have to say, there are worse places to be called to than a seaside resort for wineries and their guests.

The colors of the night crept in from the east behind the hills, chasing the sun into the waters and leaving a brilliant explosion of reds, oranges, and golds painted across the clouds and waves. I reached, then passed a tall promontory that stuck out into the surf where the cliffs marched into the waterline. Emberglen vanished, blocked by the towering sandstone.

It wasn’t usually this hard for me to pick up and leave. As a Journey-level mage, I make my living by Journeying, selling my mage craft and skills. Emberglen’s invitation to stay came just when I wanted a break from traveling. To tell the truth early on, I’d considered staying permanently. Typically, this sort of luxury was only for Adept-level mages.

Until I started hearing the latest news out of Hastrior, the city that sat on the westernmost point of the Eastern Reaches. Emberglen was far enough north of Hastrior’s peninsula that it took weeks for word to circulate, but once it got here, it shook me. Most of my restlessness came from a need to get farther away from the big port city. I had a history there. Did not want to revisit.

Yes, sure, I’d heard rumors. For five years outlandish ones have circulated of the man I’d left behind in Hastrior. Those fly on the wind, but how much truth to put to them? Impossible to tell. Then other, more disturbing stories trickled in.

I was shocked to hear how much the city had deteriorated. As time passed and more reports came in, it became impossible to ignore the dire state of Hastrior. All these rumors and worries pushed me toward leaving.

Just not tonight. Maybe Emberglen is far enough away.

The stars started to appear and I couldn't bring myself to turn for home. Walking soothed away my gloomy thoughts, and it was nigh impossible to stay upset on a gorgeous summer night. The breeze was a soft caress and the waves sweet music that lulled my fears.

I shook my head to dismiss my concerns.

Nothing I can do about it right now, so I might as well enjoy the night.

The cliffs had smoothed out, leaving behind low dunes covered in waving grasses and a line of scrub oak that followed the shore.

Fairies sometimes danced in the grasses under the moonlight but my timing was off. Neither moon was overhead.

From farther down the beach, I heard the unmistakable sounds of a boat grinding ashore, hull scraping over sand. Boots splashed through the low lapping waves.

Voices. They didn’t speak the common tongue or any other language I knew.

“Di’kutla huumans. Tion’solet jaeta coeletra?”

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Stupid humans. How many will we kill this fine evening? I had to whisper a translation cantrip. I’d studied high elvish, poring over their books in my growing library, but couldn’t understand this dialect. This wasn’t the lyrical, flowing speech of the high elves, but here and there I could catch an odd word or phrase. Elvish, but not? This was more guttural, harsh. As if they were biting off their words.

There was only one possibility, and it was chilling. It also wasn’t supposed to be real.

I’d only read about the Crimson Birth in fantastic stories from the Old Empire. The histories were full of lurid tales about this legendary secret army of assassins and rogues. A group formed from degenerates, taken from all the Empire’s prisons, then kept in isolation until unleashed on the Emperor’s command. Their only purpose, to train and kill. This they did with a bloodlust not seen in any other elder race, both amongst themselves and when sent to do the foulest of acts.

The histories said they had their own language, and those who spoke it were the trusted of the Emperor, or the Crimson Birth themselves. It ensured only the Emperor commanded them. They refused to acknowledge any order not given in their own version of elvish.

Can’t be.

I didn’t want it to be true. Didn’t want to face what that implied. But no elves in the East spoke that guttural tongue.

Which meant…

These elves must have come from across the Sundering Sea.

The deep shadows of the tall cliffs at my back kept the invaders from spotting me. Grateful for the friendly dark, I summoned my numin, magical energy used to craft spells, and cast a glamour to hide my form, then crossed the sands to the scrub oaks. I wove through the tree line, sneaking closer, in the direction of the voices on the breeze. Emberglen wouldn’t survive these marauders unless they were warned. The rocky outcropping I’d just passed hid the ship. They wouldn’t see them coming, hidden here.

There, aground on the beach was a large ship, filled with elvish warriors filing out onto the sand.

The night was dark, and the elves didn’t carry torches or magelights, but with another whispered cantrip I stretched my sight, casting an owl vision spell that allowed me to see greater detail in the dark and further than my own eyes.

Two additional ships waited out in the deeps. Dark sails on dark water when neither of the two moons were crossing the night sky. This was intentional. They’d timed this.

Why? Why would they invade? What do we possess that high elves would desire? My thoughts spun. My most trusted histories described the high elves as near-immortal beings of light and grace. The stories of the Crimson Birth were just that, fictional tales to astonish.

Not some real terror squad invading my home.

Trusting my glamour and shielding to hide me, I crept closer, hoping I’d misunderstood or misheard.

Nope.

The elvish warriors moved quietly, speaking amongst themselves in hushed voices. They were certain of victory. Another eavesdropping spell proved they were bent on conquest and enslavement.

Who do I warn? Who do I tell? Would I learn anything else by listening a little more?

“Haa’taylir!” Sure of my glamours and wrapped in my spying, I didn’t notice a thing until I was yanked to my feet by my hair. A loud shout battered against my ears and a squeak escaped from my lips. I grimaced, part pain, part self-loathing. Caught!

A nasty, lascivious grin split the male elf’s lovely face. I’ll never forget something that looked so divine, oozing such depravity. “Mesh’la huuman.”

Look here! Pretty little human. The translation spell was still working. I grasped the elf’s hands where they clutched my hair, rising on my toes, trying to ease the strain and pull on my thick braid. My scalp burned, and I was sure he was trying to yank all of it out by the roots. He gave me a little shake, like I was nothing but a rat. Licking his lips, he uttered a thick chuckle.

“Yur majik.” He lifted me higher, until my toes barely scraped the dirt, speaking now in heavily accented common. “No good ‘gainst Crimssson Birth.” He flicked his fingers and my body rocked with the blowback of my spells shattering under his magical assault.

I clamped my teeth against the scream of pain that wanted to burst forth as my numin crackled and dissipated, keeping all but a hiss and moan from escaping. The little ropes and sigils of energy I’d woven snapped and lashed as my magical energies drained away into the surrounding ether. I sagged, hands still weakly clasping the enormous male’s wrist, trying to stem the rush of my mage energies. The elf laughed again, poking me in the stomach, then breast as if testing for tenderness.

With a sharp jerk, still yelling filth, he dragged me toward his comrades, breaking through the tree line and crossing the sands. I kicked my heels and dug in my nails, but his heavily muscled arm was wrapped in hard leather armor. I might as well have been a kitten for all the good my struggles did against his greater strength.

Worse, I couldn’t reach my numin. When he shattered my spells, he’d put some sort of block up, preventing me from casting.

Panic built. My heart raced. I couldn’t stop fighting or I’d die. I knew it.

I redoubled my efforts, trying to find some weak spot to target.

Nothing. I hadn’t even slowed his march. He crossed into the sands of the beach from the clumps of rocks and grass that led back towards the tree line. His brothers turned at his shout, depraved smiles lighting their beautiful high elvish faces.

Sound, heat, and a rolling pressure wave hit, knocking us both back several feet. A deafening roar, like a hundred gongs struck all at once belled out from …

Above?

The concussion loosed the elf’s grip. I landed with a thump, rolled, and realized I was free. The blast threw me a good ten feet from my captor. I had the good fortune to land on small, grass-topped dune. The elf warrior was not so lucky. He’d struck his head on a rocky outcropping and did not stir when a shadow darker than the star-spangled sky swept overhead.

What. Was. That? I had my answer immediately.

A thick column of incandescent flame shot from the sky to incinerate one of the two waiting ships offshore. Likes its sister ship burning on the sand, It exploded, scattering timbers, sails, and elves across the water. Finally, I realized why none of the warrior’s brothers in arms had come to his aid.

They were all dead.

Flames fully engulfed the grounded ship. The crew and fighters that had been ashore were crisped husks. The flaming blast that had knocked me free was the grounded ship exploding.

Just like the one out in the bay.

Another belling roar echoed across the water and the third ship met the same fate as the others. Faint screams reached me, carried on the wind along with the taste of ash and the acrid scent of flame and smoke.

There was only one thing that capable of that.

And I do not intend to stick around to be its next victim.

Jumping to my feet, I tore across the grassy dunes toward the trees. Only to fall again moments later as a blast of wind and pressure hit, this time from above. The ground rocked and trembled with the impact. I managed to raise myself to my hands and knees, but paused when I saw what landed in the sand ahead of me.

An unimaginably vast body cut off my path to the forest’s edge. Cut off sight of the forest itself.

It was leathery, reptilian with wide semi-transparent wings held high, and a thick, muscular neck topped by a …

That’s … that’s a ... My mind floundered.

“Dragon.” I breathed, half-terrified, half awed.

“Get up you fool. And hurry. There’s likely more and we need to stop them!”

I wasn’t sure I could. Who was speaking? Who would help me in the face of … that?

Two legends in one day? How lucky can I get? I held my breath. That reptilian head was bigger than me! It snaked forward towards me, snuffling like a dog on a scent with its wide wings flared high, blocking out the stars. The dragon had saved me from a gruesome death, but I was surely still about to die. There was no way to escape this beast.

I closed my eyes and let out a slow exhale, grateful this way would be swifter than what the elf had planned.

“Get up!” The voice came again. A voice well-used to command from the way she barked. My eyes flew open. The dragon lowered its wings.

Now I saw the woman perched on the dragon’s back, bending over and stretching her hand as she beckoned imperiously. “Get your ass over here. Now. Unless you don’t care about saving those friends of yours in Emberglen?”

The thought of my town in peril gave me all the strength and motivation I needed.

I lurched to my feet. Threat to them was the only thing that would induce me to run toward a dragon. Plus, if the dragon and rider had wanted me dead, I’d already be sipping mead in Paradise.

The dragon obligingly angled its foreleg, allowing me to run up and grasp the woman’s hand and forearm. I’d never have been able to reach it otherwise. The helpful beast slowly lifted its leg as I scrambled up its boulder-like shoulder.

“Behind me. Sit!” The woman barked, pointing to a padded leather seat, held in place by thick straps and buckles that encircled the dragon’s neck.

I dropped into the seat, looking for anything to hold on to. Nothing. I hoped the dragon was a gentle, level flyer.

“Wrap these around your waist.” Twisting in her saddle, she shoved two lengths of leather into my hands. “Tie them off here and here.” A quick finger jabbed at a two thick rings set into the leather harness. “And hold on! Cassyrra can’t double back fast enough to catch you if you fall.”

Relieved, I hurried to do as the woman bid and lashed myself down.

Just in time.

“Let’s go!” The woman shouted, this time at the dragon, who reared up on her back legs. Bunching her hindquarters and raising her wings, the mighty beast leaped into the night sky.

Flames and smoke fell behind us, dwindling as the dragon mounted towards the clouds. The woman was yelling, but the rushing wind took the words. The dragon’s shoulder muscles bunched and flexed beneath me. Mighty wings pumped, then flared and tilted as she leveled off, taking us on a long looping turn toward my village.

I screamed.

From sheer exhilaration.

The wind took my voice, and if the rider in front of me heard, she didn’t react.

I wouldn’t have cared if the world heard me.

A long-sought center within my soul awakened in the rush of wind and sweep of wings, bursting to life in me.

Whoever this woman was, however she’d partnered with this magical beast, she had to show me how she’d tamed the untamable.

At that moment, I knew my life would never be the same.