Occultus Draconem

Fire and Nightmares

Kenric sat on the edge of the empty bed beside Blaise's in the infirmary, his chin resting on his clasped hands. He watched Blaise closely and the young man tossed and turned, moaning in pain. Every once in a while, he would stop and relax, as though something had relieved his pain, but it never lasted very long.

What was it that plagued Blaise's unconscious mind? Kenric had lost count of how many times he'd tried to get inside, never successfully. He would find himself either shut out by Prince Zane, or their collective thoughts and emotions would simply be too much for Kenric to handle. He was forced to retract or risk destroying his own mind.

***

Blaise snatched a small boy by the arm, and pulled him to safety, away from the edge of the steep slope that held up their path. The child's mother grabbed him, hugging him tightly in her arms. It gave Blaise a pang of sadness in his chest. He wished he still had his own mother to hold him like that.

"Thank you, Prince Zane!"

Prince Zane? He wasn't the Dragon Prince. Was he dreaming? Was that what happened when two souls shared a body? Or was it a memory?

"Let's keep moving."

Blaise's voice wasn't his own—it was Zane's. For once, though, it wasn't loud or demanding, and no pain came from it. It was quiet and weak, almost defeated, and there was a chill of fear that hung in the air around him.

Blaise didn't like having no control over his body, but he wondered if that was how Zane felt, stuck inside a body that wasn't his own.

The road to Senin was treacherous, but it was the quickest and safest way out of Draconia. If they wanted to avoid being Cleansed, the Dragons had no choice but to flee their kingdom.

The large group moved in silence, and Zane could feel all their eyes on the back of his head as he led them over the rocky terrain.

He felt like a failure. How could so much have gone wrong? Then Enforcers had invaded so quickly, coming all the way from Cadmus. It was all too terrible to comprehend, and the more he thought about it, it became all too clear to Zane that Agni had been planning the Cleansing long before King Anguis had died. All he'd needed was a catalyst... the murder of Anguis.

A terrible shriek echoed through the mountains, and the entire procession stopped in its tracks. Zane turned around, looking back in the direction of Draconia, listening to the death cry of a Dragon. Every Dragon was unique, and their cries were one of many ways to tell each other apart. No one could have mistaken the distinctive sound of Queen Maeve.

Zane felt everything fall out from under him as he listened to his mother's cry, and the painful silence that followed after. He couldn't breathe, and his heart felt as though it were being crushed in someone's fist.

He'd left her on her own... He had left her there to die. Now, he had nothing. Just a refugee. No family, no kingdom... no hope.

Multiple people reached out to help him as his knees buckled, but all the hands in the world couldn't have pulled him up out of that darkness.

***

"I failed her," Blaise muttered in his sleep, and a tear ran down his cheek. Kenric raise an eyebrow. Who was he talking about?

Kenric's fingertips glowed as he ran them across Blaise's forehead, trying to bring down his fever. He eyed the scar on his chest too. What exactly had Blaise been through before they brought him to Draconia?

***

Blaise tossed and turned, his back stiff and sore, but no relief would come. He finally gave up on sleep and sat up, finding himself on a small cot in an unfamiliar room.