Chasing the Dragon Read online

  Chasing the Dragon

  By Jason Halstead

  ©2013

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  www.novelconceptpublishing.com

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  West Bloomfield, MI 48324

  Cover art © 2013 Willsin Rowe

  Proofread by Faith Williams

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Jason Halstead’s website: http://www.booksbyjason.com

  Keep an eye out for these other Order of the Dragon books:

  Isle of the Ape

  Chasing the Dragon

  Sands of Betrayal

  Dragonlady

  And look for the Blades of Leander books:

  Child of Fate (book 1)

  Victim of Fate (book 2)

  Silver Dragon (book 3)

  or pick up all 3 at once in the Blades of Leander boxed set

  Chapter 1

  A distant roar echoed across the jungle from the east. The companions gathered around the campfire looked between the ruined buildings to the castle on the mountain top that the setting sun turned golden. Atop a tower, they could see the enormous ape, Bucky, standing.

  Patrina, the kelgryn princess who never let her axe far from her side, turned to look at a man wearing hides pieced together from animals. She snuggled into the embrace of the armored man beside her and asked, "You're sure you want to leave all this behind?"

  Carson smiled. "I've been trapped here for eight years with only that ape and the animals that hunted me as much as I hunted them. I think I'd like a chance to sleep easy for once."

  The dwarf, Mordrim, snorted and said, "The animals in the rest of the world that will hunt you are two-legged. Now hurry up and turn that boar."

  Carson chuckled and gave the spit over the fire a twist. "I once wanted to see the world. I had no great love for sailing but that seemed the best way. I still have that urge."

  "Well, you're welcome to come with us," Alto, the warrior who held the blond-haired princess, said. "But we're bound for the north, not the free cities you came from."

  Carson waved his hand in dismissal. "It's a new part of the world, isn't it?"

  "The mountains?" Garrick, the heavily muscled man from the lands north of the mountains, asked.

  Alto nodded. "The time I spent alone in the mountains, I never saw a company as large as the one you saw. Even with them serving the dragon, they traveled in bands of less than twenty."

  "I fear it bodes ill for our friends in Highpeak," the young priest, Karthor, said. "I've heard Tristam has his hands full with miners being chased out of the mountains. Aleena and Celos were sent to investigate it."

  Alto's brow rose.

  Karthor smirked and answered his unasked question. "The quest they've both been given to prove themselves worthy of being called paladins is to discover the source of the troubles."

  Garrick snorted. "Two of them? I fought a host of ogres that killed a family of my brethren."

  "We will go," Alto assured his barbaric friend. "Although I'm not sure we need to if you can face down such a force by yourself."

  Garrick scowled at him. "You killed that many or more."

  Alto shrugged, jostling the sleepy woman at his side. "Not at one time."

  Patrina slapped him. "Be still," she hissed.

  Alto chuckled and gave her a one-armed hug. She smiled and closed her eyes.

  "Aleena doesn't concern you now?" he asked her.

  She sighed and drew herself up. "It was some lingering fears from the troll's potion," she explained. She reached down to the axe resting at her side and said, "You're mine now and no woman, paladin or otherwise, stands a chance at you."

  The others laughed, even Alto. Aleena had set her sights on him when she first met him and it had taken him over a year to convince her that he wasn't right for her. She'd joined the church of Leander to prove him wrong, only to find herself in the process. Alto grinned at his betrothed. "Good, I hate all the attention. You can scare the women away."

  Patrina gasped while the others howled with laughter. "All the attention? Think you're that special now, do you?"

  Alto leaned close to her and said with a smile, "No, I just hate it when I can't see you through a crowd."

  Patrina's eyes narrowed and then relaxed. She smiled and kissed him, prompting more catcalls from the rest of them.

  "Namitus, I've heard you've the gift of music?" Carson asked the unusually quiet rogue.

  Namitus lifted his head up and nodded. He tilted his head for a moment. A smile slipped across his face and he reached under his tunic to pull out his pipes. He frowned and picked some dirt and leaves off them and then shrugged. "I wonder if the kelgryn will think unwashed savages from the north are attacking when we arrive."

  "Hey!" Garrick challenged the wiry man. His stature was due to the elven blood mixed in his veins. "We wash. It's just that the mountain streams are cold much of the year."

  The companionable laughter continued until Namitus put his pipes to his lips and began to play a song on them that quickly captured their focus. Patrina snuggled back up against Alto and let her eyes drift shut. Alto glanced at her and smiled, feeling that everything was right in the world and as it should be.

  "Bah! How's a man to get anything done with all this racket?" Kar, the groups aging wizard, slammed his book shut. "Senseless frivolities." He turned to his son, Karthor, and pointed his finger at him. "As rough on young boys as that church of yours is, at least they have the good sense to put work ahead of foolishness."

  "I don't know about that," Karthor said with a smirk. "The church knows when a task deserves to be celebrated. Finding and helping our friends before the island claimed them is cause enough."

  Kar snorted and turned to Alto. "What did you say the name of your sister's husband-to-be is?"

  "Husband," Alto corrected. "We were headed north from their wedding when we stopped by this island."

  Kar waved the insignificant details aside. "Name?" he repeated.

  "Oh, Sulim Badawi, he's a distant relative of the king, but most of the nobles down there are."

  Kar's sour expression turned grave. He stood up and carried his book around the fire so he could hand it to Alto. "Open to the page I marked."

  Alto frowned and took the book, and then carefully turned the pages until he reached the one that Kar indicated. It listed a roster of names. The ninth name on the page was Sulim Badawi. Alto looked up at Kar. "What is this, a listing of royalty for the kingdom of Shazamir?"

  "In some cases, yes, but not by design," the wizard said. "This is a tome brought to me by our young paladin friends after they destroyed the wizard and nymph who nearly did away with us in the enchanted forest."

  "Why would they have it?"

  "Chance, as far as we care," Kar said with a shrug. "What is important is what the book is."

  Alto waited but the wizard had stopped speaking. "Okay, so what is it?"

  "Look to the title," Kar sa
id.

  Alto flipped the book closed and read the cover of the book aloud. "The Order of the Dragon."

  The discussion around the campfire fell silent. Alto looked up at Kar. "What is this?" he demanded.

  "Rituals, practices, laws, and a roster of high-ranking members of the Order of the Dragon. The same group that—"

  "Enough," Alto snapped.

  Patrina had risen beside him, alert and tense. "I spoke with Sulim and Caitlyn many times when he courted her in Holgasford," she offered. "He seemed quite taken with her. Perhaps his love changed him?"

  "The Order of the Dragon butchered my family and—" Alto clamped his mouth shut and turned his head away. "The things they did to Caitlyn while they waited for me..."

  Patrina reached out to her man and gently squeezed his thigh. Alto turned to look at her and then the others. All their eyes were on him. "Garrick, I'm sorry. I'm sailing south, not north."

  Garrick nodded. "I'll sail with you. I'll not stand by while evil is done to your sister."

  Alto's eyes narrowed but he nodded. Garrick and Caitlyn had been friendly enough before Sulim arrived that he'd feared something was developing between them. With the southerner's appearance and interest, Garrick turned away and left to return to his own people in the north. "I appreciate it. I'll not ask anyone else to help. This is my affair."

  "Your family is my family," Patrina said to him. "We took her in and looked after her. She became my sister even if you and I are not yet wed."

  "South, north, it's all new to me!" Carson said. "And I think the boar is finally done."

  Everyone ignored the ranger's words and continued to look to Alto. "And the rest of you?"

  He was met with scowls and harsh oaths letting him know he was a fool to question them.

  "Then let this be the first action of the Company of the Dying Dragon," Alto said. "We'll strike for the dragon's heart this time, just as they've pierced mine."

  Kar scowled and shook his head, drawing Alto's fiery gaze. "It's a stupid name," Kar said. "Fitting in this one instance, perhaps, but it still sounds silly."

  "Kar, go and eat some boar. You're a difficult man when you're hungry."

  "He's always hungry," Karthor lamented and drew a few chuckles from the group.

  "What about my father? He's expecting word from us," Patrina said.

  "Wizard?"

  Kar looked up from the chunk of meat Carson had carved off the pig and handed to him. He scowled and then closed his eyes. When he opened them, he said, "We can pen a message to him. I'll tie it to Blackwing and send it."

  "Blackwing's in Portland!" Alto said.

  Kar shook his head and swallowed before saying, "I summoned him just now. He'll be here before dawn."

  "Oh," Alto relented. He turned to Patrina and felt her squeeze his leg again, silently sharing her appreciation and support. "Eat up, everyone, then get some rest. Thanks to Karthor, we've been healed of the worst of our hurts from the ape but we've some long days ahead of us."

  "Long and hot," Namitus pointed out. "It's a dry heat that makes this place seem like paradise."

  Patrina glanced down at the only clothing she had, her suit of magical chain and scale armor given to her by the troll shaman, Thork. It resembled a corset and a short skirt more than proper armor, yet the magic had served well to protect her thus far. "I think I'm dressed for it."

  Alto tried to scowl but found his eyes lingered when invited longer than they should have. Patrina teased him by lifting his face with a finger under his chin until their eyes met. "Remember, one day soon you get to see what's underneath the armor."

  Chuckles from around the fire were her answer. Alto nodded and offered a distracted smile. It wasn't her display of skin that distracted him—he'd seen her and other women in the kingdom of Shazamir wearing clothes as revealing or worse—it was the fear of what might be happening to his sister.

  "Until then, you might want to borrow one of Garrick's cold mountain streams," Patrina finished. She added a kiss from her soft lips against his scruffy cheek and then went to fetch her own dinner from the roast boar.

  Alto watched her go and found that, for once, she was wrong. What he needed was to wrap his hands around the throat of her sister's treacherous new husband.

  Chapter 2

  "This is an impressive temple," Celos admitted as he and Aleena left the temple of Leander in Highpeak.

  "The people of Highpeak thank Leander for their lives," Aleena said. "We held off the armies, even if it was Alto and his friends that put a stop to the dragon."

  Celos scowled and looked away.

  Aleena frowned. Her mentor always did that whenever the topic of Alto came up. "Their company was known as the Blades of Leander, even if they weren't sanctioned by the church."

  Celos nodded. "I supposed they would," he muttered. In a stronger voice, he said, "Come, we're wasting time. Let's hear what the new baron has to say."

  Aleena fell silent and followed the knight through the streets. He led her unerringly to the manor house where they were greeted by guards and an aide. Aleena thought back to the last time she'd spent time at Highpeak, after returning with the dead and wounded from the battle of Dragonsgate.

  She and Tristam had been two of the few members of the defending force who were still functional, if barely. They were exhausted, bruised, and beaten. Yet their spirits had soared; they'd held out and won the day.

  She'd seen Alto with Patrina, the kelgryn princess, as soon as they returned from the dragon's mountain. She'd felt her heart squeezed so much she hadn't been able to catch her breath. She'd seen them both before, just never together. It was obvious as soon as she did. They were meant for each other. She'd been a stupid girl with childish notions.

  She'd been fooling herself that she'd accepted that Leander's blessing had filled her so that she didn't need Alto. She'd learned then that she'd been lying to herself all along. Once she'd been able to escape back to her private quarters, she'd collapsed and fallen apart. Her pillow had been soaked with her sobs, muffling them so that when her friends had called on her later they hadn't heard her. Later, after most of the baron's guests and staff had gone to sleep, she'd stolen away to the small chapel for Leander. Aleena had spent the rest of the night there in prayer.

  "Are you coming?" Celos asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

  Aleena gasped and then offered a smile. He studied her for a moment, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "I was just remembering the last time we were here, after the battle."

  Celos grunted. "A time of celebration and one of grieving," he said, nodding.

  Aleena smiled. It was, but she'd grieved for so much more. Alto had been her first real love. Not some childish fantasy or infatuation, she'd given her heart to him. She'd tried to give him her body, too; she'd heard the other serving women tell of how they'd snared a husband and thought it was the way of things. He'd put her off but he'd done it in such a way that she was all the more enamored with him. He said he wouldn't do such a thing until marriage. She'd taken that to mean she was his already.

  It wasn't until she spent the night in prayer that she realized she'd been wrong all along. He'd never been hers, but he'd never come out and told her that he was either. She'd rededicated herself to Leander that night and begged for forgiveness for lying to herself, as well as asking for strength in always embracing the truth.

  "I loved him," Patrina blurted out.

  Celos turned and stared back at her. "I'm sorry?" he said, confused. "The baron is ready for us."

  Aleena nodded. "Okay, but I just wanted you to know that I was a fool."

  "I never doubted," Celos responded. He started to turn when he frowned and asked, "Why bring it up now?"

  "Bring what up? That I was a fool or that I loved him?"

  Celos's face paled and his jaw twitched. He connected the two statements together and said, "Oh, I see. Come, we must meet with the baron."

  "Celos!" Aleena snapped as he turned to walk into the noble
's court. He stiffened and waited. "I'll always love him; I can't help it. He was my first."

  "You're not a maiden?" Celos spun on her and hissed.

  "No—I mean yes, I am a maiden."

  "Which is it?"

  "Yes, I am. I meant he was my first love. The first boy I gave my heart to."

  Celos snorted and turned away. "Come," he barked.

  Aleena nodded and fell in beside him. They followed a confused aide down a hallway. The aide paused at a door and was about to open it when Celos asked, "Why tell me?"

  "I want to be honest. With myself. With you. With everyone."

  "Such is Leander's w—"

  "It's my way," Aleena interrupted. "You and I are companions. We travel together. We train together. We fight together. We've bled together. We were squires once and then knights. Now we are paladins. Together. You and I are brother and sister in so many ways. I want you to know how important you are to me. I made a mistake of not being understood and of not understanding before. I won't make it again."

  She nodded to the aide when Celos stood stiffly with his head turned to stare at her. The aide pulled the door back and Celos snapped his head back to stare into the court.

  "Come, brother," Aleena whispered before she strode forward into the room. Celos was less than half a step behind her.

  Tristam rose from his table and held out his arms. "Sir Celos and, oh, what's this? Um, Aleena, I see you wear the same rank as Celos, but I don't know what to call you."

  Aleena blushed and curtsied. "Dame, my lord."

  "Dame Aleena." He chuckled. "Well, congratulations, young lady. I know enough of the abuse you put up with back at the Foaming Mug. You deserve it!"

  Aleena blushed again and fell silent.

  "Baron, we've come because of the troubling news in the mountains," Celos said with steel in his voice.

  Tristam's smile melted away. He sighed and sat down stiffly, favoring the hip he'd injured in his final battle as the leader of the Blades of Leander. "With the dragon dead, someone else has rushed in to fill her place."