Free Dragons Lost by Daniel Arenson

again
in his mind, saw Eliana's empty crib. The only family he had ever known—gone. The
pain suddenly stung so badly his eyes dampened, even here with the paladins
scrutinizing him.
    "What do you think, Sir
Actus?" said the tall paladin.
    A shorter, wider man
leaned close, peering at Cade's brand. "The blossom is too narrow. Crudely
done. Might have been performed by a monk with poor tools. Might be a fake."
The squat man turned his head. "Sir Stoen, bring the ilbane! We'll test him."
    Cade forced himself to
grin dumbly, even though his insides roiled and his heart seemed to sink into
his pelvis. "What you paladins testing for? Looking for somebody?"
    A leathery man with
hard eyes, Sir Stoen pulled a bundle of ilbane from his firedrake's saddle and
came walking forward with the leaves. The acrid stench and heat blasted Cade.
    Oh bloody Spirit's
beard . . .
    Heart thudding against
his ribs, Cade leaped into the air and shifted.
    "Weredragon!" the tall
paladin shouted.
    Cade beat his wings
three times, rose only several feet into the air, and spewed down dragonfire.
    The flames crashed down
into the grass and showered back up. The three paladins screamed and fell back,
the flames washing over them. The three firedrakes screeched madly, strings of
saliva quivering between their teeth, and leaped toward Cade.
    He beat his wings
mightily. He soared higher. Two firedrakes slammed into each other below him.
The third blasted up dragonfire.
    Cade swerved.
    The flaming jet crashed
against his tail, and he howled.
    He kept flying, rising
higher. Air roared around him. More dragonfire shrieked, and he swerved again,
dodging a second jet. He flew upward in a straight line, soaring higher and
higher toward the sun. When he glanced behind him, he saw only one firedrake
pursuing; the other two stood on the grass, paladins leaping into their
saddles.
    Cade flipped over in the
sky and swooped.
    He roared, plummeting
down toward the soaring firedrake. Both dragon and drake blasted out flames.
The jets crashed together and exploded in an inferno. Cade kept swooping,
passing through the fire, and bellowed.
    He lashed his claws. He
bit. He tasted blood. The firedrake crashed down below him, and Cade kept
swooping.
    The two other
firedrakes took flight, singed paladins upon them.
    Cade rained down all
the dragonfire remaining in him.
    The paladins burned.
They screamed. Their armor heated, blazing red, and their skin peeled off, and
their flesh melted. Still their firedrakes soared, burning beasts with mad
eyes, blazing men in their saddles.
    Cade flew between them,
whipping his tail. One firedrake's claws cut deeply into his side, and Cade
cried out, and his blood spilled.
    He leveled off just
before hitting the ground and flew eastward. The grasslands burned, the fire
spreading across them. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw only one
firedrake pursuing, a corpse in its saddle. The other two beasts lay in the
burning grass, wounded or dead.
    The creature chasing
him was large and coppery, its wings longer than Cade's, its flight faster. It
was gaining on Cade.
    Spirit damn it, Cade cursed. The firedrake reached out its claws as it flew, grazing Cade's
tail.
    Cade sucked in breath
and released his magic.
    He tumbled down into
the grass as a man.
    The firedrake overshot
him and kept charging forward. Before the beast realized what had happened,
Cade shifted back into a dragon and roared out his flames.
    The jet crashed against
the firedrake. The beast screamed, an almost human sound. Cade leaped forth,
landed on its back, and clawed madly, ripping out scales, and blood spilled.
    The firedrake crashed
down dead beneath him, slamming against the earth.
    Cade flew a few more
feet, then fell to the ground, panting and bleeding. He released his magic. For
long moments he knelt in the grass, breathing raggedly. The fires still blazed
behind him, and the corpses of the firedrakes and paladins burned.
    Again, in only a few
days, he had