Storm Crow

Chapter 1 Jagged black rock blotted out the sun in a tapered monolith. The indomitable Fire Star Toa. A great fiery heart of power disguised as a massive volcano. The deck under his feet rocked in time to the lapping waves, another great heart of power under Alegan’s feet, one he couldn’t harness to his will. In a way, it would’ve been easier if he were a water mage, a Runner, instead of a Fire Dancer. The Vensalin Ocean was vast and simple to access, and he only had to dip his toes in the water at any part of the coast. Less dangerous too, if he was honest. This was madness, from top to bottom. But that empty pit in his soul pushed him on. Orders volleyed around him as the ship captain made for the sturdy docks in the cove they sailed for. As Alegan understood the layout of the island, one of four Fire Stars clustered together, the sole village on Toa lay to the west of the volcano, and they had built the miniscule port far away from them in a northern cove for quarantine purposes. It was a good strategy, but it served his purposes in a beautiful fashion. No one would notice when he slipped away. A rumble made him turn and glance over his shoulder. Graynight huffed out a thin stream of sulfurous smoke from the corners of his mouth, flint gray eyes darting between Toa and Alegan. “So, you really plan to carry through with this insanity?” Somehow, without any intention to do so, Alegan had made a friend of the dragon in front of him. They had sailed from Rethkrul together, Graynight on an errand to Aelcua for a visit with family. On their first night at sea, underneath the vivid stars and black sky, Graynight had found him huddled and miserable on the ship’s bow. He had asked Alegan why he wore a cloak of chrysanthemums, of sorrow and death. The whole sorry tale spilled out of him in a rush, and Graynight had kept his company since. “I’ve come too far to back out now, Graynight.” Alegan offered a grim smile, tinged with real humor at the edges, and turned his eyes back to the looming Star. “And I feel something good about to happen here. I can’t explain it better.” Graynight snorted, hot tendrils becoming thicker for a second. The dragon’s voice was always a surprise to hear. Nasal and midrange, but it also held a hint of a purr. Alegan put it down to the natural rumble his creature form had, if he’d ever been treated to the sight. “I see. You are, of course, expected to come see me if you survive this mad venture, am I understood?” “If?” Alegan twisted around so he faced his friend full on. The faint red pattern of scales peeking around his coarse travelling clothes blended in with newly sea-weathered skin and it gave Graynight a rough look about the edges. The dragon was pretty stout, unlike the twiggy height of most dragons wearing a human form. The temptation to ask about Graynight’s other shape itched in the back of his mind, but Alegan crushed it under his metaphorical boot. Such questions were unbelievably rude. Graynight’s eyes wandered from Alegan to the great height behind him. “A warning, Mage. We dragons know the burning heart of the world and its power. You want to capture that heart and use it, where not even the Gods would dare. If is the very best I can offer when it comes to the chances of your survival.” The numbness around his soul dissipated for a second, and he shivered. Alegan hitched a bittersweet smile on his face, though the dragon’s eyes weren’t on him. “Better I die in a failed attempt, than continue on without them.” “I don’t understand,” Graynight conceded as he focused back on Alegan, “but I wish you luck all the same. You need all I can spare.” “Don’t I know it?” The smile firmed into something a little more genuine. A shudder ran through the old wood beneath their feet. Graynight grinned, sharp fangs bright in the morning light. “We’ve made port. Good.” Alegan smiled, happy for his friend. Since becoming acquainted, Alegan learned about Graynight’s annual pilgrimage to the Fire Stars. A small cadre of dragons guarded the people on the islands, though they kept out of sight unless there was danger. Both the people and the dragons were happy with the arrangement, but it was Graynight’s duty, as the elected leader of Eyrie and its various non-humanoid inhabitants, to make sure the Fire Star dragons fulfilled their end of the treaty. It also gave him a chance to take back requests for aid and supplies outside of the normal and emergency shipments. The little things, after all, mattered to the comfort of anyone so far away from home. The captain called out the final orders to drop anchor and tie off the lines. Alegan stepped forward with his hand out toward Graynight. His friend met him with a huge hand of his own and engulfed Alegan’s. They didn’t need any words after a month together at sea, despite the calm trip. Graynight turned away once he dropped Alegan’s hand and disappeared below deck by way of the stairs splitting the center of the ship. He took one last look at the old ship that had brought him, sturdy yet it creaked with every slight breeze, and sighed. Alegan would miss the days he’d spent on the water. Though surrounded by the anathema of his innate power, it was a calm sort of life. Maybe he would return to it, after his task was done, if he succeeded. Gods, he hoped this worked. There was nothing left for him if it didn’t. He swung his pack up onto his shoulders and stepped onto the damp wooden dock. Other passengers and crew disembarked around him, so he went with the flow all the way into the ramshackle collection of buildings set up for temporary housing while quarantine was in effect. The whole area was less than the space the Osairan palace sat on. In a few minutes, Alegan was on the far side of the buildings, no one else within a stone’s throw of him. He took a quick glance around in a circle and slipped between two structures. A field of lush grass and stunted trees spread out in front of him. Toa cast its shadow to the sea west of him, where the village was supposed to stand. The water boomed and broke the peaceful air with its massive voice. Alegan’s heart settled in his chest and the sense of rightness shook a little more of the numb feeling out of his bones. This was where he was supposed to be. The volcano itself was a giant, there was absolutely no doubt of that, but the incline was a gentle swell for most of the climb. The last quarter was jagged, broken open like an egg split close to the top. A rough river of pumice and black glass, ribbon thin in the landscape, ran down the slope of the mountain toward the ocean, close to the port. It looked old. Alegan picked his way through the foliage. The rock stood out as the only real path up the mountain and once he reached it, he laid his hands on the cool surface. A thrum of power swirled and eddied under the reflective surface. He dropped his pack in the damp earth and sat down, senses closed to all but the fiery thread in the obsidian. It was beautiful and warm, shifting like a flame trapped under glass. He didn’t grab at the flickering strand, but eased his mind along it, magic drawn to its source. Trees and leaves and green whipped by as Alegan sped up the power’s current, until he came to the hole in the ground, glowing like a ruby in sunlight. Perfect and just above the tree line, if he had to guess. A day’s walk at the most. The current carried him back down in a tumbling rush. An urge to chuckle came over him from some deep corner of his heart. He loved magic, in any form. The rush and flow and eddies and pools of energy were found all over, not just inside mages. So far, in every concentration Alegan had found in his life, the power was warm and playful; the stream of volcanic power he was immersed in was no different. Graynight was wrong. There was no dangerous power here. And it certainly wasn’t going to hurt him. Alegan teased his mind out of the magic he’d ridden and stood, pack settled in place on his shoulders. The walk up looked a little daunting, though. A day of hiking over a mountain, no matter how gentle it seemed, was going to exhaust him. Another day waiting to finish what he’d come to do was both depressing and no time at all. Besides, he couldn’t do such delicate spell work in the dark. One foot in front of the other, Alegan started up the natural road he had found with one goal. The world around him faded away.