The Crowns' Accord: Keeper of Dragons, #4

The Keeper of Dragons

Book 4

The Crowns’ Accord

J.A. Culican

Copyright © 2018 by J.A. Culican

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written consent from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. Trademark names appear throughout this book. Rather than trademark name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

The characters, locations, and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities or resemblance to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Edited by: Cassidy Taylor

Cover Art by: Christian Bentulan

www.dragonrealmpress.com

For my eldest daughter, Julianna and her wish to share bedtime stories of dragons and adventures with all.

Chapter One

I dove into the lake, slicing through the calm water. The coolness was refreshing, and I swallowed a few big mouthfuls because my throat was dry and raw from all the shouting during combat training.

Coming up for air, I looked across the field to make sure the Mere Blade was still leaning against a nearby rock in its scabbard. The wondrous sword the mermaids had let me use would cut through almost anything just like butter. That included the training swords, so for training, I had to use a normal training blade. We weren’t trying to kill anyone, after all.

As I slogged out of the lake, water streaming off of me and dripping from my clothes, I used my hands to wipe as much water as I could out of my hair. My mop had started out shaggy and was now actually getting long. I had decided to let it grow out so I could eventually put it in a ponytail. Eva told me she thought it would look good on me, and I trusted my best friend's judgment.

Dirt and sand clung to my feet as I slid them into my sandals, but they’d dry out soon and be easy to clean. Eva stood on the lakeshore, watching me. She had an amused smirk on her face. Sometimes I think you're turning into a mermaid. If you spent as much time training as you did swimming, maybe you wouldn't be so clumsy with your sword.

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Haha. Just because you'll only go swimming when Cairo is in the water doesn't mean you enjoy it any less than me. Speaking of Cairo, where is your Vera Salit? I saw he and Jericho left halfway through the morning session, but I didn't see them come back."

Eva looked around as if only noticing for the first time that Cairo was gone. I didn’t buy her act. With those eagle eyes of hers, she knew where Cairo was all the time. She replied, Probably helping the Elves rebuild Paraiso. I'm so glad the Elves are back, and they've been treating us a lot better since we rescued them from Eldrick.

I shuddered, and it wasn't from the cool breeze blowing across my wet skin. I wondered if his name would ever stop having that effect on me. Thankfully, there hasn't been any sign of him these past few weeks, ever since the battle at the castle in Alaska. I hope we never see him again.

I hope so, too, she said, handing me a towel. But none of the scouts have seen Eldrick, or the Dark Elves and Elden, or even the Carnites he recruited. Not even the Realm Two scouts have seen them, and I think that if they were anywhere to be found, Realm Two dragons would be the ones to find them.

I looked up at the sun. There was a large gap in the Congo’s jungle canopy around the lake. I looked back at Eva and said, Maybe our break is about to end. Let's go find Jericho and see what he wants us to do. I know we were supposed to help out with some of the rebuilding today, but you know. And like you said, maybe Cairo is with him.

Eva smiled. Of course, she knew where he was, but I played along and smiled back. Yes, they change our routine every day, usually so we can do more training. I don't know about you, but I would rather rebuild than beat each other up some more. Those sticks hurt.

I was totally on board with that. I was covered in bruises which I hadn't bothered to use my mahier to heal yet. I headed across the training field and grabbed the Mere Blade on my way. Eva followed. I slung the sword over my shoulder and then Eva and I walked together into Paraiso. The Elven capital had been the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and it would be again, someday.

We went to the treehouse everyone had just sort of agreed would be the headquarters for all the building projects. It wouldn't take long for the Elves to regrow their city, but it wouldn’t happen overnight, not when it had been torn up so badly by Eldrick’s troops. At least the Elves’ magic wards were back up, so we didn't have to worry about any wandering humans anymore, or even about enemies finding the place. Okay, that wasn't really true—I still worried about it, but at least we were in less danger of it now that the wards were up again.

When we got to the HQ, I spotted Jericho and Cairo talking with Gaber, Prince of the Elves. Those two had pretty much hated each other since long before I was born, partly because the dragons had abandoned them once and partly because of the thing between Jericho and Clara.

The war had brought them together, and gone a long way toward healing old wounds. Yay for them. I had new wounds to make up for them.

Eva bolted ahead of me and skidded to a stop near Jericho. She stood by quietly, grinning and waiting for him to finish talking. That gave me a chance to catch up—the last thing I wanted to do was more exercise after that last training session.

As I stepped up next to Eva, I heard Jericho say, You're absolutely right. He should have made a move by now.

Gaber replied, I know Eldrick better than anyone, though I hate the fact that he’s my brother. If he hasn't made a move by now, and he's laying low so well that even dragons can't find his trail, it means he's planning something big.

Jericho's red eyes flared a little brighter, and puffs of smoke left his nose. I could always tell when he was mad, and so could everyone else.

Eva took advantage of the short pause in their conversation. Is there anything we can do to help right now?

I cringed a little because when he was puffing smoke like that, it was best to let him talk to you first. His head whipped toward Eva and he snarled. Eva didn't cringe like I had, but then again, she never looked afraid of anything.

In Aprella’s name, what are you two doing standing around? Jericho snapped. We don't have time for this laziness. If you had fought the war as slow as you are moving today, we would all be saluting our new king, Eldrick.

I didn't think he was being fair to her, and before I could stop myself, I blurted, She's not the one you're mad at. When he looked at me, eyes flaring again, I added, We aren't lazy, we came to find out what we should be doing. It's time to help rebuild Paraiso, right?

Jericho's eyes flared brighter for an instant, but I didn't back down. That was new for me because before the war, I was afraid when he was talking to me, much less mad at me. He could still be dangerous, but not to me, I had learned. He wouldn't do anything to harm the Keeper of Dragons.

He interrupted my thoughts, yelling, Why don't you exercise something other than your mouth, for once? Besides, you trying to help around here does more harm than good, clumsy. Let's see how your stamina training has been doing, instead. Both of you, take a five-mile run through the jungle. Hit the obstacle course!

My jaw dropped. He was obviously more upset than I had thought. I tried to apologize, but as soon as I open my mouth, he barked, Do it now!

Okay, maybe things hadn't changed as much as I had thought because before I had a chance to even think about it, I found myself running through Paraiso toward the jungle. My heart was pounding with something suspiciously like fear.

Eva was only a couple steps behind me as we made our way through the trees lined with their once-gorgeous treehouses, and headed toward the thicker, wild jungle outside of the Elves’ capital. Once we burst through the tree line, we had to slow a little bit because the going got harder. It didn't take long to feel hot again, and I soon had little beads of sweat building on my forehead.

We got to the beginning of the obstacle course a few minutes later that marked the start of our five-mile run. The O-Course was a marked path through the jungle that took us across all sorts of terrain. We’d have to jump, duck, vault over things, swim across a big stream, go up and down rocky hills that were more like giant boulders than hills, all while trying not to twist my ankle by catching it in a root or running over the uneven ground. Every time a tree fell, it tore the root ball up and left a hole, and the torn-up root ball slowly broke down and gathered dirt to become a little mound. The jungle was full of these pits and mounds, and if we weren’t careful, it was easy to twist an ankle. The day before, I miraculously avoided twisting my ankle, but Eva had to limp back to Paraiso and get healed. It all added up to make the O-course run my least favorite training exercise of all time.

Breathing heavily, I asked Eva, Why don't we just summon our dragons and fly over all this? We shouldn't even waste our time with the course. We'll never use this training, not when we can fly.

Panting, Eva said, You remember the time we had to fly all the way to Ochana, right? Remember how wiped out we were after that trip? Stop complaining and start running faster, Cole! She took off, pulling ahead.

I didn't speed up, though. It wasn’t worth limping back to Paraiso.

After a few minutes, even though I was jumping and climbing over obstacles, my mind wandered and I fell into kind of a trance just listening to my own steady breathing like Jericho had taught us. He said it made it easier to run farther, but I still felt just as tired.

I almost ran into Eva as I came around a bend. She stood in the middle of the trail. I stopped and put my hands on my knees while I sucked in as much air as I could. What... What's up? I gasped.

She didn't reply, and I noticed she was staring at something with her mouth open.

I turned to see what she was looking at, and then I froze, too. Far ahead of us, the dimly-lit jungle grew darker, but it wasn’t the light that did it. The Congo had become black in patches. The farther back I looked, the thicker the patches became. Even the trees were blackened. Around the spot’s edges, bright green leaves weren't as bright, like someone had mixed gray into their colors. I stared for half a minute, and even as I watched, I could see the green-gray plants turning grayer.

In a whisper, Eva said, It's like they've been burned. They're getting burned without any fire, Cole. I could hear a rising uneasiness in her voice.

I understood the feeling. A shiver ran down my spine, and every instinct told me to run away. It broke my heart to see the beautiful jungle blackening right in front of my eyes. The Congo was starting to die all around us. It was happening even faster than we had thought.

I spit into the dirt and cursed Eldrick's name. Come on, we have to go warn the others.

Chapter Two

Without a word, Eva and I both leaped into the air together, shifting into our dragons. We flew back to Paraiso as fast as we could. I scanned as far as I could feel with my mahier. In every black area, I couldn't feel anything with my senses. Actually, it wasn't that I didn’t feel anything; it was more like I could actually feel the nothing, as if it was something all by itself—something dark and evil. I sensed the jungle's black splotches getting thicker and thicker the farther away I checked, until they grew together into one giant, growing black mass miles away.

When we reached the Elven homeland, Paraiso, we dove. Elves scattered at our sudden appearance. Right before hitting the ground, we shifted into our human forms and landed. As soon as we got our footing, we bolted toward the reconstruction HQ. I figured Jericho would be there since he was putting so much time into helping the Elves. Eva was hot on my tail. When we got close enough to recognize the people standing around the dozens of boards they used to pin up plans and diagrams I didn't understand, I spotted him.

He saw me running toward him and cocked his head, confused. I skidded to a halt right in front of him, panting and ignoring the cloud of dust I kicked up at him.

Jericho put his hand on his sword hilt and looked all around. What's wrong? Did you see a Carnite? I could hear the tension in his voice and wondered if there had been sightings, but that wasn't why we were there.

Eva came to a stop next to me, panting as hard as I was. She shook her head. No. Worse. The black spots we saw on the way to Ochana after the battle for the Alaskan castle. The spots are here. They're in the Congo!

Jericho's eyes went wide. I wasn't used to seeing fear on his face. He turned to another dragon and shouted, Go find Prince Gaber and tell him to set up an emergency meeting. Tell them to bring the Troll king, too. Why are you standing there staring at me? Run!

He turned to face Eva and me. Come with me. This is urgent.

No kidding. That's why Eva and I had rushed back so fast. I didn't argue, though, and we followed him as he stormed across the field. He went so fast, I almost had to run to keep up as he left the training area, heading to the Elven