The Dragon's Rose Read online

  The blond man who’d secured her from the burly jailer gestured and then spat something rough to Bella, and she surmised that he wanted her to climb aboard one of the wagons. She hesitated, and he spoke to her again; this time there was no mistaking the threat that lay within his tone. She climbed aboard along with several of his men, and they began to depart.

  Bella looked up into the sky and noticed that there were two suns in the sky. She could only gawk as they continued to ride. She took in other details, noticing that some of the birds flying about in between the trees were strange and fantastic and looked almost identical to the ones described by her mother. Her mind grinded to a halt. She could feel herself on the verge of collapsing, but she was determined to keep it together. Was she really in the world her mother had described? Was any of this even real or was this a product of her imagination?

  Questions circled her mind as the journey continued. The men spoke in hushed tones, and Bella tried hard to decipher what they were saying. She had spent some time interning with a linguistics professor who had a penchant for deciphering ancient, dead languages the summer before and found the language to be some bizarre cross between Gaelic and Old Norse. Her ears perked up as one of the men spoke to her, repeating the same word over and over, holding a flask in one hand.

  Bella realized he was offering her water. She looked around suspiciously but knew that in some cultures in the world, refusing what was offered could be considered an insult. She was sure she was not anywhere on Earth, and she didn’t want to offend any of these strange men. She took the flask and sipped. The water was cool and sweet, far better than the tasteless bottle of water in her knapsack. Before she could stop herself, she was gulping down huge mouthfuls, and the men chuckled. She handed back the flask to the man who had offered it, and he pointed to himself.

  “Frenrir,” he told her, the lilt in his language giving his name a musical quality. “Frenrir,” he repeated, and Bella nodded.

  “Frenrir,” she repeated, and he smiled broadly.

  “Bella,” she told him and pointed to herself. She looked around the wagon, and some of the other men began to point to themselves and speak as well.

  She learned that the wiry, red-haired man to her right was Aidan, the dark-haired and heavily muscled man beside him was Rivak, and the quiet, but intense brown haired man beside Frenrir was Artvus. After the introductions, the men then finished their prior conversation. The wagons moved on down the dirt packed road, and then, finally, there was a break in the trees, and they were moving quickly towards a stone castle in the distance. A moat ran around the perimeter of the castle, and a wood planked bridge ran from the entrance to where the wagons began to cross. Armed men stood at a wrought iron gate. They nodded, and the gate lifted, allowing them to enter. They moved through what looked like a small village square. Children ran up to the wagons, their wide eyes curious and bewildered.

  Some of the women looked at Bella with outright hostility before grabbing their children from around the wagons and disappearing inside small thatched roof cottages. The men of the village looked on with consternation, many of them avoiding eye contact as Bella unabashedly looked around. They entered a courtyard and then finally the walls of the castle. The men began to dismount, and Frenrir helped Bella to step off the wagon and onto the castle grounds.

  Bella paused as she took in the high walls and stone architecture. The inside of the castle was the most impressive and luxurious she had ever seen. She quietly admired the statues, noticing that many of them depicted dragons and men with wings. The blond man who had bargained for her freedom came before her, his eyes hard and assessing.

  “You will go with her,” he told her in a heavily-accented English. Shocked, Bella opened her mouth and closed it a few times, looking like a beached fish before she found her voice.

  “You speak English?” Bella asked him, and he nodded curtly before gesturing to a young girl dressed in a long woolen dress decorated with colorful beads and a dragon design.

  “Go with her,” he repeated, and the young girl came forth, her head bowed as she dipped low into a curtsy.

  “I am Hildevar.”

  Bella looked over at the retreating back of the blond man as anger swept through her. She was just expected to do what he says?

  “What is your name? Why am I here?” she called out, and the man turned. Hildevar gasped and stepped back, a flush of red coloring her skin, and Bella crossed her arms defiantly.

  “I need answers,” Bella asserted.

  The man chuckled humorlessly. “I am Rogan, and you will only get the answers I choose to give.”

  “I want to know what you plan to do with me!” Bella exclaimed, and the men around them stepped back and whispered to each other in surprised tones, their faces lined with astonishment and stupefaction.

  “You will be my wife. You will carry my bairn,” Rogan replied.

  “What?!” Bella squeaked. “No. Just no!”

  “You have no choice, lass,” he told her. “It has been written in the stars long before you were born. I donna want this either. But we must make the best of it.”

  “I don’t understand. I can’t be your wife! I just started college. I don’t want to be anyone’s wife right now. Maybe never!”

  “I do not know what this ‘college’ is, but you will fulfill the promise made by your people.”

  “People?!” Bella shouted. “What the hell does that even mean? What people? I don’t have a people!”

  “The La’Draiochta are your people. It was their magic that created the promise.”

  Bella shook her head. “I don’t know anything about that. Please! Just let me go home.”

  “This is your home now,” Rogan told her coldly and began walking away.

  “No. Stop! Rogan! I’m not who you think I am!” she yelled, and Rogan continued to ignore her as he began to talk to his men gathered about and they started to depart. Bella felt a wave of fury rise within her. How dare he! she fumed. She took one last look around and then made a break for it. She then found herself frozen in place, unable to move.

  Hildevar came to stand in front of her. “I am very sorry to do this to you, my lady. But you cannot run away. It is against the promise.”

  A few other women came out and surrounded Bella. They lifted her up and carried her down a long, dimly lit hallway to a chamber off the main corridor that was bisected by two tall and ornately carved doors. The doors were opened by women on the other side, and Hildevar and the others carried Bella in. Bella’s eyes were the only parts of her capable of movement, and they spit pure fury as she was quickly ushered in.

  The women sat her before a mirror and then moved away. Whatever hold Hildevar had on her was released, and Bella face-planted before slowly getting up. She groaned and looked at Hildevar in anger. The young woman hid her face and bowed her head.

  “Please donna be angry,” Hildevar pleaded, and Bella huffed and got to her feet.

  “Someone needs to tell me what’s going on, and they need to do it now!” Bella exclaimed, and the women in the room gasped.

  She could hear their twitters and snatches of conversation as they whispered and talked about her.

  “How can this be our future queen?”

  “She is loud and vulgar. Are all La’Draiochta this way?”

  “What clothing does she wear? It is indecent!”

  Hildevar glared at those around her as her previous submissive demeanor seemed to melt away.

  “Enough!” she yelled. “Go about your duties. I will call you when she has been prepared.”

  The women stopped talking and stepped back, their eyes downcast as they nodded and walked away. After they left, Hildevar raised her blue eyes to Bella’s own green-eyed gaze and shot her a weary look.

  “You are not what I expected,” Hildevar told her, and Bella furrowed her brow. The two women examined each other with open curiosity, and it was Bella who broke the ensuing silence.

  “Where am I?”
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br />   Hildevar seemed caught off-guard. “You do not know where you are?”

  Bella shook her head.

  “You are in Hasgard. In the Dragon lands.”

  “Dragon lands?”

  “Yes,” Hildevar answered.

  “As in….real dragons?” Bella said, and Hildevar began to laugh. When she caught Bella’s confused expression, she stopped.

  “You have not been told about our people?”

  Bella shook her head, and Hildevar said something that Bella was sure was a series of bad, NSFW words.

  “What about your people?” Bella asked.

  “Are you not La’Draiochta?” Hildevar asked, and Bella shook her head.

  “As far as I know, I’m….American.”

  “The promise states that the one shall come, and she shall have hair as dark as night, eyes as green as grass, and she shall speak not the language of the people, and she shall be of the lineage of La’Draiochta and carry the strange workings of her people with her. She will unite the dragon clans and the others in marriage.”

  Bella sighed. “Well this is all news to me. And besides, how do you all know this is about me? There are probably tons of people with black hair and green eyes--”

  “Green eyes are not seen in this world. It is beyond rare.”

  “What?” Bella spurted in disbelief, “No one here has green eyes? Like no one? There are lots of people I’ve known with green eyes.”

  “Perhaps, if what you say is true and you are from another place--,”

  Bella wanted to stomp in frustration. “I am!”

  “Well, if that is the case…” Hildevar continued, “It may be common there. It is not common here. You must also have someone in your family from this world or you would not be here.”

  “I think my mother was from this world. I don’t know how or why she left, but I think—I think this was her home.”

  “And did not your mother prepare you? Did she not tell you of your duty?”

  “My mother died when I was five.”

  Hildevar made a noise in her throat and threw Bella a look of sympathy. “I am sorry. Every bairn needs their mother.”

  Bella shrugged. “I had my aunt and uncle, so it was okay. Speaking of which, I can’t stay here. I do need to return to them.”

  Hildevar shook her head. “They are welcome to come here and live in the castle with you, but you cannot leave. We have yet to fulfill the bargain.”

  “I can’t just tell my aunt and uncle to leave their home and come here! They’re not even on this planet or wherever this is! They are back on Earth. And when they see that I am missing, they are going to lose their minds!”

  “I cannot help you.”

  “I. Have. A. Family,” Bella emphasized, and Hildevar shook her head sadly.

  “Perhaps I can reach them with a scrying bowl…”

  Bella shook her head. “I have to get out of here,” she stated and began to look for an escape, only to be blocked once again by Hildevar.

  “So you’re going freeze me again?” Bella said. “How did you do that, anyway?”

  “A simple enchantment charm. Most children learn it before they are ten summers. It keeps our livestock from going astray.”

  Bella rolled her eyes and then swiveled her head towards Hildevar. “You used a livestock charm on me?!” Bella said enraged. “I. Am. LEAVING!”

  Before Bella could reach the doors, it seemed a wall of—something sprang up before her, invisible but strong and as solid as brick.

  “I cannot let you leave.”

  “So I’m supposed to just get married and start having babies in a world I don’t understand?” Bella snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m not doing it.”

  Hildevar sighed in defeat and traipsed past Bella.

  “I will let you think about your situation. I will return soon.”

  Stuck behind the invisible wall, Bella ranted and beat ineffectively at the barrier.

  “Where are you going?! Let me go!” she exclaimed. Hildevar rushed out of the room, and Bella sighed. She threw herself on a chair in a huff. She tried to calm down and think rationally. It looked as if she was stuck there for the time being. But how did she even get here? She then thought back to the strange wave of dizziness she had back at her aunt and uncle’s house. Did she step into some kind of rift? Was she experiencing some type of drug-induced hallucination?

  She quickly dismissed both thoughts. Something was tickling the back of her mind, and she began to think back further. She remembered walking around the house, going to the attic and finding—the necklace! She reached inside her shirt and found that the necklace was still resting against her skin. It felt warm against her hand as she gripped it. She took the necklace from around her neck and began examining it. It was pulsing with a soft, strange light.

  She found herself rubbing the filigree, her thumbs and fingers seemingly memorizing the feel of the necklace against her hand, an action that was somehow soothing. There was something almost sentient about the necklace. Bella was lost in thought, her mind stumbling over her predicament, when the necklace became hot to the touch. She yelped and dropped it onto the hard, cool floor. It shook and then a mist rose from within it.

  Bella could only stare aghast as the mist took the form of a woman: a dark-haired beauty with eyes flecked with hues of yellow and combined with soft, deep shades of brown. The woman wore a gauzy, white billowy gown and looked back at Bella with an expression of awe and wonder. Bella stared at the woman in recognition. The woman was her mother.

  *

  The ghostly figure hovered over the ground, its image flickering every now and again and casting no shadow upon the floor. Looking upon her mother’s visage made something inside Bella ache. She had never realized how much she had missed her mother until that moment. The figure looked down at Bella with something akin to love, and Bella nearly burst into tears. Instead, Bella looked steadily into the figure’s gaze, and the figure smiled softly.

  “Hello, daughter,” the figure said, and Bella narrowed her eyes.

  “You look like my mother, but are you really her? How is that even possible?”

  The figure laughed. “I see your aunt and uncle have done a great job raising you to be skeptical. I suppose that’s what you needed. I gave you too much whimsy, my love.”

  Bella blinked up at the woman with an expression of shock, awe and suspicion. “My mother died when I was five. How would you know anything about who raised me?”

  The figure laughed. “I am just a shadow of who your mother was. A sliver, really. I suppose I am your mother and yet I am not.”

  Bella shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “It does. You just have to have to not try so hard to see it that way.”

  It was the type of thing Bella had heard her mother say often as a small child, and she looked up at the figure, baffled and dazed.

  “I know all the things your mother knew and things that have occurred to you up until this moment. This is a special kind of magic, an insurance against interlopers misdirecting an orphaned child. As a soul shadow, I have been tasked to give you guidance at a critical juncture. You have need of me, child.”

  Bella blinked rapidly a few times and felt her breath leave her for a moment, and she wheezed.

  “Don’t fret now, child. You’re here in the world of your mother’s—well, my birth as well, I suppose.”

  Bella shook her head. “Why haven’t I seen you before? All those times…all those times I cried for my mother--,”

  The figure inclined her head sadly. “I was enshrouded in the necklace. Your mother--” the figure laughed a bit uncomfortably, “Well, it was I, really. This is a bit confusing, I know. I didn’t want you to be obligated. I wanted so much for you to live your life. I hid the necklace and wanted you to be free. See, long ago, my family…YOUR family promised a bride to the dragon clan in exchange for peace between our peoples. I don’t believe anyone from our family thought such a promise would be clai
med as there is so much animosity between our peoples, and the dragons at the time were plentiful in number. But for centuries, their numbers have been dwindling, and for all of our differences, we are--,”

  “Let me guess, we are compatible,” Bella sighed, and the figure nodded.

  “Yes, we are. We can reproduce just the same with each other as within our respective groups. The promise became active sometime during my childhood. I thought I would be the one to be promised but found that it would be any girl child I gave birth to. I did the cowardly thing and ran. I ran to Earth and never looked back. I am sorry that this is your lot.”

  Bella rubbed her head which had begun to ache. “So, let me get this straight. My family made some kind of pact centuries ago with the dragons that included marrying out if their numbers ever dwindled, which they did. I also come from a long line of magical humans.”

  “Yes, and beware, my child. Though most humans here despise the dragons more than any other kind, our kind, the La’Draiochta, have a tenuous relationship with the people here. We protect other humans, so we are needed, but we use magic, so we are feared. It is quite ironic that we are constantly at war with dragons, considering how comfortable they are with magic and how they accept it.”

  “I have a life! I have college, I have my aunt and uncle….I don’t want to get married. I don’t want to have children that will be the product of something made up hundreds of years ago. Why can’t you just tell me how to open up a portal, and I can leave?”

  “My love, believe me, I would love to do so. But I cannot. Now that you are here, the promise is binding. It will find you wherever you are and yank you here. There is no escape. The promise must be fulfilled. I underestimated the magic involved. I thought I’d be able to hide away your birthright and you’d be safe. But magic always finds a way. I am so very sorry, my love.”

  “So that’s it?! No school? No life? Just here to be some kind of—breeder for a species of beings I know nothing about?! No, I refuse.”

  “Child, there is no running from this. You are dragon clan now. Learn all you can from them, and one day, when you have earned their trust, perhaps you can visit Earth again--,”