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Books by A. J. Gallant

Madman in the Mirror Braeden the Barbarian (New)

Moon Diamond

Dracula: Hearts of Stone

Dracula: Hearts of Fire

Dracula: Hearts of Glory

Dracula: Hearts of Ice (forthcoming)

Knights of the Dragon

Knights of the Wizard

Knight of the Sword

The Saucer Club

CHAPTER ONE

It was ten years after the Great War.

The quietness of a beautiful morning was shattered like a glass bowl falling from a great height, unexpected and frightening. The scent of fear was again in the air, hearts hammered inside of brave chests that refused to flee even though their minds told them that it was the only way to survive. Shields held together tight like rocks on the shore attempting to stop the ocean, shouts of steady men were heard, and many knew that their screams would be their last. Life was fatal and always would be, many people dying long before their allotted time, war often saw to that. It could also take away the reason for living, pushing aside one’s zest for life.

“Brace for impact!”

A flock of black birds flew off as the soldiers approached, the ground shaking with each step, shields being beaten like drums to frighten the enemy but it never worked. Even the victors were certain to lose men, only death truly won in battle. The defending army braced for the assault and prepared to fight to the death because with everything on the line there was no choice, it was do or die. At the very least they would be able to take some of those bastards with them.

“Make them pay!”

Over ten thousand heavily armed soldiers in armour rushed over the hill, screaming their loudest in order to intimidate the smaller army. With their walls breached they had no option but to fight, three thousand against ten, no alternative but to attempt to defend their homes and families against insurmountable odds, against the bloodthirsty invaders. They had come under the influence of a night spell and weren’t seen or heard until the sun rose over the mountains; even the sounds of them gathering weren’t heard.

“Make them regret the day they were born!”

Brave words in battle were often cut short, a sword through one’s gut tended to do that. Man against man was around from the beginning of origin, never a challenge so satisfying than humans pitted against one another. Never was a slaughter so satisfying than against one’s own, sword against sword, dream against dream, but with such advantageous numbers it definitely wasn’t a fair fight. Invaders preferred to have the odds on their side, easier to talk their armies into attacking when one was facing a weaker force.

The day before the battle was always the toughest, not knowing if one would survive, but having to put on a brave face because no one would dare admit that they were frightened. Only in the quietness after midnight did those awful thoughts creep in like a fiend from the forest, raking one’s nerves with several possible outcomes of a grisly death. Being dispatched quickly was one thing but worse would be surviving with no arms or legs and having to endure the agony of a so-called healer, only to succumb in any event. When seriously wounded it was best to close one’s eyes and hope that they wouldn’t be found until death took them. Surviving without limps didn’t happen often but it did happen. Lying on the battlefield badly wounded, hoping that one would die before being brought to a healer for amputation or bloodletting, the best one could hope for was a powerful sorcerer to regrow limbs but even some wizards didn’t know what they were doing when it came to an injured warrior. Rarely did one want to admit that they didn’t know their elbows from their arses.

Swords, spears, crossbows and halberds were the weapons of choice. Behind the attacking army walked a red dragon with a wizard on its back; it had a large leather hood over its head as the sorcerer guided it. The animal was spelled but still appeared to have some conscious desire of its own which was of course a great danger to puny humans. It wasn’t necessary for the wizard to get involved this time as they had more than sufficient numbers to do the job, a slaughter in the making but the sorcerer wanted to watch and besides he was under orders from king Chromos to be on guard just in case Leeander’s wizard attacked them; Adorok was a famous sorcerer indeed. Rumors were that he wandered in this area in defense of his idea of justice, which was different from wizard to wizard, but what they didn’t know was that Adorok was old and failing. The Yurrosy were taught that the strongest deserved to conquer, the weak deserved to die, that it was the way of the world. They had over a hundred thousand slaves that pushed their economy, free labor moved their way of life forward.

Swords clashed against shields under the shadows of Raven castle. The soldiers tried hard to defend their small kingdom from the invaders and battle cries rang out as the Yurrosy army overwhelmed their defenses. Organs were pierced and throats were slashed. The attack had come after a week of placing themselves just out of reach of their arrows; they had thoroughly enjoyed the calm before the tempest. It was satisfying for them to know that the world of their enemies was coming to an end, and to the Yurrosy anyone that didn’t surrender upon their approach was the enemy. And those that did surrender were cowards. The day endured the death of many, a feast for the crows.

Ackley could taste his own blood as a long sword was run through his chest, when the blade was removed the 50-year-old battle tested veteran fell to his knees and toppled over, sacrificing his life valiantly for his family and friends, having managed to take three of the enemy with him. His blood drained quickly like a toppled glass of red wine. One of his son’s took the head of the assailant that had killed his father but then he was also sent off to the land of the dead, losing his head in the process. They desperately needed magic to defend against such odds but they didn’t have it; this day would unfortunately be their last. Arms were severed and hearts were stopped, men screamed until they could scream no more.

Gilda was one of Joshuar’s best women warriors, muscular and adept with a sword. She parried the attacker’s sword and ran hers through his neck and then beat another one back with vicious blows knocking him off his feet and running him through. Gilda had to deflect several brutal blows with her shield before letting the big brute’s own momentum knock him off balance, and then plunged her sword through his heart. He had been furious that a woman had been his equal; in fact she had been his superior. She wasn’t the prettiest but she had the biggest heart on the battlefield, it would be difficult to best her one on one, but such was not the way of war. Seeing her fury and her accomplishments she was simultaneously attacked by five men; she slew three of them before she was finally killed, run through by a broadsword. The odds had been too great. Her death sucked the life out of some but the battle raged on, no time to morn lest they be dispatched as well.

“Kill them all!”

Some women fled with their children as best they could, a few managed to escape but most didn’t. Screams of pain and shouts of bravery filled the air, the sounds of sword on sword and halberds cutting into bodies were harsh, many soldiers were now covered in blood. In less than two hours it was all over; the kingdom of Joshuar had been taken. Any captured soldiers that refused to pledge their allegiance were immediately killed, and all but one had refused. The only one that had agreed to join them was an old man named Lester that could barely walk; they all had a good laugh as he pledged his allegiance. The old fellow managed to wipe the smiles from their faces before his head was taken; he died laughing. He had managed to seriously injure one of their captains and he was happy to be sent off with that knowledge, having observed the look on the captain’s face as he realized his wound was fatal.

All the best weapons were gathered in a pile for inspection; they would be taken with any other valuables that they could find, to be traded when the time was right to kingdoms that were more than a thousand miles to the west. The Yurrosy were all about getting bigger and tougher so that no one would be able to stand up to their might. The Yurrosy king wanted to rule the world before his time was up; he wanted their ways and customs to be the only ways. He saw their victory in dreams and believed that it would be so. They had managed almost a thousand slaves from Joshuar.

For over a week they celebrated their victory even though it had been an unjust battle with the odds overwhelmingly in their favor. On a misty morning with dark heavy clouds overhead Brock went to the wizard Cynric as the sorcerer was feeding several corpses to the red dragon; dragons would never normally eat people but under an enchantment they had no choice. Brock was a merciless leader; he was bald with a scar that went from his left ear to his temple; the long ago wound had gone all the way down to the bone. An infection had set into the gash and he almost died from it; it would have been preferable had he perished, not everyone deserved the life they were given. Brock lost his only son in that battle and even though he now had three they could not make up for the one he had lost; his child Aldore had been a smaller version of his father in many respects.

The Yurrosy were from the dark lands of Jahor; their Kotacdon mountain so high that it limited the amount of daylight with their massive kingdom in its shadow. Winter was always early and spring always late, but the harsh climate had made them tougher than most, and where others would freeze to death they found it invigorating.

“Cynric, we are finished here. Have the dragon burn everything. Nothing is to remain that can be of use to anyone.”

“Yes Lord Brock.”

As the Yurrosy marched off with heavy feet, Cynric took to the back of the dragon and after removing the leather hood they flew off, climbing over the village as his wings cut noisily through the air. The village that had endured for almost a century erupted in flames as the red dragon repeatedly breathed its fire down upon it, wave after wave scorching the earth. The stone castle would be the only thing that remained; the wooden structures burnt rapidly.

There was a saying that the Yurrosy were like locusts with no mercy or honor. They came as bandits in the night, over the years increasing their numbers as they attacked kingdom after kingdom. When the kingdoms finally banded together they initially beat them back to their own borders, but losing so many men that it weakened everyone. Unable to finish them off they left them to lick their wounds but they had become even more powerful over time, setting their sights on small villages until they had fully recovered, but the other kingdoms had also remained damaged and they had not recovered nearly as quickly.

CHAPTER TWO

THE REALM OF LEEANDER was one kingdom in a land of a hundred and one and they knew their time was running out. Word had reached them that the Yurrosy had destroyed Joshuar, which was only about sixty miles to the east. In a way Joshuar had been a sister; they had exchanged food, trade and friendship over the years, and Leeander would have fought alongside them had they known, but the attack came without warning under the cover of magic. Leeander’s first inclination was when they saw the dark smoke rising in the far distance, believing it to be a grass fire caused by lightning but instead it was Joshuar burning. Scouts had reported the attack to Leeander’s King Darius and the destruction of Joshuar, even their castle had been destroyed, most likely by a dark enchantment.

The army of the Yurrosy was huge and growing; they wielded sinister magic and once they set their sights on a kingdom nothing could stop them. They were spreading their seed and getting stronger in the process, proud to kill and conquer. They would now crush any kingdom that showed any signs of uniting, reining fire down upon them from their dragons. King Darius had tried to get the kingdom to unite with several others but his words had fallen on deaf ears, not believing the danger that they posed to everyone. Their wizard was a notorious dragon master. The Yurrosy should have been destroyed when they had the opportunity but one cannot see the future as clear as they can see the past.

Leeander knew that there was only a couple of other realms between them and the Yurrosy, and they would perhaps take some time with them before moving on, consuming everything in Joshuar and taking every single thing of value. Just about everyone knew that the kingdom of Leeander had an invisible shield and a powerful wizard, but were they also aware that his power was fading? They had tried their best to keep the wizard’s failing health a secret but there was no way to know for sure if they had succeeded. It was the way of the world that secrets didn’t remain secret for too long.

The next conquest was uncertain as they had several other choices including Leeander and for king Dorian it was an awful feeling knowing that the end of their world was almost certainly approaching; it weighed heavily on him as if he was pinned under his horse with no escape, now a frequent nightmare. The burden of a king was heavier than most.

The dragon was perched high up on the edge of the cliff and stared down at the four young males that marched on the beach below. They were not quite men yet no longer considered children either; out to test their courage but it was more like a suicide march should they provoke the wrong dragon. And a boy followed them from a distance with his spear. Their bravado might see their skin turned to ashes if they weren’t careful. A lot of dragons considered humans beneath them, not worth their time but they could be moody creatures, especially if one was having a particularly bad day. Each of the four carried a halberd and a shield; three of the shields were round, the other rectangular. They all stopped when they realized that they were being watched, slowly turning and looking way up at the black dragon. “We’re coming for you!” the tallest male shouted, shaking his halberd in the dragon’s direction.

“No, you’re not!” Ryxa shouted back down to them. The dragon blew fire into the air to see if it would frighten them off.

“Yes we are!”

“No, you’re not!”

“Why does the dragon keep saying that?”

The dragon took in a deep breath before exhaling a huge fireball in their direction, not with enough force to burn them but just enough for the heat to singe their hair. The odor of burnt hair was most unpleasant. They were fortunate that she hadn’t given it everything she had, which would have burnt them all to a crisp. It was just a warning to get their attention. She liked humans, finding them peculiar beasts. Some days she enjoyed flying over and perusing them from the sky; it was entertaining to watch their antics, a bit like ants running around in circles. She didn’t like to see them fight but there was usually a skirmish going on somewhere with humans; they didn’t appear to benefit from past mistakes.

The four turned and ran off screaming.

Ten-year-old Marcus had wandered away from the group and was now climbing up the rock face; he had always been a climber it was his talent, there wasn’t much that he couldn’t climb. How many times had he been told to stay off people’s roofs? If someone told him that something was impossible to climb he had to prove them wrong, and just that morning he had been enlightened by Stone that the cliffs where the dragons resided were unachievable, beside the fact that the dragons would eat him. The boy had dropped his spear as he had pursued a foot-long purple dragonfly to the base of the cliff where he had paused and then decided to climb. He was determined to scale the three hundred foot cliff and his cute face showed the stress of it as he climbed. Jagged rock after jagged rock he ascended, making sure not to look down. His small feet and his light weight made it climbable though just barely. His scalp itched under his shoulder length hair but he didn’t dare scratch; he had achieved the halfway point and a fall would now be fatal. Marcus thought that it might not have been such a great idea after all because he had never been frightened before, but now at ten his common sense was rearing its ugly head.

Kai exited the family cave with a mouthful of gold and rock that he had excavated and spat it out on the ground. Her father shook the dust off his head and several pebbles dropped near Ryxa. He wondered what had caught his daughter’s interest as she looked down over the cliff. “Ryxa, what do you see down there?”

“I chased away some humans.”

Kai turned and waddled back into the den to continue his work.

It was then that Marcus pulled himself up onto the top of the cliff and walked straight up to Ryxa and spoke, as if he was talking to a friendly dog instead of a dragon. He had never seen a dragon this close, except for a dead one. “Hello.”

When she turned her head she accidentally hit the boy and sent him flying; he had climbed beside her and she hadn’t noticed. The dragon’s eyes widened with disbelief as the boy got up and dusted himself off. He was uninjured, and that was a good thing. “A human child? How did you get up here?”

“I climbed.”

“That’s impossible.”

“No, I climbed up.”

Again Kai exited the cave with another mouthful of gold and rubble. “What are you doing with that human? Put it back! You don’t know where it’s been.”

Ryxa wasn’t sure what to say, so she opted for the truth. “Father, I didn’t bring him up here. He climbed.”

Kai fixed his eyes on the boy. “Ryxa, don’t be foolish. No human can climb up that cliff. The only way up here is to fly or come up the back road, and that road is always full of dragons. You flew down there and picked him up. I want you to put him back now.” The dragon turned and went back into the dark cave with his fiery eyes lighting the way, all he could think of was what next.

Marcus walked to the edge of the cliff and stared down at the waves that were hitting the beach below. “Un oh.” It looked a lot more difficult going down than going up. In fact it looked impossible. “I don’t think I can get down.”

Ryxa sniffed the boy with such force that he had temporarily stuck to her nose and when she released him he fell on his bottom. She smiled as he got up. “You smell funny. It’s a bloody miracle that you didn’t break your neck getting up here. I guess you’ll just have to live up here and be my pet.”

Prince Marcus was not impressed. “That is not gonna happen!” The boy stared at the dragonfly that had come up the side of the cliff and hovered there, listening intently to the hum of its wings. He wanted to tie a rope to it and watch it fly around like his grandfather had showed him; he turned his attention back to the dragon as it flew out of his reach. “You are so big. I could fit my head in one of your nose holes. My name is Marcus.”

“I’m Ryxa and that’s my father Kai inside the cave. Marcus, how are you going to get back down?” She shook her big dragon head at the thought of the boy falling.

Kai spit out another load of gold and snorted at the sight of the boy. “Ryxa, what did I tell you? Get him out of here! I can smell him from here.”

“We’re just talking.”

Kai snorted and fire shot out of his nose. “Don’t get attached to that thing because they’re all going to be dead soon.”

Ryxa didn’t like the sound of that. What was her father talking about? He wasn’t usually one to exaggerate. “What do you mean?”

“The Yurrosy are coming.”

Ryxa stared at her father and blinked several times. “They have a wizard to protect them. They have a shield. Everyone knows that.”

Kai laughed as he waddled back into his cave. “Some wizard.”

The boy stared at the pile of rocks and gold that was accumulating outside of the cave. “What’s your father doing?”

“He’s making our cave bigger even though you could fit ten dragons in there and we’re only four with my mother and my brother Sulphur. I guess he’s bored.”

Marcus turned and tried to catch the dragonfly that flew up the cliff when a rock gave way under his foot and suddenly he was falling to his death, screaming all the way down until his nose gently touched the rocks; Ryxa caught him and set him down on the beach. The boy was shaking from the fright and feeling sick to his stomach. Death had not come for him this time. “I’m not dead. Not dead.”

The dragon shook her head at his foolhardiness. “Next time you will be. Don’t ever try to climb up there again.”

“You saved me!” Marcus gave the dragon’s leg a big hug, as best he could. He continued to shake as his heart pounded faster than he thought possible. The dragon’s strange hide was almost as hard as rock. “That was so close, so close.”

“I didn’t save you I was coming down here anyway.”

Marcus looked up at her red eyes and he of course didn’t believe her. “No you weren’t.”

“Yes I was.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Yes I was and dragons can’t tell lies.”

Marcus stared at her as his heart finally started to calm down. He imagined the birds scraping his remains off that rock. “Really?”

“No, not really. I just told a lie by telling you that I can’t tell a lie.”

He looked up at the dragon and smiled; she was so big that he was getting a sore neck staring up. He liked her, even before she saved him he liked her. “My father says that people and dragons don’t mix. Why don’t they mix?”

The dragon turned her head and sent a fiery blast against the base of the cliff making the rocks bright red. “I guess we’re big, and you’re too little. Besides we don’t have much in common. You don’t even have fire. And you can’t fly. It must be terrible to not be able to fly.”

“I’m not too little!”

“You fit in my nose hole. Remember?” Ryxa commenced to walk with the boy.

“Oh yeah. Well I might be small for a dragon but I’m not a dragon. I’m big for my age and strong too. Why don’t you come home with me and my father will give you a reward for saving me. My father is king Darius.”

Ryxa liked the sound of that. A reward would be the very best kind of present. “A reward you say? What kinda reward?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Something good.”

Dragons were very curious creatures. What sort of a gift would a human give a dragon? The fact of not knowing what she would get excited her and she could imagine lots of things. Perhaps it would be something to eat? Something sweet? The dragon thought about it and couldn’t resist she simply had to know what her reward would be. That way she could see more humans up close. “Climb on my back and I’ll fly you home.”

She was so big it took Marcus a couple of attempts to climb up, and as he did so he wondered if it was such a good idea. He was both elated and frightened of taking to the air on the back of a dragon. It certainly would be scary up there but when would he ever get another chance. One had to seize upon opportunity when it presented itself. “Dragon, fly straight or I might fall off. And not too fast.”

“Marcus, are you scared of heights?”

“I climbed up that cliff didn’t IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

Ryxa climbed higher and higher and the prince didn’t like being so high. He thought he would love it but all he could think about was falling. He was so scared that he found it difficult to breathe. Marcus closed his eyes tight as the ground moved further and further away but then slowly opened them; first one blue eye and then the other. He thought it wasn’t so bad as long as she didn’t drop him, in fact in was kind of exciting. He doubted that anyone else in the whole world was flying on the back of a dragon. He felt a little like the king of the world way up there.

“I might not catch you next time so hold on tight.”

“It won’t be much of a reward if you bring me home flat like a squashed bug.” Marcus held on tight with both hands grasping under the corner of one of her scales, like holding onto a sharp rock.

The dragon pumped her mighty wings and soon they were so high that he thought that even the dragon would die if it fell from this height. The sound of the dragon’s wings was too loud and was actually hurting Marcus’s ears. They flew so high that everything below looked tiny; he considered that it would take a long time to hit the ground, and that there would be a hell of a lot of screaming before he hit. But what a magnificent view; he was going to be dreaming about this adventure. It must be so wonderful to be a dragon, to be able to fly every single day of their lives. The things they could see and all the places they could visit.

“Ryxa, could you fly to the moon if you wanted?”

“Nope. Once you get so high there’s no air to breathe.”

Marcus wasn’t sure if he believed that. “Where does the air go?”

“I don’t know.”

It didn’t take long for Marcus to realize that he wasn’t being carried home. What was the dragon up to? Maybe she was just pretending to be nice? What if she was going to eat him? One thing was for certain, escape was impossible. He should have listened to Stone because he was right about most things. “This is not the way home!” the boy shouted. “You’re not gonna eat me?”

Ryxa turned her head so she could look at him as she flew. “Of course not. I would have already eaten you by now if I wanted to. Dragons don’t eat people. I just want to show you something.”

Marcus believed her so he was again able to enjoy his situation. He was starting to feel comfortable on the dragons back; in fact he thought he could get used to this. What if his father could see him now on the back of a mighty dragon? He couldn’t wait until he saw their faces as he flew in on her back. When they went through a cloud everything was white and he couldn’t see a thing, when he emerged there was a huge mountain in the distance. “Is that what I think it is?”

Ryxa again turned her head toward the boy. “That’s the dark lands of Jahor and the home of the Yurrosy. See all those caves in the side of the mountain?”

Marcus tried hard but they were just too far away for him to see; they looked more like specks to him. “I don’t see any caves.”

“Well anyway those caves are full of red dragons. It is said that the Yurrosy can control some of them but I wouldn’t let them control me. My father says that red dragons are more susceptible to magic.”

The kingdom and towns were starting to come into view. Marcus was now able to see how they were spread out from the base of the mountain, too many to count. The Yurrosy’s castle seemed scary to him, looked like it had ugly upside down teeth. Was there two castles stuck together? He could also see more than a dozen warriors fighting one another to hone their skills and they were vicious for what he thought was practice. One had run another one through with his sword. “So those are the people that want to kill us? But why?”

“My father says that it’s their nature to kill and conquer, and every kingdom they kill makes them stronger. That’s why they’re so big. He also said that because you people were too stupid to band together to stop them that you deserve your fate, that you should have killed them all when you had the chance. But you guys are lucky because you have a wizard.”

If Ryxa could only see his face now, she would know that the wizard was beyond protecting anyone. Marcus wasn’t supposed to talk about Adorok but couldn’t resist. “Our wizard is sick and old. His magic is not what it used to be. We have a crystal in the village that powers our shield but now it’s weakening and Adorok doesn’t have the strength to power it up. I see all the worried faces. If they get inside the kingdom we’re all gonna be dead.”

That was dreadful news. The dragon considered that Leeander might not survive for much longer and her father was probably right, what a terrible fate for Marcus and his people. Ryxa didn’t want to imagine what would happen to the boy on her back but it wouldn’t be good, if only her dragons would help but they had a rule not to interfere with humans. People lived in their own flightless world and needed to be left to it. She considered Marcus different than a lot of the other humans she had met. He was the first one that was brave enough to get on her back. “How does your shield work?”

“It knocks out anyone that walks through it with evil in their hearts, and they stay knocked out for four days. When they wake up they are too weak to fight from lack of food and so they just wander off and don’t come back. Ryxa, I can see the caves now! How far do they go in?”

The black dragon didn’t like what she was seeing in the distance. “I don’t know. Two dragons are coming at us fast. Hold on tight!”

The acceleration made Marcus scream. The two red dragons were on her quickly, with a huge fireball just missing the both of them; the heat from it catching the boy’s shirt sleeve on fire but he quickly extinguished it. She flew as fast as she could and still felt the flames touch her tail. Ryxa climbed and climbed, leaving one behind but the other managed to follow her. At the angle she was flying Marcus was barely holding on but Ryxa knew she had no choice because he would not survive a direct blast of fire. She turned and they hovered face to face as both her and the red dragon had to rest.

“You invade our space black dragon and now you die!” The red dragon took in a mighty breath and concentrated hard on the kill; it would release super charged fire that could indeed kill Ryxa. But it would only have one chance as it would take days to recharge to be able to repeat the feat, and only some dragons could manage it.

Ryxa grabbed and held the red dragon’s mouth shut, forcing him to swallow his own fire and choking on it, although she didn’t want to kill him she felt that she had no choice. Not being able to expel the fire the red dragon exploded from the inside as pieces of him tumbled down toward the ground below, smoking and smoldering. The other dragon had come up behind her and produced a fiery blast of its own, the boy had no choice but to jump off or be burned alive. His only hope was that Ryxa would once again be fast enough to save his life; he screamed his loudest all the way down.

The red dragon turned and gave her a face full of fire, then rushing him Ryxa kicked him back, and dove for the boy. But he was already too close to the ground and out of reach. Ryxa knew she couldn’t make it to him in time but she flew her fastest anyway.

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A. J. Gallant

F a n t a s y

CHAPTER TWO

A. J. G a l l a n t