Page 77 of Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic

It made sense that he would be worried about her safety. She understood it now, after having seen him hurt. Despite hating what she was about to ask, she figured perhaps it could be a temporary solution. “Do you want to go to the Ancient City without me? But then take me back to Umbraar.”

His eyes were lost in the distance. “I don’t want to go. I just don’t want to return to the Ancient City.” He looked at her. “It might be that I’m afraid of going to the place where I went through the worst moments of my life. And yet, in truth, I’ve always wanted to return, to be accepted again. Helping them, that could be my opportunity.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Of course we need to go to the Ancient City. I mean… That’s the only place where I can find answers. We also need to help the fae there. And I need you to speak with my sister, it’s quite urgent.”

It was sweet to see River being honest about his fear and vulnerability. She couldn’t imagine all that he had gone through with his father, but the little she had witnessed had to be traumatizing. “Our magic will work together. And maybe it heals not only physical wounds.” She turned to the house. “I’ll get dressed.”

15

Battle in the Sky

Fel stared at the battle ahead of him—and noticed a dragon falling down to the ocean. Was it a friend? An enemy?

Large wings flapped near him. Expecting an enemy, Fel got his fire ready, but before he saw the dragon, he heard her voice. Tzaria.

“Follow me. You need to get out of here.”

“And leave them?”

“You need to hide,” she insisted.

It didn’t make sense that she wasn’t going to help, that Fel wasn’t expected to help, but for some reason her insistence made him follow her, flying close to the mountain and around it, so that they would soon be on the other side—away from the battle.

From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the sheen of green scales, and recognized a dragon—his cousin, fighting two enemies.

Fel turned. He was going to help him—but then something moved on top of him. A blast of fire, coming from above. He barely dodged it, and felt his wings flapping more slowly. When he looked up, she saw a red dragon, wearing armor, falling on the sea.

“You need to get out of here!” Tzaria’s thought was a desperate yell.

Meanwhile, Fel paused. That armor… Fel could feel it, could sense it. Some of his iron magic was returning. Perhaps seeing the First Dragon Mage hadn’t been useless after all, or perhaps he was more used to being a dragon and could connect to his ironbringing.

Instead of trusting his physical senses, he closed his eyes, trying to feel more of those metal armors. Only the Boundless wore them, so he would be able to find them.

He felt a faint trace of iron to his right, below him, somewhat far away. Focusing on the metal, he forced all the pieces to get closer and closer together. When he opened his eyes, he saw a dragon falling, strangled by his own armor. Fighting in the air was very different from everything he knew about battle, since he had to pay attention to three dimensions at the same time. It wasn’t just a matter of covering all sides, but also up and down.

The iron was here and there, but so far… He dove to help his cousin. This time he just moved the metal armors so that the Boundless near him were pushed down to the water. When two more enemy dragons approached him, he pushed them away. One of them hit the mountain, while the other turned and attacked him again.

Something then stirred in the air. For a moment, he felt as if the enemy dragons had paused—then he felt all eyes on him, both from the enemy and the friendly dragons.

Five Boundless rushed onto him, and he pushed them all away. More and more were approaching—from all sides, below, above. There were too many for him to focus on one at a time and strangle them, so all he was doing was pushing them away from him. A couple of fire blasts came in his direction, and he was able to dodge them. There were too many dragons—some thirty at least—around him.

Some of the other dragons were trying to help him, but it didn’t change the fact that all the Boundless were focused on Fel.

His iron magic was strong, but he wasn’t sure it would be enough to fight them all. Perhaps throwing them against each other could work. He moved one dragon sideways, and made it hit his companions. But as he did that, two dragons took advantage of that moment and approached him from below. Fel didn’t have time to dodge their blasts, and now his wings were too slow to keep him in the air. He was falling, falling over enemies who were trying to kill or hurt him. No, he pushed the dragons below him down onto the sea, and kept them there. Now he could focus on the ones above him.The issue was that his ironbringing was strange, weak, and unreliable, while the enemies were too many for him. Way too many.

* * *

Leah’s mind.It wasn’t a black nothingness, but a large space she could dive into, a place where she could open and close doors, the fountain from where her power sprung.

Perhaps it was foolish, but she decided to surrender and try to learn as much as possible from that mysterious fae, and eventually became able to notice the difference between her own mind and something external to it, after a few hours doing some exercises with eyes closed. The floor where she was sitting was uncomfortable, and yet she didn’t complain. After all, learning was one of the things she most wanted.

Through it all, she still felt that familiar pull towards Fel. It was funny that Iona had mentioned using a rope for guidance in the hollow, as that was exactly how Leah felt—and sometimes it pulled her. But she wasn’t going to meet him if she thought the Breaker—or whatever that creepy voice was—could spy on her thoughts. Leah still hadn’t mentioned the iron dragon to the fae, and hadn’t really told her that he was a real dragon. She’d been saying dragon lords, maybe thinking they only had human forms, and Leah allowed her to keep the assumption.

Still, she had learned a lot.

“It’s good for now.” Iona’s voice startled her. “I wish everyone was as easy to teach as you, but we should eat. Aren’t you thirsty? Or hungry?”

A little, sure. Would this be the trap? Being afraid of food, when she’d revealed so much, was more than silly. She did have a question, though. “How do you get water and food here?”

“There are lakes and streams. As for food, some fungi and rodents. Not very enticing, I know.”

---