Dragon Scepter Read online

  Dragon Scepter

  The Dragon’s Call, Book 3

  Angelique Anderson

  Craig A. Price Jr.

  Edited by

  Monique Johnson

  Illustrated by

  Mihaela Voicu

  Craig Martelle, Inc., Fairbanks, Alaska - 1st Edition, 2019

  Dragon Scepter © 2019 Craig A. Price Jr. and Angelique Anderson

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Cover Design by Mihaela Voicu

  Editing by Monique Johnson @ https://www.fiverr.com/moniquenjohnson

  Published by Craig Martelle, Inc., Fairbanks, Alaska - 1st Edition, 2019

  Formatting by Craig A. Price Jr.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Hekla

  2. Astrid

  3. Jakobe

  4. Hekla

  5. Astrid

  6. Jakobe

  7. Hekla

  8. Astrid

  9. Jakobe

  10. Hekla

  11. Astrid

  12. Jakobe

  13. Hekla

  14. Astrid

  15. Jakobe

  16. Hekla

  17. Astrid

  18. Svana

  19. Hekla

  20. Astrid

  21. Svana

  22. Hekla

  23. Astrid

  24. Svana

  25. Hekla

  26. Astrid

  27. Svana

  28. Hekla

  29. Astrid

  30. Svana

  31. Hekla

  32. Astrid

  33. Svana

  34. Hekla

  35. Astrid

  36. Svana

  37. Hekla

  38. Astrid

  39. Svana

  40. Hekla

  41. Astrid

  42. Svana

  43. Hekla

  44. Astrid

  45. Svana

  46. Hekla

  47. Astrid

  48. Svana

  49. Hekla

  50. Astrid

  51. Svana

  52. Hekla

  53. Astrid

  54. Svana

  55. Hekla

  Also by Angelique S. Anderson

  Also By Craig A. Price

  About Angelique S. Anderson

  About Craig A. Price Jr

  The sisters three

  Refuse man’s duplicity

  Prevent the fall,

  Answer the dragon’s call

  Sea, Land, and Sky

  Turmoil to die

  The pestilence of greed

  The unbidden seed

  Alone and unafraid

  Queens to be made

  A dragon’s might

  Is strength to light

  A journey begins

  Across a barren land

  Verdil’s hopes pins

  To a rough and slender hand

  Twins or sisters three

  Fulfilling ancient prophecy

  Scepter, Sword, and Bow

  Arcs, sparks, slash and arrow

  A journey begins

  Across a barren land

  Verdil’s hopes pins

  To a rough and slender hand

  A lumbering fool

  Across a cleared pit

  Only a tool

  Bested by sharper wit

  A dragon’s call

  And magic beckons

  Mankind’s fall

  By three maidens

  Weather the climb

  Running out of time

  Flee from the men

  And fight the demon!

  A soul’s defiant change

  And new friends strange

  Teach the new way

  Stay true, don’t go astray

  A mountain’s rough embrace

  An army firmly in its place

  A whirlwind fight. Don’t die!

  The beautiful master of the sky

  Soldiers frustrated and angry

  No females serve in the army

  But it starts with the first one

  A daughter, sister, and woman

  The crackle of a scepter’s power

  A delay of a day, even an hour

  Soldiers await on a distant shore

  Much to learn, so much more

  1

  Hekla

  Love isn’t something you choose. It is something that chooses you. It is not something you can ignore, for if you do, it will find you. And it will spend countless nights in your dreams haunting you. Love doesn’t contain itself. It overflows. It is something best not hidden but expressed fully inside and out. If you do not express it, and if you do hide it, and try to contain it--like a thunderstorm, it will fester deep until it cannot be contained anymore, and like thunder, it will come out with an earthshattering roar. And if that happens, there’s no telling who may get electrocuted.

  King Rowan the Observant, First King of Telluris, 231 A.V.

  Hekla took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was needed. No matter how much she wanted to rest; it wasn’t possible. Her eyes opened. This was war. She knew it would happen. It was inevitable, but the whole purpose of the sisters was to go out into the lands of men to prevent war. They had failed.

  Worse, Hekla had failed Svana. Her eyes watered slightly, the brilliant glow gleaming in the torchlight of the hallway irritating her vision. She clenched her eyes shut again as she wiped each one with the back of her hand. It was nothing. She told herself it wasn’t tears, merely a speck of dirt in her eye.

  “Hekla?” a familiar voice called.

  She rubbed her eyes one last time, set her chin high, and continued striding forward until she rounded the bend.

  “I’m here,” Hekla said.

  Hekla stepped into the room and saw Emmeline and Tristan in adjoining beds. She smiled at them and was thankful after the chaos that an extra bed could be found. It was improper that a man and a woman be confined to a single bed at the sick bay simply because there weren’t enough beds. However, as Hekla paid closer attention, she noticed Tristan and Emmeline’s beds were side by side, and the two of them were holding hands.

  Emmeline’s hair was mostly back to its radiant blonde, almost white, now that most of the blood stains had been washed away, and her crystal blue eyes were as radiant as ever. It was a beauty that Hekla was jealous of and envied in many ways.

  Hekla didn’t know either one of them too well, as they were Svana’s friends, but she did know they were important to the Tellurian kingdom. And if… well—Hekla dared not think about it.

  Astrid nodded to Hekla. Her beautiful green-haired sister stood in the corner of the room. It was she who had called Hekla’s name. Astrid was also the one who kept Hekla sane after the battle—after the pain. Hekla gulped. She was the youngest, and in many ways the most immature, however, lately she’d been forced to grow up, and in many ways, it was Astrid who’d helped her along the correct path
.

  “How are they doing?” Hekla asked Astrid.

  “They’re not in immediate danger. Emmeline has lost a lot of blood, but I believe the servants have stabilized her. Tristan’s injury is old, and is no longer life-threatening, but I don’t know if he’ll ever recover to one hundred percent.”

  Hekla nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Astrid scratched her chin. Her green eyes blazed with intensity. They weren’t directed at Hekla, or the two injured in the bed, but off in the distance, like she had something on her mind.

  “Is everything all right, sister?” Hekla asked.

  “Well enough, Hekla. I just have some matters I need to attend to.”

  Hekla smiled. “I don’t need any assistance. Feel free to do what you need to.”

  Astrid nodded and stepped toward the door.

  “Go easy on him,” Emmeline spoke with a weak voice.

  Astrid turned around. “Excuse me?”

  “My brother. I have seen it on your face since the moment you found out I was his sister. What I have done for him, he has done for me. If he kept me from you, it was because he was trying to protect me. Or himself from leaving me.”

  Astrid exhaled through her nose loudly, her upper lip curling. “Still, he has a lot of explaining to do.”

  Emmeline smiled with a twinkle in her eye as she looked up and down at Astrid. “Yes… he does.”

  Put off, Astrid did not appreciate the friendly judgement in Emmeline’s eyes, and she abruptly turned around and stormed out of the door.

  Hekla stared curiously at her. She hadn’t known Astrid to get heated. Now she began to wonder who this man was who warranted such infuriation from her sister. She turned back around to look at the two on the sick beds, her eyes lingering on the beautiful woman who’d rattled Astrid.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you two last night, but I was weak, and my immediate attention was given to those with life-threatening injuries,” Hekla said.

  “As it should be,” Emmeline said, “I’m sorry about your—”

  Hekla put her hand up. “Please. I don’t yet want to talk about it.”

  Emmeline nodded. “I understand.”

  Hekla sat on the foot of Emmeline’s bed and reached to place her hand on the woman’s forehead. She closed her eyes as she moved her scepter over Emmeline’s body to inspect her for wounds. Hekla found many, but only the most severe grabbed her attention. Her need wasn’t imminent the night before, but if she hadn’t been patched up, it would have been.

  Speltus, do I have enough power?

  Yes, Hekla. We can heal them both without draining completely.

  Good, Hekla said to her dragon through their mind-link, I’ll be glad to feel useful to someone this journey.

  Hekla… don’t be so hard on yourself.

  Hekla pushed the dragon out of her mind as she opened her eyes to look at Emmeline.

  “How bad is it?” Emmeline asked.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Emmeline. It’s bad.”

  Emmeline’s face sunk.

  Hekla smiled at her. “But I can heal you. Both of you.”

  Emmeline’s spirit lifted.

  “How long have the two of you been together?” Hekla asked, trying to make small talk as she began channeling magic through her scepter.

  “Oh,” Emmeline said, her hand slipping out of Tristan’s. “We’re not.”

  Hekla’s eyebrow curved upward. “Oh really?”

  “Well… we’re not supposed to be, and so, we’ve always just—”

  “Kept your feelings hidden?”

  Emmeline gulped, but nodded.

  “I don’t think that is healthy, though, who am I to talk? I have done the same all of my life.”

  Emmeline tilted her head. “You have?”

  Hekla shook her head. “Don’t worry about my feelings. Tell me of yours. Why do you hide them?”

  “I am royalty… he is not.”

  “Is that really all there is to it?” Hekla asked.

  She’d begun the healing process, allowing Speltus to funnel his energy through her. It tickled slightly… feeling the crackling magic travel through her and her dragon through the scepter and into Emmeline. Emmeline twitched as she directed her attention to the glowing scepter.

  “Sadly… yes. I’m not necessarily a princess… but King Armand doesn’t have any children… any heirs. If he… I don’t want to think about it, but that would leave me…”

  “What about your brother?” Hekla asked. “Didn’t you say you have a brother? My studies of the kingdom have always told me that a male heir is always first to the throne.”

  Emmeline’s lip twitched. “Yes, and no. It is the king’s choice. Normally, a male is chosen, but uncle has always had a fondness for me, and he’s always butted heads with Cayden. He also outcast him when Cayden confronted him about his recent… blood-thirst.”

  Hekla bit her lip. “Are you scared of your uncle?”

  Emmeline shivered. “At times… yes. I don’t know what has gotten into him lately… but he isn’t the same man he used to be, and I’m afraid… if he saw me and Tristan together…”

  Emmeline took a deep breath, and her body gained some of its lost color as the magic Hekla was funneling into it finished its healing.

  “Many people have known about Tristan and our fondness of each other,” Emmeline said, “and they have all warned us against it.”

  Hekla finished her healing of Emmeline and looked at the woman fondly. She was saddened by her story. Her life must have been hard, though respectively, so had Hekla’s. Emmeline was a beautiful young woman and deserved a life of happiness.

  “King Armand is no longer under a spell,” Hekla said.

  Emmeline’s eyebrows furrowed. “I know after he hurt me… I saw the blackness leave his eyes, but I’ve seen that before as well and it always comes back.”

  Hekla grabbed Emmeline’s hands and squeezed as she shook her head. “It’s clear he loves you--that even under a spell, he can come back to reality for you over and over.” Hekla took a deep breath. “But, now, he is completely freed of the spell.” Hekla cleared her throat, questioning if she should share the truth she had uncovered. The expectant expression in the pale woman’s eyes was enough to tell her all she needed to know. “Emmeline, there are many things that have been hidden from you and you deserve to know,” she let out a deep sigh, “his advisor was a dark wizard, and it was the advisor who controlled your uncle.”

  Emmeline’s eyes widened. “You mean…”

  “Take comfort in that and know that your uncle has truly always been a good man. Every dark act he was doing was because he was being controlled.”

  Tears came to Emmeline’s eyes as she squeezed Hekla’s hands back. “Can I—Can I go see him?”

  Hekla shook her head. “I have healed you, but you still need to rest for another day before leaving this bed. The way my healing works is my energy connects with your own energy. I transferred some of my energy to you, but more importantly-- I energized your own body to fight harder and faster for you. If you don’t give your body the time it needs to finish, you could compromise everything I just did.”

  “How are you able to do so?” Emmeline asked, releasing Hekla’s hands as she felt herself for a sign of what she had spoken of.

  Don’t you dare breathe a word of me to her, it is not yet time. You must keep my powers to yourself, Speltus urged her.

  Why? Does she not already know of the dark magic? What harm is it, if I share of this… magic that is good?

  Speltus did not answer, but she could sense the shaking of his head in her mind, and Hekla had to fight the urge to huff in frustration.

  “It is a gift I was given only recently, much like the Advisor was dark, I have been given this sort of light. It is not mine, and who knows how long it will last, but that is how I healed you. Also, your uncle is injured and requires my healing as well, so he is not yet ready for visitors.”

  “Di
d you say you could heal me as well?” Tristan asked.

  He’d been awake the whole time, though a little dazed, but he’d remained quiet as he listened to everything around him. His ears only perked at the mention of the light and the dark. Hekla wondered if he had known Svana to have something of magic. She suspected he knew she had magic, especially after observing her sister for so long. He seemed to be biting his tongue, as if holding back a question for the right time.

  “Oh, sorry,” Hekla said, startled by the sound of his voice, “I nearly forgot about you with how quiet you’ve been.”

  She looked at Emmeline one last time before going around her bed to sit on Tristan’s. Again, Hekla closed her eyes as she scanned his body for injuries using her scepter. He wasn’t as hurt as Emmeline, but his injuries were older. She could see the scarring of the tissues that ran deep, which made his injuries a little more complicated to heal. Taking another deep breath, Hekla got to work.

  Little by little, she could see the healing haze of light that spread over and through him, helping him to mend. Unlike when healing Emmeline, Hekla remained silent for Tristan’s healing. Though the timing to heal them both was almost the same, when she had finished with Tristan, her body slumped, and she found it hard to sit up. She had given the last of her magic for the time, to him.