Phoenix Sun: Book One

P R O L O G U E

  Could this be? Had Cinder, the dragon of House Ashe, forsaken them in their hour of greatest need?

  It was hard to argue that either she had been defeated or she had for unknown reasons turned her back on her charge. The first seemed unlikely and the latter made the scene before Princess Lenore all the more heartbreaking. The fires raged on and all Lenore could do was look on in helplessness as she hid behind the ruins of the old courtyard. The flames reflection flickered in the tears that welled up in her golden eyes as she cried for her parents.

  Her screams were muted into a pantomime of anguish over the roar of the blaze and the caphony of the cries of others. She still was acutely aware she was not free from danger so her grief couldn't be as loud as her soul required of her. But there would be no comfort for the young princess tonight or any night to come. That feeling would evade her in the coming years long enough to forget what it felt like to be at peace. That night marked the end of her short-lived childhood. The night her care-free innocence was robbed of her at the tender age of ten years old.

  Not everyone was crying, many were cheering, dancing and drinking their fill. Bannermen of House Glass rejoiced as their hips fell in rhythm with the movement of the fire. Female servants accosted and assaulted in full view of everyone to see. No one lifted a finger to help them as they cried out. But one handmaid by the name of Solis even bested her attacker if but for a moment. She punched him the face and as he staggered back she ran towards the ruins where Lenore hid. The little girls breath caught in her throat, she silently cheered for her to make it but also panicked at the thought of being discovered by the freshly angered solider.

Lenore needn't to worry about the solider giving chase to the battered handmaid because it was that moment her body was pulled upward from behind the wall and into an enormous maple tree. She didn't have time to scream and if she did she couldn't for a large leathered glove covered most of her face but the hand that wore the glove was mindful of freeing her nose enough to breathe. She couldn't see her kidnapper as she struggled to free herself.

"Ah little star, I wouldn't do that. You might fall and break your neck. We can't fulfill ones destiny with a broken neck now can we?" His breath was cold on her ear but his mirth was genuine and warm. She knew it was stupid to let her guard down but this was the safest she felt since the four day seige began.

The mysterious stranger set her down on a firm branch and uncovered her eyes. She gasped as she looked upon him for the first time. He stood on a much lower branch but his height was notable as their eyes met at the same level. His height was not the cause of her surprise though it was his eyes; his were silver like hers were gold.

   His were the only other pair of metallic eyes she had ever seen besides the one in her reflection when she would dare gander at the looking glass. She wasn't even use to her eyes yet, as they had just turned this color a fortnight ago. House Ashe, blessed by the dragon Cinder, was known for their blood red eyes and auburn hair. She had been born with white hair but her red eyes were unmistakably royal in their crimson hue. It had disquieted everyone in the castle the day they turned gold. The stranger studied her with great interest. He was the size of a full-grown man and yet in his face belied a youth of no more than eight in ten.

"Little star, how I make a wish for you tonight. I wish for you to be brave for where you are going you are going to need courage. I wish for you to be shrewd, I forsee many serpents silver-tongued and sharp in fang along your path. I wish for you to remain kind for this world can easily harden a heart like yours if you let it. I hope little star you can make those wishes come true. I guess that was three wishes then?"

  Peace was not what she felt when she sized up this beautiful and peculiar stranger. It was not his size or his fine weaponry that exuded a quiet danger. It was his eyes but not the eerily bright silver of them. His dazzling eyes merely distracted those without a keen eye for recognizing sorrow. For Lenore, this was a freshly procured knowledge, but hard won all the same.

   Those deep dark pupils of his like voids that held a darker truth of what facing death looked like and regretting to live long enough to tell about. But he smiled kindly as he allowed Lenore to take him in, patiently letting himself be accessed. While her golden eyes flitted from the various threat levels about his person, his sword to the many daggers she could count--well aware there were probably daggers she couldn't see--the strangers unsettling eyes stayed on her face but while she was on edge Lenore got the unmistakable impression he was more viligant and capable of reacting to danger at a moments notice than she at present.

"Do I pass?" The stranger asked, to his credit he hid his amusement well but not well enough.

"Not...yet..." Lenore slowly replied, "I know you want to keep me safe for now because it must benefit you in some way, but how can you promise my safety? Why should I trust a stranger who hasn't even volunteered his name?"

"Of course, I want to keep you safe and while you are in my presence I can promise I will lay my life down to save you for as long as you need it, when you need it. Princess you are old enough and smart enough to know I could never promise your safety. I can only promise greater peril the further we make on our journey together but the peace we achieve should we arrive at the hour of destiny and prove victorious will be lasting indeed... you can call me Onyx."

At that, Lenores' jaw dropped and she took a beat before she spoke again, "That cannot be, you are human surely as you stand before me! You can not be the power source for my greatest enemy! If you are indeed Onyx then you are the dragon for House Glass and I rebuke your trickery!"

The man who called himself Onyx sighed with a heavy sadness, "Princess it is complicated but the power of House Glass as I'm sure you've been taught by your governess is ice, is it not? Do you see any ice in all this carnage?"

Lenore had to turn careful as to not fall from the tree branch, "But your banners..."

"Yes it is their bannerman, that is House Glass below us reveling in the downfall of House Ashe. But this fire is not manmade, see how it melts the dragonstone and it is but only one kind of fire that can melt dragonstone."

"Dragons fire..." Lenore whispered to herself but she saw Onyx nod in her peripheral.

"Yes little star, which dragon has the power of fire?"

"Cinder."

The betrayal was indeed white hot, Cinder was like a second mother to her. She had not just turned her back on House Ashe like Lenore had previously thought. Cinder had been agitated for weeks and finally disappeared a few days ago with no explanation why nor her whereabouts. It put Lenores parents, King Elais and Queen Livonia, ill at ease. But this would mean Cinder had outright attacked House Ashe this night. Why? What would bring any dragon to wrath so wholely that she would kill off her our charge? What would bring any dragon to betray his own charge to save the last living princess of his enemy?

"Complicated." Lenore agreed quietly to herself, as a loud rage built inside her, forcing her small hands curl to fists.