The Dragon and the Witch Read online

  The Dragon and the Witch

  A Fantasy Novel

  by

  K.T. Tomb

  Other Books by K.T. Tomb

  STANDALONE ADVENTURES

  The Last Crusade

  The Kraken

  The Adventurers

  The Swashbucklers

  The Tempest

  The Honeymooners

  Ghosts of the Titanic

  Curse of the Coins

  Drums Along the Hudson

  Jerusalem Gold

  Pandora’s Box

  The Snow Giants

  The Book of Thoth

  The Crystal Skull

  STANDALONE FANTASY

  The Dragon and the Witch

  SHORT STORIES

  Wolfgang

  The Dragon

  SASQUATCH SERIES

  1. Sasquatch

  2. Sasquatch Found

  3. Bigfoot Mountain

  4. Sasquatch Hunter

  5. Bigfoot Winter

  THE CHYNA STONE ADVENTURES

  1. The Minoan Mask

  2. The Mummy Codex

  3. The Phoenician Falcon

  4. The Babylonian Basilisk

  5. The Aquitaine Armor

  6. The Ivory Bow

  7. The Rosary Riddle

  8. The Jeweled Crown

  THE PHOENIX QUEST ADVENTURES

  1. The Hammer of Thor

  2. The Spear of Destiny

  3. The Lair of Beowulf

  4. The Fountain of Youth

  5. The Ark of the Covenant

  6. The Seal of Solomon

  7. The Road to Shambhala

  THE CASH CASSIDY ADVENTURES

  1. The Holy Grail

  2. The Lost Continent

  3. The Lost City of Gold

  4. The Falcon Cloak

  5. The Jaguar God

  THE ALPHA ADVENTURES

  1. “A” is for Amethyst

  2. “B” is for Bullion

  3. “C” is for Crystal

  4. “D” is for Diamond

  5. “E” is for Emerald

  THE LOST GARDEN TRILOGY

  1. The Lost Garden

  2. Keepers of the Lost Garden

  3. Destroyers of the Lost Garden

  ISLANDS THAT TIME FORGOT TRILOGY

  1. Dinosaur Island

  2. Ape Island

  3. Snake Island

  The Dragon and the Witch

  Published by K.T. Tomb

  Copyright © 2016 by K.T. Tomb

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  The Dragon and the Witch

  Fire billowed. The heat was unbearable. And the sound of a shrieking cry filled my ears. But who had made that sound that filled my heart with dread? All I could hear was a chant—his angry, undeniably fierce chant. The words singed a hole through my heart and yet, I knew not what they meant.

  On this sacred ground where we stand,

  From this child, you are banned.

  Until the day you concede,

  With me, she will live and breathe.

  You will wander through dimensions’ doors.

  Blood for blood will right the score.

  I sat straight up, gasping for air, reaching for…nothing. Nothing but the darkness in my room. A dream so realistic that sweat beads crested along the hairline of my forehead. What did I ache to understand? Who chanted those words and why, after hearing them, did I feel so desperately...alone?

  Chapter One

  Tolbalth stared at me through slanted yellow eyes. He was a colorful, stern dragon who had raised me from birth. His ears were pressed back, his chest was pushed out, and his massive wings were tucked in against his sides. He bent his head slightly forward, so as not to crush the cavernous ceiling above us.

  He had no choice but to duck since he refused to shift into his human self when he came into the common area of our cave. He avoided transforming into a man. It was unnatural, so he stubbornly refused to shapeshift and ultimately, made us both uncomfortable.

  “So, tell me about the dream,” he said. His thick tail draped outside the cave entrance as he studied my movements while I finished setting up breakfast for us.

  I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Father, must you stay…so…so big while we’re getting ready to have breakfast?” I grabbed the pot of stew off the wood-burning stove and ladled the stew into two bowls. A mixture of vegetables and rabbit that I’d thrown together with spices I’d picked from our garden, it was one of his favorite meals.

  Tolbalth wasn’t actually my biological father. He’d found me alone on the forest ground, crying, when I was an infant. Apparently, my mother had left me there alone for reasons that were beyond me. Although I thought my father knew why she’d left me, he’d never actually tell me. Instead, he’d say, “Someday, I’ll share the story with you. When you’re old enough to understand.”

  Although I wondered almost every day how my mother could have left me there alone, I trusted my father to tell me when the time was right and so, I rarely asked him anymore to share the details. It was Tolbalth who had taken me under his wing, literally and figuratively, to raise me.

  I called him Father because that’s what he was to me. He’d fed and clothed me, protected me when I needed it, and educated me to read and write and understand the ways of our land and the creatures that roamed about it. For all intents and purposes, he was my mother and my father and thus, I respected everything about him. As a dragon, he wasn’t much on physical comforting, like hugs and letting me take rides on his back, but I never questioned his love for me. I always felt his warm and endearing heart when it came to my life.

  But now, as I waited for him to answer, instead, he ignored my statement and pressed his massive snout into the large wooden bowl of stew, carefully using his tongue to shovel the food into his mouth. “Are you going to tell me about the dream?” he managed to ask between chews.

  I shrugged. “It’s the same as always just before my birthday. Although…” I hesitated.

  “Although what?” He lifted his eyes to meet mine. The large wooden bowl rested comfortably between his clawed hands.

  “This time was different.”

  Father’s ears perked up and he placed the bowl on the table. “Different, how?”

  My concern wasn’t that he’d asked me that question, it was more in the way he’d asked it. His eyes narrowed, a puff of smoke bellowed out from his snout and he patiently waited for me to tell him. My father was never patient, so naturally, this brought up a red flag.

  I sat down at the table and used a spoon to take a couple of bites of my stew before I said, “It was just...different.”

  “Zadie, what’s that mean?” He hadn’t picked up his bowl to eat again and for some reason, I heard the genuine concern in his voice.

  My first thought was, why did he care so heavily about my dream? The second thought that crossed my mind was how much he loved me that he would care so much about my dream. Adjusting my back on the rock chair in our cavern, I tried to remember what had happened before I’d awakened. “Well, she came to me again.”

  “Ah, yes. The infamous mother. The woman who left you behind for a dragon to raise. The one who manages to haunt you just before your birthday every year, rather than show up randomly at any other time.”

  I sighed. Every year when I mentioned my mother, Tolbalth managed to say something that made me doubt her love for me. I hated it when he did that. “Yes, but this time, the dream was different.”

  “I’m listening.” His deep voice filled the hollow of the cave
. Letting his breakfast get cold, he waited for me to tell him more.

  “This time, someone else was there, too. A man—maybe a witch of sorts. Words were said in the form of a spell and there was immense heat—heat so strong that I felt it singe my skin.”

  I noticed his facial expressions twist around a thousand thoughts that crossed his mind and tangled with a thousand reasons to change the subject. My father picked up his bowl and used his long scaly tongue to scoop another bite of stew into his mouth. “It was a dream and nothing else,” he said flatly, almost brushing my dream under the carpet.

  “But it felt so real.”

  “It was a dream!” His hand came down hard on the table, but he instantly calmed himself, realizing that he’d scared me. “Zadie, you know that every year, this close to your birthday, you dream about her.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “And every year, I ask you how you know that the woman in your dreams is your mother.”

  I glanced at Tolbalth as I took another bite of stew, my eyes now staring at the food I’d prepared for us. I hated that he always doubted that the woman who visited me in my dreams just before my birthday might possibly be the woman who’d left me alone in the forest. Tolbalth knew that I’d do anything to have her stand in front of me, to gaze into her eyes and ask her why she’d left me. What could have been so important that she had walked away from her own flesh and blood? “And I tell you every year, Father. Don’t you think I’d know my own mother?”

  “I don’t know. You’ve never seen her before.”

  Irritated, I huffed, “How can you say such a thing? I remember exactly what she looked like on the night of my birth. Long, flowing golden hair, hazel eyes as warm and as loving as the sun’s rays on my face during a summer’s day. She was perfect. She was present and then she was gone. And now, I think that the spell of a witch has something to do with her disappearance.”

  “Are you sure you’re not casting your dreams onto your memories? Making the woman in the dream into the same woman who gave birth to you that night?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest as Father grabbed his empty wooden bowl with his claws and offered it to me. “More, please?”

  Taking it from him, I went to the stove and ladled more stew. I turned to face his massiveness. “The woman who visits me in my dreams has short hair and her mouth is different, but—”

  “Different?” Tolbalth took the bowl of stew and nodded in gratitude. His gold-and-green scales were hard and thick. His eyes were yellow, yet speckled with black. Even in human form, his eyes remained that same bright yellow with black specks. He was a thick and sturdy dragon—a male dominant dragon. But even in his appearance where he’d scare most dragons and all humans, my father had an endearing love that shone through his eyes each time he gazed at me.

  “I don’t know. I don’t really remember my mother’s mouth the night I was born, but I’ll never forget her eyes. This woman who visits me in my dreams every year had the same warm eyes. And every year, she stands at my bedroom window as if admiring me until my eyes flutter open and she uses her hand to call to me.” I took another bite, pulling out a bone that I’d left in the stew by accident. “But last night…”

  “Go on.” His heavy, hot breath blew my hair back off my face.

  “Last night, we weren’t in my room. We stood deep inside a cave and for a brief moment, I saw fear in her eyes. I felt a need to protect her—to keep her safe from whatever it was that she feared. I awoke after the chant. I truly believe it was the words of that chant that scared her the most.”

  “Okay, enlighten me. What were those words?”

  “I don’t remember the beginning but it ended with: ‘You will wander through dimensions’ doors. Blood for blood will right the score.’”

  Father stood, hitting his head against the ceiling and cursing under his breath as he shook his head against the pain. “I forbid you to dream again.”

  I laughed. “You can’t forbid me to dream, Father. No one plans to dream, it just happens.”

  “You’re going to be eighteen years old, Zadie. It’s time to pack your things for your journey in search of adulthood.”

  I sighed. “I don’t want to leave here. I have no desire to search for the white sabretooth lion, Father.”

  “You have no choice. It’s what we do.”

  “It’s what dragons do,” I said.

  “Well, you’re part dragon. You’re my daughter.”

  Again, I released a low giggle. “I’m proud to be your daughter, and you’ve trained me well to take on the challenge, but I’d rather not leave you, Father. You need me.”

  His eyes softened. His forehead creased beneath his green-and-gold scales. He lifted the bowl of stew to his mouth and tilted it as he finished his food in one swoop. Out of nowhere, I saw a present sitting on the table.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “It’s your birthday tomorrow. I wanted to give you your gift this morning. I guess you can say, I couldn’t wait.” He smirked.

  I smiled, my eyes wide with anticipation and excitement. “You didn’t have to do that, Father. My birthday dinner that you cook is always the perfect gift.”

  “Not this one, though, Zadie. You’ll be eighteen and I wanted to give you something special.”

  I grabbed the gift and tore open the bag. A wooden case with my name carved in the lid caught my attention. “Oh, Father, it’s beautiful.” My fingertips trailed over the engraving.

  “Go on. There’s more.”

  I lifted the lid and inside, sitting on a bed of flowers was the most magnificent, glorious dagger I’d ever seen. “Whoa.” The beveled steel gleamed against the morning sun shining through the cut-out squares at the top of our rock home. The handle was that of a flying dragon, its wings extended to either side. The colors matched those of Tolbalth. “It’s beautiful,” was all I could say.

  “It’s yours. It’s been in my family for centuries and now, I want you to have it, to care for it and pass it down the way I am giving it to you.”

  “It’s seen battles?”

  “Ah, yes. Many.”

  I ran my fingers down the middle of the blade, the coldness against my fingertips. When I reached the handle, it felt hot to the touch. Like day and night between the blade and handle. I swallowed. My heart raced. He watched me carefully. When I gripped the dragon hilt to pull it from the box, I saw fire shoot from the tip. I dropped it back on the bed of flowers and stepped away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Fire. It came out of the tip.”

  He laughed. “No it didn’t.”

  “It did. I saw it.”

  “Zadie, fire did not come out of the tip of the blade. However, when the dragon owner has this blade in their hand after they have transformed into a human, they can channel the fire from their inner core through the blade. That’s what makes this so special.”

  I stared at it, shocked. “Then the blade will never see fire again because I’m not a dragon.”

  Tolbalth’s mouth lifted into a rare dragon smile. “But you are my daughter and that’s all that matters.”

  Stepping back to maneuver out of the cave, he grunted.

  Before he bent his head downward to leave completely, he said, “We will train tonight. You will prepare to leave for a year and you will stop dreaming of that evil entity that is trying to take you from me. I won’t have it. I won’t lose my only daughter.” And with those words, he slipped out of our home and disappeared.

  I pursed my lips and sighed. Staring at the beautiful blade that lay before me, I whispered, “My mother is not evil, Tolbalth. I wish you wouldn’t call her that.” Of course, I knew he couldn’t hear me and that was the only reason I made that plea.

  I wanted to know her, to understand why she left me when I was an infant. Although I feared her rejection again—feared that she might not love me, once she met me as an adult—I still wanted to know her. After all, I was a girl raised by a dragon. I’m sure I
was rough around the edges because of that.

  Sliding the blade into the leather sheath that had previously held an old blade of mine, I started washing the dishes. I decided to pack up the leftovers and take them to Piku, my tiger. He always loved when I brought him food that I’d cooked. And I loved to watch him devour my cooking.

  Chapter Two

  Piku and I ventured out a ways in order to get some fresh berries to make a homemade pie for dessert in the evening. Tonight, I would train with Tolbalth, and after a strenuous workout, I always wanted something sweet—something to replenish the sugars in my body.

  I narrowed my eyes at the bag sitting on the ground between us. “I keep throwing more berries into the satchel and yet, it’s not filling up. Do you know why this is?” I lifted a brow, braced one hand on my hip and playfully glared at him.

  “Nope,” he said with his mouth full. “I’ve no idea.” A berry rolled out of his mouth and hit the ground, getting lost between dried leaves and debris.

  I inwardly laughed. “Well, then we need to pick faster. The longer it takes us, the longer we’re out here picking.” I popped one in my mouth and smiled.

  “I think my father is keeping something from me,” I told Piku.

  “Dragons can be that way,” he said.

  It wasn’t that Piku could necessarily speak English, it was that I could understand him. Where most would have heard his moans and growls, I understood what he was saying. It was a gift that I’d discovered as a five-year-old child when Piku and I had first met. And it had carried over to other animals as well. Not all…but most.

  “What way?” I asked.

  “You know, conniving and…well, secretive.”

  I frowned. “He’s never been that way with me though. I mean, at least I don’t think he has.” I dropped a handful of berries into the satchel.

  “So, why do you think he’s being that way with you now?” Piku had caught sight of a purple-and-blue butterfly and he used his paw to try and knock it down.