Below is a teaser from the upcoming book: The Blackguard. It is second in the series of The Blue Dragon's Geas. This might be tweaked more during edit but it gives you a taste. This goes out to all those pushing me to get it done. I am on Chapter 15.
Renamaum and Keensight sat on the mountain top looking down into the valley below. Renamaum had a wing in front of the red dragon to keep him from sweeping off the ledge in rage. Below them, in that dark vale, were eight young dragons. They differed in age and color but each one had one thing in common. Large chains bound them to the ground. These chains wound up over their wings so that none of them could unfold enough to get a proper thrust off the ground.
“Do you see him anywhere. I know he is down there.” Keensight rumbled in fear and pain that only a father could feel.
“No. He would have barely hatched. I do not see any that young, old friend.” Renamaum was eyeing the entire valley below them carefully. “Perhaps in that cave but it is too small for either you or I to enter. If we wish to save fledglings from this fate, it will have to be done by a creature much smaller than you or I.” Renamaum eyed the red flight leader with sorrow. His mate had been killed in her nest. The egg she had nurtured had been missing. The broken swords and dead were Lerdenian. There was no doubt that the egg was headed to this place. It was called a bloodmine for the dragons blood that was spilt yearly. Each chained dragon below was bled every year until they became to large to handle. Then they were outright killed and left to fester where they lay.
Renamaum closed his nostrils down for even from this far distance, the smell of blood and death wafted on the wind. He felt for his friend. He had lost mate and fledgling all at the same time. Though most Lerdenians believed them to be nothing but magical beasts, the truth was that such losses stayed with a dragon his entire lifetime. Dragons had very long lifetimes.
“I will kill them all. Let us fly down and release our brothers. Let us rise up and burn every last one of them. I want every one of them to die.” Keensight snarled in rage. He bellowed his rage into the wind and all the dragons below them answered in a mournful call for help.
“Keensight. I understand your anger but that is to declare war for all the flights. It is not ours alone to do. Besides, look closer. They have their spears of wood aimed at every dragon. We or they would be dead before we freed the first. We cannot help them alone.” Renamaum wanted to console the dragon but how did one repair such a loss.
“I will demand a war of the council. I will demand they rise up and lay waste to their spiraling cities and their crops. I will see their floating wooden toys sunk into the sea they travel.” Keensight rocked back and forth and Renamaum knew he had little time to talk sense to his friend. “They have declared this war, not us!”
“You could do this. This is true. And more of our kin will fall. There is a better way brother, but one that will take time. We find one who can do this work. One who can go into that cave and pull out our eggs and newly hatched. One who can love without constraint and protect without thought. This is what we find.” Renamaum pleaded against the red dragon’s anger. “We must lose these brothers to win a war much greater than our own pain.”
“This is my fledgling you speak of, you fool. You want me to sacrifice MY fledgling that yours might live? I will not do so. I will find him and I will free him if I have to claw my way into that cave.” Keensight pushed Renamaum’s wing out of the way and dove for the valley below. Renamaum knew it was hopeless and let out a wail of sorrow for his friend’s impending death.
Keensight dove for the first of the spear throwers, his fire rained down with deadly accuracy as his sweeping path took out two of the wooden constructs. He banked up sharply but before he could turn to make another pass, the sound of releasing war machines filled Renamaum’s ears. He keened with sorrow as four of the chained dragons were killed before his eyes. The Lerdenian keepers would rather see their prizes dead, their blood draining into the ground then released.
Keensight must have realized the fate of the other four. He banked sharply and flew off into the distance. His howl of frustration, of rage and loss filled the air and miles around, it echoed in the wind as dragons picked up his cry . Renamaum watched him go, a single tear fell from his great eye. “I am so sorry, my friend.” He whispered into the wind. He then too, took up the cry as the dragons of the isle sang the song of sorrow for the fallen.
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