Kendrick and Sara of Draconia

Kendrick and Sara of Draconia

Copyright 2011 by K. T. Tran

All rights reserved

Published by Open Sail Books at Smashwords

This is a unique and original work of fiction. Any resemblance of persons, places, things or ideas to real persons, places, things or ideas, or those represented in other fictional work, is strictly coincidental.

Open Sail Books

2215 Ringwood Ave | San Jose, CA 95131

Layout and Editorial Support by Dave Norman

Cover design © 2011 Michelle Monique. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. Fiction : Fantasy - Contemporary

2. Fiction : Fantasy - Series

Print Book ISBN 13: 978-0-9831858-9-5

Written and published in the USA

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www.opensailbooks.com

Dedicated to Nicole

The love of my life,

My soulmate, my other half

Contents

Prologue

Sara of Draconia

The Dark Lord

The Mark Revealed

The Alley

Blood

Sara’s Vision

The Storm

Blackout

Awakening

Kendrick

The Feast

A New Beginning

Interlude

The Phantom

Hope

Soulmate

Tears

The God of War

The Dragon Slayer

The New World

About the Author

Prologue

Eons ago, while fairies and magical creatures still roamed, there lived a knight in the kingdom of Arcon. The legendary swordsmanship of this knight, Sir Nordrick, kept peace across the land. His wife was a mage with powers comparable, in their own way, to his own. They lived in a modest home outside the kingdom’s castle, where they practiced and improved their skills.

Their carefree times came to an end on the day of their son’s birth, upon which an eclipse darkened the sky. At the moment their son first cried out, which echoed across the land, the sky opened up. The knight saw this as a sign that his newborn son would someday save the world. His wife perished while giving birth, but she used her dying breath to cast a spell that transferred to her newborn son the cosmic power, she, as a mage, had gained through her lifetime of training.

Sir Nordrick began training his son in swordsmanship as soon as he could walk. Even as a young boy, his son showed the predisposition to become strong, like his father. The knight devoted all his time and patience to training his son and teaching him the way of a knight, through stories of his many great battles, journeys, and adventures. By the age of eight, the boy had mastered all the skills his father taught him, and all he lacked to complete his training was the strength that could come only with age. The knight sent his son to the elves’ village to learn their language while his body grew stronger.

The elves’ language allowed them to communicate with plants and trees—indeed, with all living things. The elves carefully guarded their sacred language from others, but Sir Nordrick once saved the elves’ king during a battle against the Dark Ogres. Owing the knight a favor, the elves’ king agreed to teach the young warrior their sacred language. The boy mastered the elves’ language by the age of ten. When he left their village, they called him by the honored name Kendrick.

The knight then sent his son to the village of Monson, the home of the boy’s mother, to practice his skills as a mage, which he had inherited through her bloodline and which he could use along with her gift of cosmic energy. Young Kendrick mastered the skills of an apprentice in five years, proving himself adroit at the age of fifteen while most apprentices took another ten years or more to master their skills.

Kendrick returned to Arcon older, more skilled, and much stronger. With the boy’s new strength, his father was at last able to teach his son the true power of a sword. Persons with the highest levels of skill in both swordsmanship and magic were rare, and were known to be the most powerful warriors. Such a warrior appeared only about once every thousand years, usually when the world was in danger and needed a savior.

After a year of training with Sir Nordrick, Kendrick exceeded his father in power. Sir Nordrick warned Kendrick that he must use his powers only when necessary and not draw attention to them, because others might come to fear him and form an alliance against him. Sir Nordrick knew that his son would play an important role in the world one day, so he arranged as complete an education as possible for Kendrick. The young man learned in the castle alongside the sons of other knights and nobles, mastering art, history, and literature. Kendrick learned many lessons, but the story that fascinated him most concerned the Avalon Crystal.

The Avalon Crystal was said to have been lost more than 10,000 years ago. Legend held that King Olympus used its powers to build a great civilization, but then abused the power of the crystal, leading to an uprising against him. The crystal had been lost since the Great War. Many had tried to find it, so they could have for themselves the crystal’s reputed power to grant its possessor any wish made with it.

Kendrick often went to the forest of Arcon, which was said to hold some of the secrets of the Avalon Crystal. It was there that he met Natalia, the Princess of Arcon. They became the very best of friends, spending much of their time together, and eventually their friendship grew into an unshakeable love. However, their happy days were destined not to last, for the King of Arcon had arranged a marriage for the princess. Upon her eighteenth birthday, she was to be wed to the Prince of Faisa, in a gesture intended to keep peace between the two kingdoms.

The pleas of Princess Natalia and young Kendrick fell on deaf ears. The king could not risk voiding the marriage arrangement, lest a war break out with Faisa. The couple despaired, but young Kendrick told the princess about the legend of the Avalon Crystal and vowed that he would find it, and make the wish that they could be together.

Such a plan was idealistic, but Sir Nordrick approved it nevertheless. He wanted Kendrick to travel the world to gain experience and prepare him for whatever his destiny held. Even if the quest for the Avalon Crystal were to prove fruitless, it would provide Kendrick with valuable life experience. Princess Natalia promised to wait for her young warrior to return.

On their last night together, they made a vow, that here our hearts are now as one, beating to the same rhythm, breathing the same breath. By that time, Kendrick had added considerably to the cosmic power granted him by his mother, and his power was so great that, without intending to, he bound their souls. A golden aura glowed around the couple, and the Mark of the Cosmos appeared on their lower backs, though they were unaware of this. At dawn, the princess watched her young warrior walk into the rising sun, his silhouette slowly disappearing into the horizon.

* * * * *

Kendrick traveled north, to the Tree of Life, the oldest living life form. The Tree of Life was said to hold many secrets, along with knowledge that long ago had faded from common use, and was the likeliest place to learn more about the Avalon Crystal. Many groups fought for control of the Tree of Life, and on his journey there, Kendrick was forced to battle bandits, ogres, and hordes of troublesome goblins. Word spread through the villages of his heroism and power, and of his ability to fight off dark creatures and bring peace.

A year after beginning his quest, Kendrick reached the Tree of Life. There, he learned that to find the Avalon Crystal, he would need to control the four elements: wind, water, fire, and earth. He traveled to the fairies’ mountain in search of control over the wind element. He aided the fairies in their battle against the Zoron army of orcs, trolls, and dragons, and freed them from a century of darkness. In return, the fairies gave Kendrick their most prized possession, the wind element. Legends of Kendrick spread, and he became known as the Dragon Slayer.

Kendrick traveled next to the trolls’ valley, where he defeated the troll king and his army. He forced the trolls to surrender their earth element, which the trolls had stolen from the gnome people long ago. Kendrick continued his quest and traveled to the caves of the orcs, a series of labyrinths that led to the center of the earth. Deep within the caves, he found and captured the fire element, which had the power to conjure molten lava from deep within the earth.

Consumed with the desire to live happily ever after with his beloved princess Natalia, Kendrick continued on his quest, traveling to the far north, the world of ice, where he was told he could find the water element. The land was inhospitable, so cold that swords shattered and normal people could not survive more than a few hours without artificial shelter. The north was Kendrick’s last known destination.

After years without word from him, search parties were dispatched, but found no clue as to his fate. As time passed, people lost hope of ever hearing from him again. Many believed that he had died; others believed that he found the Avalon Crystal and achieved his wish of living happily ever after, though it was not with Princess Natalia.

Unhappy in her arranged marriage to the Prince of Faisa, Princess Natalia continued her lonely vigil for Kendrick’s return. She became lost in her own mind and began to lose the will to see another day, even though she had two daughters with the prince. Five years after hearing of Kendrick’s disappearance in the north, she died quietly, of no known illness. It was said that she died of a broken heart.

When Natalia’s older daughter turned eighteen, she noticed the sudden appearance of a mark on her lower back. The Mark showed the sun burning around the moon and the Star of Heaven; it was the same Mark her mother had. When she was younger, she knew that her mother was ill and emotionally distant. She could not understand her mother’s affliction at the time, but upon coming of age, she felt as her mother once did, harboring an unquenchable aching and yearning down deep in the marrow of her bones. She did not understand her longing for completeness, for an ecstasy that she knew could be hers, but she did not know how to find. That longing was to be her curse, and that of all who wore the Mark after her.

Princess Natalia’s spirit, manifest in her daughter, waited for Kendrick and his soul, longing for her other half to return. The Mark, and the unquenchable longing associated with it, passed from mother to daughter in the bloodline begun by Princess Natalia, in a race of people who would become known as the Draconians.

Sara of Draconia

On a Sunday afternoon, during summer in New York City, two young women sat on a blanket in Central Park, sharing a picnic lunch. The bright sun cast dark shadows while a light wind fluttered. It was a beautiful day. The women sat under a willow tree and the sun streamed over their shoulders. They enjoyed the warm, caressing radiance of the sun while eating their lunch.

Although Jane had been Sara’s friend since the week she moved to New York to attend college five years ago, she still didn’t feel like she knew her friend very well. She answered Sara’s roommate wanted ad a day after she arrived in the city, and they hit it off immediately; Jane moved into the two-bedroom apartment on Amsterdam Avenue shortly after.

Jane laughed easily and often, and hoped that her good humor would help her somber friend, who seemed to Jane as though she carried some deep inner pain. Sara put on a tough face, however, not letting Jane in on the secrets that troubled her, even as they became best friends. Jane learned not to push Sara to talk; instead, she was quietly supportive and let Sara open up when she wanted.

Jane was open and talkative, but Sara didn’t speak much about her family or say much about her past. The young women differed physically, as well. Jane had dark brown hair past her shoulders, which she liked to tie in a ponytail. Sara kept her ash blonde, almost gray, hair at shoulder length, framing her face. Jane’s dark skin and ocean-blue eyes contrasted with Sara’s pale skin and gray eyes. Jane’s round face, with its sculpted chin and proud jaw line, seemed made for laughing. Her face was kind, with a smile that made people feel welcome. Sara’s face was a study in lines and angles, long and oval, with her nose, cheeks, and brow forming planes rather than curves. Jane was tall and lean, athletic in an outdoorsy way, and liked to wear jeans with a plain T-shirt or sweater. She grew up playing with boys, and even then she spoke in a boyish manner. New York had not robbed Jane of her tomboy mentality, which made her friend Sara absolutely intriguing among all the women she knew.

Jane saw that Sara was brooding again; that something was troubling her. Jane hadn’t tried to talk to Sara about her emotional distance, her seeming sadness and pain for several months now. Avoiding the issue tested her patience. As Sara’s best friend, she found it difficult to be so quietly supportive for so long. Jane felt that she was not the same person she was before meeting Sara. Something about her roommate brought out a different, nurturing side of her. Jane sometimes recalled how hot-tempered she used to be, and how she manipulated people to get things her way. She thought about the time she pushed her parents to buy her a car and how much she pried at people—other people, not Sara—until she got what she wanted. Sara was different.

For reasons Jane couldn’t put into words, she became compassionate toward and supportive of her roommate. Normally, she got upset when she didn’t get her way, and became furious if she didn’t get the answers she wanted to hear, but with Sara it was different. Jane knew there was something about Sara, something she could not explain, that brought out the best in her.

Jane noticed that Sara didn’t speak much about her family, or say much about her past. Although she had known Sara for years and thought of her as her best friend, she realized that she didn’t know much about Sara’s history. Everything with Sara was in the present, as though she didn’t want to, or somehow couldn’t, share her past.

Sara understood that her problems were very different from Jane’s, and of a type with which almost no one could sympathize or even comprehend—which was why she kept her problems buried deep inside. Sometimes all she could do was swallow each breath and keep it held in tight. No one knew the precious agony that she held tightly inside herself.

Jane knew that Sara needed help. She could read it in her friend’s eyes. She tried to get Sara to talk, many times, but each time sorrow and pain welled up in Sara’s eyes. Jane could not bear to see her friend suffer such agony. Even though Jane was absorbed in her last year at NYU, she swore to find out Sara’s problems and do whatever it took to help.

Sara’s problems were completely different from Jane’s, and of a type that Sara realized few people can relate with. Although she knew that Jane would do her best to help, she usually thought it was better to keep her problems buried deep inside. That Sunday, however, she decided to tell Jane stories that she would not believe—stories about her past.

Sara opened their picnic basket and handed Jane a sandwich. Jane told Sara her latest stories about school and cracked jokes about her classes. As usual, Sara was quiet; she generally spoke little more than necessary, not offering much of herself, yet showing that she cared about others, especially Jane, by listening. She nodded and used body language perhaps more than she should, using exaggerated facial expressions, leaning in when interested, and touching. Jane had been her guiding light and kept her sane. She often thought that if it weren’t for Jane, she wouldn’t know how to get through those days…and the days to come. The prior five years had been the happiest of Sara’s adult life, and yet the precious ache remained. She often wanted to tell Jane everything, but each time she tried, she was ultimately unable. She hoped that one day things would be different.

And then they were.

Jane, said Sara.

Jane turned her head, eyes wide open, making an ogre-like face with bits of sandwich protruding between her teeth.

Sara ignored Jane’s levity and said, in a low, earnest, compassionate tone, the single word, Thanks.

Jane paused, chewed, and swallowed her food, knowing that Sara was serious. Thanks for what? she asked.

Thanks for everything.

Jane furrowed her brow in surprise. Spoken thanks from Sara were rare; she showed her gratitude in ways other than words. Jane had no idea for what she was being thanked. It could be anything. Jane knew she was Sara’s best friend, a part of her family even, and had been for a while; she was just there for Sara without even thinking of what needed to be said or done, or why she was doing it. Their friendship developed so naturally that it didn’t require thought. She knew intuitively that Sara needed her in a quiet, private way, and would walk a thousand miles for her. Sometimes she felt that it was her destiny to help Sara. Jane looked at Sara, and their eyes met. In a moment, all was understood.

We’re friends, and friends are there for each other, Jane said reassuringly.

Jane, Sara began solemnly, something is about to happen, and it is going to change this world. I have seen, in visions, the world engulfed in fire. I can feel it in my bones. It’s coming. I don’t know what ‘it’ is, but I can feel its energy echoing.

Jane’s eyes lit up as she tried to decipher what Sara was saying. She had never heard Sara speak that way. She didn’t know how to react to the revelation or the strange way Sara was talking. Sara had never seemed to be a mystical type, one to talk of visions and destiny. She was far more down-to-earth.

Sara, are you okay? Jane asked in a low voice, dwelling on Sara’s words and trying to understand what her friend was saying. Jane saw deep sorrow in Sara’s gray eyes, but she also saw joy at their edges. She looked at Sara and put on a big smile to cheer her up.

Sara paused. Now that she had begun to let her friend know of her secrets, she was unsure how to proceed. She had so much to say, and she feared that Jane, even as her best friend, would not believe her; or worse, believe her but be so frightened and alarmed that she would want nothing more to do with Sara. The visions were but a small part of her secret world.

Sara had seen the end of civilization; the world engulfed in flames and filled with monsters and dark creatures. Sara’s visions came to her in dreams, and they had never been wrong. She was born with that cursed gift—a power she never wanted, which brought sorrow and misery. She often wished she never had that power. The terrible vision, one she had with increasing frequency for the preceding few months, was the most frightening yet: nothing less than the end of humankind. A looming catastrophe, the vision that she knew would come to pass, inspired Sara to let Jane know who she really was, right then, while there was still time.

Sara felt that the apocalypse of her visions was imminent. In the past, her visions pushed into her subconscious more and more often as the events she foresaw drew nearer; by then she saw those visions of the apocalypse almost every night. She heard the cries of terror and pain, and saw the anguish in people’s faces as their world came to a bitter end. Houses, trees, and buildings were consumed in flames. She saw monstrous creatures with demon-like powers, and thousands of dark creatures as tall as the city’s skyscrapers, with destructive powers almost beyond imagination. Humanity disappeared quickly under their attack, the dark creatures destroying in a night what took people centuries to build.

Some creatures stood more than thirty meters tall, with thick, leathery skin that bullets could barely penetrate. The vicious creatures had fangs that rent flesh like butchers’ knives. Their wings spanned more than a football field, and they flew across the ocean with ease. Sara saw their most gruesome power: energy rays that issued from their mouths, with the power to crush automobiles and demolish buildings. The creatures swiftly crossed both land and ocean, bringing pain and suffering beyond anything she had ever seen—which was far more than anyone she knew.

The visions included other creatures with razor-sharp teeth, stampeding across the land and ravaging people’s homes. She saw humans fighting back with their most advanced weaponry, which was no match against creatures more powerful than anything ever seen by anyone on the planet. They were completely new to the modern world.

Sara’s visions tormented her, and she had buried her worry, along with her pain, deep within herself. Who could she talk to? Who would believe her? She felt that there was no one with whom she could share her worries and talk them out, no one with whom to plan against that awful future. No one, except perhaps Jane.

Jane watched as her friend withdrew into herself. It was rare for Sara to open up, and Jane could see her struggling. She waited patiently as her friend considered what to say next, now that she had opened the door to a strange and revealing conversation.

Sara thought of her long past—one that was mysterious and dark—with all that she had experienced and the stories that she had heard. She was descended from Princess Natalia, from the House of Arcon, whose ancient bloodline became obscured a millennium ago. During a dark time of war and chaos, her bloodline failed to pass on the knowledge of its origins, including the fate of the one who bore the Mark and how the Mark passed down through their bloodline. Her ancestors lost the stories of how long their bloodline had existed, and knowledge of the powers they possessed. Since those dark times, the Draconian people had lost their connections with each other, lost their trust and ties, and scattered across the globe.

Sara had traveled all over the world, was well-spoken in seventeen languages both modern and ancient, and could speak in depth about most subjects. She was also a master of many combat arts. Having survived centuries of war and chaos while roaming the earth, her combat skills were formidable. Although she appeared fragile and timid, she was stronger than many men and possessed muscles lean from years of training. In her time, Sara had defeated tough opponents. Most notably, her extraordinary skill and strength had long prevented her capture by a shadowy figure she came to know as the Dark Lord.

Sara recalled only some broad strokes and a few details about her ancestry. Two recognizable traits of the Draconians are their pale skin and gray eyes. Draconians have long life spans, living for about 200 years. They age similarly to normal humans, whom they refer to as Pipians, until their eighteenth birthdays; after that, they appear to age very little. Because the Draconian life span is longer than that of Pipians, Draconians often have been thought by Pipians to be immortal.

Most Draconians are born with some particular gift, one that is especially powerful for pure-born children—those born to parents who both trace their bloodlines through Princess Natalia. These gifts, and Draconians’ longevity, became a liability in the world of Pipians. Draconians were targeted by Pipians because they were different. They were called vampires and witches, among other things, and thousands of Draconians were hunted and executed by Pipians. Mention of the Draconians was erased from the Pipians’ holy scriptures and historic records to purge even their memory. Those dark ages have passed into lore, but various stories and legends about Draconians lived on in whispers; in time, some of the lore went public, inspiring theatrical plays and cinema. Sara knew that few Draconians existed in modern times.

Although Sara was an only child, her parents were strict