An Empire of Monsters: Part of the Enchanted Caves Charity Anthology

Earlier this year, I was asked to be part of the on-going Enchanted charity anthology series. This project put me in contact with many best-selling authors and has been something truly wonderful to be part of.

Every story centers around a magical cave. Some hide ghosts and monsters, some hold hidden wonders, and others are portals to new adventures.

The Enchanted Caves anthology goes to support Bat Conservation International. This organization works to protect over 200 species of bats. Pretty cool and a perfect fit for the spooky vibes of October.

Enchanted Caves launches on October 28th. (You can pre-order your copy now.) So today, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into my story, An Empire of Monsters. This story gives more insight into what happened to the lost dragons of Tellidus and where we will be heading with series two, The Dragons of Hadrian.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 – Poison

Why isn’t she dead yet?

Iris Vermu’s hands shook as she poured two more drops of her “tonic” into the empress’s gold filigree cup. Hands she wished could still transform into the powerful claws of a sun dragon.

A normal human would have died ages ago, but the old hag, Empress Merideth Severan, simply refused. The woman had used stolen magic from her Tellidine slaves for so long that she was almost as hard to kill as an actual dragon.

The empress spread out on her blue velvet divan, her skirt blending in with the fabric of the couch. A brass key dangled at the end of a chain around her neck. Merideth moaned as she lay back, kicking her feet up onto the plush cushions.

Iris set the goblet on the small table next to the couch and took a cloth from a basin of cool water. She pressed the compress to Merideth’s forehead, covering her eyes. 

“Where is it worst?” Iris asked.

“It feels like it’s everywhere today,” Merideth complained.

“Let’s start at the base of your skull then, and work our way up.” 

Iris moved the empress’s hair to the side, then with stealthy fingers, unfastened the chain around Merideth’s neck. She slipped the key into her sleeve before setting to work on massaging a headache that would never go away. The papery skin made Iris’s lip curl.

Touching this woman is like handling a plucked goose.

When Iris dug her thumb into the muscle too hard, Merideth waved her off.

“Enough. You’ll put holes in me if you keep that up,” she snapped.

Iris inclined her head as she tucked the stolen key farther up her sleeve. “Of course, Empress. Perhaps you should drink some of your tonic, then.”

Around the room, gold statues of Merideth, depicting all her supposed feats, glared at Iris. Each one pointing a finger as if to say, “She’s the one! That dragon is poisoning the empress!” Iris kept her head down, willing the sculptures to look somewhere else.

On the walls hung gilded portraits showing Merideth protecting the children. 

Lies. 

Of how she conquered the dragons. 

The Reykur Mir did that. 

And how much wealth the empress had accumulated over her reign. 

Wealth stolen from lands subdued by her armies of humans and dragons. 

If the woman’s head was any bigger, it wouldn’t fit through her massive golden doors.

With another groan, Merideth grabbed the compress and tossed it onto the side table.

“You told me this tonic would clear up my headaches,” Merideth complained, resting her head on a liver-spotted hand. “The most it does is dull the pain. Don’t you have something else in that bag of yours?”

Iris placed the glass vial back into its slot inside her meticulously organized remedy kit. I have many things that could kill you quicker, but with guards coming to check on you every thirty minutes, I want to get out of this palace alive.

And when she did get out there, she’d find her family. Or at least discover what happened to them. 

A thousand years had passed since Iris had last seen them. Before Hadrian launched its imperial war campaigns to bring the eastern lands under one banner. As time passed, the decades dragged on; with no news of her children, and only scattered reports of her husband ever crossing her ears, Iris’s hope of seeing them again faded. For all she knew, they had died ages ago, fighting a war that should never have been theirs.

Iris clutched her waist-long golden braid with her clawed fingers. “If I went out to the forest today, I could find fresh herbs to treat you. Many that grow on the lower hillsides could help you much better than my dried out supplies.” 

Her copper-tipped nails brushed the thin metal collar that rested around her neck, a symbol of a dragon shifter under the control of the Hadrian Empire. A symbol Iris hated more than the woman seated before her.

The metal ring allowed the empress to steal Iris’s magic and dictate her actions. 

Merideth leveled a narrow stare at Iris. “And give you another chance to run off? I think not. Send one of the other healers to fetch the herbs you need. Now hand over that tonic.”

Iris handed over the golden goblet, then tucked her hands into her embroidered sleeves to hide their shaking. Her fingers curled around the brass key. 

It has to work this time. 

The moment Merideth was dead, Iris would be free.

The empress raised the cup to her lips just as a knock sounded on the gilded door to her chambers. With a disgruntled sigh, she set the cup back down on the side table without drinking. 

Iris’s breath hitched. Few people would know the poison she’d used on the empress, but it wouldn’t do for them to smell the tainted wine or see Merideth collapse should she drink it in front of them. The concoction Iris had been slipping her over the past several months was finally working. 

“Enter,” Merideth called, fanning her skirt around the divan as if it was her throne. 

A man in gold-encrusted armor strode in with two soldiers at his back, boots clicking on the marble floors. General Atticus Thrax swept his royal blue cloak behind him as he kneeled before the empress. When Iris’s attention flicked to the two other soldiers, she wanted to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 

He’s alive! Sergei is alive and he’s here!

The first soldier to enter was a man she didn’t know. But the second, with black hair that hung to his eyes, a thin beard lining his face like someone had drawn it there with charcoal, and wearing an identical metal collar to Iris, was a dragon she knew with every fiber of her being. He was her husband, Sergei Vermu.

“Empress Merideth,” Thrax said, his armor glinting in the lamplight as he bowed his head. “I bring you tidings from the war front.”

“I hope it’s good news this time, Thrax,” said Merideth acidly as she picked up her goblet and pressed it to her lips, taking a long drink. 

She set the goblet back down on the side table and stifled a cough. “If you’re here to inform me you’ve lost another battalion of dragons and riders, I will behead you myself.”

“I’ve learned to bring you only good news in person.” 

Thrax touched a slight scar above his left eye. A remnant of a previous visit when his news had been less than ideal.

With her job done, Iris needed to leave. Merideth wouldn’t last the hour with the purple tinge rising on her skin. When Merideth’s body was discovered, people would first blame Iris, the empress’s personal physician. 

But if she left now, she might not see Sergei again. Just the sight of him was enough to make her head swim with giddiness. Iris had cried herself to sleep countless nights, worrying that he’d been killed in battle as Hadrian expanded its borders.

Sergei let his gaze sweep over Iris, holding her eyes far too long for an indifferent soldier.

A traitorous heat swept up Iris’s neck. If Merideth noticed the pair of them making eyes at each other, both of them would feel the end of a whip. Iris turned away, focusing instead on her remedy bottles still needing to be put away.

Merideth coughed again, harder this time.

Why now? 

Iris kept her gaze down and face neutral. However, if she turned the bottle in her hand just right, she could see Sergei in the reflection. She didn’t dare catch his eye. If she did, he would read the thoughts on her face and know what she’d done. And as a conscripted dragon soldier, he would have no choice but to stop her. 

Thrax tensed like a hound who’d just caught an intriguing scent. “Are you well, Empress?”

Merideth lifted her chin and glared. “I am as healthy as I’ve always been, General. Now, get on with your report.”

Thrax inclined his head.

“Of course, Empress.” Thrax deepened his bow, but the hungry expression on his face was as ravenous as a starving dragon. “First, I wanted to tell you we have the entire eastern countryside under our rule.”

Merideth leaned back in her chair and took another sip from her goblet, likely trying to clear her slowly constricting throat. “I’m glad to see you aren’t a total failure, Thrax.”

The cords on the general’s neck stood out as his smile sharpened. “I always do my best for you, Empress.”

Iris stashed the last few remedy bottles into her bag, no longer caring if it would be a mess to organize later. Keeping her head down, she slipped toward the door. Even if Merideth wasn’t going to die in the next few minutes, Iris didn’t want to stay in the room with the two leaders for another minute. Plus, it would give her an excuse to walk past Sergei and maybe brush his fingers on the way out.

Merideth leaned in to say more, but a sudden coughing fit took hold. She brought up a hand to stifle it, pausing when she noticed blood covering the skin of her knuckles.

Iris gripped the door handle to leave. She’d be lucky to get out of the regio alive now.

“Healer!” the empress called. 

More coughing followed.

It was as if the marble tiles had turned into tar. Iris couldn’t get her feet to move fast enough.

“Stop her!” Thrax called to his soldiers.

Iris hadn’t even pushed open the door before Sergei caught her by the arm. His firm yet gentle fingers locked her in place. The other soldier grabbed her and swung her around, hands threatening to squeeze all feeling from her limbs.

“What did you do?” Sergei whispered. His face paled. Beneath the stern exterior, Iris could still see her beloved underneath. Eyes warm, pinched with worry, and slightly scolding.

When was the last time he had looked at her? She’d forgotten the flecks of gold that hid in his dark eyes.

But she couldn’t soak it in. She needed to leave, like a rabbit before hunters. A stupid rabbit with a soft spot for neat beards, and hair that reminded her of midnight skies.

“Nothing,” Iris lied.

Sergei’s brow wrinkled as he glanced from her to his partner. 

“I think we have a little assassin on our hands,” the other soldier said, tightening his grip even more.

The empress slumped out of her chair and fell forward onto her knees. With a bloodstained hand, she reached out to Thrax in a silent plea for help.

Thrax didn’t move. In fact, he stepped back and watched as Merideth curled in on herself, blue dress pooling around her like a tired puddle. Her hand clutched her throat.

“Wingless wyrm!” the empress rasped.

“Let me go,” Iris begged Sergei, but his grip only tightened on her upper arm.

She knew she was putting him in an impossible position, but Thrax would murder her if she didn’t get out of there.

“Hold her, Sergei.” Thrax raised his hand and shifted his gaze to Iris. “This is your doing, miss, if I’m not mistaken.”

Iris didn’t dare speak, but she couldn’t stop her hands from going clammy. She had no magic. Her fighting skills had decayed beyond recall. And from the gentle, yet firm, way Sergei held her, he seemed to have no intention of letting her go—which made this harder. 

Centuries had passed without their being allowed to touch one another. Now, the contact burned her skin, making her want to curl into him. To hold him like she’d wanted to every day since he left to fight the empress’s war.

On the marble floor, Merideth’s face turned the color of milk. However, the cankerous woman still mustered the strength to give Thrax a withering glare. 

“Help me, you pompous sword slinger,” she wheezed.

Thrax tilted his head to the side and stroked his upper lip. “No, I don’t think I will. I’d planned to put a knife through you before our meeting ended, but I like this better.”

The empress raised her head, silver hair obscuring half her face. “You turned my slave against me!”

“Your little wyrm acted all on her own. She likely has no loyalty to a master who only used her like a dumb beast.”

She needed to get out of there, to get away from this place before Thrax could execute her for treason. Sergei’s hands flashed with magic, willing her to calm down. Iris fought the urge to relax, as giving in to Sergei’s brand of magic would only get her killed faster, despite what he might think.

Thrax stared down his crooked nose at the empress. “You’ve been lazy, Merideth. Ever since you first captured those hatchlings and mutated them into the Reykur Mir, you’ve lost your touch. You became too fond of sitting on your posh throne with your dragon slaves around you, catering to your every need. You’ve kept yourself alive far past your time with stolen magic. But you don’t have the people’s hearts the way I do.”

The general puffed out his chest, hooking his thumbs in a gap in his armor. 

Iris reeled. The Reykur Mir—those soulless, scaleless winged monsters that lived on the cliffs outside the city—were once true dragons?

“I curse you, Thrax,” Merideth said between convulsions. “I curse you… that the dragon you ride… will be your undoing.”

With her next breath, Empress Merideth Severan went still. Her fingertips turned black, and her face purpled as the poison finally claimed its victim.