Venom and Earth Read online

  He’s right. Skimming over what I’ve previously written, I tap my lip with my pen and decide to keep writing.

  * * *

  The rest of the afternoon goes by agonisingly slowly. I sent Wes off with the letter and he hasn’t come back yet. Glancing at the clock on the chest of drawers, I remember that Violet has her Elemental test today. Shrugging, I grab a jacket and leave the cabin to head out to the field to see which Element Violet got.

  After spending time with me over the past few weeks, she’s come out of her shell a bit, but is still reluctant to open up. She hasn’t shown one sign of her Element, so I’m curious to see what she has. Hopefully not fire, because then we’ll be stuck with Mr Reedman. The bald man is an ass like Ray. He threw Aqueous around as an egg and also shot me with a fireball. Not great.

  My companion is lazing around on the warm green grass with some of the other dragons in our cabin, enjoying the sun.

  “Aqueous, wanna go see Violet?” I call to him.

  His head snaps up and he trots over excitedly. He adores Violet.

  “Come on, let’s see what Element she got.”

  My companion nods, nuzzling my cheek lovingly.

  As we walk, we pass by a few crowds of Premiers. I keep my distance from their protectors – people hired to keep them away from commoners such as myself. I don’t want another fine; they’ve probably bumped the price up to be even more spiteful.

  “Let’s hope she’s not fire. Or light, for that matter. I don’t think you’d like training with those Elements when it comes to attack.”

  Aqueous nods, huffing as he steps in a muddy puddle and gets brown sludge wedged between his claws.

  “Once we get to the field it’s going to be a lot worse,” I snicker.

  The black dragon sighs and shakes his legs, attempting to flick off all the brown clumps.

  When we reach the field, it’s obvious something has happened. All of the First Years are crowded in a large circle, chattering excitedly, while the Instructors are standing in the middle of the circle, hurling abuse at each other.

  “That’s so weird!”

  “How does that even happen?”

  “Which Instructor will she choose?”

  What is going on around here?

  Standing at the back of the crowd doesn’t let me see much, and pushing through would be stupid, as I’d only get pushed back way harder.

  “What’s going on?” I ask the kid in front of me.

  He turns around excitedly. “A girl’s dragon has all of the Elemental markings!”

  “Shit,” I mutter, standing on my tiptoes to try to see. “Do you know who?”

  “Violet Samuels.”

  My blood runs cold.

  I’m unable to speak for a few seconds before blurting: “Are you sure?”

  The kid rolls his eyes. “Yes. The Instructors are trying to decide who gets to teach her. I guess whoever does goes down in history, so they’re getting really angry about it.”

  “Enough!” The familiar shout of Mr Reedman silences everyone. “As Mr Stirling is Head of Instructors for this Year, he will teach her.”

  There are a few surprised whispers from the crowd. I assumed he’d want to teach her himself.

  “Thank you, Mr Reedman.” Mr Stirling’s voice is barely heard over the chatter of the circle. “Everyone has their Element. If you have two, come see me; if not, go off with your groups.”

  It takes a few minutes for everyone to clear, and for Mr Stirling to see one kid who had an Element combination of Earth and Dark, before it’s just Mr Stirling and the Wind class. Violet sits cross-legged on the outskirts, clutching a pink-bellied silver dragon in her arms. From where I’m standing, I can only see light blue ice markings on her dragon’s cheeks.

  “Okay, class. I know this is unusual, to say the least, but I still need to do the rounds. So, is Ben here?” Mr Stirling goes through the whole register, taking the names and statuses of everyone there. He tells everyone their schedules and outlines their training, but his eyes keep flickering to Violet, who sits silently at the back, holding her companion.

  I want to step in and talk to her, but there are two Premiers in the group, so I have to hang back until they leave unless I want my bank account emptied.

  “Okay, class dismissed. And Violet, we’ll talk about your specialised training at a different time.” Mr Stirling clears his throat awkwardly as everyone turns to stare curiously at Violet and her companion, trying to get a glimpse of the multiple markings.

  Violet shoots up and runs over to me, tears streaming down her face. She drops her companion and throws herself at me, clinging to me and sobbing into my chest.

  “Utopia got everything,” she sniffs.

  Her dragon chirps and opens her wings. My mouth drops. Her cheeks are covered in light blue ice markings, while light grey wind marks surround her eyes. Her tiny white wings are covered in light, water, fire and electricity markings, while dark and earth markings cover her small legs.

  “It’s unusual… But I think we can make it work,” I offer half-heartedly, but Violet doesn’t look convinced.

  The quiet girl meets my gaze, her face white, and her grey eyes wide and fearful. “That’s not the only thing…” Unclenching her fist, she offers her palm to me.

  In the middle are the familiar blue snowflake markings that I’ve seen many times before.

  Then it clicks in my head like a light bulb.

  Stellar.

  * * *

  “Hazel, I don’t want people knowing…” Violet tries to argue, tugging feebly on my arm as I drag her to the library.

  “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

  “How do you know?”

  I stop, causing her to squeak in surprise, making Utopia slip off her shoulder and cling to her pale arm to hang on.

  “I have markings like yours, on my back. I’ll show you later. Mine represent my Element, while yours represent, well… Everything.” I pause as Violet stares down at the markings on her hand, still in awe of the tiny pale blue snowflake. “There are more of us. My brother Rocky, Wes and…Braith,” Forcing myself to swallow back the sadness, I take a deep breath and continue. “We’ll go through in more detail later, but you are like Stellar, the leader of the Original Elementals. We found out that a Primordial Dragon, Draca, has been created and our markings act like beacons that attract Draca to us. We’re not sure what our purpose is yet; we’re too young to defeat it because our Elements aren’t fully developed. My friend, Marco, has been helping us and so has Ray, the leader of the Cindaraans.”

  The ginger girl’s eyes widen in shock. “Scary Ray?”

  Taken aback by her response, I ask: “Really? Of everything I’ve told you, Ray is what surprises you the most?”

  Shuffling her feet in embarrassment, she smiles slightly. “Yes. Why him?”

  “Wes thought it would be a good idea.”

  She shrugs. “Fair enough.”

  I was expecting more questions, maybe a few tears, denial. But she seems cool with it.

  “Okay… Do you want to see the others now?”

  Nodding vigorously, she pulls Utopia off her arm to clutch her to her chest. “Mm-hm. But how will Marco be there?”

  “He won’t. He can’t come near me or Rocky.”

  “Because of the fine thing?”

  I nod curtly and continue to the library, Violet having to jog to keep up with me. Opening her mouth to say something, she quickly snaps it shut when I give her a warning glare. I’m no longer in the mood for talking about Marco.

  * * *

  “Holy shit,” is all my brother says when I tell him what happened on the field.

  This is obviously surprising if my usually anti-crude brother is swearing.

  “Well… What now?” I mutter, playing with a paper clip on the old wooden table.

  “I gotta tell Ray!” Wes bounces in his seat excitedly, a huge grin on his face.

  “Marco has to know first,” Rocky snaps.


  I flick the paper clip off the table in disbelief. “You want us to tell Marco first? Are you sick?”

  My brother raises an eyebrow quizzically. “No. He needs to know.”

  “But usually you’d be the one saying how Marco should never have joined the group, blah, blah, blah… Why do you now suddenly want him to know?”

  He shrugs unhelpfully and replies, “I dunno.”

  Why is he being so difficult?

  Wanting to know more, I’m about to ask him another question before Wes butts in. “So, Violet, how exactly did you get all eight?”

  The ginger girl hides behind a screen of hair, her face reddening. “I-I’m not sure… I went through the first seven with nothing, then suddenly on the last one I look down and Utopia had all the markings.”

  “What was the last test?”

  “Light.”

  This makes no sense. Surely all of the markings should have appeared after the first test and not the last?

  My companion growls behind me, making my head snap around. The black dragon is squaring off against a cream and brown dragon holding an envelope in its mouth. My partner growls and nips at one of its wings, but the dragon takes a step back and spits out the envelope, baring its teeth menacingly at Aqueous.

  “Aqueous, back off! It’s Exquisite, Sadie’s dragon!” Wes shouts, trying to get the black dragon’s attention.

  At the sound of Wes’ warning, he yelps and backs away slowly, leaving a small distance between him and the premier dragon. Exquisite rolls her eyes and kicks the envelope towards him, growling something to him. The two dragons seem to exchange heated conversation for a few seconds before Aqueous picks up the envelope and drops it on my lap.

  “Give it to me, I’ll open it.” Before I can protest, Rocky has snatched the envelope out of my hands.

  “So, what does it say?”

  “East wall, south of the bookshop, two steps right.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Wes huffs, snatching the letter out of his hands.

  “I dunno, it could be a trap,” my brother says nonchalantly. “No-one is going.”

  The dragons immediately let out a frenzy of yelps, including Asteroid and Cerberus.

  “Jeez, what’s got into them?”

  “They want us to go there!” Violet exclaims, making everyone jump. “Can’t we go?”

  “No-one is to go!” Rocky pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. “It’s Sadie, therefore it’s a trap.”

  “But-” I start, only to stop when he silences me with a glare.

  “Please. It won’t be good.”

  2

  Chapter Two

  As Damayanti is thrown against the cold concrete wall of her prison, she lashes her long, scaly tail at the dragons behind her. A wide smirk grows on her face as a smack sound means that she has successfully collided with one of her attackers. One of the dragons shrieks in shock and falls backwards, hissing curses at her. She puffs her chest out triumphantly and bares her sharp white teeth to signal that worse would come if they tried anything else.

  The two green dragons glance at each other before slowly retreating, their amber eyes blazing with fury. As soon as they step to the side, they are replaced by three humans, two male and one female, carrying sharp metal sticks. One of the men throws his stick at her, piercing her shoulder, making her roar out in pain. Her legs buckle underneath her as she clutches her injured shoulder with her other front leg. Black and white scales peel off around the wound, dropping to the floor, leaving behind sensitive inflamed skin.

  “I got the stupid bitch!” the man hollers excitedly, pumping his fists in the air.

  Motivated by their friend’s success, the other two step forward, their weapons pointed at Damayanti. She bares her sharp teeth as they take threatening steps closer. One was getting too close; she opens her mouth as wide as she can, allowing a thick icicle to form in her mouth before firing it at his feet.

  “Fuck!”

  The man scuttles back in fright as the icicle explodes on the floor, shards of sharp ice flying in all directions.

  “Stupid thing got me!” another one of her attackers cries, the female, hopping on one foot, with a stream of blood dribbling down her leg, the cause of it a glittering icy shard wedged in her thigh.

  The man throws his weapon on the floor. “Get the Wyrms in!”

  For a few seconds Damayanti is confused. How are worms threatening? They just wriggle around in the earth after rainfall.

  A loud clang vibrates in Damayanti’s ears, making her flatten them to her head. To her surprise, her attackers back away, taking the injured female with them. They are rushing out, vanishing through a door that had just opened. Seeing the opportunity for escape, she rushes towards it, only to collide with thick metal. Now stuck with an injured shoulder and a throbbing headache, Damayanti groans inwardly at her own foolishness; barrelling around as if she had no injuries was a stupid idea. Shaking her head in frustration, she is about to freeze the door, until another door opens behind her.

  She whirls around, taking an aggressive stance, only to stop in her tracks at what lies before her.

  Two pairs of tiny crimson eyes burn into her skin. They are not angry or frustrated. They look almost exhilarated.

  Before she can move, the unknown creatures shoot forward, coiling around her and squeezing her body. Shaking them off is futile; they just squeeze her more tightly.

  Her wounds burn unbearably as more and more scales break off from her shoulder and armpit. Panicking as black spots start dancing in her vision, she tries desperately to claw the creatures off in order to take a breath. After a few seconds, she collapses in a heap, the Wyrms still coiling around her. One creature blocks her vision, and her eyelids flutter closed as she embraces the darkness.

  * * *

  Aqueous noses the wooden door open quietly, trying not to wake the other dragons. Glancing outside into the darkness, he checks the coast is clear before chirping to Asteroid to follow.

  The two dragons slip outside into the cool night, scanning around to look out for anyone else who might be up. Satisfied that the clearing is empty, Asteroid takes the lead. She tiptoes through the streets, glancing back every so often to check that Aqueous is keeping up.

  The black dragon sighs. He knows what he’s doing is wrong, and that it will upset Hazel, but he has to check it out. Exquisite’s message was clear. Plus, it was from the protectors, and he wanted to reunite Hazel and Marco if it was possible.

  Asteroid halts and holds her tail up for Aqueous to stay back. The black dragon obeys, ducking behind his partner as a golden dragon steps out into the middle of the dimly lit street. Around its neck and belly is a hefty plate of silver armour, with an orange pendant in the middle. Aqueous growls at the sight of the Cindaraan dragon. Like the Cindaraans inside Aria, the ones outside were hot-headed and threatening. The dragon opens his mouth, a bright white light forming behind his sharp teeth, before firing a large, dazzling ball of light behind him, illuminating everything in its path. If one were fired in their direction, they would be spotted.

  Gulping, the two dragons carefully squeeze into a narrow alleyway, folding their wings as tightly as possible to hide themselves. As the dragon prepares to fire another ball in their direction, a sudden crash makes it roar in rage and speed off in the direction from which it came.

  Sighing in relief, the two dragons step out of the dark alley and back into the street, only for Cerberus, Rocky’s dragon, to land in front of them, holding a large pebble in her mouth. Spitting the pebble at their feet, she paws the ground, chirping excitedly. Asteroid thanks her, but puts her tail in the brown dragon’s mouth to get her to be quiet.

  The trio silently slink through the streets, keeping an eye out for any more patrols that could prevent them from achieving their mission. As they reach the east wall, they search the street for a bookshop. An excited growl comes from Cerberus, and Aqueous turns to see her pointing at a small, earthy-smelling shop wit
h her spiked tail. Nodding silently at each other, they prepare to break the glass of the shop window when a sharp hiss behind them makes them jump. Expecting a guard, the three turn around with their wings spread in an attack stance, only to be met with the familiar white form of Drea, Marco’s companion who Aqueous had been unable to go near for weeks thanks to the protectors.

  The four dragons greet each other excitedly, licking Drea’s face as she tries nipping their tongues in reply as a sign to compose themselves. After a while, a quiet growl behind Drea snaps them back to their senses. Exquisite steps out from behind Drea, as does Fortune. Mason is his companion, who is Marco’s twin brother. Aqueous never got along with Mason or his companion, he found them uptight and rude.

  Aqueous snorts at Exquisite and berates her about her trying to get Hazel and Rocky in trouble earlier today, but the white dragon replies with a hiss. Apparently the note the protectors dropped was so important it couldn’t be taken to Sadie, but Aqueous is still cautious of her intentions.

  While the other dragons eye each other carefully, Drea steps between the two groups, the nominated peacekeeper for both sides, and goes past Asteroid to the back of the shop. She squeezes behind a tight wall with a grunt, and then disappears. Feeling afraid, Aqueous presses close to Cerberus, and is glad when he feels her shaking as well. Rolling his golden eyes, Fortune squeezes in as well, surprising everyone that the two dragons can fit in such a tiny place. Cocking her head to one side curiously, Asteroid slowly follows, sniffing behind the wall and disappearing as well.

  A nudge and growl from Exquisite means that Aqueous is next. Fearfully, he steps near the gap, looking back at his friend once more before squeezing through. Unlike the rest of the group, he had an easier time squeezing through due to his smaller frame. The air is dank and hot, making it hard to breathe as he continues forward into the blackness. A bright red flame appears in the darkness, illuminating Fortune’s white and gold scales. Feeling better at the thought of the others being ahead, Aqueous tries to pick up the pace, losing a scale in the process as it catches on a jutting-out brick.

  After a few seconds, he emerges into a dark room, Cerberus bumping into him from behind as he enters. He must have been moving more slowly than he thought. The room is illuminated by Fortune, who opens his mouth and blows bright orange fire into thin air. He seems to be signalling to Exquisite, who lights up the gap behind her as she pushes forward into the room. After she enters, barging past Aqueous and Cerberus with her broad shoulders, she illuminates her tail in a bright white light before dimming it down so it’s more comfortable on the eyes. As the room lights up, all the dragons in the room suck in a sharp breath.