Aldric Lorne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Aldric Lorne meant to be king of Everfrost, but tonight he slept in a snowdrift like a beggar. He was a dragon prince, tall and strong, with more gold and ink than any rival in the frozen north. Yet he had no fortress. Every dragon in Everfrost knew a king needed a throne, and a throne needed walls. Without a lair, Aldric was just a rich stranger waiting to be challenged and torn apart. He woke to wingbeats. A shadow passed over the ice, then another. Rival scouts. They had smelled a lord with no home, and they were circling. Aldric bared his teeth and rose, but three against one was death. He needed shelter now, not pride. Celestine Wildrose found him first. She dropped from the pale sky on green wings, her long curls whipping in the wind. She was half fairy, half human, and Aldric loved her more than his hoard. She landed light on the snow and did not bow. "You planned to freeze out here?" she said. "For a prince, you make poor plans." "I make grand ones," Aldric said. "I lack only the stone." She knelt and pressed her palm to the ice. From her fingers, glowing flowers pushed up through the frost, tiny fairies rising off their petals. She crushed one blossom, and dark ink ran across her hand. "Then use what you have," she said. "You have ink. I have the flowers that make it live." Aldric understood. His hoard held rare ink by the barrel, ink strong enough to bind a spell. Alone it was only paint. Mixed with her fairy blossoms, it could shape and hold. The scouts dove. Aldric poured his ink across the snow in a wide ring. Celestine scattered her glowing blossoms into it and sang a sharp, fast note. The ink hissed and climbed. It rose into black walls streaked with color, hardening into diamond-bright crystal. Towers speared upward. A tall arched door sealed shut behind them. The first scout struck the wall and bounced off, snarling. The second circled, unsure. Aldric stood inside his own lair at last, its shadowed crystal shining around him. But the ring of ink and blossoms had drained him. He felt it leave his body like heat from a dying fire. His used his whole hoard of ink in one pour. Celestine's flowers were gone, every last one crushed into the walls. The scouts landed outside the door. They did not leave. One lifted its head and roared, calling others. "You have a lair now," Celestine said quietly. "And every dragon in Everfrost knows where you sleep." Aldric looked at his shining walls. He had traded a hidden weakness for a marked one. His home stood. Now the whole north would come to take it.