Dragon's Flame

By Alix J Beaumont and Jenny Ainslie-Turner

Its a mythical romance about three shape-shifting dragons in search of their pre-ordained mates, three teenage girls and timing is everything. Missed, and the dragon is doomed for all eternity. However, whenever they take on human form, they put themselves at risk of being captured and destroyed by a band of hunters known as the crusaders, descendants of a bygone age. Can the three dragons claim the maidens and escape before they are discovered and put to death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Acorn Books
• Release date: Jun 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783337583

Book preview

coincidental.

Chapter One

William Carmichael stared at the raindrops running down the outside of the window of his office and tried to decide what was the best way to deal with the man standing behind him, and the problem had had brought with him. He glanced over his shoulder at the short, rotund figure of Robert Stevens, Deputy-Headmaster of Grayling Academy, and sighed.

Look, Robert, Carmichael turned around and sat down in the high-backed, leather chair of the headmaster’s office. I know you have a problem with these girls, and frankly, I can even see your point, but...

William, Stevens shook his dark-haired head and frowned. Please don’t tell me that you’re going to make more excuses for these girls? I’ve come to you with problems with their behaviour three times since the start of term, and you always make some excuse, always find a way to treat them more lightly than they should be!

Robert, just answer me this: is there any problem with their work? Any at all?

No, I suppose not, Stevens sat down across the desk from him. They are all very bright girls. It’s just... they are so undisciplined.

So, what did they do this time? Carmichael asked.

"It’s no one thing, William, Stevens folded his arms. It’s just complaint after complaint I’ve received from their teachers. They talk back, never pay attention, disrupt the entire class around them, and yet they always have the right answer when asked, and... he sighed and shook his head. They just encourage the other pupils to question too much as well. Every lesson becomes a battle where, when whoever’s teaching them is trying to impart some important fact, one or another of those girls is always asking ‘why’. Why is it important? Why do we have to learn it this way? Why don’t we look at it like... All things like that. It’s disruptive. Incredibly disruptive."

So, you want me to punish them for showing independent thought? Carmichael cocked his head.

You make it sound like I’m the Spanish Inquisition, Stevens sighed. "Alright, I’m sure their ‘independent thought’ is very valuable, but not at the expense of everyone around them, surely?"

Carmichael paused, and turned his chair back to the window, steepling his fingers as he thought how best to reply. Robert... he said slowly. How much do you know about the Fairchild girls?

Why does that matter? Surely who they are has no bearing on...

This does, Carmichael cut him off. Look, Lucy, Chloe and Felicity Fairchild have... well, not the most enviable of pasts. They’ve lived with Felicity’s mother, Marisa Fairchild, and their grandfather, since they were five years old.

Some kind of family accident? Stevens guessed.

Hardly, Carmichael shook his head. This is just between us, you understand. It goes no further than this office.

Some kind of secret? Stevens said, half-smirking.

"Far from it. Most of the town knows. It’s hard to keep something like this quiet in such a small place. But that doesn’t mean the poor girls need everyone talking about it. Understand?"

Alright, Stevens nodded, looking more serious now. So, what happened?

Philip Fairchild, Lucy’s father, was married to Susan Carter, Carmichael explained. Except that he had an affair with Susan’s sister, Joanna, at about the same time as his wife was pregnant with Lucy. Well, the ins and outs of it are private, I’m sure the family knows why, but, basically, poor Joanna had a bit of a history of... well, substance abuse, to put it mildly. I grew up with her, you know. Nice girl, but... she just went off the rails. Personally, I doubt she even knew what she was doing when she slept with her brother-in-law, but, there you go... at the end of the day, all that matters is that Joanna had a baby, Chloe, about six months after Philip’s wife gave birth to his legitimate daughter.

Christ, Stevens shook his head, looking shaken. But, hell, I’m sorry to say it, William, but the way society is nowadays, why is this grounds for...

I’m not done, Carmichael cut him off. "Joanna left Chloe with Susan and Philip, without telling anyone who Chloe’s father was. Well, maybe she told Philip, we’ll never know. She went off, lost in her drugs and whatever else she was into. Every so often, she’d come back, say she was going to get clean, dote on her little girl for a while, and then vanish again.

And then one time, on some kind of binge, she let slip to Susan just where Chloe had come from. Poor little girls were about five years old at the time. Anyway, Susan was... uncompromising, you could say. She, apparently, confronted her husband, told him she knew about his affair, and said she was leaving, and taking both Lucy and Chloe with her. Only good thing out of all of this was that, as far as we can tell, she never blamed that little girl for what her father had done.

So what happened?

Philip Fairchild killed her. Smashed her head in right then and there. And not just her. John Fairchild, Philip’s brother and Felicity Fairchild’s father, he was there too. And he got the same treatment when he tried to protect his sister-in-law. Someone called the police, and when they turned up, they found Philip getting the two girls ready to leave, no idea where he planned to take them, but he was going to disappear, I’m sure. And, as if that wasn’t enough, as soon as she heard about what her confession had caused, Joanna took an overdose of, well, whatever it was she was on at the time. Maybe she felt guilty, maybe it was an accident, no one is sure. Anyway, Marisa Fairchild suddenly found that her daughter no longer had a father, she no longer had a husband, but she had suddenly inherited care of her two nieces, who were not only cousins, but also half-sisters of each other. So, you see what I mean when I say they had a difficult childhood?

Maybe so, but... Surely we’re not helping them by letting that excuse their behaviour...

Maybe, maybe not, but at the least, we can understand why they are so... well, why they are apart from everyone around them. I’m sure Marisa is a good mother to the girls, after all, she adopted the other two girls when she didn’t have to, but, at the end of the day, those girls pretty much have always been apart.

I still think they deserve detention, at the least, for...

I know you do, Carmichael cut him off. "So bring them in, and let’s see what kind of compromise we can reach. And, I must point out, that you’ve already kept them behind for over an hour today anyway! It’s nearly half-four, Robert."

Yes, well, you were busy, the deputy head replied with a shrug.

Fine, Carmichael shook his head. Just go get them.

Stevens got up and went to the office door. Opening it, he ushered in three teenage girls, all dressed in Grayling Academy’s uniform of grey pleated skirt, blouse and maroon blazer, with the grey and maroon striped school tie.

Lucy Fairchild led her sisters into the headmaster’s office, trying to hide how angry she felt. She did not know why Deputy Headmaster Stevens always seemed to have it in for her and her sisters, but she hated it. At least, she thought, Headmaster Carmichael was more reasonable.

She stopped in front of the headmaster’s desk, Chloe and Fliss standing either side of her. Stevens took a place on the other side of the desk, next to the headmaster, and Lucy fought the urge not to glare at him. Instead, she kept her chocolate coloured eyes staring straight ahead, at Carmichael.

Has, she saw the headmaster look sideways at his deputy, Mr. Stevens told you why you’re here, girls? he asked.

Lucy knew that, with most teachers, that would not have been a real question but that Carmichael was aware of the antipathy between the Fairchild girls and the deputy head. She glanced to Chloe and Fliss, but both of them seemed happy for her to do the talking. No, sir, not really, she replied calmly.

She was, it was fair to say, the one who usually took the lead. She was the one who was usually spotted first when the three girls entered a room. Tall for her seventeen years, with shoulder length, golden-blonde hair, she naturally commanded more attention than her shorter and darker siblings, both of whom were still sixteen years old.

Really? Carmichael responded, cutting Stevens off, who had his mouth open to object. Well, I’m told that the three of you insist on asking inappropriate questions during classes, about the reasons for why you are supposed to be learning the approved syllabus.

The syllabus is stupid, Chloe muttered under her breath.

Excuse me, Miss Fairchild? Stevens practically snapped at her. While most people would probably have kept quiet, Chloe repeated her statement more loudly. And how are you qualified to say that? Stevens demanded angrily. "The syllabus, all the syllabi, are designed to get you through your exams with good marks and..."

"But what’s the point of that? Chloe demanded. What’s the point of just learning for exams? Why don’t we learn something we can use?"

Excuse me, Carmichael cut in, perhaps wisely stopping that line of argument. "The point is not whether your questions were valid or not. I think the point is that they should not be asked during the course of the lesson. Perhaps they would be better addressed to your teachers after class, rather than disrupting your fellow pupils?"

Next to Lucy, Fliss, always the shy one, said something very quietly that no one in the room actually managed to hear. Carmichael turned to face her, and said, What was that, Felicity? Speak up please.

Flushing red, Felicity repeated, in her usually timid speaking voice, Sir, we tried to ask Mr. Stevens these questions after class after he yelled at Chloe to shut up in the middle of class but he wouldn’t answer and just brought us down here to see you.

I see, Carmichael shot Stevens another look, one that was not entirely friendly.

Lucy forced herself to hold back a smile at the expression of mingled fury and embarrassment on the Deputy headmaster’s face. Fliss was quite correct, well, mostly correct, she thought. It had just been Chloe who had gone to ask, but she and Fliss had stayed behind to wait for her. Which now seemed to have landed all three of them in trouble.

Even so, the headmaster seemed genuinely regretful as he went on, "That’s no excuse for disrupting your classes. However, I won’t issue you with detention, since you’ve already been held back by almost an hour and a half today. This time, that is. Please try not to end up back here again, though. A little discretion about asking such things, perhaps, girls?"

Lucy led the Fairchild girls in a chorus of ‘Yes sir’ and then out the door as Carmichael dismissed them. This time, however, she did not bother to suppress a smile as, as the door started to close behind them, she overheard the headmaster speaking again.

Now, Robert, about dealing with students’ enquires after class...

The three adopted sisters looked at each other with some satisfaction, and hurried down the corridor back to the locker rooms before Stevens could emerge and find them eavesdropping.

The rain was coming down hard enough to bounce off the pavement. It was not so much rain as a cloudburst, and all three girls were, at first, thankful they had remembered coats that morning. At least, they were for the first few minutes of their walk home, after that, the sheer force of the rain had soaked them through anyway, and their coats made little difference.

"God, I hate that prick, Chloe stormed. If he hadn’t held us behind then we’d have been home before it even started raining! When neither of the others answered, she continued her outburst, I mean, it’s not even as if we did anything wrong, is it? Okay, I suppose Carmichael has a point about disrupting the classes, but we didn’t, surely? We went up to that tosser afterwards, and he still wouldn’t answer. I mean, what’s the point of..."

Give it a rest, Chloe, Lucy cut her off. I’m just as angry as you are, but this doesn’t help.

"Well, something should help, Chloe pulled her coat a little tighter around her, all to no effect. The rain came down as hard as ever. Maybe we should get Granddad to talk to Carmichael? I mean, they’ve known each other for a long time. Granddad mentioned a few times how Carmichael and Uncle John were friends and..."

Chloe, Lucy stopped her again, glancing at Fliss. It was hard to tell if the water on their cousin/adopted sister’s cheeks was rain, or if she was crying, but Lucy would not have bet against them being tears. The mention of her father often made Fliss break down, but, at the same time, so did the constant, unjustified persecution from people around them.

Lucy knew that none of them had had an easy life, with the tragedy that their family had suffered, but it had, truthfully, been made worse by everyone else around them. When word had gotten out about Philip Fairchild, and what he had done, it had been Lucy and Chloe who had borne the brunt of the taunts and teasing from their peers, with all the cruelty children were capable of. It was, she had often thought, as if somehow blame for their father’s crime had been passed on to the two of them.

In some ways, Fliss had been spared that, but, at the same time, Chloe and Lucy were always with her, and so abuse directed at them inevitably found its way to hurting her, too. Somehow, while Lucy and Chloe had learned to get angry and fight back, Fliss had always remained vulnerable to any unjust abuse. Lucy put an arm around Fliss and hugged her to her.

It’s not fair, Fliss complained. "Why is it always us, Lucy? Why do we get punished for asking questions? I mean, it’s a school, aren’t we supposed to be there to learn?"

I know, sweetie, Lucy squeezed her again. But I really don’t think there’s anything we can do. Well, I suppose we could just do like Stevens wants and shut up, but...

Hell with that! Chloe burst out. I’m not doing what that prick wants!

No, I didn’t think you would, Lucy shook her head. Sometimes, she found herself getting frustrated with her younger half-sister. She could understand why Chloe was angry, she even shared that anger, but she, unlike Chloe, had worked out that just getting angry at a problem did not solve it. Yes, she could get angry, but she wanted a solution, not just the anger itself.

What? Chloe rounded on her, her emerald eyes flashing. "You think we should just give in?"

I didn’t say that, Lucy shook her head again. But maybe we should keep the questions ‘till the end, like Carmichael said.

"But we did do that, and Stevens still hauled us up, didn’t he? Chloe countered. Besides, we have a right to ask questions if we don’t think we’re learning enough, don’t we? And I don’t think we’re learning enough. Do you?"

Okay, no, I don’t, Lucy admitted. But getting in trouble all the time isn’t the best way to... she trailed off in frustration.

Oh, so are you saying it’s my fault? Chloe demanded.

Oh stop! Fliss burst out, very obviously crying now. "I hate it when you two fight!"

That one outburst was enough to silence Lucy and Chloe. They always tried as hard as they could not to upset Fliss. A part of that, Lucy admitted only in the deepest, darkest, most private place of her own soul, was that maybe, just maybe, she felt guilty that Fliss had lost her dad because of her and Chloe’s father. She knew that, if she ever told Fliss that, her cousin would be horrified, and would tell her that she did not blame either of them in the slightest, but, then again, that was why she kept that thought to herself, locked away in her own head where no one could ever get to it.

Sorry, Lucy said softly, as much to Fliss as to Chloe.

Let’s get home, Chloe said, not acknowledging the apology, but her voice was much warmer. No one else spoke as they gave up on walking and broke into a run, hoping to get into the warmth of indoors before they were completely drowned by the storm, and quickly, they were too out of breath from running to say anything.

The storm was one of the worst to hit the east coast of Britain in a long time, and it only got worse as the evening progressed. It, like the storm of nineteen-eighty-three must have caught the weathermen off-guard, as there had been absolutely no warning. The rain was only the beginning. Clouds black as night had rolled in from the east, cutting short the daylight hours and shrouding the entire town in a blanket of darkness.

Gales and lightning lashed the town, the winds whipping up a storm surge that flooded the waterfront and several streets close to the seaside. Thunder crashed so loudly it sounded as if the clouds were great battering rams hammering against each other. Almost hurricane force, it scourged the town until well past midnight and then, just as suddenly as it had blown up, dissipated. The clouds dissolved into the night sky, the winds died down almost instantly, and a cold, clear moon bathed the town in silvery light for the rest of the night.

Chapter Two

Hurry up, or you’ll be late! Marisa Fairchild snapped at her three daughters as she busily cleared away the breakfast plates and bowls, cups and glasses.

Chloe rolled her eyes and grinned at her sisters, silently imitating Marisa so that both of them had to stifle laughter.

Lucy stuffed the last piece of toast into her mouth, turning away to avoid seeing any more of Chloe’s impressions, and looked out the window. There was surprisingly little evidence of the almost-hurricane that had ravaged the town last night. There were puddles everywhere, and a few fences had been blown down, but, so far as she could see out of the kitchen window, there did not appear to be any serious damage.

Lucy! Hurry up! Marisa looked up briefly from the washing up, shaking her long black hair, so much like her biological daughter, Fliss’s, out of her eyes.

With her mouth full, Lucy did not have to reply, but still, she hurried out of the kitchen to collect her school bag. The girls were lucky that their uniforms, which had been utterly sodden by the time they got home the previous night, had dried out in the airing cupboard overnight. As she stepped into the hall, the front door opened to admit Michael Fairchild, their grandfather and Marisa’s father-in-law, back from his usual morning walk to collect the daily paper from the local newsagents.

Someone’s moved into the house opposite the church, he announced. You know, Rawleigh House? Now in his early sixties, Michael’s hair was only just starting to go grey, his face was barely lined, and he still had the vigour of a man half his age.

Really? Marisa stuck her head out of the kitchen. What that giant old place that’s been empty for years? When did that happen?

Must have been yesterday, Michael shrugged.

How’d you know? Chloe asked. I mean, Rawleigh House is on the other side of town.

Well, I bumped into Bill Jameson down at the newsagents. He walks there every day, past Rawleigh, like me. He says it must have been yesterday, because there certainly wasn’t anyone in there that morning when he last went by.

I wonder who that could be, she turned back to the washing up. There weren’t any removals vans there when I drove past about lunch time. They must have moved in later.

With that storm? Bloody hell, that can’t have been easy, Michael shook his head.

Well, maybe I’ll pop over with a basket of something to welcome them, Marisa said absently. "After last night, well, they need to see it’s not all doom and gloom around here. And hurry up! She directed the last at the three girls, noticing that they had slowed down to listen to their grandfather. I am not driving you, even if it looks like you’re going to be late! Now go!"

Already at the door, the three girls took that as their cue to get out of the house. Chloe rolled her eyes again as they left and Lucy, this time, did not bother to stop herself laughing. Even withdrawn Fliss chuckled. All three of them found Marisa’s absent minded interest in gossip amusing; as if she felt that she should be a gossip, but could not be bothered to devote all her energy to it.

Still, Fliss mused as they set off. I wonder who the new people are?

Can’t see how it matters, Chloe shrugged.

Yeah, but aren’t you at least a little curious? Fliss asked her.

Why? I’m sure whoever they are they are exactly the same as everyone else in the stupid little place, Chloe replied. Like I’ve said before, as soon as I’m done with school, I’m leaving. I’m going to find the furthest university from here that’ll have me, and see if I can actually learn something, not this pre-prepared shit people like Stevens want to force feed us.

"Chloe, not that again, Lucy shook her head. We all had enough of Stevens yesterday, don’t bring us right back to him first thing, please!"

"Well, I’m curious, Fliss declared. Even if you’re not."

"I didn’t say I wasn’t, Lucy pointed out. Did Granddad say they moved in during the storm?"

No, during yesterday, Fliss corrected her. "Mum said she thought they must have moved in then ‘cus there was no sign of activity when she went past herself at lunch."

Yeah, well, the clouds started coming in just after lunch anyway, Lucy reminded her. So I say it counts as ‘in the storm’.

"You know, in Dracula, he moves into Whitby in a storm, Chloe teased. And that’s not that far from here."

"Yes, because a family of vampires moving in is so plausible," Lucy laughed at her.

No one said anything about a family, you know, Chloe countered. Granddad just said new people had moved in.

Yeah, but a big place like that... Lucy frowned. She knew which house Michael had meant. It was almost a mansion: three stories tall, and the size of at least three normal houses. She could not imagine anyone who did not have a family buying it: what would they do with all the space?

Maybe it’s a couple who want to throw a lot of parties? Chloe said, when Lucy spoke her thoughts aloud.

Or maybe they need lots of space to store their coffins? Fliss laughed.

Oh, shut up, Chloe finally smiled and shook her head. "Okay, they’re probably not vampires, happy? But whoever they are, they must be loaded. That place wouldn’t be cheap."

They continued speculating about the new owners of Rawleigh House as they made their way through the gates of the Grayling Academy. The school itself had once been an old country pile, with several wings branching off a central hall, and a half-dozen outbuildings, all converted into classrooms and various facilities, in quite spacious grounds.

As they passed what had been an old stable block and was now the school swimming pool, they saw Deputy Headmaster Stevens. The trio were used to seeing him every morning. It was almost as if he watched the students filing in at the start of each day, just looking for something to tell someone off for. Today, he seemed to have found three victims. Seeing Stevens yelling at someone was not an unusual enough sight to draw all that much attention by now, but this time, the little scene he was making was drawing quite a few eyes. Not because of the deputy head, but because of the three boys he was yelling at.

Lucy knew at once that they were new. She, certainly, had never seen any of them before and, she had to be honest, she was not likely to have forgotten them! It was obvious as well what Stevens was so angry about.

Their hair. All three boys had hair that definitely did not conform to the Academy dress code. One of them, in the middle, the tallest of the three, and tall enough to tower over Stevens, had very long, very pale, blonde hair, pulled back in at the nape to form a long tail, tied in three places with black leather thongs.

On his right, and only a couple of inches shorter than he, one of the others had hair so black it was almost blue, worn in a series of braids, and just as long as the blonde’s ponytail, falling almost down to his buttocks. The third, and shortest of the boys, on the blonde’s left, while still a good few inches taller than Stevens, was bulkier and more heavily built than the two other, more slender boys. His hair was worn free, a reddy-brown curtain covering his back.

Wow, Fliss breathed. That’s... um, quite impressive.

Which one? Lucy asked mischievously, eyeing the back of the blonde in the centre, and deciding that, at least from behind, she definitely liked what she saw. Come on, she grabbed Chloe and Fliss and half-led, half-dragged, them around so they could more clearly see the front of the three newcomers who had dared to wear outlandish haircuts in front of Stevens.

Once in view of their faces, though, Lucy found she did not take in all that much of the red-head and dark haired boys’ appearances. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the blonde boy in the centre. Looking about eighteen, despite having strong, sculpted features, his face was entirely dominated by his eyes, that were a shade of blue so bright they looked like crystallised shards of a summer sky. It was only after a few minutes that Lucy realised she had been staring at those eyes so much that she had not even listened to what Stevens was saying.

...totally against the dress code! The deputy head was storming. Like a small, puffed up pair of bellows, he was bright red, shouting at the top of his lungs but, whereas most pupils would be quailing by now, his anger seemed to wash over the blonde boy like a wave on a rock, making absolutely no impression. In fact, he seemed almost bored, and glanced away so that, just for a moment, Lucy found his eyes meeting hers. He smiled, just a little, so quickly that she was not sure if she had imagined it, and she felt a rush of heat to her cheeks, before the contact was broken, and he gave Stevens his full attention once more.

None of the boys replied but, little by little, everyone around them started to chuckle. It was quiet at first, an almost inaudible undercurrent of amusement. At first, Lucy did not get what was so funny, until she looked at