The Last Namsara (Iskari #1)
Kristen Ciccarelli
Dedication
For Joe:
comrade, beloved, champion of all my dreams
One
Asha lured the dragon with a story.
It was an ancient story, older than the mountains at her back, and Asha had to dredge it up from where it lay deep and dormant inside her.
She hated to do it. Telling such stories was forbidden, dangerous, even deadly. But after stalking this dragon through the rocky lowlands for ten days now, her hunting slaves were out of food. She had a choice: return to the city dragonless or break her father’s ban on the ancient tales.
Asha never returned without a kill and she wasn’t about to now. She was the Iskari, after all, and there were quotas to fill.
So she told the story.
In secret.
While her hunters thought she was sharpening her axe.
The dragon came, slithering out of the red-gold silt like the treacherous thing it was. Sand cascaded down its body, shimmering like water and revealing dull gray scales the color of mountain rock.
Three times the size of a horse, it loomed over Asha, thrashing a forked tail while its slitted gaze fixed on the girl who’d summoned it. The girl who’d tricked it here with a story.
Asha whistled for her hunting slaves to get behind their shields, then waved off her archers. This dragon had spent the night burrowed beneath the cold desert sand. With the sun only just rising, its body temperature wasn’t warm enough for it to fly.
It was stranded. And a stranded dragon fought fierce.
Asha’s left hand tightened on an oblong shield while her right hand reached for the throwing axe at her hip. The rough esparto grass rattled around her knees as the dragon circled, waiting for her to let down her guard.
That was its first mistake. Asha never let down her guard.
Its second was to blast her with flame.
Asha hadn’t been afraid of fire since the First Dragon himself left her with a vicious scar running down the right side of her body. A sheath of fireproof armor covered her now from head to toe, made from the hides of all the dragons she’d killed. The tanned leather buckled tight against her skin and her favorite helmet—one with black horns mimicking a dragon’s head—protected her from dragonfire.
She kept her shield raised until the blaze ceased.
The dragon’s breath was now spent. Asha threw down her shield. She had a hundred heartbeats before the acid in its lungs replenished, allowing it to breathe fire again. She needed to kill it before that happened.
Asha drew her axe. Its curved iron edge caught the early morning sunlight. Beneath her scarred fingers, the wooden handle was worn smooth. A comfortable fit against her palm.
The dragon hissed.
Asha narrowed her eyes. Time to end you.
Before it could advance, she aimed and threw—straight at its beating heart. Her axe sank into flesh and the dragon screamed. It struggled and thrashed as its lifeblood spilled onto the sand. Gnashing its teeth, it fixed its raging eyes on her.
Someone stepped up beside Asha, breaking her focus. She looked to find her cousin, Safire, thrusting the butt of a pointed halberd into the sand. Safire stared at the thrashing, screaming dragon. Her dark hair was sheared to her chin, showing off the bold slant of her cheekbones and the shadow of a bruise on her jaw.
“I told you to stay behind the shields,” Asha growled. “Where’s your helmet?”
“I couldn’t see a thing in that helmet. I left it with the hunting slaves.” Safire wore tanned leather hunting gear, made hastily by Asha, and her hands were protected by Asha’s fireproof gloves. There hadn’t been time to make a second pair.
The bloody dragon dragged itself across the sand, intent on Asha. Its scales scraped. Its breath wheezed.
Asha reached for the halberd. How much time had passed since its last breath of fire? She’d lost track.
“Get back, Saf. Behind the shields.”
Safire didn’t move. Only stared at the dying dragon, mesmerized, as its beating heart slowed.
Thud-thud.
Thud . . . thud.
The scraping sound stopped.
Rearing back its head, the dragon screamed in hate at the Iskari. Just before its heart stopped beating, flames rushed out of its throat.
Asha stepped in front of her cousin.
“Get down!”
Asha’s ungloved hand was still outstretched. Exposed. Fire engulfed her fingers and palm, searing the skin. She bit down on her scream as pain lanced through her.
When the fire stopped and the dragon collapsed, dead, Asha turned to find Safire on her knees, safe and sound in the sand. Shielded from the flames.
Asha let out a shaky breath.
Safire stared at her cousin’s hand. “Asha. You’re burned.”
Asha pushed off her helmet and lifted her palm to her face. The charred skin bubbled. The pain blazed, bright and hot.
Panic sliced through her. It had been eight years since she’d been burned by a dragon.
Asha scanned her hunting slaves, all of whom were lowering their shields. They wore no armor, only iron—iron in their arrows and halberds and spears, iron in the collars around their necks. Their eyes fixed on the dragon. They hadn’t seen the Iskari get burned.
Good. The fewer witnesses, the better.
“Dragonfire is toxic, Asha. You need to treat that.”
Asha nodded. Except she hadn’t brought supplies for a burn treatment. She’d never needed them before.
To keep up appearances, she moved for her pack. From behind her, Safire said very softly, “I thought they didn’t breathe fire anymore.”
Asha froze.
They don’t breathe fire without stories, she thought.
Safire got to her feet and dusted off her leather armor. Her eyes dutifully avoided Asha’s as she asked, “Why would they start breathing fire now?”
Asha suddenly wished she’d left her cousin behind.
But if she’d left Safire behind, there wouldn’t just be remnants of a bruise on her jaw. There would be far worse.
Two days before Asha had set out on this hunt, she found Safire cornered by soldats in her own room. How they’d gotten in without a key, she could only guess.
As soon as Asha entered, they panicked, scattering in the presence of the Iskari. But what about next time? Asha would be hunting for days, and her brother, Dax, was still in the scrublands, negotiating peace with Jarek, the commandant. There was no one to keep a watchful eye out for their skral-blooded cousin while Asha hunted. So she’d brought Safire with her. Because if there was anything worse than coming home empty-handed, it was coming home to Safire in the sickroom again.
Asha’s silence didn’t dissuade her cousin in the least.
“Remember the days when you would set out at dawn and bring a dragon down before dinner? Whatever happened to those days?”
The searing pain of her blistering skin made Asha dizzy. She fought to keep her mind clear.