The Appeal of Dragons - Power and Sentience

I love dragons. I mean, immensely powerful beings with the ability to fly, who can fireball their enemy, but are so layered in scaly armor they’re practically unkillable (and often immortal) are already awesome. Add in magic and I’m SO on board.

The traditional image of the dragon as a monster and a powerful foe, razing villages and terrorizing innocent maidens, was badass enough, but where I really get interested is when sentience is added to the sauce. It fires my imagination when the dragon isn’t a dumb beast, though isn’t necessarily human either but rather has its own alien intelligence. In those cases, conversation with the dragon changes everything and can tip the gameboard in interesting ways, upsetting everything the hero/heroine thought they knew.

Here’s an excerpt from Through Fire & Sea of THAT MOMENT when Leah discovers the dragon is more than a ravening beast.

 

Leah woke in the middle of the night.  Sweating, she plucked at her nightgown’s neckline, trying to cool herself.  Did she have a fever?  But she didn’t feel ill, only hot like—

Gideon.

Her veins throbbed, and she knew he needed her.  Had the dragon hurt him?  Sharp anxiety sent her scrambling out of bed.  The faint glow from the hypocaust guided her down the hall to the stairs.

Once she gained the second floor, she threaded her way to the corner alcove.  Silvery moonlight bounced off the Four Worlds mirror as she squirmed underneath.  

Fear for Gideon's safety spurred her to attempt the ladder climb in the dark.  Her foot slipped once, but she hauled herself over the lip of rock.

Breath laboring, she unbarred the door.  Heat rolled over her when it swung open. 

“Gideon?” 

In the dark she saw the great diamond eyes first, then the gleam of black scales.  Even with its wings folded, it filled the fifteen-foot window.

“Where's Gideon?” she asked.

The dragon tilted its wedge-shaped head and opened its jaws, as if trying to speak.  Wet steam bathed her face.

Madness overcame her.  “Where's Gideon?”  She stabbed a finger at his empty bed.  “Gideon.  Where is he?  If you've hurt him, I’ll kill you,” she vowed.

The huge beast ducked its head as if chastened.  One corner of her mind wondered why it hadn't scorched her already, but she kept on.  “You should be ashamed of yourself.”  She dashed away tears.

The dragon moaned.

Staring into its eyes, Leah had the strangest conviction that it wanted something from her beyond bones to crunch.  

“What is it?” she asked in a more reasonable voice.  “Is something wrong with Gideon?  Do you need my help?”

In answer it touched the base of its long neck with one front claw.

Incredulity filled Leah.  “You want me to ride on your back?”

The dragon stared at her with unblinking eyes, but Leah felt a pulse of heat that seemed to mean, Yes.

Gideon needed her. As if in a dream, she set her hand on the dragon's side. Up close she could see that its scales were overlapping triangles. They felt hard and slippery, but her bare feet found enough friction to ascend its leg to the shoulder. She swung one leg over the knobby ridge of its spine, then adjusted her nightgown in a vain effort to get more comfortable. A dragon wasn't at all like a mule.

She cleared her throat.  “I’m ready.”

With an agile twist the dragon flung itself off the window ledge.  Leah screamed as the ground rushed up—

Then its membraneous wings snapped open, and their fall became a glide.  Three wingbeats took them high into the night sky.  The stars shone crisp and cold.

Frigid air whistled past Leah’s face, contrasting with the dragon's tremendous heat.  

The dragon banked left, and Leah smiled with delight.  Did Gideon do this every night?  Ride the dragon?  

Shivering, she remembered her purpose.  “Take me to Gideon,” she shouted into the wind.

She couldn't be sure the dragon understood, but its wings beat harder, carving a path through the night.  

  

There is one True World, and then there are the four mirror worlds: fire, water, air, and stone. And each has a magic of its own... 

In the Fire World, seventeen-year-old Leah is the illegitimate daughter of one of the realm's most powerful lords. She's hot-blooded - able to communicate with the tempestuous volcano gods. But she has another gift...the ability to Call her twin "Otherselves" on other worlds.

Holly resides in the Water World - our world. When she's called by Leah from the Fire World, she nearly drowns. Suddenly the world Holly thought she knew is filled with secrets, magic...and deadly peril.
For a malevolent force seeks to destroy the mirror worlds. And as Leah and Holly are swept up in the tides of chaos and danger, they have only one choice to save the mirror worlds - to shatter every rule they've ever known...

Buy Links: 

What are your favorite dragon moments?

Dragons in The Twelve Kingdoms

I'm writing this post for Here Be Magic's Dragon Week mere hours after turning in book 4 of my Twelve Kingdoms series, THE PAGES OF THE MIND.

There might be dragons. *grin*

Now... I rarely post teasers, especially of unedited work. But I've discovered - because a bunch of readers hammered the point home - that teasers are among their very favorite things to see from authors. Still, I considered excerpting a dragon scene from one of the Covenant of Thorns books. Dragons appear in all three of those, with a fairly large role in the third book.

But still...

Teasers?

SO hard to pick one that won't be a spoiler. But... here goes!

The people cheered wildly and, with an ear-splitting trumpet, the dragon flew into sight from beyond the volcano, circled, fixed on us and headed our way. Gliding on the hot air currents like a jeweled seabird, its wings outstretched an impossible length, the dragon plummeted without a sound, zooming straight for us. “Goddesses!”

Then Nakoa had me in his arms, better than an invocation of any goddess. He stood firm, even turning slightly to meet the dragon head-on. I wound my arms around his neck, missing the feel of the torque, but feeling much safer. It made no sense as that dragon could eat us both in one bite. At least Nakoa could run—that would be a logical reason for it.

Nothing to do with the fact that just the scent and feel of his skin worked to calm my instinctive terror.

Nakoa’s lips brushed my temple. “See to understand, mlai.”

I couldn’t have torn my eyes from the sight regardless. Like a fiery golden blade cleaving the sky, the dragon grew in size, lethal, fascinating, extraordinary. Ruby flames lit its eyes, taller than Nakoa—and real flames flickered in its gaping maw.

“See?” Nakoa murmured, his voice as full of awe as I felt. “Beautiful.”

It was.

A roar sounded in my bones as it approached, my heart pounding into synced rhythm with Nakoa’s. No, the roar came from the sound of air rushing over the great membraned wings. Amazingly Nakoa laughed and the dragon passed just over us, as if I could have reached out to touch it, and the turbulence of it tossed Nakoa’s lightning-threaded locks so they lashed against my cheeks. All of it welled up in my chest, a kind of terrified elation that burst out in my own laugh. All around us, the people—even Chief Tane—held their hands up to the sky, as if savoring the sensation of the passage of the majestic beast, singing out their song of awe and celebration.

****
 This week also saw the release of my newest erotic contemporary romance!

“Recommended for fans of the 50 Shades trilogy.“… “Kennedy handles her subject matter with authority (if you can forgive the pun) and makes the premise and choices of her characters entirely believable, all while grabbing her readers by their hearts.“
– LJ on Library Journal

Under Contract

Read an Excerpt

The kinkier the sex, the higher the price tag…
Ryan Black has admired Celestina Sala from afar for years, her lush body and sensual nature calling to the dominant in him. For just as many years, Celestina was off-limits—married, proud and self-sufficient. But all that has changed, and now Celestina is in debt and in need…and available. Ryan proposes a contract: he’ll pay off her debt if she gives herself to him in bed, yielding control in exchange for the pain and pleasure he’ll bring them both.
There are words for women who take money for sex, and none of them are nice ones. Celestina never thought she’d have to sink this low, but giving up control sounds more enticing than ever before. And suddenly it’s not about having to give in to Ryan. It’s about wanting to.
But when Ryan’s dark past comes to light, they may both be in over their heads. The terms of his contract say her body is his…but her heart may be another story.
One thing is for sure—now that Ryan has Celestina, he can never let her go.

Available July 13, 2015

• Kindle
• Barnes & Noble
• iBooks
• Kobo

Read More...

Welcome to Dragon Week!

Welcome to the Here Be Magic Dragon Week!

As a fantasy author, I naturally find dragons highly, highly relevant to my interests. They were of course highly prevalent in my reading as a child, since I read The Hobbit in my AP English class in sixth grade--and you don't get much more classic a dragon than Smaug, the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities. I can practically recite his lines to Bilbo from memory: Well, thief, I smell you. I feel your air. And how shiver-inducing is his recitation of his prowess: My teeth are swords! My claws, spears! My wings, a hurricane! And my breath, DEATH.

I don't know about you, but yeah, I'm scared. It's official.

And I gotta say, say what you will about the issues with the Hobbit movies, but one of the things I love about them without reservation is the way they brought that scene to life. Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug was legitimately terrifying, and the way Martin Freeman's Bilbo responded to him was equally brilliant. His expression, his body language, and a certain high thinness to his voice communicated so much oh shit oh shit oh shit this creature is enormous and he is going to eat me and OH SHIT I WISH I WERE BACK IN THE SHIRE.

With a dragon like Smaug starting me off, you can imagine that I had a huge bar to clear for all subsequent dragons that came along in my lifelong love of fantasy. Tolkien gave me a second memorable dragon in Glaurung, the dragon in the story of Turin Turambar. Later, Robin Mckinley stepped up to the plate and gave us Maur, the great black dragon fought by Aerin in The Hero and the Crown. Later still, the genre was blessed by Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, and I can say wholeheartedly that Temeraire and Iskierka are my favorite dragons in any fantasy that's been published in the last fifteen years.

Most of all I need to give a huge shoutout to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern novels. I ate those up with spoons. I loved Mnementh and Ramoth and Ruth, and I loved that world enough that I spent years roleplaying and writing fanfic in Pern fan groups. Anyone who knows me from PernMUSH will remember me as the player of F'hlan, bronze Tzornth's rider, and I had ridiculous amounts of fun playing a soft-spoken, shy dragonrider paired with the planet's most verbose and prideful bronze.

My love of dragons even shows up in my musical fandoms as well. Those who know me as a fan of Quebecois music know that Le Vent du Nord is my favorite band in that genre. And one of my very favorite songs of theirs is "Le dragon de Chimay", about a knight who's transformed into a dragon by a vengeful witch.

Now, in the Free Court of Seattle series, a young dragon features prominently in Bone Walker. And over in the Rebels of Adalonia series, there is a desert called Dragonfell. Dragons are no longer a threat in Adalonia in the days of the Anreulag. But there was a time when they were, and the legends of the people remember.

With all of this in mind, I'd now like to share with you one of my oldest surviving short stories, "Riddle of the Golden Dragon", which I wrote in school in 1987. This is set in the early version of the setting that eventually became the Rebels of Adalonia novels, and alert readers may note the mention of the city of Shalridan here. Alert readers will also recognize an echo here of Tolkien's "Riddles of the Dark" chapter of The Hobbit--though at the end of the day, my dragon here is somewhat more beneficient than Smaug.

You can read "Riddle of the Golden Dragon" on my website, and I hope you enjoy this dragon-themed glimpse of my early writing! And I hope you'll tell me about your favorite dragons in the comments!

--
Angela writes the urban fantasy Free Court of Seattle series as Angela Korra'ti, and the high fantasy Rebels of Adalonia series as Angela Highland. Come say hi to her at angelahighland.com, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.