Lava was poured onto my back, and a hiss left my lips as I groggily opened my eyes.
"What the fu—"
"Up, Raphas," my uncle Radhus commanded as he cast the now empty bucket aside. It made a loud bang when it hit the floor. "I've been waiting in the Pit for an hour."
The Pit. Training. I'd had too much fun last night and ended up falling asleep too late. I sat up and rubbed my face, glaring at my uncle all the while.
"Looking at you, it's impossible to see the next Ruling Dragor," he spat before shaking his head. "This is your father's fault. He spoiled you too much."
Ignoring him, I rose from my bed and searched around for my clothes. I found them scattered on the foot of my bed, where I'd dropped them last night. I pulled my pants up my legs and then put my boots on. My uncle watched me all the while.
"Pathetic," he said again.
I did my best to ignore him. I could take all my anger out on him during training. He was one of the best warriors in our family but he taught me well, which made me better than him.
Uncle Radhus didn't mind it when I hit him a little too hard, either. He believed it was all for the good of Etros. The harder I could hit, the better my prospects were. One day, I would have to be the one in charge of this realm, so I had to know how to take care of it.
As he liked to say, he wouldn't stick around forever. Neither would my parents.
After shrugging on my shirt, we started toward the door. My back was still on fire, but it would pass soon. Fire didn't have much of an effect on us, but it could sting. If excessive, it could very well kill us. We walked past the stone corridors of our grand home. The stones exuded heat and helped keep our environment warm. As dragons, we needed this heat to flourish.
In the cold, we'd perish.
The fiery pit was right in the heart of our home. As we walked into the cloud of steam, my senses were heightened. The floor was made of the roughest stone and like everything else around us, was heat-resistant.
I almost didn't hear the sound of the tortured souls chained to the walls of the Pit. There were more outside and all around our home—the number of Souls were innumerable—but the ones within the walls of our palace were the worst. Creatures of varying sizes, each more horrifying than the next, let out piercing screams when we entered the chamber. Their sounds were no longer a distraction to me—I'd gotten used to them long ago. It would be my job to keep them in check, after all.
The screams echoed relentlessly through the air. My uncle stopped in the middle of the Pit and turned to me. He was in his fighting stance, and I realized that I didn't have a blade with me.
"What am I supposed to fight with?"
"Oh, this session is going to be a little different," he told me as he started circling me, his blade in hand. "I'll be armed, but you won't. How will you disarm me?"
Indignation swelled inside me. We had never done anything like this before. "How's that fair?"
Uncle Radhus shrugged. "Life's not fair, Raphas. If your opponent ever catches you off guard, how will you react? Think."
I was too tired for this. All I wanted was to lie in bed and sleep my migraine away. But he would never let me go unless I satisfactorily finished this session.
"The clock is ticking, nephew."
I glanced around for a clue. I stared at the lava streaming down the walls, burning some of the Souls, making them scream. Each rivulet appeared to me like a tear of fire, tracing a path of destruction down the massive stone walls. Fire. I'd use fire. It was the only advantage I would have over any opponent. However, using it here would be reckless.
I didn't want to hurt my—
My thought was cut short when my uncle raced toward me, his blade in hand. I ducked, a sound of surprise escaping my lips. I evaded the attack as best as I could, but he ran toward me like a man possessed, and ended up slicing my arm. An enraged sound left my lips, as pain was the one thing that could drive me to the very brink of endless rage. Blood seeped through the cut, sizzling when it hit the stone floor.
"Are you trying to kill me, is that it!?"
He shrugged carelessly, which only fueled my anger. "Like I said, life isn't fair, Raphas. How will you fight me off?"
"I'd summon my Dragon and blow you straight to the very depths of Etros where heat doesn't touch!" I yelled.
He made a face. "Blow me, you say?"
His comment was enough to make me charge toward him. With all the strength I had in me, I punched his jaw and grabbed his wrist to disarm him, but he elbowed me in the face. I tasted blood in my mouth, and he merely chuckled.
"In a fight, rage is your worst enemy. Your enemy will taunt you, Raphas, and rage has always blinded you. Do not think for a second that they will be considerate. How many times must I tell you this?"
A curse dangled on the very tip of my tongue but I swallowed it instead and felt it burn a path right through me. I forced myself to calm down and concentrate. He had a weapon, and I didn't. Summoning my Dragon was the only way of winning this fight.
It was what I'd do to a stranger. An enemy.
They didn't exist, as we'd lived in Etros peacefully for over a millennium and the Souls didn't stand a chance against us, but we always had to be prepared for the worst. Dragons had no natural predators. Only the cold could kill us. Or old age, of course. So far, I'd lived two hundred years. My uncle was twice my age, and my father was twice his. In four hundred years, my father would be dead, and I would rule.
For that, I had to be ready. But to be honest, I didn't see why I had to put so much effort into training. Fighting was pointless.
I closed my eyes and put all my focus into summoning him. He came to me swiftly as he always did, and I felt myself evolving into a far more superior creature. My uncle shook his head at me, a smile tugging his lips. "Coward."
I let out a roar that made the walls all around us shake. Even the Souls quieted down. They feared the Dragon more than anything else.
"Fine, you won. Happy?"
I released steam from my nostrils, burning him slightly. He hissed before throwing his blade at me. It touched one of my oily black scales and bounced off before hitting the floor.
"Breakfast is ready. Come on, cheeky bastard. Let's grab something to eat."
As I shifted back, he said to me, "You're doing well, Raphas. If there is one thing I'll give you credit for, it's that you shift faster than any of us ever have. You do it in a total of five seconds. How?"
"Not sure. It's how it's always been."
We'd had this conversation before. I had the feeling that he was always hoping I'd tell him, but the truth was that there was no secret to it. He shifted in twenty seconds, and my father took a full minute to summon his Dragon. My mother barely bothered with it, and neither did my sister, Raquel.
As we walked past the corridor that led to the massive dining room, we crossed paths with Rhada. She eyed my uncle and me bashfully before meeting only my gaze. "Raphas, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure," I said after clearing my throat.
My uncle bowed his head before excusing himself. I watched as he walked toward the end of the corridor and made a sharp left.
Rhada was the only female Dragon that I could mate with in order to produce more heirs. Female Dragons were rare, and I was lucky that I wouldn't have to mate with my sister or something more drastic the way our ancestors did. Technically, she was supposed to be with my uncle, but after my birth, that had to change. Rhada was fifty years older than me, which wasn't much in Dragon years, but she had been more suited for my uncle.
However, the priority of reproducing was given to me because I would be my father's successor. Therefore, Rhada was mine and not his.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," she said. "Will you walk with me?"
We circled back to the Pit. I kept waiting for her to say something and wondered what it could be. She seemed hesitant. She then said, "I was wondering if you'd come up with a date for our mating."
I frowned. "A date?"
"It has to happen someday, right?" she asked.
"Right," I said before turning my head away from her.
Rhada halted before saying, "I know you're too busy having fun with the whores in your harem, but you have to man up, Raphas. This is unpleasant for both of us."
"It's not unpleasant to me," I retorted, though I wasn't entirely sure that that was true. Rhada was beautiful the way only a Dragon woman could be. Her hair was long and black, and her skin was gloriously tanned. Her eyes were a sparkling blue—a shade darker than mine—and she was tall. Almost as tall as me. Though she was beautiful, I had to admit that I wasn't all that attracted to her.
Maybe it was the fact that she used to belong to my uncle.
A sigh left her lips. "I don't want to prolong this longer than I have. It's been a hundred years, Raphas! When is it going to happen?"
I put my hands up. "We can—"
A piercing scream reached my ears, causing me to snap my head in the direction of the corridor.
That wasn't a Soul. Couldn't be.
"Did you hear that?" she asked before we heard the scream again. I went running, my heart beating violently against my chest.
What could this sound be?