The Wings of Dragons: Book One of the Dragoon Saga by Josh VanBrakle

time
passed, foolish Maantecs forgot why their ancestors willingly died
to seal away the dragons. They began to desire the dragons’ magic
for their own. Five thousand years ago, they developed an
enchantment that, if placed around a dragon’s gem, allowed anyone
who touched it to draw upon that dragon’s power. They inscribed the
sequence on eight weapons, turning them into Ryokaiten, or ‘Dragon
Weapons.’” Rondel motioned at the Muryozaki. “Your sword is one of
them. See the three concentric rings of symbols on its hilt? Those
markings are kanji, the Maantec form of writing. At their center,
just beneath the surface, rests the Holy Diamond, containing the
spirit and magic of the Holy Dragon, Divinion.”
    Iren stared at his sword with new
fascination. Divinion, the dragon in the painting, the creature
whose name adorned the tower in which he’d lived most of his life,
resided in his father’s katana. He could hardly believe a simple
farmer would own a weapon that contained one of the mightiest
beasts ever to live on Raa.
    Rondel seemed to sense Iren’s thoughts.
After a quick sip from her hip flask, she continued, “Over time,
nearly all of the Ryokaiten have disappeared. Few Maantecs even
know about them anymore; your father probably didn’t understand
what he had. I can say this much for certain though. Throughout
history, those who desire power have coveted the Ryokaiten. It
could explain why someone would murder your parents.”
    Two unspoken follow-up questions came
unbidden to Iren’s mind. If the Quodivar leader had killed Iren’s
parents to obtain the Muryozaki, why hadn’t he retrieved it at that
point in time? And second, what would he do once he found out that
Iren had it?
    “ You must understand both
the might and the danger inherent in that sword,” Rondel noted
firmly. “It can grant you great power, but it can also destroy you.
Evil will seek you, wanting to claim the Holy Dragon Sword’s power
for its own. No magic surpasses that of a Dragon
Knight.”
    Iren grimaced. “A Dragon Knight?”
    “ To put it bluntly, a
Dragon Knight is someone who wields a Ryokaiten. The fact that the
Muryozaki healed you proves you’re a Dragon Knight. You drew on
Divinion’s power to do that.”
    “ Does that mean Amroth is a
Dragon Knight too?” Iren asked. “He gave me this sword, and he’s
had it in his possession for seventeen years.”
    Rondel shook her head. “That isn’t how it
works. The sword chooses one owner and one owner only. That person
becomes the Dragon Knight, and once the bond is made, only the
knight’s death can sever it. As long as you live, neither Amroth,
nor anyone else, can become the Holy Dragon Knight.”
    Iren held up the Muryozaki, trembling. “Why
me?” he asked, mostly to himself. “Why would a dragon, especially
the Holy Dragon, want to bond with me? Or for that matter, any
person at all?”
    “ One question at a time!”
the old woman called out, laughing momentarily before turning
serious again. “Let’s start with the last one. Imagine for a moment
that you’re a dragon. Originally, you were a creature of nearly
limitless power. Now you spend eternity locked inside the tiniest
space, in utter darkness, unable to move, unable to control what
happens in the world, yet you still feel the flow of time. Sealing
the dragons may have preserved Raa, but it sentenced them to the
most fiendish prisons possible. Bonding with a Dragon Knight,
however, gains them a window to the outside world.
    “ As for why Divinion chose
you specifically, I can only say this much. The dragons don’t
choose randomly. When a knight dies, the dragon finds its next
partner by testing any non-Dragon Knight who touches its Ryokaiten.
If the person passes the ordeal, they become the knight, but if
they fail, they die. That means that if you aren’t already a Dragon
Knight, touching a Ryokaiten whose owner has died is extremely
dangerous. You might gain incredible power, but you could