It was all the color displayed on this cover for Breath of Fire that first caught my attention when browsing in the bookstore. Then the title made me curious. The back cover blurb clinched it and I bought the book on the spot. I didn’t even have any reservations about not being familiar with the author at that point.

And when I started reading Breath of Fire, I knew I had made the right decision in adding it to the stack of books I bought that day. From the first page I was captivated. By the last I loved Tammy Kane’s dragons, her writing, and her terrific characters.

Read on and see if you don’t know what I mean.

When the dragon came to claim him, Karl knew his great plan had gone horribly wrong. If he had known the creature was real, he wouldn’t have scoffed at the villagers… and he certainly wouldn’t have been so quick to let them chain him to a rock. Mattaen Initiates trained as warriors, but no man could defeat a dragon.

“My name is Elera, daughter of Shane. And you, Initiate, are my virgin prize.”

She had vanquished the beast and named her price: one night with the virgin sacrifice she’d saved. He’d taken a vow of chastity, but Karl still had a man’s needs—and Elera’s sultry curves made him ache to taste his first woman. With one scorching kiss she shattered his defenses… and led him into a world of deception and seduction, where he’d be forced to choose between the brotherhood that had raised him and the woman whose courage set his heart on fire.

CHAPTER ONE

“You must not do this.”

The men ignored his sharp command. With a sigh concealed by the hood of his black robe, Karl of the Initiates stepped forward and stopped just shy of the angry wall of villagers standing against him.

His gaze shifted to the object of his concern…a young woman, no more than twenty, being led into the rocky plains below the village. She wore a simple gown of pure white, with thin straps that bared her arms and back. The hands gripping her wrists and pulling her along were not altogether gentle. The barren land beyond the enlightened realm bred little more than barbarism in its people—even paganism if the rumors surrounding his monastery were true.

The girl stumbled then, and was quickly caught up by the guards at her flank. The mass of men and women watching from the village cheered.

He studied the line of men before him. Their voices joined the calls of their brethren, but their eyes were wide with fear. A man trained to join the highest order of Mattaen Monks would have no problem overcoming their superstitions. Not if he was worth the ceremonial blade strapped to his thigh. “I assure you, your fears are based on the myths of a people long past—”

“You think to fool us with high talk,” interrupted an elder, garnering strength from his peers’ nods of encouragement. “But your kind knows little of this stretch of land.”

“There is little high talk in me, wise one, for you are right. I know nothing of these lands.”

He threw back his hood to reveal bright green eyes. Flame-red hair spilled from the neck of his robe to hang well below his shoulders in a mass of coiled, braided and free-flowing tresses.

“But I tell you now,” he continued quietly, “that the sacrifice of this girl defies the sanctity of life, and of choice.”

Karl arched a reddish brow at their blank stares, though his expression remained carefully neutral. He tried a different approach. “Do you not have murder in these lands?”

“This is not murder, Initiate.” The eyes of the elder shifted uncertainly to the girl being marched to a platform against the cliff wall. “It is sacrifice, and the girl is willing.”

Their willing sacrifice chose that particular moment to balk. Breaking free of her captors with a cry, she ran only two steps before being caught and slung over a hulking shoulder.

The elder grumbled beneath Karl’s sidelong stare. “Willing or not, we cannot lose an entire village to spare one girl’s life… and she’d be dead anyway.”

He fell silent. Now manacled against the cliff, the girl began sobbing. A tortured groan accompanied her cries from behind a hut near the path where they stood. Running a hand over his hair to disguise his search, Karl found a man of similar age to the girl below. As soon as she started pleading for help, the young man covered his ears and dropped to his knees.

“The girl is no virgin,” Karl said quickly. “Do you not require a virgin sacrifice to appease the wrath of a dragon?”

His growl caused a few villagers to take an involuntary step back, but they quickly resumed their positions. The code of his guild, which allowed a Mattaen to defend himself but never to attack another, was well known even here.

Karl inhaled slowly and reminded himself that these people had little access to education, or higher learning of any kind for that matter. He had to repeat the breathing technique twice before his calm returned, but when it did, the disapproving lines around his lips eased.

“She must be a virgin,” someone whispered, casting a doubtful look at the girl. “Who would have dared touch her?”

“I mean no disrespect to the girl or her family,” Karl pressed, “but a single moment of weakness on her behalf will condemn your village if you choose to continue on this course. I ask only that you give some thought to—”

“We must find another virgin!” someone shouted. A volley of agreements followed with enough volume that the men in the plains looked back in concern.

“Enough!” commanded the elder, his gaze pinning Karl with the closest he had seen to true intelligence outside the realm. “Have you forgotten that the one suggesting this blasphemy is the very stranger who argues against the existence of such beasts? The girl is a virgin. I have it on her father’s word. We will have our sacrifice.”

Karl returned the pointed look. “Tell me, wise one, if you can. What do these dragons of yours look like?”

“They have slavering mouths filled with teeth as big as a man’s hand!” a voice from the crowd shouted before the elder could respond.

“Nay, as big as a man’s arm!”

“And terrible red eyes that can kill you with a single look! Or take your mind—”

The descriptions continued, growing more ingenious as the game progressed, until even the elder wilted beneath their ludicrous tales.

“Have you ever even seen a dragon?” Karl asked gently. “Has anyone?”

The wind picked up, gusting through the village. Karl’s hair whipped in it, his long robe clung to his frame, and still no one answered his simple question. He was about to continue when the elder held up a gnarled hand for silence.

“I heard one once. A terrible sound that shook the ground with every bellow… and hiss.” The elder’s eyes glazed in revulsion. “I was a child, and my mother’s sister was the sacrifice. I never saw it take her, but she was gone nonetheless. It was not a sound I would ever forget, monk of the realm.”

Excitement sparked in Karl’s eyes, but only for a moment. He knew it was ridiculous to entertain even the notion that dragons were real, though rumors of their existence spread from the outskirts of the realm like the mythical fire the beasts were said to breathe.

Karl shook his head. The old man seemed certain of his tale, but children had a tendency to confuse fantasy with reality. It was one of the first lessons he had learned from the Guild.

The villagers were swayed by their elder’s conviction, so Karl changed tactics. “Leave the girl to be devoured by the dragon that comes for her. Spill not one drop of her blood yourselves.”

If they were as fanatic as they seemed, he would have to interfere before she died from exposure or other predators when the dragon never arrived. However, their concession would buy time. And as any worthy Initiate knew, time was the key to successful negotiations.

The elder glanced at him in disdain. “Of course we will not spill her blood. We are savages by the standards of your guild, but we are not murderers.” He tapped his cane on the ground. “The girl will die by the will of the beast that comes to claim her.”

“Very well, I will not interfere.”

“But you do not believe anything will come?”

“We shall see,” Karl said simply, pulling his hood over his head and leaping onto the stone passage descending into the steppes.

Cliffs encircled the area, some with peaks reaching into the clouds. Others had long ago crumbled to the same level as the steppes, which were riddled with narrow chasms that led into the misty depths below.

Such was the landscape of the barrens beyond the realm.

Karl crouched on the edge of the rough-hewn stairs with his hands tucked into his sleeves. Not once did he take his eyes off the girl—not when she started begging for release, not even when the guards passed him on their return. Tempering his anger for her pointless suffering, he kept a silent watch.

As the hours passed, the sun dipped behind the mountains and cast the steppes in crimson shadow. The girl had long since fallen silent in defeat. Or perhaps exhaustion, Karl amended, noting the steady rhythm of her breathing. The wind from across the frozen peaks lashed cruelly against her bared skin.

Shifting his eyes towards the men standing vigil, Karl lifted a hand to beckon the elder near. “In very little time you will not have to spill a drop of her blood to kill her. When no dragon comes, you will be held accountable for the murder of an innocent.”

“You are wrong, man who would be monk.”

“And the teachings of a millennia? Are they wrong, as well?” Karl asked dryly.

He could tell these people that no physical sign of a creature this size had ever been found, much less recorded. The barrens did not contain enough of a food supply to support the appetite of any such predator. He could even pinpoint the origins of their dragons in the fantastic writings of centuries past… the fantastic and fictional writings. But looking at the zealous belief on the elder’s face, he knew it would be for naught.

“Release the girl. I will take her place.” When the watchers on the wall scoffed, Karl lifted a brow. “Or am I mistaken in my assumption that it is virginity your dragon craves, and not the sex of the sacrifice?”

Most of the men gaped, but the elder narrowed his eyes. “Why would you do this?”

“Because there is nothing coming, old man,” Karl said, losing patience as the girl renewed her weeping. “And I will not watch that child suffer a moment longer for the ignorance of your people.”

For a moment, the elder stared at him in silence. Then with a nod of acceptance, he raised his hand to the five closest men and beckoned them to follow. “You will regret your generosity, Initiate.”

“I regret my faith in your compassion,” Karl spat, warning the guards away with a cold stare and leading the descent himself, “or I would have offered sooner.”

By the time they reached the girl, the orange horizon barely kept the approaching night at bay. And even though she wept with gratitude for the stranger’s sacrifice, the girl still clung hard enough to the man who released her bonds.

Karl stepped onto the stone platform and raised his hands to the manacles. His long sleeves fell about his shoulders, revealing the rippling muscles born of a lifetime devoted to discipline and training. The fools slapping cold steel around his wrists didn’t even suspect he could have them off on a moment’s notice.

But since it was ignorance and not the people themselves that Karl wished to fight, he chose to ignore the pinch of the cuffs. Already, his hands were going numb.

A sudden rumble in the distance sent the brave villagers running for the safety of their huts.

“It is but an earthquake,” he grumbled. They were common in these lands, and the ground had been rumbling for days.

“Or perhaps an eruption of the fire mountains across the barrens?” the elder mocked, coming around the side of the slab. He frowned. “Will the Mattaen come after us for this?”

“Since there is no dragon, there will be no harm. And if there is one,” Karl continued over the other man’s objection, “then what choice did you have, really?”

The elder hesitated, glancing to the skies. “What is your name?”

“Why?”

His weary eyes met the Karl’s stare. “Because I would mark a grave for you on the morrow.”

The corner of Karl’s lips curved, but by then elder was already racing across the steppes. He was quite fast for a man of his years. Karl supposed he would have to settle for the mark of Initiate on his gravesite. Or perhaps, Fool of the Realm, if there was a grave to be marked at all.

He chuckled, and was still laughing quietly when a shadow fell across his platform. Karl frowned in confusion. The ground shook, jarring the cliff at his back. He swallowed nervously… and turned to watch the shadow taking slow shape around him.

The shadow moved, each motion shaking the ground and setting loose stones dancing. He craned his neck to try and see what lurked behind him, but the boulder blocked his view. Heat radiated from the rock at his back.

The shadow on the ground took on the unmistakable outline of wings.

“Impossible,” he breathed.

He twisted against his manacles, lifting his body halfway up the boulder by bracing his sandaled feet against the stone. Neck and forearms rippling, he strained until he could see over the rocky ridge. His breath froze in his lungs.

Bright red eyes glared back at him. Snarling lips pulled back to bare a set of slime-slicked teeth… Far more teeth than seems logical, he thought.

He watched, stunned, as those membranous wings stretched to a span easily twice the length of the creature’s sleek black body. Its scaled shoulders hunched, its massive head lowered, and the low hiss emanating from its mouth made his flesh crawl.

Creeping ever closer, the beast lowered its belly in anticipation. The position elevated the spiked ridges of its spine, creating a bony fin that traveled from the base of its neck to the tip of its bladed tail.

Karl held the dragon’s stare, deft fingers already manipulating the steel on his wrists… though where he could run remained a mystery. It seemed he wouldn’t get even the chance to try, for just then the creature lunged.

Karl opened the eyes he’d squeezed shut in reflex. The dragon had stopped on the brink of the slab. “My friend,” he said calmly, hearing the clink from the first manacle, and then the second. “You do not exist.”

Pulling his body swiftly up, Karl dove beneath the creature’s head.

*******

Good reflexes, Elera thought as she watched the man from behind a boulder on the opposite side of the steppes. Her dark brows rose appreciatively when he rolled again, avoiding a claw that swiped a hairsbreadth from his torso.

She waited. When the man leaped over the dragon’s hide, twisting in mid-air to avoid the backlash from his tail, her eyes widened with wonder. Not for his skill—the man was of the Mattaen Order, after all— but in appreciation of the exquisite view, which laid to rest any questions she might have had regarding what, exactly, a monk wore beneath his robe.

She grinned, then glanced at the red hair concealing his features. He was no monk yet, but Initiate only. The Mattaen shaved their entire bodies.

While she stood admiring him, the dragon finally trapped the man beneath his claws. Still the Initiate made no move toward the ceremonial blade she had seen on his thigh. She’d heard that the blade must never draw blood. Not that it could against the thick scales of a dragon, but that he would adhere to the decree even now…

Enough staring. Elera was here to slay a dragon, so slay a dragon she must. With another lopsided grin, she leaped atop the boulder with her longbow and arrows in hand.

“Hope you’re ready, dark one,” she whispered, and with just a slight hesitation, released the arrow.

The dragon bellowed across the steppes. Taking advantage of the beast’s distraction, the man wiggled free and ran, all the while searching the cliffs for the source of his deliverance. When his eyes landed upon her, she tipped her head and let another arrow fly.

The beast targeted her now, spreading his wings to their full width and gliding from the ground. Elera spun and raced across the steppes.

The dragon overtook her in moments. Ducking beneath his wing, she rolled to evade grasping claws. Once he overshot her, she paused just long enough to ensure that the man was watching… then deliberately shook her head as if dazed. When the dragon spun in the sky and dove back with a roar, she bolted to the very edge of the cliff.

Blood raged in her ears and alarm shone in her smoky eyes. She was in little danger from the dragon, but the man was closing the distance between them faster than she’d anticipated. He was near enough now that she could see the color of his eyes, as unusual and striking as his fiery hair.

Elera looked skyward and set another arrow in her bow. She glanced back in the moment before its release, and saw fear in the eyes of the man pursuing her.

Fear for her?

She smiled at him. Once she was certain that he watched her, she winked, then released the arrow. The dragon shrieked as his massive body contracted in the air. His wings folded as he plunged from the sky… straight toward her.

“Faster,” she whispered urgently, keeping her eyes on the man, who was nearly within reach. And it did seem as though the speed of the beast’s fall increased, until he crashed into the earth with an explosion of rocky debris. Momentum drove him forward, forging a path to where Elera stood ready.

Ignoring the Initiate’s warning shout, she dove over the creature’s shoulder, rolling across scales that felt like fire under her skin. She nearly tumbled off his back, and would have broken more than a few bones if his long tail hadn’t arced suddenly in the wind.

Elera managed to hook her bow around a bony ridge, slowing her fall as the dragon’s body skidded to a gradual stop. Dropping to the ground, she casually retreated from its unmoving form. She heard the loud slap of sandals just before rough hands turned her around.

She had time for just one thought…Tall…before the edge of the cliff crumbled under the substantial weight of the dragon.

Shoving the man back, Elera stepped away from the cracks webbing beneath their feet. Only after the ground finally settled did she answer the question in his eyes.

“My name is Elera, daughter of the Dragonslayer Shane.” Running her eyes over his muscular form, she added throatily, “And you, Initiate of the Mattaen, are my virgin prize.”