Dragon's Cage

by Daniel Potter

  A flash of blue, and for a second Ishe saw through Yaz'Noth bones through the armored plating. Thunder rolled through the mountain, dust fell from the ceiling and Ishe's cage swayed.

  The dragon groaned with pain, and rolled onto his side, revealing a massive crater in the floor and a smaller one in his stomach. Blood the color of molten metal welled up in a ten foot wide gap in his armored scales. His eyes stayed closed. "Omau, stand before me."

  The guards let him go and he crept up toward the Dragon, head bowed. "I am truly sorry Lord! I didn’t-"

  WHAM! The dragon's foreleg moved so fast that Ishe only saw it in a mental replay. Blood leaked from beneath Yaz'noth's paw and dripped down into new fissures in the stone. "You made a mistake Omau. You insisted your contact was safe. I trusted you and your gamble. You swore this to me on the lives of your children. They are of the tenth generation through their mother’s side but to pay this debt they, their children, and the children shall pay this debt. This I declare."

  The Dragon Sworn in the room, the ones that were not on their knees, touched their fists to their chest twice and bowed their heads.

  "And His wife? Xura?" Miss Cog stood forward.

  "She may live but she will attend the hatchery during her work hours." Yaz'Noth lifted his paw from mushed mess that had been Omau and shook it.

  "Yes my Lord." Miss Cog bowed. The Dragon Sworn all relaxed a hair, as if they had preparing for an additional blow. Apparently, that passed for Merciful.

  "Now, rouse the flyers and move the Golden Talon to a defensive position. I want every spear ready by the main gate. There can be no survivors." Yaz'noth rose to his feet. A slight wince flowed over his muzzle.

  "Lord your wound..." Miss Cog voice tinged with concern. "I can bring up a three tons of iron Sir."

  "No time for that. I will be dining ON Valhallan armor plating today." He chuckled through a grimace as he push himself up onto his feet. Blood glowing like molten iron dripped down from his wound and bubbled on the stone. Yet he moved unhindered and Ishe mentally stomped on the instinctual tickle of concern that dared to sprout in her mind. He Stepped over Miss Cog toward the huge dragon sized arch that led to the passage. Dragon Sworn were already streaming toward the more human sized entrances. He paused, neck curling around to grin smirk at Ishe. "On second thought. This could be educational for you Rhino." He paced back, took the chain from which the cage suspended from and unhooked from the ceiling anchor.

  "I hope this thing guts you like a fish." Ishe snarled at him as the cage swung from side to side, dangling from his teeth.

  "I know you do. In your mind I'm a villain. Would a villain sit on an explosive that would have killed his minions?" Yaz'Noth said through his clenched teeth.

  "You're no hero, you knew it wouldn't hurt you much." Ishe braced herself cage rattling blow.

  "I am I God, not a hero. You might wish to adopt the same framework."

  "Gods don't need to use wind crystals to catch an airship."

  "If think that then you don't know much about gods or Crystals." With that he started up the passage. In front of him three smaller Dragons strode out of a side passage. The largest was the copper colored dragon that Ishe had nearly peeled off the deck of the Fox Fire with her hand cannon. The size of a buffalo, he didn't even reach to Yaz'noth's knees.

  "We fly big Lord?" The dragon asked as it scurried to keep up.

  "No, you will ALL watch until all ships are down." Yaz'Noth said.

  "Ride? Ride? Ride?" Asked much a smaller one, its body thin and whip like. It sported dull black scales like Yaz'noth's. He tried to latch onto Yaz'noth's wrist and climb up.

  "No rides Spine." Yaz'noth growled, shaking him off. "Get down!"

  The dragon whined, something between a canine and feline yowl. "Spine wanna ride like Hammer!"

  "No one is riding me today. Hammer, control your Brother." Yaz'Noth said.

  "Yes Lord." The big copper one said. He paused, lined himself up and smacked Spine across the face with his tail. "Behave Spine! Or I send you back to darks!"

  Spine whined and grumbled but followed after, his wings drooping in such a manner that Ishe couldn't suppress her chuckle anymore. "You're such a patient, caring father." She said.

  "I am. If I were not and if I did not have the Dragon Sworn who can trade off shifts then they would be dead. They stay at the human equivalent of two years old for over a century. There is a reason most dragons grow up alone."

  They arrived at the mouth of the mountain. Cold thin air whistled through bars of the cage as Ishe blinked in the sunlight. Yaz’Noth did not stop at the cave mouth, instead grabbed hold of the snow covered slope and hauled himself further up the mountain. He reached the peak in less than a minute. The sun shined down on surface of clouds that hung down below the peak of Yaz'Noth's mountain

  The wind seemed to bite through Ishe's woolen black coat and set her teeth to chattering as Yaz'Noth set the cage down on a rocky out crop. "There! You'll have a great view from here. Not to mention motivation to cheer me on. After all you'll probably freeze to death if I don't come back. That was an interesting day when I first learned humans could die from cold."

  "Y-Y-you kill m-ee and y-y-you'll never g-g-get-,"

  "The quicksilver I know." Yaz'Noth beat his wings once and the wind stopped dead. Ishe breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed her hands together. "That better?"

  Ishe nodded, clamping her jaw shut to stop it from chattering. The cold still bit at her ears and cheeks but she had survived far worse on the Fox Fire.

  "Good. Then start the harvest." A yellow crystal nearly the size of Ishe herself appeared between his teeth. He held it as if it were a guardsman's whistle, closed his eyes and the crystal yellow glow brightened until its glower rivaled that of the sun. The air stirred around them, picking up swirled of snow. Angry, pained faces were visible in the whirls. A howling whistle rattled the bars of the cage, yet not a whisper of air stirred her hair.

  Whatever the crystal did, the wind spirits did not like it. The Dragon didn't to seem to care or notice the wind's agitation. He opened his eyes and wind left them. Below them, the sea of clouds began to stir. At first it looked as if a great serpent undulated beneath their surface. Then slowly the clouds began to part, a rift opening like a fissure in the earth, then the entire surface rippled as if ants were swarming beneath it. Holes began to open and one revealed a sight that drew a gasp from Ishe.

  There, nestled between two peaks on the opposite side of the valley sat one of the largest sky ships ever built. An Odin's Eye. Roughly spherical in shape, more than four times the size of the Fox Fire. It bristled with gun ports at all angles. While ridiculed in Golden hills since it could only train a fourth of its massive guns on any one target it was precisely what you wanted if you were up against a more maneuverable foe. Like a Dragon.

  "HAHAHA!" Yaz'Noth's laugh boomed as he stretched out his wings and flung himself from the mountain.

  Chapter 33

  Yaki's throbbing chest woke her as first light of dawn threaded through the shades in the little rented room. Her stomach grumbled as she sat up from the thin mat she lay on. Yet even as she winced at the discomfort a hint of a pleasant glow remained. She'd sleep through the entire night. No raiding the kitchen or stockpiling street food and eating it cold in the middle of the night. Maybe the enshadowed Doctor had been right, that not relying the crystal was forcing her heart to get along with her body. She could only hear the Ka-cling Ka-cling if she concentrated now.

  Gentle fingertips traced the raised contours of her mark. "What is this?" He asked, "A mountain lion's paw? A tiger's?"

  "It’s the Death Panther," Yaki said.

  The fingers flinched away.

  Yaki rolled over on the mat and smirked at her conquest. He watched her with curious eyes that squinted at the sun. "Have you heard of her?" Yaki asked.

  "No but it doesn't sound like something I should touch. Is that mark why the priests think you're impure?"

  "
You live outside the Grand Torii and the priests will mark you impure in one way or another. I've lightning dance with a thunderbird, I've heard the winds sing and I've slipped on pools of blood." His gaze drifted and Yaki could see him attempting to imagine her words.

  "I want to see that. There is nothing here but walls." His whispered.

  Yaki took his hand and placed its palm against her chest. "For each wonder out there, there's something equally wicked." Like me. She mentally added and drifted to silence as he felt the slow Ka-clank ka-clank of her heart. "Life out there can cost you things you didn't believe were yours to give."

  His face paled a bit, "What cost you your heart?"

  "You don't want to know. My sister and the Death Panther saved me." Yaki smiled as the ticking heart beat rose in her mind. "But it’s not perfect. I eat enough for ten men and I have... responsibilities. But not now. This morning I there's only," Yaki wriggled closer until her breath tickled the hairs on his neck. "This."

  The time for talking ended then and Yaki lost herself in his copper skin and the firmness of his lips for a time.

  Still even as she sated this entirely new hunger, the old grew loud enough that she finally had to separate from Mitsuo's embrace and attack her satchel of food. She had rented a good room. Spartan furnished but the rich dark wood of the walls spoke of both privacy and money. the mattress which they had sullied during the night took up a third of the area. A small vanity stood at the foot of the bed and a deep tub lined the far wall. A kettle and a heat crystal rested on the corner of the vanity along with two cold rice buns with red bean filling. Yaki ate them both as she waited for the water to boil.

  "I'm surprised to see you. Thought I'd wake to find out that last night was a dream." Mitsuo yawned, stretching his lithe body. "I can't say I've ever flirted with a blade to my throat before."

  Yaki tittered, "Only because your eyes get so big when you're scared. I couldn't resist. You're lucky my mother isn't with me on this trip. She would have split you from ear to ear for yesterday."

  Mitsuo emitted a single, "Ha." And crossed his arms. "You talk as if your mother is the Silver Fox herself."

  Yaki raised a single eyebrow as she poured hot water over the tea leaves the enshadowed doctor had given her.

  That wide eyed look of naked fear dawned on Mitsuo's face as his eyes looked up and down Yaki body. "No... You can't be. You're exiled."

  "Hence why I'm still upset at you for yesterday. Had those priests gotten a hold of me it wouldn't have been good for anyone. Least of all me." Yaki hardened her voice. "I can't help you with your problems if I'm being... purified." The shiver that passed through her was no act.

  "My problems?" His eyes narrowed.

  Yaki took a sip of her tear, wincing at the bitter medicinal taste. "Well if you want to get married to a Hana-" She stopped when the Mitsuo winced and smiled sympathetically. "I know what it’s like. Until this," she tapped the vivid red scar on her chest, "that was my fate as well. Having to keep myself pure." Yaki lips twisted into a snarl of disgust. "You’re sidelined until you’re no longer a commodity.”

  "But now?"

  Now to bait the hook. "Now I'm her little errand girl. But when I'm here without being watched, I can watch for certain opportunities. And with the right one, I won't need mother at all anymore."

  "What sort of opportunities."

  "Opportunities like you." Yaki began to gather her things.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I'm sure you can figure it out what this girl likes." Yaki winked and departed.

  Chapter 34

  Did lying get easier for you mother? The question kept popping through Yaki's thoughts as she walked away from the boarding house where she had left Mitsuo. It wasn't as if she herself of was a stranger to lies. She had been trained to lie and lie well. This one felt different it hung in her chest as a new locus of pain and soured her greedy stomach. Perhaps it wasn't so much the lie as the hope in Mitsuo's eyes that bothered her? She couldn't save him from his cage, even after Ishe's ransom was paid, where did that leave the two of them? They'd probably have to set out for Lyndon or Valhalla by foot. If the damn mechanical heart lasted even that long.

  The sight of Gama as she approached the boarding house she'd left the two men slapped he guilty thoughts away. He hadn't noticed her, his focus on the merchant in front of him, hands gesturing at the ink well in his hands. The Merchant grinning like a shark as the age old dance of haggling played out. Another puzzle, since saving his life Gama had helped her, even after telling him nearly everything. She hadn't offered him anything yet he kept giving her more.

  He wants what all men want. Mistress Mana whispered in her head. Yaki shook her head at that notion, it was true of course. She recognized the jealousy that was plain on Guro's face in unguarded moments. But it had to be more than that.

  Yaki stepped up beside him as Gama signed a check for a set of scribing supplies and a leather bound journal with a combination lock. It reminded Yaki of Madria's logbook but smaller. "Need some supplies to tell me how broke we are?" Yaki said after moment failing to come up with something better.

  Gama didn't jump or even swallow, he smiled shyly and didn't meet her gaze. "I was more thinking of trying my hand at poetry now that I don't have my head filled with the size and yields of the Steward's hectors."

  "Ah I see, so the lock is there to protect us from your masterpieces?" Yaki said, giving him a light shoulder check. Her shoulder, his just above the elbow.

  "Certainly, couldn't leave them laying around, their brilliance might accidentally blind nosy Mistresses."

  That stopped Yaki cold. "Gama, don't call me that."

  "Well you don't have a ship so I can't call you captain."

  "And I never will. My sister's the naval one. I still get port and starboard confused sometimes. Regardless, I'm not paying you so I can't be your Mistress. You're a friend, not an employee."

  "You gave me my life. That’s enough for a few years at least."

  "Is this a tribal thing?"

  "No, I'm not part of the tribe anymore, so no. It’s a me thing. Its a thank you thing and a bit of revenge thing. You need help and I'm going to see it through."

  "And if I'm lying?"

  "You're not."

  Yaki found she had nothing to say to that. Their feet were leading them back toward the lodgings. A messy inn where they took gems and didn't ask questions.

  "So now we wait to see if Mitsuo takes the bait?"

  Yaki shook her head. "No, now we have to give the Steward a reason that I'm here." Yaki briefly related encounter with the priests that had been guarding Mitsuo.

  Gama clenched his teeth and his eyes grew wide behind his lenses. "Tithing Iron... What if they pick him up again?"

  "That was too many hunters for a single girl with a bit of trace impurity. Someone with pull commanded them all there." Yaki's eyes drifted up toward the Steward's seat on the mountain. "We have to send a message."

  "You’re doing it again." Gama said.

  Sighing Yaki pulled the torii pendent out of her mouth for the umpteenth time and grimace at the tooth marks in the shiny yellow metal. She wiped the pendent off on her sleeve shoulder and let it hang in her cleavage. She flashed Gama a smile, "I take it back. Don't point it out when I do that."

  "As you wish." Gama rolled his eyes. In the clothes they had bought he gave the appearance of studious thug in baggy breeches. Yaki had attempted to make him appear as a crewmate who had attempted to dress up for this errand but she'd missed the mark somewhere. Maybe the because no crew of the Fox Fire used a rapier except for herself or the nervous way he kept adjusting his glasses. Not that Yaki herself felt comfortable in her own clothing. The white dress she wore was patterned off of a shrine maiden's uniform but cut in a nearly scandalous manner, covering her front but displaying her back. Yaki had first thought it to be a costume for the night of Howl's ball but she'd spotted several former classmates wearing them unironically in the higher end market. I
t felt wrong, something the innocent Flower would have preened in.

  Still as they walked down the manicured street of the Stool district no one gave them a second look. A woman and her hired man here for business. Here on the Stool, you could smell the wealth. The very air stank of perfumes. Those who lived here were worthy of sitting beside the God Emperor on a stool when he returned. It had been renamed at least three times that she could remember but no one who lived outside the stool even bothered the learn the new names. Manicured mansions were packed inside plots of exactly one acre each and strict fire codes prevented any structure with more than five stories save the palace. So the noble lodging competed with increasingly exotic decorations. The latest craze when she had left had the flipped floor, thanks to an exotic new crystal variety introduced by the Yokoyama family, the force of gravity was reversed. She had spotted several on the buildings she passed but their shades had been drawn so perhaps the demand had out stripped the supply.

  Instead both the Nishimure and Hara family abodes sported roofs that burned with smokeless multicolored flames, while the timber were shot through with veins that glowed like hot embers. The Hara house one upped the Nishimure white vapor clouds sailing over over the flames in the vague shape of sky ships. Yaki gave a little shiver as she imagined them sailing over a burning city.

  Yaki and Gama passed the main gate of the Hana residence without pause but much further along the wall an iron door had been set in the wall. It was on this door Yaki stopped in front of. The door had been wrought into a tangle of vines through which a hard eyed man stared through at Yaki.

  "I'm here to see Risu of Hana." Yaki told the man, who nodded curtly and unbolted the door. Yaki stepped through it into well manicured garden, bonsai trees grew from moss covered ground around a pond filled with golden Koi. Every time Yaki had looked on it, she felt like a great kami looking down on the world. The fish, monsters trapped by a retreating sea. She spat out her pendent again and purified herself at the small shrine near the entrance. The water hissed and steamed as it met her skin but the guard did not appear to notice. Gama did the same after a loud swallow. After lighting a candle, Yaki sat on a bench and fretted about how much time she had before her heart demanded a meal. Everything had taken far too long today.