For a moment, Kristen didn’t do anything but catch her breath. She’d won the fight, but only barely. She would be bruised and exhausted in the morning, no doubt about that. Training without her powers had given her an advantage, but even in those training sessions, she had been willing to push herself well beyond human limits because of the amazing healing abilities that being a dragon granted her. Now, with this silver anklet on, she didn’t have those abilities. That meant she would have to be careful. If she cracked a rib or broke a finger, it would once again take months to heal instead of days.
Of course, this lack of power put the other dragons at a disadvantage as well, but the two thugs’ threats hadn’t gone unheard. There were far more than two dragons in this prison, and if she understood anything about them, more than only two had allied with Obscura. They’d chosen a time when they know her cell door would be open and no guards had come to investigate the sounds. That bespoke a greater power that she wouldn’t be able to fight with her fists.
Which meant it was probably better to face the black dragon. Kristen knew she wanted something more than her death. Otherwise, she would have sent more thugs and they’d have been armed. Suddenly, a shank was a danger to her again. She couldn’t turn to steel anymore, and if stabbed, would bleed like any other human. No, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she couldn’t simply let this go. If Obscura sent six men, she would lose, plain and simple. She had to confront the dragon before that happened. And ideally, if possible, she had to somehow save face.
Kristen stepped from her cell and headed toward Obscura’s. She’d seen it and made a note of it earlier—after all, she was not only an enemy but the only dragon she knew in there. She wiped her face on her sleeve, hoping there wasn’t too much blood anywhere except on her jumpsuit.
She reached the cell and found that this part of the prison was shrouded in total darkness. Either a light had gone out or the black dragon had the power to influence the maintenance workers. She very much doubted the light would be replaced in the morning.
As she approached the cell, she silently lamented the fact that her human eyes couldn’t pierce the gloom. She saw nothing at all inside the tiny room.
Still, Obscura wouldn’t have free reign of the place, would she? She had to be in there. The doors weren’t locked yet, but she wouldn’t go in. Instead, she kicked the bars to generate a metal clang.
Two silvery orbs opened in the darkness, and Obscura spoke. “What?”
“I received your little message from your goons. You wanted to talk?” she replied and refused to be intimidated by the dragon’s glowing eyes. Surely it was an effect of the light. It had to be. If she didn’t have an anklet on, she would already be dead. After all, she could move through shadow.
“Where are they?”
“Nursing their wounds,” she replied.
“Brute.” Obscura hissed her indignation.
“Whatever. Did you want to talk or what?” she demanded.
“I did but you’re too late now. Find me in the yard in the morning. We’ll talk then in full view of the guards.” Her voice was a purr.
“Are you scared to face me now?” Kristen smiled, hoping her adversary could see her.
The other woman only chuckled. “I see the way you limp, little dragon, and I see the cut on your forehead. Perhaps a night of rest would do you good. We’ll talk in the morning. It’s not like there’s much else to do here, is there?”
“And if I don’t show because you’ve already wasted my time tonight and you’re simply going to waste it again tomorrow?” She couldn’t believe this shit. Now that she’d arrived like Obscura wanted, the dragon refused to talk? After a moment, though, it made sense. She had probably expected her to either come willingly like a little dog or be dragged there. The last thing she’d anticipated was for her to march over with the goons’ blood still on her knuckles.
“If you don’t show tomorrow, I’ll make sure you never get bored here again with visits every night and pats on the back during the day. You did very well against two dragons. Maybe you’d like to meet more.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“In the morning. I tire.” The two silvery orbs winked out, and Obscura said nothing more.
By then, she’d had enough. She tried to open the door but it was locked. “You’re a fucking coward.”
The shadow dragon made no response at all. Before she could deliver another scathing comment, an announcement for last check came over the speakers and she had to hurry back to her cell before she was locked out.
She sat on her bed with seconds to spare. The door locked automatically, and a guard walked past a few minutes later. He illuminated her cell with a sphere of magic white light. If he noticed her wounds and the blood on the floor, he didn’t say anything. Sleep came with difficulty that night.
Chapter Sixty-Two
For the first time in months, Kristen woke up in pain. Her ribs were sore from the vicious attack by the two goons and the gash on her head stung. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she had become to her healing powers. They handled all but the most pernicious wounds overnight. Even with broken bones, she had been able to feel better day by day. Now, she was painfully reminded of what her powers had afforded her.
She scratched at the silver band on her anklet. It was amazing to think that such a tiny thing could stop her from accessing her bevy of abilities. Then again, perhaps it was more amazing to think that every person inside this prison was actually a dragon trapped inside a human body.
With a heavy sigh that made her ribs ache again, she pushed herself out of bed and went in search of breakfast. She hadn’t earned any credits besides the ones she’d been given for not misbehaving but burned all twenty of them on extra breakfast. It wasn’t a bad investment, given that if things went south with Obscura, she was sure to lose them anyway.
She piled her plate high with proteins—perfectly scrambled eggs, crisp, thick, maple-glazed bacon, and sausages stuffed with sage and some kind of seeds that tasted so fresh, she wondered if they were ground in-house. On the other half of her plate, she piled fresh fruit. Apples and bananas but also papaya, honeydew melon, and pineapple—fruits that weren’t often seen in grocery stores in spring in Michigan, at least not in the less affluent parts of the state. It seemed wrong, somehow, that in a prison, they were served at their moment of perfect ripeness.
All in all, breakfast was yet another reminder of the difference between human and dragon culture. In this prison, there were no powdered eggs and no canned fruit. The staff treated the inmates as guests, not criminals. The only things the imprisoned dragons were denied were their freedom and their true form. Of course, the dragons thought this a punishment worse than anything.
Still, even with such blatant inequality between humans and dragons, she recognized that it was better to maintain the status quo. If the solution to humans trying to garner more power from the dragons was a species-on-species war across the planet, it was obviously better to let the dragons keep their breakfast buffets in prison.
More frustrating than this realization was that there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to help to prevent that war. There was an investigation in progress in the outside world, an investigation whose purpose was to track down and stop someone—a person, she wholeheartedly believed—from killing more dragons. But she couldn’t help with it. The dragons had arrested the only person who had a real grasp of the situation. Instead of working the case, she was locked away and had a meeting with a dragon she’d made an enemy of.
With breakfast finished, there was nothing to be done other than confront Obscura. Kristen still ached, but she’d trained hard enough times to feel sore the next morning. Her body was a few levels beyond simply being simple pain but she told herself it wasn’t and that everything would be fine. It wasn’t an easy lie to tell.
She made her way outside to the yard and located her adversary perhaps ten yards away from one of the fences between the prison and the outs
ide world. The black dragon stood in the shadow of one of the towers and watched her approach through the mist stirred by an overly cloudy sky.
As she moved closer, several other dragons stepped in her path. Their arms were folded and their posture unmistakable. They were the proverbial goons, thugs, call them what you will. She had seen their ilk before and had kicked more than a few around, but this was different because she was outnumbered and already beaten up. A glance at one of the towers confirmed that a mage was indeed watching the exchange but he didn’t seem particularly worried.
The two dragons had come to her cell the night before and no one had intervened, so she wondered if the mage’s proximity offered any kind of protection. Surely he’d prevent her from being killed, but did his obligation go any further than that?
As things turned out, she fortunately didn’t have to test that hypothesis. She approached the goons with a show of unconcern and Obscura waved them aside. They nodded and let her walk up to the shadow dragon.
Kristen hadn’t realized how much of the woman’s appearance had been her aura that made people believe she was gorgeous. She was undeniably attractive and even beautiful, but with her powers stripped way, she looked older. In her fifties, perhaps, instead of the thirty-year-old who’d seduced her brother. Her poise was unaffected by the limits on her powers, though, and if she felt at all intimidated by facing the Steel Dragon without her true self hidden, she hid it behind a blustering posture.
“Nice face,” Obscura said and gestured at the wound on her forehead. “I would have thought that after that little encounter, you wouldn’t have come alone.”
“Those thugs aren’t here right now, are they? Neither of them. Meanwhile, I’m fine.” In reality, her ribs hurt, her face ached, and a headache had begun to creep in, but she knew the other woman couldn’t read any kind of aura so decided she might as well bluff with everything she had.
“I guess I merely thought the Steel Dragon would have made friends by now. Tell me, is it difficult talking to dragons when you’re so used to slumming it with humans?”
“I didn’t bring anyone because I’m not intimidated by a powerless old woman. If those two were the best you had to send, you need stronger friends.”
The black dragon laughed at that and actually went so far as to throw her head back. Ugh, the arrogance of this woman. “I suppose you’re right about that. We fought, after all. I should have known those two oafs wouldn’t be enough to force you to come to see me. And yet, here you are, all the same.”
”Yeah, well, I assumed that thousands of years of self-entitlement wouldn’t go away in a few months. And who knows, maybe we have something in common. If you want me to drop dead, I can assure you the feeling is mutual.” She smiled sweetly.
“You’re right in that I wouldn’t leave you alone if you disrespected my summons. It’s good to see your police training has paid off and that you’ve presented yourself out of respect for your superiors.” Obscura smiled even more sweetly—saccharine sweet, which made it all too clear that it was a threat. I can do this better than you, she was saying with that smile. You’ll crack before me because I have allies in here and you don’t.
Kristen couldn’t play that game. It didn’t take thousands of years of experience to see that she would lose.
“So what do you want?” she demanded. It was far better to be direct with people like Obscura who thrived off ambiguity and misdirection.
“Merely to check in, Lady Steel, nothing more. I find it amusing that the person who caged me in my human form is now imprisoned in her own mortal coil as well. Tell me, why are you here? Did you do something naughty?” The shadow dragon licked her lips, an obscene gesture. For once, Kristen had no idea if it was intentional or not. It could have been a move designed to creep her out or the old dragon might have been genuinely hungry for the information she demanded. She didn’t know which was worse.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.
Obscura laughed hard at that and the ring of dragons milling around them who had previously pretended to not pay attention laughed as well.
“Did you hear that?” the older woman asked, her voice raised and with a tone of grandeur. “Like the rest of us, The Steel Dragon has been falsely accused.”
“I was,” she reiterated.
“As was I, miss,” a bald man with a pockmarked scalp said. “They say a whole school full of human children was crushed in that duel I fought, but I swears it was the other dragon who did that, not me. I’s innocent!”
A woman with long brown hair spoke next. “They said I stole another dragon’s horde of gold, and yet they never found a coin on me. The Dragon Council said the mansion I’d recently purchased and a racing yacht was proof that I’d come into stolen wealth. I’m a victim of circumstance.”
“And, of course, you know I’m innocent of these fraudulent charges as well,” Obscura purred. “They say that it was an unsanctioned duel, but I enacted vengeance against a dragon who’d murdered my son in an unsanctioned duel.”
“You attacked my friends and family,” she snapped in response.
“Which is my right, as it is any dragon’s right to take action against those who swear fealty to one of your enemies.”
“They could have died,” she countered and shook her head, done with this nonsense. The woman merely tried to piss her off, no doubt in an attempt to get her to attack or something so she could turn the guards against her. Kristen wouldn’t oblige her. “Don’t fuck me with me again or I’ll attack you directly. You were a dragon for a long time. I was only a human a year ago. Do you really want to try me in a fight?”
Obscura scowled and she knew she didn’t.
She turned on her heel to leave.
“And maybe if I’d have actually killed your friends, I’d be in here longer,” the black dragon called almost lazily.
“Longer?” She paused. “Longer than what? You’ve been in here months. I’ve been in here for five days. I’ll be out before you will because I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Neither did I, Lady Steel, neither did I. And I agree that the length of one’s sentence in our esteemed and honorable court system reflects the severity of the crime. Which is why I’m so pleased to be getting out so soon.”
She scoffed at that. “That won’t happen and you know it. They have the proof to lock you up for a long time. You recorded everything you did to my brother on video.”
“Ah, yes, but these videos of yours can get corrupted, can’t they? Misplaced, broken, and sometimes, the footage there isn’t as telling as we wish it to be.”
“You’re bluffing,” she said.
Obscura chuckled, a smug expression on her face. “Ah, Lady Steel. You are a powerful foe, I’ll give you that. Brawny and with an unswerving—if misguided—sense of right and wrong. But you are still so naïve. I know it’s not your fault. You were raised by apes, after all. But still, can’t you see that there are some parallels between our two cultures? There’s more to justice than courtrooms, and there’s much more to dragon justice.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Kristen felt rooted to the spot. She couldn’t feel her bruises or wounds anymore. In fact, she couldn’t feel anything except a ball of rage that grew hotter and hotter in her belly.
“Our world, like yours, is governed by the rule of who you know more than what you know. Surely you’ve seen the truth of this in your justice system. And fortunately, I’ve been contacted by a powerful patron who assures me I’ll be released quite soon.”
“You’re lying.”
The black dragon giggled. God, Kristen hated her. “And why would I do that? So that in two weeks, when I’m still locked in this horrible place, you can laugh in my face? What purpose would my lies serve?” She laughed again.
“Then I guess this is goodbye,” she said with a fake smile. She found it was much harder to make it sweet in any way.
“Now, are you sure about such a succinct farewell? You’l
l be able to have human visitors, of course—we all have rights to receive reports from our servants—but you have so many friends, don’t you? Surely you’d like me to say something to one of them, wouldn’t you? I’m sure they won’t all be able to visit you behind bars, after all. Is there a message I could relay to them?”
Her fury seized her, and she marched toward Obscura with clenched fists. Two of the goons surrounding the ancient dragon stepped forward to block her path. She punched one of them in the face and he sprawled with a muttered oath. The old dragon actually looked frightened, but a whistle screeched from one of the guard towers and Kristen found that she was no longer touching the ground.
A whirlwind of air had lifted her from her feet. It carried her halfway across the yard and dumped her unceremoniously in a heap. She pushed herself up and looked at one of the towers. A mage in a white robe stared at her with her hands raised and her fingers locked in intricate and deliberate patterns. She had no doubt that she’d been the one to cast the spell to remove her.
Another mage strode toward her, although he didn’t seem angry so much as shaken from his boredom. “You’ll lose ten credits for that.”
“I don’t have any credits,” she said.
“Well, you won’t earn your five for today,” he responded. The thought hardly even registered with her.
Obscura had threatened her loved ones. She didn’t care about credits to spend on lunch or the media room or whatever. Her scowl settled once more on her adversary, but when another breeze threatened, she took the cue and left the yard, seething.
Chapter Sixty-Three
A few days passed and Kristen fell into the routine. She didn’t avoid Obscura but she also noticed that the dragon was still there. Good. Maybe she really had been bluffing.
Early in her second week—a Tuesday, in fact—she received her first visitors. She let her emotions get the best of her, and when the guard told her she had company to visit her, she said her farewells to her cell and its surprisingly plush bed. Obviously, Stonequest had come to release her, she thought. After all, she was innocent.
The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2) Page 45