by Simon Archer
Master William was a few paces away, talking with the headman of Kaulda, a pair of orcs I did not know, and an older Uplander with a regal bearing and bushy whiskers. Beyond them, the people I had been sent to turn to ash were deep in their revelry, joined in with the savage orcs of the north in their triumph over the army I had led to its doom. Though they all tried to hide it, I knew all looked at me with disgust and terror, for I had been the hand of the Weaver’s wrath. I had killed so many of their brothers and sisters, burned so many of their homes, and--
“Stop.” The dryad’s voice was firm even as her hand on my arm was soft.
“Yes, mistress,” I said automatically as I shifted my gaze right down to the ground where it belonged.
Petra let out a little huff, and I prepared myself to be punished for whatever transgression I had performed… but nothing came. Instead, that gentle hand moved up to my shoulder, a bit of a reach for the tiny woman.
“That’s just it, Shikun. You have no master, no mistress, not anymore.” I was about to argue that point when she kept talking. “But it is hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“Impossible to believe,” I murmured, and that’s when she walked around to my front, velvety vines from her hands reaching up to tilt my head up.
I could have resisted, I had the strength, but I relented. After all, even slaves such as us had a hierarchy, and I had long since submitted to it. Petra was first among my new master’s women, so I bowed to her wish and looked up.
The dryad was beautiful in every way I was not, the very picture of femininity, and it almost hurt to look at her. She tapped between her abundant breasts, where the same spiraling gold-and-silver rune that I now carried on my hip graced her brown skin. It was as elegant as she was, and a realization sparked through my mind.
It wasn’t a brand, seared into her flesh. It was… different… just like my new mark. There had been hideous pain when Karthas had burned his brand into my scales, but Libritas’s touch… William’s touch… had been the most pleasurable, joyful thing that had ever happened to me.
“I can’t know what horrible things the Weaver did to you,” Petra said soothingly, “but I imagine it was at least as torturous as what Khaba and Uruk did to me. You have been told you are worthless, terrible, weak, barely fit to kiss the feet of the monsters that rule this world.” She tilted her head to one side, and a smile spread across her perfect lips. “None of that is true though.”
I shouldn’t have said anything. It was far smarter to nod and be silent in this situation, no matter how much I disagreed. Every time I had spoken my mind to the Weaver in the past, it had only ended in Karthas’ instruction upon the wheel of correction. What’s more, I knew deep down that Petra was right, that despite everything the Weaver had told me, it was all wrong somehow.
Still, I couldn’t help myself. I was, after all, a stubborn idiot as my first master had always said.
“If I were strong, I would have escaped him.” My words were mumbles, but I felt them growing stronger as I went on. “If I had been worth something, the Weaver wouldn’t have had to break and remake me on his wheel. I am nothing but a hideous thing, a tool for our master to use, as the Weaver did before him.”
Petra looked aghast at that, her emerald eyes widening as her mouth hung open. “What? No!” She shook her head wildly, and her leaves rustled as they shook. “Your beauty is like the mountains, fierce and majestic, and your strength… if William hadn’t been here… well, I couldn’t have stopped you on my own.”
My eyes turned down again as I tried to process what she was saying. I had no idea how she could see any beauty in me, I was a monster of claws and scales and fire, but as to the rest of what she said…?
There was a kernel of truth to it, something that mixed with long-repressed feelings in my heart. Still, I wasn’t sure if I could trust those feelings, and my tongue was growing bold now. I turned my eyes up again, ready to question more, something I’d never have dared to do with the Weaver, but what I saw made my breath hitch as it silenced my tongue.
Petra wasn’t alone. Master William was now standing in front of me, the dryad shifted to be by his side, and his hazel eyes were boring into me. Our gazes locked eye-to-eye, William being just a hair taller than me. I would say that he could see into my soul, but I knew the moment that Libritas had marked me that he already had.
“M-master, I--” I stammered as I instinctively flinched a step back. I didn’t get a chance to finish… but instead of a blow or a burn, William silenced me with a gentle finger over my lips. A shudder of want ran through my body at that, and as much as I tried to hold it back, I felt my cheeks burn crimson at that want.
“I’m not him.” The words were simple but powerful, and the part of me that knew better finally began to overtake the part of me the monstrous ettercap had broken. “And Petra’s right. You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”
With that, William took his finger off my lips as he traced a soft touch down my chin, along my neck before settling a comforting hand on my shoulder. He wasn’t repulsed by the scales or spines there, not afraid of the hard muscle underneath. At that moment, I believed his words, save for one thing, the thing I had carefully hidden from them all by keeping my front to my new master and mistress.
I didn’t dare say a word, afraid I would ruin the moment or reveal the source of my final shame, the deep burned scars on my back… but I should have known better. I should have known that William was far more insightful, far more observant than my last master, something confirmed for me when he took a step back and swept that searching gaze over me. As he did so, the Brand at his side pulsed with gold light. Libritas was talking to William, no doubt, and when he nodded knowingly, Petra’s eyes widened in curiosity.
“What is it, William?” she asked as she glanced over at me sidelong. “Is something wrong?”
I tried to suppress the shudder. He knew, he had to, and then he would see how broken I truly was. That tender look in William’s eyes would fade, and he would be just like the Weaver. Even as I thought it, I knew it was wrong, that he was different, but I just couldn’t believe the hope sparking in my heart.
William nodded to the dryad. “There is something wrong.” He fixed his gaze back to me. “He didn’t just brand you, did he? Karthas did more than that. Lib’s showing me the chains, and they’re still two there.”
“I--” Tears welled up, blurring my sight even as I tried to hold them back. “The Weaver… he used his Brand to…” I bit my lips, fangs cutting into the flesh hard enough to draw blood. “Please, William! I may be broken, but I can still serve you however you desire.”
My plea was as desperate as my heart, but the Uplander didn’t look at me with pity or hatred or anything like that. The tenderness was still there as he simply stepped forward, put both of his hands on my shoulders, and gently tugged to turn me around. As with Petra, I could have resisted. I could have thrown him off of me before turning my dragon-fire on them both… but I didn’t.
I wanted to believe in William… in Petra… and in Libritas, no matter how much of me tried to remain rooted in reality.
I let William guide me in turning, my tail kept tight so as not to trip anyone. I steeled myself as the source of my shame was made clear, ready for the cries, the disgust, the ridicule.
They didn’t come.
“By the seed of my mother,” Petra gasped not in disgust but in anger, “that monstrous spider! To do this to anyone, it’s an affront to all that is good! He’ll die for this!”
To hear that helped, just a little. Still, I closed my eyes and tried to not shake or flinch as I felt William’s fingers trace down from my shoulder, across my shoulder blades and gingerly touched the terrible scars I knew were there. It was where the Weaver had taken Karthas’s burning head and burnt away my wings, the things that made we draconians whole.
A draconian without her wings was… was dirt. Nothing. Ground-bound scum that wasn’t worthy of anything but pit
y and contempt.
“Karthas caused this… and that means we can fix it.”
William’s words struck me like a lightning bolt, and my entire body tensed suddenly. Was that possible? Was it some lie to manipulate me? Or was it… was it the truth?
“Shikun,” William said, much closer now, his breath hot against my ear, “I need you to stay still and stay calm.” He shifted away from me again. “Petra, be here for her, okay? I don’t think this will hurt, but this is more than just removing a Brand.”
The dryad’s silky soft hands took mine a moment later, and I dared to open my eyes to look at her. Petra’s green eyes were looking up at me, a soft smile on her lips, and if she thought any less of me after seeing my wingless back, I couldn’t tell. There was only an honest love there, the same thing I saw in William’s eyes.
“Just look at me, Shikun, and trust in Libritas and William,” she said with utter confidence as the vines around her wrist slowly entwined around my thick, scaly arms. “It will all be fine.”
I didn’t know what was about to happen, but not only did the dryad’s presence comfort me, the rune embossed in my hip sent a flood of soothing warmth through my body.
To my own surprise, I said, “I… I believe you. I have… hope.”
That’s when I felt the touch of the Brand of Freedom again.
This was the fifth time I had been touched by a Brand of Power, and none of that prepared me for this. Karthas’s searing touch had been a violation, a burning brand that had pierced through my scales and into my soul each of the three times he had scarred me, while Libritas’s first touch had been… ecstasy as she healed my flesh and taken a terrible weight off my soul.
This was something else entirely. As William pressed the Brand of Freedom to my back twice in rapid succession, a cleansing, purifying heat radiated out like a pulse from my scars, a heat that rushed into my thudding heart and down into my core. As it mixed with the dragon-fire that always burned in my soul, that heat made my insides clench and my body shudder with pleasure the likes of which I had never known before. A roaring moan tore free from my lips as my eyes rolled up into my head, and then that mixture of healing warmth and pure dragon-fire exploded through me. It surged back to my wing scars, and then something glorious happened.
A corona of silver flame washed over my body, harmlessly passing over Petra’s hands and vines that still held me tight, and with it, I felt that fire coalesce at my shoulder blades and burst forth.
The dryad let out a gasp of awe, while William gave a low whistle from behind me. And more, I knew as I regained my senses that everyone gathered on the battlefield was staring at me… but I knew that this time, it was not in disgust or terror or pity or anything like that.
No, I knew as I stretched my newly reborn wings of silver flame that they saw me with joy and wonder because I was whole once more.
I couldn’t contain the pure and perfect joy that made my heart thud like a hammer in my chest. I pulled the surprised dryad into my arms, hugged her fiercely, and then let her go as I spun to William. He was smiling brightly, Libritas sitting on one shoulder casually, and I could see that my joy was only matched by his.
Without hesitation, I threw my arms around him as I swept us both up into the sky. After all the decades wingless, I had only one desire now. To take the man responsible for my salvation and show him the sheer, unadulterated thrill of flight.
As we rushed into the purple sky, William let out a laugh of excitement as he put his free arm around my waist.
“Feeling better, huh, Shikun?” he said almost nonchalantly, but there was relief hidden in his tone.
“I am, William of Upland,” I replied as I beat my wings, pushing higher and faster, “and I owe you everything.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he laughed as he threw his head back to catch the wind in our faces, “and even if you did, I think you’re paying it off right now. This is incredible!”
With a smile, an expression I never thought I would be allowed to make again, I turned our ascent into a hover and gazed out with my savior over the Sola plains, the little town of Kaulda, and further, to the great forests of Solanna. It was amazing… but I felt my smile turn into a glower as I caught sight of the Tanglethread Forest.
He must have seen it as well because he held me tighter. “Shikun, we’re going to kill him and break his Brand… and I need your help to do it.”
“It would not only be an honor, my savior,” I said resolutely, a promise in every word, “but it would also be my pleasure.”
24
After my awe-inspiring flight with Shikun, we gathered up an impromptu war council in the center of the bloodstained battlefield. The statuesque draconian woman kept close to my left, while Petra took up a place at my right. Continuing around the circle going right, Reggie stood at the ready with a nod to me, then around to Sullah Sona, his thick arms crossed over his barrel-like chest, with Wodag by his side. Past him, Aroch Steeltusk stood with his staff-sling planted into the grass before him, steely eyes focused on me.
“The ettercaps are slain or routed,” he grunted with a nod. “Now, all that remains is to gather our forces and march on the Tanglethread.”
To everyone’s surprise but mine, Shikun’s golden eyes snapped up.
“No!” she barked with surprising authority considering how demurely she had been acting when I first freed her. “I tell you, at this very moment, the Weaver is making ready to flee to his master! Karthas will have told him that the runes are broken, and he is no fool.”
She pointed a talon around the field at the still-celebrating farmers and huntsmen. “By the time you have organized these people and marched the day-and-a-half trail to the forest, that bastard will be flying to safety on the sphinx’s back. That cannot be allowed!”
“I couldn’t have said it better,” I added as I hooked my thumbs in my belt. “Lib can confirm that the Weaver’s Brand knows what’s gone down. We’re on a really strict timeline if we want this asshole, which means…” I took a deep breath because I knew what I was about to propose was something no one would like. “... Shikun’s going to have to fly me there immediately. She’s got the wings and the speed, and I’ve got the Brand to break his.”
“Unacceptable!” Sullah cried out. “No offense to either of you, for you are both powerful, but…” He blew out a sigh. “The Weaver is cunning and insidious. There will be layers of traps, not to mention this great sphinx, Amalthea. They command powerful magic, my friend!”
Aroch nodded in agreement. “We cannot risk either of you, but more importantly, we cannot risk Libritas.” The orc pointed a thick finger at the Brand of Freedom at my side. “If the Runes take her, bind her away again… who knows when another like you will come to us and free her once more, William? We can always hunt the Weaver later.”
A growl roiled in the back of Shikun’s throat, angry at the very thought of letting the Weaver go, and I understood exactly how she felt. Before I could make a heated counterpoint, though, Reg cleared his throat in a commanding fashion.
“Fine points, gentlemen,” he began diplomatically as he rested a palm on the hilt of his wooden sword. “However, before we descend into an argument whilst also wasting more time, I would present this point.” Sir Thorpe raised a finger. “If Shikun is correct, the Weaver will take more with him than his life. In addition to taking another enslaved woman with him, he will also take both an instrument that will keep enslaving more with him. Neither of those is an acceptable outcome.”
Petra chimed in then, her voice firm and strong. “We must try, for Amalthea’s sake if nothing else.” Her smooth hand clasped mine and squeezed. “After what you both saw today and in days’ past, how can you not have faith in William and the Brand of Freedom?” The dryad looked up at me, then over at Shikun, a warm smile on her lips and utter confidence in her eyes. “I know Shikun will keep him safe.”
The dragon-girl’s cheeks turned pink at the praise as she looked off to one side
. “I will most certainly try, Petra. I only wish I could take you as well.”
Sullah looked over at Aroch, and the orc looked back with a shrug. The headman let out another deep sigh… but then he broke into laughter. “I know when I am beaten, friends.” As he finished, his broad face broke into a smile. “Very well! We will still gather our forces and begin the march to the Tanglethread to support you, but I will put my faith in you, William Tyler, and you, Shikun.”
He thumped his fist to his chest in a salute as Aroch nodded firmly. “Go with the spirits’ blessings,” he added, and that was the end of that. The two leaders broke off to begin to organize their warriors as my little family gathered close.
“I’ll see what I can do to provide some proper British discipline to this march, my boy,” Reggie said with a nod. “Regardless, it’s all up to the three of you.” Lib pulsed at my side, pleased to be acknowledged by Sir Thorpe. “I know you will do us all proud.”
With that, Reg clapped me on the shoulder, a familiar gesture I happily reciprocated, and as he moved off to do his part, Petra slipped around to put her arms around my neck.
“Save Amalthea,” she reiterated before pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss me warmly. “I remember her fondly from my time under Khaba’s thumb. Without the evil influence of the Runes--”
I cut her off with another kiss. “We’ll save her, don’t you worry.”
And that’s when I felt a strong hand on my shoulder and looked over to see Shikun looking heatedly at both of us. She had a hand on Petra’s shoulder as well, and a small smile on her lips, something that lit up her whole face with how rare those smiles had been so far.
“Yes, William of Upland, Petra of Treison,” the dragon-girl said with utter surety, “we will save her… and everyone else too.”
We were off mere moments later. Shikun got a good grip of me by looping her arms under my armpits, spread those majestic wings of silver flame wide, and launched us skyward with one massive thrust.