Dragons, Power, Courts, And War (Book 2)

by Vic Broquard

  Suddenly the world appeared once more, the nausea vanished as suddenly as it had come. World? What world was this? Desert sands? There were no deserts on Adapazan, none that she had ever heard of — where am I? Screams. She heard several other screaming women. Twisting around in the claws, she saw five other women clamped between enormous claws of other dragons, all circling in the moonlight. Warmth! Wherever here was, she thought, it was nice and warm.

  Another dragon swooped in close to her. It chanted. Suddenly, everything went black, a total, complete, and utter darkness. She screamed as she recognized the spell. It was one that she flatly had wanted nothing to do with. Blind! The dragon had permanently blinded her. Memories of her old mage teacher came back. He had tried to teach her that spell, but she recalled her reply, “Absolutely not! What a horrible thing to do to someone. No way do I want to permanently blind someone. Never.” Now she wished that perhaps she had not been so headstrong. If I’d have learned it, she thought, then maybe there was a way that I could undo it. “Please, I can’t see. Undo this, please.” The dragons didn’t answer her. Another spell hit her. This time she didn’t feel any different, though she certainly didn’t know what the spell was. Now she felt the dragon moving once more, but she relaxed; there was nothing that she could do about it now. “If you are going to kill me, just do it!” she called out feebly.

  Time passed and Milena struggled with the idea of time. How am I ever going to tell time now? I can’t see anything anymore. How will I know when it is morning? How will I know when I am supposed to go to bed? Milena became more and more confused as she tried to focus on how she could survive like this. Then, the claws let go of her and she fought hard in the utter darkness to keep her balance and not fall down! That was scary, she thought. “Where am I? Why are you doing this to me?”

  She heard more chanting but recognized the spell. Someone was trying to Charm her! Well, that won’t work on me, she thought. Oops. Maybe I better play along with them. If they think I am charmed, maybe I can figure a way to get away from them. How? I can’t see where I am even at? Which way is home? More confusion overcame her thinking processes.

  Another spell detonated and she felt her shoulders being touched. Immobilize! Milena knew this spell but it was too late for her to counteract it. If she had been able to see and had been concentrating, she knew that she ought to have been able to avoid the spell’s effects. Her body went rigid and she could not move a muscle, no matter how hard she tried. She felt her body being lifted and being laid on a flat surface. A bed perhaps? What’s happening? Oh my god! No! Milena didn’t need eyes to know what the somebody was doing to her now. She was being raped! She threw all her energy into trying to throw the man off of her, but her body didn’t move even the tiniest fraction of an inch. She was Immobilized. I’ll kill him! She swore to herself. I’ll kill him, I swear I will if it’s the last thing I ever do!

  Well at least that was quick, she thought. Maybe now they will let me go. They’ve had their fun and jollies. Wait! Men are in cahoots with the dragons! Oh no! Who is that man? Why is he using dragons? What’s going on? Her mind now raced down other avenues. She heard more chanting. This time, she did not recognize the spell, but held a little hope that whomever was chanting was going to release her now and let her go back home. Home? They were all dead now, aren’t they? The horrors within Moose Lodge came back to her and she shuddered, though her body didn’t move.

  No, something was definitely happening to her body! She felt herself becoming positively huge. No, make that enormous. A voice spoke, “Ah, there, that is much better now. Milena, we have rescued you from the humans. We have been able to get you out of the human form that the humans forced you into. You have your dragon body back once more. What have those vile, wicked humans done to you, dear Milena?”

  “Huh? What are you saying? Oh, I can move again. I feel so strange! I can’t see. What’s going on? Why do I feel so weird?” Milena asked, growing more and more confused. If only she could see. “I can’t see. Help me.”

  “We are so sorry that we could not rescue you any sooner from those awful humans, dear Milena. We have managed to get your beautiful Black Dragon body back. They had been forcing you to always stay in your human form, the beasts. Your black body is very beautiful, Milena. But we are so sorry about your eyes. The humans have torn them from your sockets. Foul beasts! We promise you that we will extract revenge ten-fold for what the humans have done to you, a beautiful black dragon.”

  “I am not a Black Dragon, am I?” she asked growing more confused by the minute. None of this made the slightest sense.

  “Don’t you remember Milena? My god, what have those humans done to you? You are a beautiful Black Dragon! The humans captured you a month ago. They have blinded you and forced you to remain in your human form against your will. It took us a whole month to find where they were holding you captive. We swooped down and killed many of the wicked humans who held you captive and rescued you. Don’t you remember any of that? Perhaps, they have also cast powerful spells that altered your memory. Feel your huge wings, your massive tail, and your powerful claws. We are so terribly sorry that they tore your eyes out. Now you can no longer soar high in the sky with us. But don’t worry, we will take good care of you. You are safe in your cavern, but they probably erased those memories of yours too. Since you cannot see any longer, you must be careful. If you walk too far from here, you could step off of the cliff and fall a thousand feet to your death. How can you ever fly again? We don’t know. You would not be able to see where you were flying and could easily fly right into a tree or cliff wall. Werner says that it is too perilous for you to attempt to fly anymore. So we will take good care of you, most beautiful Milena.”

  She felt her body as best she could. There was a tail, a long one at that. She felt her claws. They seemed awfully real to her. She felt her neck, so incredibly long! Her face, it was huge and her teeth — her claws told her they were enormous. At last, Milena no longer doubted that her body was that of a huge dragon. But how? “I am a human, not a dragon,” she finally replied.

  “Yes, the wicked men who captured you cast all sorts of awful spells on you, poor Milena. We hope that we killed all of them who did this awful thing to you. Are you hungry?”

  “Well yes! I am ravishingly hungry!” She recognized an intense hunger in her belly. She smelled the carcass of a freshly killed animal being pushed across the stone floor towards her nostrils. Before she knew what she was doing, her massive body was devouring the antelope.

  Later on, the kind voice began talking once more, “We have examined your beautiful black body, Milena and you are so very, very lucky. The humans have not harmed your baby that is growing inside of you! You will still be able to have your baby, perhaps in some sixty days. That is a miracle, Milena. At least they cannot take away your motherhood from you. Now that is something to be thankful for, isn’t it?”

  “Huh? Pregnant? I am? This is all so confusing. I am not a dragon, am I?” she replied, her confusion only growing.

  “Of course you are a perfect Black Dragon, Milena, only the vile humans have tortured you and done awful things to you. Still, take comfort, you are not alone. The humans captured several other dragons too, torturing them much as you. We’ve been rescuing them right and left. Some of them are sleeping next to you. Oh, we’ve put a chain on your ankle. When it goes taught, do not try to go beyond that distance. The chain marks where it is safe for you to walk. We all fear that if you go farther, you will fall off the cliff to your death and not even be able to see it. Promise me that you won’t go beyond the chain’s limit, dear Milena.”

  “Well okay, I don’t want to fall. I can’t see,” she agreed, becoming terrified of even the idea of falling into the unknown space.

  “That is good. Why don’t you take a nap now? I expect that you are exhausted from all the torture that the humans put you through.”

  She yawned. “Yes, I am tired, very tired. Wake me in the morning. I can’t te
ll if it is morning or night anymore.”

  “Yes, of course we will. Rest now.” She curled up, her long neck curved around her massive body, resting it on her side. Milena fell into a deep sleep.

  Deep sleep gave way to some awful nightmares. Dragons were burning her friends alive. She awoke with a start, raising her head up high. Bang! Her head hit solid stone some twenty feet above the floor. “Ouch!” she exclaimed, pulling her head down. It banged into something soft to her right. It moved.

  “Oh, you bumped into me. I am Vesna. Who are you? I don’t recognize your smell.”

  “Milena. What’s going on? I can’t see. I am blind. Sorry. I must have hit my head on the ceiling.”

  “Yes, I have done that too, Milena. We are all blind. We have all been captured and tortured by the humans. They tore out my eyes. None of us can see anymore. That’s an awful thing to do to a dragon. I am so sad. I’ll never be able to fly again. I do so love to fly. At least the fellows are taking good care of us and the humans didn’t find my baby. I’m going to have a fine, strong baby one day soon. How badly were you tortured, Milena? Did they try to do awful things to your mind too?”

  “But I am a human or I was,” Milena protested.

  A voice to her left spoke up, “That’s all right, Milena. We understand. I am Rada. The humans tore my eyes out too. They messed with my mind, but I won. I still know that I am a Black Dragon! They couldn’t convince me otherwise. I am so very glad that they didn’t harm my baby. I’m pregnant too, due in a few more weeks, I think. I don’t know how I could have continued to live if they had killed my unborn baby! Those awful humans. I hope Werner wipes them all out!”

  “Same here,” another voice called out from further to Milena’s right. “I hope they kill them all! I’m Marjeta, by the way. They didn’t get my baby either! She’s right. I don’t know how I could have had the strength to carry on if they had ripped my baby from me! There are a dozen of us here now. None of us can see, but they are looking after us very well, Milena. Just be careful not to go beyond the reach of the chain. We can’t see anymore and there is a steep cliff just beyond the cavern’s entrance. I know that I can fly if I fell, but if I can’t see, I will end up flying into something and get badly hurt or worse. Just be careful of that. I wish I could see you, Milena. He did say that you were one of the prettiest blacks ever.”

  “But I am a human, I think,” Milena tried to explain the unexplainable.

  “We know, Milena. The humans cast vicious spells to alter your mind. I do hope that you didn’t reveal any of us dragon’s secrets to them. I don’t think that I did,” Marjeta said soothingly.

  Another voice from even further to her left called out, “It’s all right, Milena. Give yourself time. Many of us were brainwashed by the humans. Even I thought that I might be a human when I first got here. I am Katerina, by the way. Give it time, Milena. Slowly your real memories will come back to you. At least that is what our caretakers are suggesting and hoping.”

  Poor Milena only became more and more confused. I have memories of mom and dad. See, I was a little girl, well a big one. The kids all teased me about being taller than they were. Oh, was that because I was really a dragon? Is that why I was so tall? No, that can’t be. I got taught magic by the old mage. I have to be human. No, I heard that dragons too can cast spells. But I am a young woman, I know it. I feel so strange. My body feels so different, so huge, and so weird. I can’t be a dragon, not really, or can I? I don’t understand this at all. What’s happened to me? She began to cry.

  She felt two head on long necks moving their necks along hers. “There, there, Milena. It will be all right. Just give yourself time to remember who you are. The nasty humans have so wiped out our memories, but they come back in time I think.” She recognized the voice of Vesna.

  Katerina spoke up, “Say, Milena, can you remember how to cast any of your spells? The humans have wiped my mind totally clear. I cannot remember how to cast the simplest of spells any more. They’ve really robbed me of my own magic spells!”

  “Me too,” Vesna added. “They wiped my mind out too. I can’t recall how to cast even one spell anymore. It is just awful, a dragon who can’t cast anything! Vile humans!”

  “I can remember my spells,” Milena said more to herself. “But I can’t see. I know. Levitate!” She felt her body rising up slightly.

  “Oh! Everyone! Milena is doing it! She remembers her spells!” Vesna called out. She and Rada had their necks and heads wrapped around Milena’s comforting her. Both felt Milena’s body rising. Many other women complimented and praised Milena.

  “Well, at least the humans didn’t wipe her mind as badly as they did ours! That is something. Melina, you are one lucky Black Dragon!” Vesna pointed out. “The rest of us were not so lucky.”

  “It, it must be awful to have lost your ability to cast your spells,” Milena admitted and sympathized with the dragon women. Are they even women or is that a human term? I am starting to think like them! Oh god. No, I am a woman. I am not a dragon, but then I do seem to be a dragon. This is all so confusing!

  After that, Milena found that the other dozen female dragons around her all looked up to her. Rada pointed out that the only thing more humiliating than a blinded dragon was one who had lost their ability to cast magical spells. Milena felt a little better about everything now, since at least she could cast her spells, though most were entirely useless if she could not see anything.

  Her days, if days they even were, consisted of chatting with the other females, whose talk mostly centered on the babies growing inside their wombs. At seemingly random times, food would appear and a water barrel always seemed to be full. All slept quite a lot, though. During the quiet times, Milena continued to examine all her memories. After all, Vesna said that her memories would slowly return to her. What had the humans done to me? Did they give me a whole bunch of false memories? What kind of spell would do that? Where are my dragon memories anyway? I keep on seeing only my human ones. Confusion continued to cloud Milena’s mind.

  Evsen and his Strike Force One continued to scour Voss for more likely sites to explore. Their goal: find all the enchanted weapons they could find and all the treasure as well. Naturally, they found more of the latter, though they now had ten more enchanted swords that were still functional. The news of the Night of Terror struck these fourteen fighters hard. At first, they wanted to head home and launch a strike of their own against the dragons. Evsen had been able to point out the folly of that. With Zoran’s request that they stay and search for more weapons that could be used to kill dragons, they calmed down and agreed. With the news that a second force was being equipped using the blades that they had found previously, the fourteen took a renewed interest in finding even more. They were doing something positive about it. Viktor suggested that soon they might be able to equip a third strike force! Their morale was high.

  On the other hand, Honani and his Star Dancers were becoming bored with the perpetual rummaging through long abandoned ruins. For days, they had kept their eyes turned to the north where the reds and blacks were often seen circling in the sky or sweeping down. Sometimes, Honani spotted one returning north carrying an antelope in its claws. Just what were the dragons doing there began to prick all five’s curiosity. No other dragons were on Voss, only these reds and blacks. They were only at that one location in the far north of the Russet Mountains. They never ventured far from that area. Were they hiding something? Honani had that thought more than once, so did his companions.

  The fourth day after the nighttime attack of the dragons, Honani took his group northward, telling Evsen, “Today, we are going to look for sites further north.” Evsen didn’t suspect anything and agreed. After Shadow Walking part way there, the five spent an hour looking for dragon dung. After finding one pile at last, the five smeared some of it on themselves.

  “Invisible and here we go. Let’s see what those dragons are up to, shall we?” Honani suggested.

  “It can’t
be good,” his wife, Awinita added. The five Shadow Walked to the northern mountains and began watching and searching for likely caverns. A few hours of methodical searching yielded five different cavern complexes that the dragons were using. Reds and blacks each had two that appeared to be for the sole use of their respective colors, but with the fifth, dragons of both were spotted entering and leaving.

  Stay Invisible and stay in the Shadows as much as possible. Let’s explore that one first,” Honani suggested, pointing to one the reds were using exclusively. The five slipped deeper into the Shadows and moved towards its entrance, dodging a red that came swooping in, carrying an antelope. By being mostly in the Shadows, the many traps failed to detonate. Inside, they were quite surprised to find a dozen red dragons chained to a wall in one side chamber. They moved on deeper inside. They found three more chambers, each with an adult female caring for ten baby dragons. One of the females received the antelope and was now in the process of ripping it into smaller pieces for the young.

  An hour later, they discovered the second reds-only complex was laid out much the same. Another three females were raising another thirty baby reds and another dozen were chained to a wall. Two hours after that, they finished searching the blacks-only caverns, discovering nearly the same thing. Three females were caring for thirty baby blacks with a dozen more blacks chained to a wall.

  Finally, they scouted out the remaining cavern complex. This one was definitely much larger but many of the chambers were now empty, though they counted some sixty empty chains attached to the walls. There were, however, another dozen blacks and reds chained up in one side chamber and one dragon appeared to be caring for them. Since the unchained dragon was not with the dozen at the moment, Honani decided to have a closer look at the chained ones. Why would dragons chain up their own kind? Had they stumbled across a combination prison and nursery? As he semi-materialized, although still invisible, he used extreme caution. At any moment these dragons could spot him and their combined breath strikes could well wipe him out several times over. How strange! Look at their eyes! He sent.