by James Patton
“Then stay out there.” A dragon rumbled.
“Silence. I run this place, not you. Speak out of turn again, and Raldora will deal with you. Now, Aila, why are you here?”
“I have not confirmed it, but I believe the girl. Minot is gone, every citizen dragon and man alike is dead. War comes.”
“I was at Minot not even a week ago, no way that is true. Are you a Brocard spy?” A voice called out.
Aila stood up on his back he felt her grow heavier more than saw what she was doing. He knew she was accessing her pixie magic, and shivered.
“Look at me, and behold the truth,” Aila growled with a voice that dripped with malice and the promise of violence. “Call me a liar again and you will see why they call me a witch. I have seen the army, so I tell you now, do it tonight. Prepare for War!” Her voice echoed across the entire outpost. The voice bounced back quieter and more haunting.
Damn. No wonder his people call her the Witch of the Woods. He thought but was not about to piss off his only ally. All eyes shifted to the massive armored giant who still stared at the drake. He knew his whole body sagged, and he gave into swallowing his pride. There was no way he would let his shame interfere with saving his bonded.
“I am Taro, of the pack Rathe, son of the Matriarch Rayna. I seek asylum for my rider and me, will you acknowledge the old accords?”
“A prince bonded with a woman? Drakes have fallen far.”
“Step forward, coward in the shadows,” Taro growled softly, but everyone was hanging on his words now. “Do you think you could stand up to Keahi unafraid? Take down a Naga priest of Uro? Slay a beast of Vegeta? No? How about face down Vasia and live to tell the tale? My bonded did, and she does not hide like a milksop. So next time you speak, do it with half the courage this little woman has displayed, and I might be impressed.”
His voice never rose, but with each admission, he could feel their shame. All laughter ceased, and in their silence he continued. “She has come far to deliver a message that you would do well to hear. The witch and I have seen the army with our own eyes.”
“Enough!” The giant man said. “Rayna is known to me, and I will honor the accords as long as you speak true. However, you misbehave, and my dragon will rip your wings off, accords be damned.”
He bowed his head in submission, and Aila patted him gently. It was enough, and if his rider survived, he would have to find a way to repay the debt.
“Edward, since you like to open your mouth, run and get a healer. You are to wait on our guests, and if they need something, I better see you running. Daniel, I know you are here somewhere, call up the council. Lady of the Woods, you are welcome to use my home until your friend recovers.” The giant started barking orders.
“Ho ho ho Green Giant! Yes, papa, I’ll eat my green beans,” Boh blurted out, but whatever she was talking about was lost on him and Aila.
The giant started laughing, “what is wrong with her?”
“Not here,” He grumbled and shifted under the weight of the women. This giant was not going to be happy when he finds out what is infecting Boh.
“He is upset, ya gonna have to ignore his temperament, he is worried about his rider,” Aila said, cutting off a further reply.
The big guy nodded, and turned to face his people once more. “No more leave as of now! I want a full watch day and night, and get the recruits to start shoring up our defenses. Until further notice, you are all on full alert. I want scouts in the air. Joker, you are in charge of the scouts. I want to know the truth of Minot, and I want information on this army.”
“Yes, sir,” Joker replied smartly.
“Lauren! Get patrols in the sky, from now until I tell you to stop I want every inch of the north pass patrolled.”
“Yes, sir,” Lauren replied.
“Somone bring me, Grimshaw, he is going to Haase within the hour. Get to it!” He shouted, and then turned back to them. “Follow me.”
The giant spun, and Aila sat back down so he could walk without worrying about knocking her off. They went through the gates, and he recognized a military outpost when he saw one, but it was not enough. The pixie and he had seen enough of what was coming to know this outpost was going to get decimated.
“What happened to the girl?” The giant asked.
“Uro is under the mountain, and Keahi is awake again. They are fighting and collapsed the main tunnel.” He nervously turned to look at Aila who just shrugged at him. Grimacing, he continued their story. “We had to make the run through Ramerin. We think the spores infected her.
“And you brought her here? Are you mad?”
“She still lives, there is a chance. I’m not gonna give up on her. Ya do not understand at all. The girl used spell on herself and cooked her flesh and boiled her blood to prevent infection. Do ya know anyone that motivated to live? I’m not gonna give up on her that easily, quarantine us if ya must, but she gets her chance.” Aila told him much more vehemently than she intended. She knew it was a side effect of being the girls surrogate, but she meant every word.
“Gods be mercy, any other bad news? What the hell is Uro doing in Keahi’s mountain? Is he insane?”
“No idea, but Keahi was not happy. There is a full on war going on under there. I think Keahi plans on bringing the mountain down on him. Plus, Vegeta might be mixed up in the fight now.” He said.
“Shit. You just come full of good news.”
Aila filled in the rest information.
“We have a good doctor, affinity in earth and light. If he cannot heal her, I doubt anyone can.”
“What do we call you?” Taro grumbled
“Tiny.”
They both laughed, but he tried to cover it with a cough, but the pixie did not bother hiding her laughter. Both of them were emotionally raw which made most things funnier than they were.
“I’m kidding. To civilians I am Geo,” he told them as he stopped in front of a modestly built home. It had a foundation of cobbled stones and concrete, and a wooden frame on top of it with a small deck out front. It had an extremely tall door, but it made sense since Geo was almost eight foot tall. “This is my place, it is not much, but it is a house and not a tent. It is yours for as long as you need it. Wood for the fire is out back. Leave the girl here and come with me, Aila. Taro you stay, sorry but no drake is getting within striking distance of my council. Plus, I want no one entering that building unless it is the doctor. Understood? No one!”
“Understood, and I would prefer staying with Boh. Aila knows more than I anyway.” He told Geo and took a knee. Geo stepped up to grab Boh and carried her gently into his home and put her on the bed. Then opened the single window and poked his head out.
“You can keep an eye on her from here. The healer should be here shortly. His name is Liam. I am trusting you, do not betray it.”
“Your faith is not misplaced. Aila, hurry back. We need to get Boh up and get to Haase as fast as we can. No offense Geo, but this outpost doesn’t stand a chance against what is coming.”
Malinite
Chapter 55
Defiance
I was left to die. Abandoned on a barren island by my Matriarch. Did it toughen me up? No, because our society made me think that because I was a runt, that I was weak and deserved death.
-from Malinite, Audio Roll 0220
Boh remained on his mind the whole trip back to the Spire. He despised the dragon he had become, and she made it worse. Every time he thought about her words he burned with shame.
You are weak, not stupid. But weak I can fix. Boh had said, and it kept replaying in his mind. She did not even see him as a threat, just a consequence. He deserved her hate and ire, and she gave him neither. Weak I can fix!
“Rrraaraghhh!” He growled from deep within him, a place he had not even known existed. It felt so good that he did it again, feeling the roar escape him like the careless thunder of the gods. His entire body rippled with the energy escaping him, somehow empowering the sound.
&n
bsp; That elf shamed and humbled him, but she was not wrong. Blaming her for his inadequacies and failure was wrong, and the only person he could blame was himself.
He had come to detest his complicity in what happened to his rider. The girl was not the only one that the queen broke in that encounter, and he was glad his queen sent him away from the Spire.
Boh fought the queen longer than anyone he had ever seen, and the queen had been at her form of torture for centuries. The queen may not have felt the fervor of the girl, but he sensed the truth in her words.
Even at the end, she did not give in. She adjusted her strategy. It was a fight she could not win, and she knew it. She accepted it and promised to hunt them down, and he believed her. More than that, he respected her.
When did that happen?
The spire was ahead of him, and he had made one stop on the back or he would have made it days ago. He owed a wyvern a favor, so he told the old beast the truth of what he had seen at Seventh Talon.
He rode the air currents and circled the Spire and rose higher and higher until he found the landing he needed. As he was touching down his second heart started to seize, and he stumbled on his landing, nearly breaking his wings again.
What the hell are you up to Boh? Looking towards the northwest, he was conflicted. His bond called out to him, and the curse was pulling towards the door. He felt like he was getting torn in half. A choice between honor and duty, but choosing duty felt like weakness. He tried to rationalize to himself that a few minutes would not matter.
He would tell his queen what he knew and rush to help his rider. Provided his queen let him leave.
Most of the spire had open doorways, but this place did not. It was a concession from the king because he did not want to see her deformed body. The queen was hideous, and the first and only time he had seen her had given him nightmares for years.
The door opened silently, but the queen already knew he was there. It was that shroud of hers; it was sentient and dangerous. It even responded to her emotions, and the more she lost control, the more the voices spoke.
“Go human,” Vasia spoke in her normal seductive voice and waited until the human was out the door and it shut behind him. “I expected you days ago, where have you been?”
“Next time don’t damage my wings,” Malinite said with more spite than intended.
“He daresss challenge you. He-“
“Enough! Tell me what you saw.” The darkness pulsed around her, expanding and contracting.
“You were wrong.” It was a confrontational start to their conversation, but it felt good. It was Boh’s personality bleeding into his, but he decided he was ok with it. Despite how the confrontation between Boh and Vasia turned out, he just decided that Boh came out the winner.
“Then what isss it?” Vasia hissed, her patience seemed thin today.
“It was not a dome, but a torus. Seventh Talon is not under the protection of the shielding the other six talons are…” He proceeded to give her the rest of the details and tried to keep his second heart steady. Occasionally he felt his voice hitch, but Vasia did not seem to care.
Mission Completed: Queen’s Investigation
- Orders: Vasia has ordered you to fly out to Seventh Talon, find away around the guards and avoid the Sentinels. Use your Seer ability and discover the truth about Seventh Talon.
Mission Rewards:
- Submission curse has
- Reward: The Submission curse is removed. Dragonrider class for both Rider and Dragon has increased to Journeyman.
Your Drache Bond with Boh has improved.
Improvement:
- Telepathic Connection now allows communication while rider and dragon are touching.
“Meatling is discourteous. Eat him.”
“Hurt him again. It pleasssed usss to hurt him. Break him.”
“Stop.” A new voice said, it was not one that Malinite had ever heard. The voice never raised, but every thing stopped.
The command in the new voice scared him more than all the others combined and he hoped to never hear it again. Malinite could not tell if all the voices came from her mouth or if they existed within the Shroud. He had no idea how Vasia could handle it. The voices would have made him leap into an active volcano.
“I am sorry, my queen.” He said bowing his head trying to hide the pain on his face as his second heart trembled once more. The girl was in real danger, and he needed to get to her. Whatever it was, it felt like it was something he could fix.
“He lies. Not sorry that one is. He is plotting, end him before he betrays us.” The voices were whispering, mostly behaving from what he could tell.
“Rise. Our family never bows their heads. We are greater than all the other bloodlines put together.”
He lifted his head up, but his hearts were both out of sync, and it was causing a great deal of pain.
“What are you not telling me?”
“The girl. She is dying. My second heart- it is failing.”
“GO! I need her, do not let her die! Protect her at the cost of your own life, because if she dies, then you will no longer have any haven among anyone on the council. You will be shunned, not only by them but your peers for letting your rider die. As your Matriarch, I command it by Submission.”
“You.” He stopped himself, feeling rage boil up in him. For the first time in his life, he thought he could kill his queen. An inner strength that he could not tell if it was his or his rider. It did not matter; it was him now. “I—“
What is happening? He asked, interrupting what he had been about to say. He almost renounced his bloodline, but her curse did not stick on him. Internally he was laughing, damn near hysterically. His manic hysteria might have escaped if not for the pain. I am bonded, her hold on me is over. I will save my rider— on my terms you evil hag.
His teeth were exposed, a typical form of defiance for a dragon, but his queen ignored him. He wanted nothing more than to sink those teeth into the soft unscaled flesh of her body. As Boh did, he wanted to taste her blood, but then his second heart slammed into his rib cage, and he staggered.
“Yes, my queen.” He gave her his last obeisance because he was not coming back here. That thought never left as he took off out of the tower and flew. The best thing was that she had not even realized she had no control over him anymore.
As exhausted as he was, he put everything into flying. Hours went by in a blur, and slowly he felt his hearts gaining their rhythm. The second was still weak and dying, but part of him knew the bond was trying to warn him.
Arooarrrr! He growled until his voice failed him, and felt his blood on fire. He saw a coastal town ahead but did not stop as he flew past and felt the coldness in the air as he wove through the mountains.
“Hang on, Boh.” He could not explain the emotions that were overwhelming him. Mostly fear that he had failed his rider, which warred with the practical side that was saying he was better off without her.
The bond was driving him insane, and he understood the warnings about forcing a bond. His brain was overwrought and despaired. It took away his logical thinking, and he was all reaction.
Ahead of him he finally saw his destination, a military fortress that looked like it had an army marching towards it. He landed in the center of the town and was immediately surrounded by dragons and their riders.
“State your name and purpose.”
“Or else what?”
“We kill you.”
“Just like that?” He asked and knew his face was slack with surprise.
“If you have not noticed, we are about to be at war. Next time you should think about that before landing in the middle of a military base.” A man was speaking, but he had to be the largest two-leg he had ever seen.
“I apologize, my rider is dying. My name is Malinite, and I am looking for Boh- shit. A Mercury Elf, a girl with blue in her hair.”
“I know of her. Explain why I should not kill you right now, scum?” The giant spat with a v
ehemence that almost made him flee, the man knew. Vasia was wrong. The girl had more spine in her than she wanted to believe.
“I wronged her. I do not deny that but consider two things. I had no choice, and if I had, I would never have bonded her. Second, if you do not let me see her, she will die.”
The giant placed his hand on a green dragon that was also abnormally large. A dragon that size could easily kill him. “Calm down. If he does anything you do not like, then you can kill him.” The man told his dragon.
“He already has done plenty I do not like, how about we just kill him now.”
“Look. I will take whatever punishment you want, just let me help the girl first.”
Another dragon, of the element water and light, spoke. “His bond, it has turned on him. Look at him. Bring him to the girl, if he is that distraught, then she does not have long.”
“Follow.” The giant jumped off his dragon, and he could feel the impact as the two-leg landed. The giant never stopped moving and walked further into the town until they came upon a drake.
It had been a long time since he had seen a drake close up, and never one inside a dragon town.
“Taro. This is-”
Rahhhaaar. Taro let out a roar that shook the windows nearby and attacked. It was so sudden that Malinite had not even tried to protect himself.
Malinite’s face was torn open again, and he felt blood pouring from the open wounds. Before he even had time to register the damage, the drake bit down on his neck.
No longer shocked, he started casting his ability and felt the life draining from the drake to heal his wounds. He hated this spell, but he was done pretending he was not a killer. Either the drake stopped, or he’d kill him. Nothing was going to stop him from helping Boh. He owed her that much.
“ENOUGH!” The giant yelled. “Taro, down. He is trying to help, do not make me force you out for not following my rules! If he harms her, you have my full permission to kill him.”