by Logan Jacobs
“We’ll get something for you and the little one, too,” Chef Marver told Penny. “I’d bet anything that you’ll have a fighter on your hands, so you better kick your feet up and eat up.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Penny sighed.
While Marver and Osman went to fix us some food in the kitchen, the rest of us sat back down at the table so we could catch each other up on our progress so far. After Penny and I caught the others up on what had happened in the City of Slaves and the Blood City, they gave us the run-down of what happened here in the Capital. It was late afternoon by now, but as Cimarra started to give us more details, I realized that we had already accomplished more than I had hoped for.
“I heard from Selius earlier today,” Cimarra explained. “He sent word that Riverhome is ours, and so is the Gold City.”
“That’s amazing,” I said. “Is the kid alright?”
“Oh, yes, Selius is fine,” Cimarra said. “He stayed out of the action like you told him to, and he has just been my messenger back and forth through all the portals.”
“What about all the other cities?” Penny asked. “Have we heard from them?”
“The five other cities are ours, too,” Cimarra said with a smile. “Our troops are now in control of every city in the empire.”
“That shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise,” Skam said. “You did plan everything out down to the last detail, Wade.”
“That might be true, but it’s still damn good to hear,” I laughed. “Just like it’s damn good to see that you’re all well and that you made it through the fighting just fine.”
“It was fookin’ fun, that’s what it was,” Skam said. “I’ve wanted to hit an elf ever since I got out of the labor camps, and I got to hit more than my fair share today.”
“And you would have hit a lot more,” Osman said as he carried over a tray of fresh coffee and tea back to the table, “if the elves hadn’t all surrendered so fast.”
“Aye, that’s true,” Skam said as he nodded. “They were a little lost without their leader, so the city fell even faster than we thought.”
“What about all the elves behind their precious little white walls?” Penny asked. “Did you have any trouble when you stormed their district?”
“Those nobles couldn’t surrender fast enough,” Skam snickered. “Once the soldiers gave up, the nobles all threw themselves at our mercy.”
“To be fair,” Twila added, “a whole hell of a lot of nobles and other elves had already died from the nightshade, so there weren’t too many left to surrender, anyway.”
“That was our plan,” I said with a shrug. “Poison as many as we could, and then kill or force the rest into a surrender.”
“So really, only the temple is left,” Marver said as he brought a tray of food in for Penny and me.
“That’s what Leif said,” I replied. “With any luck, the priestesses will all starve themselves to death, or at least until the point where they decide to surrender.”
“Thanks for this, Marver,” Penny said as she started to fill up a plate full of food for herself. “And thanks for the tea, Osman.”
“Of course,” they both replied at once.
As I started to eat my weight in pulled pork, biscuits, creamed potatoes, and roasted carrots, I finally began to relax. I was a lot hungrier than I realized, but then again, I had spent the better part of the day in battle.
Conquering the world was hungry work.
“I’m glad Golierian got out in time before all this shit started,” I said when I finally pushed my empty plate away, “but Twila, you know how to reach him, right?”
“Yes, he gave me instructions on how to send word to him,” the golden-haired halfie replied. “Do you need him?”
“It looks like it,” I said. “Tell him to get back here as soon as he can. I have a lot of questions, and he may be the only one who can answer them for me.”
“What’s going on?” Cimarra asked.
“Tevian left the Blood City before we attacked,” I said and then took a deep breath. “And we don’t have any way to prove this, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to gather an army to lead against us.”
“From where?” Skam asked.
“The wilderness forts,” I answered. “The only problem is, we don’t know the exact locations of all of them, and we don’t know exactly how many soldiers are stationed there, so there’s a lot of unknown factors at the moment.”
“And Golierian is the only one who knows the answers?” Twila asked.
“It sure as shit looks that way,” I said. “I think we’ll still have the advantage thanks to the portals, but in the meantime, we need to start training all our troops so they know how to fight against elves on horseback.”
“I’ll make sure Selius spreads the word to the other cities the next time I see him,” Cimarra said, “and I’ll send out our other messengers as well.”
“Good, then we’ll just keep training our soldiers,” I said, “and I want us to start reinforcing all the city’s defenses. I want barricades at all the entrances, makeshift walls wherever there aren’t any walls, and plenty of guards and lookouts stationed all along the perimeter of the city. That’s true for this city and every other city in the empire, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“We’ll get it done,” Cimarra reassured me. “I’ll add that to the messages that I send out, too.”
“Thank the Ancients for the portals,” Skam chuckled.
“You can say that again,” Penny sighed.
“Um, I have a quick question,” Twila said. “I’ll send word to Golierian right away, but, uh… what do you want me to do with Belis? Do you still want me to keep him alive?”
“Oh, shit,” I laughed. “I’d almost forgotten all about that asshole.”
“What are you going to do with him?” Marver asked.
“I’m going to feed him to my dragon,” I said with a grin. “Penny, would you like to take a quick detour with me?”
“I’m happy to go anywhere that you do, Wade,” the beautiful redhead replied. “Especially if it means that we get to feed a day elf to our little friend.”
“Azure isn’t quite so little anymore,” Skam chuckled, “or at least, he wasn’t when you took him out to Adrian’s cottage.”
“And I intend for him to get even bigger,” I said. “I’ve just gotta feed him some more magic, so he grows up big and strong.”
“Imagine the looks on the elves’ faces when they see you with a full-grown dragon,” Osman said.
“That would be a good day,” I agreed. “But as much as I hate to eat and run, we should probably take care of that so we can get back to our plans.”
“I’ll send word to Golierian,” Twila said, “and I’ll help Cimarra with the messengers to all the cities.”
“We’ll make sure that everyone starts to set up defenses all around the city,” Cimarra added, “and we’ll make sure the troops begin to train to fight against elves on horseback.”
“Then I’ll see you later, my friends,” I said and stood up from the table. “And may the Ancients be with us.”
Penny and I left the others to work out the details of how and when to send messages to all the other cities, and we immediately made our way back down to the dancehall, so we could grab the day elf from his prison there and then take him into the woods to feed to our dragon.
At least now that the city was ours, we didn’t have to worry when we transported Belis through the streets out into Falrion Forest. There were no elven soldiers to stop us now, and even if the other races saw us move the day elf, they wouldn’t say anything about it if they knew what was good for them.
Still, I took our usual horse and cart with us from the bakery, so we could transport the day elf in the back, anyway. While we might not need to hide him from elven soldiers, I didn’t want to personally haul him through the city and the forest all the way to Adrian’s cottage. It would be much faster and easier to just take the horse a
nd cart.
When I opened the door to the secret room in the dancehall, Belis looked like he had seen better days. He had been fed and cared for by Twila, just like I had asked her to, but he looked just about as angry as any elf that I’d ever seen before, but that also might be because his arms were tied behind his back so he couldn’t use any magic on the girls who entered the room to take care of him.
“Time to go for a little ride, Belis,” I said with a grin.
“You fucking bastard,” the day elf swore and then glanced at my crown. “Who the hell do you think you are? Who the hell do you think I am?”
“Oh, I think you’re the elf who used to feed humans to your horses to try to make them more vicious,” I said. “So you more than deserve everything that’s about to happen to you.”
“What do you--” Belis started.
“Your time to talk is over,” I said. “The rule of the elves is over, actually.”
“You’re living in a human kingdom now,” Penny growled.
I ripped off a strip of a dirty sheet from the bed to gag him so we wouldn’t have to listen to him for the entire ride out to the cottage, and then I forced him to march outside and into the back of the cart. I made sure his feet were bound, so he had absolutely no chance of escape, and then once Penny and I were settled in the front, I urged the horse forward at a fast trot toward Falrion Forest.
It didn’t take quite as long to get out to Adrian’s cottage this time, since we didn’t have to try to avoid elven patrols or go at a non-suspicious pace. I knew that we wouldn’t go right up to the cottage because I didn’t want either of us to inhale too much nightshade where it was planted all around the house, especially not Penny since she was pregnant, and it made me wonder how close Azure had stayed to the cottage, or if we would have to search for the dragon for a few minutes first.
But just as the cottage came into view up ahead off in the distance, I heard branches snap in the woods close to us, and almost right away, our blue-scaled dragon bounded out of the trees like a puppy that had accidentally grown to be the size of a horse.
“Hey there, boy!” Penny smiled as she jumped down from the wagon.
The dragon walked right up to her and licked the side of her face, but then as soon as I hopped down from my side, Azure ran around to greet me, too. He nuzzled his blue scales against my hand until I scratched him under the chin, and instantly, his wings spread wide, and his hind foot started to thump against the ground.
“It’s good to see you, too,” I laughed. “I’ve missed you, Azure.”
The blue dragon just cooed and rubbed his scales against me again.
“I know, I know,” I said, “but guess what? I’ve brought you a present.”
Azure’s reptilian eyes went wide, and a little puff of smoke escaped out from his nostrils.
“It’s in the back,” I said. “Just take it out before you eat it, okay?”
Azure trotted to the back of the wagon and gave a little snort of delight. Almost instantly, the whole wagon shook as the dragon plopped his front feet on the back of the cart, but I patted the horse to keep it calm. The cart trembled a little more as Azure dragged Belis out, but when I heard the elf’s body thump to the ground, Penny and I walked to the back to watch the day elf’s execution by dragon.
For half a second, I almost felt bad for Belis when the day elf looked up at the dragon from where Azure had pinned him to the ground. He looked fucking terrified, but then again, it had probably been centuries since the elves saw dragons as anything but a circus act that they could beat into submission.
It probably felt like quite a different matter to Belis, to have a free dragon right on top of him with his fiery breath and sharp teeth right in his face.
But even though I almost felt bad for Belis, I remembered half a second later that he had once fed countless humans to his horses. Not only had he actually done it, but he had then bragged about it, as if it was one of the proudest accomplishments of his life.
No, this bastard deserved to die.
I couldn’t think of a more fitting death than to feed him to my own dragon, so that his magic would help Azure grow bigger and stronger. My blue dragon reared back his head and blasted the day elf with fire, so his flesh would take on a slightly cooked taste. After another few breaths of fire, Belis fell still, and Azure finally began to eat him.
The blue-scaled dragon ate impressively fast, and when he was done, he just spat out a few of the bigger bones, exhaled a big puff of smoke, and then rocked back onto his hind legs. At first, his size didn’t change at all, but after a few seconds, he slowly started to gain size.
I hoped that he would double in size, or that he would at least grow three or four feet taller, but instead, Azure just grew about a foot taller than he had been, while his chest and wings also grew broader by about a foot. It was definitely something, but it wasn’t as much of a difference as I had hoped.
“Shit,” Penny said. “I thought he’d be bigger.”
“Belis must not have been magical enough,” I said. “He’s supposed to get bigger when he eats magical shit, so maybe he just needs something a little more magical.”
“Okay,” Penny replied, “so then we just have to find the most magical thing we can think of to feed him.”
“Any ideas?” I asked.
“Hm,” the pixie thief said as she tilted her head to the side. “Oh! What about the priestesses and priests? The ones that didn’t drink the wine, anyway.”
“Oh, shit, that could be perfect,” I said. “We could use either the priesthood from the Blood City temple or from the temple in the Capital.”
“They should have enough magic to help Azure grow to full size, right?” Penny asked.
“Yeah, I think that’s probably a pretty safe bet,” I said with a smirk. “So whenever we break through the wards they placed on the doors, we’ll need to take them prisoner and then feed them to Azure.”
“That seems fair,” the red-haired pixie said. “After all, they have fucked up how long day and night are supposed to be for as long as anyone I know can remember.”
“Fuck, yes,” I said.
“What do we do with Azure until then?” Penny asked. “Do we keep him here, or try to move him with us?”
“I think we should keep him here,” I said as the blue dragon belched fire and then trotted back over to us. “He’s already too big to take through the portals, so he might as well stay here until we can feed him some more magic.”
“And then what?” the green-eyed thief asked.
“Then when we bring him out against the elves, it can still be a complete and total surprise,” I said with a grin.
“I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the elves when they see a dragon flying into battle,” Penny said, “and I can especially imagine the look on Tevian’s face when he sees what he’s up against.”
“Then let’s just make sure our forces last long enough to make Azure that big and powerful,” I said and then started to scratch the blue dragon under the chin again. “Are you ready to head back to the city?”
“Actually,” Penny said and then bit her lip, “before we go, I kinda thought…”
“Tell me,” I said when the redhead trailed off.
“Well,” Penny said with a grin, “don’t you think we should give Azure a little test flight first?”
Chapter 6 - Penny
As soon as I asked Wade if he wanted to take Azure up for a test flight, I knew that he would say yes. Right away, he got that excited look in his eyes, and it was the same look that he had when Dar showed him how to pick his first pocket like a professional thief, or when I had first told him that he wasn’t a total loss to the Thief’s Guild.
It was one of the things that I loved most about him.
Now as he glanced back and forth between Azure and me, his expression took on a mixture of excitement and curiosity, and it just made me smile at him.
“So, what do you think?” I asked. “It’s af
ter sunset, so it’s dark enough now that we could fly up, and no one should be able to see us.”
“Plus, all the cities are under our control,” Wade added, “so we don’t have to worry that elven soldiers might spot us.”
“Yes, exactly!” I said. “We might have to worry about the wilderness forts, but since there weren’t any listed on the map around here…”
“We should be able to be careful enough that we won’t be spotted,” Wade said. “And I bet Azure here is fast enough that even if someone did see him, we could get out of there before they even knew what they saw.”
“Especially since no one will believe that there’s an actual, real-life dragon flying in the sky,” I added.
“We might even be able to spot some of the wilderness forts,” Wade said. “If we fly far and fast enough, it could give us a better idea of the terrain around here.”
“Ooh, yes, see?” I grinned. “I don’t think we have any choice but to go for a little flight now.”
“Well, I don’t know about you,” Wade said, “but I’ve never traveled farther than the village I grew up in, at least not over land, so I don’t have any idea what the wilderness looks like between all the cities in the empire.”
“Yeah, same here,” I sighed. “I never even thought that I would get out of our hometown until you came along.”
“I’m pretty sure your exact words when I came along were ‘get the hell out of my hometown,’ weren’t they?” Wade smirked.
“Oh, you can’t hold that against me!” I said. “It seems like a lifetime ago since you first came to the guild.”
“I know,” Wade laughed. “I just like to tease you about it since you pretended to be so mean to me at first.”
“Who said I was pretending?” I demanded.
“All I know is that you couldn’t stop looking at me every time you thought my back was turned,” Wade said as he reached up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“I’m pretty sure that was a two-way street,” I said and then laid my hands on his chest. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t look in my direction, too, Wade.”