In the Arms of the Dragon Princes

by Jessica Miller

  I used the speed my robotic legs brought me to be largely unseen and unheard as I ran across to that hallway. The Lorascans were preoccupied with staring at Melanie as she was taken towards wherever the holding cells were. I went ahead to locate both the holding cells and the surveillance room, which was indeed in the next corridor over from the room where the holding cells were kept.

  I hid behind a bend in the hallway that led to the surveillance corridor and waited as they took Melanie into holdings. The two Lorascans took Melanie inside and returned a moment later. I jumped out of the shadows and made quick work of first strangling one Lorascan to his death and then breaking the other’s neck with my robotic leg, before either could have much reaction to my presence. I had to say the speed my new body afforded me was quite handy.

  I searched the bodies of the Lorascans after I pulled them into the shadows once more, and found a set of keys. I quickly went through the doors that led to the holding cells. I found myself in a circular chamber which five cells. Melanie was sitting on a bench in the center cell, patiently waiting for me.

  “You are amazing Melanie,” I said and she grinned.

  “I know, so did you find the surveillance room?”

  I smiled, unlocked her cell door and led the way. We passed by the fallen Lorascans and went down the short corridor to the double doors that read ‘vigilance’ in Lorascan writing. All Rodonians learned the languages of the planets in other solar systems within our galaxy.

  I forced the doors open and Melanie ran in while I sprinted back out to the lobby area and down another hall. While I looked for the surveillance room I came across a map of the ship painted on the wall. It was meant to be artistic, decorative. But it told me exactly where I needed to go.

  I sprinted down to the ship’s depths and made my way to the power core. I needed to destroy it rather than disable it. The heart of the ship was compact with not much room to navigate through the many cooling and heating systems, controls, and different power sources. I found the heart of it all directly in the center of the circular room. It sat in the middle of the floor, sectioned off by an electromagnetic field. I could not see it, but I could sense the charge in the air as I neared the giant mercury-like device. It was a glass dome that surrounded obscure looking steady white lights set in mercury. Its base was connected to several of the other engines in the room and branched out via thick black cables.

  I wondered how I would destroy it as I had no weapon. I wondered if what was protecting it would also destroy it. I walked along the wall of charge and found the source of the flow of energy along the far wall. It was a thin strip of blue light that was shaped into a half circle and attached to the wall. I simply detached it and made sure to keep it aligned with its mate on the other far wall, so that the charge would continue to flow.

  I began to walk around the core, as I angled the electromagnetic wall. To close in on it. Thankfully the Lorascans had chosen to make these strips circular so that I could keep up the alignment as I moved around the core. The first spark was made as the field came into contact with the glass enclosure. I made sure to keep the alignment as I dragged the field through the direct center of the core, subsequently cutting it in half.

  Whatever technology the Lorascans were able to harness within this core, simply caught fire. Alarms started going off. I dropped the strip, found Melanie, and hurried back to our ship.

  *****

  Josiah

  I held Melanie in my arms, as I moved quicker than she. We ran and dodged through the sea of Lorascans to the space craft hangar to escape the central command ship.

  I quickly got us into the craft and then flew out of the mother ship just as the first of the chain of explosions started up. I flew well away from the explosions within the Lorascan navy, caused by the destruction of their mother ship. Their fighter crafts lost power and began to float off into space. Anything in the immediate vicinity of the central command ship was destroyed in glorious fiery explosions. Space was bright that night and Melanie and I had managed to destroy the impressive Lorascan navy singlehandedly.

  “Holy shit we did it Josiah…” Melanie’s voice was hushed as we watched the explosions and disarray of the Lorascan fall.

  “We did, and if it weren’t for you I am not sure how I would have pulled off this mission,” I admitted to her gratefully.

  “Told you I could help.” Melanie reached her hand forward and I held it in mine before I kissed each of her knuckles.

  “Let us return to Rodon then,” I said, before I rounded the large blue and green planet to fly to the city of Voltaire.

  I landed atop Lord Rixon’s palace, on the same landing pad I started my journey from six months ago. There a small crowd was waiting for us. Once the glass enclosure opened up Melanie and I could hear the cheers of the people. I got out and helped Melanie down, the crowd grew hushed as Lord Rixon stepped forward.

  “My lord…” I bowed as he studied Melanie and she him. “This is Melanie, I found her on Earth and wish for her to be my wife and mate. She helped me destroy the Lorascan mother ship,” I added for good measure. I spoke in English, so Lord Rixon would know to do so as well, for Melanie’s sake.

  Lord Rixon smiled widely and he bowed to both Melanie and I, causing the rest of the welcoming crowd to bow as well. I felt humbled and at a loss for words. Lord Rixon was bowing to us? “You both have been given the highest honor here on Rodon. You have saved our planet and our people from ultimate destruction,” Rixon said sincerely as he straightened from his bow.

  “Josiah…perhaps you have already mated with Melanie?” Lord Rixon asked me curiously as he continued to study her closely.

  “Yes my lord…why do you ask?” I was growing bemused at his intent gaze on Melanie; she was growing uncomfortable and I did not want her to be.

  “You know I have a gift of sensing life Josiah. I believe you have conceived with her,” he said.

  Shock turned me into a statue, and Melanie’s jaw dropped.

  “I’m…I’m pregnant?” said Melanie. Lord Rixon nodded, a slow smile spread across his face.

  He said, “This is a truly joyous day, you have saved Rodon and proved that we can rebuild our race! As soon as you are married you will be named first family of the new generation and treated with as much honor and respect as the royal family.”

  Lord Rixon actually embraced us both in a tight hug. The man was big and obviously had trouble tempering his own strength. Thankfully he let us go soon enough and we were able to breathe once again.

  Lord Rixon gave orders for people to prepare for our wedding ceremony and the palace was a hub of excitement as preparations were being made. Lord Rixon made sure to send a fleet of our warriors to clean up our space zones of the fallen Lorascans. Melanie and I were allowed to rest before our nuptials in one of the palace’s guest suites.

  Melanie and I both collapsed on the bed and simply stared up at the ceiling as we recounted the day’s events. “We’re getting married…and we’re going to have a baby Josiah,” Melanie said with a smile in her voice. I grinned in return and turned to face her. She rolled onto her side to face me as well.

  “I love you Melanie,” I said simply and her smile seemed to light up the room.

  “I love you too Josiah,” she said before she leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips. I knew that our future would be bright and full, as long as we had each other.

  THE END

  Bonus Story 39/40

  Dragon’s Oath

  Brida's father and his people had been at war with their neighbors for as long as she could remember, at least the past twenty years if not longer, and things were not balanced in their favor. Lord Ulric had not seen fit to educate his daughter in the ways of war, but she knew her brothers well, and she had learned more than perhaps Ulric wanted over the course of her childhood. The last few battles had taken a particularly hard toll on their people, and one of Brida's brothers, Edmund, had been grievously injured. She herself had been mov
ed from place to place in Ulric's constant attempts to keep her from the hands of his enemy. Now they had finally returned to their keep, but only because Ulric's troops had been decimated and he had recalled his men and his generals to the center of his domain where they could try and find some new tactic to push back the invaders.

  Brida had been tasked with making sure that her brother was well taken care of, which consisted of her mostly tending to him herself and having the servants fetch her what she needed. He seemed calmest when she was the one at his bedside, and she hardly had anything else to be doing. Ulric had gathered all of his commanders in the great hall, including Edmund and Brida's eldest brother Eldric, and they had been in there for the better part of the day. Brida wasn't even sure they had eaten. She had bread and ale brought to try and get Edmund to eat something, but when he refused she ate it herself.

  She saw no solution, but perhaps she simply didn't have the same mind for military matters that the men in her family did. Still, to her it looked like the easiest thing to do would to be surrender and give the invaders what they wanted. Things were grim enough to start, and now there were rumors of tall fair-haired barbarians raiding along the shores in the south. It was hardly the time to be squabbling when simple diplomacy could resolve matters. After all, Ulric had the perfect bargaining chip. Brida was young still, and unmarried. There had to be someone her father could marry her off to in order to stop the hostilities before his people and his family were completely wiped off the face of the earth.

  Edmund groaned, his face contorted in pain, and squirmed on his bed. Brida shushed him and smoothed his dark hair back from his face. By the time he had been returned home infection had already set into the wound on his leg. The healer had done the best he could to treat it, and the wound was looking far better than it had, but he was in the throes of a fever, constantly in and out of sleep and in so much pain it made Brida's heart ache. She motioned for one of her ladies to bring the bowl of water and wet the rag that lay draped over the side, squeezing out the excess before dabbing sweat off of Edmund's brow. He calmed eventually, settling back into his restless sleep and feverish dreams.

  She sat back in her chair and muffled a yawn with the back of her hand. She had been awake almost all night making sure that Edmund's thrashing didn't re-open his wound and the lack of sleep was catching up with her. She hoped that her father's meeting would be over soon so that she could switch places with Eldric and let him watch over their brother for a while. By the way things had been going so far she doubted that would happen any time soon. Sure that Edmund was asleep, at least for the moment, she rose from the chair and stretched her aching back, bracing her hands and letting out a long sigh.

  “I'll return,” she said to her maid. “I need to walk the needles from my legs. Watch over him?”

  The maid silently took up Brida's chair, her needlework in her lap. Brida slipped quietly from the room, leaving the door open only a crack, and paced down the familiar stone hallways of her home. Her footfalls were soft but still they echoed off the walls. Her journey took her down to the ground floor where her father and brother were convening with their council, the heavy doors to the room pulled shut and two guards standing to attention outside them. They let Brida pass with no challenge, one of them pushing on the door until it opened just enough for her to squeeze through and into a room full of angry, shouting men.

  She found her brother quickly. Eldric was standing to the side, his arms crossed over his chest, an annoyed, frustrated look on his face. He spared her a brief glance as she came to stand beside him and sighed.

  “You look happy,” Brida said.

  Eldric snorted. “They can't stop arguing long enough to make any progress. This one says we do this, that one says we do that. It's infuriating.”

  “What are they fighting about now?”

  “A suggestion made by Captain Alfred. Half of them think it's ridiculous superstition and the other half think he's a witch for suggesting it.”

  Brida looked across the room to where their father sat silent and motionless at the head of the large table, listening to his commanders bicker around him. “Suggesting what?” she asked.

  “That we find the wizard, that hermit that lives up in the mountains, and give him whatever he wants for his aid.”

  “He must be dead by now,” Brida said.

  Eldric shrugged. “I think Father will try anything at this point,” he said. He scuffed the toe of his boot against the floor. “How's Edmund?”

  “The fever should break soon, hopefully. After that only time will tell. Will you sit with him soon?”

  “When I can,” Eldric replied, “though at this rate I may never get the chance.” He sighed again and shook his head. “I wish Mother were still here. She could silence all of these fools with a single word.”

  “So can Father,” Brida said.

  “When he chooses,” Eldric replied, “but it seems he's content to let them squabble.”

  Brida sighed and looked around at the arguing men. "I don't see what they think some old man in a cave can do, to harm or to help."

  "They say he has great power," Eldric replied. "That whole armies bow before his might. It would be exactly what we need, if the tales are true."

  "Peasant superstition," Brida said.

  "Perhaps," Eldric replied, "but for the past half hour I have heard them speak of nothing else." A scowl overtook Brida's face. She shook her head in disgust.

  "Come," she said, "I'm tired and need to rest. Father won't miss you if you look after Edmund for a while."

  Eldric was quiet for a moment, leaving only the echoing shouts of the military council to fill the room. Finally he nodded. "Very well. I suppose I can do more good there than I can here. They haven't listened to a word I've said this entire meeting."

  Brida slipped her arm around her brother's. "Edmund will be happy to see you if he wakes," she said. "He's most calm when I am at his side, but I imagine you'll be just as good."

  "Thank you for your vote of confidence, sister," Eldric replied.

  A soft laugh escaped Brida's lips. One of the soldiers standing by the door pulled it open for the two of them to depart, and once they were through closed it behind them, thoroughly muffling the sound of fighting coming from the other side.

  "Peace and quiet at last," Eldric said. "I was starting to get a headache."

  "They have to stop eventually," Brida said. "They can only waste so much time fighting with each other before the enemy is at our gate."

  "They might as well already be," Eldric said. His face had darkened. "The reports our scouts are bringing back are nothing but trouble. At this point I would be happy to take a bet on this sorcerer of Alfred's, no matter what the cost. Better to be penniless than be a slave."

  Brida squeezed her brother's arm, no words of comfort coming to mind. They retraced the steps Brida had taken from Edmund's bedroom and parted outside the door. Brida lingered, watching her brother take a deep breath and tug his tunic straight before entering. The room was mercifully quiet. She waited until she heard Eldric's heavy sigh and the creak of the chair as he settled before walking down the hall to her own chamber, thankfully shutting the heavy door behind her. She had no need of her maid to prepare her for bed, simply loosening the ties of her dress before curling up under her blankets. Her maid would be more useful helping Eldric care for their brother.

  Sleep came easily and lingered for quite some time. Brida reckoned it was nearly dinner time when she finally woke up, if the growling in her stomach was anything to go by. The fact that no one had rushed in to wake her said that Edmund was still well, or as well as he could be, likely still asleep with Eldric by his side. Her maid was still missing as well. Brida rose and laced herself back into her dress, quickly brushing the tangles of sleep out of her hair and going to seek out her family. When she opened her door Eldric was standing on the other side, his fist raised as though he had been about to knock. He had changed into clean clothes and left h
is sword behind, and had shaved and brushed his hair back from his face as well. He gave her a tired smile.

  "They've finally stopped fighting," he said, "and Edmund is well. Sleeping."

  "Is he still feverish?" Brida asked. She automatically took her brother's arm.

  "A little," Eldric replied. "Your girl reckons it will break by tomorrow morning."

  "That's good to hear," Brida said. She spared a glance into Edmund's room as they passed by the door, seeing her tired maid sitting at his bedside, her needlework in her lap but her hands still on the needle and thread. The girl deserved a break after this day. "And did the council reach a decision?"

  "They have," Eldric said, but seemed reluctant to say anything more.

  "And?" Brida pressed.

  "And, they have agreed to seek this sorcerer out, and pay any price he wishes if it means he will grant us his aid. I will ride out tomorrow with a contingent of men, as Father's representative, to win him over to our side or to die trying."

  His words left a heavy weight in the pit of Brida's stomach. "All will be well, brother," she said, dropping her hand to his and squeezing his strong, callused fingers, "and you will come home safe, with or without this man."

  Eldric smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm starved," he said instead. "I was afraid they would continue to argue all night. Though if this plan doesn't work we'll be right back where we started."

  "I have every faith in your ability to negotiate," Brida said.

  "I'm glad you do," Eldric replied. "I must admit I've been beginning to doubt myself."

  "Father has much on his mind," Brida said. "He doesn't mean to disregard you."

  "I know," Eldric said. "Still, it frustrates me."