by Jan Dockter
How can you be sure?
She stood next to him and Tem put a protective arm around Astrid’s shoulder.
“So, Templeton Rawlins, you defy me yet again,” said the Queen.
“Rhea,” said Tem coldly.
“At least you know my name,” she said sarcastically. “Do you recognize me as your Queen?”
“We’ve always had a difference of opinion.”
“Is that what you call your insubordination?”
“Trust me, Rhea. I’ve never been subordinate to anyone.”
“That much is obvious. But this, you and her, I cannot allow. This union is a threat to all dragon kind.”
“A threat? It doesn’t matter. It is done.”
“And I can undo it.”
“Really, Rhea?”
“As your Queen, yes. It is under my authority and within my powers. I haven’t had to in thousands of years, but I will if the need arises. Mate bonds, especially with humans, are dangerous to dragons and you know why.”
Astrid was lost. Pieces of important dragon knowledge were painfully missing from the human database. Why would mating with humans be harmful to dragons?
“Dangerous? Who is the threat, Rhea? You’ve been many things over the years, but the one thing I did not expect you to be was a liar.”
“Liar!” Rhea stormed.
“It seems you have revised our history.”
“Have I?”
“I have heard a story from Astrid. So tell me, Rhea, why have we not heard about these seneschals?”
“There wasn’t just one dragon that fell to the charms of, of this subspecies.” She spat out that last word as if it were a poison. “They were polluting our gene pool.”
“The only polluting element here is your racism. And you put us in peril because of it.”
“Me? I was trying—I did— save dragon kind!”
“What happened to the seneschals, Rhea?” said Tem coldly.
Rhea studied her nails casually. “What needed to be done…”
“What happened to the seneschals, Rhea?!” Tem shouted.
“We killed them,” said a deeper voice. Tem and Astrid turned their heads to see Calvin standing in the doorway of Astrid’s room.
“Believe me, had I realized that you were coming here, I would have stopped you if I could.”
“What are you doing, Captain?” said Rhea in a warning voice.
“Telling the story we should have told the younger ones all along. Rhea is right. The seneschals and the dragon Lords grew too close. That was our fault.”
“Captain!”
“No, Rhea. You see what happens when you hide things. The ability to become a seneschal is too deeply buried in their DNA for us to have killed off all of it.”
“You, Calvin?” said Tem. “You participated in the slaughter?”
“I did what my Queen commanded me to do. But Tem is right, Rhea. We became murderers of humans and we lost our conduits to the human world. We did do more harm than good.”
“I knew you were cold-blooded Rhea,” spat Tem, “but murdering innocent humans?”
“They were not innocent!” Rhea raged. “They broke our laws and consorted with their dragons.”
“Not all of them,” said Calvin gently.
“Enough of them! Enough to pollute our gene pool! How long will dragons continue to be dragons id we mate freely with that?”
Rhea pointed to Astrid, who drew closer to Tem. Astrid grew afraid despite Tem’s closeness because she did not know what the dragon Queen would do.
“Be careful,” growled Tem. “You know nothing about Astrid.”
“She’s human! That’s all I need to know! Guards!” she screamed, “arrest him.”
Tem pushed Astrid to the bed. “Stay down!” he hissed as a stream of dragons rushed in and surrounded Tem. Astrid looked around for a weapon to use, but there was nothing. It hit Astrid that Rhea had given her a room so bare that it contained nothing, not a lamp, or statue, or even a bowl of fruit, which could be used as a weapon. She might be able to use the bed sheet, but she was using that to cover her body. But it looked like things were happening quickly and she needed to be prepared. She fumbled for her dress, which had fallen under the bed, and dressed quickly while she watched the tight tableau unfolding before her.
The guards stood before Tem as if they didn’t know what to do despite their Queen’s demands. Astrid gathered that they had a healthy respect for Tem’s battle abilities.
“Arrest him,” demanded Rhea. Her face was tight with anger and she was visibly shaken.
“Come on, men. Arrest your general,” taunted Tem.
General? Astrid sucked in a deep breath. Tem was the dragon’s military leader? What else did Astrid not know about Tem?
“Tem!” protested Calvin. “You can’t expect them to choose between you and their Queen.”
“Why not? Do we not expect our leader to act in the best interests of us all? She failed that.”
“Tem,” warned Calvin. “Even I can’t make that choice.”
“I think,” growled Tem, “you’ve made your choice. Astrid.” He held out his hand to hers. “We’re leaving.”
Tem pushed past the soldiers with Astrid in tow.
“No!” screamed Rhea. “You will not leave.”
The dragon Queen grabbed Astrid’s arm and pulled. Tem whirled and pushed Rhea angrily away. Rhea stumbled, fell to the floor and the guards, seeing the assault on their Queen, rushed Tem.
Things happened very quickly and Astrid stood in the center of the storm. Calvin helped Rhea to her feet. Tem fought the guards that had fallen on him. His arms and legs were a rapid blur as he tried to hold his ground against desperate odds. But there was only one of him and twenty dragon soldiers and when he felled one man, two more were on him.
“Astrid, run!” he called. But in the split second in which she tried to decide whether to obey or stay, strong arms gripped hers. Heart hammering in her chest, she tried to pull away.
“Stand still, human,” hissed Rhea Gentrix, “and I will not harm you. But move and I will be happy to.”
Astrid swallowed hard as Rhea’s nails pressed painfully into her skin. Her heart sank as she saw several guards grab hold of Tem as he struggled and some others deliver painful blows to his midsection.
“Let go of me!” he roared in a voice that shook the walls.
“Captain,” said Rhea.
Calvin stepped forward. In his hands were two wide bracers and from their dull gray color, Astrid deduced they were iron.
“No!” cried Astrid.
“Quiet!” snapped Rhea. She grasped the back of Astrid’s uniform in her steely fingers and dragged Astrid toward the door.
Astrid flailed her arms trying to gain purchase against the dragon Queen, but Rhea was far stronger than she looked.
“Tem!” she cried when she saw Calvin snapping one iron bracer around Tem’s forearm and then the other. Astrid caught Tem’s eyes, which were filled with a look of betrayal and defeat.
“No! No! No!” screamed Astrid as Rhea dragged her out of the room and roughly down the hall until they came to a section of portico that looked out over the wide courtyard.
“Shut up!” shouted Rhea. She turned Astrid to face her and roughly backhanded her. Pain shot though Astrid’s jaw. She saw stars and then the world went black.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tem
Tem woke with his ears ringing and every muscle in his body screaming. He sat dully in the dark space he occupied and worked to piece together what had happened.
Rhea. Oh yeah. He remembered the look on the ancient dragonesses’ face as she watched him beaten by his own soldiers. It was a moment of victory for her, but one Tem intended wouldn’t last long.
Astrid. Oh, god, Astrid. The fear and pain in her face as that witch of a vixen laid hands on her and dragged her away would haunt Tem to the end of his days.
Tem tried to stand, but found to his consternation that the t
hick bands on his forearms were locked to the chair in which he sat. The iron bands, bracers as they were more properly called, restricted his ability to shift.
“Damn you, Rhea Gentrix.”
He was worried about Astrid and what the dragon Queen would do to her.
Astrid.
He called to her in his mind, but she did not answer. Immediately he was concerned. Had Gentrix done what she promised? Had she dissolved the bond between him and Astrid?
Tem didn’t know that such things were possible, but then apparently Rhea had hidden much information from them.
Rhea considered mating bonds a danger to dragons? Why? Did it have anything to do with her breeding program? That made some sense, but there had to be more to it than that. Rhea had always hidden the bulk of the knowledge about mating bonds from the dragons. Why? There was a deeper secret here. Tem was sure of it.
But all he had were questions and an ache in his heart because he was separated from Astrid. That was far worse than the pain in his body, because those would heal. He suspected the longer he and Astrid were apart, the more the ache could grow.
You are right about that.
Rhea! Damn it! She was in his head.
And outside the door.
The locks clinked and the door creaked open. Rhea entered holding a lantern that she hung on a hook by the door. It cast a faint light, just enough for Tem to see he was in a small bare cell. Even if he didn’t have the bracers on, he’d never have been able to shift in this size room.
His chair, he saw, was pushed against the furthest wall, which explained the chill at his back. To his right there was a sleeping platform of the same gray rock that made the walls of his cell.
Rhea stood at the doorway and regarded Tem with cold, glittering eyes.
“I should have you killed,” she said.
“Why not? That seems to be the theme of the day. Everyone wants me dead.”
“That is not true. Tem. I don’t want you dead. I just want you obedient.”
Tem twisted his palms upward. “How’s that working for you?”
“You are a stubborn dragon,” she said taking a step closer.
“What do you want, Rhea?”
“What I said.”
“Not happening. Where’s Astrid? Because if you’ve harmed her, when I get free, I will kill you.”
Rhea asked. “Obviously, she is alive and well. You’d be dead otherwise. A mate bond is nothing to fool with, Tem. A human. How could you? How long could she live? Another sixty years perhaps. And then where would that leave you. Why would you give up your immortality for a human?”
“Life means nothing with her.” In his heart he knew it was true, realized it the moment he put his claiming mark on her.
“Ah,” she said pacing the small cell. “That is where you are wrong. The war with the humans is coming Tem. It was foretold years ago. But to win it I needed my general, and when you were born, I knew it was you. You were always the strongest male, the one the other dragons followed easily.”
“Obviously, not so much now.”
“That is because you laid hands on me and no dragon can stand to see that. But I can forgive that. I need my general, Tem. I need the man that the dragons will follow into battle. I won’t give you up to a silly headed piece of fluff.”
“So you’ll do what you claimed? Destroy our mating bond?” Tem spoke his words scornfully. He had hoped that was an empty claim, but he never did know Rhea to make pronouncements she could not fill.
“I will,” she said with an infuriating lightness in her voice. “I’ve done it before. And the moon is right for it tonight, so we’ll do it then. In the courtyard.”
“What do you mean?”
“All the dragons here will be there. I will perform the ceremony. When it is done, you won’t even remember her.”
Tem rattled his braces linked to his chair.
“You will regret this, Rhea. I don’t care who the fuck you are.”
Rhea scoffed. “You will.” She turned her back on him, lifted the lantern from its hook and left the room. The door clanged shut and Tem was left alone in the dark.
What made him think it was a good idea to come here? Clearly, he had misjudged the whole situation. And what were these prophecies she talked about?
Tem roared with frustration. He needed to get out of here and find Astrid. Rhea wouldn’t stop at erasing their bond, if indeed she could do that. No. Once she was sure that their bond was broken, she’d kill Astrid, just as she had killed the other seneschals.
The sun came up and sent slices of light across the floor from the wind behind him. But the light did not cheer him. Shackled yet again, after being released from a two and half decades long imprisonment, and unable to protect Astrid, his heart was dark with his own failings. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her.
He roared again, but his frustrated vocalizations only rang emptily around the stonewalls of his prison. Tem vowed to find a way to punish Rhea Gentry, mother or no.
The shadows lengthening on the stone floor was all that marked the passage of time. No one came to the cell, offered food, or even clothes. He was still naked and he supposed that Rhea wanted to humiliate him for disobeying her.
It only made him angrier.
Finally, the cell fell into total darkness and grew cold while anger blazed in his heart. He resolved that whoever came through that door would have a very bad time of it when they released the shackles from the chair.
The door opened with a creak and Tem was ready to fight. But he was surprised to see Reanne peak in then enter the cell.
“Are you taking me to the ceremony?”
Reanne hiked the lantern onto the hook by the door, just as her mother had hours before.
“No. I’m supposed to talk some sense into you.”
“She’s so sure she can break my bond with Astrid,” he said bitterly.
“No, she’s not. The spell she wants to use is an ancient one for when a dragon is grieving to death over the loss of a mate. It works best if she has consent. She doesn’t have it, does she?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m afraid, Tem. She wants a war with the humans. She doesn’t know how they’ve changed, the weapons they have. My mother will doom us all to death. And I don’t want to die.”
Reanne pulled a key from a pocket from within her robe. With shaky hands she unlocked Tem’s iron braces. He pulled his arms free and shook them.
“You’ve taken a big risk here,” he said.
“No. I haven’t. You go, and get Astrid and get as far away from us as you can. Rhea will think twice about going to war with the humans if you aren’t there to lead the troops. Here.”
She slung a pack off her back and handed it to Tem.
“Clothes, for when you need them. Now make it look good.”
Reanne stood straight with her shoulders back.
“Make what look good?” asked Tem. He suspected what she wanted but he was loathed to do it.
“Make it look like you’ve overpowered me. Strike me on the chin so I pass out.”
“Reanne, I can’t do that.”
“If you want to protect me, you will. If I have bruises she’ll believe my story, at least until you are far enough away to be safe.”
“Where’s Astrid?”
“England. Rhea ordered Calvin to take her there and when he got the word, kill her.”
“Damn her,” muttered Tem.
“Yeah. Mother is a real piece of work. So it’s time for you to go, Tem. Get to it. Strike me. It is the only way to protect me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Astrid
Astrid woke shivering with wind pushing at her furiously. It was as if she were standing in a wind tunnel. Only she knew she wasn’t standing. Instead, when her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she found to her horror that great, gray dragon claws were holding her.
Hold on, Astrid. She recognized the voice in her as Calvin’s.
Where are we going?
But he didn’t answer her question. Instead he asked another.
Do you remember Tem’s instructions when you rode him to the palace?
Yes.
Then get ready and when I say ‘now’ hold your breath and don’t move.
Calvin rose and then flew in a great circle.
Now!
He dove and Astrid gripped his claws with all her might as the air around them grew deathly cold and quiet. But she held her breath so long that her lungs wanted to burst. Astrid didn’t remember it taking this long the first time Tem took her here, wherever “here” was.
Then air rushed around her again, buffeting her body painfully and filling her ears. Calvin rode the air currents in great circles.
Where are we?
But as before, Calvin said nothing. He rose suddenly, the swoop in great spirals toward the Earth. Astrid felt lightheaded, as if she wasn’t getting enough air as the ground rushed toward them.
Calvin transferred her to one claw, back stroked his wings, and landed on his back legs, then fell forward with a thud on his free forepaw. He let go of her close to the ground and she rolled onto soft grass.
She got to her feet and brushed her hands off as she surveyed the broad field they stood in.
“Where are we?”
“Devonshire.”
“England? You brought me back to England? I’m a fugitive here.”
“That is what Rhea instructed me to do. And it was smart of her. You are less likely to try to escape if you know the law will take you in.” Calvin pulled a sack off his back and fished through it. He drew out her shoes and a black cape.
“Here,” he said. “To ward off the chill and to cover that matron’s uniform. That’s a dead giveaway.”
Astrid, thoroughly annoyed, jerked the items out of Calvin’s hand. “So, I save you from prison, and you are all willing to do Rhea Gentrix’s bidding,” she said sharply.
“She is my Queen, Astrid, and has been for thousands of years. She’s been a good Queen for us, mostly, and has her reasons for fearing and hating humans. If it wasn’t for Rhea, dragons would have died out on the Earth many generations ago.”
“You’re just making excuses for her,” snapped Astrid.