by Nikki Frank
“And screwed all these people over in the process.” Farak gave a slow clap. “How very dragonish of you. Too bad, really. They could have lived quite pleasantly under Zaemon.” Farak shrugged. “Never say I’m as cruel as our mother. I gave you a chance. She’d have gone straight to ripping you into pieces. Not that she’ll get the chance, since I’ll do it for her. I’m done talking.”
His body had begun to ripple. Shit. I couldn’t believe he’d change in the middle of all these people.
“Get out of here,” I screamed at Cassy and the other kids, who’d stayed to watch the sibling fight.
They all sat rooted to their spots and I scrambled back, dragging Cassy by the arm. In seconds, our spot on the floor was taken over by Farak’s long, twisting body.
Ferika had also turned. The snap of her jaws made my stomach clench. She tried to drive him back as Talon, Omri, and I attempted to herd the students away from the fight. I had hoped they would do the natural thing when faced with a formidable predator and run. Instead, they kept asking about special effects and cosplay. This must have been the backlash of fixing what they’d seen me do. They were now convinced this was a game.
Farak and Ferika were swaying like snakes in a standoff. Farak moved first, lunging in with open jaws and Ferika met him head on. The squeal of teeth on teeth made me cringe. They might have been evenly matched until Farak twisted and managed to clamp his jaws around Ferika’s head. A sickening snap reverberated through the room like a gunshot and Ferika slumped. Farak turned on us, licking blood off his lips.
“The guard spells you people have set up are a huge drain on me. I don’t feel like fighting anyone skilled until I recharge.” He held up a talon. “Pardon me for a moment.”
In a blur, he’d snatched up one of the girls who’d been trying to figure out the secret to the special effects. Screaming filled the room, but didn’t block out the tearing and crunching noises. I squeezed my eyes on the scene but couldn’t escape the sound.
“Maiden is so good.” Farak sighed. “Maybe one more.”
I peeked out. Farak made a much larger mess when he ate than Ferika had. At the sight of the pieces I ran for the nearest trashcan and puked. I’ve got a fairly hard stomach. You have to, to be an assassin. But watching a classmate be devoured was beyond what I could handle.
The other students sat where Farak had left them, entranced and immobilized. No one could get them out of there now. I looked helplessly at Talon. What were the four of us going to do against a monster who had downed Ferika in one bite? I’m an assassin, not a dragon slayer. My job involved stealth and cunning and a silent hit, not a white steed and a blessed blade.
Talon appeared at my back, as if thinking the same thought. “I have a plan. But we’re going to need to be sneaky.”
Farak was slowly sorting his options.
“Omri and I will distract him. Yumiko will take Emmett and Elita and run.”
“What about me?” I whispered.
“I’m sorry. You have to do the most dangerous job. I hate sending you in but you’re the only one small enough to slide under his belly without bumping him.” He pressed the flat of a sword along the length of my back. “My sword’s been blessed. It should do the job. Thrust it between the belly scales, one foot shy of his forelegs. His heart should be right there.”
“How long will I have?”
“Seconds at best.” He pressed a kiss at my temple. “Be safe. I have all these mushy things I want to do with you someday.” Talon slipped away to Omri’s side and took all the air in the room with him.
His goodbye made my heart hurt. “Assuming we even got a later.”
I had no more time. Farak had selected his victim and no one wanted another kid to get eaten. Omri and Talon said something to get Farak’s attention. I wasn’t paying attention to their words. I was watching the dragon. I needed those brief moments between when he first focused on them and when he acted against them.
Now.
I dove like Farak was home plate, sliding the few feet of tile under his belly. Grabbing Talon’s sword, I rammed it up between his stomach scales. At the initial prick, Farak ducked his head and caught me in his glare. An overwhelming fear threatened to freeze my body. Closing my eyes on the sight of a dragon in a killer rage, I shoved my body weight against the sword. Farak’s scream shook ceiling tiles loose. Four points of fiery pain seared my body as Farak’s talons pierced me. Then I flew in an arc above Farak’s writhing body, all the wind shoved from my body as I slammed into the ground. The world started to go black, screaming echoed from the void. A thud which made the room shake jerked the talons still lodged in my body. Now I screamed.
~ ~ ~
I was floating. The shirring of waves running across sand surrounded me. I smelled cinnamon and cookies. The darkness smelled like Christmas.
~ ~ ~
The murmuring of water sounded more like voices, but still I floated. Only now I felt pain, too, throbbing from deep within me. I wanted to groan, but something got in the way.
Did the voices come from robots? Why did they beep? I wanted to float again. My pain had gotten more acute. I liked the beach better. I wanted to go back there.
“She has to fight her way back to us.”
Wait. The speaker wasn’t a robot. That was my mom’s voice. Why did she sound so sad? I tried to open my eyes and find her, but I couldn’t.
“Have the doctors said how long they think it will take?” This voice belonged to my dad.
“They told me any time.” Oh, Talon was there, too. He sounded miserable. “Several internal organs were pierced. I guess deep injuries like hers can take a while to heal.” Talon made a strange noise and when he spoke his voice came out thick. “I shouldn’t have made her go. I thought she’d fit best underneath, but I underestimated the danger. I should have been the one to go under him.”
“Talon, you’ve got to quit blaming yourself. You made a call, and it was the right one.” My dad’s voice strained as if those words hurt him. “If you or Omri had gone, you probably would have met the same or worse before you accomplished your goal. At least . . . at least no one else got hurt. Livy did what had to be done. We understand the job all too well.”
I wanted to call out to them, but I couldn’t. I needed to know if I’d killed Farak. I needed to know if Ferika had lived. I needed to tell Talon . . . I needed to tell him so many things. I needed to tell him I was still here, and that I didn’t blame him.
Chapter 17
Pain. But this time in my throat. I gagged and fought. Somewhere an alarm screamed. People yelled. Running footsteps pounded closer. I opened my eyes at more pain and tried to paw at the tube they were pulling from my throat. As soon as the tube was out, much of the pain disappeared. I gasped air in. My lungs filled in a way I was sure they hadn’t in a long time.
“Mom,” I tried to say, but not much came out.
With a mother’s instincts, she seemed to know. She took me in her arms and held me gently.
“Ferika?” I asked.
“She’ll live, sweetie. Don’t worry about that. You worry about getting better.”
“Dad.” Each croak came out more like English, but my voice still grated terribly.
He came over and traded places with my mom. He gave me a gentle hug, his eyes over bright. We must have come back to the Borderlands because they were both yellow and sported tails. Dad brushed my hair back and kissed the top of my head.
“My daughter, the dragon slayer, who knew.”
“I did it?”
“Yup.” He gave me a small smile. “But we’ll talk more later. Your mother’s right. You focus on healing. Do you need anything?”
“Talon?”
“I’m here.” He moved in beside my father. He looked like hell. His face shone a pale rendition of its u
sual green and he had purple circles under his eyes.
My father gave a sigh and let go of me. “I have to get back.” He gave my mom a look.
“Yes, and I need to check on Ferika and the others. They’ll want to see you. Can they visit?”
I nodded. The movement made my head spin. Mom and Dad snuck out. I was alone with Talon. Laying back in the pillows I caught his hand.
“I want to know. What happened?”
“Shh . . . They just pulled the breathing tube out. You’ll hurt your throat.”
I scowled at him.
He sighed. “All right. I’ll tell, but only if you promise to keep quiet. If you have questions you can write them down, Yumiko style.”
I made a zipping motion over my mouth and waited expectantly.
“You slaying the dragon was incredible, really.” He gave me a wan smile. “You’re kind of my hero now.”
I search the table beside me for paper and a pen. Talon got up and came back with some.
Don’t talk like that. I don’t know if I should be grossed out or waiting for the sarcasm.
“Geez, you don’t trust me at all. I’m being serious. I felt like two different people watching you work. On the one hand, I was scared shitless. For the time I thought you were dead or were dying . . . Well, I never want to feel that way again in my life.
“Then I had a more detached part which was like my girlfriend is a total badass. And you were, too. You slid under Farak, speared him with the sword, ramming it in while he gave you a look which would have made most men piss their pants. Then . . .” He shuddered, and his eyes filled. “It was so awful, Livy. He impaled you with all four talons on one of his claws. And you were stuck there like a ragdoll while he did his death throws. We couldn’t get to you because he thrashed so much. I . . .”
He hitched a sob. “I thought you were dead for sure. I was a coward. I made Omri go get your body. I didn’t want to . . . if you were really . . .”
I took his hand and squeezed. “I’m here. I’m okay.”
“You promised not to talk.”
Frustrated, I grabbed the paper. Fine. Please don’t cry. I’ll be all right. Actually, I can’t remember anything after I felt his talons go in. Sounds like that’s probably a good thing. What about Ferika?
“Your mom told the truth. She’s a couple doors down, recovering. Farak fractured her skull. But ultimately, she’ll be fine. Like you. You both have a long recovery in front of you.”
Where exactly are we?
“You’re in a hospital in the Lord High Governor’s palace. I guess the shields they set up had alarms on them. If anything with too powerful an evil aura showed up, Lord Feéroi’s secret service would know. Omri had just gotten you free when your parents and a team of law enforcement arrived. They helped get you guys back. Good thing, too. Without magical intervention, I don’t know if either of you would have lived. Human care can fix the holes and replace the blood lost, but only magic can replace the magic you lost.”
Emmett? Elita? Omri? Yumiko? The human kids?
“I have no idea about the humans. The secret service took care of the details. Everyone else is back in the palace now. Lord Feéroi took Farak’s warning about Zaemon moving against us seriously. We’re all confined to the palace. I’m not complaining. We’ve lived fear free for almost two weeks. We get magic rations, so no need to steal and―”
I shoved the paper at him. Two weeks?
He ran a hand across my head more gently than he’d ever touched me. “You’ve been in a coma. Livy, I don’t think you get it. You had a punctured lung. One talon pierced your liver and a kidney. One fully impaled your shoulder. And the fourth nicked your intestines. They said we’re lucky you didn’t go into septic shock and die before they got a magic healer to stabilize you. Four healers took the better part of a day to repair all the holes. Since then they’ve been using spells to get your body to regrow nerves and tissue. But there was no guarantee your body wouldn’t give up. Magic can’t give you the will to live. We’ve all been waiting.”
A tear ran down his face and hit my blanket.
I waved him close and gave him a soft kiss. “Thank you for staying with me.”
He cleared his throat and gave me a very Talonish look. “Enough about what happened. You know all the details. I don’t want to relive the attack anymore. So, if you’re done asking questions, I never want to discuss it again. From here on out go torture someone else if you want more.”
I nodded, and he gave me the first unadulterated smile since I’d woken up.
~ ~ ~
I woke to bickering. Talon tried to shush the anxious-looking Omri, Elita, Yumiko and Emmett at my door.
“Hi,” I croaked, sitting myself up slowly. The stupid breathing tube had left my throat feeling like the worst sore throat ever.
Elita shoved Talon off to the side and rushed over, throwing her arms around me and gleefully hugging me. “Olivia, I was so worried about you,” she gushed. “You’ll never guess! Daddy has named Talon, Omri, and you heroes for saving me.” She plopped next to me and I winced as she jarred the bed. “You and Talon have been appointed my new bodyguards, permanently! You never have to go back to Earth and you never have to prey on humans again.”
Elita gleamed at me and I tried to wrap my head around this huge development. “But what about Omri and Yumiko?”
She waved a dismissive hand at me. “Yumiko is taking over Omri’s duties as my body servant. Daddy wanted Omri and Ferika as his personal bodyguards. I mean, a dragon and sphinx pair? Really, Daddy couldn’t get much better. His current detail has been put in charge of the special guard unit. They’re keeping the entire capitol safe from anything Zaemon might send this way. But from what Ferika has told us, she and Farak were his main lieutenants. He’ll be scrambling to reorganize and find new power. The chaos gives Daddy time to be ready. Talon’s already taken up his post. The brat makes me stay here with him, so he can be with you.”
Elita had barely paused for breath in all of this, but still managed to blaze on. “I’d rather be at home, but Emmett didn’t want to leave you either.” She took my hand and patted it. “No offense, but the hospital sucks and it’s boring. You need to hurry up and get out of here. Then we can go back and shower you properly.” She wrinkled her nose at me. “And your hospital gown absolutely has to go. I brought you proper clothing weeks ago, but the nurse said no.”
I giggled. Elita managed to sound so put upon by my situation. “Thanks for trying. I don’t want to be here either. I’ll do my best to get out. And thank you for the job. I’m honored.” I squeezed her hand.
She leaned close and gave me a soft smile. “Now you don’t have to leave Emmett either.”
This time I hugged her. “I know. Thank you.”
Yumiko had wandered over and handed me a tablet. I’m glad to see you up. I’m so glad you’re staying with us. Heal up quick. She ran her hand across my hair and gave a sort of hiccup as she fled from the room.
Emmett came next. He sat carefully on the other side of me and pulled me into a gentle hug. He buried his face near my ear and whispered, “I’ve never been so scared. Livy, I can’t lose you. I’d rather lose a leg. I love you.” He squeezed a little tighter and heaved a huge sigh. “I can’t even tell you how good it is to see you up.”
I squeezed him back. “Now we get to stay close. We have a lot of help and hopefully we won’t be forced into any more dire situations.”
Omri cleared his throat. “Might I have a word with Olivia? Alone?”
I got lots of pats and smiles as everyone cleared out. Omri stood beside my bed with his hands tucked behind his back until only the two of us remained. I patted the bed beside me and Omri sat, giving me a strange look.
“Spit it out, Omri.” I put my hand on top of his. “I saw the
glare Talon shot you on his way out and I can read you better than this by now. You have bad news.” I straightened up. “Whatever you have to say, I can handle it.”
“I’ve been fully immersed in the latest intelligence since I took up my new post. Elita lied. I will be the Lord High Governor’s bodyguard once Zaemon has been brought to justice. For now, Ferika and I have been assigned to you. You have indeed been declared a hero, as have Talon and I. But you were the sword bearer. Zaemon is holding you personally responsible for the loss of Farak. You have an enormous price on your head.”
I gasped, and my eyes filled.
Omri reached out and stroked my hair reassuringly. “Everything is being done to secure your safety and the safety of the rest of us. There’s no doubt once you have been killed, Zaemon will seek out the rest of us involved. But he intends to make an example of you first. Talon is serving as Elita’s bodyguard, but you are compromised for the time being. He’s been given a temporary partner.”
My heart stopped. “A new partner?” Partnerships were such a personal thing.
Omri’s hand ran across my cheek and tipped my face up to meet his gaze. Even the blur of tears couldn’t blot out the pity in his eyes. “I know what you must be thinking, but this is a single assignment and business―”
“So was guarding Elita.” I lashed out at him. “Talon got arbitrarily assigned to me and look where that went.” Something inside me started crumbling. Without thinking, I grabbed and mashed the call button.
The nurse’s voice answered immediately. “Yes, Miss Skotadi?”
“Get Omri out of my room. Now.”
Omri gave me a horrified look. “No. Olivia. It’s not―”
I covered my ears and shook my head. “Life’s never going to go right for me, is it? Ever since this mess started my world has slowly and completely crumbled and every time I think it’s about to get better something new is dumped in my lap.”