The Princess's Dragon (15 page)

“Halt! You cannot leave here. I am taking you to the Circle. They will decide your fate.” Sondra tried to escape, but flying was still new to her, and the other dragon caught her far too easily, slamming into her back and bearing her to the ground.

When they hit the ground, other dragons appeared, summoned telepathically to restrain this new dragon and escort her to the Ancient Ones.

They pulled Sondra between them and she realized the futility of struggling.

She didn’t stand a chance against one of them, much less three. The other two dragons, a greenish-brown male and a scarred, golden-orange male, also possessed sickly grayish-black tinged auras. They limited their communication with her to short commands, saving the interrogation for the old queens of their Kin.

They reached the cliffs, the dragons on either side of her pushing her off the

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edge and remaining beside her as they glided down to the closest cave entrance.

Holes riddled the entire cliff face, and Sondra saw dragons of all sizes and colors moving in around those entrances like bees in a hive. She and her escorts entered a tunnel and moved through a cavern city laid out like a labyrinth.

Tunnels meandered in every direction; they encountered many dragons as they passed through them. Most possessed the same sickly taint to their aura that her escort had, but not all of them did. Several dragons glanced up curiously as they passed by, but the majority just went about their business, ignoring the small group completely.

Dragons carried unidentifiable loads; some moved past with dead cattle or barrels and crates. Others carried strange tools and implements, and Sondra swore they passed a strange garden of sorts were several dragons labored just as human peasants might. The sight of such incredible and magical creatures reduced to mundane labor struck her as profoundly sad and disquieting. What could enslave an entire race in such a manner that they acted in a way that Tolmac assured her was completely out of character? After experiencing the freedom and power of dragon life for only a short time, she viewed this city as sinister; she could only imagine the effect it had on Tolmac when he first saw it.

It wasn’t long before her escort brought her to the Royal Caverns. They ushered her into the huge cavern carved out of several smaller caverns and filled with enough treasure to make Tolmac’s hoard look like that of a pauper. Of course, Sondra realized, this hoard undoubtedly came from tributes demanded of the people of Fomoral. She wondered how many peasants in the lands above starved while these dragons hoarded their wealth. Then she really took a look around at the occupants as they moved closer to the three crouching and horribly bloated queens lounging on their own piles of gold.

The three ancient females were all massively obese, the excess flesh of their bodies spilled out over the gold coins. Their atrophied wings curled against their back like deformed limbs, unused and forgotten. Flakes of scales peeled from their sides, and their pigment had faded to a murky gray, either out of laziness or ennui. All three appeared nearly identical, differing only in minor and nearly unnoticeable details, like the curve of a horn or the shape of a spine ridge, but they all boasted a boiling, foggy grayish-black aura that moved in her second-sight like writhing snakes over their physical forms. Sondra barely suppressed a shudder and sketched an awkward bow in her dragon form. Since 86

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these dragons desired the royal treatment, Sondra knew exactly how to act.

After all, she’d spent the majority of her life pandering to the court and the nobles that practiced their unending intrigues and power plays there.

The queens hissed in satisfaction at her gesture of respect. It suited their idea of how they should be treated. This newcomer already proved a pleasant surprise. “Welcome, ssstranger, to our gloriousss city,” the queen on the right said, her telepathic voice sibilant and cold.

“It is an honor to be here before you. I have heard of your mighty city and decided I must see it for myself,” Sondra replied, deciding to pander to the ego of these females in the hopes of keeping them out of her head.

“You claimed you were lost!” The enforcer who first accosted her replied.

Sondra nodded quickly, irritated at the beastly guard’s memory. “Of course, I was so roughly challenged; I grew frightened by the might and strength of your soldiers and made to run away. I am ashamed, for I see now that I would have missed the true majesty of this great city if I hadn’t been able to meet you, Your Highnesses.”

The queens hissed again, very pleased with the pretty words of this new little dragon. The enforcer fell silent, realizing that her job was finished and she was out of her league within the confines of the Royal Cavern and the subtle machinations that went on there.

“From where do you hail?” the center queen asked.

“I hail from everywhere. I am an orphan since I first hatched and I made many blunders growing to adulthood, traveling alone into dangerous territory countless times. Fortunately I survived; but when I heard that there existed a place such as this where our kind came together to grow even more powerful, I searched until I found it.”

Sondra prayed they didn’t invade her mind at that moment. The lies she wove wouldn’t hold up to telepathic scrutiny. Just in case, she kept her shields up and distracted her mind from thinking of the truth. Thus far, the queens hadn’t made an attempt to read her mind. She didn’t know if she could flatter them enough to delay them. She struggled to control her nerves. As a human princess, she’d never been very good at maintaining poise under pressure; as a dragon it became critical that she not spark in fear or anxiety, revealing her nature. Tolmac told her the Circle would love to have a storm dragon under their control. So far she didn’t think they were aware of her nature, and she wasn’t about to give them any clues.

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“And what isss your purpossse here, orphan? Now that you have ssseeen the wonder and beauty of our vassst kingdom, what will you do next?” the queen on the left asked.

“I would like to explore more of your kingdom. I would like to meet the dragons that make their home here. I have never met another dragon before.

Most of all, it is simply overwhelming to revel in the glory of your exalted presence. I did not know that we dragons could wield such power.” The boiling fog of their auras pulsed and shuddered in pleasure and anticipation. They were pleased with her answer but wanted more from her.

“Do you wish to join usss, to become one of the Kin?” the right queen asked.

Sondra felt she’d reached a critical stage. She knew that at some point they intended to invade her mind and see all the lies she’d told. She must hold them off as long as possible by acting agreeable and willing. Hopefully, she would find a way to escape or stall long enough for Tolmac to find her, if he even searched for her.

“What must I do to join your mighty clan, great ones?”

“Ah, yesss. You must be initiated. It is a long and somewhat … painful …

processs, but in the end it will be worth it and you will be one of usss,” the queen in the center hissed.

“We shall allow you to explore, and then eat and ressst. On the morrow you shall return here and we will begin the initiation,” the left queen said, her aura writhing in pleasure and anticipation.

Sondra nearly sighed with relief. She’d guessed correctly about these

”queens”; like all pretentious glory seekers, they wanted to make a spectacle of their power, and even with enslaved followers, it took time to gather them all to witness the initiation. Sondra hoped it would be time enough to escape or think of something else to save herself.

“Essscort her to the city and show her around. We want her to feel at home here,” the right queen ordered the guards. They bowed uncomfortably, still unused to the strange and unnatural gestures of respect demanded by the queens. They motioned to Sondra and she followed. Reluctant to turn her back on the watching queens, she bolstered her shields and was glad she had when she felt a brush, a mere tickle at the corners of her mind. The tendril of consciousness simply tested her, Sondra guessed. She suspected that by tomorrow, no mental shield she could erect would stop the three queens’

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combined efforts to invade her mind and enslave her to their will. She hoped she found a way to escape a fate she suspected might be worse than death.

A stray thought occurred to her as she passed several dragons ranged around the cavern, lounging on their own, smaller beds of coins. They looked so much like the arrogant sycophants that cluttered the human court she was raised in that she could almost see human features superimposed on their serpentine faces. Every one of those that occupied the Royal Cavern bore the same sickly taint. Sondra nearly shook with relief when they left the main cavern—the resemblance to Ariva’s royal court had failed to inspire homesickness.

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The guards did give her a tour of the “city,” which turned out to be little more than a series of tunnels and linked caverns crowded by dragons. Many of the occupants had atrophied wings and shedding scales layered over prominent bones. Th ey appeared to be starving

or malnourished and Sondra guessed that they hadn’t been outside the caverns in many rotas. She wasn’t permitted to speak to those dragons. Instead the guards simply pointed out various sights along the way to the dining hall.

Gilded statues of dragons, supposedly the queens themselves, though the magnifi cent beasts in no way represented the shriveled old creatures in the Royal Cavern, lined every wall. Th

ey appeared to watch every dragon moving

through the corridors.

They passed a stonemason’s shop, and Sondra paused in surprise at the sight of several brown dragons sculpting with their bare claws, the stone melting and reshaping with their movements. The female guard who’d first captured her shoved at her foreleg to propel her forward but Sondra turned and asked her about what she witnessed, unable to contain her curiosity over the sight.

“Those are just stone dragons. You see they have no wings and cannot fly, but they possess an affinity for the earth element and form the stone with their thoughts. They craft our statues and tunnels. Now, keep moving. There is much to see and I would like to eat before the commoners get their scraps.” Sondra moved reluctantly forward, disappointed that she could not watch the stone dragons work their craft. She glanced over at the female guard that seemed to be her new keeper and wondered if she had an affinity for a particular 89

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element. Perhaps all dragons related to a single element more than any other, just like the stone dragons, and her, a storm dragon. Sondra wondered what element the queens possessed an affinity for.

They passed another cavern and the guard attempted to hurry her along but Sondra paused again. She couldn’t resist and didn’t know how the other female could, for in this cavern, tiny little dragons with adorable, nearly round baby faces stumbled and tripped and fell over their own oversized wings as they played with their fellows. It was obviously a nursery and the baby dragons looked so cute Sondra pulled away from her guard to get a closer look. She moved into the cavern and into the wriggling little forms. They squeaked as she got close and, startled, raced away to hide behind their keeper. Sondra looked up, and up, and up into the frigid eyes of another adult dragon. This dragon looked neither sickly nor tainted; her aura bore spots of shadowy darkness but those areas remained firm and solid rather than tattered and wavy. Not a speck of gray moved within her blazing reddish-orange spirit and no scales shed from her glittering red-orange body.

She snarled at Sondra as she demanded mentally, “Who are you that trespass in the brood nursery? Commoners are not permitted here.” Sondra backed off at her angry tone, embarrassed and a little afraid.

The other female stood so much larger than her, larger even than her guard who came up behind to grab hold of her impatiently. The red dragon looked beautiful as well, with a slender head, brilliantly gilded horny headdress and gold-flecked scales. She was the type of dragon humans painted or sculpted into their art: massive, awesome, and menacing and she looked like she wanted to crush Sondra for daring to enter her domain.

“I’m sorry, I’m new here and I saw the babies and I just couldn’t resist a closer look. They’re so adorable.” The red dragon glanced down at the wriggling babies weaving in and out of her legs, curious about the small violet dragon but shy and nervous as many young creatures are. “I didn’t realize I was breaking the law. I will leave right away.” Sondra backed away. The red dragon looked back up at her, her expression inscrutable.

“Did you say you were new here? From where did you come?”

“From everywhere really, I’m an orphan.”

“You’re small for an adult dragon. That is curious. Have you undergone initiation yet?”

Sondra looked at her guard who tugged on her, urging her to hurry to the

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dining cavern, while purposely ignoring the clutch keeper who towered over even her and made her look like little more than an overgrown swamp lizard.

“The queens will initiate me tomorrow. They have graciously granted me the opportunity to rest tonight.”

“You think they are gracious, do you? Well, new female, you may be permitted a bit of freedom for now, but soon enough you will be just another commoner. Your kind is forbidden to interact with the clutch. You’ve seen them; realize that you will never have your own in this city and leave, now.” The red dragon turned away, dismissing her as forcefully as if she’d physically shoved her.

Sondra let the guard drag her away, sparing one last wistful glance at the little squeaking dragon babies. One pulled its own tail hard enough to knock itself over on its back, and it chewed happily away on the spiky end, rocking on its tiny little spines. The others gamboled about the legs of the red dragon and Sondra caught one last look at the other female as she gently rescued one baby who’d climbed too far up one rugged wall.