I raised my large head as the scent of eight humans blew to me on the breeze. I looked over at the warrior Cadalan sent with me, but they looked equally as confused. We were high in the mountains, humans actually making it all the way here was nearly impossible. In one blink, an iron net with spikes was launched from a ballista in the treeline. I watched in horror as the warrior’s limp body replaced the medium sized crimson dragon under the net. I reached out to Cadalan with my ability, except instead of seeing through his eyes, I let him see through my eyes. Before they could reload the ballista, I flew up in the air, hoping to avoid their net, but I didn’t see their arrow-shooting ballista. I fell to the ground as a large arrow sliced through my wing. My body slammed into the ground, “You’re not going anywhere, Draeles scum,” one of them shouted.
Time stopped just as the net was released from the ballista, reversing to just before my wing was sliced. I was able to avoid the arrow being fired, however, one of the humans shot my wing with a crossbow bolt, causing me to fall to the ground once again. “You’re not going anywhere, Draeles scum,” the human shouted again.
Before the net fell over me, I covered myself in a sphere of ice. “That’s not going to save you,” a muffled voice said.
“What do we do, Rukiya?”
“We could kill them, but the iron is going to eat away at your ice soon.”
“We can’t kill humans, except in war, you know that.”
She huffed, “That’s a stupid law.”
“It is, but if we break that law, we’re no better than these humans attacking us.”
I grunted as I used the ice sphere to push the net up and off of me. Rukiya screamed in pain as the spikes from another net dug into our scales. “I’m trying to hold on,” Rukiya screamed in my mind.
“Let go Rukiya. There’s nothing either of us can do.” I screamed back, “Let go.”
I felt her grip on our dragon form loosen before it broke completely, returning me to my human form. “I might have to have a turn with this one before we turn her over to King Maelour,” I heard one of them say just before I passed out from the iron.
Cadalan’s POV
“Cadalan, are you listening?” Gwilan asked, their annoyance clear on their face.
“No. I stopped listening twenty minutes ago when the conversation started going in circles,” I answered.
Keys laughed, “Seriously Cad, what are you planning with her? You’ve always said you weren’t going to bond to anyone, let alone do exactly what you’ve just done.”
I looked at my second in command with a smile, “Queen Elenell thinks Gildaza is weak, but I asked Seg to read the family when we arrived, thinking we’d go find weaknesses and plan an attack. What Seg found was so much better. Gildaza is the most powerful dragon he’s read in at least three decades.”
“So what? She refuses to shift. How do you know she can even shift to her human form?” Helwyn, my newest advisor, asked. “What do you intend to use her for if she ever does decide to shift?”
“I’m sure she can shift and is just being stubborn. As for my plans, I intend to use her to take over the Qaelan Dynasty.”
“Reports from refugees from Qaelen do cause quite a bit of concern that Elenell is turning tyrannical,” Preden, the general of our saber branch, said.
“Exactly. Another reason I took the meeting was to see if Elenell was alone in her tyranny or if she had help.”
“And?”
“Elenell is alone. Her ego refuses to let anyone else make decisions. Her decisions are absolute.” As Evaer spoke, my vision was taken over by someone else’s. I watched as Ninou, the warrior I sent with Gildaza to the mountains, fell limp under an iron net. From the looks of her surroundings, she was incredibly close to the Wecica border, but Ninou had kept her within our border.
“We need to go to the Wecican border. Gildaza and Ninou are under attack from humans on the Wecican side.”
“Did Ninou link you?” Seg asked.
I shook my head, “Gildaza’s ability is shared sight.”
Keys grabbed my arm and put my hand on her shoulder as she guided me outside. I watched in horror as a bolt sliced through her wing, but froze in my tracks as I watched time stop around her and reverse.
“She’s even more spectacular than I thought,” Sotelios said in my head.
“Don’t pretend you wanted to be bonded to her. We both know you didn’t want her until she stood up to you and your temper,” I responded.
He huffed, “She caved to our demands. The only standing up to us she did was straightening up under our command, which is to be expected of someone with her lineage.”
Sotelios roared with approval as ice surrounded Gildaza. “We’re dealing with eight humans. I want them captured alive. If this was done at the direction of the King of Wecica, I want to know and I want retribution,” I said aloud once Keys brought us to a stop.
“I linked the sentries we have posted in the area to fly the border and look for her but to leave them alive if possible. We should hear something soon from them,” Preden said.
“I might have to have a turn with this one before we turn her over to King Maelour,” one of the humans said just before she passed out from the net.
A loud feral growl escaped as my vision came back to me. “She’s in the net. Maelour is involved. Let’s go,” I said, shifting through my clothes.
“We’ve found where they were attacked, but they aren’t here,” Bennora, one of the sentries, linked an hour later. “There’s a saber on the ground. I don’t recognize them, but they killed two of the humans.”
“Do we have a saber on the ground?” I linked Preden.
“Not that I know of,” she linked back.
“Can Treskims shift into sabers?” Keys linked.
“I have no idea.”
“Seg you wanna take bets on how long it takes the Treskim to try to kill Cad?” Keys linked both of us.
Seg snorted, “I’ve got 100 Darics on it trying within the first five minutes of him hitting the ground.”
“I say it’ll happen within the first minute,” Keys responded.
“Do I get to bet?” I linked them.
“No,” they both linked.
“That’s bullshit,” I linked as we landed on a section of land that Bennora or Olevel cleared for us.
(to be added to)
Author: Kailan Counahan 