Dragon-Ridden

by T. A. White

  She nudged Night with her foot. Now was the time to attack. He dodged but stayed crouched next to her.

  They pulled a thin and battered body from behind their bulk. Dewdrop glared at Tate from the slit of one black eye, his other eye swollen entirely shut. A gag prevented him from speaking but did nothing to stop his split lip from leaking blood.

  “I don’t think so… Tate.” The tall one grinned maliciously, revealing yellowing teeth. “This one’s told us all about your plans to rescue the Lady’s pets.”

  He shoved Dewdrop forward causing him to trip on chains that bound his feet as well as his hands. Expressionlessly, Tate caught him before he could pitch face first into the stone and pulled him to her side.

  Night bared his teeth at them but didn’t make a sound. She wanted to kick him again.

  The shorter one stared at Night impassively while the taller one gave a great shout of laughter. “Don’t think the Lady doesn’t know what you’ve done, kitty cat. I’m sure she has several fun things planned for your young. If you ask nice, perhaps she’ll even let you watch.”

  The muscles in Night’s body clenched then relaxed again. Tate couldn’t understand why he was just sitting there. They wouldn’t be able to rescue the cubs if they were dead.

  “Enough of that,” the taller man said pulling a thin metal rod from his belt. Next to Tate, Night shifted and growled. She felt a wave of relief. Finally he was going to do something besides crouch and wait.

  The mountain man jabbed the rod at Night who leapt to the side and hissed, the hair on his back standing on end. The other man grabbed Tate. She tried to avoid him but hanging onto Dewdrop slowed her enough that he was able to latch onto her arm, jerking her off balance. She released Dewdrop and spun to kick the side of her captor’s knee. He easily avoided the kick and whipped out a knife to hold against her stomach. She stopped fighting when she felt the weight of the steel against her and held her hands up slowly.

  “I’d stop fighting if I were you.”

  Night yelped as the other man shoved the rod against him and tried to jump away from the shock originating from the metal. The man followed, hitting him twice more until Night was cornered against the wall.

  Tate struggled not to react to the sounds of pain coming from her friend and held her captor’s gaze rebelliously. She flinched as the rod sizzled again.

  Dewdrop hadn’t even tried to run, sliding down to sit with his back against the wall.

  “That’s enough,” Tate’s man said when the other man would have jabbed the rod into Night again. “The lady wants him alive.”

  “What if he tries to run?” the tall man whined.

  “He won’t,” the other said harshly. He shot a hard glance at Night. “Will you?”

  Night found his feet with unsteady legs and shook himself. He lowered his head and limped to Tate’s side.

  “Fine.” The tall man clicked the rod off and slipped it into the loops on his belt. “But if I even think he’s about to try something, I’ll keep the shocker on him until it burns the flesh from his body.”

  Seeing that she had no intention of resisting, Tate’s captor took a cautious step backward and motioned for Dewdrop to stand. He winced and limped forward to Tate. She took his arm, letting him lean on her.

  Tate protested when they shoved them forward. “There’s no need to push. We’ll go with you.”

  “You’re a pretty one ain’t cha? Perhaps the Lady will let us have a little taste before she totally ruins you.” The tall man ran his eyes up and down Tate.

  Ew.

  Tate grimaced. It had better not come to that. She bit her lip against the words she wanted to say, things like how disgusting he was and that she’d geld him before allowing him anywhere near her. Wanting to seem weaker than she was, she said none of this, whimpering instead and cringing away. It was easy to act scared, because she was.

  “That’s enough Ulfric,” Tate’s captor said. “We don’t have time for these games. We track down the fulcrum. Let’s just lock these guys up and get to work.”

  “You’re such a spoil sport, Will,” Ulric said, his bad breath turning Tate’s stomach. To Tate, he said, “Too bad, love. After the Red Lady’s done with you, no man will want you.”

  Tate tried not to react. Don’t antagonize him. It’s not worth it. Just breathe, just breathe. It was difficult to stay still when every bone in her body screamed in protest. Knowing acting out would get them killed didn’t make it any easier to control herself when the blood was roaring.

  She fantasized about how easy it would be to grab a sensitive piece of flesh on this man’s body and twist. If she got a good enough handhold she could probably rip it right off. A woman would have no use for him then.

  Dewdrop’s soft gasp when Ulfric’s thick fingers found a previous bruise helped clear Tate’s head. On her own she’d probably have risked the consequences but not with Dewdrop and Night as part of the mix.

  They were led away from the opulently decorated room and down yet another twisting corridor to a series of cells carved into the hard walls of the tunnel, each with barely enough room for a child to stand upright. The smell of feces and urine permeated the air.

  There were animalistic shrieks and cries as they walked past. Wild laughter flowed out of one cell while its occupant rocked back and forth. Dewdrop and Night kept their eyes focused straight ahead not looking into any of the cells. Tate took one look and rather wished she hadn’t as bile rose in her throat. After the one glimpse, she kept her eyes trained on the back of Night’s head.

  She didn’t see how some of those things were still alive. And they were things, not people or animals anymore. Whatever had been done to them had reduced them to so much meat that their original form was difficult to discern.

  Two dirty snouts poked from a dark recess while tiny paws batted at the bars. Night made a broken sound as soft mewls greeted him. He started for the two small figures but was jerked back when Ulfric hit him with the rod again.

  He roared and tried to bite it in half, straining with every fiber in his body for the two cubs.

  With a curse, Tate’s captor shoved the two of them into a cell and locked it before running to his friends aid while pulling a shock device off his belt. Together they herded and beat Night into the adjacent cell before hitting him hard in the head using the rod, knocking Night unconscious. He slumped to the floor, momentarily stunned. The cage door slammed shut moments later.

  “If I were you, I’d say good bye to your little animal babies,” Ulfric taunted Night. “It won’t be long before the Red Lady decides to take her displeasure with your failure out on your offspring.”

  Will pulled Ulfric back. “I’m heading for the docks. Timmy thinks that’s where the fulcrum is. Go and tell the Lady, that her guests are here.”

  Ulfric shoved Will’s hands off him and stalked away from the cells. “Yeah, yeah.”

  Tate waited until their voices had faded before rushing to the cell’s bars. She touched the lock gently, yelping and jerking back when it shocked her. She shook her hand out. Guess she wasn’t picking this lock.

  “Night, buddy, I really hope this is part of your plan,” she yelled, venturing as close to the bars as she could without getting shocked. “Otherwise we’re in serious trouble.”

  Silence answered her. She shifted uneasily, worried that the blow to his head had injured him more than she thought.

  “Night? Are you awake?” Still nothing. “Come on. Talk to me.”

  The cubs snuffled, their cries getting louder and louder. Worried that they’d attract attention, Tate said, “Hush, hush, little ones. Your father’s not hurt. He’s just sleeping.”

  At the sound of her voice they quieted until she stopped talking before resuming. Their mewling filled the entire space nearly drowning out the other occupants noise. Tate slumped. She’d never dealt with babies before and didn’t know how to comfort them or make them stop. She shushed them again with little effect, her admonitions for quiet m
et with an increased volume.

  “Quiet, you cursed caterwaulers,” Dewdrop suddenly shouted next to her ear, almost sending her leaping into the bars in surprise. “Nobody’s hurt you and not one of us wants to hear you whine.”

  Tate shot a disconcerted glance his way, one that showed her stunned awe when the little ones finally stopped crying. If she’d known it only took yelling at them to make them behave, she would have done that from the beginning.

  She’d almost forgotten about Dewdrop in her concern over Night’s welfare. “You. You,” she sputtered. “You, little thief. This is your fault. How’d you know we’d be here, anyway? Did Lucius send you?”

  Thinking about everything that happened, she narrowed her eyes at him, slightly comforted when he looked away in shame. “Or did you switch sides to this Red Lady everybody has so much to say about?” She poked him when he didn’t answer. “Well?”

  He hunched his shoulders and stared at the ground stubbornly, tightening his lips. Tate sighed and moved away from the bars, grimacing with distaste when she saw the state of the floors and decided her legs would have to be broken before she’d sit.

  Although there was a bucket for bodily waste, it looked like the previous occupants hadn’t been too good with their aim. Urine, feces, and darker stains, probably blood, dotted the floor. She cursed whatever had urged her to break free of Lucius and his men. At least his prison cells were clean, and he hadn’t threatened her outright, not really. Okay, okay, so he had, but he’d been very polite about the whole thing, and really this place was disgusting. Not fit for occupancy.

  “What is that?” she said pointing at a suspicious pile of goo.

  Dewdrop’s face was grim as he told her, “You really don’t want to know.”

  She curled her lip in distaste. She’d take his word for it. Determined to ignore the reality of the situation, she asked, “So what’s your story? Whatever the truth is I doubt it’s as bad as being here.”

  “I wouldn’t lean against that,” Dewdrop remarked when she started to rest her weight against the wall.

  She straightened quickly. “Why? Was I about to touch something gross?”

  “No.” He took out a button and threw it against the wall, which shot bright sparks out on contact. The button fell to the floor, smoking. “They’ve set these things up so the floor and walls can shock its occupants if they try to get comfortable.”

  Tate gave the wall a considering look. Smart. Done over a period of time, denying a person rest and food was a good way to break their spirit and make them beg to tell you their secrets. Inflict a little added pain and suffering and they broke that much quicker.

  “So? Like it or not, it looks like we’re in this together,” Tate said turning back to him. “Might as well tell me what you know. We could even help each other out.”

  “Help each other?” The sound Dewdrop made was ugly and raw and only slightly resembled a laugh. “It’s your fault that everything’s gone so wrong. If you hadn’t stolen the key, I’d still be part of Lucius’s crew.” He threw up his hands. “Do you know how hard we worked to become part of his circle? How difficult it was? Then on our first job, a simple snatch, you have to go and steal the key. And just like that my chance to be part of one of the strongest clans is gone.”

  Tate felt a niggle of guilt. Said like that it made her feel kind of bad for the part she played. Especially since that one impulsive act had been decided on a whim, the consequences of which were still playing out. It was the lynchpin on which this entire situation seemed to rest.

  She just wished she could figure out what made a rich woman’s simple hairpiece so very important.

  She ran a hand through her hair. Apologies didn’t come easy to her, but she figured in this case it was warranted. “Look, I’m sorry if any action on my part hurt you. That wasn’t my intention. On the other hand if your friend hadn’t tried to relieve me of my coin, I never would have taken the hairpin. Not that that excuses what I did, but it is an explanation.”

  Dewdrop eyed her with the wariness of a veteran street urchin, trying to figure out her hidden agenda. To a boy raised on the unforgiving streets, a simple apology with no strings, must seem foreign. Tate meant what she said. She hadn’t planned for any of this to happen.

  She softened her voice, “You’re in the thick of this just as much as we are. I sincerely doubt they’ll go any easier on you, and seeing as you’re part of a rival faction, they’ll probably be tougher. Let’s all just work together, and when we get out you can go back to hating me or whatever it is you do.” He seemed to think over what she said. Coming to a decision he nodded once. “Now, since you knew about the walls, I’m going to assume you’ve been here before.”

  Cautiously, he nodded again. Okay, good. He was beginning to cooperate. “How did you escape last time?”

  He shrugged. “Luck and a lack of vigilance on guard’s part.”

  Not exactly what she’d wanted to hear, but perhaps with a little more detail they could figure something out. She motioned for him to continue.

  He rolled his eyes but answered her. “Getting out of the cages is impossible; the sparks see to that. You can’t pick the lock on the door from this side without getting seriously burned. I once saw someone stick his hands out to fiddle with the lock, and by the time he gave up, his hands had blistered and burned, permanently maiming him.”

  Tate shuddered, not wanting to know what had been so awful that he had been willing to risk that amount of pain to escape.

  “He still wasn’t able to pick the lock, and he was a master thief.”

  “Then how’d you get out?”

  “Like I said, breaking out of here is impossible. The only way to escape is when the guards come to escort you to the Red Lady. There’s a brief window of opportunity from the time you step out of this cage until you arrive in front of her, where you can, if you’re lucky, escape.” His explanation finished, he crossed his arms.

  “That’s it?” Tate asked flatly. “That’s your great plan? Wait until an unknown number of guards with an unknown skill set come to take us away, to stage our grand escape. Never mind the fact that they might not take all of us, or that it will likely only work once.” She shook her head. “Thanks. You’ve been a great help.”

  “Hey,” Dewdrop said shrugging. “You asked, and I answered.”

  Tate narrowed her eyes at him, studying his thin frame. Something about his story didn’t make sense. His face was gaunt from malnourishment making his light brown eyes seem too big while muscles were almost nonexistent on his slim build. If he knew anything about fighting, she’d eat her shirt.

  “I don’t think so,” she said speculatively. “You’re not telling me something.”

  Dewdrop’s mouth clamped shut, and he found the excrement on the floor of extreme interest. Mm hm. He was definitely hiding something.

  She grabbed him by his shirtfront, dragging him close and thrusting her face into his. “Listen, you little thief, I don’t have time to be pussy footing around with you. I have to get those two little ones and their father out of here, so tell me what you know, all of it.”

  “Or what?” he snarled back, a lock of his raggedy brown hair flopping down to partially cover his eyes. “Or you’ll beat it out of me like all the rest. Threaten to kill me if I don’t do what you want.”

  His jaw was set as he met her eyes resolutely. She studied him. His body was coiled tight with energy and his legs spread shoulder length apart as if he was bracing to be hit. Such fierceness in such a tiny package. What in his life had made him that way? She sighed, releasing him. It’d been worth a shot. Threats weren’t how she normally liked to play things, but she’d hoped he’d be intimidated enough to tell her what she wanted. Guess not.

  She blew a piece of hair off her face and rubbed her neck. Her back ached with constantly hunching over to avoid the low hanging ceiling. She bent to examine the cage’s lock. If only she could somehow pick it without having to touch any of the metal.
/>
  “What? No threats?” Dewdrop yelled at her. “This is all I can expect from a crew member of the legendary Marauder?”

  “Boy, I’m not your enemy,” Tate said tiredly. “I’m sure you’ll figure that out soon enough.”

  It’d been a long night and she just didn’t have the time or energy to deal with a street urchin with a chip on his shoulder. Her talents would be of more use in another area, like say, finding a way to escape.

  “Night? You awake yet?” she shouted.

  A faint voice answered. Barely.

  She laughed, relieved. “I can’t tell you how good it is to hear your voice, buddy.”

  What happened? he said, his voice groggy.

  “We found your cubs,” she said in a positive upbeat voice.

  So my plan worked.

  “Unfortunately we also managed to get captured again.”

  So I see.

  “Since this was all part of your plan, I take it you have a way out of here.”

  I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.

  “Great.” Tate had a sudden urge to bang her head against the walls. “Before I forget, the guy with me says not to touch anything. Evidently the floor drains your energy and the ceiling and walls bite.”

  I know. I’ve been here before. Remember?

  Oh yeah. He probably knew the dangers of their situation better than Tate.

  “Look, I’m working on a plan to get us out of here,” she said with her eyes closed and trying to infuse her voice with every speck of positive energy she could.

  That’s good. I really don’t want to meet the Red Lady again.

  “The guy with me said he’s escaped before. We just need to work out a few details, and then we’ll get to work on it.”

  Really? There was rustling from his cell as he moved around. Is there anything you need from me?

  Tate considered. “Maybe you can get reacquainted with your cubs and work on keeping them calm.”

  I can do that. Yes. That’s what I’ll do. He sounded stronger than before, and Tate could practically feel his spirits rise. His voice rumbled as he began crooning to the cubs.