by Isaac Hooke
“Remind me never to get on her bad side,” Gwen told him as she came alongside.
“You started out on her bad side, didn’t you?” he said, breathing heavily.
Gwen hugged herself as if feeling suddenly cold. “Yeah, but that was when she was still human.” The half gobling shivered visibly.
Hastor landed beside Abigail. “So we won after all.”
“No thanks to you,” Abigail spat.
“What?” the black said. “I was helping.”
“Yes, taking all the dragons I disabled already,” she said.
Hastor shrugged. “Somebody’s got to do the dirty work.”
“Those fire elementals,” Malem said. “You can only summon them in dragon form?”
“Very good,” Abigail told him.
Gwen gazed out at the dead bodies that strewed the hilltop. “I see now why Vorgon is afraid of the Metals joining the war. Assuming that’s what you are. A Metal Dragon I mean.”
Abigail inclined her silvery head. “Good guess, as always.” The sarcasm was obvious in her tone. “So, how about we save the questions for later, and instead the two of you load up onto our backs and we carry you the rest of the way?”
“I’m sure our mounts could use a break,” Malem said.
“They might not like the heights, though,” Gwen added.
31
Malem hung onto Abigail’s back, gripping the small section just above where the wings joined her body. Xaxia, still unconscious, was tied to him by the waist.
Gwen rode Hastor in a similar manner beside him. The black dragon had healed during the trip, and was flying almost as fast as the bigger silver now. It helped that Hastor had no other load than Gwen, whereas Abigail carried not only Malem and Xaxia, but also Neeme in her left forepaw, and Bounder her right. Felipe remained cowering inside Malem’s jacket collar, under his robe.
As usual, Malem relished in the thrill of experiencing the world from that height, but this time the thrill had an edge to it because he was worried about falling off. When he had tapped into the eyes of birds in the past, there was never any fear involved—he wasn’t actually riding them. But now, this was all too real.
“Do you see it?” Abigail asked over her shoulder. “Mount Ademan.”
He squinted his eyes and gazed down onto the range below. There was one mountain that stood out from the others, towering well above its neighbors. On its upper peaks he could just make out several sparkling structures nestled amid the snow-covered crags, surrounded by a wall.
As they came closer, he realized it was a grand city of some kind. He had been expecting some keep, or a cave, but not an entire city. Its walls and towers were made of emeralds and gold. The streets were paved with diamonds. Bright rubies and gems dotted even the smallest of structures, making it a looter’s paradise: kings from the surrounding lands had no doubt been tempted to raid this place, at least until they remembered it was inhabited by an army of fire-breathing, magical monsters.
Those gems and scintillating walls fit with what he would have expected from a city of dragons, given their reputation for hoarding treasure. That they resided in a city at all was the surprising part: most were rumored to live alone in dens. The Metals must have been the more social among dragons.
The towers were packed relatively close together, but there were holes near the center of most of them: he was puzzled at first as to why, until he spotted a flying shape glinting in the sun. It looked like a silvery bat from this distance, but with a long tail, and wings that flapped far more slowly. The distant figure headed straight for the center of one of the towers, and passed right through the gaping hole in the middle.
Ah. Dragon holes.
The whole city was essentially an architectural marvel, not just because of the valuable materials with which its towers and walls had been constructed, nor the dragon holes designed into most of the structures, but because of how high it had been built on the mountain. The logistics of such an undertaking, the transport of all those heavy materials up the cliffs: yes, this was a place only dragons could have constructed.
Does the city have a name? he asked Abigail over their mental link.
Yes, she replied. We call it Khaledonius.
Metal Dragons rapidly approached from the city. Malem sensed them before he saw them, but when they came into view he saw golds, silvers, platinums, bronzes and chromiums among them.
“Stay calm,” Abigail said, looking over her shoulder at him. “Make sure that black of yours doesn’t do anything to provoke them. Unless you want to lose him. And Gwen.”
“That’s why you made me ride this beast alone!” Gwen shouted at him. “Trying to get rid of me, are you?”
Her voice was strong, carrying easily over the wind of their passage. Malem attributed that to her monster half. His own voice wouldn’t have carried nearly as far, and he’d probably succeed only in making himself hoarse.
So he merely shook his head. Of course, if he really wanted to answer her, he could have sent something telepathically.
“I’ll pretend those ugly Metals aren’t even here,” Hastor said. “By the way, Metal, you can address such concerns to me directly, going forward.”
“Why bother, Black?” Abigail said. “He is your master.”
“Just as he is yours,” Hastor retorted. “But I don’t tell him how to make you act now, do I?”
Abigail snorted at that. “He’s no more my master than the lichen clinging to the base of an evergreen.”
“Oh, you better watch that lichen,” Hastor said. “It has a way of spreading throughout the entire tree.”
Abigail had nothing else to say to that. Probably a good thing.
The dragons arrived and took up positions on either side of Abigail and Hastor to escort the motley group to the city. Some gave Hastor disgusted looks, but otherwise none of the Metals said anything. At least not yet.
Until one of the platinums took its place beside her in the formation. It inclined its head respectfully. “Abigail,” came its deep, booming voice.
“Took you long enough,” she spat in contempt. “You should have spotted me a while ago.”
“The patrols have been ranging northward of late,” the platinum said. “Oraks have been testing the security of the mountain passes leading to the keep. We’ve been showing them the error of their ways.”
“Well, I almost died out there,” Abigail said.
“But Sir Matthew...”
“Is dead,” she said.
The platinum drooped its shoulders. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”
“Yes,” she said. “I was forced to recruit new allies.”
The platinum glanced at the black. “I see that. Your choice of companions is... interesting.”
“Hello,” Hastor said pleasantly.
The platinum merely grunted and looked away.
The dragons flew on in silence.
Malem was sorely tempted to try Breaking one of them but thought that wouldn’t go over very well. Besides, even if he succeeded, he had no free slots to hold its will.
As they got closer to the city, he saw armored humans standing on the walkway of the parapet that enclosed the city, and the dragons perched between them. Some of those humans wore the robes of mages, while others wore what looked like armor made of dragon scales. The armor varied in color to match the hues of the dragons, with some wearing silver, others gold, and so forth. They also wore surcoats that bore the emblem of a talon on fire, with helms that extended like beaks in front of their faces, reminding him of the accouterments of the fallen Sir Matthew. The only difference between their garb and his was that armor.
The menacing-looking dragons on that wall looked like animated gargoyles as their heads turned to follow the passing group. Malem could detect them all on his beast sense, man and dragon alike.
He didn’t really see any smaller residential areas in the city below: the towers dominated. He did notice multiple openings on those towers, each harboring
balconies. Dressed in bright fabrics, humans watched from some of them.
A big platinum dragon came flying in from across the city and landed on the rooftop of one such tower; it promptly transformed into a naked man and entered a rooftop shed, vanishing down a spiraling staircase.
He nodded to himself. Instead of individual homes and estates like he had seen in most cities, they probably lived in communal towers, which made some sense, given the sparsity of real estate in the mountaintop city. The only other option was to dig into the mountains itself, something that dragons weren’t really known for. Though he had heard that reds sometimes ousted dwarfs from their underground cities to make grand dens for themselves.
The group approached a series of towers that were walled off from the rest of the city. The parapet walkways were big enough to fit dragons, and like the main city wall, were manned by soldiers in dragon scales and mages in different colored robes, along with more deadly-looking dragons. Most of the dragons here seemed to be of the gold and silver variety. He noticed that all of them, dragons and men, had collars around their necks similar to Abigail’s.
They approached the wide outer walkway of that wall, and Abigail slowly lowered until she was hovering above the surface. Switching to Hastor’s eyes, he watched Abigail gently open her claws to release Bounder and Neeme onto the walkway.
Liveried men hurried forward to rope the beasts. Malem sent out calming commands to each of them, and Neeme stopped rearing long enough for the man to rope its neck. Bounder was more docile, thanks to Malem’s direct link to the creature, and accepted its own rope without issue. The men didn’t seem disturbed by the sight of the iguanid in the least. Then again, why would they be? They were surrounded by dragons…
The two men petted the flanks of the animals, their hands moving in calming motions; they whispered soothing words as they gently maneuvered the mounts away from the landing site.
Abigail touched down next, as did Hastor beside her. The other dragons joined them along the walkway—it was wide enough to fit three dragons abreast.
Abigail lowered her wing to form a ramp. Gwen scrambled down from Hastor and then climbed Abigail to join Malem. He untied Xaxia from his waist and Gwen helped him lower her down the ramp formed by Abigail’s wing. He moved carefully across the appendage, worried he would damage its delicate-seeming membrane, until finally, he reached the diamond-studded cobblestone below.
Another pair of liveried men came forward.
“Take her to the healer,” the platinum dragon said. The two men nodded, and started to take Xaxia from him.
“Wait—” Malem began.
“She’ll be safe,” Abigail interrupted.
He reluctantly ceded Xaxia and the men carried her away.
“Why are you soiling our precious city with this creature?” a gold dragon on guard duty asked. The big creature nodded toward the walkway, where the black was already leaving chunks of dirt on the diamond surface—the soil had fallen loose from Hastor’s talons.
“Whoops,” Hastor said.
The platinum next to Abigail addressed the gold. “The dirtying notwithstanding, don’t tell me you fear a lone black? What’s a lone Night Dragon going to do in a city of Metals? If the vermin tries anything, you have my full permission to perform an impromptu beheading.”
The gold wrinkled its nose in disgust, but then smiled thoughtfully. “I’d have to take it outside the city, first. Wouldn’t want its innards marring our walls now, would I? Can you imagine the clean-up?”
“Friendly folks, aren’t they?” Hastor said. “If a little germophobic.”
The dragons that escorted them began to change into human form. It was essentially the reverse of the process that had seen Abigail become a dragon in the first place, but happened in seconds. Wings and tails contracted, scales became skin, and bodies shrank until in moments, Malem was surrounded by muscular men and toned women. All of them quite naked, save for the collars around their necks, which had shrunk with them.
Abigail, too, began to revert to human form, her change taking place slower than the others, but still much faster than the last time. He only felt a short burst of pain from her energy bundle, rather than the prolonged agony that marked her last transformation. Soon her perfect naked body stood before him, and he found it impossible to take his eyes off her. The only thing marring her beauty was that collar, the one constant between both forms. The bouncing curls of her blond locks fell to her hips, which retained the same tight hourglass shape even without a dress. Her perfect breasts were only partially covered by that flowing hair, and he found himself wanting her all over again.
“Whoa,” Gwen said. Her eyes were focused between the legs of a muscular former dragon who had a particularly large package. “And I thought I was a good judge of horseflesh.” She licked her lips.
The former dragons ignored her. The man who was once the platinum approached the gold sentry that had remained in dragon form.
“Keep the black under guard at all times,” the man said. “It is not allowed to set foot in the keep, do you understand?”
“Perfectly,” the gold dragon said.
“You don’t transform, big guy?” Gwen asked Hastor, who was lurking nearby.
“I’m a real dragon,” Hastor replied.
“We’re real dragons, too,” Abigail said.
“Oh?” Hastor told her. “My brethren and I beg to differ.”
“He seems so polite now that we’ve got him surrounded by Metals,” Gwen commented.
“How far can you maintain control over it?” Abigail asked Malem.
The former platinum looked at him. “This is your doing?”
Malem decided to answer Abigail first. He found it hard to keep his eyes from wandering down to her naked breasts. Very hard. “For a newly broken creature it’s better if they stay close. So, about a mile. If we’re going inside the keep, Hastor will be well inside that range. Even if he breaks free of my hold, he won’t get far, not surrounded by Metals.” He turned toward the man. “And yes, this is my doing.”
The former platinum glanced at Abigail. “He is a Breaker, I assume? How is it possible, a Breaker, controlling a dragon?”
“It’s complicated, Henry,” Abigail told him.
Henry eyed him suspiciously, then took a walkway that branched away from the parapet and toward the gem-encrusted keep.
“This way,” Abigail said, following Henry.
The Metals escorted Malem and Gwen onto the shiny walkway while the liveried servants guided Bounder and Neeme behind them. He thought of these Metals as half dragons, because in his eyes, they were half human, and half dragon.
Felipe was peeking out from Malem’s collar, and staring in wonder at the glittering towers around them.
Malem hardly noticed the amazing towers and their jewels. He had eyes only for Abigail in front of him, specifically, her naked, swaying behind. He had the distinct impression she was swiveling those hips of hers for him.
“What are you looking at?” a thick voice from beside him said. It was one of the former dragons, of course.
Malem quickly averted his eyes, and pretended to be fascinated by the diamonds studding the walkway.
Looking over the barrier, he saw that the walkway cut above a courtyard where beautiful marble fountains depicted dragons in flight. Ahead, the path led to the upper levels of one of the towers.
From the tower, liveried servants emerged, carrying towels. They held the fabrics over the men and women, including Abigail, as they walked, and shielded their nakedness. Other servants handed them clothes so that they could dress while on the move. The different members paused occasionally to shrug on pants or a dress, but otherwise the advance continued mostly uninterrupted. When the servants lowered the towels, the men were dressed in knee-length, brightly colored tunics, and the women dresses. They walked barefoot, their feet apparently hardened to the sharp diamonds coating the floor. A couple of men and women had even managed to don the armor of dragon s
cales Malem had seen upon the walkway guards.
Abigail wore her usual red with the gold-trimmed bodice. She made a final adjustment to that bodice as she walked, setting her bosom firmly in place.
Henry whispered something in the ear of one of the servants, and the man bowed and promptly ran ahead. The other servants departed shortly after entering the keep. As they did so, Malem realized none of them showed up on his beast sense.
Humans, then.
He wondered if they were slaves of some kind. Then again, with all the luxury around them, maybe they were here willingly.
The inside of the keep was just as resplendent as the outside. Malem stood in a broad hall floored in cherrywood and walled in marble. The latter had swirls of blue and white intermingled with veins of silver. Long, gold-trimmed silk tapestries hung from the upper walls, as well as the rafters directly overhead, depicting dragons in various scenes of battle. Paintings and busts lined either side of the hall, some of men and women, others dragons. An exquisitely patterned rug led across the hall to an arched opening on the far side.
The servants in charge of Bounder and Neeme promptly led the animals down a side corridor.
“Your monkey, too, please,” a third servant said.
Felipe ducked from view underneath Malem’s jacket/robe combination.
“Where are you taking them?” Malem asked.
“The stables, of course,” the servant replied.
The man wasn’t wearing a collar, Malem noted. Nor were any of the other servants, now that he thought about it.
He glanced at Abigail, and she nodded. “Your animals will be in good care.”
He reached into his collar and reluctantly retrieved Felipe. The monkey gave him a sad look as he handed it over to the servant.
“There will be food,” Malem assured the little monkey. He glanced at the servant. “Right?”
“Of course,” the servant said. “We have quail eggs. Meat, whatever it needs. I can also have the kitchen cook up a special order just for the monkey.”
Malem glanced at Felipe. “You hear that? They’re going to cook up something just for you.”
