Frozen to the Core

by Paul Cude

  “That’s great,” observed the leader, thrusting out his hand.

  Slowly, the naga clearly in charge, much to the disappointment of all the others, slid gracefully up to Man’s father, and very gently grasped his hand and shook it.

  ‘Petty weaklings,’ was the leader’s first thought, still smiling diplomatically.

  Man had to force himself not to throw up.

  “Caaaannn I asssk whhheerree issss ouuurrr brrroootheeerr?”

  Quick as a flash, the leader responded, not a hint of betrayal evident.

  “He’s resting, your highness. Would you like us to take you to him?”

  “Thhhaaat wouuuld beeee pruuuudeeent.”

  “If you’d like to follow me.”

  Turning, the leader started to pace off in the direction of the remote enclave, his plan to get the group of them far from the stream’s entrance looking as though it had worked.

  Before he had a chance to take another step, the naga monarch twisted his upper body around to face two of the other guards.

  “Staaaay heeereee,” he ordered.

  Bowing the top halves of their snake-like bodies in obedience, the naga king turned and started to slither along in time with the dragon leader’s silent footsteps.

  Before they’d travelled even a metre, their honoured guest stopped, looking over across to his right up onto a small raised ridge.

  “Whaaaaat isssss thaaaatt?” he asked curiously.

  “Ahhh,” reflected their leader, playing up to the crowd. “That, your majesty, is one of our dragon captors who was trapped here when the explosives were ignited and blew the entrance out. He’s been our guest for as long as we’ve been here.”

  “I seeeeeee,” murmured the naga monarch thoughtfully.

  “Why isssss heeee iiiin thaaat staaaatee?”

  “He suffers regularly from delusions, still thinking that he resides back in the dragon domain with his friends and family. We’ve made him as comfortable as we can, but as you can imagine, he still presents a clear and present danger. We care for him, share our food with him, even try to counsel him, but during the course of time, none of it has done any good. He’s still prone to violent outbursts, still self harms, still his temper can change in the blink of an eye. One moment he’s quiet, sedate and sane, the next he can be thrashing about, cursing blue murder, trying to wreck the place. In all honesty, we don’t know what to do. With our magic contained by the cold, we have exhausted all possibilities. If you know of any other solution, we’d welcome your input. All we want is for him to be well and live out a happy and productive life with us.”

  Oh how the lies slip so easily off the tongue.

  “I wiiiilllll haaaaveee a thiiiiiiink. Maaaybee theeere’s soomethiiiiiing weee caaan dooo.”

  Striding away, the leader nodded, a smile flickering across his face as he would have expected it to do.

  As Man fell in time with the two of them, the squad of nagas slithering up behind them all, the naga monarch introduced himself.

  “Yooooouuuu maaaaay caaaaallllll meeee Vasuki,” he just about managed to get out, the words seeming to cause him a great deal of difficulty.

  “This is my son, Man,” the leader said proudly, clapping the young man on the shoulder. And you can refer to me as...”

  As they disappeared behind the rock wall, the noise carried off in the breeze.

  During the course of their journey, the leader showed them the magical hydroponic bays, announcing that only their best fruit and vegetables would be on show later for a feast to be held in their honour. The naga king seemed suitably impressed and flattered, as you would imagine. Across all of this, examples of just how hard they had to work to survive, and the drudgery of their population’s daily life was explained in graphic detail. From the expression on the king’s face, he was buying it all, hook, line and sinker. From there, the conversation moved on to their betrayal by the rest of the dragon domain, offering up the exact same account that he had to Marg, all those days ago. Of course he threw in some emotion, righteous anger, fury, sorrow and of course a deep held belief that he had to overturn a dastardly wrong that was somehow playing out right at this very minute, across the planet as a whole. Not only did their monarch believe it by the time he finished, but so did the bodyguards, to a being. It was a masterclass in deception, one any spy would have felt lucky to attend.

  Only moments from the remote enclave now, the nagas, distracted by the tale of fiction so passionately told by the leader, had neither noticed, or had chosen to subconsciously ignore, a build up of human shapes following in their wake. Given what was about to happen, that would prove costly.

  Turning a sharp corner beneath an icy overhang, the large contingent of beings opened out into the cavern that less than three hours ago had staged the mother of all battles (mother... get it again?!).

  As all the nagas piled in, the human shapes behind them crowded around the exit, preventing their escape.

  With the frozen cadaver of Marg the stunning centrepiece, the king turned to the leader of the outcast dragons.

  “Whaaaat issss theeee meaaaaaaaning oofff thiiiisss?”

  Arms raised in triumph, turning three hundred and sixty degrees, the leader stepped out in front of everybody, relishing the spotlight, soaking up every last ounce of what was going on.

  “The meaning, as you so politely put it, is that you’re all our prisoners, and you shall remain so until we’ve run out of demands.”

  “Yoooouuuur’eee kiiiiddding!” replied the naga king, flustered and completely off guard.

  “I’m afraid not,” declared the leader, more than a hint of menace ringing through his voice.

  Deep within his mind, Vasuki gave the order to all his guards. No second rate, stranded, encumbered by the cold dragons would ever hold him hostage! Little did he know.

  As one, the nagas sprang into action, igniting their unusual supernatural power, ready to give their all to save their monarch. Unfortunately for them, the dragon leader had already dished out his orders, and in a battle where who had the least scruples was probably going to win, in only a matter of moments they realised that losing was a very real prospect.

  Three nagas were taken out instantaneously from behind, before things had even kicked off, by Man’s father’s second in command and his two sidekicks that both had their magic returned to them. Simultaneously, a writhing mass of human shapes inundated the remaining nagas, scrambling over their tails, scaling their wriggling bodies, piercing their gills with needle sharp stalactites, listening in satisfaction as the painful gurgles echoed around the cavern. During all the mayhem and chaos a shimmering human shape had started to transform... MAN! Seemingly out of nowhere, a huge, matt black, prehistoric dragon, roaring cones of flame, shooting swelteringly hot balls of majestic fire indiscriminately into the crowd of overwhelmed nagas appeared, scaring the living hell out of the enemy’s fighting force. In their lives, they’d never seen anything like it.

  Interrupting Man’s vicious killing spree, a voice abruptly echoed around his mind.

  “Calm yourself. We need three or four of them, plus their king, alive if our plan is to have any chance of succeeding.”

  It was just about enough to put the brakes on things as far as he was concerned, the bigger picture of the price he would exact on the dragon domain, almost enough to focus on. And so, smashing their king to the ground, just as he’d started to unleash some kind of bright pink energy from the tips of his fingers, Man stomped one huge foot across his chest, and pinned him in place with his razor sharp talons. Seeing their monarch captured and defeated, the rest of the nagas gave in, some losing their lives, others captured, on a day that would be remembered in the annals of history as the start of the beginning of the end of the world.

  A few hours later, the start of the plan proper had been enacted. One of the nagas had been released, and told to find the rest of his kind with their demands. Sheepishly he’d licked his wounds and gone head first into the icy co
ld stream without hesitation, having fully memorised the dragon outcasts’ requirements for his monarch’s release. These included a way back to the mainland around the equator, heat, clothes, supplies, food, and a whole host of magical knowledge, including some of the most closely guarded supernatural naga secrets, in particular, some that the leader had stumbled upon on when breaking through Marg’s mind. Oddly, one of the demands was for ten sets of chains, and not just any chains, but ones used strictly to control outcasts and criminals, not that there were many of those in the ancient race’s society. Again something scavenged from Marg’s mind, they looked as though they’d do the job in restraining and containing not only the desperate dragon guard that had been here all those decades, but the naga king for the time being. And having spare sets wouldn’t hurt, after all, who knew what other potential prisoners they just might encounter? In all it was a successful negotiation, I say negotiation, in essence it was nothing of the sort. The demands were to be met otherwise their king died the most painful death.

  In the remote enclave, the naga monarch, surrounded by Man and two of the other dragon magic wielders, sat up against the far wall, having been told what the consequences would be of any attempt to escape or contact his race. So far he’d complied, but he did so only under duress and the thoughts of what would happen to those of his kin here left alive. He had no idea how many that was, but he knew some were still living and breathing, and since they’d pledged their lives to him all that time ago, and served him without thought up until now, that was the least he could do. Little did he know that his actions here and now, would cost his kind more than ever, possibly destroying everything he’d ever known.

  As the days turned into weeks, demands were met. A permanent guard was stationed by the edge of the stream, constantly on the lookout for an encroachment by the nagas, ready to repel a rescue attempt at a moment’s notice. Through the use of the nagas’ ancient and unusual power, the confines of the encampment were finally heated, allowing all the remaining dragon residents access to their magical powers, thus making their force stronger, and the naga king’s position weaker. Food and clothes were procured; magic was either shared or taken forcefully. When the chains finally arrived, the dragon guard formerly known as Unlucky was strung up first. Jeered and cheered by onlookers as the strength and magic sapping restraints took effect, over the course of the last few weeks, he’d barely been fed and now looked like a ‘Bag O Bones’, a name that captured the imagination and stuck. Along the frozen wall from him, the naga king was acquainted with the chains, much to his disgust and surprise. The leader thought this deliciously ironic, something that pleased him greatly. As all this took shape, and efforts to get them back to the mainland around the equator were put into effect, father and son met up late one night to make good on the conditions that Man had stipulated in return for his help.

  “Are you sure about this?” asked the leader, knowing that there was no going back. “Although I fully understand, it’s a cruel and very permanent thing to do.”

  “You’ve taught us our history... I want it done. It’s nothing more than he deserves.”

  Nodding, the leader continued walking alongside his son, the one with the deluge of power and magic, not the halfwit outcast with which he had little truck.

  “If that’s your decision, then it will be made so, as long as you realise the consequences.”

  “I do,” uttered Man, his mind elsewhere, somewhere back where he considered the betrayal to have begun.

  Rounding a corner, they approached the wall where the prisoners had been restrained by the magical chains, not far from the edge of the ever gurgling stream.

  There, kicking and beating the weathered old dragon with a huge chunk of metal, was Josh, his hair filthy and dank, still dressed in his ragged scraps of cloth, looking much the worse for wear. Immediately on seeing his father and brother, he stopped, almost standing to attention.

  “I see you’ve developed a playful side,” quipped his father.

  Nobody laughed. After a short, awkward silence, his father once again spoke. All the time Josh’s pain ridden eyes pleaded with his brother, to be given one last chance. Man just looked on in disgust, barely even registering his brother’s presence.

  “A decision has been made,” announced the leader between the three of them.

  Man just looked stoically on. Josh’s hands shook uncontrollably. Addressing Josh, his father continued.

  “As you know, any form of betrayal, no matter how small, cannot be tolerated in dragon society. Normally if such a thing is proved, that particular individual is either cast out, or in some cases is sentenced to the death penalty.”

  A tiny whine of fear squeaked out from between Josh’s lips. The leader continued.

  “With what’s happened here, both could apply.”

  Silence, apart from the grumbling of the stream surrounded all of them.

  “Leniency though, has been applied,” their father continued. “From here on in, you shall be commanded to stay here and guard the prisoners as though your life depended upon it. Do you understand?”

  Josh nodded fervently.

  “As well, as an added deterrent for anyone else, you shall suffer one of the most disdainful and embarrassing fates of all dragons. Your name will be changed to add in the ‘IM’ suffix that over the course of time has come to signify that of a traitor or a dragon who can’t be trusted. From now until the end of your days, you will be known as JOSHIM, and you will only answer to that. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes,” squeaked Josh, grateful not to be receiving the death penalty.

  “Our business here is concluded. You will watch over these two until you are ordered to do otherwise. At some point in the future, others may join them. Make sure you are ready.”

  “I will, I will.”

  Turning away without looking back, both the leader and his son stalked the edge of the wall before cutting back along the other side of it and headed for their chambers, eager to feel the newfound warmth they offered.

  “You know I love you Man, son,” prompted his father, Troydenn.

  “I know. I love you too Father.”

  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the story of evil personified. If you’d like to see how it fits in to the greater good of the main series of books, why not pick up A Threat From The Past and start your rollercoaster journey into a world of fresh, original Young Adult Fantasy.

  Other books in the series:

  A Threat from the Past

  A Chilling Revelation

  A Twisted Prophecy

  Earth's Custodians

  A Fiery Farewell (coming soon)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Paul Cude is a husband, father, field hockey player and aspiring photographer. Lost without his hockey stick, he can often be found in between writing and chauffeuring children, reading anything from comics to sci-fi, fantasy to thrillers. Too often found chained to his computer, it would be little surprise to find him, in his free time, somewhere on the Dorset coastline, chasing over rocks and sand in an effort to capture his wonderful wife and lovely kids with his camera. Paul Cude is also the author of the Bentwhistle the Dragon series of books.

  Thank you for reading.....

  If you could take a couple of moments to write a review, it would be much appreciated.

  Connect with Paul online:

  www.paulcude.com

  Twitter: @paul_cude

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