‘You alright?’ he said. He frowned for a moment. ‘You were in the common room this morning, aye?’
‘Yeah, I was there. My name’s Maddie Jackdaw.’
‘Corthie,’ said a grim-looking man to his right. ‘The armoury’s waiting for us.’
The champion nodded. ‘I’d better go. You live here, aye? I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.’
He turned, and the group of Wolfpack soldiers strode away across the forecourt.
She raised her hand. ‘Bye.’
Maddie had been cleaning the dark lair for over three hours, and the dragon hadn’t uttered a single word to her. It stared instead; its blood-red eyes, with thin, vertical pupils as black as her hide, followed her as she scrubbed the walls to remove the layers of soot and grime. Maddie tried to avoid the cold stare, unsure if it meant the dragon was testing her, or merely wanted to rip her head off and eat her.
The scrubbing brush slipped under her fingers, and her thumb bent back.
‘Ow,’ she cried, dropping the brush and clasping her thumb.
A low, almost inaudible laugh echoed from the beast.
‘You think that’s funny, do you?’
‘I think you should pay more attention to your work, little insect; you stink of fear.’
‘I’m not afraid of you.’
‘You’re a very bad liar, little insect; I’ve noticed this about you. Is that why they sent you to me? The deceitful world of the two-legged rejected you for not fitting in? Your kind has raised lying to an art form, and if one isn’t proficient in deception, then they are of no use to the others. Is that what happened to you?’
Maddie flexed her thumb. ‘So I get nothing from you in hours, and then you come out with that? We’re all liars, and I must be a bad one?’
‘You are a bad one.’
‘I don’t know about that; I did a pretty good job of lying to my family earlier this evening.’
The dragon chuckled. ‘This rather proves my point about your kind. Tell me, little insect, what untruths did you feel it necessary to use against your own blood?’
Maddie picked up the brush. ‘I’m not allowed to talk about you.’
‘Of course, I should have guessed. I am the dirty little secret that shames the hearts of those who know the truth. A mighty queen such as I, imprisoned within a filthy dungeon, her wings cramped and aching from lack of space, her mind tormented by unceasing tedium and fetid air.’ Her eyes were glowing with rage. ‘Is it any wonder that I have lashed out at the insects they send to mop my floors? I should have courtiers; instead, I have you.’
Maddie shook her head as she resumed scrubbing. She was terrified of the beast, but her curiosity was, as it had been throughout her life, stronger than her fear.
‘You used to be a queen?’
A blast of fire roared out, and Maddie threw herself to the filthy flagstones as the flames swept a yard over her head, the heat roasting her back. She panted, her body shaking in terror as she turned to face the dragon. Blackrose had raised her head as high as the lair would allow, and she was gazing down at Maddie with hatred welling in her red eyes.
‘I am still a queen, you disgusting insect,’ she said, her voice filling the large chamber.
Maddie scrambled up, her back to the blackened wall. ‘Would it help if I called you, “your Highness”?’
The dragon stared at her, then began to laugh, a cruel sound that made Maddie clasp her hands to her ears. She settled her head back down again, the rage in her eyes dimming a little.
‘And would you bow to me, little insect, and sing my praises like a good courtier should?’
Maddie scanned the ground for the scrubbing brush. She saw it and sighed. The flames had reduced the thick bristles to ash, and the handle was nothing more than a charred lump of wood.
‘No,’ she said, standing and wiping ash from her clothes. ‘A good courtier should be brave enough to tell their sovereign the truth, regardless of the consequences.’
The dragon glared at her. ‘As I have already said, your kind knows little about the truth, except how to pervert it.’
‘But I haven’t lied to you.’
Blackrose laughed, then fixed the young woman with her eyes. Maddie felt a fleeting pain pass through her mind.
‘What did you do to me?’
‘A little test, for a little insect.’
‘It hurt.’
‘The truth does, sometimes.’
‘The truth?’
‘Yes. I have gone into your weak little mind, and made it impossible for you to lie.’
‘What? But.. I need to… What about my oath?’
‘It’ll wear off soon, you foolish creature, but note how panicked you became at the very notion that you would not be able to lie. Right, let’s begin. What frightens you most, little insect?’
Maddie opened her mouth to say ‘the greenhides’, but something else came out.
‘Being trapped in the Bulwark. Being a Blade, which means I can’t leave the defence of the walls, ever.’
‘Now we’re getting somewhere,’ said the dragon. ‘What are your true feelings towards this noble City of yours?’
‘I hate it. The Rosers, the Sanders, and all the rest of them. They sit behind the Middle Walls, and forget that we’re even here. They live their lives in peace, and never have to think about what happens every day in the Bulwark. They’re cowards, and our sacrifices are wasted on them.’
She blushed as she said the words, but couldn’t help herself, and she heard Blackrose laugh again.
‘Good,’ the dragon said. ‘Tell me more; what do you think should be done to these cowards?’
‘I would have them swap places with the Blades; and the poor Scythes and Hammers, and make them defend the Great Walls for a change; see how they like it. Then the three tribes of the Bulwark could live in the palaces and mansions of Auldan, and rest; and maybe we’d be able to forget about the greenhides for a while, just like they do now.’
’I see you are fired by injustice,’ the dragon said, ‘but sentiment alone will never achieve your dreams. You rail against unfairness, but are a willing accomplice in the iniquities you so despise. In other words, you are a hypocrite. Do you admit it?’
She hung her head. ‘Yes.’
‘I sense you hate me, little insect, but I am only allowing that which lies within your heart to rise to the surface. Does it not feel good to tell the truth for once?’
‘No, it feels terrible.’
‘This is no surprise to me; in fact it confirms everything I’ve been saying about your kind. You fear and loathe the truth, and depend upon your lies to survive. Like insects with two legs instead of six, your species is worthless. You swarm over every world you inhabit, destroying and polluting everything with your towns and cities. This is the first world I’ve seen where that is not the case. Here, you are confined, walled in; assailed by forces you cannot defeat. Tell me one more thing; in your darkest moments, do you not sometimes wish the greenhides would break through the Great Walls? At least then, the endless struggle and suffering would end, and those cowards you were talking about would finally realise how much you had done for them over centuries of strife. Do you not long for that, sometimes?’
Maddie tried to clench her mouth shut, but her lips refused to obey. ‘Yes.’
She burst into tears as the dragon laughed. She didn’t really believe that, did she? Was it a truth buried so deep within her that she had never acknowledged it, or was the dragon trying to trick her? The thought of the greenhides breaching the walls was a common nightmare of her youth, no doubt one shared by many in the Bulwark; surely she didn’t long for it. That would make her a monster.
‘Your tears prove your weakness, little insect,’ Blackrose said; ‘don’t try to hide who you truly are; embrace the dark corners of your mind, where your twisted fantasies lie. You are sick, little insect, vile and sick, but I can help.’
Maddie wiped her face. ‘How?’
The
dragon stretched her neck, until her head was a yard away from Maddie, and she could feel the beast’s breath on her face. ‘I can end your pain, if you want me to. I know you want me to, I can feel it. You hate yourself; you loathe your miserable, unfulfilling life; you desire the slaughter of everyone you know.’
Maddie stared at the dragon; the beast’s eyes holding her in their deep gaze.
‘Speak the truth, little insect; you want it to end, don’t you?’
‘I… I…’
‘You want to embrace the darkness, where there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more greenhides.’ Her head moved closer, her jaws starting to open, the rows of teeth gleaming in the lamplight. ‘Say it. Say but one word, and I will ease you from this life of misery.’
Maddie felt her will crumble. The dragon was right. What did she have to live for? She would be as well to end it all now, and find some peace. Peace.
‘I…’
‘Stop!’ cried a voice. ‘Blackrose, get back from the girl. Now.’
Maddie blinked as if a spell had been broken. Blackrose turned to Hilde, who was standing by the gate of the lair, and let out a long peal of harsh laughter.
Hilde ran over, and shoved Maddie behind her. ‘I’ve told you about this before,’ she yelled, pointing into the dragon’s face.
‘What’s all the fuss?’ said Blackrose. ‘I was only trying to help the little insect.’
‘Yeah? The way you “helped” my other assistants?’
‘Not all of them. Some I incinerated due to a variety of objectionable personality traits. This latest one is so consumed by her own fears and doubts, that I felt it would a be mercy to eat her.’
Maddie said nothing as tears spilled down her cheeks. Shame was burning inside at what the dragon had made her admit. She had thought that it would be her deepest fears that would have left her exposed, not her deepest desires.
Hilde took her hand, glared at the dragon, then led Maddie from the vast chamber. They squeezed through the small door in the gate, and Hilde closed and locked it behind them. Maddie let Hilde escort her to the office, where the officer placed her into a chair. She rummaged in the drawer of a desk and withdrew a bottle. She rubbed a few marks from a couple of glasses, and filled them.
‘Here,’ she said, handing Maddie a glass; ‘drink this.’
Maddie’s fingers trembled as she raised the glass to her lips and took a sip.
Hilde sat opposite her. ‘I knew she’d do that to you sooner or later; it’s an old trick of hers.’
‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
‘What difference would it have made? The truth is the truth; there’s no dressing it up. What did she make you admit to? Wait, actually, I don’t want to know. We are weak creatures; she’s right about that, and our minds are full of contradictions. It’s possible to love and hate the same person at the same time, for example. Do you see what I mean?’
Maddie shook her head.
‘Look,’ said Hilde, leaning closer; ‘the truth about, say, an event is clear cut, right? Either it happened or it didn’t, yeah? What about feelings and emotions? They’re also true, but not in the same way. A brother punches you as a child and you want to kill him at that moment; does that mean you’re a murderer, or capable of becoming one? Of course not. Anger and fear drive our emotions to dark places sometimes, and that’s what Blackrose is playing on. She knows us better than we know ourselves. What I’m trying to say is that whatever she made you admit to, it doesn’t define you.’
‘She’s done this to you as well, hasn’t she?’
Hilde smiled. ‘Many times. I once told her that my deepest desire was to kill Duke Marcus, after he had been particularly unpleasant one day. Another time I admitted that I’d rather Blackrose hadn’t been born at all; I was lucky to get out of her lair alive that day. It’s been a few years though, since she’s tried it on me. I probably bore her now; she’s heard everything I have to say.’
Maddie wiped her face again, embarrassed that she had broken down. ‘Apart from the ones who refused to come back, did she kill the rest of your assistants?’
‘Yes. Half of them begged her to, after she’d forced them to divulge their darkest desires. The other half, as she said, just annoyed her. So, what’s it to be? I won’t hold it against you if you refuse to go back in there.’
‘But then I’ll be sent to the Rats.’
‘So? The Auxiliary Work Company is filled with damn heroes, in my opinion. The infantry may take bets on how many of the Rats will survive each night, but deep down they know it’s a job that requires as much courage as that of the Wolfpack. To calmly operate those cranes in silence every night, knowing that the slightest noise could mean their deaths? I won’t have a word spoken against the Rats in my presence, understand?’
Maddie narrowed her eyes. The captain was the first person she had met to show any respect to the most hated company of soldiers on the wall.
‘Well?’ said Hilde. ‘Are you staying or going?’
‘I don’t know.’
The captain nodded. ‘Alright, you’ve made it through your third night, because no matter what you decide, I’m not sending you back in there for the rest of your shift. Despite her belligerence, Blackrose hates being left alone, and I want to punish her for what she did to you.’
‘Me not being there would punish her?’
‘Of course. The fact that you’re still here, and still alive is a good sign. Let’s allow her to assume that you’ve run away in terror. When she sees you tomorrow, she might be a bit prickly, but deep down, I know she’ll be glad you’re back.’ She smiled. ‘That’s if you decide to come back; it’s up to you.’
‘What is the aim?’
Hilde frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Long-term, what’s the plan? Do we just look after Blackrose in her lair forever, or are we trying to achieve something else?’
‘You’re a bright girl, Maddie. No other assistant has ever asked me that question. I’ll tell you the answer because I want you to stay; I see something in you that makes me hope you do. This falls under the same oath you swore not to tell anyone about what you’re doing; no one else must hear these words; do you understand?’
Maddie nodded.
‘Duke Marcus wants Blackrose to fight, just as Buckler does. She refuses, that’s why she’s locked up down here in the depths of Arrowhead. My job, ultimately, is to try to persuade her to drop her objections, and to get her back in the air.’
‘Why does she refuse?’
‘You must have heard her talk about us. “Two-legged insects”, and all that nonsense. She hates us. I still don’t really understand why.’
‘She used to be a queen.’
Hilde’s eyes widened. ‘She’s told you that already? Yes, she was a queen once, or so she says; I have no way of verifying it.’
‘I want to know,’ said Maddie; ‘I can’t help it; I want to know everything about her. She scares me, and I don’t want to play the truth game with her ever again, but I can’t bear the thought of not knowing more. If I walk away, I’ll never find out if she really was a queen, or what her realm was like.’
‘So curiosity is winning out over terror?’
Maddie smiled. ‘For now. Alright, I’ll stay.’
Chapter 8
Conrad’s Birthday
Tara, Auldan, The City – 11th Montalis 3419
Daniel sighed as he watched the sunset from the veranda of the regiment’s Junior Officers’ Club. He had his feet up on a low railing, and a glass of gin flavoured with citrus resting in his hand. The blossom on the trees had gone, and the leaves were a rich, luscious green. Between the neat rows of trunks, he had a glorious view of Warm Bay, the wind-clipped surface of the water reflecting the peaches and pinks from the darkening sky.
‘This is what we joined up for, eh boys?’ said Todd as he reclined on the wooden chair next to him.
‘Yeah,’ said Daniel, ‘maybe the military life isn’t so bad after all.�
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‘I’m bored,’ said Gaimer, from Daniel’s right. ‘I thought we’d be seeing some action.’
Daniel disagreed. Strongly. His relationship with his friend was only beginning to recover from the incident at the dance reception, so instead of voicing his objections, he nodded along.
‘What action?’ said Todd, raising an eyebrow. ‘The City’s been at peace for three hundred years.’
‘Not a war,’ said Gaimer; ‘nothing quite so extreme. A moderate uprising, perhaps, that would pitch us against one of the more backward tribes.’
‘Which one?’ Todd said. ‘There are a lot to choose from.’
Gaimer laughed. ‘Never a truer word spoken. Those bandy-legged thugs that inhabit the Circuit; I’d like a go at them. Or those filthy peasants in Outer Pella; force them all to take a bath in the Inner Bay while we sit on the beach.’
Daniel shook his head, but continued to keep his mouth shut. Negotiations with Clarine’s family were at a very delicate stage, and his mother would go wild if he endangered them by getting into a row with one of her relatives.
‘I don’t know why you care,’ said Todd. ‘So long as they stay in their slums and leave the good folk of Tara unmolested, then why should I give a moment’s thought to what the lower orders get up to?’
‘Their tribal territories are nests of crime and corruption.’
‘And?’ said Todd. He glanced at Daniel. ‘Come on, Danny, back me up here.’
‘I’m not getting involved.’
Gaimer turned his glare onto him. ‘It’s a simple enough proposition. Tara has the best trained and equipped militia in the City. The choice is – should they sit in their barracks and watch the pretty sunset each evening, or should they actually be used? With the resources at Tara’s disposal, our regiments could root out the gangs and crooks that infest the slums, and restore order to the more… feckless tribes.’
Daniel frowned. ‘Have the other tribes asked us to intervene?’
‘What does that matter? Do you wait for a diseased limb to ask for help before you cut it off?’
The Mortal Blade: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Magelands Eternal Siege Book 1) Page 11
