Hard Times in Dragon City

by Matt Forbeck

  I smelled brimstone coming from somewhere, and I spotted smoke curling out of the dragonet’s nostrils. I reached up and stroked his head again. “It’s all right,” I said to him in soothing tones. “They’re just doing their job.”

  The creature arched his head into my hand as its growl transformed into a purr once again, but it continued to cast a wary eye at the guards who’d manhandled me. I sighed in relief. The last thing I wanted was to be caught in a firefight between the Guard and a dragon of any size.

  I tried to process everything packed into the last thing Yabair had said. One phrase stuck out, and I repeated it. “‘Young prince’?”

  Yabair gave me a vicious smirk. “How many dragons do you know of around here, Gibson? Whose offspring do you think that is?”

  The answer was clear, of course, but I’d avoided thinking about it much until that moment. I’d hoped I could just turn the beast over to the Guard, explain everything as best I could, and go on my merry way.

  “Tell me,” Yabair said. “How do you think this is going to end well?”

  “Can’t I just give him back?” I have to admit, I looked between the dragonet’s legs, but I didn’t see a thing other than the creature’s tale. I still couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl, but I was willing to go with Yabair’s judgment on this one.

  “It doesn’t work like that, Gibson. Imprinting is automatic and permanent. The Dragon Emperor will not be pleased.”

  I groaned, and the dragonet leaned in to lick my cheek again, which sent me into convulsions. I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to that.

  “Can’t we consult with some of the wizards in the Academy?” I said. “There has to be a way to wipe the slate clean on this, right?”

  Yabair shook his head in a way that made me think he was secretly enjoying watching me squirm. “Dragons are the most magical creatures on the planet. They’re rare beasts, and they don’t often permit study by any other than their own kind. I have put in a request with the dean of the Academy, but I don’t expect to get much more out of them than bewilderment at how someone could let this kind of thing happen.”

  My stomach sank. “So what do we do now?”

  Yabair grunted. “Now? Now, my dear mother figure, we take the young prince to meet his father. The Dragon Emperor is waiting.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  I’d never been in the Imperial Palace before. For one, it sat on top of the mountain’s highest peak, which meant it wasn’t on my way to anything else. You didn’t just happen to wander by the Imperial Palace and decide to pop in for a visit. You had to go there on purpose.

  I’d spent a good chunk of my life making sure that any crimes I might commit wouldn’t bring me to the level of being worthy of the Dragon Emperor’s attention. For people like me, that proved fatal in the vast majority of cases, and I had developed a strong aversion to death by immolation in the Dragon Emperor’s legendary flames.

  For another thing, it was damn cold at the top of the mountain. Word was that the Dragon Emperor lived there because he ran so hot that he’d melt any other part of the city that he spent much time in. I’d seen him in parades before — at a very safe distance — which seemed to put the lie to that, but I couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t just used magic to protect the rest of the city from his glowing heat for the duration of those events.

  Yabair escorted me personally to the Imperial Palace. We flew up there on the back of a griffin, a first for me. “The Dragon Emperor tends to disrupt enchantments by his very presence,” the Captain of the Guard explained to me. “This is far safer, and faster too.”

  The dragonet didn’t seem to agree. He clung to me so hard that his talons pierced my jacket and shirt and scratched my flesh beneath. While I gazed around and took in the view, he buried his face in my chest and squeezed his eyes closed tight. I was too busy clutching the saddle on the griffin to worry too much about it.

  The air grew even thinner as the griffin flapped its way into the sky. The creature brought us far above even the Imperial Palace, and then began to spiral down toward it. From there, I could see the entirety of the city for the first time in my life, as well as the dark side of the mountain, and the wild landscape beyond.

  From our greatest height, the Imperial Palace didn’t look like much. From the outside, all you could see of most of it was the Grand Balcony on which the Dragon Emperor supposedly sunned himself and watched down over us all. I had never considered much whether that was true or not, but it stood empty now except for a line of elite elf guards stationed along the balcony’s edge.

  We set down in the middle of the Grand Balcony, and Yabair gave me a hand down. I didn’t for a moment fool myself into thinking he did it out of concern for me. He just wanted to make sure I didn’t slip off the griffin and crush the dragonet underneath me.

  Most of the guards ignored us, but a pair of them marched out of the main entrance that let out onto the balcony, their red-tipped spears at the ready. I suspected they were only meant to be ceremonial weapons, but I hated to think what it would be like to wind up on the other end of them. They saluted Yabair and then spun on their heels and marched back into the mountain through the entrance.

  Yabair followed them, and I didn’t need to be invited to go chasing right after him. I wasn’t about to be caught out here in the open with the dragonet attached to my chest.

  The entrance stood a hundred feet high and led directly into the Dragon Emperor’s lair. The top of the mountain had been carved out to accommodate him, creating a vast chamber decorated from one end to the other in priceless gems and precious metals. Toward the back of it, a great mound of treasure had been heaped upon a golden dais, and the Dragon Emperor slumbered atop it.

  I don’t think I’d ever felt so exposed in my life as when Yabair and I followed those guards across that vast, open space. As we grew closer to the Dragon Emperor, I could feel waves of heat radiating off him, and I hoped we wouldn’t have to get too close to him for this.

  The Dragon Emperor himself looked like a much larger version of the dragonet. I’d never been this close to him before, and from here I could see that his scales shimmered with heat, warping the air around him. His gold and red hues shifted so much I realized that his scales weren’t simply iridescent. They were actually burning.

  The Dragon Emperor’s flames smoldered all around him, and the coins upon which he rested glowed red from his heat. He lay there curled atop his treasure trove, his eyes closed, and his breathing steady, sounding like gigantic bellows stoking his fires. I had no illusion, however, that he was asleep.

  An elf arose from a golden throne to the Dragon Emperor’s right and approached us. He wore robes that burned in the same way as the Dragon Emperor’s scales, and his hair had long since been scorched from his head. Despite his lack of hair — or perhaps because of it — he looked old, something I’d never thought of an elf before.

  As the elf in the fiery robes approached, Yabair fell to one knee. When he noticed that I’d failed to follow suit, he hissed at me and said, “You are in the presence of your Emperor. Kneel.”

  I shook my head and held the dragonet closer to my chest. “I’ll die on my feet, if it’s all the same to you.”

  Yabair gaped at me in horror and disgust. I thought he might stand up and knock me down, but he clearly didn’t feel comfortable leaving his knee yet. Plus, there was the dragonet on my chest to be careful of. So he just steamed at me instead and left me to my fate.

  The elf in the burning robes approached me with no expression I could read on his face. “I am the Voice of the Dragon,” he said. “The Emperor’s words are my own.”

  I felt like I should stick out my hand, but I was sure he wouldn’t shake it. “My name is Max Gibson,” I said, trying to keep any tremor of fear from my voice. I readjusted the dragonet on my chest, and the little guy nuzzled his snout against my neck again. “And I believe this belongs to you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  The Voic
e of the Dragon did not smile. He glared at me with the most intense eyes I’d ever seen. They were blue flecked with glowing bits of red that maybe were just a reflection from his burning robes.

  “The Emperor wishes to know how you came by the egg from which this dragonet was hatched.” His voice felt like a low growl of barely restrained energy. It didn’t feel hostile yet, but I could see how it could move in that direction in a heartbeat.

  “I recovered it from a friend who found it at the scene of a crime.”

  The Voice glanced at Yabair, who remained one one knee. “Is this the slaughter you spoke of?”

  “It is,” Yabair said, not meeting the Voice’s gaze. I’d never seen him so diffident. “We did not have time to bring him before the truthsayers though to verify his story.”

  The Voice looked me up and down. “He speaks true.”

  I unclenched a bit when I heard that. I hadn’t said anything untrue, but if the Voice wanted me dead, he didn’t have to do much more than label me a liar.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” I said.

  I hefted the dragonet closer to my left shoulder so that he could turn and see the Voice before him and his father beyond. The flames on the Voice’s robe intrigued the dragonet. He stared at them in rapt fascination, only tearing his eyes away from it to steal glances at the Dragon Emperor beyond.

  “But happen it did,” the Voice said, his voice growing even deeper, “and we must now deal with the consequences.”

  I looked the Voice square in the eyes and found that my mouth had gone dry. I swallowed hard. “And how do you plan to do that?”

  The Voice let loose a rumbling chuckle. “Your life is not in peril here, human. I remember your ancestor Gib well, and for his sake alone I would give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  I hadn’t ever heard a whole lot about my family’s namesake — at least not from my family — just whispers and rumors and the occasional holiday toast in his memory. I reminded myself to track down my father for a long chat about the history of our the next chance I got. If the Dragon Emperor owed my family any kind of respect, much less a full-blown favor, I wanted to know about it.

  “So then what’s the plan?”

  “I had not wished to hatch this egg — or any of them — so soon. The easy solution would be to eliminate it.”

  I found myself putting my arms around the dragonet. Despite how clean it would be, that wasn’t a solution I relished. I glanced around the place for a way out. If I moved fast, I might be able to make it to the griffin before anyone realized what I was doing. If I could kick the thing into the air, maybe I could get away.

  That depended on a lot of things, though, not the least of which was whether or not the Dragon Emperor would rouse himself to go after me, in which case I’d be dead before I started. Even without him coming after me, I’d have the whole of the Guard on my tail in an instant. My only hope would be to make for the dark side of the mountain and try to lose myself in the wild back there.

  That would add up to a short and terrifying life for me, I knew. The Guard wouldn’t rest until they found me — unless the undead hordes out there found me first.

  Still, could I just let them take the dragonet from me and murder him in his crib?

  “However,” the Voice of the Dragon said, “perhaps it is finally time for me to start thinking about an heir. It has been a long time since I’ve heard the flap of little wings, and it would be good to know it again.”

  I stared at the Voice. “So you’re not going to kill him?”

  The Voice paused for a moment, his eyes cast to one side as if he was listening for something. Then he opened his mouth and said one word. “No.”

  I looked down at the dragonet. He seemed to understand. He started crawling up my chest and slinking around my shoulders. His sharp little talons hurt where they poked through my jacket and shirt, but I put up with it and managed to not yelp in pain.

  I looked past the Voice at the Dragon Emperor himself. He hadn’t so much as twitched his tail since I’d been there. “Then what’s Plan B?”

  “We will take the dragonet in and raise him here,” the Voice said. “As the one upon whom he has imprinted, you will be awarded the privilege of visiting him no less than once a week to keep him in high spirits.”

  “Privilege?” I wasn’t sure I would have called it that.

  “You will be given means of transportation to and from the Imperial Palace, and you will be granted access to the palace as well. Captain Yabair will work out the details with you and will serve as your liaison with the palace.”

  “Me?” Yabair spluttered as he started to rise to his feet but then thought better of it when he caught the Voice glaring down at him. He went back down and bowed his head. “I do not question the wisdom of the Dragon Emperor’s decision, but I would appreciate it if more of it could be revealed to me.”

  “You have an existing relationship with this human, do you not?”

  “Relationship’s kind of a strong word,” I said. No one laughed.

  I went back to stroking the dragonet’s head. The creature had curled itself around my shoulders in a way I couldn’t imagine was comfortable for him but which I didn’t mind a bit. He gave off enough warmth this way to help me ward off the chill in this stark, frigid place.

  The Voice turned back to me once more. “Despite the inconvenient circumstances, we recognize the service you have done to the Dragon Empire by returning to us what was once lost. You shall be spared, and all complaints the Empire may have against you shall be set aside.”

  I smirked down at Yabair. Seeing me get handed a free pass like that must have grated on him, but he did his best not to show it. If not for that little vein pulsing over his temple, I might never have known.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  The Voice put his arms out for the dragonet. The creature gave me a hesitant look, but I shrugged him in the elf’s direction. The dragonet had been staring at the Voice’s burning robes for so long, fascinated with them, that it didn’t take too much coaching.

  My shoulders were relieved to have the dragonet no longer clawing its way across them, but I felt naked without him around me. The chill of the altitude bit into me hard, and I realized that I could now be incinerated in an instant without any risk of harm to the Dragon Emperor’s offspring. I wondered if I’d given him up too easily.

  Yabair rose and turned to leave. I didn’t follow him. The Voice arched a singed eyebrow at me.

  “Is there anything else?” he asked.

  “I do have one last — ah, additional — request.”

  The Voice inclined his head at me. Behind him, the Dragon Emperor grumbled in his sleep. It shook the walls and floor of the palace like rolling thunder.

  “Yes?”

  I steeled myself for a response far worse than a simple no. “I’d like to deal with the people I got the egg from myself.”

  The Voice squinted at me, and I swear the red in his eyes flared. I wasn’t sure much of the elf was left inside his head at that moment. I thought maybe he’d breathe fire at me himself.

  “Granted,” the Voice said. Then he spun on his heel and returned to his golden throne at the Dragon Emperor’s right claw.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  I had Yabair drop me off at the Sanguigno estate. It was getting late in the day again, and the sun was starting to roll back behind the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant hues of orange and red. Yabair wasn’t thrilled about working as my taxi service, but he seemed able to console himself with how much of a mess I’d just made of my life.

  “Your fate is now intertwined with that of the Dragon Emperor,” he said. “His heir is your responsibility. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about you for long.”

  “Hey, it’s not like the dragonet’s moving in with me,” I said. “Not that I have a place to live at the moment anyhow. They just asked me to poke my head into the palace every once and a while.”

  “The Dragon Emperor doe
s not make requests,” Yabair said as he eased the griffin down through the sky toward Bellezza’s family’s estate. “He issues orders, and they are followed.”

  “And if I don’t feel like asking how high when he says to jump?”

  He glanced back at me. “I never took you for being that stupid.”

  We rode the rest of the way in silence.

  I’d had a hard time getting away from the dragonet in the end. As soon as he’d figured out I was leaving, he’d started to protest, mewling and growling and scratching at anyone who tried to hold him down. The Voice had been forced to order the guards to restrain the young prince with ropes, and I’d been hustled out of there before my presence could make it any worse.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole thing. I’d spent much of the past decade trying to avoid making any more attachments. I was too damn busy living down the ones I already had. I didn’t really have the urge to help raise a dragon who would outlive me by centuries and would still be the equivalent of a squalling toddler when I was a doddering old man.

  Still, I found I didn’t mind being needed. I don’t know if you’d call what the dragonet felt for me love, but whatever it was, he felt it unconditionally. I liked that.

  Going to Bellezza’s house put my relationship with the dragonet in stark contrast. The elf had shattered my heart and danced on the shards. Much as I hated to admit it, she’d made me useless for other women. No matter who they might be or how beautiful they were or how they might feel about me, none of them could ever hold a candle to Belle. They were all wisps of smoke in comparison to her.

  Elves sometimes had that effect on humans. It was one reason — or so they claimed — they preferred to live apart from us.