The Dragon's Woman

by Alix Nichols

  Five minutes later, he was back in the room where he’d woken up this morning. He slumped down on the pallet, pushing the tray with food and water to the side. Despite his exhaustion, Geru wasn’t hungry. He felt no rage, not even anger—righteous or otherwise—even though he knew he should.

  All he felt was emptiness.

  10

  Geru’s two most hated people in the world stood next to his bed in the facility’s hospital wing and talked about him as if he weren’t there.

  As if I were dead already. Which he likely would be soon, considering.

  “Do you think we’re working him too hard?” Horbell asked Chev. “Have you tried increasing his recovery times and spacing out the training sessions?”

  Chev’s voice was grave. “That’s exactly what I’ve done the last two weeks, Your Grace. The problem is, he won’t feed.”

  “Even in his dragon form?”

  “Even then. I can make him fight, but for some reason I can’t make him eat.”

  Ah, the dragon thing again.

  Geru had been called that so many times over the last three weeks and by so many people that he was beginning to think there must be something to it. Was he a rich-blood? Was he a shifter whose “alt shape,” as Chev and his people called it, resembled a dragon in its ferocity? Dragons were a myth, but was it possible he transformed to a giant lizard when he turned?

  And why couldn’t he recall any of it?

  “Well, force-feed him then,” Horbell said.

  “That’s what we’ve been doing these past three days.”

  Geru felt a gentle tug on one of the tubes the nurse had attached to him. He struggled to open his eyes to see who was pulling, but it turned out to be too much of an effort. He gave up.

  “Is it working?” Horbell asked.

  “We’re able to keep him alive, but his vitals haven’t improved much.” Chev sounded desperate. “I’m afraid we’re losing this one, Your Grace.”

  “That is not an option! Do you understand, Chev?” Horbell thundered. “We lost Hassine last year. But that was for science. For a good cause. We learned something precious.”

  “We certainly did, Your Grace.”

  “I refuse to lose this one just because…”—Horbell breathed loudly—“just because he’s too depressed to want to stay alive!”

  “I’ll figure something out, Your Grace.”

  “Make sure you do.” Retreating steps echoed. Horbell must’ve stormed out.

  A short while later, Chev left too, having instructed cyborgs and nurses to watch Geru always and report the slightest change to him.

  A familiar fog began to seep into Geru’s mind, enveloping it. Soon, it would overwhelm him, and he’d slip out of consciousness. Hopefully, he’d dream of all the loved ones left behind on Hente. He missed them so! Mother and Father, the twins, Benty, his friends, especially Marye. Etana. Before he was arrested, Marye had told him Etana and Areg had survived. Could that be true?

  He hoped to Goddess it was.

  He hoped Etana and Areg had been rescued, and were happy now somewhere far away. Strangely, he felt no jealousy thinking of them together, not even the slightest pinch. Could it be that what he’d felt for her—what he still felt for her—was just admiration? Could that be why he’d never felt stirred by her, the way he’d been stirred by three or four women in the past? The way Bookworm unwittingly stirred him, to his utter mortification and dismay.

  The question lingered, dissipating the fog in Geru’s mind. It was then that he heard a voice in his head again. Not the annoyingly pompous one, which tried to manipulate him through lies and flatter that Geru always cut out. It was the quiet voice he’d heard in his head the day he’d arrived on Tastassi, and then a few times since then.

  Except this time, it sounded clearer, unobstructed. No longer a barely audible whisper, but a legible string of words. Words which formed a question. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes,” Geru sent back.

  Most likely, he’d gone completely mad. Not that it mattered under the circumstances. There was no way he’d be able to escape from Tastassi and get to Norbal to finish his business there. So, he could as well stop resisting and “talk” to his imaginary contact.

  “Finally! Thank Aheya!” The voice in Geru’s head sounded delighted. “I’m Risp, the other dragon.”

  It took Geru a moment to process that bit of information. “I’ve heard Chev and Horbell mention your name on several occasions… Are you really a dragon?”

  “A dragon shifter, like you.”

  Right. “Where are you?”

  “Here on Tastassi.”

  Really? “How come I’ve never seen you?”

  “They keep me at a different compound, across the terraformed area.” Risp laughed a bitter laugh. “In case we ganged up and overpowered them.”

  “Do you think we can?”

  If this was just a bout of delirium, he could as well enjoy himself while he was at it.

  “No. Their control over me is too tight.”

  “That’s a shame.” The corners of Geru’s mouth drooped. “Are there any other dragons here on Tastassi, or anywhere in Xereill for that matter?”

  “There used to be one more, Hassine,” Risp said. “A female dragon.”

  “I’ve heard Chev and Horbell talk about her.”

  “She was the first one they found and did experiments on.”

  “My understanding is she didn’t survive them,” Geru said.

  “They drove her to self-destruction.”

  Risp fell silent for a long moment, but Geru could still “hear” his emotions, could feel the warmth of the shifter’s compassion for Hassine, could sense the icy waves of his concern for the future.

  When Risp sent him a worded message again, it was on a different topic, as if dwelling on the previous one had been too hard for him. “I’ve overheard Chev’s staff here talk about your condition.”

  “What condition?”

  “Shape dissociation.”

  “Er…”

  “It means your three shapes are disconnected,” Risp said. “Essentially, when you’re in your Ra-human form, you don’t remember anything about the dragon, or the Ra-dragon. And the other way around.”

  Geru hesitated. “It’s… possible. What’s a Ra-dragon?”

  “Our transitional form. Chev and his people call it ‘pre-alt.’ We’re mostly Ra in that form—no longer human but not a dragon yet.”

  “Can’t imagine what that looks like.”

  “Not too shabby,” Risk said. “My wife finds me hotter in that form than as a Ra-human.”

  Geru smiled. “If there’s one opinion that matters on the subject, then it’s hers.”

  “Except she’s biased.”

  Geru’s heart warmed with the sweetness Risp was feeling as he pulled up a memory.

  “When I turned to Ra-dragon for the first time,” Risp said, “I was devastated. I thought I was a freak. Her? She fell for me.”

  “You lucky bastard.”

  Risp’s mood changed. Geru had sensed it even before the shifter released a long, heavy sigh.

  “I’m sorry—that was insensitive of me,” Geru said. “You’re trapped here, away from your wife… I doubt you’re feeling lucky right now.”

  “She’s here, too.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, but not like you think. It’s…” Risp’s pain pierced Geru’s chest. “It’s bad. I’d rather she were tucked away somewhere, unknown to these vultures. Like your mate.”

  “I’m not mated.”

  “Of course, you are.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “You idiot. If you hadn’t found your mate and bedded her, you wouldn’t’ve changed in the first place.”

  Geru froze, too flabbergasted to say anything.

  “Both Hassine’s and my shape-shifting gifts awoke during courtship,” Risp said in a softer tone. “It follows you’d be the same.”

  “How? How did you
r gift awake?”

  “Ertvi and I were kissing, and then things started happening to my body.” Risp’s soft laughter rang in Geru’s ears. “It was… quite an experience.”

  “Did it scare her?”

  “It did, in the beginning, but she didn’t panic.”

  Risp’s emotions were so vivid, Geru’s chest clenched.

  “She didn’t push me away,” the shifter said. “I entered her in that state… Goddess, it was the sweetest, most powerful thing! I’d been quite the ladies’ man before her, had had some really hot sex. But claiming Ertvi as my mate was more than sex. It was transcendence.”

  A memory flashed in Geru’s mind.

  He’s buried to the hilt in a woman.

  His body, every cell in it, is singing.

  He’s bathing in an ecstasy he never knew before…

  Geru tried to focus his mind’s eye on the woman’s face, but just as suddenly as it had come to him, the sensorial memory vanished. Who was that woman?

  “Before I forget,” Risp said, pulling Geru back from his thoughts. “Our captors have no idea we can mind-talk to each other. Be sure not to give anything away.”

  “Don’t worry—there’s no chance of that.”

  “Good.”

  “Have they fitted you with a TIC?” Geru asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I dream of ripping it out, even if I had to claw a huge wound in my own flesh, even if removing it killed me. But every time I try, I just can’t. It fills my head with a hellish pain that paralyzes me.”

  “Neat, don’t you think?”

  “Neat, indeed.” And hopeless.

  A wave of dense, black sadness came over Geru, shutting Risp out. It didn’t really matter that he wasn’t completely alone on this planet. It didn’t make any difference that he’d just discovered he could mind-talk with someone like him. They were both captives here, and there was no escape.

  Footsteps approached, followed by Horbell’s and Chev’s voices.

  “Can we turn him into an automaton?” Horbell asked. “A machine we have complete control over?”

  “We can, Your Grace, but that would require invasive brain implants, which—”

  “Would suppress his gift,” Horbell finished Chev’s sentence.

  “Exactly.”

  “So, what do you propose?”

  “We take him to Hente.”

  There was a brief silence, then Horbell’s voice. “Why would we do that?”

  “So that he can see his family,” Chev said. “From what I understand, the Gokks are a close-knit, loving bunch, very supportive of each other. Maybe that’s all he needs to get better—some time with his parents and siblings.”

  Horbell humphed.

  “Look at Risp,” Chev said. “We brought his wife here. He worries himself sick about her, but he’s driven to live so he can protect her.”

  “And hump her,” Horbell spat out with contempt.

  His second murmured, a woeful note in his voice, “Yes, that too.”

  “I don’t like your plan, Chev, but if it’s the best you’ve got, I’ll go with it. Give Voqras a heads-up.”

  “Yes, Your Grace. Do you wish him to fly over and get Geru?”

  There was a brief pause before Horbell spoke again. “Pick the cyborgs you want as your travel companions. You’re taking the dragon to Hente.”

  11

  When she opened the door to a disheveled Disree panting so hard she couldn’t talk, Marye dropped the book in her hand and stared, petrified with apprehension.

  “Geru,” Disree mouthed, still breathless.

  “You have news,” Marye spoke for her while the older woman nodded.

  Marye covered her mouth, too scared to inquire further. The only official information that had been released since Geru’s arrest was that he’d been involved in an anti-government conspiracy. Under the State of Peril declared by Boggond to justify hiring two hundred hive cyborgs, that accusation alone had been enough to lock Geru away.

  Unofficially, Geru had been shipped to another planet to some powerful man who wanted him for Goddess knew what. That was what Iyatt had deduced from the whispers he’d heard at the police station.

  Marye hoped he was mistaken.

  Two weeks ago, she and Father had gone to Boggond’s residence to show him some newly acquired Ra antiques. Marye had asked Boggond about Geru’s fate. The shameless man had told her there’d be no trial. Not even a conclave of judges who’d look at Geru’s case and decide on the punishment like they’d done with Areg Sebi.

  “It’s a matter of the realm’s security, my lady,” Boggond had said to her. “Your friend will remain in an undisclosed location for as long as it is deemed necessary.”

  Contorting his face in fake sympathy, he’d added, “If I were you, I wouldn’t count on seeing him anytime soon.”

  The bastard must’ve learned his lesson when his push to make an example of Areg backfired. No more public punishments for his opponents. Even staging accidental deaths was no longer necessary. Why bother? He could just remove a person for reasons of “realm’s security,” and no one—not even Achlins Ghaw—dared to call him out.

  After that conversation, Marye’s worry had begun to transform into the darkest, blackest kind of despair, no matter how hard she tried to cling on to hope.

  And now Disree was on her doorstep with news about Geru.

  Marye forced herself to speak. “Is he alive? Where is he?”

  “Back on Hente,” Disree finally managed. “He’s alive. He’s with Haddu now.”

  Marye grabbed Disree’s hand. “Thank Aheya! They let him go!”

  Her eyes glistening, Disree shook her head. “Geru is in the prison sick house. We were allowed into his ward to try and help him…”—she faltered—“recover.”

  “Is he wounded? Sick?”

  “We don’t know what’s wrong with him, and they won’t tell us.”

  “How long has he been here?”

  “Twelve hours. He hugged us, talked to us a little, and then he just lay back and closed his eyes. My poor boy! He’s so weakened, you won’t recognize him.” Disree swallowed a sob.

  Marye gave her hand a squeeze. “Will they let me see him? Father and I will be showing some Ra baubles to Boggond next week. I could plead—”

  “We don’t have until next week,” Disree cut in. “In two days, they’re taking him back to whatever planet or moon they’re keeping him on. Whether he’s recovered or not.”

  Marye sucked in a breath.

  “Seeing as you’re Geru’s best friend,” Disree said, “I persuaded the man in charge, Chev Tolkeet, to let you visit him.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. That’s why I’m here.” Disree peered into Marye’s eyes. “Can you come with me to the prison sick house now?”

  “Goodness, of course!”

  Marye called for the housekeeper and asked her to tell Father she was with the Gokks.

  “Tell him not to worry if I don’t come home tonight,” she cried as she rushed out after Disree.

  They ran to the Gokks’ carriage parked at the back entrance behind the garden. When the carriage pulled up outside the prison gate, Marye followed Disree past dozens of armed guards and cyborgs into the sick house. They hurried down a corridor that smelled of bleach and vomit to a secured ward in the back.

  “This is Marye Atiz, Geru’s friend,” Disree said to one of the cyborgs blocking the door. “Sir Tolkeet authorized her to go in.”

  The cyborg nodded. “I know.”

  Two other cyborgs patted Marye and Disree down before opening the door for them.

  Illuminated by the harsh light of power candles, a massive bed stood in the middle of the windowless ward. It was chained to huge iron rings firmly bolted to the floor.

  Geru lay on the bed, apparently asleep. Marye gasped at the paleness of his skin and how thin he’d grown. He was strapped to the bed, and his wrists and ankles were tied.

  Sir Gokk sat on the
bed by his son’s side, holding his hand, and greeted Marye with a nod. Karri and Lessi hugged her. The twins’ lovely, round-cheeked faces were streaked with tears. The only missing family member was Benty. His nanny must’ve taken him home for a meal and a nap.

  Marye rounded the bed and touched Geru’s limp hand. “Hello, there.”

  His eyelids fluttered ever so slightly.

  She sat down on his other side. “It’s me, Marye. Can you hear me?”

  Slowly, he opened his eyes and smiled the faintest of smiles. It nearly broke her heart to see him like this, but she had to remain strong.

  “Bookworm,” he whispered with difficulty. “So good to see you.”

  On impulse she raised his bound hands to her face and pressed his knuckles to her lips. She knew it was an inappropriate thing to do in front of his family, but decorum was the last thing that mattered right now.

  “Why don’t we all go home for a couple of hours, while Marye is here?” Disree looked from her husband to the girls. “We’ve been here all evening and night. The girls could do with some—”

  “I’m not leaving.” Karri pushed her chin up.

  “Yes, you are,” Sir Gokk said. “We all are.”

  He kissed Geru’s forehead before turning to Marye. “We’ll be back around noon.”

  She nodded.

  When they were gone, she grabbed both his hands. “I missed you so!”

  “And I you, my friend,” he said quietly, warmth in his gaze.

  “Will you do something for me even if the request sounds strange?”

  “Ask away.”

  She angled her head, pulled her hair out of the way, and bent down toward him.

  “Bite me,” she whispered, willing herself to keep her resolve, to hold on to the hope that this would work.

  He blinked at her.

  “Please.”

  He stared into her eyes and then at her neck. His gaze lingered there. Gradually, his dark irises glazed over. As if in a trance, he gripped her arm and put his mouth to the base of her neck.

  She felt him lick her skin and scrape it gently with his teeth. His incisors grew bigger, their tips sharp against her flesh. Fangs. They were turning into fangs. The second Marye realized it, her concern gave way to euphoria. It was working. He was turning already even before he bit her.