Dragon-Ridden (27 page)

Tate licked the blood off her lip
and stared at the woman putting every dark and grim feeling she’d had since
awakening with her memory gone into the glare.

“Oh aye. I think it’s hilarious,”
she said in a low voice. “I’ve entertained you with my blood. It’s only fair
you do the same with yours.”

The Lady grabbed Tate’s face
holding it in a cruel grip as she brought Tate closer. Her face was inches from
Tate’s as she examined her work. “Those eyes. Such a fierce spirit.” She ran a
finger over the cut on Tate’s lip and smeared the blood over the rest of her
lips until Tate wore a facsimile of bloody lipstick. “So brave, so courageous,
always promising things you can’t deliver. I dislike people like you the most.
In the end you all scream and beg for mercy like every other worthless
creator’s spawn. It’ll be a joy to watch that spark die inch by inch, leaving
behind nothing but a hollow husk of broken self.” Her grip tightened further
until her nails drew blood, and it felt like Tate’s jaw would crack. “That
won’t be enough, though. Before you go, I’ll rip that dragon out of your body
and I’ll finally have the kind of power that means no one can ever harm me
again.” The Lady smiled sweetly at Tate. “They’ll bow before me. You’ll die
knowing that you gave me the key to all that I desire in this world.” She
patted Tate’s cheek gently. “You won’t be laughing then.”

The Red Lady released Tate very
slowly stepping back and wiping one hand on her dress. Tate watched, holding
very still, unable to do anything but hang there, useless. She really wished
she had this dragon everybody was making such a big deal about. Maybe then she
wouldn’t be hanging in these chains waiting for the next round of torture.

“Cut her down,” the Red Lady told
Ulric. “She needs to be healthy for what I have planned.”

He nodded and released the chains.
Without their tension to support her, Tate collapsed in a heap on the floor.
She barely had time to register her sudden freedom when she was dragged back to
her feet. Her back screamed in protest. She couldn’t quite bite back the moan
of pain the movement caused.

Ulric supported her weight as she
tried to gather her strength. She was weak. Frightfully so. Luckily for her, he
didn’t bother securing her arms behind her back this time. For that she was
grateful. One, because this was a much more comfortable position for her
shoulders after the abuse they’d taken and two, well let’s just say a lot could
be done even with a heavy chain binding her hands together.

“Bring the cubs this time,” the Red
Lady said as he began to haul Tate out of the room. “They can take that one’s
place in tonight’s entertainment.”

Tate hoped Dewdrop and Night had
managed to escape by now. She’d done all she could to ensure it. Now it was up
to them because she had no intention of going back to that cell.

It became an act of will to keep
putting one foot in front of the other. The only thing that kept her hobbling
along was the knowledge that Ulric would just drag her if she didn’t. Distantly
she tried to keep track of their path. If—no when— she escaped she’d have to
know which way to go.

Her strength came back surprisingly
quickly as Ulric forced her through the tunnels. She moved slowly and stumbled
occasionally, letting him think she was still weak. She had very little energy,
and she hoped it would be enough to create an opportunity for escape.

A sudden scream echoed down the
tunnels. Ulric stopped abruptly, yanking on Tate’s shoulder.  She cried
out at the sudden pain that lanced through her, falling to her knees, trying to
breath past it. She whimpered as she cradled her right shoulder.

“Quiet,” Ulric snapped as he looked
up and down the hallway.

She stayed bent over on her knees
as he listened. Several screams joined the first. He flinched as a loud boom
vibrated in the stone at their feet.

“What’s that?”

Tate chuckled grimly. “Why don’t
you go and find out?”

He kicked her in the back. She
sprawled forward on her stomach gasping at the sharp explosion of pain, not
able to draw enough breath to even scream properly. Only a thin hiss of air
escaped her in its place.

She gasped, tears escaping her as
the pain receded enough that she could think again. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve got a big mouth.”

While they were arguing, a figure
ran down the tunnel towards them, casting terrified looks behind him. He
tripped and scrambled to his feet almost instantly. Ulric laid a hand on the
short sword at his waist.

“Cedric? Is that you?” he asked.

The man, noticing them for the
first time, ran to Ulric and took hold of his shirt. “We have to get out of
here. They’re coming.”

“What? Who’s coming?”

“It’s them. The monsters. They
attacked the outer chambers. The Red Lady and her guards evacuated to the Night
Market but the rest of us were cut off,” he babbled. “I have to get out of
here!”

He took off running down the
corridor. Ulric watched him go before turning back the way he’d come,
indecisive as he wrestled over what to do. Licking his lips he backed down the
corridor, self interest winning out over any sense of duty.

“Ah, the creators can take them,”
he said turning his back on Tate and taking off in the direction the other man
had gone.

“Wait!” Tate cried from the floor
and rattling her handcuffs. “What about me? At least let me go.”

No response came as he turned a
corner and disappeared from sight.

“Son of a donkey’s whore,” Tate
swore as she pulled desperately at the chains. She got to her feet unsteadily,
her legs and backs protesting the movement. “I will never, ever come down to
the tunnels again.”

She limped in the direction the
other two had run off in. It wasn’t easy with her body protesting each step.
Her pace was painfully slow.

Running footsteps approached her.
She listened as they came closer.

“Sweet Saviors protect me,” she
whispered.

With a renewed desperation, she
limped forward. There was nowhere to hide. The tunnels continued endlessly.

She trained her eyes on the curve
in the tunnel Cedric had come from. Maybe she’d be lucky, and it’d be some of
the Red Lady’s follower.

The footsteps paused as they got to
the turn. Tate’s heartbeat sped up and jumped into her throat when a shape
turned the corner.

“Dewdrop?” she gasped. She couldn’t
believe it, but there he was in all his skinny glory.

“Found her,” he shouted over his
shoulder before speeding down the hall to her.

Night bounded after him, carrying
one of his cubs in his mouth. He was followed closely by a man cradling the
other cub.

“What are you doing here?” she asked
in disbelief. She thought they would have taken the quickest route out of here
possible. It’s what she would have done.

“Had to rescue your crazy ass.”
Dewdrop knelt beside her as he used his lock picks to manipulate her manacle’s
lock. One hand slipped free and he went right to work on the other. “You didn’t
think we’d leave you behind, did you?”

Yeah. She kind of had. Dewdrop was
a thief, and Night had only met her a few hours ago. Theirs wasn’t exactly the
type of relationship where you stuck your neck out for the other. She knew most
people weren’t the type of altruistic do-gooders who’d help a person for no
other reason then it was the right thing to do. The only reason she had turned
Ulric’s wrath on her was because it had involved children.

Her silence was answer enough for
Dewdrop. “Normally you’d be right,” he told her finishing with the other
handcuff and pulling her to her feet, steadying her when she wobbled. “Can you
walk?”

She nodded an affirmative, though
she wasn’t entirely sure. Her wounds hurt more now that her panic had subsided.
The muscles in her back were tight and every time she moved, a wound reopened,
bleeding sluggishly.

“What changed?” she gasped,
stumbling. She would have fallen if Dewdrop hadn’t caught her.

“Whoa, there. Lean on me.” He put
her arm around him, supporting her weight as they shuffled down the hall after
Ulric. “Let’s just say your actions inspired us to similar heights of
stupidity.”

Tate forced her legs to move faster
almost upsetting her balance again.

“Slow down.” Dewdrop braced his arm
around her waist. “You’ll fall.”

“We need to get out of here. I
think the Tsuchigon attacked, and I don’t want to be around to end up as a
snack for their young.”

We know
, Night said.
We’re
the ones that brought them.

“You?”

He nodded.

“That must be some story,” she
said.

Dewdrop grunted and shifted to a
get a better grip on Tate, brushing against one of her injuries. She groaned.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “They did
a number on your back, though it’s not as bad as I expected.”

“Yeah, they really showed a lot of
mercy,” Tate said sarcastically. She grunted when he stumbled, jostling her.
“Will you stop moving around?”

“I can’t help it if you’re heavy.”

“Heavy?” she asked scandalized, her
voice getting louder. “I’m not heavy. You’re just a runt.”

Quiet you two. You’ll attract
the Tsuchigon with your arguing.

For Tate, the trip through the
tunnel passed in a blur. Her energy faded quickly after Dewdrop and Night found
her, and she had to rely on them more and more, with Dewdrop supporting most of
her weight. At some point she must have drifted off because they had reached a
dark nook that separated the surface from the catacombs without her having any
recollection of how the journey to get there. Tate stirred when Dewdrop nudged
her awake. Blearily she looked around and leaned wearily against the stone. Her
wounds were already beginning to fade into one overarching ache. All she wanted
was to find a horizontal surface and sleep for a very long time.

I think this is where I leave
you
.

She roused enough to give him a
tired smile. “You kept your promise.”

As did you
.

“Where will you go now?”

We’ll have to find new territory,
perhaps deeper in the catacombs. The Red Lady has taken over much of our
territory, and I don’t want to chance another encounter.

Tate studied him with unblinking
eyes. Perhaps it was the exhaustion or going through a really terrible
experience, but she wasn’t quite ready to part with him yet. She did something
she normally wouldn’t. “You can come with me if you’d like. I mean, if you
want.”

Come with you
? He sounded
unsure but not unwilling, more like he was testing the thought out.

Tate nodded liking the idea more
each second. “Yeah. Living underground can’t be good for your cubs. Up there
are open skies and plenty of good hunting— animals, not people. Or we can just
make sure we buy food.”

Night’s whiskers pointed out and
then back as he thought over her suggestion. Tate was content to let him. She’d
done all she intended to with the offer. Any more was up to him.

A thought occurred to her. “Wait. I
don’t know the city well and don’t know anywhere we can go.”

With her muscles aching and
exhaustion dragging at her, walking all over the city simply wasn’t going to
happen. She looked down at herself. She had no shirt and was covered in blood.
Yeah. No inn would rent to her looking like this even if she had money.

“I know how to get to Ryu’s,”
Dewdrop volunteered.

Tate looked up not quite sure if
that was a good thing or not. Until recently he’d been part of the enemy camp
and what he knew Lucius probably knew. “Does Lucius know where Ryu lives?”

Dewdrop considered, tilting his
head. “I doubt it. I was the only one fast enough to follow you up onto the
roofs when you escaped Blade, and I never had the chance to tell the others.”

It was a risk to take everybody
back to Ryu’s place, but there weren’t a lot of alternatives. She had no money
to get a room and even if she did, Night and company probably wouldn’t be able
to come. She wasn’t an expert on this city, but since she hadn’t seen any
feline’s as big as humans walking around, she assumed he’d draw attention. Most
of the party was injured or too young to climb up onto the roofs. That left
Ryu’s.

Tate wasn’t quite ready to see Ryu
in the same light as Umi. It was possible he’d sent her down into the catacombs
as a sacrifice, but she wouldn’t believe it, not without talking to him first.
She also needed to inform him of the event of the last few hours and with any
luck get her money back. As far as she was concerned she didn’t owe him any
more favors and had earned every penny of her purse. After that, she could
disappear if she needed to and find somewhere else in the city to rest until
this all blew over. One thing was clear, however. She had no intention of
leaving Aurelia until she’d talked to Ai again. If she had to brave murderous
crime lords and an irate former captain then so be it.

“Alright. Dewdrop, if you’d be so
kind as to get us to Ryu’s,” Tate said.

“On one condition.” He held up a
finger. “You let me stay with you too.”

Tate hesitated.

“Also, he has to come with us,”
Dewdrop said pointing over his shoulder.

Tate squinted as the last member of
their party came into the light. “What’s he doing here?” She tried to scramble
to her feet but ended up only falling onto her side.

“We rescued him from the punishment
cells.”

“Well, he can’t come with us.”

“He has nowhere else to go,”
Dewdrop pointed out. “And he’s hurt.”

Tate glared impotently up at
Dewdrop. The youth held all the cards and knew it. All the arguing in the world
wouldn’t change that. He was going to win and fighting about it would only
prolong Tate having to stay conscious.