Dragons Lost (6 page)

"I prefer you naked,"
said the woman in his bed. She patted the mattress. "Remove that armor and return
here to my arms."

He spun toward her and
frowned. "What for?" He snorted. "I've already planted my seed inside you. I'm
done with you. Leave."

Hurt filled her eyes. "But
. . . my lord."

"I didn't say you can
talk back." He drew his sword and stroked the blade with a handkerchief,
polishing the steel. "I'm pureborn. No dragon disease ever filled my blood. It's
my duty to give you peasant girls pureborn babes, not tolerate your prattle."
He pointed his blade at the door. "Leave and never return here, and never speak
to me again, or next time I'll thrust my sword into you instead of my manhood."

Her eyes dampened, and
she fled toward the door, pulling on her tunic. Gemini watched her leave,
admiring the rear view. She had a good figure to her, he thought, curved in the
just the right places, but there were plenty more women in the Commonwealth,
and the last thing Gemini Deus needed was one puttering around his chamber and
thinking herself his lover.

Today Gemini would find
a greater prize than a woman. Today he would seize a power that would deal his
older sister a blow as sure as a gauntleted fist.

"You might be older,
dear Mercy, and you might be heiress to the Cured Temple." Gemini smiled
thinly, sheathing his blade. "But soon I will be more powerful by far."

He left his bedchamber,
stepping out into a corridor. The walls were carved of marble, inlaid with
golden leaves and jewels, and murals sprawled across the vaulted ceiling,
depicting ancient scenes of myth. Arched windows lined the southern wall,
affording views of the city of Nova Vita, capital of the Commonwealth. It was a
dreary view, Gemini thought, simply miles of the filthy commoners' huts. The
sight disgusted him, and the sunlight burned his eyes.

He snapped his fingers
toward a maid who knelt before him, clad in livery. "Girl! Go clean my
bedchamber. Change the sheets, empty my chamber pot, and refill my jugs of
wine."

The servant bowed. "Yes,
my lord."

Hideous thing,
Gemini thought as the girl hurried into his chamber. Why couldn't the damn
priests hire beautiful help for once? He was second born to the Temple, for
Spirit's sake. He shouldn't have to look at scrawny, mealy-faced servants.

"Girl!" he barked. "Wait.
Come back."

She hurried back into
the hallway and bowed her head. "My lord?"

"After you're done
cleaning my chamber, leave this temple. Return to whatever brothel or filthy
alleyway you came from." He snickered. "You're done here."

Tears filled her eyes,
but Gemini only scoffed as he walked away. The girl was lucky he didn't order
her stoned to death; that ratty face of hers was practically heretical.

He walked through the
Cured Temple, the center of his family's power, the heart of the Commonwealth.
The palace was a great jewel, a masterpiece such as the world had never seen.
Mosaics of precious metals and gemstones sprawled across the floors, depicting
animals of every kind. Murals of stars, suns, and birds covered the ceiling
between strands of gold and silver. Columns lined the hallways, topped with
golden capitals, and statues of druids stood between them, their eyes jeweled.

Finally Gemini stepped through
a towering white archway, leaving the Temple and emerging into the sunlight. He
walked down a wide staircase and stepped onto the Square of the Spirit. It sprawled
ahead of the Cured Temple, a vast expanse, larger than most towns. During the
High Priestess's speeches, hundreds of thousands of souls gathered here to worship
her and the Spirit. Today thirty firedrakes stood in the square, great beasts
of scales, wings, and claws. They had once been weredragons, humans born with
the disease inside them, the curse that let man become dragon. The Temple had
burnt out their humanity; now only the beasts remained.

"Ventris!" Gemini
barked. "Here. To me." He patted his thigh. "Come."

It was not a firedrake
who rushed forth but an old man, clad in leather and wool. Gemini barked a
laugh. The firedrakes' keeper was no better than an animal himself.

"Hurry!" Gemini raised
his sword. "To me, old man. Now bow."

Ventris reached him,
huffing and panting, and bowed his head. "My lord Gemini! I've been training
them, my lord. Training them well. Today they're learning how to—"

"You treat them like
dogs." Gemini spat. "Training them? Teaching them tricks more like. To sit, roll
over, beg for scraps like pups? Are you a kennel master or a trainer of
firedrakes?"

Ventris straightened.
Sweat dripped down his forehead. Farther back, the firedrakes hissed, smoke
blasting out from their nostrils. Their scales clattered, their wings creaked,
and fire sparked between their fangs. Their eyes blazed like molten metal. Each
one of these beasts, Gemini knew, could crush the Cured Temple and burn everyone
in it. Only the harshest, strictest training kept the drakes submissive, under
command, under control.

"My lord," said
Ventris, "today we're training for aerial assault. Perhaps if you'd like to
watch, I could demonstrate how—"

"Watch?" said Gemini. "Do
you think me some boy, some pup come to gape at tricks?" He sneered. "I'm a
paladin of the Cured Temple! I am the son of the High Priestess! You dare
insult me?"

Ventris blanched. He
knelt and bowed his head. "No, my lord! I beg your pardon. Forgive me, please.
How may I serve you?"

Gemini stared down at
the sniveling man. Pathetic wretch. "Is it true, Ventris, that you're not even
noble born?"

The graying man looked
up, then quickly down again. "I was born to House Erus, my lord, nobles of the
eastern coast, lords of—"

"Lords of chamber pots
and sea scum." Gemini snorted. "Ventris, I'll be taking command of the
firedrakes. I will be supervising their training from now on." He smiled
thinly. "Don't think your little games have eluded me. You may dress like a
commoner, and you may hold no honor in the Temple, but I know the power your
position holds." He licked his lips. "He who rules the firedrakes . . . rules the
Commonwealth."

He raised his eyes and
stared at the beasts. He inhaled deeply and licked his lips, already imagining
it. When he controlled the firedrakes, he would have more power than any army.
He would have more power than his sister, that was certain. Perhaps even more
than his mother.

All my life, you
looked down at me, Mother,
he thought, and his hands curled into fists.
All
my life, you spat upon me, sister. All my life, you thought me weak, second
born, worthless.
His teeth ground.
But I will have power to make you
kneel before me.

Ventris straightened
again. The man was sweating. It was disgusting. "Of course, my lord! I would be
glad to serve under you, to help you train the firedrakes, to make sure they
obey your every command. I—"

Gemini shook his head. "You're
done. We're making changes here today. The Cured Temple is but a game, dear
Ventris, no different than a game of counter-squares. And you, my friend, are
off the board."

With a thin smile,
Gemini thrust his sword.

The blade sank into
Ventris's belly, and blood gushed.

Gemini's smile widened
as he yanked the blade upward, cutting the man open. As Ventris fell over,
spilling his innards, Gemini laughed and stepped back.

"Feast, my friends!"
Gemini shouted to the firedrakes. "You have a new lord now, and here is my gift
to you! Feast upon your old master!"

The firedrakes
screeched, beat their wings, and pounced. Gemini laughed and stepped back. The
great reptiles squealed as they tore into the body, ripping it apart, fighting
one another for the morsels. One firedrake tugged off a leg and gulped it down.
Another grabbed the torso, the juiciest cut, while two others tried to rip the
meat free from the glutton's jaws. Three other firedrakes lapped at the bloody
cobblestones.

"This will be your last
meal for a while," Gemini said softly, gazing at them. "You're going to learn
hunger now, friends. You're going to learn true obedience. You're going to
learn what a true master is." As they shrieked, the blood tossing them into a
frenzy, Gemini turned to stare south. Somewhere beyond that horizon, his sister
flew on the hunt. "And you, Mercy, will learn who has the true power in this
Temple. You too will learn who your master is."

The smell of death
filled his nostrils, and Gemini smiled.

 
 
DOMI

Domi flew on the wind, a wild beast
with scales the color of fire, and joined her fellow firedrakes above the
mountains.

Of course, she wasn't
actually a firedrake. Not truly. Firedrakes had no human forms, no human minds.
As babes, their human bodies had been burnt in sacramental fire, leaving only a
dragon's egg, a hard stone that hatched a rabid reptile, a beast who thought of
nothing but blood, flight, and fire, no more intelligent than a hound or horse.
Domi had never been burnt, never been cured, never lost her human soul; she was
a proud Vir Requis, a child of a forgotten kingdom.

And there is
one more among us,
she thought, a light of hope rising inside her.
There
is Cade.

She had only ever met
four others, and they—like Cade—lived as humans, hiding their dragon forms. But
Domi had chosen a different life. She hated her human form. As a girl, she was
small, weak, a scuttling little thing with a mane of red hair, spindly legs,
and darting eyes. The human her was little more than a mouse. But as a dragon .
. .

She inhaled deeply. As
a dragon—a firedrake in disguise—she was strong. She was proud. She could fly
on the wind, blow fire, taste the sky. Even if she had to bear Mercy upon her
back, even if she had to serve the cruel Temple that hunted her kind, Domi
preferred this life.

Better to fly as a
dragon, hiding in plain sight of the Temple, than live as a cowering human,
she had always thought.

Yet when Domi landed on
the mountain among the others and saw Mercy's eyes, she suddenly doubted that
thought.

Domi had seen Mercy mad
before. Daughter of High Priestess Beatrix, heiress to all the Commonwealth,
Lady Mercy Deus had been bred for righteous rage. The young woman, clad in
white armor, half her head shaven and the other half sporting long white hair,
always seemed mad at the world. Yet now . . . now Domi saw new fury in her
mistress's eyes, a rage no longer icy but hotter than dragonfire, a rage that
twisted Mercy's face and blazed out from her blue eyes. Night was falling, and
the paladins had lit torches; the light painted Mercy's face red.

"Where were you, you
miserable cull!" Mercy shouted, marching toward Domi.

Still in her dragon
form—she almost never revealed her human body—Domi lowered her head, a mark of
submission. She lowered her wing, forming a ramp for Mercy to climb.

Yet Mercy did not mount
her. The paladin grabbed a torch from one of her men and shoved it forward,
slamming the fire onto Domi's tenderspot.

Domi howled with pain.

Each firedrake, when
brought into service, had two scales surgically removed, leaving the flesh
bare. The paladins called these
tenderspots
—places for them to drive
their spurs into the hides of firedrakes. Every few days, when new scales began
to grow, the paladins yanked them off again—a ritual of pain that never ended,
like having one's fingernails repeatedly pulled off. Mercy had often dug her
spurs deep into Domi's tenderspots—a pain Domi tolerated for a chance to fly as
a dragon—but the paladin had never burned her. Now Domi's flesh sizzled, and
she yowled.

"Where were you, you
worthless beast?" Mercy demanded. She grabbed Domi's horns and tugged her head
down, banging Domi's scaly chin against the granite mountaintop.

Domi lowered
her eyes, daring not show a single sign of aggression. She had seen what had
happened to firedrakes who growled at their masters.

"It's just a dumb
animal," said Sir Castus. He spat. "Probably got lost."

Domi stared at the burly
Castus. A gruff paladin with a scar splitting his face, he was holding a bundle
under his arm.

Eliana,
Domi
realized, sucking in breath. The paladin was holding Cade's sister!

Mercy knelt and leaned
closer. With Domi's head pressed against the ground, Mercy was able to stare
directly into her eyes.

"Oh, but you're not as
dumb as you look, are you?" Mercy whispered. She caressed Domi's snout. "No,
there's some sense in you. You're not as mindless as the other beasts."

Sudden panic flared in
Domi, and her heart pounded. Had Mercy seen her become a human? Did the paladin
know?

I can burn her now,
Domi thought, feeling the flames rise in her gullet.
I can burn her dead,
burn them all.

She forced herself to
gulp down the fire.

No. If I
kill Mercy, her brother will become heir. And if anyone is crueler than Mercy,
it's her brother, Lord Gemini Deus.
Domi shuddered.
If I kill Mercy, I
myself will die. The other firedrakes will make sure of that.

So Domi only
mewled pathetically, begging for forgiveness.

Mercy straightened and
kicked. Her steel-dipped boot slammed into Domi's snout, cracking a scale and
rattling her teeth. Domi yelped.

"I know you understand
me," Mercy said softly. "If you ever cross me again, you pathetic lizard, I
will drive my spear so deep into your tenderspot it'll come out the other side.
You were a bad beast today. You flew off. You lost your saddle. And when we
return home, you will pay."

With a grunt, Mercy
grabbed Eliana from Sir Castus and stuffed the baby under her arm. Eliana
screamed. Mercy ignored the sound and climbed onto Domi's back.