Blood of Dragons (23 page)

“Because he knows he can beat me.”

She’s back to scowling at me now.  “He knows no such thing.  He suspects that you are not quite yourself, but he has no way of knowing for sure.  This was just as asinine for him to accept as it was for you to dangle it in front of him.”

I’m sure glad my friends don’t hold back when telling me how stupid I am, I mumble.  Adriel’s scowl turns into a glare now.  “Can you give me
any
advice?” I ask.

She starts pacing again.  “The only thing I can say is assume that Belial will play dirty.  He has had eons to think of ways to torture people and he is good at it.”

“Torture??”  I didn’t sign up for torture.

With a sad sigh, Adriel stops in front of me and gives me a hug.  I’m too dumbfounded to hug her back.  “Yes, Xandra.  Torture.  You will both be trying to hurt each other until one of you cannot take it anymore.  That is called torture.”

Oh crap.  I guess I did sign up for torture.  Adriel steps back out of the hug to look up at my stunned face.  I wonder what stunned looks like on Raziel’s face.  Probably better than fire will.  “Belial signed up for this for a chance to torture Raziel.”  I say this as if she didn’t already know his reason.

“Yes.”

“They hate each other that much.”

“I do not know about Raziel, but Belial does hate with him with a passion.  Raziel is most often the one to block his attempts to act upon his hatred.  I can see why he relishes in the thought of sending you to a fiery pit.”

Yeah, me too unfortunately.  “So what you’re saying is – fight dirty because he really has it out for me.”

Adriel’s chin raises a little.  “I would never encourage someone to fight ‘dirty’ as you put it.  I am merely suggesting that a creative defense would be prudent.”

I shake my head.  “Semantics, Adriel.”

She shrugs in a ‘so what’ kind of way.  “We have to get going.  If you do not show up to the challenge, you will automatically lose.”

Hmm.  That makes for a tough decision.  Be thrown into a fiery pit after being tortured, or being thrown in before being tortured.  Adriel doesn’t give me time to weigh my options before we are back in the commons.  Torture it is then.

Chapter 28 – Raziel

The Dragon that opened the door is gigantic.  He looks as if he has eaten another Dragon and absorbed its size.  He has brilliant red and silver scales and eyes that can scald you with just a glance.  His voice is loud and booming when he says, “Come.”  There is no doubt in his mind that we will follow behind him.

“Xandra hates it when someone tells her to ‘come’,” Kallen says quietly.  “She says that is how dogs are called, not her.”

I chuckle a little.  “Yes, her reaction to him may have been less placid than mine is.”

The Dragon leads us down a long, dark hallway.  This helps the Dragons avoid unwelcome daylight when they are sleeping.  There are no windows anywhere in the building.  The hallway, made for regular sized Dragons, is not tall enough for the Dragon in front of us.  He has to walk on all four paws and keep his head down lest he scrape it across the stone ceiling.

The end of the hallway leads into a large round room.  An arch shaped table is at the far end and behind it are two Dragons.  Our tour guide moves behind it to complete the tribunal.  The green and gold Dragon in the middle is Myles, King of the Dragon realm.  I know the other Dragon to be Ormar, a female Dragon who is drawing close to the path of the Lost.  Her once orange scales have faded to dull ochre.  Our guide is Ryu but I have not let on that I know that.  I do not address any of them by name.  I do not want to draw attention to myself.

“Garren,” Ormar croaks, “you have brought outsiders here and led them to our Royal Court without the King’s permission.  What have you to say for yourself?”

Garren drops to one knee and bows his head.  The standard pose Dragons expect humanoids to strike before them.  “I assure you the matter is grave and time is short, Ormar.  I never would have done so otherwise.”

“What matter could be so pressing that a formal request could not have been brought before us?”

“A loved one has been kidnapped and is being held ransom.  I believe the rebel Goblins are behind this.”

Ormar’s scaly lips curl up in the middle similar to how a rabid poodle looks.  Except she is crazier than that.  Her mind decays more and more every day.  “Why would we care a Fairy has been claimed?  Let the rebels have her and be gone.”  The King and Ryu are sitting still as stone beside her, leaving all the talking to her.

“We will not,” Kallen says, startling Garren.  “We will leave when we have rescued our loved one.”

King Myles eyes the three of us still standing.  “You will take a knee before addressing your superiors.”

“No,” Kallen and I say in unison.  I must admit, I am starting to like him more and more.  He is far from cowardly.

The King rises to his full height, which is not nearly as tall as Ryu’s who has risen as well.  “This is not a debate.  You will take a knee or you will pay the consequences.”

“We do not bow down before equals,” Kallen says tightly.  Isla’s eyes are glowing with pride.  Garren’s eyes are glowing with something completely different.  I believe he is finding that he likes Kallen less and less.

“Equals?” Ryu laughs and small flames snort out of his nose.  “You are no more my equal than you are fair haired.”

“I believe otherwise,” Kallen says holding his ground.

“Ryu, demonstrate how tasty these beings are.  That will prove who the superior is.”

“You hide behind your enforcer, King Myles.  A great Dragon such as you should not have to rely on others like this.  Is it because you are a coward or you are too lame due to the injury you sustained several weeks ago while sparring with your grandchildren?”

Both Ormar and Ryu shoot flames in our direction in defense of their stunned King.  None of us are truly stupid.  We have remained more than ten feet from the Dragons at all times.  Ryu’s flame does have a longer reach, presumably because everything about him is bigger, but it still falls short of reaching us.  I believe the three of them were expecting more of a reaction.  None of us even flinched.  Not even Garren.

“Who are you,” the King growls.

“I am part of a rescue team here to extract one from your midst who does not belong here.  We will leave your realm as soon as she is safe.”

With gray eyes like freshly polished silver, King Myles focuses solely on me.  “I did not ask what you are doing here.  I asked you who you are.  I can assure you that you will not do anything in this realm before you answer that question.”

“As Ormar has already stated that we are not welcome, I do not see how giving you such information would help our cause.  We will…”  A blinding pain does what these Dragons could not.  I am brought to my knees.  As is Kallen next to me.

“She is hurt,” he manages to say through the pain.  He is correct.  Xandra is hurt and her soul is calling out to both of us.

Chapter 29 – Xandra

Belial is waiting for me when I appear in the commons.  Apparently, there’s no starting gun or even someone saying one, two, three – go.  So I am blindsided by enough magic to send me sailing backwards a good twenty feet.  Wow, this hurts more than I thought it would.  I may have been a bit harsh when I’ve done this to others.  Well, some others.

I don’t have a chance to catch my breath before I am hit again.  It happens so fast I can’t even react.  I am brought up into the air and dropped to the ground from a good thirty feet.  Raziel’s body is strong enough to take it but it’s far from pain free.

I pull magic through me but not fast enough and unfortunately I can barely protect myself with what I have flowing inside me.  I am having trouble deflecting the razor sharp black magic that is ripping the skin on my forearms to shreds as it tries to get to my face.  I feel like I just stepped through a plate glass window.  Three times.  Then rolled around in the glass for a good ten minutes.

You would think that there would be gasps or oohs and aahs from the spectators because everyone is here; every Angel I have ever met and about a thousand more.  Word travels fast through their wings I guess.  But they are too dumbfounded to vocalize anything.  The sight of Raziel’s body being thrown around like a rag doll I suppose is a little shocking.  What is a rag doll anyway?  And where did that expression come from?

Focus, Xandra.  I need to do something fast because I’m starting to lose a lot of blood.  This feels like the time Grandpa rammed my spell with his car and I almost died.  I need to think and that’s hard to do with Belial grinning down at me evilly as he shoves so much magic through me that my innards are becoming liquefied.  I believe they’re leaking out of my nose. 

“No fight in you, Raziel?” Belial asks.  “It is good to see that my suspicions are correct.”

“What suspicions?” I manage trying not to swallow my nose blood.  My entire body hurts and I don’t think I can move anymore.

“That you are no longer omniscient.  If you were, you surely would not have challenged me.  I am stronger than you Raziel.  We both know that.  This is a battle you cannot win without your foresight.”

I feel him drawing the magic that will literally crush me and I’m just laying here because I don’t know what else to do.  Isn’t my life supposed to flash before my eyes?  Shouldn’t I remember
something
other than my last conversation with Adriel? 
I am merely suggesting that a creative defense would be prudent.
  Great advice but I have nothing following that thought up in my brain.