A Dragon's Tale Ch. 11

"GUARDS!" He shouted,

Ethan jumped back from the bed and reactivated his disguise gem; he couldn't be discovered here.

The champion smiled wickedly. "I'm going to tie her up and find her best friend Vienne. See, most people don't think I know, but I do. I'll make Hailey watch while I--"

Those were his last words.

The Champion's speech was abruptly cut off by Hailey's knife embedding itself in his skull. Ethan whipped around to see Hailey standing on the balcony with her throwing arm outstretched.

She stood there as if turned to stone.

Outside, Ethan could hear the sound of armored feet running. He ran to the balcony.

"Hailey, Hailey!" He said as he gave her a slight shake. "Snap out of it!" she seemed frozen, her eyes staring unblinkingly at the Champion's corpse.

"I... I didn't..." she barely got the words out; she was clearly in shock.

Ethan weighed his options. There was no way he could fly while carrying Hailey and she was in too much shock to leave herself. He had maybe a few seconds before the guards burst into the room.

If he was discovered here, it would put everyone on the Argo at risk, including Alana. If he left, Hailey would be at the mercy of the guards. As awful as it was to leave her behind, he didn't think he had another good option.

Either she was caught, or they both were.

* * *

Kendra found a roof near The Arena Champion's estate and hauled herself up onto it. She pulled the Dragon Slayer out of its box and -- not for the first time -- marveled at the craftsmanship that went into each one. She ran her hands over the surface of the bow and caressed it lovingly.

This one was special.

Unlike most Dragon Slayers which were made from wood, this one was made from dragon steel. It wasn't cool to the touch like steel; it was almost warm. She smiled at the number of dragon scales that must have been melted down and forged together to make a bow of this size. Given the price of dragon scales, it probably cost a king's ransom to make.

It was incredibly light; easily as light as a wooden bow, perhaps lighter. It just felt right in her hands, like it had been made specifically for her. There were only a handful of smiths in the Ten Kingdoms who could work dragon scales into dragon steel. Fewer still could then forge the dragon steel into something useful. Their complete mastery of their craft certainly showed.

She activated her strength-enhancing leather vambraces and strung the Dragon Slayer bow. It wasn't easy even with the added strength of the enchantment. It would've been impossible without them, and drawing or shooting the bow would be equally impossible with their aid.

She pulled out one of the arrows and hefted it in her hand. They were made of tempered steel and weighed far more than a regular arrow. Without a bow like a Dragon Slayer and its powerful enchantment, they were simply too heavy to be useful.

At the back of the arrow, there was a short crossbar just in front of the fletching. This would ensure the arrow didn't just pass completely through the dragon, which would allow it to heal the wound. The sharp barbs that faced backwards on the arrow's head would make it very difficult -- and extremely painful -- to remove by pulling it out the way it had entered.

She slipped the arrow's tip through the rectangular slot in the center of the Dragon Slayer -- which allowed for the rear crossbar to pass through -- then knocked the arrow, sat down, and waited.

She didn't wait long.

A few minutes later, she heard a shout from the Champion's estate. Less than a minute later, a man jumped off the third floor balcony but he didn't fall. Quite the contrary he rose in a jerky up-and-down motion that Kendra would've recognized in her sleep.

It was a dragon flying with a disguise gem.

She raised the Dragon Slayer, took careful aim at its black heart, and let the arrow fly with a smile on her face.

* * *

Ethan's left shoulder felt like it had exploded and been dipped in molten lava at the same time. Moving his left arm or wing made white-hot jets of pain shoot through is whole body. That was a serious problem because he was a hundred feet above the cobblestone street.

*Ethan! What happened?!" Alana's panicked voice rang out in his head.

Too preoccupied with the pain to answer, he let out a strangled scream of pain as he dropped like a stone towards the unyielding streets below. It didn't take a genius to realize that unless he did something, he would become chunky salsa when he hit the pavement.

He had already lost half his altitude.

With a monumental effort, he gave his wings an almighty flap, slightly redirecting and slowing his fall. It dramatically slowed his descent, but the pain in his arm and wing doubled... and that was before he hit the steeply-pitched roof of the building below him. He saw stars even before the impact.

CRASH!

He hit the steeply-pitched roof traveling almost straight down. Unfortunately, the arrow that was still embedded in his shoulder twisted around in the wound like it was the devil's own pitchfork heated to red hot by the very fires of hell itself.

He was only dimly aware of rolling down the roof. On instinct, his good arm and legs scrambled to grab something -- anything -- to slow the tumble. It didn't do any good; his claws couldn't get any purchase.

He fell over the side of the roof into a pitch black alley, and then completely blacked out form the pain.

* * *

*Ethan! Ethan!* Alana's voice shouted through his head.

*Ow, not so loud,* he managed to reply. His entire body felt like a heavyweight champion's punching bag after a long training session. His head felt especially awful, thanks to Alana's constant mental shouting. Though she had woke him up, so he was grateful for that.

*Thank Illuminar! What happened?*

*Arrow... hit, as I was... was flying back.* Ethan screwed up his eyes trying to focus through the pain.

He was lying on his face in what appeared to be an alley, the handle of his war hammer laying under his face quite painfully. The alley was only a few feet wide and quite dark. Any movement at all, even just inhaling, hurt. He didn't seem to have any broken bones; at least, nowhere other than his shoulder.

He looked at his shoulder.

A steel arrow was embedded up to a steel crossbar which had prevented it from going straight through. He briefly considered trying to pull the arrow out, but discarded that idea because it was painful to just breathe. Thankfully, he wasn't bleeding too badly.

There was a pause, then Alana said with more fear than he had ever heard in her voice. *Describe the arrow.*

He did, another moment's silence -- which he assumed was her relating what he'd said to Rachel -- then she responded. *Holy mother of Ithlan... You have to get out of there; NOW!*

*Why?* he said as he struggled to his feet. The long steel arrow stuck out behind him, making it painful to turn, breathe, or even just stand. The arrow's own weight sticking out of his back meant it pulled into the already excruciating wound.

*Because that's a Dragon Slayer arrow,* she replied. *The emperor's personal guard uses them to hunt dragons. No one else is allowed to use them by law, and they are relentless. They'll be there any moment.*

*Where should I go? I can't...* Ethan glanced at either end of the alley and winced as the movement delivered a fresh round of searing pain to his shoulder. *I can't make it back to the Argo like this, it's too far.*

*Go to Illuminar's Temple and ask for santuary.* she replied. *it's your only chance.*

Ethan took a single step and nearly screamed in pain. His motion had jostled the arrow, once again making his shoulder feel like a medieval torture device. He stumbled to the ground, jostling it even more. He clamped down on his jaw as hard as he could to avoid screaming in pain. Even then, he let out a growling croak.

*That's the building... it looks like, like... like a sun from above right?* He grunted with the effort of getting the words out clearly, even though they were sent telepathically.

*Yes, and you have to hurry.*

Ethan gave up on trying to walk on two legs and instead settled for walking on all fours; or rather three of the four legs. It was all he could do to not let his left arm drag on the ground. The arrow jostled slightly less while walking this way, especially if he was careful.

A quick glance backwards revealed his warhammer lying in the alley behind him. With some effort, he summoned it to his uninjured arm. Not sure what else to do with it, he carefully transferred it to his other hand. It didn't hurt too much to just hold the warhammer in that hand, and he figured he might need it if he ran into a dragon hunter.

A minute later he had made to the end of the alley. He'd almost blacked out from the pain twice.

The alley opened onto what looked like a fairly main road. Despite the lateness of the hour, the streets where still fairly busy and he instantly attracted a lot of attention. His disguise gem was still active, but a man crawling on all fours with an arrow sticking out of his back and a war hammer in hand did draw a lot of attention.

He tried to remember what direction Illuminar's temple was in, and headed off that way. There were hushed whispers and people started walking around to avoid him. They stared the whole time, but no one got close.

"Help," Ethan gasped. "Please help."

No one did.

They just stared.

He would've given them the finger if he could. However, his other arm couldn't take the weight and they probably wouldn't understand the gesture anyway.

Stupid world.

*Are you okay?* Alana's voice rang out in his head.

Ethan took a particularly bad step and winced as pain shot through his whole upper torso. *I have an arrow in my shoulder and the emperor's dragon hunters are trying to kill me. How the hell do you think I'm doing?*

*I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't mean...*

*No, I'm sorry for snapping like that.* He hung his head and soldiered on. He winced as he took another bad step. *You didn't deserve that... forgive me?*

*Always,* she replied. *Rachel, and I are on the way. We'll be there as soon as we can, but you have to get to that temple. And stay off the main roads; you don't want to attract attention.*

"Now you tell me." Ethan thought, then made for what looked like a side street.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Taloni woke from her sleep with a strange, almost disembodied ache in her left shoulder. A quick check revealed that her shoulder was fine, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong somewhere.

She brushed her honey-blond hair from her face, closed her eyes, and looked at her bond with Ethan. They'd only bonded three days ago, but it felt like much longer. She could already feel a tiny presence in her mind that hadn't been there before. She knew it was him, but only rarely could she get a sense of what he was feeling.

It was hard to be sure, but it seemed like he was in serious pain. The emotions were so fleeting -- and so hard to feel -- that she almost felt like she was making it up. However, when she thought about that pain in her shoulder...

Something was wrong.

She sat up in her bed looked around. Most of the other unmarried women who didn't have family in the camp were quartered here. Prayla was there too, snoring so loudly a passer-by might have mistaken the sound for a camp of lumberjacks working midday.

She grabbed her copy of the Book of Light -- which no one had ever tried to take from her since it was written in the Fey language -- and headed outside.

She sat down near one of the torches, opened it up to the book of songs, and began to pray for Ethan and read in equal measure.

* * *

It took Kendra fifteen minutes to find the spot where the dragon had crash-landed. She was hoping to find an injured dragon -- or better yet a corpse -- but had no such luck. She did find a trail of blood drips and smudges though, and immediately set off following it.

She tracked it onto the main road, but the trail turned onto a side street rather quickly. The trail of blood slowly thinned and then nearly stopped altogether.

She cursed the extra time she'd taken to hide the Dragon Slayer in one of her hidden caches. She couldn't be seen walking around with it, but the time taken to hide it might have allowed her prey to escape.

"Illuminar, please help me find him." She prayed and then stopped short.

While the blood trail had been weaving a winding path, it was unmistakably headed in the direction of...

She did some quick mental calculations. Given how long it had taken her to reach the blood trail, and the likely speed of an injured dragon, if she hurried she could intercept it off before it reached Illuminar's temple and was given sanctuary.

She ran.

She concentrated on her breathing as she pushed herself harder than she'd done in a long time. The whole time, her dragon-tooth necklace bounced up and down against her upper chest. Her legs began to complain, but the gentle bouncing of the necklace was all the motivation she needed to keep going.

That damn dragon was going to die.

A couple minutes later, Kendra arrived in the large plaza that surrounded each of the seven entrances to Illuminar's temple. The seven entrances were positioned in between the seven points of the star, and the area between those points created seven large, triangular plazas.

She scanned the crowd, but -- as expected -- didn't see the dragon or his disguise gem form. She grimaced and looked around for an easily-climbed building to get a better vantage point.

Twenty seconds later, she was perched atop a single-story building that aligned with one of the seven points of the temple. She scanned the two enormous plaza's visible to her. They were still mostly full of people despite the relative lateness of the hour.

Evening services had probably just let out.

After several minutes of looking, she spotted what she was looking for. On the far side of the right hand plaza, a cluster of people had drawn away as one from something that was slowly moving toward the temple.

She smiled.

She activated her strength-enhancing vambraces, jumped off the roof, and rolled through her landing to come up running. Less than a minute of threading through the crowd later, she arrived at the source of the disturbance and scowled. It was some kind of jester act with midgets.

She grimaced and ran back to her building lookout. As it turned out, that lost time had cost her dearly. No sooner had she returned to her single-story perch, than she spotting another disturbance at the far end of the other plaza. Even from this far away, she could hear the gasps and cries of shock.

The disturbance was well over halfway to the temple.

She swore and leapt off the building again. As she ran, she pulled out a throwing knife, determined to let it fly the moment she had an opportunity. She didn't need to wait long. There was a good twenty foot circle where no one stood. In its center was a man with a Dragon Slayer arrow sticking through his shoulder.

Kendra smiled, drew back her arm, and whipped the knife forward, determined to finish the job that the arrow had started. The moment before her knife released, someone in the crowd jostled her elbow, upsetting her aim, but only barely. She spared a moment to glare at the woman who had upset her aim. She looked young with extremely old eyes, and hair that almost glowed it was such a bright color of blond, or maybe white.

The razor sharp knife whirled through the air toward the dragon.

* * *

Despite the pain, Ethan allowed a small smile onto his face as he neared Illuminar's temple. He had just forty more feet before he would enter it.

His right leg exploded in agony.

He howled in pain, but it came out more like a roar... and he was a dragon. As one, the crowd took a fearful step back and then many of them turned and fled.

The pain was too much and he fell onto his right side. A quick glance revealed a throwing knife sticking out of his leg. Fortunately, the blade was aligned with the direction of the muscles, so while it hurt like hell, his leg still worked. He looked around for the knife thrower.

She was hard to miss.

The recently thinned crowd had stepped away from her too. She looked... dangerous. It wasn't just the arrow in his shoulder or the knife in his leg that convinced him of that either. There was something about her posture and bearing that just screamed 'lethal'.

She stood perfectly relaxed, yet coiled like a serpent ready to strike. Her eyes were as cold and dispassionate as the arctic wind and looked just as ready to kill. She was neither tall nor short, thin nor muscular, pretty nor plain; she just 'was'. Everything about her appearance seemed designed to blend in. She was the kind of person you would see in a crowd and completely forget moments later.

At least under normal circumstances; right now she was pretty damn unforgettable.

Her jet black hair was tied back in a ponytail and her skin was heavily tanned, but not in a bad way. Her lips were curved in a wicked smirk as she drew another throwing knife seemingly out of thin air.

Ethan did the only thing he could think of; he hurled his war hammer at her hoping to distract her.

It didn't work.

She merely leaned out of the way before standing back up and cocking back her throwing arm for another throw. He called the hammer back to his hand, and it reversed course in mid-air moments before it would've hit the ground. The hammer slammed into the back of the woman's left knee, causing her to lose her balance and drop to the ground.

Ethan summoned all of his will power, every last reserve of strength, and every ounce of fortitude. He yanked the dagger out of his leg, dropped it, and began sprinting toward his last hope of salvation: the massive double doors leading into Illuminar's temple.

One of his claws gained purchase on the cobblestone and he took off like a shot -- a very painful shot. It felt like his shoulder and leg were about to fall off. His thigh burned like a white dwarf star and only took the abuse for moments before giving out.

"Sanctuary!" he shouted as he leapt forward with his good leg and flew through the air. He crashed into the side of the massive double doors to Illuminar's temple and slid inside.

He saw stars.

He was vaguely aware of being dragged forward by his good arm. The entire world was spinning around him as he hovered on the edge of consciousness. The pain dragged him toward the abyss; his will to survive clung desperately to the waking world.

It was a whole minute before the world began to make sense again. He could hear an argument from somewhere nearby. A woman's voice was trembling with rage, but was met with a calmer voice that sounded like an older man.

"I demand you release him to me!" the woman shouted.

"Kendra, you know all those created in Illuminar's image are entitled to sanctuary in His--" The man replied, but the woman cut him off.

"Illuminar's image my ass. He's a fucking dragon!" the woman shouted.

Ethan opened his eyes. Someone had dragged him inside the temple and he was lying on the floor just out of sight of the argument. He craned his neck to get a look. The woman -- Kendra -- was speaking to an elderly fellow dressed in priestly robes. Kendra saw his head and moved toward him, but the old priest blocked her.

"Can he speak? Can he reason?" the priest asked. "That he sought and asked for sanctuary proves both, therefore he is made in Illuminar's image and will be granted sanctuary."

"Kossel, I don't care if you're a Luminar. If you don't get out of my way, then I swear I'll--"