A Dragon's Tale Ch. 23

Taloni hesitated, cocked her head to one side, then look at her again. "He says that's fine as long as you leave any bows on your airship." She frowned. "I think he's worried that you might hurt one of his wives."

"I won't, unless they attack me."

"Then you'll come?" The Fey teen said hopefully. She really did look like she wanted her to, and Kendra did want to find out whatreally made the dragon tick.

Being on the dragon's airship though...

She frowned.

It was always a bad idea to meet with an enemy on his terms. Always. However, there really wasn't a better option. Grounding both airships to meet on the ground would be a waste of time because he could fly, giving him a positional advantage. Plus, all the dry grass on the Great Plains below...

If she was going to meet him, then doing it on his own airship might be the best place, outside of a crowded market with lots of guards. And since he already knew she was there, she didn't have the element of surprise anymore. Perhaps, a fact-finding mission might work after all.

Besides, this dragon didn't appear to have super hard scales yet, given how her throwing dagger had hurt him in Arcanum. If worst came to worse, she still had those up her sleeve; quite literally. They were concealed, so she would have a chance to use one if he attacked.

Plus, Taloni wanted her to go...

"Okay; I'll meet with him."

* * *

The moment Selene started to wake up, she wished she hadn't. She felt like she'd gone twenty rounds with a heavyweight boxing champion who was armed with a meat tenderizer. The only parts of her body that didn't hurt where the ones that ached.

She thought she was good at hand-to-hand combat, but Smithbond was something else. He was on a whole different level. She felt like she just been schooled like a white belt challenging a grand master. She doubted even her father could've taken him, and he hadn't lost a fight in almost a decade, even against other masters.

She inhaled and immediately felt her ribs mount an assault on her pain receptors. One or two of them must be cracked.

She groaned.

"You're awake." A feminine voice nearby said.

She thought it might've been Hailey Oswald, but wasn't sure. Putting thought into anything aggravated her headache. She just groaned again to confirm. She had tried to speak, but a rather painful bruise in her side had ruined that plan.

"Don't move too much." Hailey said. "You're going to be okay, but it's going to hurt like hell for a few days."

Selene finally managed to open her eyes, and thankfully the lighting in the room wasn't bright enough to make them hurt. Strangely, one of her eyes didn't want to open all the way. It was the one thatreally hurt, as opposed to the other which merely hurt.

Selene was laying on her back on what felt like a cot, and not a very high quality one. Hailey was leaning over her, probably sitting on the cot next to her. The room was made from concrete except for the steel door with a barred window. There was a toilet with a privacy curtain in one corner, another cot - with Jason Stiles and Melinda Estelo sitting on it - and that was it.

"Sorry for-" Selene started to say, but was interrupted by the moving aggravating her ribs, which made her cough, which aggravated them even more.

"Sorry for dragging you all into this." She said once the coughing fit had died down and the pain had returned to a manageable level.

Melinda put her hand over her very pregnant stomach protectively. "We forgive you."

"Anyone who go through that-" Jason indicated her many wounds. "-to protect Hailey and Melinda is okay in my book."

"There's nothing to forgive, not after what you did for me in there." Hailey added.

"Thank you." Selene said. She had the impulse to get up, but that sounded like something only a masochist would indulge in at this point. "What time is it?"

"It's a quarter to six." Jason said looking at his watch. It was an old style analogue one, which is probably why they hadn't confiscated it.

"I don't suppose there's anything to eat or drink around here?" She asked, reconsidering sitting up. One does not simply drink water lying down. She almost chuckled as she remembered that meme, then suppressed it; she was in enough pain.

"We have water." Hailey said getting up. There was a tiny sink with a single paper cup next to it. Hailey filled the cup and brought it to her.

"Thanks." Selene said, then made to sit up. It hurt less than she thought it would, which meant she was able to stifle the cry of pain. Once vertical, she took the cup and went to take a drink. She winced when the cup touched her lip, which was apparently split.

The water felt good though.

It tasted like chlorine, but she was parched. She finished the cup, drinking slowly lest she move too quickly, start coughing, and end up with the cup's contents all over herself.

"So what now?" Hailey asked when she was done.

Selene looked around the concrete walls and steel door. "I guess we get comfortable and wait."

"No, I meant about..." Hailey glanced at Melinda. "About your boss."

"I have no idea." She replied honestly.

Over Hailey's shoulder, she could see Jason clenching his fist and alternately looking at Melinda with concern and glancing at the steel door.

"I wish I could help, but clearly I can't." Selene said, hating feeling so helpless. She had never felt like this before. Never been in a position where she was so totally powerless before. She hated it.

Truly hated it.

In the back of her mind, she remembered being completely helpless at least once before: in the clearing with the dragon-man. However, that had been an entirely different situation and thus she'd had an entirely different reaction.

"Maybe you could tell him about where you were from, just not about Ethan." Selene suggested. "He might accept that."

All three of them looked at her with something approaching suspicion, but not quite reaching it.

"I'm just trying to help. None of us want to see a pregnant woman looking like me."

All three of the others gave her an odd look.

That's when Selene remembered that - despite her wounds and puffy face - her looks had always been the envy of every woman she'd ever met. She didn't mind being beautiful; she liked it in fact. However, it did make having any sort of friendship rather difficult. Men wanted her body and women were jealous of it. Neither fostered a good environment for friendship.

"Look, I'm either here because he got me fired and I tried to protect Hailey, or because I'm trying to get you-" She looked at Hailey. "-to spill your guts to him. There's literally nothing I can do to convince you it's the former, so I'm not even going to try. You can make up your own minds."

"He got you fired?" Melinda cocked her head to one side. "What happened?"

"It's a long story."

Jason looked around the prison cell. "We appear to have plenty of time."

Hailey and Melinda both looked at her expectantly.

"Okay." Selene sighed and began to recount the story.

* * *

Every fiber of Kendra's body was screaming that she was making a huge mistake. All of her training, all of her experience, common sense, and even a few proverbs from the Book of Light concerning dragons told her she was making the biggest mistake of her life.

She had almost turned her airship around several times. Each time, Taloni had convinced her to keep going. The Fey teen was still sitting in her airship, having asked to ride back with her because her wings were tired. The dragon huntress reluctantly agreed. She liked having the Fey girl around, but it was a bit awkward with her having hunted the girl's husband for so long.

What Kendra really wanted to do was ask for another hug, but she couldn't work up the nerve.

She wished she could.

Now, she was pulling her airship up alongside the dragon's, the latter having dropped anchor to better facilitate docking. She had pulled rather farther up that was usual, so her ship was docked far forward of the main mast near the Argo's bow. She'd done this on purpose to put as much distance between herself and the other crew as possible, in order to have as much time to react as possible.

Kendra threw a rope to a thin, wiry crewman who caught it expertly and hooked it around one of the docking posts built into the railing for just such a purpose. She hooked the docking rope around the docking posts on her own airship. They were enchanted, and the tiniest drop of mana would cause them to breakaway without the hassle of needing to untie the rope. She tightened the rope until the two hulls were touching to finish docking, and then cinched the rope.

After that was done, Taloni smiled at her, then flew up and over to land next to the dragon, giving him a quick peck on the check as she landed. He touched her arm affectionately in response, but never took his eyes off the dragon huntress.

"Kendra." He almost growled.

"Dragon." She replied said as she hopped onto the Argo.

They stared at each other for several tense seconds. She was missing her Dragon Slayer bow dearly, almost feeling naked without it. However, she had a sword at her side, her concealed throwing knives, and her strength enhancing vambraces; she was ready in case they attacked.

Opposite her was the dragon flanked by his three wives and the redheaded mage, Rachel. Up on the quarterdeck, the high elf was at the ship's wheel. She had a sword at her side and a roll-able leather shield in hand, but didn't look like she was about to use them. The two crewmen were standing by the entrances to the lower decks. They too were armed but clearly hanging back. Except Taloni alone - who looked elated to have the dragon huntress onboard - the Argo's crew all looked wary.

The sun had recently started to set, and the sky was a beautiful mosaic of reds, oranges, and purples on the clouds. The reddish light of the setting sun made the situation even more surreal.

"You wanted to talk?" Kendra said after nearly a minute of silence.

"Why are you following us?" He asked.

"I thought that was obvious." She retorted, glaring daggers at him.

"Okay, then why did you save Taloni and Anthiel?"

She shrugged. "I was bored and needed some exercise."

"That's not true." Taloni stated. She wasn't accusing Kendra nor being combative; she was merely stating a fact. Her brilliant lilac eyes seemed to bore into Kendra, but her gaze was filled with kindness.

The dragon made a thoughtful sound. "Why hunt me for over a week, nearly kill me several times, and then rescue my wife?"

"Because I'm not huntingher."

"Why aren't you hunting Ethan anymore either?" The redhead asked.

"What makes you think I'm not?" Kendra countered.

"You had him dead to rights earlier today." She replied. "You had the opportunity, the weapons, the element of surprise, and even an escape route; you had everything you needed and yet didn't strike. Why?"

Kendra didn't reply.

She wasn't even sure she had a good answer to reply with.

"I have a better question." The wood elf in the green dress said. "Why were you trying to kill him in the first place?"

"He's a dragon." Kendra replied, noting that the wood elf had used the past tense for her hunting.

"And that's reason enough?" Rachel asked.

Kendra raised her eyebrow. "You're a Lord's daughter. Surely you've heard of the chaos that dragons wreak upon these lands. Surely your father had to deal with dragons regularly."

"No, not that I can recall." The redhead shook her head. "I've heard the stories, but dragon attacks were virtually unheard of in my father's domain."

Kendra cocked her head to one side.

Strange.

She'd never heard of a human lord being able to keep dragons at bay. Defeat them, yes. Drive them out, sure. But prevent them from attacking in the first place? She hadn't thought that any man could keep their lands free of the scourge of dragon.

"You've been watching us for a while now." Taloni pointed out. "Does he really deserve to be hunted just for being a dragon?"

Kendra didn't answer.

"How long have you been watching us?" Ethan asked. "Since we Left Arcanum?"

"About."

"Can you name a single thing he's done that deserves death?" Rachel asked.

"He killed a girl in Arcanum; I know that much."

"That was me." The blonde spoke up. "And it wasn't him. It was some men who attacked us. I died while Ethan was trying to save me."

"You don't look very dead."

"Were you watching us the night we left Arcanum?" Ethan asked. "If so, you surely saw me fly her body to the Argo."

The dragon huntress nodded, still not sure what to make of that.

"I was clearly dead, wasn't I?" Beth asked.

"Yes." Kendra admitted.

"He tracked down and fought a necromancer, and then traveled to another world to bring me back. What normal dragon would ever do that for a human?"

Kendra let her hand fall to her sword as she narrowed her eyes. "You 'tracked down a necromancer' to bring her back? The darks arts do sound like a dragon's domain."

Ethan scoffed. "And he nearly killed us. I didn't use him to bring Beth back, I just needed to use his portal. I brought her back the same way I brought you back."

"You're welcome by the way." Alana said frostily. "For saving youboth times."

Kendra pursed her lips.

She wasn't wrong.

It galled her to no end, but she wasn't wrong. He had indeed saved her life twice. Of all the things she'd seen since encountering this dragon, that made the least sense. Him raising her in The Arena might make some sense. It had certainly swayed the crowd and probably help him avoid a lot of problems. But the second time there were no witnesses and it had cost him a singed back to help her. It didn't make sense.

"Why?" She finally asked. "Why did you save me during the fight with Havorleth?"

"Honest truth: I have no idea." Ethan replied. "Instinct maybe? Or maybe I just didn't think you deserved to be burned alive. I don't know. Believe me, I don't make a habit of taking dragon's fire for my mortal enemies, or bringing them back from the dead."

Kendra frowned.

He was either telling the truth or among the best liars she had ever known. Actually, either they were either all telling the truth or they wereall exceptional liars. She had watched all of them carefully, and none gave the slightest sign of dishonesty. That was doubly surprising because he was talking about bringing someone back from the dead.

"So how did you bring the girl and I back from the dead?" Kendra asked indicating Beth.

"It's kind of complicated." He replied.

She gave him a look. "I'll try to keep up."

* * *

"And that's when I discovered all my martial arts training was woefully inadequate to the task." Selene said, finishing her story and trying not to sound bitter about that last part. She'd managed to make it through without dissolving into a pain induced-coughing fit every few seconds.

"Wow." Jason said. "That all makes sense... if you're telling the truth."

He grilled her on various fine details of the story for the next several minutes, probing for inconsistencies and little details you would only know if you were telling the truth. She answered all of his questions and eventually he seemed satisfied.

"Well, I believe her." Jason said when they were done.

The two other women nodded.

"The question now is, what to do next." Selene said.

They talked about it for a few minutes, until they heard the sound of the door being unlocked. They looked over to see three people enter. One was Smithbond who was looking uncharacteristically cowed. Next was the purple-haired Yvonne, who looked like she could punch through concrete right now as mad as she was. Last was Gonorran. He looked impassive and seedy as ever, but also mildly amused at the other two. Somehow, his smile made him looked creepier.

The purple-haired woman was glaring daggers at Smithbond.

"I'm sorry Selene and..." She looked at Hailey. "Whatever your name is. I thought this lug and I had an understanding about the proper way to treat guests."

She glared at him again and he seemed slightly cowed by the irate computer whiz.

Yvonne looked at Gonorran, snapped her fingers and then pointed at Selene and Hailey. "Sometime today please."

The two women both shrank back slightly.

"Don't worry, he's just going to use magic to heal you. If he does anything else..." Yvonne let that hang in the air like someone reminding a misbehaving child to behave.

If Selene hadn't had that encounter with Ethan or seen Gonorran fighting through the satellite feed, she wouldn't have believe it. As it was, she barely wanted to be in the same room with the necromancer, much less let him use magic on her.

She opened her mouth to speak, unfortunately the inhale aggravated her ribs and cut her off. She groaned in pain slightly, and while she was distracted she felt Gonorran's hand settle on her shoulder.

She shuddered, and resisted the urge to shrug it off.

Her whole body started to tingle slightly. She could feelsomething going on, but wasn't sure what it was. After about thirty seconds, she realized her ribs didn't hurt anymore. Another thirty seconds saw her puffy eyelid going down and the various aches and pains in her body slowly subsiding. After a couple minutes she still felt very sore, but nothing actually hurt anymore.

"Thanks." She forced herself to say. Her father had drilled being polite into her, and it was a hard habit to break, even with someone like Gonorran.

He looked down his nose at her, regarding her much as a casual shopper might regard a trinket that wasn't worth his time. He sniffed derisively and then turned to Hailey. A minute later, Hailey was also looking much better. The bruises weren't completely gone, but the cuts were closed and she certainly looked much better.

"Now that's taken care of, get lost." Yvonne waved Gonorran out.

The necromancer looked at Smithbond, who nodded. Once he left, Smithbond closed the door behind him.

The purple-haired girl turned to Hailey. "Now, I understand you don't want to tell us what you know about 10k1."

"10k1?" Hailey looked puzzled.

"The Ten Kingdoms." Smithbond clarified.

"So here's the thing, I'm guessing this is out of loyalty to that Ethan character who helped you."

Hailey didn't reply.

Yvonne continued. "Here's the thing, we don't give a rat's ass about him. You could never mention him again for all we care. We want to know about the world itself. What is it like? What are the people like? Most especially, what are their weapons and especially capabilities like? Do they pose a threat to us?"

"I don't think you have anything to worry about." Hailey said.

"Except they can open portals." Smithbond pointed out. What's to stop them from opening one right into the oval office? Or a bank vault, or a nuclear missile silo?"

"Why are you asking all these questions?" Selene asked. "You told me yourself that you had captured from people from 10k1. Surely you must know they pose no threat."

"They weren't very forthcoming." Smithbond replied. "As a result, we had to send our men in blind and lost them. We don't want to make the same mistake again."

"Again?" Selene raised her eyebrow. Thankfully, it didn't hurt anymore.

He nodded. "Yes again. We've had the portal for decades, we just lacked someone to power it, which we now have." He glanced towards the door through which Gonorran had just left. "We're going to send an expeditionary force to do a proper threat assessment and we want to know what we're walking into."

"Interesting." Jason mused.

Selene frowned.

The phrase 'expeditionary force' sounded an awful lot like it really meant 'invasion scouts'. She wouldn't put it past them given what she knew of them, especially Smithbond. What secret government agency wouldn't like a location that's literally on another planet so they couldn't be discovered doing whatever nefarious things they had planned?