The Tattooed Woman Pt. 23

I hope folks are enjoying the story so far. Please leave comments, as criticism both positive and constructive is inherently useful. Plus, I like reading comments, so that's cool.

The Tattooed Woman Volume 2 - Chapter 9: If the skies could dream.

Unlike during her last visit, Cassie found that the great hall she had been led to was lit this day and she looked about curiously, for outwith the mythical faerie castles she had once dreamed of as a child she had never seen such a grand place. The walls were of panelled wood and decorated with many tapestries all woven from richly coloured threads of silk and wool. Tall columns of carved black oak stretched up to a panelled ceiling that towered high above her, and a long feasting table stretched along the length of the hall.

The halls of the faerie castles of her dreams were all lit by beams of brilliant sunshine that streamed through windows of coloured glass, but that was not the case here, for there were no windows to allow such illumination to this place and she thought that strange.

The tall Firbolg guard who had been her grim and silent escort closed the door behind her and she swallowed nervously.

At the far end of the hall, Shalidar was waiting.

The Dragon looked down at the small human as she came to stand before her and pondered. It was strange to Shalidar that so many of her plans and schemes all seemed to hinge upon such a short-lived terrestrial creature, such a small thing, so puny, so helpless, she chuckled darkly, so edible.

Shalidar examined the young woman with senses far keener than any possessed by mortal man. She could smell the girl's fear, mingled with a healthy portion of awe, and... yes, a strange measure of envious excitement. She could hear the pounding of her heartbeat, sense the delicious warmth of the hot blood that coursed through her veins, and feel the cold touch of death that still lingered like a shadow upon her spirit.

The wound inflicted upon the girl by the Drow had been most grievous, and she had slipped so far into the cold embrace of that final sleep that its treatment had taxed even her daughter's significant healing magicks to such an extent that afterwards, Ellén had collapsed into an exhausted coma-like sleep for days as she recovered her strength.

Such was the potency of the powers used to heal the girl that Shalidar wondered if the sorcery and shadow would forever leave their mark upon her, poured into the crucible of her spirit like molten iron into a mould, though whether that would ultimately be for good or ill, was far beyond even the perceptions of a Dragon to fathom and she found herself murmuring.

"What immortal hand, or eye..."

Cassie tilted her head curiously, "Pardon?"

The Dragon shook herself as she realised that she had spoken aloud, "A passing thought, nothing more, young Cassie. It is a small thing, pay it no mind," she drew a breath, "I see your wound is well healed now. Would you be fit enough to travel, I wonder?"

A glimmer of hope sparkled for a moment in the girl's eyes, "I feel much better, thank you. And you," she blushed, "does your wound still trouble you?"

Shalidar smiled, "I am well, the injury is all but healed. Indeed, I can take a human shape again easily enough. Would it be a comfort to your mind if I did so?"

The girl swallowed her fear, "Well, it might save me getting a crick in my neck from looking up at you, but..."

"But what?"

Cassie smiled nervously, but despite her fear she couldn't stop the words bubbling forth, "it's just... you're a Dragon! A creature out of... of legend, and... I've dreamed, but never seen such..." she blushed, "I just don't have the words."

Shalidar stared at the girl dumbfounded, "You... like this form?"

"In the same way one might like a mountain or a thunderstorm. It's... beyond me."

In a gesture, Cassie thought strangely similar to that of the half-wild tomcat that used to catch mice back at the inn the Dragon shook her great head with amusement and snorted, "I've seen mighty warriors soil themselves with fear at the very sight of me, while others have fallen to their knees and begged for deliverance as my shadow fell upon them, but not you. Where does this courage come from, I wonder."

"Maybe it comes from being helpless."

"How so?"

Cassie shrugged, "I've always been small. I doubt I could fight off a full-grown man if he sought me harm, far less a Dragon. What point is there then in falling to useless panic and terror?"

The girl swallowed as Shalidar's head moved closer and those brilliant blue eyes peered at her intently. After an endless moment, the Dragon retreated slightly and shook its head, "No."

"No?"

Shalidar smiled, revealing an array of curved, foot-long fangs, "No Cassie, I can read the courage within you as easily as I can smell your blood," the Dragon chuckled, "it is simply that you are brave."

The girl gave a derisive snort, "I'm not! I fear so many things."

"Your fear doesn't stop you from arguing with a Dragon though it seems. Tell me, girl, at the temple, when you were attacked by those demonic hounds, and one went after the children. Did you snatch up yon vorpal broom and run away from the danger, or towards it?"

"B-but they were just children, I couldn't abandon them."

"Indeed."

Shalidar sighed as she considered. The little thing was likeable enough, and her precocious courage was almost endearing. It seemed a shame to inflict her woes upon the human, and yet necessity was perhaps the harshest of all Mistresses so she steeled her heart against the small flicker of sentiment that strangely pricked at the corner of her mind.

"I am considering what to do with you, Cassie."

The girl looked up at her with those deep brown human eyes and her lower lip trembled slightly as if she waited to hear a sentence being pronounced. Her small hands were clasped tightly into fists and despite her efforts, her voice held a quiver as she spoke, "What's to become of me then?"

The Dragon looked for alternatives, but few presented themselves, "I knew that Adair felt some sentiment towards you Cassie, but I confess I considered it to be the affection one might feel for a pet, not kinship."

The girl's cry of furious indignation was almost enough to set the dragon to laughing, "A pet!"

"I know, I apologise for the slight but think on it from my perspective if you can. Adair is of the Danu, and you are a mortal child. There is a significant incompatibility to be measured."

The Dragon made a disgruntled grumbling sound as it allowed its chin to rest on the stone floor with an audible "thump" that shook the furniture.

"I was told about you, but it seems the tale that was spun to me was... let's say, incomplete, and now I feel like some dupe who has allowed herself to be thoroughly manipulated. It's all rather galling."

"Huh?"

"Cassie, I took you with the intent of holding you hostage against any intemperate actions Adair might take against me, thinking to return you safe and unharmed after we spoke, but now? Now I learn that not only have I kidnapped her sister but I all but saw you slaughtered in the process, and in doing these things I may have unwittingly committed a significant slight to another that," she hesitated, and her voice took on a strangely wary note, "well... best not to dwell on such."

Cassie frowned and threw her hands up in an exasperated gesture, "I literally have no idea what you are talking about."

Shalidar eyed the girl, "Adair probably already despised me, but after causing you such hurt? She will be thoroughly incensed, and I'll be lucky if she only kills me."

"B-but you're a Dragon!"

"She won't care."

"You could let me go?"

Shalidar shook her head, "I know her pedigree Cassie, and considering such I do not think it likely that your sister possesses a forgiving nature."

Cassie slumped, "You're going to keep me here, aren't you?"

"You are my only protection against her wrath."

The human's stance changed, her lips thinned, she lifted her chin and her voice hardened, "So, I'm to be your prisoner then?"

"Until such time that I can fathom some way to improve my position, I would have you remain here, as my... guest."

"Tart it up any way you like."

This time the woman's furious impotence was such that the Dragon could not help but chuckle, "I swear Cassie, I've seen heroes cower in terror before me and yet instead you scold me. I think perhaps Adair was not as unwise in her choice as I first thought."

The girl sniffed, "Is it off to the dungeon now?"

"No Cassie, you will not be mistreated, and as long as you behave, I think we can perhaps avoid such deprivations. Instead, I shall continue to place you in the care of my daughter. She has been sadly starved of company and she seems fond of you. Would this not do?"

"Do I have a choice?"

The Dragon smiled, and her eyes glittered as she leaned close, "There are always choices Cassie. I expect you to be upset, and I do not hold your anger against you, but I am a Dragon, as you say. If you vex me, I can be far less... hospitable."

The girl drew a frightened breath, "You'd give me to the Drow?"

"No. That I will never do Cassie. For what it's worth, and I accept you may think it precious little, I will not allow you to come to harm here, and even if you annoy me greatly, I will not give you over to be abused by that loathsome creature. But I can, and will, lock you in a tower or somesuch if necessary," she grinned mischievously, "it's traditional after all is it not?"

The young woman looked down at the floor and her voice was a whisper, "Thank you for that at least."

Shalidar scored the floor as she idly tapped her talons thoughtfully against the stone flagstones and she chose her words with care, "I am what I am and it's not in my... nature, to feel much in the way of sympathy for others, it's just not a thing my kind was meant for. But it was not my desire to cause you misery, and while saying I am "sorry" would be palpably false, I do regret what has transpired."

The Dragon snorted causing a wave of heat to wash over the girl, "You may not believe it Cassie, but I am dancing upon the edge of a blade here, with death and disaster keenly awaiting my slightest misstep in any direction. Still, I shall give the matter some further thought, mayhap I can think of some way to see you safely home without risking all that I hold dear. Now, off with you girl, the guard will convey you safely back to your chamber, perhaps, if you are not too upset with me we might dine together some evening."

Cassie sniffed, "We'll see."

...

It was some time later that Ellén found the girl sitting in her chamber staring morosely at the witchflames dancing in the fireplace.

Smiling brightly the woman breezed past the armoured figure who warded the door and cheerfully held up a length of knotted string, "Cassie! You look well this day; I think your wound all but healed. I was thinking of making you a dress, so I brought my measuring string. Stand up so I might accurately gauge your dimensions girl."

Cassie stood silently and made no complaint as the effusive blonde ran the knotted cord along her limbs and around her waist as she chattered amiably, "Obviously my mother gave you no time to gather belongings before they..."

"Murdered my friend and kidnapped me."

Ellén's smile faltered and her hands dropped to her side as she took in her flat tone and miserable expression. She frowned, "You had words with my mother earlier did you not? What did she say to upset you so?"

Cassie's frustration and temper finally got the better of her, "She says that I am to be kept prisoner here, given over to your tender care so you can pet and pamper me and disguise my imprisonment by dressing me up like a fucking doll!"

Seeing the tears trickling down her face Ellén pulled the unresisting woman close and held her, "I'm sorry Cassie."

"Are you?"

"What?"

Cassie looked up into the blue eyes of the taller woman, "Your mother said that Dragons do not feel such things."

Ellén smiled sadly, "Well, in that case, I must make a pitiful Dragon then, for I am truly sorry. Did she offer a reason for your imprisonment? I doubt it's for ransom."

"She seeks to hold me up as a shield against my sister."

"Hmm, she's just frightened."

"Of Adair?"

Ellén laughed, "Of you! Of what you represent, of all the innumerable unknowns that circle about you like a flock of crows."

Cassie stared, and her words held a lifetime of bitterness, "What are you talking about? I'm a scullery maid, nothing more! It's what I've always been. I have no power, no wealth and no..."

"Family?"

The human swallowed but before she could answer Ellén held a finger against her lips to still her words, "Cassie, Adair declared before the moon and stars that you were her sister did she not?"

The girl sniffed and nodded.

Ellén pointed at the tapestry that hung over the fireplace, "Do you see yon tapestry? I made it many years ago."

Cassie looked and saw it was a beautiful creation of brilliant silk threads that vividly portrayed a gigantic Dragon in flight, with a dark figure crouched upon its back. From the scale the Dragon was truly enormous, dwarfing even Shalidar, a huge thunderous mountain of impenetrable scale and diamond-hard horn. The sheer awesome power of the monster had been so skilfully invoked by the image that it made her shiver involuntarily.

The blonde woman moved to gently touch the fabric, "That is Ddraig Goch, the Great Red Dragon, my grandfather of old. It was the first and mightiest of my kind. But do you see yon figure who rides him like a prize warhorse? Do you see her black hair and black cloak streaming behind her, her predatory crouch and her spearpoint a-gleaming?"

Cassie frowned, "It's a fine tapestry Ellén, but..."

"That is your wicked stepmother."

"What?!"

"Did you not say that you told the crone at the temple that Adair was now your sister? Do you think she did not hear you? She misses nothing! Then you wielded her spear when all other mortals would have been struck stone dead if they so much as touched the thing! My mother is terrified that she has kidnapped a child of the Morrigan, even if as I suspect it was the Queen of Night who pushed her in that very direction."

"B-but why?"

"Who can say Cassie? You may as well ask a thunderstorm "why" as seek an answer from a creature as ancient and wily as the Phantom Queen. She is older than the Dragons, older than the mountains and seas, she walked these lands when the world was young, and she keeps her own council."

"Your mother will never let me go, will she?"

Ellén turned to the young woman and reached out to gently wipe a tear from her face, "We shall see little Cassie, we shall see."

"I hate that name."

The blonde woman laughed brightly before pausing to consider the woman before her for a long thoughtful moment, "There is something I want to show you, come with me."

"What?"

Ellén's voice held more than a small note of mischief as she answered, "I'll return in a moment and then you'll see."

With that, the woman left Cassie alone in her chamber, but soon enough she returned carrying a heavy bundle, "Come, we must be swift. The sun is setting, and it will be dark soon."

Cassie had no time to ask what she was about as Ellén set off, and she hurriedly followed in her wake as she was led along numerous corridors and passageways, past guards and statues, innumerable rooms and chambers until she was quite lost.

At some point, Ellén had passed her a witchfire torch and the dancing flames showed that the walls were now of natural rock, worn smooth by countless years. She could smell the sea and she felt a cold breeze upon her face.

The passage opened up onto a wide ledge that looked to be high up on some mountainside. Cassie drew a breath and looked in amazement at the view. A light flurry of snow was falling, but even so, she could see other snowcapped peaks towering in the near distance while far below her a glistening river wound like a gleaming serpent through a forest of dark trees, as it flowed down towards the distant sea.

"You live in a cave?"

Ellén laughed, "I'm a Dragon, of course I live in a cave, though I'm not sure my mother would appreciate you describing the great halls of Carrowkeel in such a derogatory manner. For a Dragon she's rather houseproud."

Cassie moved gingerly to the edge and peered down at the river far below, "H-how high are we?"

"Very, put this on, it's cold up th- here."

Taking the torch from her, Ellén passed over the bundle she carried which Cassie saw was a heavy fur-lined coat that so dwarfed her small frame when she put it on that the blonde woman could scarcely stifle her giggling at the sight.

The young woman looked down at herself and shook her head, "Where did you get this thing?"

"I filched it from a Firbolg guard."

"I look ridiculous."

Still chuckling Ellén made a motion to the young human as she reached for the silver brooch that held her dress, "Turn around now Cassie."

"Huh?"

The blonde woman blushed sheepishly, "I'm shy, so turn and spare my embarrassment."

Thoroughly bewildered Cassie turned to look out over the precipice at the spectacular vista before her. Over the sound of the wind, she heard the soft rustling of cloth and the padding of light footsteps before Ellén spoke once more.

"I think my mother would have you serve me, Cassie."

"I think so yes."

"Would that be so bad? I have not been cruel to you have I?"

Cassie smiled, "No, you've been kind, you healed me after all but..."

"But you would rather not be my servant or slave."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be Cassie, in your place I might feel the same, besides, I have servants aplenty," Ellén sighed, and Cassie could hear the loneliness in her voice as the woman whispered, "it's not a servant I need, but a friend."

Cassie shook her head sadly, "Friends don't keep each other prisoner Ellén. You have been very gentle with me, and I have no complaint as to how I've been treated, in truth I think you have a good heart, but in the end, what are you, save a kindly jailor?"

There was a long moment of silence before Cassie heard another sound behind her. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before, a strange sound, part groan, part tearing and stretching. After a moment Ellén spoke again, but her voice sounded... different.

"You can turn now."

Cassie turned and she almost stepped back off the precipice in shock.

Ellén laughed, "Careful now, I might catch you before you hit the ground, but I doubt it would be a gentle experience."

The Dragon before her was smaller than Shalidar, but her eyes were the same sparkling blue as those of her mother. Her scales glittered like polished copper as they reflected the light from the setting sun and her wings were a vast leather canopy as she stretched.

The creature sighed happily as it preened, "It's been so long since I've revelled in my true form that I can barely remember the wind upon my scales."

With a movement that was strangely nimble and lithe for such a huge creature she stretched a wingtip down towards the stunned woman, "Quickly now, you best clamber upon my back and hold fast, for we must be away before we are discovered."

Cassie froze.

The Dragon chuckled, "Frightened? It's not unreasonable I suppose. If you trust me then climb aboard, if you do not then say so and we can retire back inside to supper, but you must choose quickly before my mother can intercede."

Licking her lips and with her heart beating harder than a blacksmith's hammer Cassie made herself move and gingerly she scrambled up and along the creature's wing until she reached the neck, "W-what do I do now?"