“We’re in the forge, Daiana,” Granville answered, grinning at them. “Told you she’d be here soon.”
A moment later, Daiana joined them. She looked just as Adrissu remembered, though maybe her face seemed a little more lined as the years had passed, a few more touches of gray in her long, braided hair. His eyes flitted to the dragonscale necklace around her neck; a cold shock passed over him when he noticed a fourth scale looped through it, this one yellow and smaller than the others. Perhaps that was why Atillath had never come to bother him again. Adrissu shook the thought away, forcing himself to remain focused. In her arms, she held a heavy wooden case big enough to fit a longbow, though a bit wider. As Daiana stepped toward them, she offered the group a tight smile, the scar running from her nose to her chin and causing her lips to dip in the center.
“Hello,” she said briskly, brushing past Granville. “I’m Daiana. Pleased to meet you.”
“Daiana,” Adrissu said stiffly, bowing his head. “I’m Adam, and these are my associates, Heriel and Naydruun.”
“Now that we’re all here,” Granville said cheerily, turning to gesture down the hallway. “Would you like to join us for a drink, and we can show you our newest prototype?”
He led them to a small lounge area further into the workshop, where he pulled a bottle of sweet wine from an ice box and poured a glass for each of them. It was only when they had all taken a seat around a low table that Daiana placed the heavy wooden case down between them.
“I’ve had the idea for a weapon like this for years,” she said slowly, unlatching it. “But Kipp was the one who finally figured out the specifics. This is our final prototype of the crossbow.”
The weapon inside was made of a dark, burnished material; Adrissu recognized it as magically fortified wood. The crossbow had a much thicker stock than normal, which must have been where the steam was generated. It narrowed slightly into a leather-bound grip and a heavy-looking trigger, and at the top where the latch connected to the flight groove, a small gem was inlaid right where the end of a bolt would sit—presumably a conduit for the generated steam power to be released.
“Shall I give you a demonstration?” Granville asked eagerly, pulling it from its case.
“Please,” Naydruun said, gesturing, and with a nod the human turned to face the rest of the workshop, gesturing at a thick metal shield mounted to the far wall.
“Even at about a fifty percent charge, this should still be able to punch right through that shield,” he said. “At full power, it could cut through a dragon’s scales just as easily.”
He set the bolt in place, aimed, and let out a slow breath. At his exhalation, Adrissu saw the repository glow faintly with magic, and a hissing noise filled the air. With two fingers, Granville pulled down on the trigger, and steam burst from the crossbow, directed away from Granville’s face due to the slight curve of the lathe. At the same moment, the bolt exploded out, and with a resounding blast, it stabbed through the metal shield and the first few inches of the wall behind it.
The silence that followed was nearly as deafening, until finally Adrissu forced himself to pull his eyes away from the bolt-pierced shield, glancing quickly at Heriel and Naydruun.
“Impressive,” he said, then stood up to move toward Granville. “Very impressive. May I?”
“Just be careful,” the human warned, but handed him the crossbow. It was heavier than it looked. Adrissu inspected it for a moment, stepping further past Granville as he did. “What do you think?”
Adrissu glanced back; both Granville and Daiana were watching him with interest, so when he gave a slight nod to Heriel and Naydruun, the two humans did not notice the couple also rising from their seats.
“This is truly an innovative piece of work,” Adrissu said, nodding at Granville, who smiled at him with pride. “I would wager that there is nothing like it in this world. It has the potential to change the dynamics of self defense and warfare forever.”
He sighed heavily, looking back down at the crossbow heavy in his hands. As magical as it was, breaking it was probably going to be painful.
“Thank you, sir,” Granville started.
“Which is why,” Adrissu interrupted him, pressing a finger to the small gem beneath the latch. “We cannot allow this to go any further.”
“I—what?” the human stammered, but Adrissu was already channeling a thick tendril of force into his fingers, pushing down on the stone with his thumb until it shattered, burning his hands as it cracked apart with a sound like thunder.
“What are you doing?!” Daiana exclaimed, scrambling to her feet; but behind her, the forms of Heriel and Naydruun were already starting to shift, tearing apart at the seams. Granville stared at Adrissu, his face ashen, unable to even react, but Daiana pushed past him.
“It’s nothing personal,” Adrissu said, knowing it was not reassuring in the least. He pressed harder into the crossbow, and the entire heavy piece splintered in half, finally eliciting an anguished shout from Granville.
Before Daiana could get close enough to touch him, he dropped the pieces of the crossbow and let his illusory form fall away—at the same moment, the back wall collapsed where Naydruun and Heriel had stood, as they too erupted into their true form.
Everything was suddenly a blur of shouting and walls crumbling around them. When Adrissu could see clearly again, his head was pressed right up against the ceiling; with a snarl, he flexed his wings and pushed upward, the beams splintering against him. A streak of red surged toward him; Heriel in her true form, her lithe body lunging forward to grapple Daiana in her claws. The woman screamed, thrashing against Heriel. Granville was trembling all over as he whirled to see not one, but three dragons in his workshop, so large they made the walls crack and the ceiling crumble.
To his credit, Granville seemed to shake himself into action after only a moment, sprinting back toward the forge where other prototypes and weapons must have been kept. But he wasn’t fast enough; Adrissu lunged at him, claws curling around his abdomen, and the human shouted in pain as fresh blood poured onto Adrissu’s scales.
He heard Daiana still shouting behind him, and he sunk his claws in deeper, until Granville’s face grew pale and his struggling ceased. Another screech pierced the air, this one draconic rather than human; Adrissu turned to see that Daiana had managed to pull a dagger from a holster somewhere on her hip or thigh, plunging it into Heriel’s shoulder. Beside her, Naydruun was snarling, fire flickering behind their teeth, their claws reaching to wrench Daiana away from her.
But the very fact that a blade that small could break through dragon scale was setting off alarm bells in Adrissu’s head—it had to be some kind of enchanted weapon; and the way Heriel thrust Daiana away from her and clutched at the wound, where the blade was still buried in the joint of her shoulder, only made him more sure that it had some effect beyond simply piercing flesh.
“What is this?” he snapped, dropping Granville’s now-still body as he surged toward the struggle. A cruel smirk flashed across Daiana’s face even as she struggled against Naydruun, and Adrissu reached out to stop the other dragon, but it was too late—fire exploded from Naydruun’s maw, and the human’s smirk vanished as the upper half of her body was engulfed in flame. She screamed, thrashing in Naydruun’s claws, until the dragon bit down on her hard and her movement stilled. They threw aside the half-burnt body and leapt back toward Heriel.
“I—This—” Heriel stuttered, clutching at the wound with one claw. Beneath it, a spiderweb of sickly black was spreading outward from the wound. Suddenly, she gagged and spat out a thick stream of black ichor—both Adrissu and Naydruun froze, staring down at it in uncertainty and fear.
