“Never,” he promised.
They each set to work with a renewed fervor after that. Pollux had always been one to throw himself into his work, but somehow he seemed even more preoccupied with it now. Their mornings together were growing shorter, and now he rarely returned from his workshop before sunset.
As for his own work, Adrissu had Shima take on more tasks than her position normally allowed, not outright saying it but allowing her to believe he was testing the idea of training her to someday take over, perhaps for Ned or even for him. Adrissu assigned her to periodically review and approve lesson plans, one of his more frequent, tedious tasks, and coordinated with his secretary to have her run several meetings he decided he did not need to be present for. This allowed him to step away as much as he dared so that he could formulate a real plan.
He gathered new rumors and information about Tyrsun—easy enough, as the red dragon had been particularly cruel and domineering over the people of Wintergrove in the past five years or so, perhaps still enraged at being wounded by Pollux, though he surely knew that they both had long since left the city. Adrissu found several new essays and articles about Tyrsun, lamenting his chokehold on the area, postulating how to drive him away or somehow minimize his reach. While the precise location of his lair was still mostly unknown, as he jealously guarded the woods that must hide the exact entrance, itwaswidely believed that his lair was in a cave system or something similar north of Wintergrove, where the forest turned into rocky outcroppings near Camfort Cliff.
Much of it confirmed what Adrissu already knew about Tyrsun: he was cruel and aggressive, but only to intimidate the people of Wintergrove. His actual skirmishes were few and far between, preferring a display of dominance, then flying away before warriors or weapons arrived on the scene. But some of it helped, especially the various theories put out about where exactly his lair was, which would be the hardest part to plan around.
Adrissu could not get too close to the lair, knowing their draconic awareness of each other would tip Tyrsun off to his presence. It would have to be Pollux who found the lair, then he could double back and lead Adrissu. They would be committed to their fate after that: the point of no return. The moment he sensed Adrissu approaching, he would surely be ready to fight—Pollux’s weapons would be key at that point as well.
They should practice fighting, he realized, but he was not sure how well he could spar against Pollux, knowing how gently he would have to treat the human to avoid actually harming him, and how much fiercer Tyrsun would be in a real fight. But it would be better than nothing, so he explained his reasoning to Pollux. His mate agreed that he would have to test the weapons’ efficacy with Adrissu once they were completed, and practice holding his own against a dragon.
Finally, he gave Pollux the antimagic sword that he had stolen from Daiana so long ago, the one she had used to fell dragons herself. This—combined with the shield and the chains that Pollux had developed—would be enough to subdue Tyrsun, enough to perform the ritual. When he handed the blade to Pollux, for an instant, he was filled with dread, knowing his mate wielded one of the few weapons that could take his life. Somehow his mate had ended up with so much power over him, over all dragons—but Pollux held it reverently, just as keenly aware of what it must have taken for Adrissu to put it in his hands.
“I promise I won’t let you down,” Pollux said, keeping the sword in its sheath as he looked it over. “I know you’re trusting me with all this, and I’ll make sure your trust is well-placed.”
Adrissu smiled wearily at him. “There is nothing you could do to betray my trust, I think. But thank you.”
After that, Pollux trained with the antimagic sword and would sometimes ask Adrissu to spar with him using wooden practice swords. Adrissu had very little knowledge in swordplay, but watching Pollux reminded him of seeing Ruan fight, which was strangely reassuring. He couldn’t say with any authority whether Pollux was a good enough fighter to hold his own against a dragon, but hopefully Pollux would never have to face down Tyrsun alone. Mostly, though, he teased Pollux that it was only an excuse for Pollux to smack him around a bit, which the elf did not deny.
Pollux continued his work on the fire-resistant shield, which had gone through several rounds of revisions, but never seemed to quite meet his expectations. First, it wasn’t large enough to provide effective coverage, then it was too heavy to wield with just one arm; then the enchantment wasn’t strong enough so that while it would split a stream of draconic fire, it would burn too hot to hold, which defeated the purpose entirely. Adrissu helped how he could, but Pollux was the enchantment expert between them. It seemed a delicate balance between the physical item and the enchantment itself, so most of Adrissu’s contributions were hunting down the finest blacksmiths who specialized in shields, ordering things exactly to Pollux’s specifications, and paying to have them all made. He had never seen his hoard so small—another reason they would have to succeed in subduing Tyrsun, as the other dragon’s hoard would be theirs once the process was complete.
Through all this, Willow could tell Pollux was working on something and pestered him every so often about working for her again; but he repeatedly refused, and eventually she seemed to give up. A few months after that, though, the Dragonslayer Cannon was wheeled into town and displayed prominently along the easternmost wall. Lucky they had not chosen to put it on the wall facing the sea, Adrissu thought with no small amount of relief.
The thing was hideous: a metal crossbow-like contraption the size of a human man, mounted to an equally large steam reservoir. Its bolts were nearly five feet in length. It was installed with all manner of pomp and circumstance, but Adrissu hated even thinking about its presence in the city. Zamnes had not been seen in years, nor caused any problems for Polimnos in centuries: why the Lord Representative had taken such a keenness to finding and killing him all of a sudden was a mystery to him. But, evidently, others in town agreed with her.
But he kept his head down, and so did Pollux. Adrissu had taken a stronger interest in learning more healing magic and spent another summer in Aefraya to study with Dirge, who was getting on in years, but still able and willing. Pollux went with him this time, curious to visit Aefraya, and equally curious to learn the basics of healing himself. It was interesting to see Aefraya anew through Pollux, who had only vague memories of a few places within it, and who was very interested to know more about his yet-unknown elven heritage.
Quietly, without telling him, Adrissu tried to find out any information about Pollux’s parentage, but was quickly met with a dead end. He had been dropped off as a small child at the orphanage after being found wandering on the road. Adrissu investigated the few elven caravans that traveled in that area, wondering if he had been born to merchants who had perhaps come to an unfortunate end at the hands of beasts or brigands; but there was almost no elven commerce that far into Autreth, and the two companies that he could find information on had no record of losing a caravan or employees in the area at that time. So it remained an eternal unknown, but Pollux didn’t know any better and couldn’t therefore be disappointed at the lack of answers. For his part, Pollux seemed to mostly enjoy their time in Aefraya, as it was largely work and little leisure, and he picked up healing easily.
When that summer was over, however, Pollux went right back to work on his weapons. The shield went through several more iterations before he tentatively declared that it was done. By then, it had been nearly a year since the Dragonslayer cannon had been first wheeled into the city.
“I don’t even want to say it’s finished,” he sighed, looking dejectedly at the gleaming shield he’d handed to Adrissu for his inspection. “More like... ready to be tested. I’ll have to do some sparring with it first to be sure. But it’s more promising than the rest.”
“It looks just about perfect to me,” Adrissu remarked, handing it back to him. “Though, in truth, it just needs to be good enough to keep you alive.”
“It needs to be perfect,” Pollux muttered, but leaned into Adrissu gratefully anyway.
They tested the shield later that week, bringing it down to Adrissu’s lair where he could breathe fire in his true form. It cleaved the stream of fire perfectly in half at the exact angle Pollux wanted: the enchantment drove the flame away, while shielding the area behind it from the intense heat by simultaneously sending a flurry of cold air around the user. Steam billowed from where the two airstreams met, one ripping hot and the other biting cold. It reminded Adrissu of the enchantment on the first Blackthorn weapon that he’d seen Pollux wielding—how it blew the steam away from the wielder the moment it went off. They had placed the shield on a stand so they could safely test it without Pollux needing to wield it himself, and when the steam cleared, it remained unmarked by the fiery onslaught.
“That looked the best of all of them,” Adrissu rumbled, swiveling his long neck to peer down at Pollux, who was watching beside him.
“I think so too,” Pollux echoed faintly, looking impressed. “Maybe this is the one, after all.”
He spent a few more days fine-tuning it, then he and Adrissu had a few mock fights using the shield, the chain, and the sword.
“Don’t hold back,” Pollux said as Adrissu emerged into his draconic form. “It needs to feel like a real fight—how it will later on.”
“Of course,” Adrissu agreed, though he knew he would have to be careful to not truly hurt Pollux. But the fact that Pollux had the antimagic sword did even the playing field a bit.
He had seen for himself how well the shield worked, but still it made him nervous to now be breathing fire at his mate, sheltered behind it. His heart seized up into his chest, and he braced himself to quickly drop back into his smaller form to heal any accidental injuries as he exhaled flame toward Pollux. But the shield stood fast, and when the burst of steam blew back toward him, he could see that Pollux was unharmed.
“Perfect,” the elf said, then lunged at him. Adrissu leapt aside, dodging the sword that Pollux swung at him, purposely slow enough that there was no chance it would make contact with him. As he feinted, Pollux dropped the sword and pulled the whip-like chain from where it was looped at his hip, swinging it at Adrissu. The chains whistled through the air, reaching for his outstretched wings, and this time the move was lightning quick and meant to capture. They collided with his wings, twisting around them near the base where they met his shoulders—the enchantment bound them tightly together the moment they found their target. Adrissu hissed in discomfort and tried to break through them, but the fortified metal held fast. He could not tear them away, nor could he move enough to take flight.
“It works,” he growled, lowering himself so that Pollux could reach the chains to remove them.
“I need more practice,” Pollux sighed, sounding annoyingly disappointed in himself as he unwound them. “It’s been far too long since I’ve used a sword like this.”
