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Do not speak to me of what it means to be a caged animal.
I didn’t know for sure that Emric had heard her also, but I suspected it all the same. Hearing her voice in my head, however terrifying that was, it all made sense now.
We had falsely assumed for years that Dra Skor bonded to some of its creatures. We’d heard whispers of the different creatures for years, though never about dragons. No one from Wylan had ever seen any to confirm it, even when trades were open between our countries.
Dra Skor wasn’t bonded to their creatures; theywerethe creatures. All these years and we’d had it horribly wrong. They didn’t bond to anything, but instead were able to shift into a different form entirely.
And if the queen was the dragon before us, that likely meant she had been stuck in her dragon form this entire time. For nine years.
Seeing Emric’s red magic burn brighter next to me, both of our magic rushing to the surface to protect, I finally found my voice. “Emric, don’t.” I looked back at our gigantic captor. “We meant no offense, Your Majesty. Truly. Seeing you in this form, I understand how my words were poorly phrased.” I paused and decided to just go for it. “It is nice to finally meet you, Queen Estalena Rhea Mallick.”
I wish I could say the same, Prince Keiran Valanova.
I continued, “Neither my confidant nor I wish to hurt you, Your Majesty, but as you can see, our Enchantment rushes to the surface to protect. I do not wish to accidentally burn you, so if you would be so kind as to put us down.”
Not exactly the first request I thought I would make of the queen of Dra Skor:Please put us down.
You do not think I can handle a little fire? Dragons were forged in fire.
She was massive, her black scales armor for her entire reptilian body which was no fewer than fifteen feet in length. I noticed as she moved, her scales also had a purple hue to them, a sort of sheen. Her wings were tucked in at her sides, and I wondered how large they must be to lift her into the air. In fact, the only thing which felt remotely human about her was her eyes. Had her human eyes also been green?
She was a beast the likes of which I had never before seen, and though she had me in her literal talons and I couldn’t move, I also found I was fighting off a bit of a smile.
A dragon. I was looking at a real-life dragon.
“Your Grace,” Amory began, “I truly do not think he meant it like that.” I couldn’t even see Amory from around the creature before me. “He accused me of being queen, so he definitely had no idea about your form.”
I do not really care,the queen bit back.
I wondered how she was able to speak to all three of us like that. And could she only speak to us, or could she also read minds? It was odd that I couldn’t hear a voice, yet at the same time I could. A voice distinctly feminine which I suspected sounded exactly as her real voice would.
“Can you read minds in addition to speaking telepathically?” I asked, unable to curb my curiosity. Even while I dangled there.
What?
Likely not what she thought I would ask. “I only wondered if you could mind-read. If so, it would make this a lot easier. You’d see we came with honorable intentions.”
You would let me sift through your mind, Prince of Wylan?
I shrugged, or as much as I could from around her grip. “I mean, if you put it that way, preferably not.”
Amory’s voice again rang out. “They want samples of our water. The rumors about their lake being changed back are true.”
The dragon’s grip only got tighter.
“Queen Esta,” Amory warned. “Please think this through. You know we are on a time...constraint.Their Enchantment is not like ours. Though I don’t believe the answer is this easy, it may be worth it to listen to what they have to say. There may be something we can learn from them.”
What sort of time constraint was she talking about?
Fine,the dragon sent to us just before dropping us onto the ground.
I let out my magic quickly to catch us but didn’t have enough time to think about our heads. Emric’s head went backward and slammed into some books. He was sure to have a headache later.
“You good?” I asked him.
He mumbled incoherently and I was sure there was a colorful curse in there somewhere before he added more loudly and also sarcastically, “Never better.”
Now that the dragon queen had dropped us, I could see Amory still sitting in the chair where we had all been moments before. She had a hand on the dragon’s tail.
