Seven #2
“My king,” the two guards on either side of the tunnel bow their heads respectfully as he passes.
“Any more coming?” the king asks.
“One is due any day now,” one replies.
“Good.”
What is due?
The king comes to a stop suddenly, and I nearly crash into him, just managing to avoid it.
“Here,” he points to the side of him, and I swallow, going to stand before him.
A lever rests before us, and a cage that is larger than any other, almost taking up the entirety of the back wall. Doors are on either side of it that must lead to other spaces.
I look into it, the space dark, and… wrong.
“Elves have always been special in their abilities,” the king starts. “They are more attuned to nature, healing, archery, among other things. But they are most revered for the way they are with animals. How they can talk with them.” He eyes me. “Control them.”
My fingers tremble, and I clasp them in front of me, my stomach twisting and turning with dread as he stares at the cage before us.
“I’ve been trying to get my hands on an elf for many years now.
Always coming so close, but never quite having one in my grasp.
They always kill themselves before I manage to get them back to Lothmere.
” There’s anger creeping into his tone, and I shy away a little.
“So when Rohan offered a deal at the last Games, I thought, why not? My bastard son is usually a barbaric waste of space. If the useless fuck can get me an elf, he would actually be worth something. And then I can kill him and be done with it.”
The way he talks so casually about killing his son sends a shiver rolling down my spine.
“He does take punishment really well, though, he did so the other day, but it makes me wonder how well you would do. With the healing ability and all.”
My blood runs cold, not only for the fact that I now know where Rohan got his injuries from, but also the warring memories of Emerish’s punishments running through my mind.
“Now, let me show you one of your tasks.”
He lifts a hand and pulls the lever in front of us, the sound grating to my ears.
There’s a loud bang above, and what sounds like chains moving.
I look at the king, who smirks into the cage.
I see nothing at first, just the grating of a mechanism, the turn of cogs and wheels, but then I eventually see what he’s waiting for.
Slowly, the dark tip of wings comes into view from the darkness, followed by a large claw, four of them in total and I want to throw up as more appear.
A lifeless head, horns, one broken, eyes closed like it’s sleeping. The rest of the body comes into view and I stumble back.
A large dragon hangs there, wrapped in chains, caged, and the king has a smile so full of pride on his face that it makes my skin crawl.
“Isn’t she magnificent!” he boasts, turning toward me. “She is my most treasured possession.”
“T-treasured?” The words slip from me in horror.
As if on cue, rumbles and growls come from behind us, and I turn slowly, eyes wide.
Dragons press up against the cages, looking toward the dragon at the end and a quiet gasp slips out of me.
My hand goes to my mouth as a tear falls, unable to hold it back and the king laughs, hands on his hips.
“Do not cry for the beasts, they were made to be tamed and trapped. Used.”
They were made to be free.
Oh, Elvanan.
My hand drops to my throat, the raised scars pressing into my skin as I count the dragons pressed up against their bars. One, three. Seven. Twelve. There are multiple inside one cage, some I can barely see, as though they’re afraid to come any closer.
“Why…”
“Why what?” King Halen frowns. “Oh, why are you here?” He grabs my arm and drags me close to the hanging dragon. “This old girl here isn’t doing her job properly, I need you to fix it, and then I can proceed.”
“Fix it?” I ask numbly.
“Men!” he suddenly shouts, and the door opens to the right of the hanging dragon. Five men walk through it, masks in place. “These are my dragon guards. They stay down here, eat down here. They never leave and see to these beasts.”
King Halen points to the hanging dragon and they nod.
The guards move to the cage, my insides quaking when they take a spear from the rack I didn’t notice.
A man with brown hair enters between the gaps in the bars easily, and goes below the dragon.
She doesn’t move, like she doesn’t even notice him there. Any of us here.
After a nod from the king, he shoves the long spear up into her belly. The dragon jolts. I jolt, when a pained growl comes from her slightly parted gums, a small amount of green vapor spilling from them and my eyes widen in shock.
No… that… it can’t be.
“See how little she produces now?” The king says as I gasp for air. It feels like I’m suffocating. “She used to be so full of it, I could supply hundreds of spheres with it, but in the last few years, she’s been draining. I need you to talk to her, tell her to produce more.”
I’m already shaking my head, taking a step back away from him, away from it all without thought.
“You will!” the king shouts, and the man prods the dragon again. The other dragons roar in fury when a whine comes from her. “It’s either you talk her into it or we keep poking.”
“I… I…”
The king pulls the lever lower, the guard lunges aside and the dragon starts growling, snarling and rushing for the guard who barely manages to escape.
The other guards move quickly, poking at the dragon as she turns and snaps at them.
King Halen comes for me next, and I stumble back, tears dripping fully down my face now.
“You will do as I order!” He backhands me, and I fall to the floor, closer to one of the other cages.
I whimper, my blurry eyes catching on a small, blue dragon within, shying away as the king approaches me.
I release a sob and I’m grabbed by my hair and dragged back to the hanging dragon, horror running through me.
“You will talk to the dragon. You will make her supply me with more, and I will use it to get rid of the Dragorie.” He gets in my face. “And then you will teach the other dragons to be under my command too.”
No… No.
I shake my head.
“Oh? You won’t?”
Fear spreads through me, my whole body trembling but still, I shake my head.
Rohan asked me to do whatever the king asked of me but how can I do that?
I can’t.
The guards stab the hanging dragon more, and I’m crying now, breath hitching.
“What a shame,” the king says, stroking my hair and then to the tip of my ear. I flinch as he grabs and twists it. “The hard way it is then. Guard.”
A man, older than the rest judging by the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, grabs my hair, dragging me toward the door I entered through.
I scratch at his hands, looking around wildly, trying to find an escape, but when my eyes sweep the end of the room, to the hanging dragon, the breath stutters in my lungs.
Because she has her eyes open now, and they’re fixed on me.