Chapter 13:
Gandadirth
Feruvia. The island made for Weredragons.
My stomach turned at the thought.
Here we thought the Earth was getting ready to use us: to fight us. And all the while they were building for us. Cultivating land.
I got as much information from Fiona as I could about the strange island before sending her beautiful body back into the prisons. North of here… meaning, the men we’d slaughtered to get this base were the same soldiers designed to take us to Feruvia—to guide us to our sanctuary.
Guilt washed over me in waves that didn’t cease.
Yet, I couldn’t help but question her motives. Fiona hadn’t been entirely forthcoming until now, and I knew a girl like her wouldn’t give out such information without a purpose. I just didn’t know whether the intent was to make me feel guilt, make me feel safe, or something more devious than that.
I trusted her, and I hated that. I should have a strict guard up, unwilling to believe anything she said, yet I’d told Jadirel everything. All about the resources, the weapons.
After all, it was my mission to tell Jadirel any information I learned; to do what most benefitted my people. They were my family; my army.
Yet, these days all I wanted them to do was leave.
I clenched my fists tight, flicking my wings back in annoyance.
It felt like we had been making all the wrong decisions. I looked around and couldn’t help but revisit the men killed to gain our base: the slaughter at the human ship on Dobromia. I’d softened. I could admit it.
And the fact that the rest of the warriors had remained stubborn made my stomach churn.
We would be flying out to Feruvia today.
I stepped into the jail to visit the girl I had slowly made into my new home: some bastion of hope designed just for me. My beacon. And once again, I heard struggling: a group of shifters unlatching her door and grabbing her, going for her body. They were ready with lust and their claws. Ready to have a piece of her.
A fury built in me like I hadn’t felt before and before I knew it, I was ripping them off her, one after another. I clawed into one, dragging their bodies away from her with a bloody grip and whipping them on the ground.
Their energy was unceasing as they dove for her, like she was some sort of charm they had to win.
“Stop!” I yelled, my voice cracking into a roar.
But they wouldn’t listen.
A dark shifter pushed away from me and looked beyond irritated. “These are Jadirel’s orders!” he yelled. “He said we can do what we like with her before we head for the island!”
I grabbed his head and smashed it against the bars of the cell and then threw him to the ground, smashing him back to the floor with two loud thumps of my tail. I did the same to the next shifter and the rest were smart enough to take to their leave, looking back at me in disgust. That gave me just a small amount of time before Jadirel came for punishment.
The door to Fiona’s cage was wide open, and she looked at me with shaking hands plastered over her mouth. I looked her up and down, eyed the open cage, and then stalked up the stairs.
That was it. I’d had enough.
I flew up the stairwell into the communications room, ripping one of the telecommunication devices from the desk and dialing the only prompt I knew.
“Y’ello!”
His name was Aurlauc. A deep gray shifter with black scales who had long had dealings with the humans. He had long braids that fell down his back and a welcoming smile as the video focused in on him.
He blinked back in surprise at the sight of me and his eyes trailed off the screen.
“Ohhhh,” he said suddenly, looking me up and down. “Kay. Not who I was expecting.”
“My name is Gandadirth, I am with the warrior rebellion from Dobromia, and I am reporting rebellion action on Earth.”
The shifter on the other line blinked at me and offered a small smirk, unsure what to make of me. “You’re calling to report… your own rebellion?”
“Yes,” I nodded, guilt rushing through me for both sides of our little war. Fiona’s, mine. The people I was betraying. The people I’d lost my respect for. Jadirel.
“You don’t say?” Aurlauc mocked. “That must be why our diplomat is missing.”
“Right,” I said.
“And you also stole ships,” he clarified.
“Yeah, I got that,” I hurried him along. “You want to lecture me some more or do you want to hear why I’m calling?”
The gray and black shifter twirled his fingers to signal me to keep going.
“I want protection,” I insisted. “Immunity for being involved.”
Aurlauc slapped his forehead. “You rebels think you’re above everyone else, don’t you?”
“Not anymore,” I said in a cowardly tone: humiliated. My eyes flicked toward the door and then quickly back to the shifter on screen.
“Jadirel’s clan, right?” he confirmed, and I wonder what he must have known about us, about what we’d done. “The arrogance of this reeks of him.”
I nodded, but said nothing.
“What happened?” the gray shifter ran a finger along the bottom of his nose and then looked back at the screen quizzically. “You lose your nerve?”
“It’s just… not what I thought,” I shrugged.
“It never is.”
“Earth was ready for us,” I said quickly. “It’s… to be here, it’s…”
“I was there when the humans first landed; did you know that?” he said, and I shook my head no. “My friend, Khrelan, led the attack on them. We stole their ship, stole their women, and in the end, I was led to a slaughter. To slaughter the remaining humans who were stranded.”
My face narrowed into a frown, and I grit my teeth. It looked like I wasn’t the only one led astray by false promises from the Weredragons.
“I want nothing to do with them,” he said, and I wasn’t sure if he meant the humans or the D’Karr.
“Well, I do,” I spat. “And I want immunity. And I want help; I want the D’Karr’s army.”
Aurlauc let out a long breath, stoic, like he was releasing something. “Then you really don’t know,” he said.
“What?”
“Who you’re really taking orders from,” he clarified.
“Look,” I rushed him along. “I know you have a lot of time on Dobromia, what with the eternal darkness our glorious D’Karr sprung on us out of a jealous rage and all, but this call isn’t exactly sanctioned so… Can we move this great mystery along already?”
“Well, our glorious D’Karr was the one who was counting on this all along,” he snapped. “The rebellion.”
I felt stricken; the phone nearly dropping from my grasp. “What?”
“You really think you could just leave with our ships, our soldiers, without him knowing? He let you, you idiot!”
“And you knew?” I scolded.
“It’s a known secret to everyone but his wife.”
I nodded slowly, terror rising over my body. “Then… there never were any peace talks.”
“No,” Aurlauc shook his head. “Nothing real.”
“This is bullshit!” I shouted. “We’re a rebellious sect that’s working for the D’Karr?”
“Seems a bit silly now, doesn’t it?” the shifter laughed callously, but I’d always heard Aurlauc to be honorable: noble. “He wants a way to steal their resources without infuriating Diana. What better way than a sanctioned secret rebellion?”
I felt infuriated, scared, and betrayed all in the same breath. “And where do you stand on all this?”
“The same place I always stood,” he said quickly. “Somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in sympathy to the humans and disgust with our D’Karr.”
“Brilliant,” I sighed. “And this helps me how?”
“Hey,” he shrugged. “I’ve been trying to figure this one out for years. Beats me.”
“I have to say,” I complained. “You’re running a bit thin in the advice department here.”
“I’m just the guy answering the calls.”
I raised and lowered my brows quickly. “Gee, I wonder why.”
There was a silence that formed between us then and my hands began to sweat. The dragon looked as though he wanted to say something but seemed to think better of it.
“What?” I asked, desperately.
“I have a group,” he said slowly: carefully. “We have a plan in mind, but I need your help.”
“Hey, I need your help!” I cheered. “What do you know!”
“I can ensure nobody ever leaves Dobromia again,” he said warily. “We have mines on all the ships.”
“All of them?” I asked.
He nodded. “All of them. It’s been full cycles in the making. But it’s ready. If you say you can take care of your group… then I can take care of the ships. But that means nobody leaves Dobromia.”
Eternal darkness, I thought. I would be abandoning the planet to an eternal darkness.
“But you have to ensure no shifters ever come back,” he finished.
I thought on his words and had a flash of Fiona. I didn’t know if I could do it… betray everyone. I felt so conflicted. I wanted to hate them: hate their inability for change. But they were the only family I had ever known.
It all came down to Fiona, I thought. If I was going to leave everything behind, then I would need to know where she really stood.