Oszin

I was kept at the back of the caravan with other prisoners, where I didn’t usually have much idea of what was going on. We shuffled along for miles, our hands and feet chained. Our rations were the worst, and this, considering that dragon food was already awful.

One day like that seems like a week, so by the time we reached the northern caves, Himika seemed like a distant memory. Everything did. Moth’s laugh. The dragon dances. Aurekdel’s red-gold hair and strange golden eyes and scaled hands, and the haze of incense around him as I made love to his queen. Ezeru jumping in the water fully clothed and climbing up the rock face to shift the waterfall. Seron taking the crown, looking reluctant but strong. Every moment of my life in Hemara and Irandal started to turn into a dream. But that dream sustained me.

That place is home now.

I hadn’t realized that I had come to love the high dragon kingdom. I didn’t love the darkness or the strangeness, but what I loved was that they welcomed me almost as an equal. In Gaermon, Himika’s father had been very generous to let me guard his daughter. He recognized my talent. I’m not sure I could have gone any farther. With Aurek and Seron, I sensed that my only limits were practical. I wasn’t a dragon. I could accept that fact. But if I was good at it, I knew they would let me do it.

Ijaru and her father Morhu occasionally slipped me a bite of extra food, although I tried to refuse, because that food was also awful and they needed their strength as much as I did. It was embarrassing that they were grateful to me just because I had refused to have sex with Ijaru. After a few days, though, I realized that helping me gave them some small way of rebelling against Izeria.

After what seemed like an endless march, we reached the northern caves, and that was when Ijaru came to me. “The humans came today. They brought a girl with them. Rothair says she’s his priestess.”

“A priestess?”

“Well, they said she’s…a po-ten-tial? It’s a human word. I don’t know much about it. But that has something to do with what you’re doing, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. A potential. So if they kill Phoebe, she’ll become the priestess.”

“Fee-bee?”

“Phoebe is the priestess who should have control of the gates. The gates bring balance between humans and dragons. If there is a war, she could shut the gates. The priestess has a sense of these things beyond other people, so she knows how to create peace. At least, that’s the idea. It’s been so long since we had a proper priestess that we don’t know for sure. But the northern gate has been shut for a long time. The elders had control of the priestess. Rothair is thinking that if he can just kill Phoebe, he and the elders can get control of this girl again.”

“What would happen then?”

“Well, she would also be able to control the other gate. The one near my home country. They’d have a lot of power. For example, she could allow the mist dragons to move freely between the gates and help the elders control the humans, while locking the high dragons up underground forever.”

“And Izeria would be more powerful than ever…” Ijaru lowered her head. “I’m so scared. It feels so hopeless.”

“It’s not hopeless.”

“What if the new priestess doesn’t like Elder Rothair?”

“She probably doesn’t have much choice. The sigils on her body will respond to him.”

“I bet that isn’t what she wants either.”

“So we just have to stop it from happening.”

“Yeah, like I stopped my father from losing his hand.” She rubbed her arm. “No offense, Oszin, but you’re chained up right now. I don’t think you can stop anything.”

“You’re really cheering me up here!” I said, getting kind of annoyed. “I didn’t ask you to bring me more of this so-called food.” I sighed. “Hey—listen, Ijaru. Really. You’re probably putting yourself in danger by befriending me.”

“I just…want to believe…that someone can…do something.” She sniffed.

“I haven’t given up hope. My grandfather used to say, you give up hope when your head’s rolling off a chopping block or your intestines are in your hand.”

She gave me a horrified look.

“I don’t know, it sounded funnier in Kamiri maybe… The point is, we don’t actually know if it’s hopeless yet, just because we can’t do anything right now. The future hasn’t happened yet. A lot of things have not gone as your queen planned.”

I could talk a good game, but once she left, we walked into a series of rooms that was clearly a military camp, with supply rooms and heavy wooden doors between chambers that were built by humans. The dragons started settling in, and I was shown to a holding cell with some other prisoners, behind a huge gate of iron bars. I hadn’t seen any of the prisoners before. Their numbers included children, and many of them were crying.

I sat in the corner and listened to them share stories about how they had been caught by a big, silent crystal dragon. “What will become of us now?” “The queen will have no mercy.” “I’m so sorry…” “If she cuts out my tongue, let me tell you now…”

Rothair told Izeria to wait until we reached the northern camp before doling out punishments. My time was coming.

No one fed us for a while. I heard some music outside. They were probably feasting their arrival. Eventually, Izeria came with some half-drunken soldiers behind her, most of them older.

“I am your queen,” she said. “I am the sole ruler of the mist dragons, and so I shall be. All of you are here because you tried to hide from me, instead of joining with me. Do you not realize that I am the only person standing against the injustices of the high dragons? I am the only person who will bring our people back into power. I am fighting for you, and you have decided to fight against me.”

“We weren’t fighting, we just don’t want to be at war anymore!” one woman shouted.

“This is no time for pacifism. You are alleged to have been trading mist with the high dragons. What do you say to this charge? What were you doing so close to Irandal?”

“Making an honest living, minding my own business, getting along with my neighbors.”

“Your ‘neighbors’ have barred you from entering the halls of Irandal for hundreds of years. You are swamp scum to them.” Izeria glanced around the room. “All young women old enough to have your menses but under thirty years of age,” she said. “Come forward and line up here at the gate. Come, come, before you have to be dragged out.”

She looked at them like she hated them, down to the youngest, who looked even younger than Imaru and was shaking and sobbing.

“I am a merciful queen,” Izeria said. “I want you to know that I have given every inch of my scales to making the mist dragons stronger, and I will continue to do so. You are the ones who are undermining me. But…I will always give you a second chance. You are my people. You girls—you are young. These fine soldiers will choose among you for their brides, and you must raise your children to love me, and all will be forgiven. I’m looking for the next prince of the mist dragons, and if you exceed expectations, perhaps I will even hand the crown to your child someday. You could be the mother of a king and you’ll have everything you’ve ever wished for, especially once we join with the humans. Remember this.”

One of the men opened the gate. “Come out,” he told the girls. “Step quick, now.”

The soldiers ogled the girls, arguing over them. “Nah, you don’t want that one. She’s so skinny. Orthan likes them skinny.” “I want her.” “We all want her. She has the best hips.” “I don’t, I like this little one here.” “Can’t we see them with tails? Aren’t they for us?”

“They are not courtesans,” Izeria said. “They will be your wives.”

Some of the girls were crying while others were defiant, batting the men away and arguing until they were smacked into silence. The dragons still behind the gate were pleading, glaring, and covering the eyes of their children.

“They will be well taken care of,” Izeria said. “I wouldn’t plead for them. Your trials will be worse. If you have betrayed me before, you have to prove yourself now. Why should I spare your lives when you wouldn’t help me win my war? Do you think King Aurek would give you any mercy? He would spit on you. If you have good hands to work, I will spare your hands. If you have a strong back, I won’t break it. You see where I am going with this?”

“King Seron wouldn’t spit on you,” I said. “And King Aurekdel is starting to realize he was wrong.”

Izeria looked at me like she’d forgotten I was there. “Oh yes. My human.”

I kept my eyes on her. “They are trying to find a way toward peace. And that’s why the rock dragons are turning against you.”

I knew I was about to lose my tongue anyway. Might as well use it while I had it.

The mist dragon rebels looked at me.

“I’m Oszin, since it looks like you’re wondering,” I said. “I’m the champion of the high dragon queen. I killed King Dvaro. She’s probably going to kill me now. Maybe she’ll stick to the original plan and cut out my tongue. Either way, I know she will silence me, and since there’s nothing I can do—” One of the guards threw open the door lunged for me.

I ducked out of his grasp and swept one of my feet past his as his motion was throwing him off balance.

This is it. Time to go down fighting, it’s all I can do.

“The high dragons do want peace!” I cried. “They don’t always know how to get it, but they don’t want to hurt you. And Tanu is one of them! He’s the king, the champion! He doesn’t belong to her!”

“Yes, he does,” Izeria said. “Look into his eyes and you won’t see your friend anymore.”

I dodged the guard again. One of the mist dragon men jumped in, throwing him to the ground while one of them women sprouted claws and swiped his face. The man pried his sword away.

Izeria backed up. “Get this under control!”

The drunken soldiers were slow to respond, busy as they were trying to feel up the girls.

The mist dragon man handed me the sword. “I’ve got claws.”

“This is our only chance,” I said.

The rebels nodded.

The soldiers tugged their attention away from the girls, cursing at the intrusion. One of them staggered into the wall. Izeria ran for more help. Thank the gods, I thought. She must not have any mists on her.

Then I remembered—my allies were mist dragons too. I was the only one susceptible to the mist, so they weren’t as likely to use it. “Maybe we have a chance if we can get out of here quickly while everyone’s busy celebrating and drinking.”

“We need to run,” the woman with the claws agreed.

“Kita!” Some of the mist dragons ran toward the girls to get them back from the soldiers.

Damn it. I just don’t have the time.

I had to get back to Himika and Aurekdel and tell them what had happened to Seron. But what a mess I would leave behind. Any mist dragon rebel who didn’t run for their lives would undoubtedly be treated even worse than before. In a situation like this, it was kill or be killed—every man and woman for themselves.

I ran. Some of the mist dragons were with me. I had the sword gripped in my hand and I went into battle mode. A soldier turned the corner and I drove the sword through him while the man who had given the sword to me struck his face. We got his weapon as well: a spiked club.

It looked like about seven mist dragons had run out with me. It wasn’t much, but they seemed to have quick reflexes.

“Do you know a way out of here, by any chance?” I asked.

“I think so,” the woman said. “But we need to get past the supply rooms there. I don’t know how many men they’ll send out to fight us.”

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” a younger man said. “Look what they’re doing to those girls.”

“She’ll dig our eyes out of our heads if she catches us now. And eat ‘em,” the woman muttered. “Bitch.”

We kept moving, and our luck couldn’t hold out long. Five soldiers rounded the corner and I had to let all my fear go and just fight for my damn life. Instinct took over. The weight of this sword was unfamiliar to me, but just having a weapon in my hand and I thought I could survive. I’d been fighting all my life, one way or another.

My sword clashed with a dragon’s weapon. I dug in my heels, refusing to let him push me back even though he was bigger than me. My muscles must be straining, but I hardly felt anything except my drive to fight my way through these guys, and fast, before the entire army descended on us.

“Hah!” The passageway was filled with the sound of grunting and shouting, steel grinding on steel. One of the female dragons struck my opponent’s head with a rock and I drove my sword into him.

“Thanks.” We moved on, taking our next opponent as a pair. She tried to sweep his legs with her tail; he grabbed her arm and threw her into the rock wall, but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid my sword. He looked surprised as I killed him. Like he didn’t expect a human could take him out; just like that, it was over for him.

I smelled blood now, mingling with the mineral scent of rock, blending together. I hated that smell. I hated all of this. Blood, sticky on my hands, and men’s lives on my head. Why hadn’t I become a farmer?

I must not hate it as much as I thought I did.

One of the mist dragons was killed, so quickly he didn’t even manage a scream, by the last of the five soldiers. The other mist dragons swept in to avenge their own, but more soldiers were coming.

“Oszin!” Ijaru beckoned me from one of the doors. Her father was standing behind her and nodding eagerly. “This way!”

Well, that was the last thing I needed to see. Apparently I’d just plain been adopted by Ijaru and her dad, and this wasn’t going to end well. I shot them an incredulous look. “Kinda busy here!”

“We know a way out,” Morhu said. “We used to live here. You’ll never fight the whole army.”

Gods.

I ran over to them and Ijaru grabbed me, hauling me out of sight.

“We were already hoping to escape when we got to the north. This is the perfect diversion,” Morhu said. “Our only hope is to hide out and wait for the high dragons to come.”

“But I’m helping the other mist dragons escape.”

“They’re all going to be killed,” Morhu said. “You know this, deep down, don’t you?”

“I…”

“He said there is always hope,” Imaru said. “But…this is the only hope we might have. Don’t sacrifice yourself, Oszin!”

“And how are you planning to evade Izeria’s scouts afterward?”

“You think I know all the answers? I’m just trying to save you from getting chopped to pieces by fifty mist dragons this very minute, boy,” Morhu said, shaking the bandaged stump of his hand at me. “And the only reason I bothered is because you were good to my daughter.”

“You really didn’t have to bother.”

“I have a sense of honor,” Morhu said, sounding vaguely insulted. “Come on.”

I relented, following them down a sloping passage that led out into a cavern. I could barely see. I just had to trust them, which wasn’t easy. These two had already been captured by Izeria once, after all. Still, it was nice to have friends with me.

“Where are you going?”

I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard a voice behind me that was familiar—and utterly unfamiliar.

Seron had slipped out of some other passageway, completely unseen to me in the darkness. I already knew he could be very quiet.

“Seron…”

I could see his eyes by the faint light of a crystal he was holding in one hand. In his other, he held a sword. Not the two-edged blade he favored, but a one-sided blade like Aurekdel preferred. Maybe that was one point for me in a fight. He didn’t have his favorite sword.

His eyes were dead.

If Himika saw him like this, her heart would shatter. Hell, I was feeling more emotional than I expected. Seron was such a noble man, and for them to do this to him…

“Human,” he said.

A chill slid down my spine.

“Seron,” I said. “Remember who you are. You’re King Seron. Remember Himika and Aurekdel?”

“You—” He seemed to struggle with the word. “My queen wants me to cut your tongue out.”

Ijaru and Morhu were clutching each other behind me, afraid to move.

“Are you alone?” I asked.

“I can sense things they can’t,” he said. Then he lunged at me.

Shit. Here we go.

I barely managed to block him. My arms were shaking a little. Then I felt the battle adrenaline coursing back into me. Could I hurt Seron? Kill him? What was I supposed to do here?

“Seron, Izeria is your enemy. She’s manipulating you with—the mist—“ While I blocked his sword, he swung his arm at me and knocked me down against the rocks. I stumbled. I still couldn’t see that well, and I couldn’t judge the terrain enough to keep a good footing.

“Fuck!” I screamed out of sheer frustration. I was either going to die by Seron’s hand or kill him. “Seron, Himika loves you! Aurekdel is your best friend! Stop this shit!”

“Aurekdel is the high dragon king,” he said, his voice dull. “He always gets what he wants. He ordered me around. He took all the swords.”

I guess Izeria’s mist magic was tapping into some childhood grievance. No doubt, if you took Himika and her brother and reduced their brains down to their worst moments, they’d be at each other’s throats too. Seriously, it was a nasty trick. Mist magic really was playing dirty if you used it like that.

I realized, however, that Seron wasn’t attacking me.

He was just standing there, his arms lowered. Looking at me. I saw something flicker in his eyes, briefly, like he was trapped.

“Seron? Come with us.”

He clutched his head, and then his eyes turned back to dullness. “Tanu,” he said. “I’m Tanu.” He seemed to be wrestling. “I serve the queen.”

Ijaru grabbed my elbow. “Run,” she said.

“But—”

“He’s not going to win that fight,” Morhu said. “The mist is too powerful. The queen doesn’t really want to make your friend her champion. She wants to destroy him, and she wants Aurekdel to see it. It’s too late for him.”

I ran. It didn’t feel like the right thing, but I ran.