Chapter Eight
Days passed into weeks and Aria remained Vyktor’s captive. As the initial excitement of being taken and held began to fade, being owned by a dragon started to become the new normal of her existence.
From roaming the skies to being confined to a cell, the change was almost unbearable at times. Aria found herself staring at the walls, her desire to escape so strong, and her ability to do so completely lacking.
It was Vyktor’s fault, of course. He was the cause of her incarceration. He was the reason she was being kept from her freedom, kept as a pet, but in spite of that, she no longer hated him. What he was doing to her was far less cruel than what was done to most prisoners of war. She did hate the way he had been so very right about her, how he’d known she’d respond to his strength and direction. How she’d come to almost crave obedience to him at times.
It was frightening, in a way, to respond so strongly to a man. She thought of him as a man even though he was clearly not. Even his slitted catlike pupils no longer looked strange to her. She was coming to read his expressions the same way she could read anyone’s.
“You look bored, pet,” Vyktor noted one afternoon. “Let me show you an amusing trick.”
Aria sat up on the bed cross-legged and looked at him askance. “What are you going to do, pull a rabbit out of your ass?”
“That sounds disrespectful,” he chided. “But no. Come.”
He led her out onto the mountainside, and while she shivered, told her to collect a rock. Any rock.
“Are you serious?” Aria’s teeth chattered, her jeweled leash jangling. “You brought me out here to freeze naked and pick up rocks?”
“Pick one quickly, pet,” he ordered. “And then we will seek warmth again.”
Wondering if Vyktor had gone crazy, Aria scooped up a handful of gravelly pebbles and a larger rock. “Here,” she said. “Will this do?”
“Perfect,” he said, scooping her up into his arms. His body heat provided immediate shield against the cold, but she was still chilled when they got back to Vyktor’s rooms. He blew gently on her hands and feet to help warm them. Aria loved that talent of his; it could create quite an interesting sensation on her nethers—and a much less pleasant one on her bottom.
“Neat trick,” she smiled.
“Wait until you see this one,” Vyktor said, picking up the largest rock Aria had chosen. He settled it in the palm of his hand and breathed on it softly while stroking it with his thumb and fingers. Before Aria’s bewildered eyes, it turned from lumpen rock of no value at all to a soft, shiny ore.
“Holy… Is that gold?”
“Yes,” he said. “Our breath allows us to change the structure of certain materials—as well as discipline naughty pets.”
“You know, people have been trying to turn rock to gold for centuries here,” she said. “They never did it.”
“Our worlds are very close,” Vyktor said, sliding the nugget of now pure gold into her hands. “I think perhaps some more sensitive humans have been able to feel it from time to time, perhaps even see into it in their dreams. We have a kinship which is not obvious, but which is very deep and very old.”
“You think?” Aria rolled the gold in her hands. She could only imagine how much it must be worth, something almost as big as a tennis ball. “You could crash our entire economy with this trick,” she mused. “Or become very, very rich.”
“We are also adept at finding jewels buried in rock,” Vyktor said. “I believe there is already a small trove here. I have a few of them here.”
He produced a box from the wall, a smooth stone container she hadn’t noticed because it blended so well with the rest of it.
“It’s heavy,” he said, putting it on the bed. “Open it, pet.”
Aria’s eyes opened wide as she pushed off the lid and looked into the shoebox-sized case. It was full of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. Some of them were rough, but some of them had already been cut, presumably by dragons with too much time on their hands.
“Oh. My. God,” she breathed. “This is…” She turned to Vyktor. “You don’t need to fight to conquer Earth. With this, you could just buy it!”
“Humans value these trinkets?”
“Humans kill one another for these,” she said, combing her fingers through the trove. It was the strangest thing, to suddenly be confronted by more wealth than she could ever have imagined. “This… this matters more to some people than life itself.”
“So there is more we share in common,” Vyktor mused. “What do humans do with them?”
“Wear them, display them, trade them…”
“You are just like dragons,” Vyktor laughed. “Soft-skinned, flightless dragons.”
“We can’t just find them. We have to mine huge tracts of land,” Aria said. “There are people who spend their whole lives looking for a fraction of this.”
“Soft-skinned, flightless… inefficient dragons,” Vyktor amended with a small smile.
* * *
He loved showing his pet these wonders of the dragon world. They were simple, cheap tricks really, the sort one might amuse a whelpling with, but she responded with even more enthusiasm.
“None of them are as beautiful as you,” he said, leaning over to kiss her deeply, running his hands over her body in a gentle, almost worshiping adoration of her form. She was so beautiful to him, he loved how very soft and delicate she was. He loved how she…
There was a heavy knock at the door.
“Come!”
The door opened and the dark grey eyes of Eldor seared through the gap. “I need to speak with you, Vyktor. Immediately.”
Vyktor slid his hands reluctantly from Aria’s delicious form.
“Be good,” he warned her, dropping a kiss on her nose. “I will return soon.”
He left his pet sitting on the bed running her hands through the jewels with an enchanted expression on her face, and followed Eldor. Eldor was rarely in a good mood, especially when he was reminded that Aria was still in their base, but on this occasion he was even more terse than usual.
He followed Eldor to the meeting chamber, where every dragon in the base had already assembled. Their expressions ranged from excited to angry to stoic, and there was an energy of anticipation in the air.
“What is it, Eldor?” He pulled the general aside before they ascended the plinth. Something was happening, and whatever it was, he did not want to be surprised by it in front of his men.
“You would know, if you did not spend so much time toying with that pet of yours,” Eldor snarled.
Vyktor’s eyes narrowed. Not this again. Eldor was beginning to sound like a spurned woman with how often he brought up Aria whenever they were trying to discuss matters of military importance.
“Your precious humans have surged into the remnants of the machine which created the portal. They have been seen working on the machinery under the portal, and documents recovered from their presses suggest that they are close to finding a means to closing it.”
“That is the same aim our technicians have been working toward.”
“Yes, but if the humans do it first, we will be trapped here.”
“Are you thinking of a strategic retreat, Eldor?”
“I am thinking that is an excellent way to get torn to shreds. They have moved heavy artillery around the portal site, and they have planes stationed at bases nearby. Retreat may be the most dangerous mission we have undertaken since that portal opened.” Eldor shook his head. “You were right about the humans, Vyktor. They are very intelligent. And they are working on fixing their mistake. That is why their aggression has been decreasing over their last lunar month aside from occasional strikes in which they risk little. Instead of fighting us, they have been preparing to cut us off. They have set a trap right under our noses, one which we will have no choice but to fly into.”
“Smart,” Vyktor noted grimly. Eldor was likely correct in his assumption. It made sense that the humans would want to shut the portal to prevent reinforcements from arriving. The militarization of the zone was probably for their protection first, but he agreed that they were likely to open fire if they had the chance to take life. The hostilities were bitter and vicious and there were no rules or conventions to depend upon.
“We need to negotiate,” Vyktor said. “It’s time we made contact with their leader.”
“Their king,” Eldor agreed. “An audience with him.”
“Their president,” Vyktor corrected him. Aria had been helpful in clarifying some of the finer points of political interaction in the human realm. It seemed to him to be a facade of equality under which the same hierarchies that existed in the rest of nature operated as strongly as ever. Aria had spent hours explaining presidential races and other such things, the fanfare and pageantry of the entire enterprise. It seemed to Vyktor to be a great deal of energy to waste, but the humans of this particular region of the planet at least were very taken with the concept.
“They have no king?”
“They have a leader they choose, well, or at least, they seem to choose. There is some debate. At any rate, that is the man who makes the final decision.”
“That is the man who leads their armies?”
“No. That is a different man.”
“Their leader does not lead their armies?” Eldor shook his head. “For simple creatures, they delight in making complex systems.” He let out a sigh. “You seem to enjoy contact with these humans and may be able to form some kind of bond with them. I will leave negotiations in your hands.”
Vyktor looked at Eldor, and then again at his men. A fatigue was settling in. It wasn’t only that the battle was being fought long and hard, it was that it was being fought in a very alien environment against a foe none of them truly understood. Even Vyktor wasn’t sure he understood people, and he had dedicated almost every minute of spare time to doing so since the portal opened.
“What terms were you thinking of?”
“If they close the portal, we will leave. No further life need be lost. They can keep their little planet with its weak sun and low radiation, and we will return to our realm. I confess, I am much looking forward to seeing the shores of home again. This place makes me cold to my very bones.”
He saw Eldor’s sentiments reflected on the faces of every man in the room. Earth had a weak physical sun. It made maintaining their flight forms difficult, and the longer they were away from their homeland, the harder it was. There were rumors that if they stayed long enough, they may lose the ability to take flight entirely.
Vyktor took the plinth to address the men. They needed to hear good news. “You have heard that the humans are working on the portal. This is the news we have been waiting for. You have also heard that they have made fortifications around it. I will take my pet and we will go to the humans and see if we might negotiate a cessation of hostilities. You have all fought long and hard. You wear the marks of this place on your flesh and will forever remember it in your hearts. But though the end is dangerous, it is the end. With the portal closed, our realm will be sealed from humans.”
“What if they open it again?”
“Humans dropped significant nuclear charges when they discovered what they call fission. They used two detonations on civilian populations. The resulting horror was so great that in a hundred years they have not been used again. Opening the portal has caused suffering on a similarly massive scale. I believe that they will remember this in their collective consciousness, and shy away from any act which might repeat it. Remember, there is little to gain from them opening portals to our realm. They cannot go there themselves, all they can do is invite forces which terrify them to their very souls. We should not forget that this war began over a foolish accident, over their attempt to create a source of abundant power with which to live. They never intended to start this war. Even now, the fortifications at the portal are for their own defense. I have already proved that humans are capable of forming bonds with us. It is time to use what we have learned and secure true peace between our realms.”
A cheer went up from the men. It was not perhaps as enthusiastic as it could have been, but morale had lifted, and that was something. Vyktor no longer felt as though he were standing in a mausoleum. There was a great deal to celebrate… for most of the men at least.
He could not share the excitement, for one very small, very human reason. Aria. He could take her with him, but she would not survive in his world. The radiation would make her very ill in a matter of months, if not weeks. She was too tender for the realm of the winged ones. He would have to leave her behind when the retreat came. Even the thought of it filled him with a hollow sensation deep in his belly. He pushed it away as quickly as possible. He had a job to do for his men, and he could not do it if he was moping about the potential loss of his pet—especially as he was going to need her help to make contact with the human population and negotiate a truce.