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Bonus Books Section
Seon’s Freedom
Found by the Dragon – Book 2
by Lisa Daniels
Chapter One
The wyrm stomped through the streets. His huge, scaly lips curled into a sneer, and his sinister yellow eyes scoured the shadows. Gas lamps lit the streets, but they provided no warmth from the cold atmosphere and little vision in the fog.
Seon watched through her house’s little window on the second floor, breath frosting over the glass. Curse these dragons. Couldn't have a night of peace with them stomping about. Her heart beat fast, nervous at the thought of being discovered.
Of course, none of the wyrms had any reason to suspect a thing. She kept all her activities under lock and key, worked a respectable job serving ale at the nearest inn, and had never given wyrms any reason to track her movements. Yet, somehow, she couldn’t help but feel the wyrms were here for her specifically. Her friend, Anya, worried about being caught all the time, but Anya didn't know that the woman she sometimes spoke to at the inn had her own fears of being caught.
The wyrms didn't look specifically for Seon. They just wanted someone like her. Someone who knew the old ways. Someone who had something forgotten for centuries. Even if Seon’s gifts were less than impressive, they still touched at the magic no human was supposed to have.
No one knew about it. Not the people at the inn. Not Anya from across the street, or her drake partner, Kalgrin.
Seon didn't tell anyone. She didn't want to risk discovery. Didn't want to lose the life she'd forged here, away from the slums of her former home, with the stench of stale beer and dirty floors. With the alcohol-filled breath of her mother. That past was long since gone, and good riddance.
Anya and Kalgrin trusted Seon with knowledge of their jobs, though. Even asked her to put up some of their rescues in the inn whilst sorting out where to place them. Each rescue resembling a pathetic, broken and trembling thing. In a town mostly inhabited by drakes and humans which promoted neutral and fair trade, the wyrms tended to get jumpy at the idea of humans living a serf-free life.
Went against the grain for them, made them snort fire out of their ears and secretly plot in their twisted little wyrm heads of enslaving all the humans. Wyrms didn't see humans as worthwhile living creatures. They saw them as lazy beasts that needed to be whipped into shape and bred like rabbits.
Seon continued to watch through the window as another wyrm joined the prowl. She mimed spitting and closed the curtains, moving away. She turned down the gas lamp so only a tiny light shimmered from the side of her bed. She spent fifteen minutes boiling a kettle on the stove to pour herself a hot drink of chamomile tea, and yanked out a few strands of her long, jet black hair which seemed out of place. Tugging the hair hurt, but she liked the pain. It provided a distraction to her thoughts and helped calm her down when the paranoia threatened. She also liked drinking the chamomile to keep her body healthy, her skin smooth and pale. She didn’t look a day past twenty.
I'm twenty-three. Though I already feel much older than those years. For those in the plantations and the mines, twenty-three would be an impressive age, even more impressive if you didn't have at least two children by this time. Average life expectancies varied. The longest Seon had ever heard of a human living was maybe around sixty, but they tended to be ones in towns and areas of less conflict. In areas of hard labour, the age drastically lowered itself. Once people became too physically slow, the wyrms found excuses to bump them off.
At least Seon had never been born in one of those places. She lived in the town of Drakehill until she became old enough to separate from her mother.
Seon's mouth puckered at the thought of her mother, before she pushed it from her mind. No sense thinking about that now. I'm not there. I don't have to be like that anymore.
Normally, she spent the time concentrating on working the magic. The thing she wasn't supposed to have. It might be useless now, but maybe with some practise, she might find something else. Without any reference to magic, without any clue really what it was or what she was doing, progress went at a glacial pace. Seon started to think that maybe this was the limit of her magic. With the shadows.
However, with the presence of the wyrms from the city, she didn’t want to risk incurring their wrath. She knew the punishment if magic was found. Even though wyrms and humans both claimed magic didn't exist, the fact that the punishment of execution was stated so publicly in their laws meant that magic did exist. Just people didn't talk about it. Or maybe they forgot about it for a while, before trying to pick up the pieces of a lost past.
The wyrms prowled the streets, following the rumors that magic had been spotted in Tarn. They wouldn't find magic like that, though. No self-respecting human wanting to keep their hide would dare openly practise. They were uneducated, maybe, but not insane.
Which meant the wyrms had recently taken to knocking on doors. What did they expect, exactly? To find magical paraphernalia dotted about the place, shrunken heads and flickering candles arranged in a ritualistic circle? Seon traipsing around in black clothes and cackling like the witches of old?
Honestly, if Seon had her way, she’d vanish away to a safe place where no wyrms existed, and live out a life of happiness. Just a shame that humans were allowed to do shit fuck-all in this world. Had less rights than a damn dog. Work a life on the plantations and be lucky to make it past twenty, or live in the city and hope you escape notice long enough to have children to carry on your legacy.
Kalgrin had offered her to go in one of the fort towns, or the mountains to the north, but Seon didn't want to live in a cold place. She'd have to walk around bundled in furs all day long, trying not to freeze to death. At least here she had the freedom of a good inn job and lively conversation, as opposed to the more reserved people in the north.
She sipped at her warm tea, swirling the pale yellow liquid around, taking in the warm, comforting scent. Yes. This helped with relaxing. She'd be alright. She had started drinking the tea upon arriving in Tarn, and now associated it with her increased freedom.
Seon’s heart leapt into her throat when she heard a loud, hard knock on the front door. She might have jumped out of her skin a bit as well.
Oh no. That must be the wyrms. Can they see my light? No. I turned it down. Gathering herself together, she considered not answering, until she heard, “Open up! We know you’re in there! We’ll give you one minute, or you’ll be accused of obstructing justice!”
Fuck. Obstructing justice was just an oily phrase for the wyrms to have an excuse to arrest you, repossess your home, and bang you into slavery. They itched to take away what little rights remained to a human in a drake-dominated town. And they tested drake authority at every step, knowing they were more numerous than drakes, but not quite wishing to instigate war.
Entering her calm place, she went to open the door, lifting her long skirt in a curtsey as two yellow-eyed men stood outside.
She also resisted the impulse to bare her lips in a disdainful sneer upon seeing the wyrms. Horrible, vicious brutes.
“Hello, good sirs,” Seon said, smiling in an ingratiating manner. “How may I help you? Would you like some tea? I’ve boiled some now. It's good chamomile, it is. Takes the fire right out your bones.” She deliberately adopted simple country slang, so the wyrms didn't think her in the least bit intelligent.
“No,” one of the wyrms said, staring at her with obvious contempt in his eyes. The other wrinkled his nose, as if she smelled foul, even though Seon put extra effort into washing every day, wanting to look good for the customers she served a few doors down. Obviously she didn't have the luxuries of the richer ones in this place, with their fancy baths and pre-heated water. She made do with a bucket and water boiled over the fire.
Without waiting for any express invitation, the wyrms barged in. No manners at all. No respect. Hard-eyed creatures wearing the faces of men, though their faces held little mercy and little love. They began rifling through her house, flipping through the belongings. Murder flared in Seon's heart.
“What on earth are you doing? Why are you coming in and looking through my stuff?” Seon puffed herself up. Part of her “stupid” persona had slipped. “How dare you!”
One of the wyrms, sporting dark brown hair, gave a snort. “We’re looking for evidence of criminal activity.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit criminal, pushing past me and tearing through my belongings late at night?”
The wyrms ignored her, continued to rifle through her belongings. Just as well what Seon did needed no physical material to do the thing she shouldn’t. She suspected they wanted to catch her in the act of magic, somehow, or perhaps were just trying to catch a human in the act of something illicit. No contraband existed in Seon's house, either. She kept herself as clean as possible, unwilling to risk herself in case the wyrms did something like this.
They stormed into her bedroom. One pulled out the bag of money she kept there.
Oh no. Don't you dare steal my money, you cretin.
Seon pointedly watched him, and the wyrm gave her a long stare, before emitting an evil grin, pouring all of the coins onto the floor.
“Really?” Seon said. “That’s what I need to pay the rent. Why would you do something so petty? It's not enough for you to ransack my house, you have to be cruel as well?”
“Watch your tongue, filth,” the taller of the two wyrms snarled. “We can arrest you for obstruction.” Even as he spoke, the other wyrm began tearing up her bedcovers, before yanking all her clothes out the wardrobe, carelessly ripping them in the process.
“Has to be a thorough search,” he said, smiling malice. “Can't leave a single thing unturned, you know?”
Seon's blood boiled. One hand closed in a fist, trembling slightly, white at the knuckles. She knew she couldn’t do anything wrong than to exclaim when they destroyed her goods, because the bastards wanted a reason to arrest her by goading her into action. Wasn’t there some stupid law that a wyrm could take a human as a slave if the human was found guilty of criminal activity or something? Seon supposed it was smart that the wyrms suggested through their laws that good humans might be able to stay innocent and free. Otherwise things might be a lot worse than they were now. After all, it wasn't the wyrms’ fault if they found something off in a human's home, was it? Certainly wasn't their fault if a human gave them lip, either. Should have had more self-control.
Seon carefully stepped out of the way, memorizing their faces to report to the other humans and drakes in the town for later. Reprehensible monsters who would wreck your home and potentially steal your money. She bit back any insults, and her eyes clung to their backs as they finally left the house. But not without kicking over the living room table that her cup of tea lay upon. The ceramic shards shattered, along with a splodge of yellowish liquid. The wyrms laughed as they left.
She bit her knuckle to stop herself screaming. Seon didn’t want to draw attention. Her cheeks burned red, her eyes itched from frustrated tears. With a heavy, leaden body, she spent the next two hours cleaning the mess they left behind.
I’m already so tired. Working for long hours, working on staying out of sight.
At least life is better in the towns, people said. Or maybe they said, the drakes protect you, right? You’ve got it made. You’re not being beaten on a daily basis, or cowering in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere.
Ha. As if. Maybe living in a town was marginally better than, say, being whipped to death on a plantation, or catching disease in the slums and losing large chunks of population at a time. Maybe the drakes offered some kind of buffer against the full wrath of the wyrms – but it was clear who held the power.
The drakes and humans hung onto Tarn by the skin of their teeth, and the casual wyrm “inspections” were rumoured to be increasing by the month. Scare tactics, some said. Trying to frighten the humans and drakes into moving elsewhere, so wyrms could buy up property and take over the town. After all, Tarn was a little too close to the wyrms' capital city. They probably saw the town as a rat's nest, a filthy eyesore upon their rule.
Just when Seon finally sat herself down, planning to brush her long black hair to calm down and fixing her green eyes in the tiny mirror in the bathroom, she heard another fucking knock at the door. She practically dropped her brush in fright.
Her stomach gurgled in unease. If it was those wyrms again… she’d only just tidied up the damn place. Didn’t need any more trouble. She also now held the pouch of coins in her skirt pocket, considering it a better hiding place for them. Please don't let it be them. It means they're suspicious of me. It means I might be arrested.
“Open up,” the voice said, gruff. No nonsense.
Seon cleared her throat, trying not to sound scared, but forceful. “It’s late at night. What reason do you have for knocking upon my door?”
“A good one,” came the blunt answer.
Seon pinched the bridge of her nose before thinking fuck it and opening the door. It wasn't the wyrms from before, at least.
“Hello,” the stranger said, examining her with gray eyes, a common drake coloring.
Oh.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much time.” She examined him for a few seconds. Short blond hair, a rounded face accentuated by blond sideburns. Ears that seemed taped to his head, and a crooked nose that looked as if it’d been broken more than once. He stood quite tall, with a strong, puffed out chest that Seon suspected would break her wrist if she tried to punch it.
Handsome, really. Just a shame he was a drake. Although she knew drakes to be friendly towards humans, the fact that he knocked at her door this time of night with this mysterious, brusque manner put her on edge.
Like the wyrms, he stepped past her without waiting for an invitation, and it sent Seon’s nerves past breaking point.
“What is it with dragons and just stomping around my property? I already had two wyrms here. What do you want?”
The drake smiled darkly at her. She noticed his nostrils flaring slightly. “Yes, you’re right. I still smell their stench. They already know something’s up.” He stepped closer to her and gave a long, conspicuous sniff near her ear.
“What the actual fuck?”
“Interesting,” the drake said, his nostrils flaring. “It is you they’re looking for. I detected your scent when I was in town earlier. I knew I had to find the owner of it.”
Instantly, Seon’s whole body froze. Her mind whirled to a standstill, and her jaw dropped open. “W-what do you mean?”
The drake gave her a disarming smile, adjusting his blue collar. “And to think I was only here visiting when I smelled you by chance.” He paused. “I think you know exactly what I mean, if we judge by your sweaty palms and white face. I’m a Sniffer. You know what one of those is?”
“Someone who… sniffs?” Hell if she knew.
“Well, yes,” he said. “But it’s something a little more special than just sniffing. We can detect magic contained in a living creature. And you, my little human friend, have it radiating from every pore. Oh, you are in trouble.”
Panic seized Seon's brain, stopping it from working properly. No. No way. He couldn't possibly know she had magic. This had to be a bluff. “What do you mean? No one has magic.”
The drake’s expression turned wry. Seeing right through her bluff. If Seon wasn’t veering close to hysterical panic, she might have admired the way the muscles moved upon his face. Right now, she could only think of escape, and how to get away before things got worse.
I can't be discovered! I can't!
“The wyrms are currently trying to root out all humans with even a drop of magical blood in their veins. You don't think those random inspections are just for show, right?”
At this, Seon gave a dry laugh. “Magic’s been gone from our kind for centuries.”
“And it’s coming back. As is proven by your scent. So, please, spare me your lies. I can smell you. You can keep protesting the fact that you have it as much as you want, but you can't hide the truth from me.” He paused a moment, and Seon considered grabbing something to hit him with. “The wyrms fear a return of the old ways. It won't be long until they employ Sniffers of their own.” The drake sucked at his teeth. “I’m Artiz.”
When Seon didn’t provide her name in return, Artiz sighed. “Like that, huh? That's no way to treat your rescuer. Given that I've kindly come to warn you and everything.”
Rescuer? “You call breaking into my house and threatening me a rescue?”
“Threatening? Is that what you see this as? Okay. First, you opened the door. Second, I’m warning you right now that you're in danger. I’ve not got to the third part yet. Which I will, once you kindly give me your name. It might interest you, since it involves you living for slightly longer – and being able to master whatever magic you happen to have. And yes, although I can tell you have magic, I don't know what type it is.”
Every instinct in Seon screamed at her to not trust any dragon. No matter how friendly they appeared on the outside. Her silence made Artiz sigh again.
“Always so stubborn, you humans. Won’t know a good thing even if it comes and beats you over the head. Look. You’re going to have wyrms coming through your house every week. Do you want that?”
Seon shook her head. Of course she didn’t, but she also didn’t want a great thumping drake stomping about the place, telling her what to do. No one told her what to do. Unless they asked nicely, and she saw the logic in it. “I have absolutely no reason to trust you, and I still don’t know why you’re here.”
Irritation flashed across his face. He appeared one step away from strangling her. “I just said. I’m here to rescue you.”
Seon scoffed. “I’m not a damsel in distress. I have a job, money, a life, and I live in a neutral town. What part of any of that means I need rescuing?”
“The part where when the wyrms find out you can use magic, you’ll be flayed alive and your skin used as a carpet. Trust me. They have Sniffers as well. And they will send them here, once initial efforts are exhausted. They’re on the hunt through the nearby towns for anyone who might be guilty of magic. And tavern-goers have been talking about seeing shadows in this place.”
A chill rippled through Seon.
The people in her tavern whispered of the shadows that slithered along the roads at night, or the lights that flickered on and off, without a soul in sight. They spoke of feeling a sensation as if someone had walked over their grave, and of feeling so cold inside, they wondered if they could ever be happy again. They also only spoke of it after Seon saw the slithering creatures in person.
It was because Seon saw things out of the corners of her eyes. And upon seeing them, if the shadows seemed to realize she could observe them, they became a little more substantial. And even normal people felt them. She always got nervous that if she observed them for too long, they'd grow into something monstrous.
“I have heard people talk about these things.” She hardly was going to mention that they may only see them in the first place because of her.
She didn't think her magic caused them to appear. Simply that her magic allowed her to see them. Her actual ability was far less impressive. Sometimes, when she stared into space, without any distractions cluttering her mind, without any emotions claiming her body, she could… feel things.
She sensed objects around her, picking up on the thing that made them true and real. And sometimes, when she delved hard and long enough, she sensed the mind that went with them – usually a mind formed by the perception of those who observed them.
All objects were living in some form, though not in the way a human normally understood. All objects had a place, and a conviction of their duties. Take the table. The table was strong, solid. It felt stable, brazen and proud of what it did, of the things it supported, of the elbows that rested upon it day after day. The pride came from usefulness. Of a simple life without worry, or fear, knowing that Seon depended on it being stable, as did the objects that rested upon it. That “mind” came from how everyone thought a table to be. They created its personality.
Fantastic magic power, right? Knowing a table liked being used as a table.
Definitely could change the world with that. Also why Seon worked so hard to discover if she could do anything else. No luck so far, though. Listening to tables liking being tables was pretty much it.
“So,” Seon said, pretending to humor Artiz’s advance, “say I agree to let you rescue me. What will happen?”
“You hop on my back, we take a nice flight to a distant training school in the mountains – and then you get to learn about your powers. Alternatively, you can keep working for your pennies until the wyrms trash your property one too many times, and you get pissed off enough to warrant them arresting you.” He gave her a winning smile. As if knowing she had no other choice.
Seon scowled. She always had choices. Life was full of choices. Go out, stay in. Talk back, stay silent. Sometimes the options seemed limited, but whatever the situation, the choice remained. She always had one.
She considered Artiz. Tried to drill into his mind, consider why he’d bother helping her. Certainly not out of the kindness of his heart. Oh no.
Everyone had motives. Even handsome little blondie here, with his sideburns and punched-in nose.
“Do you really think I’ll give up my life in this place? I’ve spent years here. Years working, living, learning to be by myself. Do you know what my life was like before this? Do you? Of course you don’t.”
Seon trembled as she said these words. She didn’t want to think about the past, not even for a second, but it haunted her sometimes, caught her unawares. Before this town, being little more than scum floating upon water. Being a human. Being near that wreck of a mother, who paid her upkeep by allowing men between her thighs.
“We’re not here to start opening up to your past, woman. And I’m telling you, if you don’t think about coming with me soon, you won’t have a future to look forward to. Never mind what you have now.” Artiz folded his arms, gray eyes hard. “And if you’re really going to be stubborn about it…” a wicked grin leapt upon his face, “then I can go and call the wyrms back right now. And tell them that you use magic.”
Horror forced Seon’s mouth open. “You wouldn’t!”
The drake gave her a cold smile. “I’d rather have you dead than out with rogue magic. Uncontrolled magic can be even more dangerous than a wyrm. Try me.” The smile crystallized. “Unless you have enough magic to stop me? Just like you stopped the wyrms?”
Seon hissed through her lips, shaking in incandescent fury. How dare he? How fucking dare he do this to her? Force her into a place she didn’t want to be. Force her to bend the knee to him.
He saw her simmering rage, and knew he had won. He didn’t show joy in it, didn’t rub it in her face – perhaps sensing that on a whim, or out of spite, Seon would change her mind. She might die to defend her pride.
She would have loved in that moment to strike him down, summon lightning out of the sky like a primeval god, and lay waste to all the creatures that had inflicted such misery upon her. But she had nothing. Between the choices of dying or living, Seon would choose to live. Generally.
“Can I send word to my boss, to my friends? Or will I just vanish off the face of civilization?” Seon stood straight and proud, black hair flowing, green eyes like agates. Just then, she thought she saw something flicker behind Artiz. A shadow. A brief distortion in the gaslight. She knew she shouldn't, but her eyes wandered to it anyway. When she focused completely, this time it vanished. As if frightened of being spotted.
Why did she discover these things? She wondered sometimes if she was being taunted by demons. They came out to play whenever her emotions took a dip. These flickers at the corners of her peripheral vision came too often to be mere coincidence, dismissed with the bat of an eyelid.
No. She definitely saw something. She just didn’t comprehend what she observed. Artiz peered at her with a curious expression.
“I’ll give you time to write them letters. I’ll be gone in the morning. Is that a problem?”
“Obviously.” Seon bared her teeth at him, before going to her living room to pull out a quill and what remained of her ink. She set herself to writing. Asking Anya to take care of the property here. Apologizing to her boss and Kalgrin. Hoping one day to see them again.