A Monster Life

72 - Enter the Dragons

Yingshien wasted no time in blowing a very focussed stream of fire at the intruder. Tarrence did not let the attack slow down his momentum and ran across the royal quarters to place the queen twice his size in the line of fire. He was told her daughter was only half the size of a normal dragon but more fierce than the largest. He trusted the information about the queen's inability to spit venom for a long time as it came from multiple sources, and moved close enough to use her as a shield without coming in range of her dangerous tail.

Queen Giuang did not sit still. She jumped up, and with a fast swing threw her pouffe at the demon intruder. He dove and rolled away as it smashed into pieces against the wall above him, and jumped away at the next beam of fire from Yingshien. Giuang threw another pouffe at him, but this time he jumped up, launched himself from the wall, and went straight for her. She dodged his daggers and he ran out the door.

Yingshien rushed to the door. The canine was gone and she looked back. 'Mother! Are you all right?'

The queen sat down. 'I'm all right. Don't worry.'

Yingshien went over to her. 'They're trying to assassinate you, those vile scumbags!'

Giuang looked up at her daughter. 'We all are in danger, Ying.' she said.

Yingshien gazed at her mother's chest. 'Where is your pendant?'

Giuang slapped her hand at the place where her round golden pendant should have been. 'He stole it! We must stop him!'

Tarrence rushed down the wide stairs into the underground area of the palace unhindered by the guards who would have been there in normal circumstances. Two large passages went left and right to more passages and store rooms, but he went around the back of the stairs and followed a smaller passage there. He ended up at a thick, iron door, stuck the pendant into the designated hole in the middle, and pushed two of the knobs at the circumference of the jewellery. Pins shot out of the pendant into holes inside the lock. With a twist, Tarrence unlocked the door.

Inside, he scanned the collection of jewellery and chests marked with a gem or coin to indicate the contents. One smaller chest placed on a square pedestal at the back was marked with a dragon sign for special items. He opened it and cursed inwards when there was no sign of the artefact between other magical stones. Footsteps came from the bottom of the stairs and he looked back at the passage. He contemplated taking up the fight, but thought the risk to him was too high, and slipped into a shadow to retreat.

Yingshien hurried into the secret treasure chamber but found no thief. 'How did he escape?' she said while her mother came up behind her.

Giuang looked into the small chest. 'More important, how did he know about my pendant and this place?'

***

Ulric sat on a fixed bench on top of Cat at the back, staring at the rocky landscape surrounding him. Cat was partially hidden by large boulders halfway up a low hill and some of the prickly bushes found scattered around the wide area. A small family of hares moved around at a short distance as they nibbled on sparse grass. They were undisturbed because couldn't see him, thanks to the space distortion magic cast on Cat. More dangerously, they also hadn't seen the predator sneaking closer towards them. Ulric looked up the weasel like creature, twice the size of the ones he knew, in the library. He wasn't in the mood to see it kill and feed on a hare in front of him. He tossed a pebble at the ground in front of the light grey furred animal, and both it and the hares jumped up in alarm. The hares ran off before the big weasel could react, and it drooped off in search of prey elsewhere. Ulric leaned back and sighed.