Imperial

Chapter 64

Dragons descended upon us - each of them carrying a human. Narrowing my eyes, I watched them carefully. Had they finally realised that walking here would take too long? Or had their plan always been to fly up here, despite the people pouring out of the city.

Despite having been captured dragons, none of them appeared to have been starved. If anything, they appeared to have been eating a healthy amount of food. I also couldn't help notice that none of them had scars on their flanks - and their scales shone as though they'd been cleaned regularly. Cared for.

Jealousy stirred with my stomach. These were dragons that had never been forced to watch each other succumb to pain and hunger. Never had they been punished - at least, not in the same, brutal way that I had been.

Tense, I peered at them suspiciously as they landed in front of us. Only a few humans climbed down from their backs, the rest remained perched on the dragons' backs.

Slowly, I examined each human. Most of them were guards, covered in bleak grey armour and equipped with long, shiny swords.

My gaze landed on the woman. Her clear green eyes stared back up at me, glittering with intelligence but also arrogance. Conceited haughtiness, that made me want to bare my fangs and snap at her. Growling under my breath, my gaze landed on the golden crown nestled atop her dark brown curls.

I froze as realisation surged through me.

There was no doubt that the woman standing in front of me was the queen. The human queen, who controlled everything that the humans did. She was behind the dragons being captured rapidly. Also the reason that dragons were forced to carry loads of coal back and forth endlessly, or transport humans around like horses.

My growl grew louder, as I glared down at the human queen. 

"Argentum," a familiar human voice snapped, and I whipped my head towards them.

Standing beside the queen, was Raffael.

How I had missed him before, I did not know. But there he was, gowned in sweeping black robes, his sharp blue eyes staring at mine urgently. Begging me to fall silent.

Confused, I stared at him. What was he doing here? Last I'd seen him, he'd been warning us about Erakor, confidently declaring that we'd be able to destroy it. But now, he stood confidently beside the queen - as though his rank had not been stripped from him. As though he was comfortable in her presence.

What had changed?

Smoke coiled from my jaw as I glanced towards Rutilus. Was he surprised by Raffael's presence? I could not tell. He he remained still beside me, his golden eyes unreadable as he stared down at the humans.

"You have done my people a great service today, dragons," the queen started, her voice rather high-pitched, even for a human. But somehow, her voice was still powerful. Strong and clear. Commanding. Exactly how a queen's voice should sound. "I would like to thank you for risking your lives to save my city."

Tilting my head, I stared at her. What did she mean? We hadn't saved her city; we'd been defending ourselves. Had the imperial wing not attacked us, Erakor would merely be a stack of ruins.

Would Adoria and Caelum still be alive, if we'd attacked the human city instead? Would the other dragons that had died also still be alive?

No. What had happened had happened. There was no changing it now, even if I wanted too. They were dead, and there was nothing I could do about it. At least now, the Dragon King was also dead. No longer a threat to our lives.

"You see, those dragons frequently attacked Erakor. Never doing too much damage to the city, but," the queen sighed in exasperation. Shaking her head slowly, her green eyes trailed towards the city as she continued, "even small attacks are good at initiating fear."

"How did we save you, if they'd only done minimal damage each time they attacked you?" Kronx questioned, shifting his weight, but his gaze remained locked on the humans.

"Each attack, even if small, was doing more damage than the last," Queen Azist declared, holding her head high in confidence. "It was only a matter of time before they ruined our city. Besides... rumours were starting to spread that they would destroy us soon."

Shock jolted through me. She understood us! That meant that she was a dragon rider, like Raffael. Dragon rider, and queen. Uneasy, I watched as she fell silent, staring into the distance.

Despite only just realising that she was also a dragon rider, I couldn't help but wonder if her weak human eyes allowed her to see the humans that were pouring out of the city, cheering triumphantly. Chances were, she could not hear their cries; I barely could from this far away, but perhaps she could see her city.

Not that it mattered. There were still more important things to worry about - such as freeing the dragons that were forced to lurk within the city's depths.

"So, as I said before, thank you," the queen finally sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "We owe you... Your wing, we can heal that for you?" She turned towards Kronx.

"No," the dark blue drake shook his head, an unreadable emotion darkening his eyes as he stared at his wounded wing. Was it disgust? Pain? Acceptance? I could not tell, even when he continued speaking. A long sigh escaped him."Only fire can heal it - and even that is very unlikely." 

Pity stirred in my stomach as I watched Kronx. His wing was practically useless; perhaps he was right when saying that it would most likely never heal. If that was the case, then... He was earthbound. Permanently earthbound.

A shudder ran down my spine, and I cringed. How I'd hated the days I'd been earthbound - longing to return to the skies! To think that Kronx was going to suffer the same way, except worse. Knowing that he'd be unable to fly again.

Uneasily, I glanced towards Soriak - whom was also staring at the dark blue drake sympathetically. 

The human queen frowned. "Then what else would you want? You can stay at our city, and we can clean your scales, or we can -"

Cutting her off, I blurted, "free the dragons."

Queen Azist froze, exchanging a glance with Raffael. "Free the dragons?" She mused, raising her head to laugh. "We were going to do that anyway! The only reason we caught them in the first place was to defend our city!"

Around her, the most of the dragons she and her companions used to come here stirred hopefully, their eyes brightening with excitement. Even if they were well cared for, nothing was better than being free. Nothing.

"All the dragons," I held her gaze firmly. "Not just in this city."

I did not miss the way she hesitated. The way alarm sparked her gaze - possibly even a hint of anger. Swallowing, she narrowed her eyes before grunting, "very well. I'll try my best."

*~*

1198 words

Ha. Not quite the last chapter - I spread out a few previous ones out a little more. If all goes well, this book will be finished by the end of the week, given that its unlikely that there will be more than two chapters. :D

Anyways, please do drop a vote/comment if you enjoyed!