Page 76 of Consort's Dragon
“So they claim.I don’t believe anything they say anymore.”
She approached the blue dragon.“Would you like me to at least try?”
Calixte recoiled.No.You will cause yourself injury and then how will you help us?
Avera’s hand hovered before dropping slowly to her side.“Any suggestions on how I can aid you?”
Kill the witches.
Her lips pursed.“I could try, but I doubt my chances of success without a weapon.”
The dragons’ heads turned as if of one mind and eyed Opal as she appeared on the roof, her hair mussed.
“You’ve been up here a while,” Opal stated.
“The dragons are better company than those in the tower.”
A comment that earned a snort from Lance.
“You got them to eat,” Opal remarked.
“They were hungry.”
“And most likely plotting.”Opal glanced at them.“There is no escaping the collar.Not until you’ve completed your task.”
So we’ve been told.A sour reply by Gunther.
“Get inside.It’s time you ate,” Opal ordered.
Avera grimaced as the drug in her system tried to force her to obey.“I’d rather stay with the dragons.”
“You must keep up your strength.”
“I would have thought you’d want me weak to make the rape easier.”
For a brief moment, Avera could have sworn she saw Opal wince.“It won’t be so bad.”
“I guess you’d know,” Avera retorted, ignoring Opal’s downturned lips.
Avera brushed past her and descended into the tower.She ate quickly and quietly, doing her best to ignore Titus who spent the meal smirking.
The next few days were torture.The forced proximity to Titus and his viziers both made her simmer with anger and fueled her despondency.She spent as much time as she could with the dragons, telling them of Daerva and what she knew of the world.The changes it had undergone.The history they’d missed.They didn’t bring up her escape during that time and yet Avera found herself often staring out over the plains with its glowing orange cracks.
Did she dare believe them when they said her ancient dragon genes would save her from burning alive?
On the fourth day, her menses ended, not that she told anyone.Still, somehow Titus knew.
“Tonight, I will get you with child,” he announced.
The threat sent Avera fleeing to the rooftop.Only one of the three dragons was perched.Since the sheep were long gone, they’d been given permission to hunt the creatures that lived in the abyss.The command had been carefully crafted to ensure they couldn’t flee.
“You will feed upon three of the creatures in the chasm and then return to this rooftop,”Klothi had stated.“You will not hunt beyond the plains or the rift.Should you attempt it, your wings will fail.”
Lance attempted to disobey on the first flight to forage.Avera had watched in horror as the dragon attempted to cross the chasm only to suddenly plummet as its wings went limp.She’d wrung her hands in worry until Lance emerged sometime later, flapping drunkenly, arriving with wounds that had Avera fetching water and bandages to clean.
Lance had been livid.Those witches have bound us well.The moment I attempted to disobey my body failed me.
With Lance’s failure, the dragons turned even more sullen with their captors, refusing to speak unless ordered.Not that the viziers asked them much.
