Page 79 of The Dragon Warlord
I don’t like the look on her face as she shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Warlord. I didn’t hear you give a signal. You called for him a couple of times, but he never responded.”
That’s impossible. I know I heard him. She was next to me the whole time. If I heard him then she had to have.
The dragon doesn’t like her trying to climb him. Before he bucks her off, I have to command him whilst massacring a beast army. I am once again grateful for narrow openings. Only a few at a time can attack. Still, there’s only one of me and many of them. I’ll tire before I kill them all.
Unless. “Get on the dragon!”
Finding my center is easy as I prepare to unleash fire, but the next part is harder, tapping into my heart’s energy field when I’m preoccupied with listening for River’s blast. I don’t bother releasing my fire, I know there’s not enough energy built within me to kill them all. Yet.
A new panic sets in. I need to find my omega.
Then I remember that I have a dragon at my command. “C’mon, dragon.”Fire,I say using our mental connection and dive to the side of him as a roar of flames comes out of his mouth. Some beasts catch fire, the flames sticking to their bodies like burning tar. Others were bright enough to bring shields, wearing boots that seem fire-repellant as they step on the backs of their beastly comrades to get to me.
Again,I command the dragon.
This time he coughs up smoke. Shite. Guess that’s the end of that. I don’t wait until I’m seated on the dragon, demanding that he move as I grip his scales, urging him in the direction River went.
“Go,” I shout. “Go, go!”
His creaky body does its best to move for me, but it hasn’t moved in some time, and he stumbles like an old horse. It’s the slowest escape attempt in the history of escape attempts.
I have another go at rallying enough fire to flame broil the stinking masses of Wasteland beasts.
I think about River and hold him in my dragon heart.
Releasing a growl that overpowers everything, I unleash firepower that I extend further and further until I can be sure it’s burning its way down the awful, narrow crypts of this place. Beasts scream as they combust, and I put my efforts into finding my omega as the animal below me finally moves its limbs toward the direction he went.
But we’ve hit a dead wall and with the flames lighting up the entirety of this cold, dead place, I confirm for myself what I already know to be true.
River isn’t here. River is gone.
13
River
As soon as I blast a hole in the side of the dungeon wall, I know I’m somewhere else. I’d followed the tunnel for a ways—but not too far as per the Warlord’s orders—and found an area that I thought would be sound enough to break through. Then I’d waited, surrounded by the piles of bones of others that had failed to escape their final, putrid resting place, trying to ignore the whispers that I was about to join them.
On the other side of my blast is yet another wall. Instead of continuing to break through rock and possibly have the whole place fall in on me, I turn around to head back the way I came. I walk for too long. I know exactly how far away from the Warlord I traveled, and this is too long. Reaching out, I confirm my suspicions. He’s not the few yards away he should be, but maybe on the other side of the fortress? I’m not sure. There’s a lot of magic sizzling through this place. It’s muddying up my ability to sense anything.
Carrying on seems as bad of an idea as staying put if those bones are any indication, but the idea of being trapped here forever sets off my dragon’s claustrophobia. I freeze.Think, River. Think.
The Warlord couldn’t have heard me. There’s no way. I haven’t been able to hear any of their movements for some time I realize now that I’m thinking about it. When I heard the Warlord or thought I heard the Warlord, I assumed his voice had carried.
Omega! Answer me dammit.
My head whips around. Is that him? Or am I imagining things? I move the torch around trying toseesound—that’s the hysterical place I’m getting to—but of course I don’t. Where did the echo come from?
Omega. Gods, why do you feel so far away?
Wait, that’s not echoing off stone, that’s in my head. We’re such fools sometimes, both of us. We miss the obvious because we’re involved in our convoluted dance of trying to stay away from each other.
We’ve already established that I could hear him in my mind, but it’s hearing me where the block lay.
Until today. This means we’ve had a whole conversation! And we’ve achieved some new level of bonding. These kinds of bonds are the rarest. The dragon lord can seep into the minds of his subjects, and I suspect he tampered with his bond to Tristan so that he can always keep an eye on his Warlord, but being able to speak like this between alpha and omega only develops naturally between some.
Alpha, can you hear me?
Of course, I can. Where are you? I can’t see you.
