Draka Chapter 207: I’m Done (Patreon)

The first sign I had that something was wrong came when I approached the city. I could feel that Mak was somewhere in the direction of the high city, rather than the inn. The only place in that direction that made any kind of sense for her to be, no matter how little, was the Tesprils’ estate. That wasn’t it, though. When I turned toward the high city, my Mak-sense pointed not at Zabra and Kesra’s home, but at the Citadel. And there was no damn reason that I could think of for her to be there, not without me.

When I asked Herald if she could think of anything, she didn’t answer. Instead she said, in a terse way that didn’t at all ease my worries, “Please, do not act rashly. Let us go back to the Favor and talk to the others. I am sure that there is a good reason for this.”

I set us down in the yard behind the inn. Herald had climbed down and was stretching her stiff limbs when a full squad of nervous city guards, led by a captain who looked like he regretted his choice of career, rounded the building from the street.

“Lady Draka,” the captain said, his voice unsteady. “Greetings. I am here to— Miss Drakonum Herald! In the name of the city of Karakan, I have been tasked with taking you into custody. Please come peacefully!”

There was real pleading in his eyes when he said that, though he looked at me more than her. I didn’t care much. My ears were ringing, and I had a familiar, bitter taste in my mouth as my field of vision narrowed to a very small area around the captain.

“Herald,” I said in Tekereteki, and just the tone of that one word made some of the guards flinch. “Is any of the men in this group Mak’s sergeant?”

“No,” she replied, like she was condemning them all with a word.

“Good. Then I know my options.” I switched back to Karakani. “Captain… whoever you are,” I said, only barely holding Instinct back from taking over as I spoke. “Where are my friends?” Conscience was a constant presence in the back of my mind, praising me for how calm and restrained I was and begging me to stay that way, reminding me that these poor bastards were only following orders. As if that would save them if I didn’t like their captain’s answer.

To his credit, he didn’t even try to play dumb. In what must have been a rehearsed torrent of words, he said, “The Lady Drakonum Makanna and the members of her House were taken into custody earlier today, by order of the Council. We were stationed here to apprehend Miss Herald when she returned and to ask Lady Draka, that is, yourself, to accompany us to the Citadel.”

Herald, beside me, was very still. To anyone else she might have looked like she was in shock, stunned at the news of her family’s and her own arrest. But I could smell the fury rolling off her. I could tell that the trembling of her limbs was from the same restraint that I was exercising. When she looked at me, I could read the question in her eyes as clearly as if she’d spoken: “Shall I go with them?”

I shook my head minutely, and Herald took two steps and vanished into the shadow of the inn. Of course, I could both see and feel her run past the guards and around the building. The captain and his guards, though, shouted in alarm, looking around until I spoke up.

“Well, Captain, somebody must really hate you. And it looks like Herald doesn’t intend to come willingly, so you’ll have to settle for me. Shall we?”

The guards scrambled out of the way as I walked right through them, and the terror that rolled off them as I led the way was barely enough to keep me peaceful. The damn gods laughed at my plans, did they? Well, I had a new plan. An excellent one. I wasn’t going to slaughter these guards. I wasn’t going to fly straight to the Citadel, crash through a goddamn wall if I had to, and free my humans by any means necessary. I wasn’t going to march down to the Palace and go from Chamber, to office, to office, giving those treacherous apes a terminal lesson in what it meant to steal from a dragon.

No. I was going to be calm and rational about this. I was going to let them explain themselves. And if I didn’t like what they had to say, I was going to promise my mother whatever it took for her to start reducing this city to slag and charred bones.

I felt Herald enter the inn, so I didn’t bother to stop. Instead I led the guards away toward the Citadel. I started at a reasonable pace, but once Herald started following us I lengthened my stride, setting a pace that forced the guards to jog to keep up with me. It was painfully slow compared to flying, but I wanted Herald to be able to keep up.

People scattered as I made my way through the wide streets that led from the Merchant Quarter to the high city. When I chose to spend time among the people, I’d made a point of presenting myself as relaxed and approachable — this time I very much did not. The squad of guards doing their best to “escort” me didn’t help.

I’d never actually walked all the way to the Citadel before. I’d never walked very far at all, preferring to drift through the shadows, or even better, to fly. Nor did I actually know the way. I simply stuck to the largest street that led me toward Mak, figuring that Captain No-name would nervously suggest a different route if I was heading into a dead end or something.

Before I knew it, I found myself recognizing my surroundings. Quite unintentionally, I’d taken us up Cloud Street, and I stopped to look at the closed gates of the house where my sisters and I had been held prisoner. The house where Tarkarran had tortured Herald and Mak for days, until Mak broke and agreed to help Zabra capture me. In some ways I’d been reborn in that house. Or maybe born for the first time — before then it had been the human and the dragon. Now, it was Conscience, Instinct, and me. The first time I’d seen Karakan, the first time I’d seen the sun as I was now, had been while sneaking down this very street. It felt strange to stand there again, now in the open, as the guards waited anxiously and people passed on the street as far from me as possible.

I wondered for a moment if anyone was living there now. It had been Tarkarran’s home in the city, though from what Ardek had told me, Zabra used it as a sort of office. The Parvions only owned it to keep Tark away from the rest of them. Had they sold it after he vanished? If not, maybe we could buy it from them? I could think of some uses for the cells deep beneath it.

Nah. Herald and Mak probably wouldn’t see the humor in it. Ardek might, though.

I stood there, staring, until the captain said, “Excuse me, Lady Draka? Is there something you need?”

“No,” I replied, snapping out of my thoughts. “Just wondering if this house might be for sale.”

“Ah. Are you familiar with it?

“Oh, yes, Captain,” I said, turning away and starting back up the street. “I’m intimately familiar with this house. I had a grand old time here a few months ago.”

“I… see,” he said, breaking into a slow jog again to keep up. No doubt he was informed and clever enough to connect the dots. There was, presumably, only one house on Cloud Street where eight people had been torn to shreds by tooth and claw.

Herald stopped by that same house for a long minute before catching up to us.

  *

I’d only ever been on the roof of the Citadel. I knew that it was a tall, solid building, but I’d never seen how impressive it was from ground level. Standing in the spacious courtyard, it towered over me and the many smaller buildings. The architecture and decoration of the Palace was more pleasing to the eye, there was no contest there, but there was something to be said for the impression of sheer strength and impregnability that the Citadel gave off.

Somewhere in there, on one of the higher floors and in a room facing the sea if my guess was right, Mak was waiting. The others, I couldn’t tell. I could only hope that they were near her.

I would have marched right inside past the massive, open double doors, but when I was halfway across the courtyard I was met by Lord Commander Barvon. The man managed to look embarrassed, proud, and absolutely done with just about everything all at once. Not an easy look to pull off, but he did it.

“Lady Draka,” he said, stopping fifteen feet away. Far enough to have a chance to react if I lashed out, not so far as to be impolite. Then he put his hand to his chest and bowed to me, far deeper than almost anyone had since Garal thanked me for saving his life. It set off a wave of murmurs among the guards, both those I’d come with and those who’d already been in the courtyard. “Before I say anything as the lord commander of Karakan, I want to speak as Barvon Ketterel.” After speaking to the stones, he straightened and looked me in the eye. “My lady, I wish to apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for what I have been forced to do in carrying out my duty to the city. I want you to know that I voted against the lord justice Alster’s extraordinary motion to have Lady Drakonum arrested, as did the lady justice Sempralia and the lord speaker Berkia.”

“We had an agreement, Lord Commander,” I said. And though I knew that it was me who said the words, though I felt my throat, tongue, jaw and lips move, it was like I was listening to someone else speak. It wasn’t like when I let Instinct take over, either. No, I was simply so absolutely, blindingly furious, and I was working so hard not to lose control, to strip the murderous rage out of everything I said and did, that there was nothing left. There was nothing to anchor myself to, no emotion to pin myself to the scene. Even my shadow was so strictly bound that I wasn’t sure I cast one at all. “If there were any legal complaints against any member of House Drakonum, I was to be contacted first.”

Even though I did nothing, the loose circle of guards around me slowly shuffled outward. My mother had an aura of dread around her that was almost palpable when she wanted it to be. Seeing the guards back away, nervously gripping their spears, while the lord commander grimaced, I wondered if I’d figured out the trick.

“You are absolutely correct, Lady Draka,” the lord commander agreed. “That is why it took a vote of the Council to issue the order. The three of us who dissented did so passionately, I promise you that. But we were left with no choice but to accept the majority opinion, or resign our seats. And a Council of four, in a time of war? No. Instead, we did what we could. Sempralia immediately signed an order that the prisoners be held in comfort in the Citadel, rather than in the cells, and I have taken personal responsibility for their wellbeing.”

I understood his words. I knew that he’d done what he could to help, as had Sempralia. I even believed him. That did nothing to set things right.

“Give them to me,” I said, and I wasn’t sure if I meant my family or the councilors who’d voted to imprison them.

The lord commander scowled deeply. “That, I can’t do. Lady Drakonum stands accused of the murder of Captain Vakkal of the city guard, with the others as accomplices. And…” He took a deep breath and straightened, and I knew that now, finally, he spoke as the lord commander. “Lady Draka, you yourself are named on the arrest order.”

I looked down on the lord commander, not sure if I’d heard him correctly — and with my head almost ten feet above the ground when I sat up straight, I could really look down on people. Surely he couldn’t have said what I thought he said. Perhaps the blood rushing through my ears had muddled his words. But no, it was pretty clear. He, or at least the Council, wanted to arrest me.

It was so utterly beyond anything I ever thought they might try to do that all I could do was laugh. I heard it roll out of me, dark and completely without mirth, and I saw the guards back away even further, still not leveling any weapons at me but holding on to what they had with white knuckles.

Herald walked right past us and into the Citadel, and that only made me laugh harder.

“You—” I choked out, “you intend to arrest me? Really, Barvon? What’s your plan here? Do you believe that I will walk willingly into a dungeon? Do you intend to try to chain me? How do you imagine that will go?” I looked around the massed guards in the courtyard — and they truly were massed. More and more had arrived from wherever they’d been waiting, and now there were dozens, maybe as many as a hundred of them surrounding me. “Mercies, Lord Commander. Did you even consider that some of these poor bastards may have children?”

“Lady Draka, please,” he said, and it wasn’t the terrified plea that the guard Captain had delivered behind the inn. This was a heartfelt request between equals. “You’re named on the order, but I truly do not wish to arrest you. I’ve brought neither Palace guards nor any of the Council’s personal guards — and believe me, I could have — because I’m hoping that you’ll come willingly, as you have so far. There’ll be no need for an arrest if you do. The Citadel’s got a large reception hall, and the kitchens are well staffed. I’m asking that you come inside with me, and that you stay here as a guest — under guard, but a guest, not a prisoner — until we can work past whatever idiocy has gotten into my colleagues.”

“Under guard, you say? So I wouldn’t be able to leave?”

“Unfortunately correct,” he said, his face twisting sourly. That made me chuckle again, though there was a lot more dark humour in it than there had been my incredulous laughter before. “May I ask what’s so funny?” the lord commander said after a short while.

“Oh, you know. I was just imagining what might happen when my mother decides that she misses me and comes around, and I don’t fly out to meet her. Let’s see, shall we? I’ll come willingly. Lead on.”

I didn’t hate Barvon, but no matter how tolerable he was the horror in his eyes were a balm on my fucking soul.

I had zero patience for anything at that moment. When Barvon remained rooted in place, I started walking. That snapped him out of it, and he fell in beside me.

“Lady Draka, please explain! Why would Reaper — apologies, you mother — come looking for you?”

I looked at him, not bothering to hide my incredulity. “I warned you, not two weeks ago: she is concerned about my wellbeing. What did you think that meant?”

“Nobody is going to hurt you!”

As we climbed the dozen steps to the grand entrance of the Citadel, I snorted with cold amusement. “I know that. You know that. But how is my mother to know? She expects me to visit regularly. If I don’t she’ll come find me. In the interest of repairing my relationship with the Council—” I practically spat the words, “I’ve convinced her not to come into the city, but in exchange she expects me to fly out and talk to her.”

We entered the oldest, largest structure in the city, and it was grand enough that even I, in my coldly furious state, could appreciate it. The gates opened onto a spacious antechamber, and passing through that we came into a truly grand hall, at least three quarters the length and width of the entire building and with a ceiling so high above, and so cleverly designed, that it seemed to stretch into infinity. If I’d been in a better mood, I might have been in awe. There was something preternaturally perfect about the construction. It wasn’t anything that I could point at or prove, but something deep inside me told me that the stonework was perfect — every stone the exact size it should be, perfectly placed for optimal stability and aesthetics. Even if it had been completely bare and without decoration, with none of the tapestries and banners, the rugs and carpets, and the chairs, tables, benches, and other furniture that filled it, it still would have been beautiful.

Standing there, taking it all in, marvelling at this pinnacle of human architecture, I was inspired to say, “I watched my mother hollow out a mountain. The stone ran like candle wax, and she tore it out by the ton with her claws. I wonder what she’d do to this place if she thought I was being kept prisoner here.” Then I continued inside.

In the middle of that giant hall, I turned to look at the lord commander. He looked almost sick, though it was hard to tell if it was from worry or from anger at his idiot colleagues. “Lady Draka,” he said, “surely you wouldn’t simply stand by while your mother attacked our city?”

“Nothing I can do, I’m afraid,” I said, lying down and making myself comfortable. “Me and my humans are under arrest. Or detained, or whatever you want to call it. I can’t leave this hall.”

Anger, I thought as I watched his face. That’s definitely anger.

“I will see what I can do about getting you removed from the order,” he said tersely.

“Yeah, nah. Not good enough. I need to know that my humans are safe and comfortable, and above all, free. I can’t leave this place without them.”

“Lady Draka, please understand—”

“No!” I growled. My patience reached a very sudden and very final end. I’d had my fun bullying this old man, but it was high time that he and the rest of the Council understood what they’d gotten themselves into. “Listen to me, Barvon, and tell the rest of the Council this: the city of Karakan only has value to me as a place for my humans, my family, to live in freedom and peace. If they can’t have that, then the city no longer serves any purpose. I have played nice for months now, because my family loves Karakan. For their sake, I adopted this city as my own. I hoped to earn a place here, along with some damn respect. Clearly, I needn’t have bothered. I’m done. Go back to the Council, Lord Commander. Give the lord speaker and the lady justice my regards — and my regrets. And tell those other four treacherous bastards to rescind this arrest order against my family, or they and everyone within a mile or so of them can suffer the consequences. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday soon. Tell them that.”

For long moments, Lord Commander Barvon and the multitude of guards who had followed us inside stood so still and silent that I could hear my own thundering heartbeat. Then Barvon bowed curtly, turned, and walked out the doors shouting, “Messengers! Messengers right gods-damned now! Gather the Council!”

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I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it.

I also invite you to put yourself in the place of any one of the poor guards who've been tasked with escorting or guarding the good Lady Dragon.

First you're told that the Council wants you to be part of arresting that dragon that's been flying over the city, even walking its streets. You've heard that she's pretty big, and some people say that she destroyed an entire mercenary company all on her lonesome. You always thought that was just a sensational rumor, though.

Then you see her, and the rumor sounds a hell of a lot more believable. She's over six foot tall at the shoulder and wide as a temple door, bulging with muscle and covered in scales that look like black-enameled steel. Fifteen feet long, she must weigh two tons, but she moves with the grace of an alley cat. You're not sure if it's a weird trick of the light, but she doesn't seem to cast a shadow.

And she's pissed. It's in every word, every look, in the very air around her. You don't know what it would take for her to snap, but your officers keep saying things that make it worse.

It's the worst day of your career. You can only pray to the Mercies that it won't be your last.

//AB