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Chapter Seven
Part Eleven

“I just wish there was some way to see what’s waiting for us before we open the door,” Karen said. From the tense way she was holding her shoulders Valeria knew that the girl, was trying and failing to ignore the hostile group of speakers at her back.

“That’s one thing it can’t do,” Rai admitted. “A bit of an oversight I guess.”

“A bit?” Karen said. “If it was an oversight it was a bloody big one. But perhaps it just wasn’t possible. Who knows, after all this time.” She laid her head against the rock. “But I should still be able to use the threads to get some idea of what’s out there.”

“Why are we trusting her anyway?” One of the fleeing speakers burst out. Valeria turned and saw a  tall male Haltia with flaming red hair and coppery skin pushing his way to the front of the group. From his clothing and the bag across his shoulder he was a musician from Kelosia. “Are you sure about this, your majesty? She’s human.”

Alban stepped between him and Karen. “She’s my heart friend. Believe me, she’ll get us out of here safely.”

“Listen, “ Valeria said reasonably. “There are dragons out there, and we can’t fight them. Unless you have a better idea we’re left relying on the human to save us.”

The male Haltia shook his head angrily and then sighed. “You’re right, of course, but I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I,” Valeria agreed. “But we don’t have much choice.”

“I’d rather face the dragons,” someone else shouted from the back. “At least they only want to eat us.”

Valeria stiffened at that and the rest of the speakers edged away from the pretty young sylph who’d spoken. She looked barely out of childhood and the way her long white hair and gauzy gown whipped around in a non-existent gale proved her agitation.

“What did you say?” Karen turned slowly to look at her.

The sylph looked around as she realised the rest of the group had deserted her, but lifted her chin and stood her ground.

“I said that I’d rather face a dragon than be beholden to a human. Is that so very strange? To prefer death to slavery?”

Karen sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose. She suddenly looked very tired.

“Even if I wanted to enslave anyone – which I don’t -” she paused and waited while the sylph made a sceptical noise in her throat. “Even if I did, it’s naive. Dragons don’t just kill their prey. They feed on them, leave them to recover and then do it again.”

“You lie!” the sylph yelled. “Dragons just kill us! I’ve seen what humans do… humans…” The sylph sank to her knees on the stairs and covered her face with her hands.

Karen frowned and looked over at Rai. “Where’s she from?”

“She’s never said, but given that we found her wandering the mountains in a daze two years we presume she’s from Esen Peak. And well you know what happened there.”

“I do.” Karen walked up the stairs, knelt down in front of the sylph and gently pulled the her hands away from her face. “Is he right? Are you from Esen Peak, child?”

The  sylph looked away defiantly but after a moment she nodded.

“I see. It was the Dragon Knights who destroyed Esen Peak, child.  Yes, they’re human, but they’re called that for a reason. They work for the dragons – well, one of them anyway.”

“What? Humans don’t work for dra-”

“No,” Valeria interrupted. “She’s telling the truth. We realised pretty quickly that they were working for a dragon, though we never did work out why.”

“I don’t work for a dragon, child,” Karen said. “And look at it this way: if we did try and enslave you, you can fight us. You’ve done it before.”

“But we can’t fight dragons…” The sylph hesitated. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Did no one ever tell you that the dragons were responsible for what happened to your home?” Karen asked.

The sylph looked down and shook her head.

“We thought she knew,” Rai said. “It’s common knowledge after all.”

“T-they took my mothers and my sister away. I-I… do you think they’re still alive?”

“After two years at the mercy of a dragon?” Karen asked. “Not if they’re lucky, but there’s probably a fifty-fifty chance they are.” She put her arms around the sylph’s shoulders. “If we get out of this, I promise I’ll try to find out.” She rose and headed back to the door. “Ready, Alban?” she asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied.

“Good!” She laid her head against the door again and closed her eyes. “There are definitely two dragons out there. “One’s unconscious – I’d guess that’s the one you tricked into crashing – but the other’s very much awake and it’s waiting for us.” She opened her eyes. “I can’t account for the others.”

“At least two of them were following us down,” the fire haltia who’d spoken earlier said. “We collapsed the ceiling on them.”

“That helps,” Karen said. “So we possibly have two unaccounted for.” She unhooked her axes from her belt. “Oh well, let’s do this.” She reached out and tapped the carving. “Everyone stay in here until we tell you it’s clear.” She charged out through the door as it opened. Alban rushed through after her and leapt behind a boulder, using it for shelter as he prepared to fire his bow.

Valeria got as close to the door as she dared and watched. Someone needed to be ready to shut it if the fight went the wrong way.

The dragon who’d  crashed was indeed still unconscious, but another dragon sat on top of a boulder directly in front of the door in human form. As Karen emerged from the doorway he looked up and smirked. It wasn’t a nice smile.

“Well finally! I was beginning to think dinner would never get here.” Claws erupted from his fingertips as he somersaulted off the rock and leapt at Karen.

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