Siege: The Rider's Dragon 02, page 30
Chapter 38
A strange tapping sensation slowly pulled Nemesis from his slumber.
He woke and felt a presence pressing down on his head. The muted mental pressure informed him it was Persephone. The silver-haired woman stood on his muzzle, just below his left eye. When he cracked his lid, he found her perched on her tip-toes… knocking on the bony ridge that protected his sensitive orb.
He could feel his pupil narrow to a slit as it focused on the pale object right in front of his eyeball. Once she came into focus, it was clear that Persephone was wearing a powder-blue ribbon between her thighs, with a matching wrap across her pale chest… and nothing else.
Once she saw he was awake, she removed a charm bracelet and set it on his scales. Then she pressed her palm to his muzzle. ‘Can you hear me?’ she asked, the slight scrunch to her nose giving away her attempts at telepathy.
‘Yes, but before you get into whatever you’re so eager to tell me… why are you standing on my head and wearing that?”
Nemesis couldn’t keep the confusion from his tone, and now that she’d removed the charm, he had a better read on her emotions. Persephone was radiating her own confusion, alongside embarrassment, anticipation, shame… and eagerness. The blended feelings prevented him from getting a solid idea of her motivation.
While he was tempted to simply read her thoughts and cut out the middle-man, he decided to give her a chance to speak her mind first.
‘Sleeping in clothes is annoying. Bad enough to have to sleep in this form, but while wearing a dress? Forget it. That would be too much—now don’t interrupt again.’ She flicked her head and tossed her long hair back over her shoulder. Nemesis wasn’t sure she realized exactly how much of her body she exposed in doing so… but he also wasn’t inclined to complain.
The silver dragon had stomped her foot when she scolded him, yet now she was the one hesitating.
‘Go on, I’m listening,’ he told her.
For just a second, he thought she was going to stick her tongue out at him. She took a deep breath, which didn’t make sense as she was using telepathy, then she finally began to speak: ‘Glaive is pushing for us to send a missive to the commander of the Praetorians. He insists a dragon of your obvious genius should be fast tracked into service directly to the Immortal. To my frustration, he’s never believed the rumors that Kolos acts to prevent others from approaching his own strength. Much as I value my rider’s wisdom, I know the truth: if you are reassigned to the Praetorians, you will die within the next few years. Unless they can break you of your independence.’
It was like his secondary ice core had suddenly spilled its power into his bloodstream. Nemesis suppressed a shiver at the chill crawling through his body. He ran his eye over her again, instinctively looking for signs of threat.
Instead of threats, Nemesis saw her nipples tightened to hard points beneath her thin wrap, and the fabric between her thighs was damp enough that there was a shine on the skin around it. His keen sense of smell picked up the scent of an aroused female, though her body language didn’t show any such inclination.
The distraction of her appearance compared to her message helped his mind remain centered. ‘So, you’ve come to tell me that Glaive is arranging that I once more be sent into slavery. A return to the times when my fate was determined by humans with power over me, is that it? Will Harper also be torn from me, or is she expected to live in slavery as well?’
Nemesis growing anger had turned his last question into a mental bellow, actually causing Persephone to flinch and stumble back. She had taken off the charm that blocked his ability to sense her, which meant her mind was fully open to him
Shock, dismay, guilt—rapidly changing emotions swept through her. Nemesis dove into her memories to see what she was thinking at that moment and was stunned to find a desire to weep… as well as a perverse pride. So much like his mother… was the thought that rang clear in her mind.
Surprise caused him to flinch back from her surface thoughts, so he toned down the connection until he could barely hear the words she projected at him: ‘I don’t intend to allow Glaive to push for your reassignment. However, we have no choice but to report to the new base commander. The officer will be requesting our presence when they’re settled in. I merely need you to trust me. I have my own reasons to ensure that you’re not hampered. Please believe me… Nemmy.’
If her errant thought about his mother hadn’t shaken his confidence, he might have refused to trust her. But those words of hers echoed in his mind. The black dragon closed his one open eye and spent some time breathing slowly through his nostrils. He needed to let his heart calm and his instincts mellow before he could provide her a genuine answer.
Persephone paced while waiting for his response, her bare feet slapping against the scales of his muzzle. By rights, it should have been annoying having her walking back and forth across his nose, yet Nemesis didn’t care. He dedicated his entire attention to sensing her feelings and calming his own.
Her feelings continued to waver through negative moods, but gradually he picked up a dominating theme: guilt, self-recrimination, and anxiety—all centered around the future. Lightly skimming her surface thoughts confirmed that she hated the future she was trying to warn him against.
So much like my mother. That’s what she was thinking. All I remember is the dead black shape in the nesting ground I was stolen from. The huge corpse that the poachers did their best to avoid. I had assumed they’d been the ones to kill her… but that’s stupid. Caleb and Jonas were far too weak to kill a grown dragon. Who actually was my mother?
Nemesis remembered Harper mentioning the origin of the motto Persephone had whispered to him: Hunt, Kill, Dominate—the mantra of Nightshade. A female dragon, a black, powerful enough to challenge Kolos in a full rebellion… and strong enough to escape without dying.
Could she have lived long enough to lay eggs? Am I Nightshade’s spawn? Is that why Persephone has devoted so much attention to me? Argh. I hate these pointless questions. They don’t matter right now. It all comes down to whether I will trust her to deal with her rider. Yes or no. Time to decide.
Nemesis took a deep breath, then allowed it out in a rumble that caused the entire cavern to vibrate. ‘Alright. I’ll trust you to handle Glaive. But you’re both cramping our ability to cultivate. Without your interference, we might grow beyond what you can imagine. Can you take him to the legion outpost for a time?’
He sensed curiosity burning inside Persephone, but she didn’t give him an answer. Instead, she tapped on his eyelid until he opened it once more. He was once again forced to control the iris of his eye until he’d narrowed his pupil to a slit to focus on her.
What he found was Persephone leaning toward him with her hands on her hips. She was studying him intently while mana flickered and swirled around her. Tiny threads of light and sound seemed to be dancing across his scales. Nemesis suspected she was using some technique to inspect him more carefully.
With his vision adjusted to look at details so close to his head, Nemesis couldn’t stop his eye from zooming in on her form. At some point during her pacing, Persephone had displaced one side of her chest wrap. It turned out her nipple was a metallic silver, a hard little bud on a petite mound. He had no idea if he should mention the exposure to her or not.
Nudity didn’t bother him—though his newfound appreciation for the feminine form made it slightly distracting.
‘You can keep your secrets,’ she finally announced. ‘Glaive and I will go on a patrol with Kaia and Talia after we return to your little roost. Once we’ve done that, we’ll go attend matters at the outpost. The legionnaires will doubtlessly be thankful for a pair of our caliber, and it means we’ll be prepared for the new commander to take over. Whatever it is you’ve been doing as a group, be sure to remain in control of it.’
Her pause made him think she’d said her piece. She ran her hands up her body and fixed her wrap, then brushed all of her hair back behind her shoulders. Yet just when he was about to respond to her, she resumed speaking.
‘Rare cultivation techniques exist, and while they are not forbidden, many are looked upon with mistrust. If you and your lovers have stumbled upon a true path to power, guard it jealously. There are those who have stalled on their path to the heavens, and they will tear you apart for the slightest inkling of a new step. Do not boast of your power. If asked… find a more plausible way to explain how you’ve broken to B-rank so quickly. Now goodnight.’
Without even allowing him a moment to respond, the silver dragon spun and snatched up her bracelet. She slid the charm over her wrist without delay, then skipped to the bedroll Glaive had set out for her. Nemesis blinked a single time, finding that she was somehow curled under her covers snoring like a hog.
The black dragon was left alone with his thoughts… and his confusion.
The combined auras of two powerful dragons seemed to discourage any spirit beasts from wandering up the tunnels that led deeper into the mountain. Nemesis sensed a few that hastily turned around once they drew close, so it left him little to do now that he was awake.
Once Harper awoke and climbed onto his back, he was able to slide out of the cave and retake his place in the sky. Persephone and Glaive were soon gliding above them again. The feeling of being judged was even worse, now that he knew Glaive was measuring him up for some kind of imperial posting.
He used the tightest telepathic link he could manage to fill Harper in on everything he had learned from Persephone. He sent all of the emotions and visual elements he could recall, wanting to give his rider the chance to digest things and look for nuances he might have missed.
Her response, however, wasn’t what he’d expected.
‘Do you think you could bond Persephone to you if Glaive died?’
‘Do I think… what?’ Nemesis asked, shock radiating through him. The land beneath them was empty and dull, without a single sign of the orcs. Conversation was easy, though keeping his thoughts quiet required some focus.
‘You blunted the pain Min feels from losing Artax. Bonding her has helped ease the damage done to her soul. Glaive’s brother turned that soul damage into a technique to grow in power. But from what we were taught, a dragon who loses their partner often withers away until they die of grief. Do you think dual cultivating with Persephone would allow her to survive that?’
Nemesis ran his attention over the entrance to a valley as he flew. The shadowy terrain was perfect for darkness mana aligned spirit beasts. Sadly, nothing on the ground stood out to him. When he no longer had an excuse to avoid answering, he cautiously organized his thoughts.
‘I cannot say it is impossible. Talia and I traded mana. I gained a secondary core aligned with flames… while she received some kind of energy that seemed to be the inverse of my poison. I think she even used it to heal some of her own wounds during the battle with the ogres. But Persephone… she’s a dragon of light and sound. Both mana types that cause me extreme discomfort.”
Harper let out a huff of breath and leaned back against one of his spinal ridges. ‘You think you could damage yourself if you cultivated with her?’ she asked.
‘The death mana from Cambus nearly destroyed my cultivation entirely. Just as bad was the ice mana from whatever that sword saint was. I had to use the acid from Cambus to power a transformation in my core. I poured the ice energy into my water mana… it destabilized my core, and I faced the tribulation after I forced the acid out into another secondary one. If I hadn’t, the acid would have dissolved my poison. I’m not sure I can rebalance everything if her light mana is injected against my darkness.’
Harper remained quiet, taking her time to think while they moved through the air. The valley they flew over had a cluster of spiders, but they were pathetically weak. The next two mountains were split by a deep river. He might have been tempted to explore if Harper hadn’t been on his back. As it was, he didn’t sense any strong minds.
When she finally started sending again, he almost missed a wingbeat in surprise. ‘If you gave Talia the opposite of poison… wouldn’t giving Persephone the opposite of darkness make her incredibly strong? Maybe between dragons, your cultivation is more like purification.’
Nemesis had to breathe deeply to calm his racing heart. Harper’s suggestion resonated with something inside him, yet that didn’t make the situation any less dangerous.
If Persephone’s light sought purification and pushed whatever darkness she had into me, I’d be stronger too. But that doesn’t make any sense. Talia didn’t give me the opposite of fire—she gave me flame mana. Whatever governs the transfer of mana from core to core is nothing so easily predicted. I can’t shake the idea it would be a gamble.
He then passed those thoughts on to Harper and his rider once again fell silent. During the quiet, Glaive finally signaled that they should head back to their retreat. Nemesis gladly banked and glided through the turn that would take them back toward their home.
Not wanting to waste their time, he shifted course so they’d be flying over new terrain on the way back. It was a standard Scaleguard tactic… and it annoyed him to realize that Glaive would probably approve of the strategy.
The black dragon caught himself grinding his jaws hard enough for his fangs to draw blood. He swallowed the coppery taste and muttered a curse when his belly grumbled. He hadn’t even realized he was growing hungry.
That sound drew Harper out of her reverie.
‘Looks like we’ll need to keep an eye out for something you can eat on the way home. Anything you’re in the mood for?’
It didn’t take Nemesis long to come to a decision. ‘Fish. A nice fat fish would go perfectly right about now. Something thick and juicy.’
Harper laughed. Together, the pair kept their eye out for a lake large enough to shelter something Nemesis could devour.
The rest of the week passed quickly. Talia’s patrol went without issue, and Glaive soon left to examine the legionnaire’s outpost.
Their attempts to gain more power through additional cultivation were met with mixed success. Talia, Min, Kaia, and Harper all grew… but Nemesis’ own power didn’t shift a hair from where it had been after his tribulation.
His secondary cores were refined, growing smoother while deepening in capacity, and his control over his mana developed with Talia’s tutelage, yet his power never rose. They discussed it and came to the hypothesis that none of them were strong enough to push more power into his being just yet.
Still, Nemesis would never complain about the attempts, which were both pleasurable and intense. He did find it far easier to control his instincts without the rush of power… that was a relief. He’d entertained the fear that time with his lovers might reduce him to a feral beast.
None of the others had hit B-rank yet, though the riders came close. Their lack was due to insufficient understanding of their own souls, so they explained to him. Nemesis didn’t quite understand all their talk of the greater understanding and spiritual awareness, but he left them to their meditations.
In their week of dual cultivating, Talia grew into a mid C-rank dragon. Her power base solidified, and her physical power developed until she was nearly a hundred feet long. Nemesis spent an hour or two contemplating how unfair it was that she surpassed him in size, but got over it. Female dragons were usually larger, and luckily Talia showed no sign of seeking a dominant role in their bonding.
When the missive came that they were expected at the legion outpost, none of them were surprised. Much as Nemesis had hoped they’d have longer… in truth he was shocked they’d gotten the time they had.
Min and Harper loaded onto his back while Kaia climbed aboard Talia. Neither dragon had a saddle that fit at that point, and both were disgruntled by their partners being without. This gave them an excuse to fly slower, and it was one they abused—Nemesis extended the trip by almost a full day.
“How could it take you so long to answer my summons?” demanded the imperious woman standing before them.
Nemesis studied her. They’d only just landed and she had been waiting for them where the gryphon stables had once been. Nearly seven feet tall, the woman had short-cropped blue hair and skin the color of ivory. Her eyes were black pits, and they gave her face a cruel demeanor. She wore a leather cuirass that molded to her body, though her muscular arms were left bare. The leather straps that formed her skirt didn’t even reach her mid-thigh, and Nemesis noted that she wore sandals that laced to just above her knee.
She gave off no sense of power at all. Between the lack of aura and her minimal uniform, he’d initially thought she was a common soldier, though he’d taken in the legionnaires’ attitudes and restrained any foolish comments.
The surviving soldiers were terrified of this woman.
“Are you going to answer me?” she asked. Her imperious voice wasn’t raised, simply commanding.
“I don’t even know who you are,” Nemesis admitted.
As the most powerful member of his group, custom dictated that he do the speaking… though it wasn’t one most dragon-rider pairings observed. Most dragons weren’t quite smart enough for the task. That wasn’t a problem Nemesis suffered.
His reply caused the woman to draw herself up. Where Nemesis had expected blustering rage, he was met with a slight incline of the head. The gesture of respect startled him, though he did his best to avoid showing it.
“I am General Alecto. I have been sent to pacify this region and stamp out any further betrayal on behalf of the empire. My personal unit and I are charged with examining your logs and directing the growth of this base. Now that you are here, we can begin our debriefing.”
Nemesis analyzed what he had been feeling from the general since they met. Her tone had been imperious, yet never emotional. She had treated him with respect, but clearly didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat her goals. Her clothing was minimal, displaying a powerful warrior’s body and just enough armor to cover the bits humans tended to sexualize.
