Page 78 of The Dragon Warlord

I work to calm my erratic breathing. Everything feels wrong and dangerous. I want to tell him yes, but I want to form the bond with the dragon first in case something goes wrong. “Just a moment. I’ll give the signal.”

It’s my turn to place my hand on the dragon’s dry scales. They’re not supposed to be dry. If dry scales are as painful as dry skin, he must hurt everywhere, not to mention the ache muscles get when you can’t stretch them and use them. “Will you let me in easy or are you going to fight me?”

He releases a pained roar. We have yet to see if an ice dragon can shift as the books say. I wager that the nasty collar is the reason he can’t shift from this form if he can. I hope the dragon lord has ideas about how to get that thing off him.

If the dragon lord doesn’t have him executed. He’d said no to this venture after all. After all this time caged in these inhumane conditions, the dragon might prefer death.

Allowing some of my magic to trickle into him, bit by bit, I feel around for any crack in his mind that I can latch onto. I don’t want to be intrusive, or he’ll feel me there, and I’d rather not have to fight him. He’s been in this form for too long. It’s hard to say if he understands us.

As I work, I’m distracted by my number one distraction. River. He’s just over there. Ten feet away. “R-Riv?” No answer. “Omega?” The dragon flinches.

“Here, Alpha. It is time?”

Why doesn’t he hear his name when I call?

“Almost.”

The dragon’s breaths are long and heavy, his leathery body expanding with great effort into the cold floor, just to breathe. I’ll bet he’s demoralized, but there’s nothing like the spirit of a dragon and I’m depending on that a lot so that we might commandeer his assistance. “C’mon, friend. Let me in there. We’ll get you out of here.”

Like slamming against a stone wall, I hit upon the crag I need to latch onto. Unfortunately, he feels it too. Releasing a wild cry, he fights, and it begins. We struggle in our minds, but the exertion feels like a wrestling match as if we’re tumbling and pinning the other.

Thankfully, he’s weak, otherwise, I’d have been tossed out of his mind by now. I don’t have nearly the training for this and I’m about to get a mental workout. Doubling down, I wrestle with the dragon, grateful I don’t have to fight him at the same time. It can take many attempts, sometimes over weeks, to command a dragon and that dragon is free to fight you, happy to eat you if need be.

This isn’t fair, but we don’t have the luxury of time and I don’t plan on keeping the connection.

“Riv. River, now!” I shout when I break through the fighting dragon’s meager defenses. There isn’t much left of his mental fortitude. As if I’m snapping a leash onto his mind, I grip it and for now, this dragon is mine.

But I don’t hear the explosion that I should. “River!”

“Warlord, the chains,” Ikara says.

Pulling my sword, I hack away at the chains, but I don’t stop shouting for River. “Omega,” I growl.

“Yes, Alpha.”

“The wall. Blow through it, please.”

“On it!”

I try not to worry about what’s going on. He’s there, he’s about to blow through the wall. We’re going to get the fuck out of here. With the last chain free, I sheathe my sword and reach for Ikara to help her onto our dragon who hasn’t moved yet. That’s troubling, but yet another on a growing list of troubles. River still hasn’t burst through the wall.

Ikara doesn’t take my hand, she’s looking behind me. Oh, Gods. There’s yet another new problem behind me, isn’t there? As badly as it smells down here, I still manage to make our their gnarly scent. I don’t want to look, but I guess I have to.

Unsheathing my sword as I spin, I’m met with the sight of beast after beast, pouring through the low door, some of them having to duck under it to get inside.

Not good.

“What’s your magic status at?”

“Not high if I’m to fashion another portal. Unless you think he has enough to fly all the way back to The Tower.”

I don’t even know if he can fly. Will his wings still have the fortitude? “Hold off as long as possible and get on the dragon. Why hasn’t River blown this place to smithereens yet?”

“River?” I hear her say just as the first beast lunges toward me. “Weren’t you supposed to give him a signal?”

I sink and stab upward, letting the spell seep in with it and explode beast guts everywhere, including across my vision. I wipe slimy filth off my face. “Well, c’mon then. What you waitin’ for?” I urge the next beast forward. This is way easier than the first time fighting a Wasteland beast. I feel like I’ve leveled up. These guys are smaller than the one that came to The Tower and wingless.

“I gave him the signal. You were right there,” I shout over the building pandemonium.