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“Ash told me about your go-bags, so I made one too,” she said, pulling a big black backpack from under one of the benches. She pulled out a neon pink vibrator and waved it at me. “A girl’s gotta pack the essentials.”
“Hurry up,” the dragon rider said, looking over at Jez with a frown.
Ash came in as I was readying the portal, stopping my opening sequence with a hug. Her arms wrapped around me like iron bands. “Ash, it’ll be OK.”
“It better, I’ve got to believe this is all part of Nan’s really obscure, hard to comprehend plan. Flea’s going to go with you.”
“Flea, I—”
“No arguments. You need someone by your side.”
“And me!” Jez said. “You promised I could be the sidekick this time.”
“Jez and Flea will go with you. Be safe,” my sister said, peering into my eyes, hers suspiciously shiny looking, before placing a kiss on my forehead. Flea marched in, toting a large, whole lot more suspicious-looking, bag.
“I’m opening the portal now,” I said to the dragon riders.
“Make sure it’s the correct one,” the leader said with a curl of his lip.
9
We walked down the Bordertown alleyway to the main square, heads popping out of windows to watch us go past, flinching when they saw the plasma spears. “Your behaviour so far has been commendable,” the dragon rider said. “We fly now to Aravisia. You will be required to travel as passengers on our dragons to ensure your dragon’s compliance.
“No,” Miazydar snarled. The rider’s lips curled back to snap a retort, but he never got the chance. The dog turned into a dragon, forcing us to stumble back or be caught under his huge claws. The riders fell into formation, spears at the ready but he just reared up, sending out a massive plume of fire over their heads by way of a warning. Any of the Damoricans still hanging around the square saw this and went running.
“Holy shitballs! He goes from Vomit the Wonderdog to that?” Jez said.
“We can’t strike the dragon!” one of the riders said.
The leader nodded. “Bring in your beasts, defensive positioning only.” His eyes then fell to us, the weakest link in this scenario. He ignored my dragon, marching towards us, spinning his spear into what I remembered as attack formation: two hands on the first quarter of the spear to provide the momentum behind any blow and to keep the enemy as far away from you as possible, blade pointed at the target.
“Don’t think so, mate,” Flea said, pulling out a handgun. The rider frowned but stopped where he was. That was odd, I thought there were no guns in the whole of this world, he shouldn’t stop because he shouldn’t know what it was. I didn’t get to ponder this for long as four dragons dropped into the square. Make that four pissed off dragons. They approached Miazydar, heads angled low, necks thrashing like snakes. One’s mouth opened, a bright green gas beginning to form in it, droplets sizzling when they hit the stone, burning little holes. This was all going to shit, turning into some god awful Mexican stand-off.
“What the hell is going on!”
We both turned to see a unit of the Damorican Royal Guard had arrived led by General Best, a furry dressed heavily in an elaborate uniform. Wolfish looking bipedal creatures all drew their swords, though the looks they were giving the five dragons clustered in the square suggested they weren’t exactly feeling confident about any upcoming fight.
“Wing Leader Raith, General Best. We are escorting the accused and the unregistered dragon back to Aravisia for trial by the Grand Council,” the leader of the riders said, “as per the treaty signed on the —”
“Yes, yes, I’m well aware of the preferential terms you bastards manage to wring from the previous government on the basis of your bonds with these blasted creatures, but that does not give you the right to bring five of the damned things into one of our major settlements! And without prior permission!”
Wing Leader Raith unrolled his scroll, “Notification was lodged in triplicate this morning at —”
“Notification is not permission. Damorica remains a sovereign country!” The dragon closest to him hissed, drawing the attention of the General and all of his soldiers. Everyone within the dragon’s range began to cough wildly, tears streaming down their face as they fought what appeared to be a noxious fume from their lungs. “You bring… weapons of…mass destruction…” the General struggled to squeeze out between coughs.
“Weapons that will be removed as soon as we are able to take our prisoner before the Council.”
“Look,” I said, “we’ve come through the portal at your behest and agreed to attend this ridiculous trial. You’re making this difficult by insisting on dictating our travel arrangements. We will come to Aravisia, just on Miazydar’s back. Do you doubt the ability of four trained dragon riders to keep an unregistered one in line?”
Raith and his comrades stiffened and finally, he shook his head. “An excellent point,” Best said. “Take your beasts away from here. Be sure to let Lord Graves know I am very displeased with this,” he gestured to the square. “This is a direct contravention of section 33—”
“Your position is noted and will be reported back to my superiors,” Raith said with a snap, Best bristling at the implied threat. He turned to me. “Give me any opportunity to doubt you and your dragon’s compliance and I’ll have the two of you forcibly grounded so fast your heads will spin.” He walked over to the other riders, slapping his gloves against his thigh. “Be ready to leave. The prisoner follows on her dragon. Any diversion from the flight path and you are cleared to attack. The dragon’s life must be spared, but the others are expendable. Flight is in flanking formation.”
The riders waited with animals coiled and ready to jump when Miazydar did. We took some time, working out seating arrangements and how to strap on the luggage, much to everyone’s disgust. “I’ve had sex like this before,” Jez said as we settled on the dragon’s back. “A bunch of guys standing around, scowling, waiting for me to hurry up and climb on.”
The trip took about an hour and a half all up. Aravisia was a bit of a blur, looking at it through the goggles. It seemed a lot like Damorica, very lightly populated. We passed small settlements, each of which had a distinctive stone tower before reaching the city proper. It spread out, a sea of grey stone against the greenery surrounding it, the buildings becoming clearer as we drew nearer.
This is where we descend, Miazydar said. And we did, long, lazy spirals from which I saw houses and shops, big office blocks, factories and warehouses, clearer and clearer. The towers were here as well and it became apparent why quite quickly. Dragons perched on some of them, beside buildings of importance, it seemed. The building we approached on the tails of the lead dragons was massive. It was made up of a series of sweeping shapes that reminded me of a dragon’s neck, but as much as I stared at it, I couldn’t work out where the windows or doors were. We landed finally, I felt the shake in my legs as I slipped off and it wasn’t from riding on M. I’d been able to keep the nerves at bay, kept in a box for ‘later’. Well, later was now and my heart had begun to pound. I laid my hand against my dragon’s front flank, just feeling the shift of his glittering red scales for the moment, trying to not let the big wave of anxiety rush up and pull me under. I jumped when a hand covered mine. Flea had grabbed it. Jez tried to smile reassuringly, but we were all looking up at the building with apprehension.
