Being a true shifter isn’t the blessing it may seem. But through pain and darkness Perdita seeks to find her own life despite the ambition of others…
Chapter Two – Reparation (part three)
All too soon it seemed to me, the winged ones were either freed of their compulsion or dead, while humans were throwing down their weapons in surrender. Moth hissed urgently in my brain and I turned my head to where a naked human was running for the forest as fast as his legs could carry him. Even as I saw him he began the change, but he was at bottom a coward and the thing went wrong, leaving a half man half wolf sprinting for the safety of the forest.
He never made it.
I caught him with two lazy beats of my wings and it was the work of but a second to rip his still beating heart from his chest. I held it aloft and the scent of it almost drove me to make the ultimate mistake. I wanted to eat it so badly, even if I did know I would be sick for days. My forelimb twitched with the strain of not throwing the dripping morsel into my mouth. What did it matter if I might never be able to return to human form? Was not being a dragon a fine enough thing? Moth screamed silently in my head and her impotent sorrow was enough to bring me back to sanity.
Not thinking at all about the consequences, I threw the heart to the young braggart who ate it with great enjoyment. Until it dawned on him what he had done. His crest lowered and he bent the knee – even he wasn’t young enough to think he could avoid dragon law. He had eaten the heart of an enemy from my talons, which made him mine to command for as long as I chose.
“I am your dragon, lady.” The words must have felt like spent coals in his mouth.
I looked at him for just long enough to make his status clear before I did the only thing I could sensibly do. I released him.
“A gift made in battle is simply a gift. No fault, young dragon. Your life is yours to live as you will. I only ask that you use your days wisely.”
Mandrake dropped to earth at my side and regarded the young fighter severely.
“You are a very lucky dragon. The lady saved your miserable hide when the bloodlust took you and now she frees you from what could have been a lifetime geas. I trust you will take the lessons of this to heart.”
The youngling placed his chin on the floor in a gesture of self abasement. “I shall endeavour to be wiser.”
One of the oldest and most scarred of the fighters laid a heavy claw on the youngster’s head.
“You fought well until the bloodlust took you, young dragon.”
The youngster blushed at this small praise, and I thought he might live to be a useful member of society.
Around us the mopping up process was all but finished and I felt pleased to see the captives being brought out of their prison into the rapidly disappearing daylight.
All seemed relatively healthy although they were cowed and still a little afraid.
One of the first to recover was a young female who I identified as a wererat. She came over to where Mandrake lounged at his ease beside me.
“Is you the wingmaster?”
“I am.”
“Then thank you, sir.”
“Think naught of it. Is it not a truth that lycanthropes are best pleased when they can help each other?”
“It is. But…”
He smiled and she recoiled from the sight of his gleaming teeth.
Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, it was the youngest dragon who took pity on her ignorance.
“Have you had no teachers madonna?”
“No messire dragon. Mostly none of us have. We have been loners brought here one by one. Loners don’t get no teaching. Mostly we just struggle to stay alive.”
The young dragon bowed his head in sympathy. “That must have been difficult. But I will tell you a law that a teacher would have told you as an infant. It may help you to better understand what has happened today.” He paused. “Not all lycanthropes are dragons. But all dragons are lycanthropes.”
To help her see, he allowed himself to flow into human form for a brief moment before becoming a dragon again.
The wererat sat down bump on the churned up snow.
“Is that a for real truth?”
“It is. And now you understand that we will help you beyond your escape from this place.”
A single tear ran down her rather long nose before she collected herself. She scrambled to her feet and bowed in every direction before scuttling back to her confederates who all patted and petted her.
The sound of heavy engines caused the former prisoners to huddle together but the youngster reassured them.
“That’s the deputies come to finish clearing up this abomination.” He turned his blunt saurian head towards Mandrake. “Permission to remain with the rescued ones.”
“Permission granted. And well thought, young one. You shall have the Queen’s authority to see that all are properly compensated for that which they have suffered.” Mandrake handed the youngster a token.
“I will bear myself with honour.”
“See that you do, young dragon.”
Suddenly I was tired beyond bearing and I felt myself losing control of my shape. I must have been visibly wavering, because the young dragon looked at me in some concern.
“Wingmaster. Is the lady ill.”
“I think not. I think just tired beyond her strength.”
Moth spoke in my head. “You let go beloved. Too weary to hold, and Moth is too spent to anchor you any more.”
I let my hold on the dragon shape go and fell unevenly and bone jarringly back into my human form. I began to shiver as the snow and slush bit through my thin human skin. Moth was too exhausted to help me and I wondered if this was to be my death day as the light grew too bright for my eyes.
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