Chapter 38 The Slayer Code
Sacrifice for servitude, our life for Amaranthine.
I stare at the scrawled letters over the gate to the barracks. Engraved in the wood are images of dragons being slain by a lone man, and everyone knows who that man is. Thorne stands above the great black dragon with his sword sunk in the scales between its eyes. The image is everywhere, the black dragon falling to Thorne in varying stages of battle.
The doors to each barracks make a half circle shape from the gates,emblazoned with the dragon they represent with precious gems and vivid paints. I stand in the center looking up at the great curved stone wall in awe. The half-moon shape of the small courtyard takes my breath away, but nothing grabs my attention more than the door directly in front of me.
The black dragon, her scales made of obsidian, her eyes of rubies. She stands regally, the protector of Captain Bane’s squad. Oberon’s squad. I walk toward that door with reverence and stroke the stone scales with the tips of my fingers. She isn’t being slain here. No, she stands with dignity, as all of them do. For some reason, her image seems to call to me, though I can’t account for the pinch in my heart when I gaze upon her.
Shouldn’t I hate her?
She killed Calder and attacked us twice as we climbed Dragon Mount. I should loathe her, I should want to crush her ruby eyes and rot the door with my power, but I can’t. As I stand there, tears burn the corner of my eyes. Tears I refuse to let fall.
Behind you…
My mentor’s mental touch is gentle this time, a quiet warning instead of a barking order. It gives me pause—is he somehow affected by this image as well? I turn, uncaring, for the only danger here will come from the skies and not from behind me, but my breath seizes in my chest as I come nose to nose with Captain Bane himself.
His dark cloak hides his body, his pale chin and pallid lips the only thing I can see. He’s so close that I can smell the mutton and ale on his breath, and when he smiles, he bares his sharpened teeth menacingly. I hadn’t realized we were around the same height, but staring directly into his fanged mouth exposes that truth.
“For one who was not claimed, you seem to be drawn to my barracks. Tell me, Outlier, is it the boy inside who calls you, or the dragon herself?”
His quiet voice skitters over my skin and makes me tremble slightly, but I square my shoulders and stand tall.
“I was only curious as to what this place was,” I admit dully.
Bane smirks, the tilt in his mouth telling me he knows more than I let on.
“Sacrifice for servitude, our life for Amaranthine,” he whispers reverently, reaching up and stroking the emblazoned words above the door that I hadn’t seen yet.
I glance around, noticing that each door has the code above it, a grim reminder that our lives are no longer ours, but our kingdom’s.
“We live and die for Amaranthine, above all else,” Bane says, his clawed fingers tracing the dragon’s chin. “We live to kill these beasts, these slaughterers of man, and yet we harness their power and claim their vestiges. Why do you think that is?”
“To symbolize their strength? To remind us that no matter how beautiful, the enemy is still the enemy?” I answer. I didn’t know about the honorific standing of the dragons up here. To answer that which I don’t know makes me feel simple.
“We are but gnats to them, and yet Thorne has killed one and trains us to kill the rest. We hunt the wilds on alicorn backs, flying through the clouds and crawling through underground passages, hunting them, trying to kill them. But they elude us.”
Bane chuckles, a sound so utterly foreign from such a monstrous mouth that it's more of a scraping of rock upon rock than a human sound.
“This dragon, in particular, I call her Ember. She has a loathing for Hellbane unlike any other, she comes and attacks us at random, claiming lives and devouring alicorns. Her hatred runs deep.” He turns to me, his clawed hands reaching and grabbing my face. “We use their powers, their images, to harness our own strength through them. As a slayer, we have a connection to our dragon. I can feel her approach just as easily as she can feel me and all the slayers carrying her scales.”
“Isn’t that…doesn’t that just tell her when to escape? When to fly away?” My eyes are wide as I absorb this unexpected lesson.
“It does, and most fly away, but not Ember. She relishes in the battle, embraces the carnage.” Slowly, one of Bane’s hands leaves my face. He slips a sharp nail under his hood and pulls it back just far enough to reveal his skin is completely melted, covering eyes that peer out from slits that were clearly cut by a knife. “I revere her, and wait for the day that I slay her, but until then I’m grateful for the gifts she’s given me and use them against her.”
I look away from his face, staring at the cobblestones beneath my feet, my mind racing. Anger bursts through my chest when I realize what he’s telling me.
“You can feel her? You all can? So you knew she was attacking the mountain. You knew she was coming for the fortress!”
Bane’s sly grin turns into a full, open-mouth smile. Each of his fangs glistens with moisture as he laughs so loud it shakes my ribcage. “Yes, yes we did. You’re smart, more than you seem. I will enjoy having you in Hellbane.”
“Why? Why would you let her do that?” I demand, fisting my hands at my side. “Why would you sacrifice the people coming up the mountain? The soldiers waiting for us behind the gates?”
Bane continues to laugh as he reaches for the handle. “Sacrifice for servitude, our life for Amaranthine.” He opens the door, stepping inside a thick cloud of blackness so I can’t see beyond. “None of your lives are worth losing the chance to slay a dragon.”