Chapter 91 The Truth Revealed pt2
The silver dragon lies down in front of me. So large I can’t see the trees behind him. His whole body is wrapped around the clearing, blocking me in. Blocking Warden in.
We could try to fight, try to fly, but the silver dragon is so monstrously large that we’d never leave the ground before he’d be on us.
“You…” I breathe, disbelief and denial making my voice nothing but a whisper.
“I am real,” his voice booms, so loud it shakes the ground. “I am with you, Anara.”
There's no doubt this was the voice in my mind. The cadence, the surety behind each word, the low, gravelly timber. My mentor is the silver dragon. From the moment I decided I’d sign up for the trials to kill him, he’s been in my mind. Steering me. Controlling me.
I will my hands to move, demand my body into action, but nothing happens.
I want to kill him, stab his eyes out, watch him scream.
But I don’t move.
I shake and shudder, tears streaming down my face as I stare dumbly into the enormous face of the dragon responsible for all the loss and devastation in my life. His silver eyes, bigger than I am tall, watch me. The slitted irises moving rapidly as he takes in every inch of me, scrutinizing my every move.
“Give me one reason, monster,” I whisper, hands tightening on my blades. “Give me one reason not to attack you right now!”
The resulting chuckle from the silver dragon is heard both in my mind and in the way his body shakes and rumbles the earth beneath my feet.
“One reason, little mouse?” he asks.
I flinch, the name he called us when he killed Elysandra making my mind reel.
His body shifts as his laugh dissolves on his reptilian lips. Before I can react, his arm flashes, moving faster than such a large beast should be able to, and his claws flatten Warden to the ground.
“No!” I wail, throwing myself on the scaled foot. Warden screams and thrashes, but otherwise unharmed. “Let him go!” I demand.
“Not until you listen to me, Anara!”
“Why should I listen to you? Why should I do anything for you? You’ve taken everything from me! Everything. And now you’d take Warden, too? Warden, who you helped me tame?” I reach between the toes of this monster and stroke my alicorn’s face gently, promising without words that he’ll live through this day.
“Had I recognized you back then on that cliff, my dear, you would have come with me then and there,” the dragon whispers. “Hear me out, understand why I’ve done what I’ve done. That is all I ask.”
“You’ll release him if I do?” I’m practically whimpering, my desperation to save my mount nearly tearing me in two.
“I’ll release him if you sheath your blades and sit with me. They are little more than toothpicks to me. They won’t cause me the harm you seek to deliver.”
“Fine,” I growl, sliding off the huge foot and throwing myself on the ground. I cross my legs, cross my arms, and glare up at the dragon who wouldn’t even feel me in his teeth if he chose to eat me.
The dragon lifts his foot, but rather than release Warden, he scoops him up like a toy and lifts him to his mouth. They glare, face to face, Warden trembling in fear but standing bravely.
“Go, Warden,” the dragon tells him. “I will summon you when we are finished.”
Warden’s wings spread and he shakes them violently, letting a few loose feathers fly as he remains where he is, clearly torn. A moment later, he takes flight, either compelled by the powerful dragon or unable to refuse the order of a more dominant beast. He disappears into the distance, leaving me alone with my fear and confusion.
And the monster who’s supposed to be foe, yet has been a true friend in ways I didn’t know were possible.
“Speak, if that is what you wish,” I say sharply.
“Firstly, you will address me by my name.” He settles back to the forest floor and sets his head in front of me so his eyes are level with me. “My name is Tharros.”
“Tharros the King Slayer,” I snap snidely. “Good to know.”
Tharros lets out an irritated huff tinged with fire. It sets the foliage around me ablaze before he swipes a claw over it and extinguishes the blaze.
“Humans came to Amaranthine hundreds of years ago,” Tharros begins.
I snort. “Did you reveal yourself for a history lesson?”
“Be silent, petulant child!” he growls, his pupils narrowing on me.
Fear runs up my spine like a physical touch even as Tharros’s tail curls around and pushes me closer to the massive head of the beast.
“We were here already, living peacefully with the fae, until they arrived. They attacked, set on eliminating us from our home, and why?” He pauses, pressing images into my mind of men in furs jumping off rudimentary ships and attacking wyverns.
“How should I know why they attacked?” I’m trying to be harsh, trying to be brave, but my voice is thready and weak.
“They wanted to eradicate the danger from the land. They wouldn’t listen to reason. They attacked Dragon Mount, finding our nesting grounds and destroying our eggs.”
I suck in a sharp breath, reliving the moment where Malachi impaled the egg on the spike.
Swiftly.
Ruthlessly.
Gleefully.