Dragon Greed Read online

  The armor over his shoulders spread out across his back, covering him to where his ribs ended. He had a trim waist and narrow hips. The backs of his thighs were bare except for the red material that covered his well-defined bottom down to the tops of his boots. Across his boots I could see the straps which held the animal plating to the front of his shins. There were two additional knives tucked into the waistband of his covering and another strapped to his thigh, as well as a small weapon that looked almost like a cross bow only much smaller. My eyes settled on the area covered in red material and I had the urge to check beneath. The thought brought him around abruptly and had him nearly leaning upon the silver bars. He seemed to be no longer amused, his pale pink eyes focused intently upon me.

  “Very nice,” I replied and lifted one corner of my mouth while he pulled air into his lungs and stared back at me. “Do you have a name?” I tried and he blinked and narrowed his eyes. I sighed and turned back to the silver haired Drow and simply lifted an eyebrow. I would have crossed my arms over my chest, but with the chains still upon me it was impossible. “How about you?” I asked and got an angry look in response. “Is it that they don’t have names or they are just being insulting in not sharing them?” I asked Morai.

  “I imagine you have not impressed them enough yet to feel they need to tell you anything.”

  “So breaking their friend’s arm wasn’t good enough? Perhaps I should strangle the darker one with his own hair?” I asked, and then rolled my eyes when he growled and grasped the bars tightly. And why was it his growling and threatening didn’t bother me all that much? Hmmm, could it be I was used to being threatened? Or that I felt confident enough that he did not present a threat to me?

  “It might, but perhaps if you were to persuade them. Maybe a demonstration might work best.”

  Demonstration, eh? I thought, and chewed upon my lip, then glanced around the cell. The place was awfully bare and it must not be very comfortable to be sitting upon the floor. I closed my eyes and envisioned a small softly padded chair made of blue and… green, with low arms upon which she might sit. And a bed upon which she might lay, small sized just like her, with soft downy quilts and several pillows. For myself I envisioned something larger, with bedding in shades of ivory and heaped with pillows. It was a four poster which took up a good portion of one side of the room. In my mind I built these images and placed them within the room, so that when I opened my eyes I smiled and glanced around me, pleased that my work matched my vision perfectly.

  “Well done,” Morai commented and lifted herself off of the floor and into her chair. “I thank you.”

  I nodded in her direction and turned back to the bars, giving the two a smug smile. “Would you two like chairs, too?” I taunted and closed my eyes again, forcing the image of the most uncomfortable chair I could envision, and pushing it into the hall behind them. When I opened my eyes I couldn’t help grinning at the three legged stools that had appeared. There was hide stretched across the tops, which formed triangular seats and looked like they might poke them in all the most delicate of places. I laughed at the look on the silver’s face and turned my back upon them, crossing to my bed.

  I removed the earrings and headpiece and placed them upon the floor. Then glanced down at my dress and closed my eyes again, using my will to change my gown from what I was wearing into… the last nightgown I’d worn. When I opened my eyes I stared down at myself in wonder, noting I wore pale pink, not so very different in color from the gray’s eyes. The nightgown was… very feminine. I pulled back the top quilt and lifted my leg onto the bed causing the thing to split nearly to my waist as I crawled in. Across the room the men made low noises which were quickly cut off, and I smiled while I settled the quilt about me. I wasn’t certain I could sleep, but since there was little else to do; I was willing to give it a try.

  I dreamed I was standing on a mountain and all around me was blackest night. The wind whipped my hair and brought to me the smell of death, while below me sounds of battle raged. I raised my arms to the night and spread them, watching as they shifted and began glowing a soft golden color that split the darkness. A cry rose up from below as light poured out of me and onto the battlefield, sweeping it clear of the darkness and washing it in pure light.

  In the distance a group of huge winged beasts crested the horizon and arrowed toward me across the sky, their scales gleaming in the light I’d created. Blue and Green, Black, Red, and Silver; they were mighty beasts and they looked beautiful to me. My heart sang out to them, while my body tightened in anticipation. They roared as one in answer to my pleasure and flew ever closer.

  A horrified cry went up from the field below and archers turned their bows upon my beasts. They screamed and faltered, pierced by many arrows. Upon the mountain, I dropped to a knee and felt the pain of each dart as if it had been struck into my own body. Many were driven back, yet two flew on though their wings were pierced to near tatters. The green and the blue beast screamed defiance at those below as their wings beat powerfully, carrying them to me. I watched in horror as the green faltered and fell tumbling to the rocks below, my heart nearly dying within my chest. The blue let out a mournful cry and landed near me, but immediately slumped to the ground, his huge dark blue eyes whirling slowly. His mind reached out to mine and his plea was urgent. Lexi, you must come back to me he called softly, as his lids slipped closed. I screamed and reached for him, knowing if I could but touch him he would heal. A force pulled me back, wrenching me from my dream and I woke thrashing and screaming Gareth’s name.

  Sweat covered my body and my breath came in short pants as I stared around the cell of a room I was trapped within. I pushed back the covers and sat up abruptly, then had to take a moment to catch my breath as my vision danced with spots.

  “Are you well?” Morai asked me and I shook my head.

  “I must get out of here,” I told her, my voice shaky. The circle upon my wrist burned slightly and I rubbed at it. “Gareth…” I whispered and squeezed my eyes shut tightly; remembering the sound of his voice in my mind and the sight of him slumped upon the mountain, his wings and body damaged. The green that had fallen… he was mine! And they had attacked him. I had to get out, I had to help them. I did not know who ‘they’ were, but my eyes narrowed as I turned to the two still standing across the room just outside my bars. Somehow I sensed they were behind the injuring of that which was dear to my heart.

  I took in a deep breath, and in my mind I pictured my hands about their throats, forcing the life from them. The gray choked and reached for his neck while the black’s eyes widened and he stepped back from the bars. I leaned up amongst the bedding onto my hands and knees. My gaze was riveted to them as I watched them go to their knees on the floor. I crushed their throats beneath the force of my will and watched as they struggled uselessly against me.

  When the gray gasped and slumped onto his back, I turned my eyes to the silver haired Drow. I watched coldly as his eyes widened then rolled back in his head. Then he too collapsed onto the floor, twitching once then going still.

  I slid to the floor and glanced down at myself, anger surging through every fiber of my being. I bent over and undid the knife strapped to my leg, holding it in my hand as I closed my eyes and allowed my emotions to rule my dress. When I opened my eyes I was covered in a black one-piece made from some type of stretchy material that hugged my body and arms tightly. Belted about my waist was a long sword and my forearms were covered in hardened leather armor. Leather boots covered my legs up past my knees, and a stiff leather corset covered my back, cinched in at my waist and protected my ribs and stomach. My hair was braided down my back and swung about my hips. Upon my brow I felt a weight and glanced at the floor realizing my circlet had once again attached itself to me, just as my earrings had. I quickly strapped the blade I had carried onto my thigh and turned to Morai. “We leave now,” I told her and held out my hand to the door. I felt a wrenching inside me and staggered slightly as the door slammed inward o
n its hinges.

  I stepped over the two on the floor and considered them for a moment.

  “They are not dead, child.”

  I scoffed slightly and bent down to grasp the silver haired Drow by the feet, waiting until Morai had cleared the cell, before I dragged him in and went to my knees next to his body. My fingers searched every fold and crevice and finally found the key hanging upon a chain about his neck. I yanked it from him and left him there, pulling the door shut behind me. The door snapped closed and the bolt automatically engaged. I turned back to the gray one, and my eyes narrowed. “Only because I was not certain,” I told her, “and dead they cannot lead me from this place.” Then I reached down and began removing the gray’s weapons, tossing them into the cell with the silver haired one. I rolled him onto his stomach and searched him thoroughly, my fingers even sliding beneath the red material where he kept more than just his manhood. I grimaced and tossed two more blades into the cell. When I was done, I used the key I’d found to unlock my chains and transfer them onto the gray. The key went into the cell, too because I did not want the gray one relieving me of it and freeing himself at an inopportune time.

  Free from both the cell and the chains, I leaned back upon my knees and considered him. He breathed, though the sound was more a husking rasp and I suspected I had done him serious damage.

  “He will recover,” Morai informed me while I unbuckled the straps that held his shin armor on. I did not wish to have the spikes embedded in me and tossed them in through the bars.

  In the cell I heard the first sounds of awakening. I reached down to grasp a full handful of white hair, giving it a sharp yank. When it did not wake the Drow, I stood and began dragging his body down the hall using the hair within my grasp to do so. I pulled him across the smooth marble in the direction from which he had arrived. Morai said nothing as she fell into step behind us.

  Chapter 3

  There were several steps leading up to a door at the end of the corridor. It was not locked and I opened it slowly, surprised to find no one on the other side. Perhaps these Drow did not feel the need to guard their prisoner? Or maybe they assumed the two they’d left behind were more than enough to perform that task.

  “Do you plan to drag him all through Oiotellad, child?” Morai finally asked after I had pulled him up the steps and through the doorway. We seemed to be at the end of a corridor that turned some twenty yards from where I stood and I could not see where it led.

  I grimaced and glanced down at him, just managing to stifle the urge to kick him. I had no idea why it was taking him so long to wake. “What is wrong with him?” I whispered.

  She sighed and leaned heavily upon her staff, her pale eyes searching my face. “Child you could heal him if you but tried.” Heal him? I had just nearly strangled him, I thought, and then dropped the handful of hair I had hold of and shoved him onto his back. Fine, if it would get him onto his feet that much quicker! I went to my knees next to his body and placed my hand upon his neck. ‘Heal’ I thought, and felt a tingling flow down my arm and out my fingers. He arched up off the floor and his eyes flew open. Coughing erupted and he gasped air in while he stared up at me in confusion. I grabbed up the handful of hair again and rose to my feet.

  “Get up,” I growled at him. When his eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back exposing his teeth, I gave him a painful yank, snapping his head forward nearly into his chest. “Do not make me repeat myself.”

  “You will regret this,” he growled and I raised both eyebrows, thinking he wasn’t the first to say that to me.

  My hand blurred and I was suddenly holding my knife in my fist. I leapt on him, straddling his body there in the hall, my weight pressing down upon his chest while I walked the blade across his cheek and placed it at the base of his right eye. “I think…” I told him softly, “that you might want to keep your threats to yourself, unless you’d like me to feed you your own eyes.” And I pressed the blade in just enough to draw a single drop of blood, which I carried to my lips. His eyes widened as my tongue flicked out and I took his essence into myself. “Let me be clear. I do not like you and if you cause me problems I will slit the throat I just healed, and then leave you to bleed to death where you fall.”

  He held still beneath me as I leaned forward and stared down into his oddly colored eyes. “What do you want?” he finally asked.

  “Directions to the door out of here would be a nice place to start,” I told him in a syrupy sweet voice, then leaned over and pulled his scent into my lungs. He smelled like the dark to me, wild with a tang of musk; it was potent and somehow familiar. His eyes widened as I took another deep breath before pushing myself back into a seated position. “Can you tell me how to return to where it is I came from?”

  “I cannot,” he replied.

  “Then you are of no use to me.” And I placed the blade of my knife against his neck, applying pressure slowly while I watched his eyes.

  “You will not kill me,” he whispered and earned a shallow cut from my knife for his trouble. It didn’t seem to faze him and he ignored the pain, though I watched it register in his eyes.

  I smiled at him, still holding the knife steady. “I do not think you know me well enough or you would not say so.”

  “It does not matter. I know you will not harm me.”

  I considered him for a moment and finally replied, “Why would you be so foolish as to believe that?”

  He lifted an eyebrow and flared his nostrils, pulling air into his lungs while he flashed me a sly grin. The skin over his cheeks tightened and he replied calmly, “Because…you want me.”

  I rolled my hips upon his stomach and leaned my elbows on his chest making sure the pointy parts dug into his chest muscles sharply. “Do not mistake my finding your form pleasing to be an undying declaration of love and devotion,” I advised him. “I could take you now, right here and still slit your throat afterward.”

  My comments seemed to amuse him. “I do not think so,” he replied and shifted suggestively beneath me. “I think once you taste me, you will not want to leave me at all.”

  “And if I told you while you slept I had your silver haired friend? And that he now resides back in the cell along with the key to your chains?” I asked leaning forward to cup my chin in my hand while I stared down at him. My braid slipped forward and whispered against his cheek and he blinked and narrowed his eyes.

  “I would say you lied,” he growled softly.

  “But I am Elf and I cannot lie, lest I be forsworn,” I replied softly and noted the way his eyes flickered and would not meet mine for a heartbeat. He knew something, something he did not wish to share. It was something that I might find interesting. “I can guarantee you that your friend does indeed lie back within the cell and be assured the key resides with him.”

  “But you did not touch him,” he responded tersely, and I merely lifted one side of my mouth and stared down at him.

  “And what concern is it of yours?”

  His eyes flashed and the skin over his cheeks tightened while his nostrils flared. “I am not accustomed to seconds,” he replied sharply and I lifted my head from my hand and leaned up.

  “Really? And yet you both seemed intent upon having me. Are you so certain that the silver haired Drow would not have been more pleasing to me and therefore my first choice?” I asked seductively, a challenge in my eyes.

  He tensed beneath me and replied in a tight voice. “I am saying he would not have dared touch you first.”

  “Then it seems I chose wisely,” I replied, thinking I had netted the more important of the two, and I smiled, then chuckled, at his shocked look. Just that easy, he had confirmed my guess and I couldn’t help feeling just a little smug. “Now, we shall go,” I demanded harshly, my easygoing manner slipping away. “I have more important things to do than waste my time on a traitor.”

  He let out a string of words in a language I did not understand, yet the look in his eyes was unmistakable. My temper rose and I backhand
ed him sharply, cutting his lip on his teeth and managing to shut him up. His eyes smoldered and I stared back at him without flinching, and then stood in one smooth motion. I bent over and grabbed a handful of hair and proceeded to yank him up into a seated position. “You have no idea who you are dealing with,” he growled up at me, while I gave him another yank and he bent his knees and eased onto them.

  “My guess is some Duke or Earl, or maybe a Prince of the house of Ilythir. But hey! Surprise me if you can,” I replied in a flippant tone. “It doesn’t really matter since you’re nothing to me but a traitor to your race, and to your family, and for what… greed? Because you couldn’t stand the thought of someone having something you didn’t? And I am supposed to fear you? You have nothing I want and if I find you’ve harmed my men, you will die,” I told him coldly. “Because that is what should happen to all traitors.”

  I pulled him onto his feet roughly and used my knife pressed into his back to get him moving down the corridor while I kept my other hand on the chain between his wrists.

  “You do not know what you speak of,” he growled softly.

  “Yeah well, you had the chance to talk earlier, now I just want you to shut up,” I replied as we came to a bend in the tunnel where I yanked him back and shoved his arms up toward his shoulders. I poked my head around the corner and noticed there was no one to be seen. The corridor ran smoothly for nearly a hundred yards, then seemed to branch in several directions. I turned to Morai, who was leaning on her staff and watching me closely. “Shall we?” and I prodded the gray one out in front of me with the tip of my blade.

  At the branching I glanced at Morai, who pointed with the bottom of her staff at one of the tunnels. He hissed as I shoved him in that direction but otherwise kept his mouth shut. And so we went for quite some time. At each crossroads I would glance at Morai, who would point her staff in one direction or the other and off we would go.