Chapter 11

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It took Augerill a long time to arrive

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It took Augerill a long time to arrive. Long enough, at least, for Idriseth to rub his wrists raw from his attempts at escaping. But it was hopeless, it seemed. Idriseth hadn't even been given the opportunity to try to talk to the woman who had brought him here either. Not that he expected he would have been able to convince her to let him go either way, but it would have given him a chance at least. Like this, he was stuck here, useless and waiting to be convinced to help Augerill.

Idriseth barely raised his head when the woman finally came back, with Augerill right behind her. As embarrassing as it was, Idriseth had gotten tired from being forced to stand here for hours. Though he supposed this was to be expected—he was practically a human at the moment, and he'd had no food and very little water over the last three days.

The situation was still humiliating and unacceptable, but at least it made logical sense. He couldn't have hoped to be in a better state, all things considered.

"We meet again, dragon," Augerill said as he looked Idriseth up and down. The dragon just glared at him, doing the same. He hadn't paid much attention to how Augerill looked the first time he'd seen him. So much so that the fact that the man had a beard was surprising. "My Shadow here tells me you don't feel like being helpful."

Shadow? Idriseth didn't think he'd heard of anything like that before, but he would assume Shadows were agents sent out to complete difficult assignments for Augerill. Such as capturing a dragon. Though it hadn't been nearly as difficult as it should have been.

"Don't touch the necklace," Augerill told the woman, who frowned at him. And so did Idriseth. How could Augerill possibly know—

Except, a dragon would be able to sense there was magic etched into the stone hanging from his neck. Perhaps a half-dragon would as well. Though Idriseth still had trouble believing that was Augerill's true nature. Perhaps it was simply his currently dulled senses, but Augerill looked perfectly human to Idriseth. There were no features he could see that would give away Augerill being anything more than human. Even just his eyes were darker than any dragon's could be.

"Why not, sire?"

"That necklace is the only reason he hasn't broken his bonds yet," Augerill replied, looking away from his Shadow and at Idriseth, taking a step forward to look him right in the eye. "Isn't that right, Idriseth? That's what is making you human, so to speak."

Idriseth glared harder, but only to not give Augerill the satisfaction of seeing how confused and disturbed he truly felt. How could Augerill know this? Not even Idriseth had known about the side effects until he'd cast the spell. Sensing magic might explain how Augerill could logically deduct that the necklace made Idriseth look human, but how would he know it was making him weaker?

"I would know," Augerill continued, smirking as he very deliberately started playing with a ring that was on his middle finger.

Idriseth's eyes widened. Was Augerill implying that his ring was also enchanted to make him look human? Idriseth scowled in frustration. Curse his dulled senses for not being able to sense magic at the moment. How was he supposed to be able to tell if Augerill was lying or not?

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