Of Phoenix Tears and Demon Blood

10 - Resolve

The guards pushed me forward, moving so fast that my legs could barely keep up with them. They shoved aside the clamorous crowd and hurried down the fortress's dark hallways. In the same way my body couldn't keep up, my mind was disoriented and lost. Returning from the battlefield, the mess of people, the guards that had grabbed me, it was all so rushed. I barely had the time to recognize that I was being marched down an unfamiliar part of the fortress before we halted outside a door.

A guard stepped forward and knocked and, without waiting for a response, shoved me inside. I stumbled forward as the door slammed shut behind me.

The room was dark from its absence of windows; my eyes took a moment to adjust. A small fire flickered in a large fireplace – its light unable to fill the entirety of the room. A desk rested on the opposite side of the room, its chair pulled to the farthest corner. The old green dragonkin general sat in it, one leg covered over the other. A cloud of cydonia vapor surrounded him – its sweet smokey scent filling the room. Two chairs sat in the middle of the room, beside the exhausted fire. Adamos paced around them, his footsteps beating in an angry rhythm. General Samaras was nowhere to be seen. A small table rested to the side of the chairs, a glass bottle atop it, and I remembered the tent Ozakan kept me trapped in, his angry words, angry fist, teacups shattering.

But it wasn't tea; from its honeyed color, I could tell it was liquor. The faintest of smiles played on my lips as I remembered the late nights when Gen would arrive with a bottle of stolen liquor and we would drink and laugh and ask stupid questions because it all came so easily. That was a different time, and from the wild look in General Adamos's eyes and the smell of liquor that wafted off of him, he was not a funny drunk.

I deeply bowed, aware of the tension that filled the room, and held the bow till the dragonkin directed me to rise. Adamos stopped in front of me, the smell of alcohol now overpowering. "A bow?" he scowled, "that's all you have for us, a bow?" He hurled his glass cup into the fireplace – the roar of the fire concealing the shatter of glass.

"Sit," the green dragonkin general directed from the corner, his first real acknowledgment of my existence. I hesitantly sat down on the edge of the nearest chair.

"What happened? Why isn't he dead?" General Adamos raged, towering over me.

"I'm sorry, General, sir," I replied, "he is a far superior swordsman and I was unable to harm him. My abilities lay far more in my magical powers than my swordsmanship."

"No, no, no," he chided, a suspicious look blanketing his face. "I heard about it. I heard about you talking with him, conspiring with him. You weren't fighting. You're going to betray us, aren't you? I know, I just know it."

Fear tightened around my lungs, slowly suffocating me. "No, sir. The Oathbreaker disarmed me and I engaged in the conversation with him as a way of distracting him so I could retrieve my sword."

"What did he ask you then?"

"He was just taunting me, spitting insults, gloating about how Insurran is going to win." I did not dare tell him about the Oathbreaker's offer, I wasn't stupid.

General Adamos was unconvinced. He slammed a fist down on the armrest of my chair, I flinched as the chair rattled. The fireplace glowed behind him, highlighting the edges of his face in golden fury. "Lies," he hissed, "tell the truth!"

I squeezed my hand into a fist to hide the nervous quiver that had erupted. "I am telling the truth, General, sir. I have no intention of betraying Xufra. Xufra is a great nation that has protected and provided for me and I am delighted at the opportunity to serve my nation." Maybe there was a time, when I was fresh out of reeducation, that I believed in my words. But now, they are simply a means to an end – a method of ensuring the safety of my friends.