The Dragon Games

Tick Tick Tick

"One more time," Drax hissed. "Disappoint me one more time, and I will kill you. I don't care how far you run. I don't care how long it takes. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth if it is the last thing I do."  

With that, Drax turned his back on me, striding to the manor. The rest of the crew followed, all but me and Viper. I let out a breath, massaging the tender skin of my throat. There would be hell to pay for that stunt...

After Drax left my sights, my fear quickly gave way to boredom. Every now and then, a few passerbys wandered by the gates. I knocked them out with one hand and braided my hair back with the other. I also took off the dress, but Viper stopped me from hanging it from the fence like a flag. 

Sammy would have thought it was funny. Viper just stared at me with these dull, empty eyes.

While I patrolled the gates, he patrolled me, salivating for an excuse to add to my punishment. He only looked away to check on Rauuk, who was curled under the shade of the stables. The horses had run to the other side, straining against their ropes to put as much distance between themselves and the dragon as possible.

At high noon, I began keeping an eye on the manor, ready for the raiders to rush out, bags heavy with the loot. But as the sun crawled across the sky, the manor did not stir. I dabbed my sweaty forehead with the hem of my jacket. Waiting was miserable in the summer heat, the pavements hot enough to fry eggs.

"Quit it," Viper growled, stilling the fence bars.

I glanced at my foot, realizing I had been tapping it against the gate. "What's taking Drax so long?"

"He'll be ready when he's ready."

"We should have left half an hour ago."

"He'll be ready when he's ready."

I shot him a dark look and turned back to the woods. Another hour passed – the most painful one yet, every second making me want to crawl out of my skin. Say what you will about Drax's character, but the man knew how to handle business. 

Under his command, jobs usually ended early, with few – if any – hitches. But even if the plan went sideways and we failed to secure the loot, we never stayed past a job's departure time. The longer it took to flee, the more likely our capture, and the closer we got to the noose.

Suddenly, a faint noise caught my attention. I held my breath, listening closely. It almost sounded like the clop of hooves. I whipped toward Viper, my eyes wide. "Did you hear that?"

Viper's face had turned a ghastly gray. "We need to see for ourselves." He offered me his spyglass, and then pointed at the roof of the barn.

I shook my head, my hands staying at their sides.

"You don't refuse me." He scowled at me, wondering if I was lazy or stupid or what. "Get the hell up there."

"It's too high," I said, my face hot.

Viper's lips curved, but he made no further argument. Even Drax did not ask anything of me that required heights. All the raiders knew that my competence rapidly declined with any sort of incline. Viper climbed the side of the stables to stand on the roof and peer through his spyglass at the miles of woods lying ahead. He did not move for several long, painful seconds.

"What do you see?" I shouted up at him.

Viper jumped down and ran straight for the manor. When he returned, he was alone.

I let out a breath of relief. But I couldn't relax entirely, not until I heard the good news straight from his mouth. "So there wasn't anything?"

Viper shook his head. "A group of knights on white stallions." Then he leaned against the gate as if he had just announced the weather was pleasant.

"White stallions?" I echoed, my face incredulous. Only one group of knights are allowed to ride white stallions. "You mean the Sword Brethren are on us?"

"Ay."

I gawked at him. The Sword Brethren were the best knights in the kingdom, hand-picked by the king himself. "And we're staying?"

"The Sword Brethren are several miles out. We have at least an hour before they arrive."

"What does Drax need an hour for? It's a heist! Just grab the shiny crap and go."

"He'll be ready when he's ready."

"So we just stand around, dick in hand, waiting to get captured?"

Viper scowled, his voice sharpening. "Watch your tongue. He'll be ready when he's ready."

"The Sword Brethren are breathing down our necks!"

"He'll be ready!" Viper bellowed, twice as loud. "When he's ready!"

I glared at the manor as if I could see through the walls, straight into the chamber Drax occupied, doing gods know what. In the time it took him to steal the Balthasar's paintings, I could have gone to art school and created them myself. 

Sammy would have never been so sloppy or put the job before his crew, but Viper was too fear-struck to notice. Or maybe he did notice. Maybe he didn't count on making it out of the heist alive; he counted on the knights killing him faster than Drax would.

"Back in line," Viper ordered. "You have a job to do."

"Forget the job," I said. "Forget the orders, forget the raiders, and most of all, forget Drax." 

With each word, I plucked another dot off my mask. Once all nine were tossed aside, I put the mask back on. 

"Tell Drax I wish him good luck finding me, from whatever dungeon the Sword Brethren throw him into, from whatever rope they string around his neck."

Viper's whole body went tense as a wire. After months of simpering and bowing down for Drax, it was the last thing he expected to hear, and it felt damn good saying. Letting divine seep into my fingertips felt even better.

Viper stepped forward, brandishing a dagger. "You will leave over my dead –"

An arrow sprouted through his chest.