The Dragon Games

The Amulet

The Windsor's conversation that night could not have been more ill-timed. They gathered around a bonfire, chatting as they roasted a deer.

"It's good you stuck to your own intuition, Grace," one of the Windsors laughed. "Never in a million years did I imagine the raider would be stupid enough to meet Edmund Balthasar's challenge."

Another windsor raised their brows. "Stupid or suicidal?"

"Hey," a third said suddenly. "Do you reckon she could be the raider called Crenshaw's Pet?"

That remark earned him a slap upside the head. "How many times were you dropped you on the head as a babe? Of course, she is Crenshaw's Pet! Who else would have such power? Who else would be so blindly loyal?"

But none of the other Windsors seemed to agree. "Was it loyalty? Or did she know that no other dragon would stoop so low as to bond with a raider? And last I heard, Crenshaw's Pet is dead, killed by the Sword Brethern in jail."

"I heard Crenshaw's Pet is a man of thirty and some years, with a forked tongue and claws for hands."

"I heard –"

"It doesn't matter who she is," Grace cut in. She peeled the skin off her deer leg in clean, orderly strips. "Regardless of her identity, she will die."

I let their words wash over me, paying them no mind. I only had eyes for Elio. I hated when anyone had a bad word to say about Sammy, even more when they told a lie, and I had just told some of the worst lies imaginable. Guilt should have been eating my alive by, but I swallowed the feeling and steeled myself to go one step further.

After snuffing the bonfire, the Windsors fell asleep, all but the one on rotation. He checked my binds, then sat across the campsite to watch me. 

The Windsors were instructed to keep me within eyesight and out of hearing range, to prevent any possible colluding. Tonight the distance worked in my favor. As long as I kept my voice soft, the Windsor on guard had no idea I was talking to Elio.

"When you were a kid, where were you told you'd end up?" I whispered.

Elio startled at my voice. We had not spoken at all, except to trade jaded barbs. Now I was telling him the story of my life. And as much as I would have preferred to come up with a complete lie, a lackluster performance would not fool Elio. 

To convince him that me and Sammy were enemies, every word I spoke must have some degree of truth – except the names of the parties involved.

"On the back of a dragon, flush with fame, fortune, and riches?" I whispered. "You know what I was told? Off a bridge or in a brothel house. Sammy didn't just save my life; he gave me a purpose. He was the first person to make me feel I was worth anything... I just didn't realize he valued me for different reasons than I valued him. Not until he started pushing me down a darker path of crime than ever before."

As soon as Drax rose to power, I ran with three of my best friends to the harbor, to steal a ship and sail until we found Sammy. At least, that was the plan. 

In reality, we didn't make it past the beach. I had underestimated Drax. I had not realized how quickly he would learn to fly Rauuk, in the span of a few days. Sammy told me he spent months just figuring out how to get airborne.

"I tried leaving the raiders with a few friends, but I hadn't realized how powerful Rauuk was. How quickly he would pick up on our scents. And when Sammy caught us, I should have been scared, but I thought that no matter how badly I insulted him, he would never seriously hurt me at risk of hurting my Divine. I was too valuable of an investment." I held up my four-fingered hand to prove how wrong that assumption was. "And then he turned to my friends."

I stared at the stars with a stormy expression. I forgot I was trying to fool Elio; I had gotten lost in the memory. The rising tide, the smoke, the fire in Drax's eyes, and the fear in everyone else's. 

The whole time, I kept expecting Sammy to show up and save the day, like he had on the night we met, all those years ago.

"It was my idea to run and my sloppy escape plan. Everything that went down that night was my fault, but my Divine didn't hold a candle to Sammy's. After bringing his wroth on my friends, I basically sat back and waited for them to die." My mouth twisted into a scowl. "Like a weak, sniveling coward."

"If you let them go, I'll never disobey you again," Elio said quietly. "But if you must kill someone, kill me. Let me die in their place."

A cool breeze swept across the night, chasing goosebumps up and down my skin. I whipped away from the stars to stare at Elio, my face stricken. "How do you know I said that?"

"You kept repeating the same words under the drakes' venom. I thought it was a nightmare."

I eased back down. "It was half a nightmare, half a memory. He killed two of my friends, then broke the third beyond repair." 

Steeling myself, I glanced at Elio. Elio overhearing my quote that night was a stroke of good fortune, but would it be enough to sway him?

Elio stared at the mountains in the distance, his eyes as dark as the night, his expression unreadable. "You want my help... but I can't help you unless you help yourself. Even after everything Crenshaw did to you and your friends, you still tried to save his dragon. You still do as he wishes."

"Of course. If I don't, he will find me and repay my disobedience tenfold–"

"No. That's not quite it. At least, that's not all of it." Elio's eyes dipped to my throat. "You're freakish about that amulet. Polishing it every night, checking on it a hundred times a day like it's a baby. You got it from Crenshaw, didn't you?"

I paused, unsure if he already knew the answer and was trying to catch my in a lie. I played it safe and nodded.

"Part of you hates Cresnhaw, but there's another part of you that can't forget how Crenshaw saved you. You love that amulet, don't you?"

His eyes bore into me, undressing under the weight of his stare. I would have protested, but he knew the answer as well as I did, so I nodded again, not trusting myself to speak.

Without breaking eye contact, Elio unclasped my amulet and laid it before my feet. Then he handed my a rock the size of my fist. 

"Break it," he whispered. "Prove you're more than his pet, that you can stand up for yourself. Make a move against Crenshaw that you can't take back."

"My hands are tied," I said.

It was a weak excuse that Elio did not bother replying to. My hands were bound together by the wrist; nothing blocked me fingers. I could easily grip the rock and raise it over the amulet. Bile crawled up my throat as I did precisely that.

For a brief moment, I wondered if this was all some elaborate joke. If Elio pretended to buy my story, only to point and laugh when I broke my most prized possession. 

But Elio was not the type to show his cards for the sake of a petty jab. He didn't strike to embarrass or maim; he only struck to kill. I needed him on my side.

But still...

The amulet was the only thing I had left of Sammy. Bloody hell. Bloody fucking hell. I squeezed my eyes shut and swung.