Dragonsbane

Ralem Falls in Love

Chapter 18

Trapped

       Ralem woke to something hitting his face. He picked up the object, which was soft and crumbly, and opened his eyes. It was pitch black. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he had opened them and peered around again. Nothing. He heard a steady plop as water dripped in several places around him. The air was stale, but strangely warm. The rocky floor beneath him was warm and slightly wet, partially, Ralem realized, from his own sweat.

       Suddenly his memories bombarded his mind like an army storming a helpless city. He gasped in shock and scrambled to his feet. JAYDON! He yelled in his mind. The last time he had seen his dragon, he was slumped in defeat at the claw of a wyvern. There was no telling where he was now. His call gave no reply. Panic flared in his chest like a firecracker. In desperation Ralem collapsed against the wall in a desperate attempt to become one with his dragon, but the second he left his body he found the dragon’s mental pull had changed. It was like it wasn’t Jaydon anymore, but an imposter. His mind was wreathed in a dull fog that Ralem was afraid he would get lost in if he tried to go into the dragon’s mind. Ralem withdrew into himself in surprise. He sat upright, breathing heavily.

       “Ralem?” A feminine voice called, echoing as if the person was in a cave.

      Ralem crawled as fast as he could toward the noise before his head met a metal bar with a crash. “Ouch,” he said before clasping the offending object. The thing was long and smooth, and Ralem identified it as prison bars. “Arianna?” he called out weakly.

       “Oh Ralem, thank goodness. When you were out for so long I was beginning to wonder if…” her voice trembled a little.

        “Are you hurt?” Ralem asked.

        “Not much more than a cut,” Arianna replied.

       “What happened?”

         “It was terrible. You two were unconscious. The grey dragon was going to eat me… but then the lady stopped him.”

      “The lady?”

      “I think so. She was behind something so I couldn’t see her but I heard her voice. Oh Ralem…” Arianna hiccupped.

      “What? What is it?” Ralem pushed his face against the bars, his knuckles whitening as he grabbed the bars in a strangle hold.

      “Jaydon… he’s, he’s…”

      “WHAT? TELL ME!” Ralem yelled louder than he meant to. His heart pumped furiously as he dreaded and anticipated Arianna’s next statement at the same time.

       “He’s being controlled by the lady!” she blurted, “I saw the Dragonsbane on his chest! Before they took me away... Oh Ralem, what are we going to do?”

      Ralem got up so quickly he felt dizzy. His head was fuzzy, with all his emotions and anxieties seeming to bounce around his brain in a frenzy of feelings. But the most prominent one was panic and it escalated to dangerous heights in his chest. “We… we need to get out. Find Jaydon.” He groped around the darkness before he hit something hard and slimy attached to the ceiling on his head and fell backward onto the hard rock. His head throbbed twice as hard now. He rubbed the growing bump on his head. Will it still heal? He wondered, now that his dragon was under control by this mysterious woman, if his link to his dragon would still be intact.

       “Ralem, what are you doing?” Arianna said.

      “Trying to get out,” Ralem replied, and then sighed with relief as the swelling on his head went down and soon disappeared. It had taken longer than it usually had, but he was glad he could still heal quickly enough. Well at least he had that on his side.