Rogue Currents

Chapter Six

Lamprey was awakened by someone poking at his wing. Even without opening his eyes, he knew who it was. Manta, the dragon Stingray had in charge of recruitment, was the only dragon who came to see him. He flinched away from her claws, pulling his wing over his head.

Go away, he flashed. He also mouthed some ruder comments where she couldn't see.

Manta let go of his wing, then wrapped her talons around his horns. She tugged until Lamprey's head came out from under his wing. He growled at the green SeaWing. Either let me go, or leave.

Manta reached behind Lamprey, untying the rope around his back leg from the rock it was attached to. Lamprey knew she wasn't releasing him; she was just going to drag him to some other cave where she could feed him more lies about why Stingray was better for the kingdom than Dolphin.

Manta tied the free end of the rope to a bracelet on her foreleg, and tugged Lamprey out of the cave. He let himself be dragged down one tunnel after another. But to his surprise, Manta pulled him out of the cave and into the trench. She pulled him towards the surface, and Lamprey swam harder, wondering what Manta would tell him this time.

Lamprey followed Manta above the surface of the water, beating his wings in the cool air. Manta didn't say anything for a time, instead leading Lamprey in a low flight above the water. After a few minutes of this, Lamprey grew irritated.

"Say something," he ordered. "I know you want to, so say something."

Manta slowed, gesturing at the water around them. "Look at all this," she said simply.

Lamprey looked around, unimpressed. "Water. Coral. Fish. So what?"

Manta nodded. "Yes. All belonging to Queen Dolphin."

"Again, so?"

Manta gestured at the water again. "The SeaWings who live here think they own the land around their homes, but really it's the queen who owns it. She could drive them out at any time, and they wouldn't be able to resist her."

"But she hasn't," Lamprey said, not really caring. "And neither has any queen in known history. Driving dragons out of their homes seems more like something Stingray would do. In fact, he has done it, to hundreds of dragons."

"Do you really think a queen should be allowed to control all of this if she can't even protect it, or her subjects, from outside harm?"

Protection that wouldn't be necessary, if it weren't for you and your psychotic leader, Lamprey wanted to say, but kept his mouth shut. He wouldn't talk to Manta anymore. He would just let her talk until she ran out of breath. He didn't really care what she had to say anyway.

Manta sighed. "Look, Lamprey, you seem like a decent dragonet. All I'm trying to get you to do is open your eyes and see the truth. If you'd stop being so stubborn, we could let you out of that room, you know. The only reason you're there is so you won't run off and tell Dolphin what's happening here. You seem so smart, so why are you so close-minded?"

Lamprey didn't answer. An idea had struck him. Maybe, if he could convince Stingray that he believed in his twisted ideas, maybe he would get a chance to escape the deranged SeaWing. Maybe he could run away, go back to his family, and find them all a home out of Stingray's reach.

"Lamprey? Manta prodded. "Are you listening?"

Lamprey sighed heavily. "You have a point."

Manta smiled broadly.

--------------------

I would like to say for the record, that this was written before Darkness of Dragons. The similarities between Stingray's and Vulture's tactics are completely coincidental.