Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 52: Prince

Leera watched the half-daltek closely as he worked on the collar. Through our mental link, I sensed that she felt recognition at the sight of him.

[With those fangs, he kind of looks like-]

"Don't say it," I whispered, wishing that I could get my thoughts together enough to mindspeak.

The daltek looked up. "What did I say?"

"I was talking to my dragon." I glared at Leera.

She glared right back. [Don't pretend you don't see the resemblance.]

I'd been trying very hard not to think about how both the daltek and I had similar-looking fangs—and red ski, though mine was underneath similarly red scales—but she made it hard to ignore.

"I can control fire," I said as quietly as I could.

The daltek's ears twitched, but he didn't look up from the collar.

[You might only be one third part daltek,] Leera said.

"I am not."

[How else could you explain it? Your father could have been an elent-daltek paltor, and your mother was a talme. That's why you have fangs and a tail and fire powers.]

"You're wrong." There was no way she could be right. I refused to believe that my father was half daltek or that I was part blood-sucker. I touched my necklace. "I would've seen it in the message."

[He probably used a daltek mind enchantment to hide how he really looked from the rest of town.]

I pushed off from the wall and marched up to her. "I would know if I was, and I'm not, so drop it." My head was pounding after all that had happened, but I gritted my teeth and stood my ground nonetheless.

"I broke the spell," the daltek-talme said.

I turned back to him. "What? Oh, the collar." I'd almost forgotten why I'd stayed in the stables in the first place.

He handed it to me, and I went back to Leera, annoyed at the way she squirmed away from it.

"You have to wear it. We've been over this," I said.

She flicked her tail at me. [Hmm... I will if you admit I'm right.]

"Even if I said it, it wouldn't prove anything."

[No, but if I have to wear that thing and pretend like I'm a dumb animal, the least you can do is admit that I'm right about something. Or don't you think that a stupid lizard could be right about something?]

So that was what this was all about. "You can be right, and you have been in the past, but you're not right about this."

We stood without talking for a minute, staring each other down. The half-daltek was the one to break the silence.

"You hear your dragon talk?"

I jumped a little. "Of course I do. Don't you?"

"No. Our dragons do not talk. At least, they should not," he answered with a concerned look on his face.

I should've known. Of course they couldn't talk with mind-jinking collars on all the time. And those collars would keep them from bonding to their riders at all, so I definitely looked like an insane idiot to this guy.

[He's worse than you were,] Leera said.

I spun around to elbow her in the ribs but thought better of it when I spotted her armored chest plates and thick scales.

[I said he's worse than how you were,] she clarified. [You thought I was an animal when we first met.]

I had to admit that that was true, a fact that still made me feel thoroughly ashamed when I thought of it.

"Did you hear her say something?" The daltek-talme asked.

I turned back to him. He was curling his lip, an action that revealed a bit of blood on his fangs. It was all I could do not to grimace. "You know what, I did. She's not an animal. None of them are."

Leera's breath brushed the back of my neck. [That's awfully noble of you, but now isn't the time."

The daltek-talme reached out to take my arm. "I think you should come with me. I know a good mind doctor very close to here."

"Look, Mr...."

"Dai'Nixel."

"Look, Mr. Dai-" I swallowed, barely believing my ears, and stepped back. "Did you say Dai'Nixel? As in Farot Dai'Nixel? As in the heir prince of Ferentis?"

"That is my name. Do the Lykelans shame it too?"

"No, no." I needed to salvage this situation. "Actually, you're one of the reasons we came here. Me and my friends, I mean. We heard of your plan to defeat Lykela single-handedly, and we knew that Lykela didn't stand a chance against a prince skilled as you. We want to be on the winning side, obviously."

He seemed stunned. "You came all this way for me?"

I forced a smile. "Of course. You're practically a legend in Lykela."

[You are a disturbingly good actor,] Leera said.

I'd had to be, what with being a paltor and all.

A smile stretched Farot's lips back past his fangs. "I need more fighters for my plan. Can you and your friends fight?"

"Yep. All four of us have dragons, too. So we wouldn't need horses or anything like that."

[I can't decide if I should be offended by that or not.]

"Where we will go is very dangerous," Farot said.

"Danger is no problem. We faced plenty of danger just getting up here."

"I will take you to dinner, and we will talk more about my quest."

I had to grit my teeth to keep my smile from faltering. "I'll be glad to, just as soon as I get this collar on Leera."

A concerned look fell over his face. "Are you sure you don't want to see a mind doctor?"

"No. Sorry about acting crazy earlier, but one of my friends told me to act like I could hear my dragon talking around the first person I saw. I lost a bet, and that was my payment. She's probably rolling on the floor laughing in our room."

Leera's breath was hot on the back of my neck. It probably would've scalded a normal person.

"It was a joke. That is good. I do not want crazy people on my quest," Farot said with a chuckle.

I smiled and turned around with the collar. Leera's face was inches from my face, the silver bond mark on her forehead huge in my vision.

"Back up."

She didn't move, but smoke started trickling out of her nostrils.

Farot's ears were too good to say anything, so I just repeated "Back up" in a firmer tone.

For a second, she didn't do anything, but then she haltingly pulled her head up away from mine. I took a step closer to her so I could put the collar on at the base of her neck. Even though she hated acting like a dumb beast—which I could tell by the waves of anger coming in from our mental link—she didn't fight it like she normally would. Us fighting in front of a random Ferentisian rider was one thing. Doing it in front of the heir prince of Ferentis who was also leading the mission we needed to go on was a different matter entirely, and she knew that.

"Good girl." I patted her on the neck and cringed.

[This is humiliating,] she said.

At least the collar hadn't shut off her brain again. That was good. I hadn't entirely expected Farot's trick would work. His trick was a surprisingly generous thing coming from the future leader of the country trying to destroy mine.