The Dragon's Slave

Chapter 16

The Onyx aerie loomed against the black cliffs that rose from the forest floor. Below, trees and wilderness reigned. But beyond, on the cliff-top plateau, plains stretched for miles surrounding neat and ordered human city, before devolving back into forest in the distance.

The aerie sat at the forefront of it all, jutting out from the cliff's edge and formed from the same black stone. Stark towers rose into the pale blue of the sky and glinted in the sunlight as we approached the cliff base.

A simple spoken suggestion that the delegation should follow were the only words the scouts had muttered. They had dressed quickly, though I had yet to discern where the stiff gray uniforms had emerged from. The delegation dressed too, pulling clothes from the trail of wagons well behind the carriage wreckage, before following the instructions, and for the first time I noticed the scattered remains of fabric that resulted when the men of the forest changed forms. No wonder vendors loved the Dragon Lords.

The scouts struck me as different from those from the amber aerie. Each had deep black eyes, so dark their pupils were indistinguishable, deep brown skin, and black hair, cropped close to their heads.

I preferred the amber eyes, I decided. They were unnatural, but one could read a humanness in them that was lacking in these others. I wandered absently as we walked if all of the Onyx dragons had black eyes in the same way the Amber Aerie dragons had amber. Was eye color an indication of lineage? And what of dragon colors?

The Amber Aerie appeared to be formed from beasts of every shade. But the three scouts had been virtually identical.

The delegation split along the deeply gouged foot-trail. The Dragon Lords took the lead, following the first of the Onyx scouts, leaving the Shifters to fall behind or range the forests to the side.

Illaise had disappeared, I suspected she was not happy with the arrangement. Or how the scouts scowled if a shifter came near the group of lords. A definite order was expected between the peoples here.

Not that they appeared overly interested in the group at all. If they had not flown to us I might not have guessed their dragon heritage.

Other than one curiously raised eyebrow in my direction I felt none of the passionate pressure that often accompanied the presence of the lords. Even Dynarys...no, especially Dynarys.

Taming you properly...

I should be affronted, but great six the man was tempting. It irritated me to find that a tiny part of me wondered what that would be like. To belong to the man...tamed.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Ignoring the pull of lust my body betrayed me with, I focused instead on the scout that walked nearby, separate, and yet among the knot of Lords surrounding me.

Telling the scouts apart as men was easier than the dragons. This one, for instance was younger than the leader, who had fine wrinkles and the beginning sprinkles of white peppered through his temples. If I didn't pay attention to the darkness of his eyes he looked nearly like one of the human nobles who had frequented my area of the city, visiting lovers, rumor told. He said very little, nothing in fact. Just strode purposefully, broad muscles flexing with each step.

The only expression he showed was a frown of distaste when one of the shifters, in wolf form, dashed through the forest to our side.

"You do not like shifters?" I asked, changing my path so that I walked nearer the man. A plan was forming in my mind and it involved being recognized within the Onyx Aerie. I needed an introduction to Celcath, by someone familiar. Or at least a mention. If I were going to seduce the Dragon Lord, to get invited to his bed, he needed to be thinking of me. At the same time I could use as much information about him, from those that knew more of him.