Dragon Binder: Book One of the Dragonblood Priestess Series (First Draft)

Chapter 14: Escape

The path they took was no less confusing as the one she hand taken to get into the dungeons.  Almost all of the hallways looked identical, probably to make it harder to get out if one did manage to escape.  Several long and silent minutes passed, the only sound was of the torches flames crackling and the sound of their foot falls.  

Turning a corner Yina slid to a stop getting into a defensive position.  Leaning against the wall was a female guard, her helmet on the ground with her foot on it.  The woman had long blonde hair and bright red eyes, the color seemed so unnatural.  Her arms were crossed as if annoyed by something.  

"Wait Yina, he is not our enemy."  Clous stated holding up his arm to block Yina from being her usual rash self and pouncing.  

Growling she let her guard down enough to at least make Clous happy, but she was still ready for anything.  The words finally sunk into her though as she looked at Clous and then to the new mysterious woman.  "You said he?"  She asked in confusion.  

With a shimmer of rainbow colored light the woman shifted into a man, he was short roughly the same height as Yina.  "Yes, he.  The name is Liat and if you do not mind we are kind of on a time crunch here."  As he started to walk away Yina noticed that the helmet he had his foot on no longer existed.  

"What, how, ugh whatever."  Yina stated as she stalked after Liat.  She was very aware of the fact that any minute the guards could wake up and find her missing.  If the alarm was raised before they left the city she would just end up back in that cell.  

They moved quickly delving deeper into the dungeon, the walls were becoming older several places had spider webs in the corners.  This part had not been used in quite a while.  "To answer your earlier confusion."  Liat started to explain as they continued onward.  "My power is that of illusion, so I can make myself and others in a close vicinity look like whatever I want."  

With a brilliant rainbow light again Clous was now a short and fat man with no clothes on.  Luckily for Yina she had not looked down as she burst into tears laughing.  "Knock it off."  Clous roared covering up his private region even though it was not his own body.  

"Sounds like a very powerful power.  You could use that to infiltrate anywhere couldn't you?"  Yina asked as the illusion fell away from Clous reverting him back to his previous appearance.  

Liat was silent for a few minutes before answering.  "It is powerful, but it has limits that makes what you suggest harder."  The trio stopped in the middle of a hallway, with a hard punch one of the rocks sank deep into the wall.  A hissing noise echoed in the dungeon as dust spewed out of cracks in the wall.  A door slid to the side revealing a spiraling staircase.  

Taking the steps two at a time Clous brought out a small jar of the light bugs so that they did not fall to their deaths.  Once at the bottom she was shocked to find that they were now in a natural cave, water dripping from stalactites.  To think a hidden passage was found deep in the dungeons, she wondered if the commander had told them about this or not.  

"Back to my powers, it is purely visual.  So your scent and voice lingers making it harder to hide."  Liat muttered choosing different paths through the cave with expertise.  Yina thought back and realized that he was right, Clous still sounded like Clous when he had spoke.  

It was interesting to Yina to learn about other powers, she had experience with really only Clous's power.  Many dragon bound did not like talking about them to people who did not already know.  That made sense though, if someone knew the power it might help them be able to fight against it.  

Time passed slowly as they ventured deep into the cave, the sound of running water growing louder as they did.  Finally they burst into a open area with a river running through it, coming from the wall itself.  The group followed it a little farther to find a cave mouth entrance letting the water flow out.  

Looking out of the hole she was surprised to find that they were outside of the city.  Leaning out she looked up to find that the outer wall was directly above them.  "So we are on the other side of the palace?"  Yina asked trying to figure out landmarks in the darkness.  

"Yeah, it is a emergency path out in case we are under siege.  Not many people are aware of this route, I might have overheard it while mimicking someone."  Liat said sheepishly, the reaction meant he probably was not supposed to have been doing that at the time.  

"That is all and good, but how are we getting down?"  Yina asked staring down seeing a very long drop, most of the wall being smooth, probably to prevent people from climbing it.  The good side of things was that they were currently outside of the city so that should help.  

Clous had his eyes closed as she asked the question and smiled, "Just wait a minute impatient one."  Almost exactly a minute later Risang dove from high above leveling out right next to the hole.  Not long after another dragon appeared roughly the same size.  

The dragon was stunning, it had hand sized scales instead of the shield sized ones that Risang had.  As the light bugs reflected off of the white scales she could see that when light hit them they gave off the same rainbow light that Liat's illusions made.  His dragon had see through wings, due to the white coloration they were almost completely see through.  

"Meet Isper."  Liat stated as he hoped out the hole and landed gracefully onto his dragon.  Clous followed suit landing with ease.  The flapping wings of the two dragons were a foot from scraping the wall, this made the jump at least six feet over.  

Taking a deep breath she jumped, awkwardly flailing around going way farther then she should have.  The bound strength was going to get her killed way before it ever helped her.  With that thought out there she screamed bloody murder plummeting towards the ground the wind making her eyes water.  

Frantically trying to think of what to do, Yina expanded her power and let it fill her body.  With a mental push she tried to turn into lightning but nothing happened.  Arcs of lightning coursed around her body making her a light blue fleck of light plummeting at great speeds towards the ground.  Glancing up she saw that Clous and Risang was in the middle of his own dive trying to catch up.  

Looking back down she knew that he was not going to make it in time.  A light caught her attention as she looked up, a lightning bolt flashed across the ground.  Following it with her eyes the bolt turned in almost a ninety degree angle heading right towards her.  "Nyssa."  Yina whispered joy feeling her entire body.  

Right before the two made contact the bolt of lightning shifted back into the dragon.  Reaching out Yina wrapped her arm around the small dragon's neck and they shot past Clous.  The sensation of flying for the first time with her dragon was something she could not put into words no matter how hard she tried.  

"Yina, thank the elders I made it."  She sent with just as much warmth and joy as Yina felt.  The two twisted and dove, heading back towards the ground.  Yina's weight was just a bit more then the young dragon could handle currently.  

Nyssa pushed through the pain however and made it to the ground.  A audible sigh left her fangs as Yina slid off wrapping Nyssa in a hug.  A gust of wind slapped into them as the other two dragon's landed next to them.  

Rushing to her side Clous had a relieved look.  "Are you okay, please say yes."  He fumbled with the words.  Stopping a few feet away breathless, worry clear in his eyes.  

"Of course, why you so worried.  Did you finally start crushing on me prev?"  Yina snapped at him smiling and laughing figuring that was not the reason.  

Clous's reaction was priceless, his jaw fell open and he was at a loss of words for a few seconds.  Shaking his head he responded, "No, but your father would kill me if you died while under my protection."

"I do not mean to break up this little reunion but we need to hurry.  Your father is waiting."  Liat stated as Isper launched off the ground.  Climbing back up onto Risang, Clous reached down to help Yina up.  As soon as she was situated the two of them followed after Liat, Nyssa right next to them.