Dragon Talons (Indigo Apocalypse Book I)

Chapter Three: We Dine With Royalty And Drink Royal Blood

SARAH:
Well, Huntor wanted to make a statement, and damn, he did. Silence ruled like the tall figure at the other end of the royal hall. No one moved as we entered the hall, still in our little formation. Eyes were drawn to each of us, however, everyone's gaze landed, and, froze, on Huntor's face, on the flaw, so prominently, so luculently displayed. The queen rose, a seven foot tall woman of sheer power. As she did, I felt it, felt her power rise like a yawning beast, like something under the castle rumbled to life. Then, just as quickly, it was snuffed out. She eyed Huntor as he took a few more steps beyond the door, just a few feet ahead of the pack. "Well well well." He said, his wolfish smile in place. "I hope we aren't interrupting, or late." Silence reigned after his sentence, then, "He's defective." Someone called. Then, "Why is he defective? Why is he flawed?" He raised his eyebrow at the questions. Then, turned toward us, "Gee, am I defective you guys? Am I flawed? Am I imperfect, I never knew." Draco took one long look at him, saying, "Nope, I see no issues with you." Raveaque, ever the soft spoken warrior, said, "I'm unaware of any defects." "Oh, wait." Huntor said, as if he just realized something. "I think they mean my blindness, gee, all this time I thought I didn't have both arms and legs. Dear, Sissy, I do believe they're judging us because of it." Wenzi said smoothly, "Well then, I'll say this, I don't give a flaming dragon's ass." Gasps and curses and shocked words. The queen stepped toward thee edge of her dais, where her table sat, holding court. Huntor stepped toward it, displaying complete arrogance and nonchalant power, swaggering over the marble like he owned the place. We each followed, and I saw no one's gaze leave Huntor's face, no one's gaze loose the repugnance, the full on irritation and disgust, the sheer dislike to near hatred of his flawed face. No one payed any of us any mind, they instead just stared at him. I allowed myself to mark the servants, where Zenvanescence stood at attention, and saw that they at least, saw his flaws as badges of honor. I saw the respect they were giving him, the desire to honor him. Huntor paused by the dais steps and looked up at the queen, who stoood at the very top. Shee tilted her head, but none of us moved, we all waited for Huntor's mark. He gave her his usual wolfish grin. Draco said, "My my Huntor, I do believe she's waiting for you to bow." "Is she now?" Huntor said coolie. "Well, I don't believe she's earned that respect yet."
Even the whispered faded. I saw the queen's hand grip the banister and saw the flash of hot temper, exactly what Huntor wanted. Then it cooled. "Huntoruukos." She said with a mother's purr. "You've come home at last." He tilted his head, the exact same move as she. Now I looked, I saw it, saw the similarities between them. Huntor, who didn't hold her face, but held himself like her, had the same arrogance, the same ice the same power, the same will. Huntor, who carried himself with born authority, born power, he, was, her son. Zavala, was a mirror image of the queen. Zavala's pixy face was a younger version of the queen, and though the queen and I shared faces, neither Zavala, nor I, could compare to Huntor. "Your face is severely defective, the help down below can deal with that." Huntor gave her a grin. "It's Huntor, just Huntor, and my face, is my face, and I decide how defective, or, otherwise, it is. And, at the moment, I do enjoy it." People gasped, some even called out blasphemy, Huntor just shrugged. "Your face is defective, very, flawed, defective, horribly disfigured, retarted. In order to live among your brothers and sisters, you must be fixed." "Gee," He turned to Seeka, "I can't live here anymore, I can't be respected for who I am because my face is retarded, is horribly disfigured." "Well well how unfair. It's not like you, want, to be here, like you, begged to come here. It's not like you din't just drop everything when the liaisons came and jump to get here." "No, no it's not. It's not like I didn't have a home already, brothers and sisters I cared for, I loved. People who are my family." He shrugged, "Oh well."
No one spoke, hell, I was pretty sure no one was breathing. Huntor said, "Well boys and girls, let's go." "Where are you going?" Someone from the dais called. He raised an eyebrow, "Are you asking me? A defective lonely dracon? Why, I am going back to my rooms where my court and I will dine." "That won't be necessary." The queen said, waving her hand. "Stay, eat here." Huntor turned back, and, without another word, stepped up the steps, and on to the dais. He bypassed the queen without a word, and gestured, while saying, "Sarah Zavala with me, the rest can mingle with the courts." We trailed up the steps and followed him to three chairs that he pulled out with telekinesis. The queen raised her eyebrows at the chairs that moved on their own. "Sorcery?" Someone at the table asked. "Nerp." I chirped, taking my seat to his left. "Indigoism." The speaker looked at me with even more disgust than she gave Huntor. "I don't believe I was talking to you, was I?" "Nerp." I chirped. "But I answered you regardless, deal with it." The girl, about our age, but who can be sure, she could've been decades older, had long midnight blue hair, and the same colored eyes. Her face was sharp and sexy, made for the bedrooms, as was her long thin body, with healthy breasts, and long dress. "Now now Sarah." Huntor said, touching my knee, and causing heat to shoot up my thigh and between my legs. "Be polite." I shrugged, but gave the girl my own wolfish smile. She sniffed, and said to Huntor, "My name is Veevuqui, third born to the queen, and apparently, your older sibling." She sounded as if she'd rather he wasn't related to her, but I knew he knew it. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you." He sounded as if he'd rather meet some Ragni spiders in a darkened street. And, she, knew, that.
    Veevuqui leaned forward, eying Huntor with mild interest, mild disgust. "She's getting a good look at you, wondering if you'd be worth her time." "So noted." "Why do you stay in that defective, unattractive form?" She asked him. He raised his eyebrows. "Gee, you hear that Zavala, my human form is defective." "I'll make a note of it." "Your court members." Veevuqui said with frozen ice, "Has loose tongues, you shouldn't tolerate that. Courts don't speak unless spoken to." "Funny," Huntor's voice displayed absolute disinterest. "I never said my court couldn't do as they please. Beside, we're still in the get to know you period. We have to do the blood drinking still." If no one was watching or listening, they were now. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zenvyyvu watching Huntor with a shocked expression. The queen, who sat and watched it all, recovered first, "Those are old traditions, how do you know them?" Huntor shrugged. "I have my ways, mother." The queen stiffened, just slightly, then, for a moment, power filled the room, and everyone, Veevuqui included, quelled under it. Everyone, except Huntor's court, in which case we all just leaned back in our chairs. Then the power was gone, and the queen was watching him like a lioness, ha ha, Briella not intended, but like a lioness who found a deer, only to find out it was dragon. She eyed him with mild irritation for a moment, then, her face blanked into a mirror of nonchalance. Huntor said to Veevuqui, completely ignoring the queen, "My court, as you'll come to love, have sarcasm and insults, they learn from the best." He leaned back, arrogance rippling off him like waves. Arrogance, and charm, and shit the bitch was falling for him, falling for it. Huntor squeezed my knee from under the table, and said in my thoughts, "Watch this, I swear dracons are easy to play, present company excepted." I gave him a vicious smile. Maybe, just maybe I would do with more fangs, more swaggering arrogance, more viciousness. If I were to be the Lingua D'argento, then maybe I had better start using my tongue.
    Huntor waved vaguely around, "So, what have I missed in the decade and then some I wasn't here." Veevuqui just stared at him, her dark eyes filled with nothing. The others around us, those who kept quiet, started to show bits of life. One male sat forward, eying Huntor with true unhinged revulsion, "You're a disgrace." He said. "Someone's talking to you." I noted telepathically. "Really?" Huntor answered me. "I do believe he means Veevuqui." Out loud Huntor asked, "Whom are you referring to? I, my dearest second here Zavala, or my third Sarah?" "All of you are." He snapped. "But you, you, you are even more of a disgrace, to us, to our way of life, to our power. You don't deserve to live here, to walk these halls, to eat our food, to dine with us." "Are you done?" Huntor asked. Power flooded the room, subdued, compared to the queen's little tantrum. Then, I smiled, because suddenly, I knew, exactly, what, Huntor was doing. Unable to keep it in, I snickered. I felt the male's attention go straight to me. Then he looked away, as if he couldn't degrade his eyes upon me much longer. "Oh, were you talking to me?" Huntor asked. "Deep apologies, I had no idea, see, I'm blind, so, I would never've noticed." "Sorry," I said soberly. "I should've told you, but, I just had to giggle at something. Yes, he's talking to you." The male looked near to bursting. Huntor said, "And your name would be?" "Daqutos." He said stiffly. "Dah-kh-toas." Huntor sounded it out. "Won't that be a tongue twister. Ah well, all of your names just sound ridiculous." Daqutos shoved to his feet, sending his chair flying back. "YOU—"Daqutos." The queen's voice slapped out like a dragon's spiked tail, and wrapped around his throat. "Temper temper." Huntor thought. "And mommy comes to the rescue on your behalf, but not Veevuqi's, very, very, interesting." "Clever." Was all I could come up to say.
    Daqutos stared at Huntor as if he'd see him in a dark hallway, where no one would hear him screaming. "Humans," Said another male. "Worthless little things aren't they." "Well then," Huntor said. "I guess I better be glad I'm not human am I?" The male stared at him, confused. "Oh, didn't Mommy Dearest tell you all? I'm an IndoDragon, that's a capital I, capital D, in case you didn't know." There were gasps, accompanied by several crashes that were people, well, dracons I guess, shoving back from their chairs, knocking over glasses and dishes. I saw servants breeze in, coming in right on queue to clean up the mess. Huntor shrugged, "Ah well, you know now." Dracons stared at him with shock, horror, awe, fascination, terror, and, well, most stared at him like he was a god, which, I guess in a sense, he was. "Dio Indaco through and through." I said telepathically. "If this is their reaction to me, wait till they get a look at Kitana. The Uccisore Della Morte." "Will you ever tell them?" "No, she deserves her own entrance." He said. Out loud, he said, "It's really meh in all seriousness." Daqutos snapped, "Liar, you're lying, there's no way you could be an, an, an IndoDragon. They're extinct." "Are they?" Huntor asked. "I don't think so, I think they're in hiding, have been since you all, from this kingdom and the Molten one, hunted them down. There may not be as many as before, but they are definitely still out there." Daqutos shook his head, "Impossible." "Oh come on." Huntor said. "You're looking at one are you not? I'm an IndoDragon in the flesh." "If that's so," Veevuqui said, "Then why is your face so flawed, why is it not perfection?" "Because I don't want it to be." He said it simply, so smoothly, so easily, that they all, the queen included, just stared at him. "I don't like perfection, I've found perfection is the reason why everything is, flawed. We can only be as good as we try, so, I don't care about my supposedly flawed face. I care about the good I intend on doing for my people, and for those I love."
"On that note," A male said. "Let's eat." Daqutos still looked like hee would rip Huntor's throat out. Huntor just wiggled his fingers in invitation. Daqutos bared his fangs, but by then the servants were upon us. I looked just in time to see Zenvanescence carrying a ttray, a servant on either side of her. Then I noticed Raveaque and Draco standing on either side of the dais steps, wings folded neatly, Draco wildly grinning at everyone, Raveaque looking calm and sober. Zenvanescence ascended the steps and came toward Huntor, Raveaque and Draco following. Before anyone could have the outburst I knew they wanted, Raveaque and Draco took small bites of the dishes, and sips of the indigo blue drinks. They nodded, and stepped down the stairs, and stood guard. Veevuqui said, "Nice to know you have servants among your court." "Wouldn't you want loyal friends who will sacrifice their life for your's?" "They are obligated to." Daqutos snapped. Huntor just smiled at him, and said, "No, there's loyalty and friendship there." Daqutos slowly, very, very, slowly, lowered his fork. "Look, little brother, you have a lot to learn about the way we live, a lot to learn to live among us. You don't wanna pick a fight with me." "Then don't talk down to me like I'm one of them." Huntor gestured to the servants, who payed them no mind. Daqutos snarled deeply, and said, "I'll treat you any way I wish to." "See here, now that's where you're wrong." Huntor leaned back in his seat, lifting a shrimp looking thing on the very edge of his fork. "If you're looking for a fight Daquttos go right ahead, start one right here in Mother's beautiful hall. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with that at all." Daqutos looked incline to do just that, but the queen shot him an icy look. Daqutos just sat back, eyed Huntor, and ate. Veevuqui eyed him too, but I knew the look, it was the same one I got whenever he touched me, whenever he was near and I was horny. She wanted him, but that want, was something I knew from my earlier years. She intended on using Huntor, any way she could.
    Huntor just smiled at Veevuqui, and ate his food. I picked through the grains of what looked like rice, munched on the shrimp like creatures, but even while eating the good food, food that was better than any human cuisine. "These delicacies were fished only an hour before you arrived at the castle gates Huntoruukos." The queen said. "The grains plucked three hours prior to that." "How, interesting." Huntor said. The queen eyed Zavala, and I saw ire fill her face. Ire, that was cold and sharp, ire, that was so icy and foreign that I felt my hands, felt them curl, felt ice in my palms. I shoved them under the table, and Huntor gripped one, sending powerful heat into my hands, into my soul. It brought me out, and allowed me to stare into those depthless turquoise eyes of the queen, eyes that were the exact same as Zavala. Then her face was blank and cool. The male, Daqutos, just stared at Huntor for a moment, seeming like he would speak, but a glance to Veevuqui had him focusing on his food. The servants started coming around when dinner was over, and took dishes and plates. I drained my ornate glass and set it on it's holder, ignoring the shock that still plagued me. From my old life style, we'd never had something so much as glass plates. Not a meal every day to go by, nothing but hungry stomachs. Which was why I had put on weight when I came to the Symbol, why I valued sweets so much. I was determined never to go hungry like that again. I remembered the long nights, the aching pains in my belly, the hunger, the need for just a little bite, just a little bite to get me through the night. But every cost went into my school, even food. My parents, adopted parents apparently, had no interest in keeping me healthy, only educated. Didn't care if I came home crying from fights, from girls who bullied me, who made fun of me. But they had paid, they all had paid. Khione had ensured it. She'd convinced me to kill them, to use the power that had started when Huntor rose, use my powers, and freeze them, then shatter them like glass. My parents were next, for making me starve, making me feel weak, weak and sad. Then, then she'd taken over my body, my life. I'd killed, and because I did, allowed Khione a gateway into my body. But Huntor had saved me, saved me, and ensured I wouldn't starve again.
    I felt heat on my knee, and nearly jumped a mile in the air. Huntor said in my mind, "You made it out Sarah, we all did, we all lived through Hell, but we all made it out." I relaxed, letting the years fade away into mist. One day, one day I would have to acknowledge what I lived through, would have to relive it, but for now, for now. As the royals, the queen, the nobles and yada yada all relaxed, ready for unwinding, Huntor rose. "Well, let's do this, shall we?" Everyone stared at him, as Raveaque, Draco, and the others moved, stepping on to the dais. The queen looked like she would burst out of her skin, Daqutos right along side her. "Do, what, precisely?" Veevuqui asked slowly. "Why, do the blood bounds of course." Huntor said. "I can't have really powerful dracons in my court and not have them bound to me by blood." He held out his hands, as if it were obvious. "Each of my court have powers, true dangerous powers, powers that might be useful to me, especially if something happens." Daqutos spun to the queen. "Stop this, you seriously cannot allow him to do this, he's not even a pure-blood, he's a half-breed." Huntor slowly, very, very, slowly stepped toward Daqutos. "I'd suggest, Daqutos, that you let it go." Veevuqui said coolie. Huntor shrugged, then turned, and said, "Raveaque, you and Draco first." They knelt before Huntor and he said, "Do you swear, by your blood, by your honor, by your power, to protect this court, to protect our home, do you, Raveaque, you, Draco, to serve this court, serve me, wholeheartedly, to obey my every order, and hold yourself true?" "Yes Huntor." Raveaquee said with his usual gentle tone. Draco grinned and said, "Yes I do." There was true affection for Huntor in Draco's eyes though, and he bowed lower. Huntor took their arms, and drove deep gashes into their wrists. Huntor drove two slashes into his own arm, and they shared blood.
    He called the three dracons forward, the ones I didn't know the names of, and they swore their own, and drank his blood, as he drank their's. Silence filled the room as he added them to his court officially. Then, seeka and Theia stepped forward. The queen's face paled as she realized just, whom, stood here, realized who they were. Princesses, crowned from the Molten Kingdom. Daqutos stared in horror and terror, knowing who they were, and fearing it. Huntor's words were the same, and they smiled warmly at him, and drank. Then, he called Wenzi forward, and his words changed, "DO you, wenzi, swear to protect and defend this court, do you, swear to use your power to aid those who need it, to aid those who need, and, ask for it, to defend those who need and deserve it?" Everything was the same, except for that, except for those words. "Yes I do." She said. Then he called Zavala and I forward. We knelt, and he grinned down at us both, and repeated the same words he had said to Wenzi, but said, "Zavala, do you swear to be my partner, my blood bound partner?" Zavala's eyes went huge for the briefest moment, before she recovered, and said, "I swear." Then he returned his attention to me, and asked the exact same thing. I wondered what game he was playing as I swore, and drank. His blood washed hot and cold down my throat, somehow tasting of molten fire and icy water at the same time.