Unwilling to Succumb (The Dragon Lorde #2)

Prologue

The gift of persuasion is a beautiful thing. Delicate and soft like a chime of a musical note. Much akin to a warm tone of one's mother. Sweet, coaxing, and faintly demanding.

However, if this wondrous gift was given to one with a dark soul, it would contaminate its beauty forever. Like the bitter frost of winter nipping at a flowers scarlet petals, until they fell to the floor in a shriveled disarray.

The gift of persuasion would no longer be a glorious gift. Instead it would purr contently in the dark of one's head with a wicked smile, as soldiers drove their own swords through their necks.

And if one's darkened soul attempted to search for redemption and plead to Salvador to save his arse from such a wicked gift.

Persuasion would take control.

Until darkness was all they knew.

..

"Bloody hell. One would think this stench would lessen the more they smell it." A young man breathed out, before covering his nose with a greasy handkerchief.

Thale agreed wholeheartedly, as the strong musky smell of body odor and death seeped into his two nostrils. Shaking the tremor that began to run down his spine, he slapped the boy's back. "Why Alexander, don't tell me a little smell will stop you from joining us now, will it?"

Alexander puffed out his chest indignantly, before squaring his bright blue eyes down towards the open door and the darkness that lay behind it. "Of course not. I just happen to have a strong nose."

"More like a sensitive one." Elijah whispers, from Thale's left.

Two blotchy red circles began to grow on Alexander's cheeks, as he sputters out towards Elijah in anger. "Oh says you! You could barely smell the porridge served the other day without crying how it smelled of old cheese!!"

"Hey! Who likes the smell of old cheese?" Elijah growls out, angrily, causing a few blue feathers to appear on his forehead.

"Well, what about that time in the loo? When you wouldn't use the toilet, because of the great fat smelly-"

"Enough." Thale voices out calmly, his persuasive gift flowing like warm molten butter.

He only asked for one favor. One bloody favor.

But what does he receive? Oh yes, two adolescent boys who couldn't tell their left from their right...

"Yes, sir." They chorused, in a daze.

"Fantastic. Now, who would like to go first?"

..

Darkness cloaked the dirt path ahead of them, like death's door; silent and quick. The scuffing of their thick boots against the dirt path seemed to be the only looming sound in the dark, besides the eerie noise of dripping water. Thale gripped the only source of light tightly between his fingers, as they walked past cell after reeking cell. Though it was difficult to spot what laid trembling behind those cold iron bars, Thale could picture each and every prisoner.

For it was his job, was it not?

Then he heard them. The soft moans and whimpers of prisoners, likely awakening to find themselves yet again still in this rotting hell hole.

"Will you shut it!" Thale's voice boomed through the narrow corridor, as he slammed his foot firmly down at a hand reaching out to grasp his trousers.

A sharp crack rang the air, the prisoner had most likely broken more than a few bones in their fingers. But as usual Thale felt no sympathy or remorse. He felt only a cold numbness that had began eating his soul away many years ago.

The once soft whimper turned to a piercing wail but Thale heeded them no mind. Not when he had rather important business to attend to.

"Sir, that was a tad harsh, don't you think?" Alexander's shaky voice asked from behind.

Thale felt an emotionless chuckle leave his chest. "Harsh? Why would you think that?" He replied smoothly.

Alexander dropped his bright eyes immediately down to the floor, before stammering out. "Forgive me...it was nothing."

Thale nodded graciously, before again beginning his lengthy pace. "That's great to hear."

What a wise boy.

Only a few more cells down they reached their destination. A square box of a room with thick iron bars clamped together in one beautiful imprisoning arrangement. A massive rusty keyhole stared up at them as if daring any to enter.

Thale pulled the massive ring of keys from his pocket before unlocking the cell. The door creaked open slowly, most likely from the iron oxide crusted to the bolts. The smell of urine and waste was always stronger the moment one stepped into a cell, and this cell was no different.

Glancing behind him, Thale noticed the two boys hadn't moved from the doorway, as their eyes had become fixated on a small quivering figure in the corner.

Laughing in amusement, Thale strode closer towards the huddled frame, his boots crunching over dry pieces of hay. The flickering glow of the candle in his hand sent the shadows running away until everything within the cell grew clear to the eye.

As the boys spotted the true identity of the figure their eyebrows shot to the racid ceiling above, while their jaws dropped to the putrid straw at their feet. But curiosity soon won, for they both began to stride into the cell.

"Wha..how is this legal?" Elijah sputtered out, in confusion.

Thale smiled, before reaching for the tied hands of the prisoner. "In here. Nothing is legal."

With that said he grasped the prisoners moist neck with one hand and yanked it to its feet. "Now, come along. Lorde Vincent won't be kept waiting."

The prisoner lifted its head slowly revealing luminous dark brown eyes and lips redder than a nose with frostbite. Then before Thale could move his head, a huge swath of saliva hit his cheek.

Silence rang around the room.

Dark, icy silence.

Calmly, Thale wiped the wetness from his face with a handkerchief, before twirling his fingers tenderly into the soft strands of the prisoners hair. "Oh love, you will regret that." He whispered, smoothly, into the young woman's ear.

Then with a velvet laugh his fingers jerked sharply against her scalp, as he began to drag the woman harshly out of the cell with nothing but the luscious dark strands of her hair.

Authors note - For those who are confused on why Elijah asked if this was legal. In this world there is a law. A law stating only masculine criminals earn a spot in a prison. For they believe women incapable of thinking much less as criminal masterminds. So, the fact that this woman is in prison shocked the young boys very much.