Dragons of Marak: Book 1, Wings & Sword

#27

 They rode the elevator back up to the highest floor. Ana couldn't find it in her to tell her father what had happened at the top of the Obelisk. They stood in silence, and he glared at her, malcontent polluting the air from his quivering, frustrated eyes.

Her father stopped cold, not even exiting the elevator, after he threw the metal door open. He stared at the dead dragonbounds, his lips pursed as he took in the situation. He didn't move a muscle, didn't say anything. The few dragonbounds and dragons who had survived were gone. The door leading out to the hallway, and the room with the dragon cages, was wide open, but her father did not pay attention to it. His eyes even washed over the chains, where Jack had been tied up before. He was gone now too, Ana briefly wondered where.

"Why would you do this?" her father said after a long and laden silence. "Why?"

Ana opened her mouth, then closed it. He turned to face her.

"It wasn't me," she finally said.

Her father took the ring off his finger. His expression bled hostility.

"Do you want this?" he said, raising his voice.

Ana didn't answer.

He tossed the ring out of the elevator, into the open room. It rolled over across the floor and stopped when it hit one of the bodies.

"Go get it," her father said.

Ana opened her mouth, shut it. "Dad..." she started to say.

"GO GET IT!" he shouted.

Ana trembled. She exited the elevator.

"Leave this city," he said. "I can't look at you anymore."

He slammed the elevator shut, and then he left.

She watched him go, until he disappeared and there was only a dark elevator shaft in his place. Then she went over to the Golden Ring, and picked it up. She looked at it. Really looked at it. She knew what it meant, that he had given it to her. He was giving up. She had won. She put the ring on her finger. The victory did not taste good.

Then she heard footsteps, and she looked up. There, in the doorway, was a bruised and bloodied Jack, clothed in a new shirt and a fresh pair of trousers. His boardra was at his side, looking equally beat.

He forced a smile, and limped over to her. She found herself struggling to hold in her tears, and so to keep him from seeing, she offered him a hug.

"Ow," he said as she squeezed him tight.

"Oh, sorry," she said.

"Still a bit sore..." Jack said. For some reason, though, he hugged her tightly anyway.

***

"By the Uniter," Leti said, a few minutes later. She gazed around the room at all of the caged dragons, staring at them as they beat their heads against the metal bars and roared one after another.

Ana stood in the middle of the room, silent as she let her friends take it all in. The dragons were clearly damaged in a significant way. Maybe, she thought as she felt a single tear roll down her cheek, they were even so hurt as to be beyond healing. Ana quickly wiped the tear away from her face, to keep the others from seeing.

"Uniter's piss," a policewoman said, pulling her hand back as a dragon snapped at it. "That one tried to take my fingers off."

"What's going to happen now?" Leti asked.

The police dragonbounds all looked at one, who seemed to be in command. He pursed his lips.

"I suppose my father will have to be arrested..." Ana said.