บท 153: Servant of the Axe, 53 - How to Insult Your Dragon

Servant of the Axe

Chapter 53

How to Insult Your Dragon

"Well," the dragon boomed in a deep voice, "that certainly took long enough."

I flexed my toes, my fingers. Nothing seemed broken from my rough treatment.

"It is customary for guests to KNEEL." <KNEEL>

[You have resisted psychic mind control.]

Of course, the dragon was psychic. Why wouldn't he be? Dragons in Athal live long lives, and come to be experts in pretty much everything. Or everything that matters to them, at the very least.

"I must come from a bizarre land, then. Guests are usually invited, or travelers who stay for a single night." I shook the chain to my manacles to emphasize the point. "Yet neither seems to be the case."

"If you had come on your own, then such measures would not have been necessary." <1>

"I just presumed that had I invited myself, that the Order of the Wyvern would have sunk any vessel I was riding on. Wood seems too rare to waste, here."

His voice came from higher up in the shadows. "There are times when such displays of wealth and violence are mandated."

I shrugged.

If someone could scoot a building along, it sounded like that. His head came into the light, a desert camouflage pattern of yellows and light browns, with some bronze and golden scales mixed in. It most resembled sandstone, if sandstone had bits of shiny metal mixed in. "Do you like violence?"

Coming into the light must have had a special significance, for all of the guards lowered their heads, and all but four took a knee. Interesting.

"I feel that survival in this world depends upon the ability to be violent." I said. That was pure bravado; without a weapon, or armor, with my claws filed down? My mood was most definitely not violent.

But with the blood flow to the stumps of my talons also came pain, so I wasn't feeling too peaceful, either.

His eyes half closed, as if he were going to fall asleep. "Well stated, if more mundane than I expected."

"I doubt you had your minions go through this effort to speak about violence."

"Oh, indeed I did. Particularly about your violence against the pirates of Clan Octopus."

Someone broke out laughing, using my voice, my throat. I think it was most likely me. "No." I said, as the laughter faded into chuckling.

From near the ceiling, he said, "EXCUSE ME?"

"Either you're going to ask me to stop defending myself, or you're going to ask me to do something against your rival. No."

"If you determine to make yourself otherwise useful to me, I can always use you as food. You would be wise to remain polite."

"Oh, utter hogwash! If you wanted manners, you'd have waited until AFTER my manners class to abduct me."

This time, the laughter was his, shaking me to my bones.

[You have taken 12 points of Emotional Damage; after ability activation, nine points have been received. 11/20 serenity remains.]

Yes, thank you System, for letting me know that I was afraid. Terribly afraid. As in really needed to stop by the bathroom afraid.

"ABDUCT?" the dragon asked, "Abduct? Is that all that you think I am prepared to do to or with you? That we're going to have a pleasant chat, and then you're being returned to your friend and your enemies?"

"If having me dead or tortured were what you were after, I'd know by being dead or tortured, now, wouldn't I?" The manacles stopped me from throwing my hands wide.

"I can be persuaded to change my mind. The inflexible do not survive long in this world."

I reached up, scratched a scale on my right cheek. "And yet, if one shows fear or weakness, that is when the panther pounces."

"Ahhh, I think I begin to see. Something massive boomed, cracking floor stones. "Have the slaves bring a chair and table suited to our guest. And tea, if we have some ready."

Something about the way he used the word slaves seemed wrong to me. More like the way an aristocrat would speak of their handkerchief, or a peasant about their shoes. Something that OF COURSE you have and use, but why are we wasting our time talking about it?

"I think I shall have a second coffee as well, whenever the chefs can prepare one." He decided. "Now, I believe we were discussing violence, and what your motives were in stirring up Clan Octopus."

"My companions and I are just traveling about the islands; when the kraken-spawn chooses to attack us, we choose to defend ourselves."

The eyes went to half-lidded mode again. "Please do not mistake Clan Octopus for her, nor the Order of the Wyvern for me. We afford our captains the latitude to act on their own initiative; they've earned that much. If you would please, be more specific in your statements."

"Very well, when individual ships of Clan Octopus attack us, we defend ourselves."

"Better. Less open to interpretation. The idea is clear, concise, and communicated. And, of course, utterly ignorant. So, let me ask again. Why are you repeatedly found where Clan Octopus loses ships?"

"Because our individual captains take us through those places?"

The bottom lids of his eyes came up, giving him a distinctly squinting look. "And you just accept these dangerous routes through the main canal?"

"Why not? The captains know these islands far better than any mere map is going to teach me for the time I've got left here."

"Oho. I see, I see, so you think you'll just stroll through the islands, get your barely attainable goals done, and just go home?"

"Not stroll, although I admit it requires us mobile. And yes, our goals are simple and basic math says they're attainable. So, yes, I plan on going home after Red Axe Trading Company is up and going at the level we need it to."

"And what is that level?"

I told him.

It is odd to see a dragon scoff and snicker. "Oh, I don't think you'll be making anywhere near that amount. You'd need a fleet of twenty ships, half of them able to sail back to Lewardsport in Furdia. Even then, there just aren't enough goods MADE here to support that continuous level of trade. You'd need a proper town here, I'd estimate twelve thousand people."

"But a distributed network of villages, say twelve of a thousand people each? Would that work as well?"

The dragon snorted, squinted. "Your entire Red Tide empire is little more than double that size. Even then... But I should be asking you questions, not answering them. You can understand why I'm concerned that you're antagonizing my rival?"

"Not really. It seems to me that she's going to lose ships until she takes us prisoner and executes us. That would seem to be a good thing for you."

"On the surface of it, yes. But a talented and diverse team suddenly shows up and begins harrying her forces. Other pirates as well, but none belonging to me. How does that look, if one is already feeling surrounded, perhaps paranoid?"

I closed my eyes, and imagined myself as the kraken-spawn. I had my territory and fleet, the dragon had his, Dauria had theirs, there were over a dozen minor fleets. "Ah. You're worried…"

The booming slam of his foot against the floor came again. "I do NOT worry." He said, calmly. But I knew that calm, it was the exact same way with Rakkal – the calm before the storm.

"Fine. Your concern, then… is that she suspects an alliance between us and you. Or that we are your sworn agents, new pieces in this chess game you play with the naval powers here."

"Both of which amount to the same thing, her seeing an attack where none is intended. An attack by me, of all people. If open war breaks out between the two of us, neither will win. The survivor will be weakened, vulnerable to an alliance of the colonies. Although it may come to exactly that before the end, I prefer an ending that has me triumphant, not skulking away at night with whatever fraction of my treasure I can carry."

Ah, he wasn't mobile… too much stuff.

"I understand that she's smart enough to see that as well."

"She has … other concerns, and a belief that she can hide under the water. But on to other matters."

The furniture began to arrive.

"This evolution and eating method that you possess. Tell me about it."

"What information do you offer in exchange?"

"Ha! What information would you most like?"

"I have questions about the twelve points of the world, and which of the Legendary Weapons is hidden there, and how."

"Hrm." He said, clearly thinking.

<1> I would learn later that he had, in fact, sent an invitation. At the time of these events, it was at the docks at Neo Esteban, unopened and unclaimed.