My guards rushed forward to grab me. Tamara got there first.
She grabbed the hilt of the sword, yanked it out, and pushed me out of the way. Then she slashed to the right before lunging forward, her pose absolute perfection. The strength and power wove into an intricate dance. This dragon absolutely did know how to use a sword.
The point of the sword dove into the middle of the new captain. She pulled it free and made quick work of the three guards near him, slashing and stabbing like a motherfucking master.
I have a girl crush, my dragon said.
We were on the same page.
Hands grabbed me from behind. I surged my power in an attempt to break the cuffs like Tamara had, but the blows started to fall, one hitting my head. Black spots appeared in my vision. I speared with my will, digging into a demon as I stepped to the side and turned. I drove my head forward, using my forehead to break a nose. I was already dizzy—what was a little more trauma for a good cause?
An extendable stick cracked down on my shoulder. Another swung from the side at my thigh.
“Give in,” Tamara said, downing another demon as a group of guards tackled her. I could barely hear her voice over the shouting and grunting. “They’ll stop if you do. They won’t if you won’t.”
Two demons piled onto me and shoved me to the ground. My cheek hit stone and their weight knocked the breath out of me.
My dragon’s rage fanned higher, but I stopped struggling. With my hands behind my back, there wasn’t much I could do. I could kill them with will, but more guards would just take their places. I didn’t want to waste the energy that I would surely need later on.
Someone pinned their knee in the center of my back. Others knelt around me, leaning over and bracing their hands on me to keep me still. I lay there, waiting.
“Fucking dragons,” one of them muttered, sitting back. “I wish we could just kill the lot of them.”
“We’d all be better off,” another replied, grabbing one of my upper arms. Another did the same with the other arm, and they dragged me up, their movements coarse.
“Leave that sword behind,” Govam commanded from a quarter of the way up the stairs, looking down. “Leave it in the cell. The sheath, too.”
The guards wasted no time in unstrapping the sheath from around my waist. They wrestled the blade away from Tamara. Without cleaning it, they unceremoniously tossed it into my cell and slammed the door. Rough hands shoved me forward as Tamara was hauled up, her eyes shining with smug excitement.
“Let’s go.” Govam continued up the stairs with Micah, who was looking our way with pride.
The dragons lived for these moments, that was clear. They were stuck in this hell, but they’d figured out how to start a few more fires.
The way into the upper part of the castle was the same, and the officers waited where they had the last time I was led this way. I barely heard Govam mentioning the fresh blood down in the lower dungeon that the officers might use for their creations. I didn’t miss the first officer’s response, though: “Another captain goes down, huh, Govam? And when might your turn be?”
Things slowed down at the baths. The other dungeons had been emptied as well, apparently, and the other prisoners were easier to handle. Which was why they were the first to bathe. When our turn came, we all stayed locked up as the attendants ripped off our clothes and scrubbed us down.
After I was dry, I was prepared the same way as before, with an ugly dress and bad hair. We were led through another set of doors, although not to a throne room this time. We all waited in a line, the dragon handlers occasionally using their weapons to beat a dragon into submission.
“What is that now, a full dozen guards lost?” said Tamara, standing in her cluster of guards in front of me, looking around at them. “When are you going to learn that we don’t like going to your parties?”
“The second you’re not needed, I’ll take great pleasure in killing you,” replied the surly demon holding her.
“You won’t last that long,” Tamara answered, her confidence a great balloon around her.
The line started moving faster, our guards shoving us along. At a large double door, demons were checking people in as we came up. A green-skinned demon to the right, wearing a silk gown that matched the color of her skin, eyed me as we approached the front.
“Cage,” a guard said as we stopped in front of the attendants.
Tamara was beside me, her guard telling the male demon in a tuxedo the same thing. It was something they’d probably repeat about all the dragons.