Greetings all
I hope this week hasn't been too stressful for all of you! I'm working on a cookbook, so that's a little draining but it's getting down.
It's a long update today and it starts the final arc of this story. Buckle in, it's a doozy!
Doran sat up with a gasp as pain lanced his belly.
“Sit still, I’m checking for internal bleeding.”
As soon as his vision managed to clear, he saw he was in a room and a handmaiden was tending to his wounds. Momentarily, he didn’t understand where he was, and then it all came back to him. He swatted the nurse from him and demanded, “Where is Saita?”
The nurse’s smile melted from her face, and she said softly, “Jarah has called for her parents. There is nothing more anyone can do.”
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“Captain Doran, you could have internal bleeding. Your forearm needs healing…”
“Where is she!” he roared.
Terror crossed the woman’s face, and she quickly blurted some directions. Doran hopped from the bed and followed the directions. His head spun and his mouth was dry. He needed to find her. He needed to know.
As he got closer to the room, he saw Jarah standing outside the room. He was pale and shaking. He looked up at Doran and tried to say something. The soldier didn’t hear him as he pushed past to see the condition of his queen.
She was conscious and covered in bandages that were already leaking blood. Her only eye was slowly opening and closing and at first, she didn’t notice him, but when she did, she grinned.
“The joke’s on you.” She chuckled. “Your queen is in another castle.”
It was what Doran had suspected and feared, but he needed to be sure. He stepped forward and pulled aside the blanket to look at her left calf. No tattoo of a tree. It was confirmed when he looked at her left eye, instead of it being grey, it was blue. This wasn’t Saita, this was the Fell Dragon. How could they have been so stupid? If the Fell Dragon was here, where was Saita?
He wanted to rage at the creature in the bed. She had devasted so many times, places, and people. She was a monster who reveled in killing and destroying. She had killed so many people he knew and cared for. She had systematically destroyed Saita’s family and friends, forcing her into this fight that would decide the universe’s fate.
Now the beast lay before him, beaten, broken, and dying. Thick blood leaked from her nose, and she was pale. The only eye that remained was sunken deep into her skull and it was struggling to focus on him. It was clear that she didn’t have much time, especially not long enough to wait for Myla and Karesh. Doran was grateful for that.
“It’s a good thing.” Whispered the Dragon, “Don’t you think? I’m not theirs.”
She closed her eye and pressed back against the pillows in agony. Blood spread across the bandages over her chest. She grimaced and opened her eye to look at the ceiling. She didn’t gloat and rub the situation in Doran’s face. She was almost serene when she said, “She broke one of the main plates. Can’t heal from this.”
Doran didn’t know what to do. Who had taken Saita? He scoured his mind for answers and eventually the Dragon answered.
“The Heavenly are back.” Her speech was starting to slur and her eye unfocused for a few seconds. “I don’t know if they intended to take her or me.”
Doran gritted his teeth. He had failed to hang on to her and he had no way to hunt for her. All he could do was try to find out what he could while the Fell Dragon still lived.
“Kay.” She half-whispered as she shuddered in pain.
He knew that was Saita’s original middle name and then it hit him that this was her. He knew nothing about the Fell Dragon’s background except that she wore the same face as Saita. Nothing had been written about her.
“That was intentional.”
Doran continued to watch as the Fell Dragon gasped for breath and the machines close by were showing that her heart rate was much higher than it should have been. He couldn’t stand watching Kay suffer, especially since she looked so much like Saita. He reached for an oxygen mask and fixed it to her face. It didn’t take long for the blood from her eye to ooze over the mask. Doran couldn’t help but wonder what had gone wrong in Kay’s life for her to reach this point. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been good.
He pulled a chair closer, sat down, and lay a hand over her left hand. He knew it was likely that few things separated Kay from Saita and that this girl could have lived a normal life if she had never become the Fell Dragon.
“No use if you’re trying to treat me. No way to replace discs. I finally die.”
She gave a half-hearted chuckle before coughing blood. There wasn’t much time. Doran said nothing, there was nothing to say. Saita was gone and he had no way to find her.
“Why stay? You know the truth.” She tried to take her hand back.
“No one deserves to die alone. Even you.”
This seemed to amuse the Dragon, she titled her head and asked, “She wanted you to end it, didn’t she? To make sure the curse was erased.”
Doran refused to confirm.
“Brave. Wish I had been as brave. May have put a stop to all of this earlier.” She spat blood from her mouth, coating the inside of the mask. “To die with all my senses intact seems like a fitting punishment.”
“Do you have regrets?” asked Doran.
“Are you a priest?”
He shook his head sadly. The Fell Dragon snorted and looked to the ceiling once more. She reached for it weakly, almost longing for her cage. However, she knew someone was already likely sitting in it, and she was in as bad a shape as her.
“My clothes.”
“You won’t get far.” Said Doran.
“In one of the pockets.” She was struggling to talk now and her breath was gurgling in her throat.
Doran looked around the room and eventually found a pile of discarded clothes that were covered in blood. He searched the pockets, ignoring the sticky, cold blood, and eventually found a piece of paper.
“Last will and testament?” he asked.
“No. Contract.”
Now Doran was confused. A contract? For what? Weakly, the Fell Dragon indicated that he should open it. When he did, his blood grew cold when he realised what it was.
“This is a favour, but it must be ancient.” He looked at the golden paper that was wrinkled.
“Promised to release me.” She was gasping to get enough air to breathe and speak. “Have to speak your wish before them. Never came. Used me to fight. Promised I only had to defeat the one before me. Swore I’d be free. Only the cage awaits us.”
Doran couldn’t stand how she managed to wheeze through the sentences. However, he now understood why she was desperate to end it. However, it didn’t excuse what she had done.
“I’m still in the wrong.” She agreed. “I’m not begging for forgiveness. I give you that contract. Your name is Doran, right?”
“Hold on, can’t you save yourself with this?”
“No Heavenly to hear words.” She grinned painfully. “No time. Doran, I gift you, my favour.”
She laid a hand under her ruined eye to get her blood on it before holding it out to the paper.
“Can’t write, must imprint intent.”
Not knowing what else to do, Doran held the letter out and let her touch it. Now that he was this close, he could see her lips were turning blue. Her time was over, and it was obvious. She pulled her hand back and blinked a few times before turning to look at Doran again.
“Red-Eye only did what I asked of him.”
The human nodded his head.
“With no Fell Dragon, he will be no threat. Let him go. Please.”
“I can’t promise that.”
She nodded her head slowly and then asked, “Will you stay until the end, despite owing me nothing?”
“I will.” He seated himself once more.
He didn’t know why he had agreed but he folded the letter and added it to one of his pockets. He then held his injured right arm out to her. She allowed her right hand to fall into his and spoke two more words before falling silent.
“Thank you.”
It didn’t take long for her eye to close and her breathing to become ragged as her injuries caught up to her. This was difficult for Doran. They had spent months trying to find a way to defeat the Fell Dragon and now that he knew who she was, he didn’t know what to think. She wore the same face as the child he had helped raise. The sweet little girl who had had so much thrown at her. He couldn’t bring himself to hate the Fell Dragon as the others had.
He loved Saita and seeing what she would become this creature was more than he could bear. He allowed the tears threatening to fall, not just for the soul that lay twisted before him, but also for the soul that would now become just as twisted.
The Fell Dragon’s skin was slick with cold sweat, and her blood continued to slowly spread out her bandages and over the linen.
“This can’t continue! This shouldn’t be allowed to happen!” he growled.
The Fell Dragon opened her remaining eye and gave his hand one squeeze before Doran was forced to watch the light fade from it. It didn’t take long for the various machines attached to her to blare in protest.
The Fell Dragon was dead.
He sat for a few more minutes before he released her hand. He then pulled the sheet over her head and stepped from the room. Jarah was sitting at the base of the wall looking haunted. Doran squatted and patted his shoulder.
“Compare the medical records with what was taken on Saith. This wasn’t Saita.”
“I know already.” Admitted Jarah.
Doran sat down heavily, “Then why call for her parents?”
“You know that is a stupid question to ask when you know who was in that room.”
Doran sat in silence for a while before he asked, “How did you know?”
Jarah whispered, “What is the chance of finding her alive?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know where to start.”
Jarah sighed heavily before leaning over and whispering something in Doran’s ear.
If the Fell Dragon is dead, where is Saita? You'll have to wait till next week to find out.
For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here, Book 3 here, and Book 4 here, Book 5 here, Book 6 here, and Book 7 here
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
Alternate Timeline Brucel
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Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 36>>You are Here>>Part 38
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