Rise of the Last Dragon Rider - Chapter 063 - Learning about the threat (Patreon)

Come back now.  Forgive me for what I did.

Pammon and the other two had been flying above him for the last few minutes as Kaen stripped the woman till she had nothing on, taking off the bracelet and examining it.  He had cut strips of her armor and bound her hands and feet.  She was still unconscious from the blow, but he had checked.  She was alive.

Pammon was angry.  He had every right to be, and Kaen knew it, but he had no choice.  The rage poured through their bond, and when Pammon landed behind him, Kaen saw the glare in his eyes.

How dare you do that to me?

Lowering his snout till his face was just a foot from Kaen’s, Pammon snorted at him.

“Because it was a trap, and you wouldn’t listen.  I told you to go, and you didn’t.  There was no time.”

What was she going to do to me?  She was nothing!  I could have ended her life in one bite!

Kaen held up the bracelet and watched as Pammon’s eyes gazed at the orange and red gem.

Pammon growled, anger rising inside him.

The same reaction came again as a fire began to churn inside Pammon.

“Stop yourself.  Tell me you don’t feel that.  A rage you can’t control.  Something telling you to unleash your breath, even upon me.”

Pammon heard the words of Kaen.  He felt it.  His mind struggled as it fought what was inside his heart and an overwhelming desire to burn something in his mind.

Kaen leaned over, putting his hand on Pammon’s scale, and willed his skill.

Immediately, Pammon calmed down.  The fire from inside vanished, replaced with hurt and remorse.

Why? Why can’t I resist that?

Kaen shrugged his shoulders and scratched his friend's snout.

“I don’t know.  I will try to find out, but something tells me this is how they trap dragons.”

Putting the bracelet in his pouch, Kaen turned and pointed at the brown dragon.  Blood seeped from its wounds, but it still had not moved or reacted.  It was like a statue.

“Look at it.  Whatever they did has left it a shell of itself.”

Glynnis and Amaranth had moved closer, both able to sense that Pammon was no longer angry.

I saw that bracelet you held the day you rescued me.  The woman with it had held it before my eyes multiple times, cursing each time that nothing happened.  Why is that?

Scratching his beard, Kaen considered the facts he had.

You don’t have a breath attack.  Every other dragon does, you said.  There is no fire that burns inside you like the others.  No way for you to even release it if you did.  I think, somehow, this does something to dragons.  Causes them to attack in a rage they can’t control.  When that happens…

Kaen turned and looked at the naked woman at his feet.

We will hopefully find out in a minute.  Let me get some water and see if I can’t wake her up.

The woman gasped as Kaen splashed more water from one of his skins in her face.

She snorted and snarled and cursed when she came to, seeing him and Pammon looming over him.

“How did…” her voice trailed off as she craned her neck and saw the carnage of the two dragons she had come in on. “Impossible… do you have any idea what you have done?”

“Released two dragons from bondage and rid the world of those who would do such a thing?”

She spat at Kaen, trying to hit his feet or legs with it, not getting close because of her position on the ground.

“You have made an enemy of the empire! We will hunt you down!  We will enslave your dragon and make him eat you!”

Her eyes were wild with anger. A throbbing vein appeared in her tan forehead as she bucked and kicked against the bonds that held her.

Kaen heard them beginning to tear and moved forward, putting a hand around her throat.

“Stop.  I’ll tell you right now if I have to, I will use something stronger to bind you, but you won’t like it if I do.”

She flinched as she felt his hand around her throat and saw the look in his eyes that told her Kaen was not making a threat he wouldn’t keep.  Relaxing, she felt him let go of her throat and watched as he stood up over her.

Glynnis.  You and Pammon move a bit away.  I will pull the bracelet out again and would prefer not to have to worry about you two getting affected by it.

How about if we scout from the air?  I want to see if anyone is coming toward us.

Kaen nodded, and both dragons moved away, leaping off the ground and starting to climb higher into the sky.

His eyes focused on the woman. Kaen pulled the bracelet out and held it before her face.

“I’m going to ask nicely, but if I don’t get my way, I will do things that will make you want to tell me.”

The woman began to laugh, her chest rising and her body shaking from how hard she was laughing.

“You think you can scare me?  Do you think some threat of pain or suffering is going to break me?  Do you have any idea what one like me has to endure to get the position I have?”

He had already seen the scars all over her body.  There were at least fifty spread over her entire body.  Some looked to be fresh, while others had to be years old.

“No, I don’t think you fear pain.  I think you might actually enjoy pain.  The question I have is, how long can you endure constant pain?  Pain that never ends?  A pain that can stretch on for days, weeks, and months, without ever ending or having to worry about dying.”

Kaen turned to Amaranth and motioned to her with his hand to come close.

Turning back to his captive, Kaen smiled.

“What is your name? I don’t think you ever told me.”

She glared at him and spat again.

“I don’t have a name, just a number.”

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Well, I am Kaen, as you already know.  What is your number?”

She grunted but saw there was nothing else she could do, and giving it up wouldn’t do Kaen any good.

“I am number Three hundred and twelve.”

Kaen frowned, and the woman smiled, seeing his look.

“There are hundreds of us waiting for a dragon of our own.  The honor of having one is beyond anything else that can compare.  The king–”

“You can stop,” Kaen said as he pulled an arrow from the quiver.  “I just wanted to know who I am about to do things I would prefer not to do.”

He bent down, his eyes burning with anger.

“Know this.  You can stop this at any moment.  All you have to do is tell me what the bracelet does, and if I believe you are telling the truth, I will send you back on a ship.”

He drove the arrow into her thigh, making sure the tip of it came to rest against her femur.

She screamed, beginning to shake her leg until she realized the pain of that from the arrowhead scratching along her bone.

“Lie, and this will go on forever.”

She was sweating all over, panting from the pain, and then frustrated at how amazed she felt for a moment before it began again.

You are darker than I imagined.  To do this.  It is brilliant, and yet…

Necessary.  Imagine if Pammon or any other dragon suffers the fate of the one over there.  It has been an hour, yet that dragon has not moved and barely breathed.  Soon, it will die of the injuries if it doesn’t do something.

Amaranth snorted, moving her head back from the woman.

Still, healing her like this with the arrows in her legs.

Kaen grunted, ignoring the reservation Amaranth had.

Over and over in his head, he remembered what Pammon had told him.  ‘You will have to do hard things.’

This was one of those things.

Kaen bent down, slowly twisting the shafts of the arrows, the tip tearing flesh inside the woman's leg and scratching against the femur.

She cried out in pain, able to resist moving her legs, as that only made it worse.

“I told you!” she screamed. “I told you what it does!”

Kaen stood up after letting go of the shafts and shook his head.

“You told me what I already knew.  You aren’t telling me what I want to know.  Who would be foolish enough to anger a dragon into using their greatest weapon on them unless they had some way to protect themselves from it?  What does the gem do?”

She was already sweating again as blood trickled from the hole in each leg.  Kaen had been right.  She could resist pain, but after an hour of non-stop pain that was healed before starting again, it was something else.  Her mind wanted it to end.  The cuts she had endured were nothing compared to this.  They had been quick or slow, but they were wrapped up and left to heal once done.

She realized that Kaen was serious.  He would do this for as long as it took, and she doubted he would let her die.

“Do you promise,” she asked, gritting her teeth as an arrowhead scratched against her bone as it moved. “Do you promise to send me back alive?”

Kaen looked at her.  Saw the way her eyes were no longer trying to kill him by how she glared.  Now, they wanted nothing other than this pain to end.  He owed Elies more than he wanted to admit.  The man had told him about things like this.  The need arose sometimes.  He had filled his mind with horrible things that seemed dishonorable yet had a purpose.  This was one of those moments that demanded such actions.

“I gave you my word.  If you tell me what I want to know, I will heal you, take you to the last ship remaining, and send you home.  However…” he paused, bending down and thumping the shaft with a finger just a little bit, causing her to scream in pain. “Lie to me or hold back, and I will keep doing this.”

She nodded as slowly as possible, trying to keep her legs from twitching more.  Short, quick breaths were all she could take as she breathed through her nose.  She ignored the snot that was dripping from them.  She couldn’t escape.  Better to return home and plead to the King and hope she could one day earn her spot back and get revenge on this man.

She took a few more breaths and closed her eyes after letting one out slowly.

“When a dragon attacks you with it, a magical energy will absorb it.  It will grant you control over the dragon.  They will be unable to fight back.  From there, we take them back to the kingdom and…”

Kaen waited as the seconds passed.  She had stopped talking, opening her eyes again and looking at him.

“And what?”

“A ritual is done, and they become the dragons you defeated.  Only a few know what they do, but no dragon has ever recovered.  Anyone who wears the bracer can control the dragon it is bound to.”

She sniffed, wincing as the movement brought pain again.

“Did you destroy the bracer for the other dragon?”

Kaen glanced at the dragon still standing there, blood dripping from its wounds.

“I did not.”

He saw her wince as she closed her eyes again.

“Doing so will end its life.  It would obey you if you wore it.  You could command it to fly after you.  If you want it to eat, you must tell it to, or it won’t even do that.”

Kaen didn’t want that kind of power or slavery.  Even though some might consider that a worthwhile weapon to have, it crossed a line he couldn’t even do.

Kaen bent down and grunted.

“You did your part. Now I will do mine.”

Watching from up above, Pammon could almost imagine he heard the woman scream when Kaen pulled the arrows from her legs.