Page 56 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons
I let out a slow breath and step from the pallet, my gaze flicking to Tor and then away when he doesn’t look back.
The dragon woman takes me by the scruff of the neck in a firm, almost painful grip and pushes me in front of her. I don’t struggle. What would be the point?
‘Time to meet your master, underling,’ she chuckles.
Finally, Tor speaks up.
‘She’s to go to the main chamber.’
‘Aziel wants?—’
‘The law is clear, Raina,’ Tor says, looking into her eyes for the first time and speaking with much more authority. ‘Tributes are taken to the Commander first. Always. Aziel will have to wait.’
The dragon woman, Raina, freezes and twists around to look at him. She seems surprised that he’s spoken, and her nails dig into my skin hard as if she’s annoyed but doesn’t want to show it.
He holds her gaze, and after several tense seconds, she lets out a chuckle. ‘Fine. To the main chamber first, then.’
She uses her grip to get me moving. ‘No matter. Aziel will just be in a foul mood when he begins training his new slave girl.’
Tor doesn’t answer, but I hear him falling into step behind the female whose cruel grip tightens with every step until I feel her long nails piercing the side of my neck.
‘Dreythos won’t thank you for bleeding his Tribute,’ he mutters from behind us, and her hand on the back of my neck relaxes enough that it’s no longer digging into my flesh.
‘Well, well, teacher. Left a kitten and returned a tiger just because you were given your first mission in, what, three-hundred years?’
‘Something like that,’ he mutters.
Raina lets out a scoff. ‘I’m just making sure the human knows her place here, Torvial,’ she says sweetly. ‘You know it’s best that they understand these things quickly.’
Tor doesn’t reply.
I’m urged down a long, wide corridor of roughly hewn stone that abruptly changes to smooth. The sound of dripping water echoes through the tunnel, but it sounds far away.
We turn a corner and go through a huge metal door and the hallway abruptly narrows, the ceiling lowering so much that a dragon wouldn’t be able to pass through it.
A bottleneck, I realize. So they can’t be attacked by others of their kind in great numbers all at once.
Our town was on a small peninsula with a thin strip of land to get to it with just a narrow bridge as the only way in on foot. It was said that it was built as a defense just after the Fall when humans were still warring with each other all the time.
The tunnel walls change to cream-painted cinder blocks about halfway down, reminding me of the ruins of an old elementary school that the other local kids and I used to play in.
There are multiple doors on both sides, but most of them are closed until we get to the end.
I’m pushed over the threshold and stop abruptly, taking in another huge cavern. But this one is man made. Or maybe dragon made. Its ceiling is even taller than the first cavern. There are walkways on platforms spiraling up all the way aroundwith more doors every few feet. It’s like an inside out pigeon coop.
‘Finally,’ someone drawls.
I belatedly look down in front of me and realize there are at least forty men and a few women in the room. They’re mostly sitting at long wooden tables around the edge of the space with plates of food in front of them. At any other time, it might smell good, but my rebelling stomach definitely doesn’t want anything.
There’s a platform to one side with a high, lone seat. On it sits a huge man. He’s dressed like all the others, but I instinctively know that this one is in charge. The Commander. Dreythos. He exudes strength and power, making my stomach twist even more. He’s staring at us. He waves a flippant hand, and I’m thrust forward, the punishing fingers of Raina leaving me. I stumble a little and I hear a few sniggers as I right myself.
‘They’re sure scraping the bottom of the barrel these days,’ I hear a male chuckle.
‘I don’t know. She looks like a fighter. Bet she’ll be fun to break in,’ another answers. ‘That mane will be fun to hold onto.’
‘Too bad you won’t get the chance, huh? Since she’s Aziel’s.’
I shiver at the words. I don’t look at the pair who are speaking though. My eyes are locked on the dragons’ leader.
