Enslaved by the Alien Dragon Read online

  I saw their cannons draw forward from the underbelly of the ships and then the blasting started. I gasped, realizing that if the fight moved any closer I would be hit with serious debris from fallen Pax destroyers and Hielsrane ships alike. I looked back over my shoulder and realized there was another rocky outcrop – a collection of smaller boulders that had formed a somewhat granite like display that provided both coverage and a decent amount of protection.

  If I started running now I might be able to make it there before something deadly speared me in the chest. I searched the skies first, trying to pinpoint Ranel’s location. He was somewhere directly in front of me, battling a horde of Pax destroyers that were bending and weaving, trying to avoid his huge wings and the bursts of fire that sprouted from his open jaws. I was starting to realize that the dragons couldn’t sustain their fire breath for longer than a few seconds.

  I couldn’t see the Hielsrane ships any longer. It looked like they had disappeared altogether and I was struck with the sudden fear that they had been thrown from the skies and crashed somewhere in the vicinity. But then I saw two huge dragons join the fight and I realized that the ships had probably landed nearby so that the Drakon aboard could shift and join the fight.

  A salient piece of shrapnel smashed into the ground next to me and I gasped and fell back against the dry dirt. Realizing that my life depended on it, I abandoned the minimal coverage of the boulder I was hiding behind and ran for the granite crop of stones off in the distance. Every now and again, I couldn’t help but risk a glance over my shoulder to see how the battle was progressing.

  It seemed like the Drakon were winning. Their sheer size and immensity were enough to knock a dozen destroyers out of the sky. I felt my panic ebb slightly and that allowed me to run a little faster. I was almost at the granite outcrop when an ear-splitting blast echoed through the air and I was flung forward, propelled by the blast. I thought I hit something, but my head was spinning.

  “Get up human,” the voice said with contempt. “Are you completely mad?”

  I knew that voice. I looked up and saw a beautiful face with light eyes that were bright with annoyance. It was the oddest thing though; the person looking down on me had a mane.

  “Get up Yvette.”

  She knew my name. Huh… that was odd too. I tried to stand but my legs felt like jelly. I was suddenly aware of a sharp pain in my side. Was I bleeding? I touched my hand to the side of my stomach. No, everything seemed all right. It seemed I was in one piece.

  “Yvette!”

  “Bring her in here,” another voice said.

  I blinked and my vision seemed to filter into the right perspective. “What’s happening?” I wanted to ask, but the words were slow to my tongue. “Where am I?”

  I closed my eyes. Someone’s voice was tunneling its way to the surface. No… I didn’t want to hear that voice. It had haunted my dreams for too long now.

  His voice was high and reedy and filled with raucous delight. He spat sounds at me but I couldn’t understand any of it. Then I saw him gesture to someone to my side. Another alien walked forward. The creature had the body of a large rat; its red eyes followed me with a violent lust. In its hands, it carried a thick black collar.

  “No,” I screamed. “No!”

  Two more aliens grabbed my hands and held me in place while the collar was fastened around my neck. I felt something click together and then the weight settled around me… heavy and foreboding.

  “There we go,” his voice permeated through my brain. “Much better.”

  I gasped. “How can I understand you…?”

  “The collars are fitted with a translator chip,” the commanding alien said as he came forward. “Convenient, don’t you think?”

  “Remove it!” I screamed.

  “Do you know who I am?” the alien asked pleasantly.

  “I don’t care,” I said, thrashing around despite the sharp, pincer like claws that held my hands down.

  “Oh but you will,” he said, smiling deeply. “I am Zellin. I offered you a gift that you refused.”

  I felt my breath catch. “We will destroy you! Every person in my unit is worth ten from yours.”

  Zellin threw his head back and laughed with glee. “The fight is over, silly human,” he said. “You fought and lost.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head, refusing to accept his words.

  I remembered being in the thick of battle, the blasts were still echoing in my ears. And then, something happened, an explosion so big it made the world go black. When I’d woken up, I’d found myself in a dank tented area, surrounded by those filthy vermin.

  “I gave you a choice,” Zellin continued, as though he were disappointed in me. “I told you what would happen if you chose to fight instead of submit. You could have saved your men… you could have saved them all. Better to live as slaves than die as free men.”

  “No,” I said.

  Zellin walked towards me. He was smiling but his red eyes were cold. His clawed paw slashed across the air like a whip and struck the side of my face. I would have keeled over if I weren’t being held in place by two of his minions.

  “Come,” Zellin said. “It is time to show her the cost of her decision. Bring her.”

  The flaps of the tent were thrown open and I was dragged into the glaring sun. New York City was in shambles. I could hardly recognize it. The empire state building was nothing more than a mass of rubble. I might have cried to see it as it was, but my eyes fell on the line of bodies that had been displayed neatly in front of me.

  My mouth opened in a wail of anguish, but no sound came out. No sound was deep enough, painful enough, heart-wrenching enough to do justice to what my eyes had to suffer. I stared at the dirt stained faces of every man and woman in my unit. Their eyes were trained on the sky above, unseeing and devoid of life.

  “Now tell me,” Zellin said, whispering into my ear like a lover. “What was her name?”

  “Lorna,” I whispered.

  Zellin laughed. “And his?”

  “Mitch.”

  “And his?”

  “Timothee.”

  Zellin took me down the line until I had been forced to say every single person’s name out loud. I could sense the bloodlust in the air. The aliens were watching reality television and they loved it.

  “Excellent,” Zellin said, when I had finished. “Now… you see the cost of the choice you made, don’t you?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “You killed the men and women who trusted you and followed you.”

  “Yes.”

  “In our world, you would be considered a bad omen, a sign of ill fate,” Zellin continued. “I think you should have a memento to remember this day.”

  “I will always remember this day,” I said in defeat.

  “Yes, you will,” Zellin agreed. “But I am generous. You refused my first gift but I wonder… will you refuse my second?”

  I felt my heart thud fearfully in my chest. “Please…”

  “Do you want my second gift, human?” Zellin asked.

  I wanted to scream. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to run. But I was powerless; the line of bodies in front of me told me so. They were staring at me, accusing me of destroying their lives, their families. Zellin was right. I was a bad commander. I was a bad omen.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I want your second gift.”

  “Good human,” Zellin nodded. “Scarvo, bring me the Tetras Ink. We have some carving to do.”

  Someone’s hand was reaching out for me. I batted it away. I didn’t want to be touched.

  “Her eyes are open. What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.

  Were my eyes open? That was odd. I blinked once, twice… a third time. Shapes started to form and like a floating puzzle, the pieces started to fit together. First, I saw Meratte and her gorgeous mane, then I saw a human woman whose name just eluded my tongue.

  “Yvette?” the woman asked. “Are you ok? Can you hear me?”
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br />   There was ringing in my ears, but I could hear her. I nodded, grateful to be out of the nightmare. I looked around and realized we were in a cave of sorts, the granite stone that surrounded us was shiny and shadows reflected off one another to give us light. I noticed the opening of the cave a few feet away. I had been running here when something had happened… an explosion?

  I made to move towards the opening, but the human woman reached out and held me in place. “It’s not safe,” she said.

  Who was she? Why did I think of the scullery when I looked at her? Why did her face make me angry?

  “Carissa?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she nodded.

  “But... how?”

  “We got Ranel’s message late… we were setting course for Nort,” Carissa said. “We wanted to recuperate there. Our ship had taken significant damage in the asteroid blast, but we changed course the moment we got the emergency signal from Thirren.”

  I remembered the two Hielsrane spaceships that had emerged during the thick of the battle. “I want to see what’s happening,” I said.

  “It won’t make you feel better,” Carissa said, looking at me in an odd way.

  I frowned. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Yvette,” she said softly, muted pain filtering in through her façade of strength. “We’re losing.”

  20

  Ranel

  I felt the heaviness of my body lag as my powerful wings started to feel the burn of fatigue. Fire breathing was draining and while the heat of a hundred dragon fires blushed against my scales and spurred me on, it did nothing to replenish my stamina.

  As our small army of dragons amassed in the sky, it was clear that we all had one goal – destroy as many Pax ships as we could manage and turn their Hellion missiles to rubble. If we succeeded in that, we had a chance. Except that for every Pax destroyer we tore to shreds, another five seemed to emerge from the red smoke that tainted the skies.

  I looked down and saw the fallen debris of our battle. It had already destroyed a good portion of our land, but at least it hadn’t touched Thirren’s inner circle. I could see over the large mountain range that circled Thirren’s great royal city of Draconia. It was probably the largest city in the galaxy nestled into a dangerous outcrop of mountain. Even from my vantage point I couldn’t see the city. Sharp edges and cavernous precipices expertly hid homes from view.

  As three Pax destroyers zoomed towards me, I forced a spiral that turned my wings into weapons. I struck two of the three ships and they flailed through the sky like toys. One hit another Pax destroyer and both screamed to the ground, while the second disappeared into a thick plume of orange smoke that had started on the ground and had risen so high that it had created a fog of mist that was starting to blur my vision.

  I realized that the battle had spread as far as the Thorren Mountains. I felt panic grip my body as I realized that, in the thick of this particularly fierce battle, it would take very little to ignite Mount Krato, the volcano that sat in the center of the small range, nestled between two dormant volcanoes that had died centuries ago.

  I heard a roar that seemed to shake the sky and I whipped around just in time to see a silver-grey dragon with dark markings around the snout and legs go down, struck by a Hellion missile. The missiles were powerful offensive weapons and it seemed even dragon hide could not withstand their dynamic force.

  My hope died right there in the sky. Our size, strength and firepower were immense, but not compared with the sheer number of the Pax force.

  As more Pax destroyers soared towards me, I let lose a powerful surge of fire breath, taking down at least three of the five spacecrafts. Feeling a dull sense of satisfaction, I flew back down to the ground. I hated turning my back on the fight, but it was time to be sensible instead of brave.

  I landed next to the Wyvern, realizing that the complete left side of the spacecraft had been obliterated by one of the Hellion missiles. I could see the ugly crimson of its fat bulk sitting innocently by the side of my hanger. My transformation back into my human form was quick. I raced up an open hatch and turned the corner where the emergency supplies were stored. Everything seemed to be intact as I pulled the lever that released the lock. I pulled out some clothes and light armor and dressed quickly.

  I was racing back down the hatch when I saw both Tarion and Lehar hit the ground in their dragon forms. I signaled to them, but neither one saw me in the confusion of smoke, fire and debris. Abandoning my attempts to get their attention, I raced around the remains of my ship and ran towards the protective boulder colonies in the distance. It would provide the perfect protective hiding place for anyone wishing to avoid the thick of battle and I was fairly certain I would find a throng of civilians gathered together under the granite formations.

  Before I had even reached the formation, I saw Yvette emerge from under one of the boulder’s protruding edges. She stumbled in the rust-gold sand and fell to her knees. I saw Carissa walk out after her and attempt to help her to her feet, but Yvette brushed off Carissa’s hand and made straight for me.

  “What are you doing?” I growled. “I told you to take cover.”

  “Is it true?” Yvette asked, her hand moving toward her cheek. “Are we losing?”

  We. It seemed an insignificant thing to focus on in the moment, but the word stood out and gave my pain a thin edge of joy.

  “Yes,” I said, without hesitation.

  Carissa grabbed my hand in sudden panic. “Tarion,” she gasped. “Where is he? Is he still fighting?”

  “I saw him land just before I got here,” I told her. “I think he and Lehar both know that we can’t win this. There’s too many of them and their Hellion missiles match our fire breath.”

  “This can’t be happening,” Carissa said in desperation. “We are the Hielsrane… we don’t lose battles.”

  “What are we going to do?” Yvette asked.

  “I need to get you all out,” I said, looking over Yvette and Carissa’s heads at the small collection of slaves and civilians that were looking out from under the granite formation at me.

  “The escape pods by the mountain base,” Carissa said immediately. “Is it safe enough to reach them?”

  “We have no choice,” I replied. “We need to get all of you on them now.”

  “They will be evacuating in Heilbronn,” Carissa said. “There should be enough heavy-duty ships to carry all of us out of Thirren.”

  “Good,” I nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “Come, I will lead you to the pods,” Carissa said, turning to the motley collection of creatures behind her. Her tone changed instantly. She sounded more like a commander in her own right and less like a frightened wife and mother.

  “The children?” I asked quickly, realizing I couldn’t see any of the hatchlings.

  “We evacuated all of them at the beginning of the battle. We landed the spaceship long enough for Tarion, his men and I to get off before sending it on to Heilbronn,” Carissa explained, glancing over her shoulder at the Royal Peak behind which sat the ancient city of Draconia.

  In that moment, I couldn’t help but admire her. She had chosen to follow her husband out into open battleground even though she could contribute little to the fight. She was a warrior, as much a Drakon as any one of us. She lacked the tools, but her spirit was fire.

  “There should be enough escape pods to get you all out,” I said. “Quickly… I don’t know how much time we—"

  Before I could finish my sentence, another explosion sounded off in the near distance. I turned and saw a mirage of grey smoke race toward the skies in the general vicinity of the Thorren Mountains. A moment later, I heard a deep rumbling noise that made the earth feel like it was shaking beneath my feet.

  “What is that?” Yvette asked as she stumbled into me.

  That was when I realized that the earth actually was shaking beneath my feet. It seemed as though the Pax destroyers had succeeded in activating Mount Krato.

  “What are
you doing?” a familiar voice screamed.

  I turned to see Lehar and Tarion race toward us. Both had the look of defeat about them and that was harder to take than my own disappointment. If Tarion had abandoned the skies, that meant there really was no hope.

  “What are you still doing here?” Tarion screamed at his wife. “You were supposed to be in Heilbronn by now.”

  “Come on!” I said, grabbing Yvette’s hand and pulling her towards Mount Royal’s base.

  She tripped twice before I abandoned my attempts to pull her along behind me. I grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her into my arms, then I started to run at full speed. She gasped against the hot wind that whipped at our faces but I didn’t slow down. I needed to get her off our dying planet before it was too late.

  Within microns we were at the base of the mountain. The stone there was craggy and formed hollowed in caves that had allowed us to place our escape pods inside. Each pod could take at least three to five creatures, depending on size, but since the whole mountain base contained a series of pods set about ten feet from one another, I had no doubt we could get everyone out.

  I set Yvette down and picked an escape pod quickly. They were oblong in shape and covered over with glass shield roofs from which you had an excellent vantage point of the world as you escaped it. There was a simple set of controls at the head of the pod and a small navigation system built into the mechanism of the tiny craft. I had no doubt that Yvette would be able to figure it out.

  I pressed the button on the side of the escape pod and heard a whooshing noise as the glass parted from the side to reveal a doorway into the pod.

  “Get in,” I said, turning to her.

  She just stood there, blinking at me.

  “What are you doing?” I growled at her. “I said… get in!”

  Yvette looked to her left and right. Slaves and civilians alike were jumping into pods, sometimes two at a time. I could hear the familiar whooshing sound of the glass as it parted from the slick base of the pods.