The Dragon Prince - Ladon

Chapter 7

-Rivanna-

Tristan had been right to pull me away from the prince, or I would have done something we would all have regretted. We needed him alive until just the right time. Then, we would kill him and make sure his brother knew not to mess with us again.

The North would be ours again. No dragons would control it. And no half-dragon queens would sit on the throne. We had the perfect candidate ready to sit on the throne, or almost ready.

He didn’t know yet, but once we had everything prepared for him, he would take his rightful place on the throne, just like his father should have if he had been given the chance.

“You can’t lose your head like that,” Tristan warned as we walked into my tent.

“I know!” I exclaimed.

“It was close.”

“I know!”

“He needs to stay alive.”

“I know, Tristan. I know!” I said and slammed my hands down on the table, where I planned out our attacks.

There was a whole map spread out on the table and different figures representing the different groups and places we had already taken over.

“I know…”

“Good.”

“I just… I almost lost my leg because of him, and we have both lost so much because of them…”

“We can’t let that affect us now. Not when we are so close,” he said and walked over to me, placing his hand on my shoulder, giving me a little shake to pull me out of all that anger I was swirling around in.

That damn dragon. He knew how to piss me off like no other. There was just something about him that was infuriating, and not just because of the leg. It was just his nature to be this way—playfully cruel.

“I won’t lose my head again.”

“I know you won’t,” he said. “You got this. You will get the North back, and then we will go get our king.”

I nodded.

“A human will sit on the northern throne again. No more tainted blood.”

“No more,” I said. “The throne will finally get back to its rightful owner.”

Tristan and I smiled at one another. We had always had each other’s backs, and if one of us needed to be pulled together, we were right there to knock some sense into the other. I needed it right now, and Tristan was there to help me.

“We need to get moving tomorrow. Move further North.”

“We will meet up with Jonathan, and we will find the best place to keep the prince trapped.”

Jonathan was his uncle. They weren’t very close, even though the man had saved and raised us both, but he had raised two liberators, not children. He was a good man, though, and a very clever one. He had been the head of this organization for a long time. The true leader of it.

He had wanted James on the throne ever since it was known he had not been killed by the dragons and was fighting to win the North back. He had never been very happy about Laelia ruling, but since there were no others, he had accepted it to begin with. Then suddenly, she had married a dragon, turning her back on us.

Luckily, James was saved, only to be killed not long after, making the North lose all hope. Jonathan never wanted their uncle. He was always a weasel, and he had searched many years for another solution, and only a few years back, he had found the one we needed. Now we just needed to make the North ready for him.

“Put guards on him," I ordered.

“Why?” Tristan asked.

“Because I don’t trust him.”

“Ri, he is weakened and tied up. He isn’t going anywhere.”

“Do as I say!” I exclaimed.

Tristan sighed but didn’t argue and went to put guards on the prince. I simply wouldn’t be able to go to sleep if I knew he was not guarded. I didn’t trust him, and you never turned your back on a snake. That I knew.

I went further into my tent and started to undress. It had been a long day, and I needed the sleep. I was never very good at sleeping, though, because I could never put the work down, and I had often been plagued by nightmares about my parents’ deaths. They were good people. They didn’t deserve to be burned to death.

I took off my shoes and pants before sitting down on the bed. I studied the wrinkled skin from the surgery that had almost killed me. Tristan had kept his promise, though. He had made sure the physician actually tried saving my leg instead of just cutting it off.

It had taken multiple surgeries, cuts, months of recovery, and potions that tasted like s**t. I still had to take medicine for the pain, but it was better. I could survive like this. I was a bit slower, but as I had told the prince, it was simply a price to pay if it meant we would take down the dragons.

I sighed and went under the covers, closing my eyes, yet I fell asleep with a strange feeling. My gut was still uneasy about this. Something was wrong...

***

I was surprised to find that I had even fallen asleep, but early in the morning, I blinked my eyes open. Things were still rather quiet since the sun was barely up, but I couldn’t sleep anymore. I quickly got dressed and found my sword, tying it around me before going outside. I looked around, seeing a few men around the fire that they had kept going all night.

I didn’t join them, though. Instead, I walked further away, back to where the prisoner was, but when I arrived, I found something horrible. Blood on the ground. The chains were loosened, not holding our prisoner. Where were the guards? It was then that I heard a dripping sound and looked up, seeing the guards ripped to shreds and hanging from a branch each.

“No...”

I grabbed my sword and looked around, but everything looked the same, except for the escaped prince. I ran back to where the men were sitting around the fire. They were still there, and Tristan had appeared as well. I ran over to him, pulling him up from the ground.

“Where is he?” I snarled.

“Who?” Tristan asked.

“The Dragon Prince!”

“What?”

“He escaped! He was right there, and...” Suddenly, a shadow appeared over us, and we all turned to the sky, where The Dragon Prince descended on us.

“Run!” I yelled.

I jumped back, pushing Tristan out of the way as well, but dropped my sword as the prince landed on the ground with a big thud. Everyone started to yell and scream orders, but we were unprepared, and The Dragon Prince used his tail, teeth, and claws to m******e the people. I was on the ground, just underneath his mighty body.

“Ri!” I heard Tristan call, but I couldn’t see him.

I tried crawling away, but then suddenly something big and heavy pushed me to the ground, almost crushing me. It was his foot, and his claws dug into the ground, scooping me up.

“Tristan!” I yelled.

“Ri!”

I tried pulling away, but his grip was too tight, and then, without warning, he took to the sky before anyone even got a chance to help me.

“Ri!” I heard Tristan shout.

“Tristan!”

But what use was it even to call out to him? I was now in the claws of the evil prince, who had somehow found a way to escape. How? The snake poison was supposed to weaken him even more and bring him unimaginable pain. How was it possible that he had found the strength to escape? It shouldn’t be possible, and now I was his prey.

“Let me go!” I demanded as I hammered my fists against his big claw, but it did nothing.

He flew us far away from the camp. I was sure he was going to take me to the Golden City, where I would be interrogated by him and his brother, but that was not where we were headed.

Instead, I saw mountains ahead as we flew west, and it wasn’t long before he found a cave to throw me inside before entering himself. He walked inside as a dragon but changed on his way toward me. I crawled back as he came stalking toward me, looking angry as hell.

“It isn’t possible!” I exclaimed as I kept crawling backward.

He just smiled cruelly as he bent down and reached for my injured leg. I screamed as he dug his nails into it and then pulled me toward him.

“I am not like anything you have ever encountered,” he stated.

I looked at him, feeling true fear.

“You really are a monster.”

“And your guards are pathetic. They shouldn’t trust so easily.”

“They helped you out of those chains?”

“I asked for some water, putting on a good show, and once one of them was close enough, I headbutted him and snapped his neck with the chains around my hands.”

“But the poison!”

“I told you, I have no limits when it comes to pain,” he remarked, moving closer.

I was f*cked... I knew I was going to die in this cave, never to be found again.

F*ck...