Chapter 153: Servant of the Axe, 53 – How to Insult Your Dragon
Servant of the Axe
Chapter 53
How to Insult Your Dragon
“Well,” the dragon bood in a deep voice, “that certainly took long enough.”
I flexed my toes, my fingers. Nothing seed broken from my rough treatnt.
“It is customary for guests to KNEEL.”
[You have resisted psychic mind control.]
.....
Of course, the dragon was psychic. Why wouldn’t he be? Dragons in Athal live long lives, and co to be experts in pretty much everything. Or everything that matters to them, at the very least.
“I must co from a bizarre land, then. Guests are usually invited, or travelers who stay for a single night.” I shook the chain to my manacles to emphasize the point. “Yet neither seems to be the case.”
“If you had co on your own, then such asures would not have been necessary.”
“I just presud that had I invited myself, that the Order of the Wyvern would have sunk any vessel I was riding on. Wood seems too rare to waste, here.”
His voice ca from higher up in the shadows. “There are tis when such displays of wealth and violence are mandated.”
I shrugged.
If soone could scoot a building along, it sounded like that. His head ca into the light, a desert camouflage pattern of yellows and light browns, with so bronze and golden scales mixed in. It most resembled sandstone, if sandstone had bits of shiny tal mixed in. “Do you like violence?”
Coming into the light must have had a special significance, for all of the guards lowered their heads, and all but four took a knee. Interesting.
“I feel that survival in this world depends upon the ability to be violent.” I said. That was pure bravado; without a weapon, or armor, with my claws filed down? My mood was most definitely not violent.
But with the blood flow to the stumps of my talons also ca pain, so I wasn’t feeling too peaceful, either.
His eyes half closed, as if he were going to fall asleep. “Well stated, if more mundane than I expected.”
“I doubt you had your minions go through this effort to speak about violence.”
“Oh, indeed I did. Particularly about your violence against the pirates of Clan Octopus.”
Soone broke out laughing, using my voice, my throat. I think it was most likely . “No.” I said, as the laughter faded into chuckling.
From near the ceiling, he said, “EXCUSE ?”
“Either you’re going to ask to stop defending myself, or you’re going to ask to do sothing against your rival. No.”
“If you determine to make yourself otherwise useful to , I can always use you as food. You would be wise to remain polite.”
“Oh, utter hogwash! If you wanted manners, you’d have waited until AFTER my manners class to abduct .”
This ti, the laughter was his, shaking to my bones.
#
[You have taken 12 points of Emotional Damage; after ability activation, nine points have been received. 11/20 serenity remains.]
Yes, thank you System, for letting know that I was afraid. Terribly afraid. As in really needed to stop by the bathroom afraid.
“ABDUCT?” the dragon asked, “Abduct? Is that all that you think I am prepared to do to or with you? That we’re going to have a pleasant chat, and then you’re being returned to your friend and your enemies?”
“If having dead or tortured were what you were after, I’d know by being dead or tortured, now, wouldn’t I?” The manacles stopped from throwing my hands wide.
“I can be persuaded to change my mind. The inflexible do not survive long in this world.”
I reached up, scratched a scale on my right cheek. “And yet, if one shows fear or weakness, that is when the panther pounces.”
“Ahhh, I think I begin to see. Sothing massive bood, cracking floor stones. “Have the slaves bring a chair and table suited to our guest. And tea, if we have so ready.”
Sothing about the way he used the word slaves seed wrong to . More like the way an aristocrat would speak of their handkerchief, or a peasant about their shoes. Sothing that OF COURSE you have and use, but why are we wasting our ti talking about it?
“I think I shall have a second coffee as well, whenever the chefs can prepare one.” He decided. “Now, I believe we were discussing violence, and what your motives were in stirring up Clan Octopus.”
“My companions and I are just traveling about the islands; when the kraken-spawn chooses to attack us, we choose to defend ourselves.”
The eyes went to half-lidded mode again. “Please do not mistake Clan Octopus for her, nor the Order of the Wyvern for . We afford our captains the latitude to act on their own initiative; they’ve earned that much. If you would please, be more specific in your statents.”
“Very well, when individual ships of Clan Octopus attack us, we defend ourselves.”
“Better. Less open to interpretation. The idea is clear, concise, and communicated. And, of course, utterly ignorant. So, let ask again. Why are you repeatedly found where Clan Octopus loses ships?”
“Because our individual captains take us through those places?”
The bottom lids of his eyes ca up, giving him a distinctly squinting look. “And you just accept these dangerous routes through the main canal?”
“Why not? The captains know these islands far better than any re map is going to teach for the ti I’ve got left here.”
“Oho. I see, I see, so you think you’ll just stroll through the islands, get your barely attainable goals done, and just go ho?”
“Not stroll, although I admit it requires us mobile. And yes, our goals are simple and basic math says they’re attainable. So, yes, I plan on going ho after Red Axe Trading Company is up and going at the level we need it to.”
#
“And what is that level?”
I told him.
It is odd to see a dragon scoff and snicker. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be making anywhere near that amount. You’d need a fleet of twenty ships, half of them able to sail back to Lewardsport in Furdia. Even then, there just aren’t enough goods MADE here to support that continuous level of trade. You’d need a proper town here, I’d estimate twelve thousand people.”
“But a distributed network of villages, say twelve of a thousand people each? Would that work as well?”
The dragon snorted, squinted. “Your entire Red Tide empire is little more than double that size. Even then... But I should be asking you questions, not answering them. You can understand why I’m concerned that you’re antagonizing my rival?”
“Not really. It seems to that she’s going to lose ships until she takes us prisoner and executes us. That would seem to be a good thing for you.”
“On the surface of it, yes. But a talented and diverse team suddenly shows up and begins harrying her forces. Other pirates as well, but none belonging to . How does that look, if one is already feeling surrounded, perhaps paranoid?”
I closed my eyes, and imagined myself as the kraken-spawn. I had my territory and fleet, the dragon had his, Dauria had theirs, there were over a dozen minor fleets. “Ah. You’re worried...”
The booming slam of his foot against the floor ca again. “I do NOT worry.” He said, calmly. But I knew that calm, it was the exact sa way with Rakkal – the calm before the storm.
“Fine. Your concern, then... is that she suspects an alliance between us and you. Or that we are your sworn agents, new pieces in this chess ga you play with the naval powers here.”
“Both of which amount to the sa thing, her seeing an attack where none is intended. An attack by , of all people. If open war breaks out between the two of us, neither will win. The survivor will be weakened, vulnerable to an alliance of the colonies. Although it may co to exactly that before the end, I prefer an ending that has triumphant, not skulking away at night with whatever fraction of my treasure I can carry.”
Ah, he wasn’t mobile... too much stuff.
“I understand that she’s smart enough to see that as well.”
“She has ... other concerns, and a belief that she can hide under the water. But on to other matters.”
The furniture began to arrive.
“This evolution and eating thod that you possess. Tell about it.”
“What information do you offer in exchange?”
“Ha! What information would you most like?”
“I have questions about the twelve points of the world, and which of the Legendary Weapons is hidden there, and how.”
“Hrm.” He said, clearly thinking.
#
I would learn later that he had, in fact, sent an invitation. At the ti of these events, it was at the docks at Neo Esteban, unopened and unclaid.
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