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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Anzi.”
She was on her feet in an instant. Night had fallen hours ago, but the flickering light of the standing torches in the courtyard illuminated every harsh line of Colonel Bisset’s face. “Yes, sir.”
“You’re needed. See the Emperor first, and you’ll be escorted elsewhere after.”
First? Escort her where? It was already late, and while she didn’t dare complain about the hour nor did she have any desire to, the timing was too odd to discount. At the sound of a loud, sudden snuffle, she glanced behind the stone bench she had been sitting on next to the massive snout of the colonel’s dragon. She had awoken finally. All this time she had done little more than sleep. Scaly eyelids twitched, then opened to reveal bright blue eyes that sent a tingle down Anzi’s spine.
She turned back to Colonel Bisset. “Will I find His Excellency in the throne room?”
“Yes. I won’t
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Called by the Dragon 17
The slanted, gaping hole in the ground utterly dwarfed Anzi. Five meters across at least, perhaps more, and now that her eyes were finally adjusting to the faint light, she saw it was not a hole at all but a long, long tunnel sloping down into some unknown abyss. The angle was such that she could barely see any illumination inside the giant passageway unless she crouched down and peered sideways. But the Emperor had no interest in her misgivings about entering the darkness. When she glanced back at him, there was a surprised gleam in his eyes, and she realized at once her hesitations were tantamount to disobedience. With a sharp, hasty exhale, she pushed herself off her knee and back to a stand. “Yes, Your Excellency,” she said, and while she remembered just in time that the man disliked being saluted, she couldn’t excuse herself from his presence without a bow, at least. “All right, all right, enough, get up. Don’t disappoint me, now.” “Yes, sir.” He turned and left with his long,
Called by the Dragon 18
This was impossible. Dragons were all but extinct; everyone knew that. Following the great Purge over two centuries ago, only the scant few taken in by the Empire had survived. The Imperial dragon bonded to the Emperor along with those partnered to his four generals - those were the only ones that had made it safely through the catastrophic war that decimated their population. After that, the only dragons eggs in existence had been those produced by those survivors, and that was why the Premier Guard only numbered so few, less than a dozen. But all these eggs. In two hundred years, had five dragons really multiplied into this unborn horde? She couldn’t hope to count the number crammed into this chamber. From wall to wall, some eggs were as long as her forearm and wider around than her waist while others could fit in the palm of a small child. Eggs scaled with rippling, iridescent patterns, eggs bearing feathers, eggs with fanned fins and horned spines - Anzi’s eyes burned as she stra
Called by the Dragon 19
“You haven’t slept.” It was only thanks to years of rigorous discipline that Anzi didn’t leap out of her skin. Instead, she reacted the same way she had when Bastien had surprised her earlier, lashing out with her arm at the source of the unexpected voice while simultaneously sliding backward off the stone railing. But a spark of something indescribable exploded under her skin when she struck warm flesh, and she nearly stumbled. Head reeling, she retreated several swift steps toward the doors before she finally realized who it was before her. “…Chieftain Kaizat?” “Do I have to get on my knees for you to stop calling me that?” She stared in silence at the darkened silhouette half-straddling the balcony wall. She hadn’t bothered to light a candle before coming out here, and with the clouds muffling the faint light of the moon, all she could see was the tousled, almost shaggy black hair
Called by the Dragon 20
“Are you Anzi?” She leaped to her feet and reared up like a serpent about to strike, only to realize the voice belonged to none other than a pretty girl wearing a pale pink chiffon gown and bedecked in numerous small articles of silver and pearl. Loose blonde ringlets fell about her pale face, giving her an innocent yet womanly look, but the pale blue eyes that stared back at Anzi were more alarmed than sweet. Her hands were clasped and folded in front of her chest, and she stood half-turned away from when she had jumped in fright. One of the harem girls. Anzi relaxed and made sure her relieved exhale was slow and silent. No need to reveal her agitated state this morning to anyone. “That’s me,” she said. “Are you the one His Excellency sent to see me?” “No, but she’s fallen sick this morning, and all I know is that I’m to see you instead. I was hoping you could fill me in on what I’m to do.” Anzi blinked. She hadn’t been told? Even if an emergency had arisen and they had hastily se
Called by the Dragon 21
“I don’t think about him at all. Except the things I told you about him. That’s it.” “Oh, don’t be like that. I want to help. Trust me, I know I said I’ve only been here a few months, but I’m very gifted at this sort of thing. You can ask any of the other girls when you see them next. They’ll tell you. I’ve been training for this since I was fifteen, and I know how to read people when it comes to those syrupy sweet feelings they try to hide.” Anzi leaned away. She most certainly did not like that. As a matter of fact, she felt threatened, as if Violetta was saying she could look right through her down to where she tried to quash the wild, twitching spark that was her attraction to Kai. Fine, then. So what? She was human. It was only natural that she would appreciate a fine musculature and handsome face. It didn’t mean she had things like syrupy sweet feelings. This was annoying. And humiliating.
Called by the Dragon 22
Nosy passersby chose that exact instant to cluster around the scene, and now Anzi was on the wrong side of the circle of murmuring civilians forming around the disturbance. Not for long. She forced her way through with savage shoves, earning strings of filthy curses, until finally she caught Violetta’s gaze over the last several shoulders. The woman was still on the ground, kneeling in the dust and twisted to the side as she shielded the lower half of her face with a dainty hand. A thick drizzle of blood dripped from her chin, and Anzi’s face tightened in hot anger. Who dared? Violetta was her responsibility. Whoever was stupid enough to lay their hand on her was going to lose it. She wouldn’t even give them a chance to apologize, neither to Violetta nor to the Emperor whose charge she was. But before she could charge in, the woman sent her an almost imperceptible warning, a quick shake of her head and a bright, frightened look. It stopped Anzi in her tracks, and instead of leaping fo
Called by the Dragon 23
Anzi said nothing after that, neither when she picked Violetta up from the ground nor when she helped clean off her bloody face nor even when they returned to the palace. Whatever the reason for Violetta’s willing subjection to such mistreatment, it was up to her to confess it. She was an adult. They were both adults. And they were neither friends nor each other’s confidants. “I lied to you,” Violetta blurted. She had whirled around to face Anzi with clear, stubborn eyes, and her hands were clasped together white-knucked-tight over her chest. A semi-defiant incline raised her chin. “Lied?” Anzi repeated. “How.” “I told you the girl who was supposed to teach you is sick. Berenice. She is, but what I didn’t tell you is that today, everyone else planned to go out into the city. But someone has to stay behind to entertain any unexpected guests, and that’s me. It’s always me, every time. I stay behind and mend the
Called by the Dragon 24
Kai came to her first. He wasn’t supposed to. She should have been the one to go to his room an hour from now, according to the timecatcher hanging from the window in the sunlight. But for some reason, he was standing here and looking at her with a slow, lazy smile that almost made her close the door in his face in the compulsive need to escape from it. He was too much. She couldn’t do this. He was too early. She had needed the extra time to steel herself so she wouldn’t do idiotic things in his presence, but now he had stolen that from her. “Anzi.” She hated how he said her name. It made her bones shake and her eyes hot. “Yes, sir.” “Come walk with me. I’m lonely.” “Weren’t you with His Excellency and his advisors just now?” “I was. But talk of business and trade doesn’t warm a man any.” He extended a hand to her across the threshold, palm up, and she dropped her gaze to it wit
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Called by the Dragon 102
She was exhausted but unable to sleep as Ash transported her and Kai back to camp. Qing had implored him not to go, but there was no dissuading him now that his men were stable and those who could be saved had been saved. After all, those were his men back at camp, too, the ones who had had to remain behind. No one said a thing as the Oasis slithered through the sands. Kai, despite how exhausted he must be and fearing for his defenseless men on top of that, took Anzi to the spring and bathed her gently. Her wounds refused to close, and even when he slid his hands over them to try to impart healing power through their mate bond, they remained angry and red and gushed blood anew anytime she shifted too much. “It’ll be all right,” he murmured as he kissed her wounds while she sat numbly in the water. “We’ll be there soon.” Soon wasn’t enough. Night was already falling, and it had been that long since she heard Netra’s
Called by the Dragon 101
Was there nothing else she could do? Nothing at all? Anzi took a deep and angled slash to her midriff that tore the tattered remains of her uniform almost completely in two while at the same time, beheading Benhad at last in exchange, and yet it wasn’t triumph she felt but stunned disbelief. She had thrown her faith into Ash’s words because she had no choice but to fight on anyway, but here that faith proved futile as ever. Five newcomer dragons in the fight, some of them rivaling Kai’s generals in size, and the five First Guards riding atop them as well. Outnumbered, outpowered, fighting like this would mean everyone died. No path to victory, no opening, no vulnerability to exploit. And for every one she might find if she looked hard enough, the shifter tribe had a dozen more. Please, she begged the gods, the spirits, even herself. The fate and destiny Ash insisted would meet her here, where were they? Please, let there be something I can do, she screa
Called by the Dragon 100
Anzi had no time for a poetic entry into battle. She had no time for battle either while she was at it and hoped desperately she could be more assassin instead, striking at vulnerable heart and tearing apart the enemy before they could fight back and resist. But that was impossible. She was faster than any ordinary man, stronger and more agile even in this battered state she’d earned from the night of the great battle, but these men were riders too. First Guards, men of the Premier just like her. Of course she never made it to a killing stroke on the first try and in the first moments of what could only end in the bloodiest ways. “Get her down!” Benhad shouted from her right, so she went to the left with deadly slices of her sword, aiming for whatever part of the closest man she could reach. When she found only air, she didn’t stop: she pressed on, dashing after her target who backed up into his motionless dragon as he drew his own weapon. She had to br
Called by the Dragon 99
Please, take him back, she begged as she struggled to keep her face stone-solemn and unaffected. It’s not too late. Ash, you know what the plan was. Take him back! All of them! This was the plan all along, and it’s time you learn to put your faith in fate. This is your destiny. Not just yours, but everyone’s, and you have to rise to meet it. This is what you were born into the world to do, to be. If you believe nothing else, then believe in that. What do you mean, this was the plan? Ash! Last night when you begged me to lie to Kaizat, did you think I’d done it? I didn’t. What I told him was to trust me just as I’m telling you to trust me now, and he did. Do you know it? I’ve guided the half-dragons since before he was born, for the last two hundred years since they dispersed and wandered and gathered together at last, one by one. I was there when their grandfathers’ grandfathe
Called by the Dragon 98 - Deception
“It’s impossible.” “Obviously, it’s not,” Anzi snarled, and she shoved Ash’s shoulder in a vain attempt to send her away. But the old woman only stumbled to the side and continued staring into the distance at the unmistakable shape of dragons in flight. “Go! Do you realize what they’ll do if they catch you with me? They’ll drag you along no matter what I say!” “This makes no sense. There’s not a Druid among them. They can’t sense you. Can’t sense us.” “If you had listened to me—” No. This wasn’t the time to argue. It would solve nothing. Ash was here and they would take her prisoner if she didn’t get away in time, assuming they hadn’t seen her yet from the sky, but worse, they were too close. Too close! It hadn’t been but a few hours since they had left Kai’s camp, and a dragon in flight could cross the distance they’d traveled in a tenth of that time. She knew better than to hope Bisset wasn’t among them, too, and
Called by the Dragon 97 - Proof
“You’re running away. I never thought you could be so timid.” “It’s not about being timid. I knew he would try to stop me. Doesn’t matter what you told him, he would have changed his mind in the end and gotten in my way.” “Oho, what a chill I feel in the middle of all this heat. Tell me, how do you think he will feel when he wakes up to see you gone?” “Don’t try to guilt me.” Anzi straightened her uniform. It was in tatters, missing a forearm bracer, a shoulder guard, waist split, half of one pant leg missing. That night in the Imperial City had torn a hole or burst seams in just about everything, especially after the fight with Doufan and the collapse of the dungeon. Even the flight in Shu-Amunet’s massive claws had done their share of damage. But all the better. It would make her story of forced kidnapping more plausible. “No guilt, then,” Ash snickered. “But some regret? You must be wishing you
Called by the Dragon 96 - Shadows
Anzi didn’t want to know how Ash had managed to convince him. All she knew was that Kai was in a towering mood, terrible and brooding, and she could feel it from across the camp. It was fainter here in Qinglong’s tent that had somehow become extremely crowded within the last day—Oza and Letti as well as all three of her dragons along with Rania, too—but she could sense Kai’s anger nonetheless. Something had changed between them without her even noticing, something beyond simple attraction and other mundane feelings. Maybe it had been back when he first kissed her on the bridge, or maybe it had been that day when she had sat by him, watching the healers labor to save his life before the basilisk poison could kill him. Or maybe it had been during the flight here, when she had first tasted real freedom away from the shadow of the Empire. But things were different now, and the part of her that used to be afraid of defining those very changes—wasn’t so afrai
Called by the Dragon 95 - Deaden
Her leg ached, badly, even though Anzi had done nothing at all to strain it. Her only labor since morning after leaving Ash’s dominion was to perform the crudest half-surgeries known to man on a handful of Kai’s warriors, and she had been kneeling for most of that. Her body couldn’t be so weak, could it? Or was she imagining it all because of the fatigue and the haunting sensations of feeling warm flesh pull apart under her fingers as she searched for poison no one else could touch? What was this strange new world she had plummeted into with no preparation, no wisdom, nothing at all? No—she had Kai, who pulled her close and kissed her on the brow before letting her go so she could walk to meet Ash. She had Letti and Oza here in the camp on the other end of it, safe and sound. Netra and Serqet were here too, thank to Kai’s tribesmen who had brought them here instead of abandoning them. Had Anzi remembered to thank anyone for that? Maybe she didn’t have t
Called by the Dragon 94 - Sight
Five. There were five others who had been infected out of the roughly dozen and a half who made up Kai’s warrior troupe, and of them, only one had begun to show signs of the living poison that had burrowed into their veins. It was a grueling three hours of inspection and labor, far more difficult than it had been with Masal because these slivers were so much smaller and that much harder to see. Anzi had checked and rechecked every man, woman, and beast in the camp and Oza, too, fueled by growing paranoia and fear whenever she found the damnable silver threads hiding in their bodies. But what made it truly difficult was the exhaustion that set in. Not only when she extracted the poison through fresh, deep incisions she had been forced to make because there was no other way to draw it out, but even the expansion of her very senses to search for it in the first place. This unknown, unfamiliar power she had discovered had come with a price. It came from wit
