“Now, this is the standard of accommodation I’d like to become accustomed to,” Jez said, throwing herself on the richly brocaded bedspread. Scalla crept into the room like a mouse, eyes flicking from the candelabras and chandeliers, the ornate moulding on the walls and the thick satin curtains. She was the most unprepossessing revolutionary I’d ever seen and I hoped she stayed that way. Ostensibly, she was here as my ‘secretary’. Keya had given me one long look and a shake of her head when I explained her presence and then shrugged and told us to get on our dragon. I don’t remember explaining what Jez’s role was, probably because trying to articulate why I needed a Grand Vizier of General Mayhem was not going to go well.
Flea disappeared into a room off the main suite. “Whoa!” I flinched back when he came out with a pistol in hand.
“I told you to make a decision,” Jez muttered.
“You need one of these on you at all times, all of you,” he said. “The University was one thing, this is douchebag ground zero. There're thousands of armed soldiers out there and that’s not including the entitled fucks with the swords at their sides.”
“I don’t think—”
“Ooo, gimme!” Jez bounced forward and snatched the weapon from his hand. She stood with her arm outstretched, gun tilted to the side. “Take that, you pointy-eared mother fuckers! Pew pew!”
Bang!
The deafening sound of a gun going off had all of us clapping our hands over our ears. A neat hole had been made in the wall just above the skirting board.
“It’s loaded, you idiot!” he said, yanking it from her hands and putting on the safety. He opened a drawer and shoved the gun in quickly. “You never squeeze the trigger unless you know it’s not loaded.”
“What is that thing?” Scalla asked, eyes wide.
The door slammed open and two unfamiliar riders ran into the room, plasma blades sputtering and we all jerked our hands up. “What the hell was that?” one said.
“I farted!” Jez said brightly. “I had a cheese, onion and bean burrito for breakfast and phew,” she waved a hand past her arse, “it was lethal.” The two men looked about the room suspiciously, but by the time they’d come back to Jez she’d cocked her hip and was fluttering her eyelashes at them. “So, you two look like big, handsome gentlemen,” she sauntered over and slid her arms around their waists. “Any chance you’re proportionate all over?”
I sighed in relief when she walked them out, but Flea just shook his head. “I’m trying to make sure we all get out of this viper’s nest in one piece and she’s trying to get it on with the entire Royal Guard. I’m going for a smoke. Try not to get dead in the meantime.”
I watched him shut the door to the suite firmly. Taking his mood out of the architectural features was starting to become a pattern here. I knew I should go after him, see if he was OK, work things out. Even if our relationship ended up off the table, we were still friends. I didn’t get a chance though, there was a loud rap at the door and when I opened it, Alden and Vella were standing there, wide-eyed.
“You need to come,” Alden said, gesturing wildly, “the queens are fighting!”
“What?”
“Come on,” Scalla said, grabbing her jacket off the bed.
“You?” Vella said, looking her over. “What’s a merit doing here?”
“She’s helping me out. It’s OK, Keya’s approved it,” I said.
“On your head,” Alden said, “if she steps out of line Her Majesty will have yours on the chopping block. Now come on.”
34
You could hear the screams coming up the long walkway into the dragon queens’ pens. Sometimes you watch those nature documentaries that always seem to be on the TV on a Sunday afternoon and after shot after shot of cute fluffy animals, you get to a scene where you’re reminded that they’re wild. I’d seen one where baboons were locked in a mating battle, harsh throated growls and shrieks kicked me out of the soporific haze docos often puts you in. Suddenly, it wasn’t just monkeys with absurdly large butts; it was savage biting, scratching, scrabbling beings, each trying to rend the flesh of the competitor. But it was the sounds they made that set my hair on end. It’s hard to indulge in paternalistic feelings of indulgence when animals scream and growl, the ugly sound being torn from vocal cords as a declaration of intent, the scrambling incoherent noise rising in intensity, pitiful cries of pain punctuating the brutal symphony.
Scalla and I flinched as we drew closer. It sounded like murder, bloody murder going on in there. Alden shot us a look over his shoulder when we began to lag, his face a weird mask of glee. “Come on! Hurry up! This is a privilege to witness.”
It was hard to see why this was such a great opportunity when we entered the Queen’s domain. I mean sure, there were plenty of people richly dressed in expensive and elaborate clothes sipping glasses of wine, the Queen herself stood just away from the glass wall, holding court, so I’m guessing that many who wanted to schmooze with the rich and influential would love an invite. Servants circled with trays of canapes, a quartet of musicians played a strangely beautiful skirling tune on a series of odd-looking pipes, if you could get close enough to them to hear them over the din. But that wasn’t the weird part. Behind all of this, like some kind of hideous serpentine tableau, the dragon queens waged fucking war. The sound was somewhat muffled by the thick wall, something to be thankful for, I guess. I drew closer, Scalla following like my shadow, unable to look away.
The area before us was massive, you couldn’t take it in with one glance, having to walk along the length. Around the edges of the cordoned off space were tall cage doors that created a ring that encircled a large open area where the queens had obviously been let loose, and let loose they were. All the dragons were shades of purple, from a deep, almost blue shade to the lightest of lilac. It didn’t hide the blood though or mask the contorted faces as the queens reigned down bloody hell. Heads whipped around and teeth glinted in the artificial light so that every gruesome detail was easy to see. Claws raked through flesh as the victims screamed. Wings flapped and then were scored through, dripping blood and making it impossible to close them properly, leading to others trampling or scratching at them. Jaws closed around limbs as talons scraped at the eyes of attackers. Queens thrust on their backs kicked at aggressors as each struggled to gut the other.
“Interested in a wager?” My head whipped around to see a man with the rich clothing and sharply pointed ears of the highborn.
“What?”
“The favourite is Sephador, of course. She’s the darker beast, the same colour as Her Majesty’s dress, but if you’d like a more profitable transaction, might I suggest Lyssyt? She’s the Archduke of Elana’s beast and looks like she may well claw her way to second tier,” he said.
“No, thank you,” Scalla said. The man’s eyes flicked from me to her and then frowned before turning his back on us.
“This is fucking disgusting,” I murmured, unable to look away while knowing I’d be seeing snapshots of this over and over again after this day ended. My hands went to the glass, tentatively touching the smooth surface as if I didn’t want to make contact with the brutality beyond but I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t see how dragons wouldn’t get killed through this process.