Chapter 25: A fair haired visitor

Sylph peered down at the fabulous-haired guard sitting cross-legged on the chair in front of her, unsure how to process what she saw. He barged in as if he owned the place. Did he know who she was? Should she know who he was? Where was Brandon? Was he somehow related to Dust? The guard pulled a small bone comb from a chest pocket, but before he reached his hair, he snapped his calloused fingers. The sharp click sent a shiver down her spine. “My bad, how could I forget my manners.” He unhooked the sheathed sword from his pompous girdle, turned away from her, and leaned it against the wall behind him.

He stopped with his fingertips still on the sheath. “It is unusual for one of you to be so quiet.” His fingers slowly crept back up to the handle and his voice tensed up. “You are not with her, are you?”

Sylph’s dragonheart exploded. Her hind-claws tore into the bedding as she pushed herself forward and into a lunge. She aimed for his body, extended her front legs and claws. The chair splintered at impact, but only after the guard had rolled away to the side. She prepared to follow as soon as her hind legs had landed, but stopped at the sight of a glimmer from the sheath.

The sword slipped free and the blade hissed through the air in a wide arc. He expected the follow up, every dragon would choose the follow up. Sylph stopped her momentum, used the coiled tension in her legs to hop backwards instead. She lowered her head by instinct alone, one cultivated by dodging Veria’s tail hundreds of times, and the blade hissed past her horns.

Her mind switched after the initial failed attack. Instincts told her to run and try again, kill instantly, or flee, but where to? The door called out towards her, she could reach it. A flicker turned into a scorch and cleared her head. Veria had taught her to overcome these instincts. Her claws bored themselves into the wood below as her muscles brimmed with strength. A fight differed from a hunt. The guard had not gotten up; the swing had left him open.

“Strike first,” it echoed in her mind, and Sylph dashed forward. She had expected another swing, or him getting up, or dodging. But he kicked himself off the wall with his foot and lunged forwards. They collided chest to face. The sword only missed her shoulder because he jabbed at something further away. Towards the door, she realized, into her escape path. He predicted her, no, he predicted an Aer. The guard regained his footing, jumped up, but she already aimed all her weight and muscle into a tackle and hit him straight into the chest with her shoulder and followed him downwards.

She swiped at his sword arm, but her claws caught on the padding, all but the last, which struck his hand. His grip tightened and Sylph re-positioned her claws onto his fingers. Rather than lose them, he let go of the blade and it clattered to the ground.

She considered her options for a second with her right claw ready at his throat. Instead, she pinned his four limbs with hers under her full weight. “Who the fuck are you? And where is Brandon!”

He blew a strand of long, blonde hair out of his face. “Aer don’t move like that. You do not go on the offensive. Who are you?” He talked with a smirk and genuine curiosity. She noticed the slight movements in his arm as he tried to grab hold of the sword once more and she pressed her sharp claw deeper into the flesh until he stopped. She would not be stabbed again. Her gaze flicked to the blade, making sure it would stay out of reach. “You answer me first.”

“The name is Tanno. And I believe you must be from Senbo. A delinquent on their own quest, who thinks they know better.” He raised his eyebrows with a fresh smirk and misplaced joy in his words.

She ignored the question. But, Senbo, Aron had mentioned that town and its arena. What made Tanno think she came from there? “Where is Brandon? And why Senbo?”

“Your disguise? Tied him to a pipe in the washroom, as usual.” He stopped to consider for a second. “On second thought, you are under arrest.”

Sylph snorted. “I don’t think so.”

She felt the tension flow from his body and his muscles went soft, almost as if he had given in. She didn’t see how he could get away. Judging by the way he had moved earlier, he was no stranger to fighting dragons and knew when the struggle was futile. “I love a good riddle,” he said. “Right now, I can see three ideas. Revenge. You took the place of her messenger, but then I wouldn’t be alive. Information. You have another goal, but seeing how you are not asking the right questions, I doubt that. That leaves only the third option. Clueless. You don’t know why I’m here and the meeting happened through a misunderstanding.” He smiled. “Judging by the twitch in your tail-tip and the fading fire in your marvelous blue eyes, it is the latter.”

She did not like it, but he was correct. Sylph grabbed hold of his chest, yanked it upward, and smashed him back down. His head jerked forward and hit the floor with a loud thud. Tanno went quiet. Not the greatest way to shut somebody up, but she lacked options. His glistening blood on her claw showed her a second option, one that would shut him up for good. Her dragonheart burned as she wiped away the blood on his armor. She had won the duel; he was helpless on the floor. How could that thought even cross her mind?

This inn had been a mistake without knowing it. They had to leave before Tanno woke up. Sylph stared at the small red puddle forming beneath his head and a second of horrible doubt coursed through her head. She had not intended to hit him that hard. Strength was hard to judge when your body bristled with fire.

She pried herself away and hurried to the door. Any reinforcements would have heard the commotion. She pressed her ear against the thin wood and listened. Behind the door lay only silence.

She propped herself up on the frame with her left and pushed down the handle with her right pfod. The handle snapped right back up and the door would not budge. “Locked,” she remembered. With her muscles still pounding, the piece of wood seemed like no obstacle at all. She stepped back and launched herself into the door. Her shoulder smashed through the slim planks with little resistance and it was then, as she forced her way through the hole, ripping away more loosened planks with her pfod, that she realized Tanno had put the key into his pocket. But using it would have been slower, she argued. Human keys were pretty delicate.

She pushed her head and first leg through the wood; the planks scraped along her sides and poked into her belly. As she forced her other shoulder through, there was an ominous crack. The small hinges broke free from the plaster and the full weight of the door hit her in the back before it fell forward. Sylph retracted her head, smacked into the wood with her horns and was dragged forward. Angling her head downwards to free her horns, she jerked it out of the way. The door smacked into her shoulder and a sharp piece of wood left a hot scratch as it scraped down her leg and fell into the hallway with a loud thud. On second thought, the key would have been easier and, should anybody ask, the scratch was from Tanno’s sword, not from her fight with a door.

She rolled her aching shoulder, wiped away the stray drop of blood from the scratch and made her way to the washroom. Inside, she found Brandon tied to a pipe that lead to the washbasin. A piece of cloth had been stuffed into his mouth and fixated with a leather strap. “We need to leave.” Sylph cut through the rope with one of her claws.

He removed the gag himself and rubbed his reddened wrists, already on the way to the door. “There was a guard that-” Brandon started, but stopped as Tanno emerged from their room, clutching his bleeding head. “Stop right there! You are under arrest!” He raised his sword.

Her dragonheart ignited once again, and fire filled her body. Why was he already up? It had barely been two minutes. He blocked the only way out, so running was not an option. But with plenty of sleep and water, she had all the power a dragon could muster. The weapon in her back itched and pulsed as it slowly charged to deadly heights. A tiny voice inside begged her to reconsider. Tanno was an experienced fighter, with a sword, and this time she lacked the element of surprise. The sword shimmered in a streak of sunlight from the small window. She drew a deep breath. Treat it like a duel, she repeated to herself. Her heart hammered inside her chest as the stakes became clear. Win or die. If only she had dealt with him differently in the room, tied him with the sheets or-, she shook the afterthoughts out of her head.

Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, but her mind never slip away from Tanno. “Don’t raise your arms Brandon, we are resisting arrest. We don’t even know if he is a real guard.”

Avoiding a fight was still the preferred option, but Sylph dropped into her favored stance; Sturdy, low and ready for anything he could try. “You know that a duel in this corridor ends with both of us injured.”

Tanno raised his sword in response, pointed the tip at Sylph, and gestured at the hilt. He challenged her. “Sylph,” Brandon whispered, “I have an idea. Be ready.”

“Don’t. You are not a duelist,” she whispered back.

The answer came a tad late, but his voice radiated a very odd confidence. “I know. When you see me throw something, hold your breath.”

She flicked her tail against the ground two times in agreement. “Whatever you plan, it better not hinder me.”

Tanno gave his sword a twirl. “If you surrender now, I don’t have to hurt you.” He took a confident step forward and Sylph could not find the courage to do the same immediately. He would not misjudge her twice, and she could not misjudge him even once, not with a real sword.

The walls to her sides and the washroom behind left very little room to maneuver. Her muscles tensed and she forced herself to take a step forward as well. “This time you’ll not only leave with a concussion, I’ll make sure of that,” she hissed.

Both sides continued to size each other up. “You fight like a Metia, or rather, similar to one. Aggressive, straightforward and with more strength than a normal Aer your age could muster. But without the disregard for personal safety because you lack the hard scales. I have a lot of questions and soon you’ll have all the time in the world to answer me.” His eyes blinked with eagerness. He had figured out exactly how Veria taught her in just a few moves and if that was any implication of his abilities, she was out of her league.

What would Veria do? How would that even help her? She knew she should strike first, but it was as he said. His sword would cut right through her scales; she was not a Metia. A vial sailed past her horns and burst open as it hit the wall behind Tanno’s head.

Sylph sucked up a large amount of air and held her breath.

“Missed.” Tanno lunged forward, aimed at her chest, knowing exactly that a dragon could not as easily move their center as they could move their head and neck. Sylph threw herself to the wall and avoided the blade, but Tanno followed up with a step and angled slash aimed at her side. The wall blocked her movement. The corridor was too small. The sword would cut her, no matter what she did, and he knew. Sylph turned her shoulder into the attack, braced for the hit and readied herself to counter with her other arm.

The blade connected with her shoulder and slipped. It caught on the ridges and peeled away a few singular scales, then deflected upwards as Tanno started to gag and failed to properly follow through. She would take all advantages the situation presented her and grabbed his sword arm. Sylph had already prepared to counter and swung herself around as he stumbled forward. She placed her other pfod on his chest. “Won,” it echoed through her head as she let her weapon run free. She felt a tingle. He twitched. The cloth and leather were terrible conductors and blocked the current from reaching any vitals.

“Run!” The word got stuck in her throat as the smell hit her. Whatever liquid now coated the wall, it stunk like twice digested rotten food served in stewed sulfur and blood. Knowing how bad her sense of smell was, it had to be far worse for them.

Tanno coughed and spat, convulsed and threw up. Sylph still held onto his chest and arm, balancing steadily on her hind legs. Once more, she could shut him up for good. Her weapon would have done so had it connected properly. And yet, the fight was over; she had won. Killing a beaten opponent was wrong, so she threw him against the wall instead.

The innkeeper was halfway up the stairs to check out the commotion, and Sylph gently rammed him to the side as they barged past him. He tumbled and tripped, clutched the wooden railing and slipped down the stairs in front of them. “Sorry,” Sylph yelled as they passed through the thankfully unlocked front door.

A squall of hot air greeted them once outside, but the street was deserted. No reinforcements, no guards on standby, nothing. “They stole our camel.” Sylph nodded at the cut rope dangling from the hinge.

“Dromedary.”

“Doesn’t really matter now.” She looked up and down the street, expecting someone to jump out of the slim shadows. “The rope,” she urged, as she noticed the lack of heaviness around her neck. Escaping Tanno and being caught by real guards would be a twist of fate she would expect, and she would not take that chance.

“In my backpack, which I left upstairs.” He unwound the piece of rope from the hinge and handed her one end. She slung it around her neck with an easy knot. Brandon had to stretch out his arm to walk next to her, but it would do for now.

They hurried down the street, not exactly running, but walking at a very brisk pace and checking multiple times for Tanno leaving the inn. He never did, and they took several corners and side-streets until her lungs burned from exhaustion and they stopped at a non-descriptive pile of flour sacks behind a shop.

“I’m sorry,” Brandon huffed. “I was only gone for a minute.”

Sylph sat down and drew a deep breath to calm her racing heart. “You are sorry for getting tied up?”

“Who even was that?”

Sylph could only shake her head until the air from her lungs formed a coherent sentence. “No clue. He thought I was a messenger for somebody. Then realized I wasn’t and wanted to arrest me. But I struck first.”

Brandon rummaged through the pockets of his pants, pulled out several coins and some other vial of liquid. “Almost everything I had was in my backpack. I am so glad that I kept the vial close to me. I knew it’d come in handy at some point.”

“My nose still burns.” She blew her nose in a futile attempt to shake off the lingering smell of rotten food.

“A nickname for it is Sol-stopper.”

Sylph laughed. “I can imagine. They’d be nose-deaf for weeks.” A cold sting of pain pulled her attention to her shoulder. The sword had barely touched her, but had pried away a few scales and left the flesh exposed. She licked away the blood and tried to ignore the metallic taste. Her own blood never riled up ancient instincts. Instead, it evoked something far more terrifying. Bleeding meant being weak and vulnerable. She licked away the newly forming drops once more but quickly pulled her head away as she realized she did not have the privacy her head had somehow assumed. Brandon sat next to her. Heat rose to her face, even though perhaps it should not. Humans put their finger into their mouths if they cut themselves too, so this should not bother him too much.

Brandon faced away. Perhaps it did bother him. “So, what now?” he asked.

No matter how she thought about it, looking for her parents sounded impossible. “Maybe we should look for a way out of the city.”

“You want to give up and leave?” Brandon stuffed the vial back into his pockets.

Sylph turned to face him. “Tanno will look for us. If he is a guard, the whole town will look for us.”

“I doubt he acted on behalf of the guard. He wouldn’t have come alone and tied me up to speak with you. We only have to evade him and him alone.”

“You assume that and how do alchemists say: Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups. The guard doesn’t need to know what Tanno plans. They just need to know that we are under arrest.” Sylph scratched through the sand. Of course, she did not want to, but maybe she should have silenced Tanno for good. They would not have this problem if she did. Until the innkeeper found the body and called the guards himself, that was. If he brought a crossbow, she would be out of options the next time. If the entire guard came after them, she would be out of options. But if she left now, she would get no answers. She stamped down. “One day. Prina is large and they don’t know what we are looking for. News about us shouldn’t spread too fast in a day and the answers I want are on the other side of town. We’ll continue searching and leave tonight, answers or not.”