Chapter 27: Carpets and other Inconveniences

Sylph was lugged up a small flight of stairs and into a spacious building. In her restricted field of vision, she spotted a massive board crammed with notices and drawings of wanted criminals. Her face was not on any. She involuntarily passed the half-opened door of a break room to her left and a counter for concerned citizens to her right. Curiously enough, it looked eerily similar to Halfhill’s guard station. Only this time, she would not get away with a small fine and apology for missing the bard with the tomato. But this was not Sawaila. She had no rights here.

They firmly pulled her up another, larger flight of stairs in the back. Every singular stair thread smacked into her already bruised side like a kick. Once upstairs, she was tugged into an office to the side, the guards weaved a thick rope through the net and tied up her front- and back legs. One last rope reached around her head and chest in a pattern she had never seen, restricting her head movements nearly completely. The guards left without a word. Sylph stretched her front legs forward, the only motion possible, got herself upright and lay on her belly. This way was at least moderately comfortable, even though the tight ropes chafed with every move.

A magnificent red carpet covered most of the wood flooring. The soft wool cushioned her bruised abdomen and felt quite out of place in a guard post. They clearly had not dragged her into a prison cell. This had to be Tanno’s office. On a second glimpse, the cup full of combs on the desk right in front of her face made it pretty obvious. Cupboards and open lockers brimmed with various papers and scrolls, a few books had piled up on a second chair in the back. A framed piece of amateur poetry adorned the wall right next to the singular wide-open window large enough to easily fit her entire body into. It was an escape route if she ever saw one. Even if she could not fly, she could still slow her plunge from the first floor enough to jump with little trouble. All she needed was an opportunity to get rid of the ropes. She tried to twist and flex, but her claws never got close.

She could not turn around, but even with the ringing in her ears, she heard somebody come up the stairs. They paused just behind her, and a slick and sweaty hand snatched the fins at the end of her tail. He spread out the thin membrane and it felt as if someone dragged it through a pile of broken glass. Sylph flexed her muscles, struggled to push the rope apart, but all it accomplished was worsening the chafing.

“Don’t try. You are not the first dragon I tied up. You aren’t going anywhere.” Tanno let go of her tail.

Sylph mumbled horrid curses into her locked mouth.

“I am sorry. Let’s be rid of that.” He loosened the leather strap and swiftly evaded her attempt to bite him by moving his hands just marginally upward to where she could not reach.

“Untie me and let’s finish our fair fight,” she sneered.

Tanno pulled up a chair from behind his desk and sat down. “Using that flask wasn’t very fair either, was it?” He turned to his desk and handpicked an elongated comb. “You are not from the desert. Where do you come from?”

“That is none of your concern. What do you want from me?”

“I like to know who moves through my city and you are a very interesting addition. You are clearly not a slave. You escaped, took fighting lessons, and now you’re back. A bad idea, if I may say so. You should’ve stayed where you belonged.”

“Where I belong is none of your business.” Sylph strained against the ropes once again.

“Oh, you’ll find that it is. I can’t let you spread chaos. And the sooner you answer me, the sooner we can get to an agreement. Or, I think I might just keep you here.”

“Tied up in your office? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” It could be worse. It would be even more problematic to break out of a cell. This way she still stood a chance. All that stopped her were the ropes. “I’ll strangle you with your intestines when I get out of here.”

“Bold words for someone tied to the floor.” Tanno snagged a dark bottle with a slim neck from beyond his desk and poured himself a glass of what she believed was wine. “Like I said, these ropes can keep a Tira secure. Now, let me continue to guess.” He stood up to inspect her, much like Elliot had done. “Perhaps you grew up in the kingdom? That would make so much more sense.” He snickered. “Are you two really just lost tourists who took a wrong turn on their way to Gideza?”

Tanno lowered his head, stared her straight in the eyes, and the smugness in his tone returned. “I suspect your friend is not actually part of your disguise, but might actually be a friend.”

Sylph did not respond. While Tanno liked to hear himself talk, he seemed to get the right answers himself, without requiring her to speak up at all.

He sat back down and nipped on his wine. “You needn’t worry about your friend. A patrol will pick him up, eventually. As for us, I think we met under the wrong circumstances. We might come to like each other.”

Sylph snorted at the remark. “Everything in this city is wrong and you are no different.”

“I agree.”

The answer caught Sylph off-guard. “You agree?” Sylph burst into a bitter bout of laughter. “Are you serious?”

He sighed almost in relief at the opportunity to talk more about himself and jumped back up. “Let me tell you a story. This isn’t the kingdom. We never had the honor of being part of their crusade against slavery.” Tanno gulped down more wine and continued. “My ancestors suffered under Oasis’ reign of terror. The crazy queen had no qualms about using us as mere things. Things to be used to sharpen her claws or to see if they screamed when set on fire.” His hand swept along Sylph’s side like a dagger as he walked past. Hearing the name of her mother associated with a crazy queen was rather bewildering. Oasis was born in Gideza. Why did her parents name her after a mad queen? There were always two sides to the story. She knew that all too well.

“But one day, humanity freed itself and turned the tables around. Do you know why your precious kingdom works? How two vastly different people live together?” he asked, but did not wait for her answer. “Your kingdom is built on arrogance. Who would win in a war between dragons and humans? Depends on who you ask, both sides are sure of their victory. Because that is what you were taught. The great equality. You don’t realize that you are sitting on a powder keg.” He emptied his wineglass and brought his hand to her horns to feel the ridges and nudge the tip with his finger. If her head had any more degrees of freedom, he would lose that overeager appendage. “The mouse will always be afraid of the wyvern, as the human will be afraid of the dragon. It’s the natural order. Eventually, one will rise above the other and I will not see my people suffer under your reign again.”

“What are you trying to accomplish by telling me this? I saw hatchlings in cages being sold for whatever grim purpose awaits them. And the kingdom works just fine.”

Tanno shook his head. “You miss the bigger picture. Most of you are treated very well after you’re bought. You get food, water, a place to stay and a purpose if you just do what we ask of you. How is that different from the jobs you have in the kingdom?” His voice was clear and sounded like he honestly believed what he said.

Sylph cocked her head as much as she could to meet his gaze. “We are free to choose what we want to do. And what happens to adults here? I have seen one. Where are the rest?” She felt compelled to answer despite probably being one of the worst examples herself by having no job at all.

“They work the fields or in the far east. People get uneasy when we have so many large dragons running around. I know you are referring to Dust. He earned that freedom in the arena by becoming the Untouched and we are true to our rules. He does a great job policing the arena without being asked to.”

A sick feeling spread through Sylph’s gut. Did Dust work for this city? Was she wrong about him and he turned her in? On second thought, he separated her from Brandon under the pretense of wanting to talk to her. But then, was passive as the guards showed up. “Your city is insane. At one point, the dragons will realize that they can crush you.”

“Not the ones we have here. We make sure of that.” He patted her thigh like a branding iron pushing through her scales. “Your thoughts and ideas are yours. They think much different about their situation. Because as sad as the truth is, we aren’t equal. One always has to rule the other.”

“You know very little about dragons, do you?”

“Ha,” Tanno stifled a laugh. “Could I bite out your throat or set you on fire?” Tanno refilled his wineglass. “No.”

Sylph pushed against the restraints once more. They still did not budge an inch. “Humans made their own weapons and you have the agility and endurance to use them to full effect. A dragon can’t compete with a bunch of soldiers with spears or crossbows.”

“So we should give every human a spear and import a crossbow to make it fair? Unlike you, humans aren’t born fighters. So we have to keep you in control for our own safety.”

That dragons are born fighters was wrong. She had seen the awful footwork of beginners. While she could not deny that humans were squishy in comparison, that did not stop them in the slightest. Both sides had combatants, and both sides had average people. Dragons possessed a hunting instinct that loved to take over and you trained hard to unlearn exactly that. Humans must have comparable meddling instincts. “You make it sound like we are wild animals that could start a war at any moment. I’m not gonna bite an old lady that bought the last loaf of bread. I’d give her an annoyed glare, and she’d complain about how ungrateful young people are nowadays. But really, who buys five loaves of bread? I might be annoyed, but I wouldn’t start thinking that humans are inferior to me. Have you ever met old ladies with handbags? They wield those like flails.”

“If I undid your restraints, what would you do?” He played with the rope cutting into her leg.

“Why don’t you find out? Nothing, if you just let me go.” Sylph’s gaze followed his legs as he stepped past once again.

“I can’t afford to let you go. It was partially my mistake for misjudging who you were. Your mindset is that of a troublemaker, just like them.”

“Yes, them and her, who you thought I was a messenger too. Who are they? There are more that don’t agree with your city, aren’t there?” Maybe talking was indeed her way out, and she let herself relax. “You said it yourself. I don’t belong here. I don’t know, nor do I care, what you do. The reasons I came here for are personal and unrelated to your town. I hate every building and street, but I will not fight it. Let me go and I promise to never return to the desert.”

Tanno went silent. “The risk is too great. I can’t have you start rumors about me, and that leaves me with two options. Kill you, or use you. I prefer option two because I think you’d make for a great asset, might take a few weeks or months, but we can make it work.”

She snorted. “You really think I’d go along with that?”

“This city is far from perfect. Corruption is running wild. People disobey the laws about slave keeping we once had in the name of profit. There was a reason hatchlings in cages were forbidden. It breaks their small minds in the wrong way,” he spurted out. He was either a remarkable liar or a staunch believer in his very own cause. “Things are getting worse in this town. I want them to change for the better. Humanity can rule over your kind, but we can do it in ways less cruel. Some won’t agree with me, which is where I need someone like you.”

He set down his glass on the table. “It would be a real shame if all those merchants disobeying the law would meet an unfortunate fate in the chaos to come.”

Tanno had grand ambitions. She had to admit that. He also had a screw loose thinking that would work. But desperate times called for desperate measures. “You want me to dispose of those you deem to be wrong. Untie me and we can talk.”

“If you think I’ll fall for that, you aren’t as smart as I thought. It’s far too early for that. You wouldn’t do what I say. You’d bail at the first opportunity,” he laughed, refilled his glass and slurped it down like a pig.

“I need to take care of something first.” He sat the glass back down and moved behind her. A metallic clink echoed throughout the office. A clink she recognized instantly as a blade and her scales stood up.

“You touch me, you die,” Sylph snapped in desperation, and tried to turn her restrained head around.

“Aer are hard to handle, so I have to make you just that little more touchable.” He laid one of his hands on her back and needles pricked her skin. Her dragonheart pumped fire. She was out of time. What tricks did she have left? Water? Absorbing his blood? She focused on the hand gliding up her back and down her left. Nothing happened. She required a wound to do that. The knife hovered above her, precisely over her electric organs. She charged up. But how would she get him to touch both sides?

The fire inside became ice cold and her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. She could not let him, whatever it took. With every ounce of strength her body could muster, she strained against the ropes. One groaned lightly, but her strength waned before the ropes did. The blade pushed slightly into her back as he rested it against her scales. He made a game out of it, showing that she was at his mercy. Her tail whipped to the side and hit Tanno, but at that angle it was not even a slap, barely a poke. He laughed it off.

A plan flashed in front of her eyes and she forced water to leak from the inside of her legs. Tanno took a generous step backwards and retracted his hand. “Oh my, that afraid all of a sudden? That carpet was expensive, you know.” The warm puddle expanded beneath her and made its way through the wool.

“Where is the fierce dragoness threatening me with death? Where are your fire and passion?” He slapped her thigh, laughing and still resting his palm on her side. His foot squelched in the puddle. She hurled her body to the right as much as she could, severed the connection between her left side and the floor for barely a second.

Tanno jumped backwards just before she could discharge. “Oh,” he yelled out. “Sneaky. I’ll give you that. Disgusting, but very effective. Even more reason to rid you of that weapon of yours.” His hand returned to her scales, the other still flourishing the knife, and he stood just far enough as to not touch the wet carpet. He traced a line down from between her shoulders with his finger. “Funny, isn’t it?” he asked and drew a painful trail along the exact paths her electricity could take.

“You can’t do a thing if I am touching just one side, even with both my hands. Such a deadly weapon and such a massive flaw.” Tanno ran his finger further down the path, over her back, onto her thigh and stopped. His hands lingered far longer than she liked as he slowly made his way to her tail. “And there, it ends.” He pinched into the base of her tail, which sent a disgusting shiver up her back and through all nerves.

Water gushed forth between Tanno’s fingers and all the way to her right thigh. A perfect path for her weapon. He was correct, and far too confident. Her tail did not connect to any of her organs. He focused on staying on one side of her weapon only and not touching the puddle, believing she was all out of tricks. But she was not just any Aer. She released her mental grip and discharged.

Tanno yanked back his hand and shook away the water. “What? Is this water? Are you a pathwalker?”

The answer threw her off. He should have been electrocuted, and yet her back still tingled like a thundercloud. How? The path had been perfect. She recalled first learning to manipulate the storm inside, with both pfod immersed in a bucket of water. It worked perfectly then, so why did it not work now?

Tanno snickered. “Well, whatever you wanted to try, it didn’t quite work out, did it?” His sweaty palm lingered on her side, but the other drifted back to her weapon, knife in hand. He had finished fooling about and she had missed her only chance.

The tip of the knife bored into her scales and the cold steel tip sent a flash of clarity through her head. Details of her distant education ascended from the depths of her memories. Veria added more and more salt to the small bucket in accordance with the book about Aer biology. It got harder to control herself the more salt was dissolved. Her ability produced perfectly clean water, but it needed to be salty, dirty to conduct properly.

She absorbed all water her body could from the soaked carpet and took great care to not mess with the filthy contents. The carpet water alone was not sufficient for her last chance, so she pulled on every reservoir she could think of. Her ability fought her for control as she forced her body to surrender her bladder and what limited water was left behind in her stomach. She even absorbed Tanno’s sweat straight from his hand and forced it all to mix in her tail. The center of water quivered. It demanded to purify the contaminated composition of waste, but she strained to keep it all where it was. The knife drew blood as she moved her tail around for another whack. It connected with his exposed ankle, and she pressed it against the flesh as hard as she could.

Starting from the base of her tail, the revolting mixture coated its entirety. Tanno tried to flick it away, but Sylph released the grasp on her raging storm. Her tail cramped and flicked away to the opposite side without restraint. Tanno flew backwards, tumbled over his table and smashed into the wall with a meaty crack. Hundreds of glass pieces scattered over the floor as the wineglass and bottle splintered apart. An incomprehensible smell similar to ozone and ammonia permeated the room.