The Order of the Scales Deas - The Order of the Scales

‘Enough. Of you.’

Come on, you fickle northern shit. Get up, get up! Get up and stab her in the back! I can’t keep- Meteroa never finished the thought. Zafir brought up the crossbow and fired. Meteroa’s head snapped back as the bolt hit him between the eyes and nailed him a second time to Zafir’s throne.

‘Go piss with your ancestors,’ she hissed; and that was all he heard before they came rushing to meet him, to haul him kicking and screaming into the realms of the beyond.

Once you got past the horror of it, watching Snow torment the last two alchemists turned out to be almost boring. Once you got past the reek of blood and offal and the screaming that went on and on in Kemir’s head even when the alchemists themselves fell silent. They didn’t actually say anything very much except for a lot of squeaks and squeals, a few ‘Please-don’t-kill-me’s and, when Snow picked one up in her claws and dangled him over her mouth, a great deal of terrified shrieking. But they didn’t say anything. Snow was battering her thoughts into their heads and then picking over whatever bubbled to the surface.

Kemir caught snippets, when he tried. Mostly Snow seemed to be demanding to know where the other alchemists could be found, where other eyries were, where there were dragons and, above all, where and how the alchemists made their potions. She certainly wasn’t asking about Rider Semian.

They’re no better then dragon-riders. They’re no better than dragon-riders. He ran the mantra over and over in his head, trying to believe it. Trying to think of them as something other than scared old men. Eventually, when he’d finished picking his fingernails clean and was on to scraping at the little flecks of blood that still stained his dragon-scale, he got up. Enough. There was only so much of this he could watch.

‘Bored now.’ Snow ignored him. Judging from the way she was acting, the answers weren’t much to her liking. Which meant the alchemists probably wouldn’t survive for long enough to tell Kemir anything that he wanted to hear.

‘Oi, dragon.’ He got up and kicked her foot. She slowly turned to look at him.

You become ever more wearing, little one. What?

‘What do you want me to do? Sit on my arse and scratch myself while you eat this lot?’

If it comforts you. Now be silent.

Kemir’s face darkened. ‘Look, I winkled them out for you. Me. So this is where you take a break from mangling them and you tell me about the man who killed my cousin. You tell me what the Scales knew.’

He knew nothing.

‘What?’

He knew nothing. These know nothing.

‘What? You said they knew!’

In a sudden flash of motion, Snow’s tailed flicked out. The tip wrapped around Kemir’s waist and he found himself being lifted up into the air. The dragon lunged and snatched up the two alchemists in her front talons. Their wailing beat at the emptiness of the mountain air. Then she launched herself into a run on her massive hind legs, claws shredding the earth, shaking the mountainside, wings beating like thunder until she lifted up into the air and powered up towards the remains of the castle. You wanted dragon-knights, Kemir, did you not? Perhaps you thought there might be a fight? You thought they might resist? Look, Kemir! Look, all of you, at how your mighty fortresses will fall. By now she’d almost reached it, a climb that would take Kemir more than an hour on foot. Look at it!

There wasn’t much left but a big pile of broken stone. Charred pieces of wood smouldered in tumbled heaps, the last glowing embers slowly fading out. Here and there, pieces of stone carried some feature that marked them. A crenellation here, half a window there, broken pieces of archways, maybe a part of a door, sticking out from under the rubble. If Kemir tried, he could picture the castle as it had been before the dragons arrived, and then, just maybe, he could see how one pile of stones had once been a tower, how another had been the keep, another the gatehouse.

Just about.

‘It wasn’t exactly a very big castle, was it?’ he muttered, and then gasped as Snow’s tail drew a fraction tighter. She landed amid the stone.

Look, Kemir! Look, you alchemists, you who would enslave my kind. This is what will come. She set Kemir down in front of her and then lowered her face so they were almost eye to eye. I have told you, little one, that dragons do not act out of spite or revenge, but as you have seen, we have little patience, we are prone to anger, and if we do not avenge, nor do we forgive. I will not forget your Rider Semian, Kemir. In time he will cross our paths and burn like all the rest, and I will hardly notice his passing, but as I do, I will think of you and consider any last debt between us paid. She set him down and turned to look at him. And now you have served your purpose. You have given me these alchemists. You are no longer useful.

Kemir took a step away. ‘You need me.’ He tried to sound convincing but didn’t really manage it. Belatedly he remembered that the dragon could see into his thoughts.

Yes, Kemir. I see how riven with fear you are. You may hide it from your own kind, but not from me. And fear me you might. She reached out a front claw, still with a wriggling, screaming alchemist held tight within. Kemir could see his face, white with terror and lost blood, only a few feet from his own. He could see the hopeless plea, the tears, the sheer utter despair, the mad idea of mercy…

Mercy? Snow snarled. Why? What mercy have you shown to me? Very slowly, she squeezed. The screaming became frenzied. Then something cracked, and the screaming stopped. Kemir closed his eyes. No matter, Kemir. Do not forget the one you left behind, the one still under the ground. That is the greatest achievement of your kind. No matter what we do, there are always more of you. So you will always have ears to bleed with your questions.

For a moment he thought of running, of how quickly he might reach the nearest pile of rubble. Maybe there would be a tunnel. Could he move fast enough?

I see it in you, Kemir, the empty hole where your purpose used to be. You think, somehow, that striking those who have wronged you will make this change, but it never does and never will. The wrong is never undone. Your hole remains. So you tempt me, over and over, to put an end to your meaningless life. Very well. This time I shall oblige. You may have your wish.

No. That was the very obvious answer. No, he couldn’t run fast enough. Nowhere near fast enough.

Stay very still, Kemir. Watch and listen. Snow kept squeezing. More bones cracked, and then there was a soft popping noise. A thick reddish brown ooze began to leak between her claws. Abruptly, Snow opened them. What was left of the alchemist landed by Kemir’s feet. He’d been crushed to a pulp.

Tail, claw, tooth or fire? Or do you wish to die in battle? There may still be some dragon-riders that are still alive. I sense their thoughts. They are somewhere underneath us. You may look for them if you wish.

Kemir didn’t move. Absolutely nothing was left intact.

Yes. Alive but buried. You may dig if you wish. Do you know how many dragons we have found here?

Kemir shrugged.

Seventeen. Twelve are young, five are full grown. There were more here not long ago.

He was shaking. She didn’t mean it. Did she? Dragons lied. He knew that now. ‘You still need me, dragon.’

Why, Kemir?

A brief flash of anger pushed past the sight of Snow’s jaws, right in front of him. ‘Because you’re so bloody impatiently stupid…’

We fly, Kemir. Sooner or later we would have found this place without your map.

‘Well you still-’

Scorpions? Would have hurt us, but they would not have stopped us. She set the other alchemist onto the ground next to Kemir and gently pinned him there with the tip of one claw resting on his chest. Look around you, Kemir. This is what I bring. We will destroy every place like this. We will annihilate every dragon-rider and every alchemist and every man who calls himself a king or a queen or a prince, but that this is only the beginning. What of the little people whose life is nothing but toil and graft, whose wants are simply a full belly and strong sons? We will feed on them as we feed on kings and princes, for to our kind you are all the same. Ants. You see the future, I know you do, for I have plucked these questions from your thoughts. We have begun and we cannot stop and there can only be one end. Some of you will try to fight us, some will hide, others will simply stand and do nothing as they die. You are one of those who will fight. I see it in you. You will turn on us. You will die.