The Dragon Hunter and the Mage Read Free

walked through several corridors beneath the inexpressive eyes of Legionaries until he found the door to the Duke’s study. Inside, he saw the Imperial Marshal rolling a chair over with a kick, revealing a forgotten silver jar.
    “Ah, Tigern, at last.”
    Marshal Intila was a tall and powerful man. His golden armor had the Imperial lion sculpted in his chest, and the cape flowing down his back had the light blue of Augusta’s Legion’s.
    “I need names, Tigern.”
    “Names? Of what?”
    Intila sighed and walked over to the Duke’s secretary – a bloc of ebony too robust and heavy to suffer at the hands of the mob that had pillaged the palace.
    “The Emperor’s orders were refused. Then Imperial agents were arrested, just for trying to uphold those orders. And finally, when my Legions arrived, the city was closed. I had to mount a siege.”
    “And the Lord of the city, the Duke, is nowhere to be found,” Tigern replied. “The city is yours again. What other names do you require?”
    “I cannot return to Augusta empty handed. Someone has to pay,” Intila said. “You are not going to convince me that the Duke was alone in all this.”
    “Of course he wasn’t. Even the people supported him until the Legionaries arrived.” Tigern aimed a finger at Intila. “I was guaranteed you would be reasonable if the problem was taken care of.”
    “You’re not behind bars,” Intila said matter-of-factly. “Even though you are a member of the city’s government. I would say that part of the agreement is being kept.”
    Tigern paused. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How am I supposed to take over the city if I don’t have the trust of the noble families?”
    “Listen to me,” Intila said. “The Emperor cannot afford to not punish the families who openly affronted him. I am here, Tigern. Me, and not others. You know there are others far less reasonable than me.”
    Openly affronted him? Tigern wanted to scream. Those families had done only what any decent human would have done. Tarsus was a tyrant, and his Purge was an unforgivable crime. If Tigern were a brave man, he would have said so.
    “How many names?” he asked instead. “Is two enough? I want you to assure me their families will be spared.”
    Intila said no with a shake of his head. There was no irony or malice in his expression, just the pragmatism of a soldier.
    “Tigern, rebels are like Dragons. The problems they don’t cause today will become twice as bad tomorrow. That’s why we hunt Dragons, and that’s why you will tell me all the names. All of them.”
     

    They had been hiding in that shack for three hours and their clothes were still wet. It had taken them too long to find a place to hide, and twice they had almost crossed paths with Legionary patrols. On a square that Eliran thought was the fruit market, she had seen the body of Allard lying over a pool of dark blood, his blue eyes staring at infinity. She was the only one who had seen him because as soon as she recognized him she turned the girls around and fled though an alleyway where they crouched in the shadow until the metal steps of a patrol drove them off.
    She didn’t really know what the place was, but it looked abandoned and, at least, it protected them from the skin slicing wind. To warm themselves they nested against each other, but Eliran made sure she was the only one with a view to the hill where the school rose. It was visible through a slit in a closed window, but the scenery was terrifying. Red fire, black smoke, green lights, blue explosions, and the most sinister noises Eliran had ever heard. It had been going on for hours.
    Flara had cried uninterruptedly for a whole hour, as had Sarina, Lassira, and Tajiha. Now they slept deeply, culled by exhaustion. Eliran herself was making an effort to stay awake as if that macabre spectacle was a vigil she was bound by duty to attend.
    Suddenly, a noise distracted her. It was just a small crackle, but it was close