The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1)(15)
The Dragon Rider died instantly, the gaping wound in his chest still oozing gold that glittered and faded in the air. Cvareh stood and threw down the chewed remnants of the heart. “Dan Tam.” He spit on the Rider’s corpse. “All things were not made equal this day.”
As if suddenly remembering she was there, Cvareh turned. This was the creature she had been expecting all along. Golden blood glistened on his face from where he had feasted on the heart of his fallen foe. He stood over the corpse like it was a prize—a trophy that illustrated what he was capable of. He was finally the monster she had been expecting.
But expectations had shifted, and they both looked at each other with new eyes. The Wraith and the Dragon had shared blood. It was a step toward something she hadn’t expected—and certainly didn’t want.
5. Florence
Instinctively, she pressed herself into the nearest doorway and glanced up to see the rainbow of color arcing down toward the other end of Mercury Town. Florence felt like she’d sprinted a hundred peca. Her heart raced and her breathing quickened.
Fight or flight. Ari had explained the instinctual response time and again, but Florence hadn’t felt it much. Now, her mind was already clouding with the choice to stay or run. A glider landed on a rooftop in the wake of her indecision.
The irony of Dragon gliders had never been lost on Florence. Dragon magic, inherently, couldn’t be used to manipulate anything tangible. But the moment the Alchemists and Rivets had expanded the refining process for steel, the whole world turned differently. Everything focused on the importance of gold: steel refined a final time with the presence of reagents—Dragon organs and blood. Steel transformed into gold was magic given form, and could be manipulated by Dragons and Chimera alike. It wasn’t long after that discovery that steam engines were replaced with magic ones, and the first of the Dragons’ gliders began to traverse the clouds.
The gliders were shaped to give Dragons the wings of their namesakes, a surprisingly poetic choice by Loom’s standards. True, the Dragons themselves looked nothing like the mythical creatures in storybooks of old. They weren’t much different than the Fenthri in general form. But their gliders had wide, fixed, pointed wings like a bat’s, connected by a platform upon which the rider could stand and steer the mechanical monster with a combination of handles and mental—magical—commands.
Harnessing enough magic to use a glider was something not every Dragon could do. Even Chimera—Fenthri outfitted with Dragon blood and organs—stood no chance of using them; too much magic was required. That fact had been one of many that kept the Fenthri effectively grounded in the land below the clouds, solidly underneath the oppression of Dragon rule.
Florence was inclined to believe that even the strongest Chimera stood no chance of piloting a glider when the first Dragon Rider dismounted. Sparks of raw magic glittered into the air from underneath the contraption, fading into the haze that was Mercury Town’s omnipresent tenant. Pure power seemed to ripple under every sculpted muscle.
It was easy to assess the Rider’s physical prowess, as the woman hardly wore clothes. Her breasts were wrapped with a sash tied from shoulder to waist. Her midsection was on display for the world, the same bright vermilion as the rest of her. More wrappings around her legs disappeared under a short skirt made of fur that left little to curiosity other than wondering what animal had died for her to have it.
Her eyes shone like sapphires as they surveyed Mercury Town through her long bangs. A thick braid ran down her back and a single beaded strand dangled by her right ear. As if sensing Florence’s stare, she turned suddenly; Florence pressed closer into the alcove.
The Rider issued some commands to the companion who landed next to her in the guttural sounds of Royuk. Florence leaned out once more and watched them with careful regard. They began walking along the rooftops with their long Dragon strides. She’d thought Cvareh had been a large creature, but these Dragons were virtual giants, nearly two times her size.
Fight or flight. She had never been in a scrap before and she didn’t want her first experience to be with a Dragon Rider. She might be able to threaten some alleyway scum into leaving her alone, but a Dragon Rider would skin her alive. Florence stepped down out of the alcove and began to hurry for the nearest side alley that would lead out of Mercury Town. She wished she’d worn a shorter top hat.
“Fen.” The Rider spoke the shortened slur for Fenthri with her thick Dragon accent to the assembled masses beneath her. “At the request of the Dragon King, we are looking for any who have knowledge of a Dragon that descended to Loom illegally earlier this morning. Those with information leading to his capture will be rewarded handsomely.”
She’s talking about the Dragon Ari brought home. He was on the run from the Dragon King? He didn’t seem half as intimidating as the woman who addressed the alley beneath her. If it were true, it was no wonder he needed Ari’s help.
The street slowed. Florence was forced to stop her flight so she didn’t draw attention to herself as the only one not gawking at the Dragon addressing them from the rooftop.
“Permit me to rephrase.” The Dragon tensed her hands, claws shooting from her fingertips. “Come forward with information, or I will extract it from you with necessary force.”
Mercury Town was the lowest rung in Dortam, a small corner serving the necessities of many, though only a few would admit to traversing it. It would be a playground for the Riders, a place where they could reap whatever havoc they so chose without consequence. No one would come to the aid of illegals and dealers. The Riders could be as vicious as they wanted and hide behind the curtain of self-defense or upholding the law should any try to call them to task on the matter. They all knew it, and the Dragon wasted no time as a result.