I probably shouldn’t be surprised by her hostility, but I’m not inclined to obey.
“Get on your knees, or I will put you down!” She makes a swift movement with her gloved hand that looks like a mere twitch.
At the gesture, a blade appears in her hand, glinting, sharp, and the length of a hunting knife.
She continues coming at me, now only five paces away, and I anticipate the way she plans to immobilize me by the way her muscles tense.
She’s fast—I’m impressed—but I have a wolf’s reflexes.
I evade the sweep of her leg and the swing of her blade, a combination of moves that would have been intended to drop me to a knee and then get the blade to my neck. If she’d succeeded, I wouldn’t dare make a move for fear she’d cut my throat.
Instead, I step to the right to avoid her leg and lean back to evade the blade. “I don’t kneel!”
It isn’t because I’m too proud.
My chest suddenly hurts.
Out of the blue, a sharp pain strikes through my heart. The intensity of it squeezes my chest and steals my breath, and I find myself snarling through a moment of confusion.
My wounds should have healed by now.
I’m certain I don’t have any life-threatening injuries.
All I know for certain at this moment is that I shouldn’t kneel, or I might not get up again.
She snarls right back at me. “You attacked a dragon, Vandawolf. A crime punishable by death. You’re lucky I haven’t spilled your blood already.”
She gives another flick of her hand and the blade she was holding elongates, now the length of a sword.
Whatever that contraption is on her arm, it’s capable of changing itself, but I’m certain it’s mechanical, not magical. Every time she changes it, it makes a clicking noise.
I take a step back from her, gritting my teeth against the pain until, just as suddenly, it stops again.
My head clears, the sharp sensation fades, and I quickly reassess my chances against these riders and their dragons.
The other humans are also wearing long, black gloves on one of their hands, which makes them all as much of a threat as the woman who continues to prowl after me even as I take careful steps away from her.
It won’t be long before I run out of space.
“You know who I am, but I don’t know who you are,” I say to the woman.
“My name is Catalina Shield. I am the champion of the human Queen Isabella Exalted.”
I’m not overly familiar with the customs of the humans who live in the northwest, but it sounds like Catalina holds a similar position to Elowynn of the Dawn, who is the Fae Queen’s Champion.
These humans swooped in here, presumably following Graviter on his way back to Asha and swiftly taking care of the threat in the sky, only to quickly become my opponents. I need to know if they came here already intending to force Asha and me to kneel to their Queen.
I think I know what Asha would say to them in that case.
“Is it your Queen’s wish to make an enemy of me?” I ask, seeking clarity. “Or do you want to punish me solely because of my actions toward the dragon king?”
Catalina’s jaw clenches, and I’m not sure how to read her momentary silence before she retorts, “Your actions led to the death of Milena Ironmeld,” she says. “Milena was our ally. Even before you attacked the dragon king, you made yourself an enemy of our Queen.”
I narrow my eyes at her.
Our actions didn’t harm Milena. We rescued her and tried to keep her alive.
Graviter knows it was Thaden who was responsible for Milena’s death, but he remains frustratingly silent, hunched over at the far side of the group, his scales still an alarming ivory color.
