If I free you from your chains … What would you give me in return? Tell me why you would even be worth my time,Elizabeth breathed through their mental connection, looking down her nose at the creature who had slayed a third of their armies without batting an eye.
I am a dragon. I should be free to fly and taste the wind on my breath.
We do not care for your master. We are here for one demon. If we get him, we will leave this land in peace.Then, Elizabeth laid out the maddest idea she had ever had.I will free you if you help us rescue him.
The dragon considered it for a moment. Smoke curled from its nostrils, and the dragon’s orange, slit-pupilled eyes seemed to pierce her from across the battlefield.
Done.
“Asmodeus!” she called.
“Elizabeth, we are trying to figure out a way forward, but there is none.” Asmodeus scratched his head. “We may have to retreat.”
She quickly told him her plan.
He grimaced. “He is going to kill me if he finds out I did that.”
“Well, if it doesn’t work, he’s never getting out, Asmodeusdear.”
“True.” Asmodeus twitched his nose.
He turned to discuss her plan with Lucifer and the other demon princes.
Soon, their left flank pushed forward as a distraction. Abbadon shouted orders, sending a handful of her war demons to the front of the line, and then all hell broke loose. War cries erupted from the demons as they jumped into the fray, sowing discord and chaos.
Asmodeus grabbed Elizabeth and flew over the right side of their army. Arrows pierced Asmodeus’s wings. He grunted but didn’t drop her as his beating wings became increasingly laboured. An arrow hit her leg, making her wards ripple. Her thigh didn’t bleed, but ithurt.
Asmodeus swayed and deposited her near the dragon and faced off with the hulking dragon handler, wielding the barbed whip. Asmodeus unsheathed his sword and roared.
She turned her back on their fighting, trusting him to protect her.
Another arrow hit her side, a sharp ache through the wards and armoured vest. Her wards would not hold long like this. Anxiety filled her each time an arrow hit her, and she wondered if it might be the last one the wards would stop before the spells were exhausted.
There was no room for fear as she took precious seconds to curtsey.
Hello, dragon.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the barbed tail of the dragon handler’s whip snap through the air. But she dared not break eye contact with the dragon to see if Asmodeus was alright.
The dragon’s eyes remained riveted on her. She felt interest emanate from the dragon at being greeted like royalty.
Reining in her fear, she proceeded with a false sense of bravado. She climbed up the dragon’s scaly leg and scrambled up to the joint between her shoulders. There was a space between the large spires that ran up her tail and along her neck where she could sit. The dragon flared her wings to hide Elizabeth so she could work.
Curiosity emanated from the dragon in waves. Elizabeth looked at the chains and drew from the pool of magic inside her.
Nothing is happening, the dragon snapped, breaking her concentration.
Give me a minute, please. It takes time.
Once again, Elizabeth reached into her pool of green fire, wrapping a tendril around the dragon’s thick collar.
“Tdth,” she said.
Nothing happened—the collar was too thick, or she was not strong enough. She scanned the chain, finding a joined link with beading on the iron. Yelling the spell, she imagined rust spreading through the metal and the iron link falling apart.
If this doesn’t work, I die.
The iron link rusted, weakened, then started to warp. The entire chain link became jagged, orange rust spreading through it like poison. The rust cracked, and the iron link began to disintegrate.
