“No,” I say quickly. “Pleasebring them back. The Plood.”
“Why? They’re anuisance.”
“But we can try to make them useful.” I scrape a patch of iron clear of rust.
“You!” Vyrathion snaps. “Get back here.”
The four Plood crawl back towards him on all fours, shaking with awe. I can feel their dread telepathically.
“Well?” Vyrathion says. “Here they are.”
I hold the spearhead out to them. “This. Get this. But yellow.” I tap the bare patch of metal with one fingernail. “This. Hard and shiny. Butyellow.” In my mind I form images of gold rings and necklaces and coins, hoping they somehow get the message. “Gold.”
“Get gold!” Vyrathion repeats. “Now, you little wretches!”
The Plood scurry away and escape into the jungle.
Vyrathion watches them go. "That won't work."
I scrape more rust off the spearhead. "Maybe not."
"They’re complete idiots."
“Yes, but they’re trainable idiots."
He looks at me. "There’s a difference?"
I put the spearhead into my pocket. "A big difference. At least I hope so."
5
- Vyrathion-
“We shall see,” I state. “Now, come along.”
It looks like I have to walk around this blasted thornbush. It’s annoying, but then, everything here is. I suspect this long bush was planted here deliberately by the slayers from a nearby tribe. This is exactly something they’d do to make obstacles for me.
Morgan follows as well as she can. I walk at a pace she can follow, and which I also prefer now. I’m not as strong as I was. The lack of gold is a coldness inside me, a seething hollow where there should be warmth and satisfaction.
Even the brief exertion with the toothy monster leaves an unpleasant ache beneath my scales. Those things normally avoid me, wisely enough, but I suppose Morgan attracts them more than I scare them away.
It’s not clear to me why I allowed her to come along. Surely she’ll only attract other lesser creatures and slow me down. But she may yet prove herself as a servant. Perhaps she can get thosesilly Plood to find me real gold instead of random worthless objects.
I look behind me. Her eyes snap up to me, and I sense her tensing up. It’s not the desperate fear I would prefer to raise in a lesser female, but in this form, it’s clearly all I can expect.
“Keep up,” I command as I walk on.
“Iamkeeping up,” she says in a tone that I could choose to find insubordinate. But I prefer to assume full obedience and respect from her.
She’s different from Callie.Thatfemale I only used to free me from the underwater cage, having no interest in her otherwise. But this one… I have an urge to turn around and look at her, to reach out and stroke the smooth skin on her cheeks, to feel the texture of her hair on my fingertips, to flay that terrible garment off her and examine all that lies beneath, to sniff her, to enjoy the way she trembles in terror…
I groan. I have met countless females. Dragons. Humans. Others. None have occupied my thoughts in this fashion. It is remarkably irritating.
“Are you all right?”
I turn my head. “What?”
Morgan is looking at me. “I thought I heard- never mind.”
