Legends of the Dragonrealm: Knights of the Frost by Richard A. Knaak

Author:Richard A. Knaak [Knaak, Richard A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Porta Nigra Press
Published: 2018-11-24T22:00:00+00:00

XV

City of Vengeance

Captain Vaylon shut the door behind him. He exhaled deeply. It was getting more and more difficult to hide the truth, especially with what he feared was madness creeping into his mind. He had not heard her voice today, but he knew eventually he would. Never did a day go by now that he did not hear her at least once.

And each time, he came closer to unconsciously revealing himself to those around him...a certain death sentence.

The dark-skinned officer peered around his personal quarters as if expecting someone else to be there. However, other than the simple wooden bed, the small round oak table and the two chairs with it, there was nothing --- and no one --- in immediate sight.

His gaze focused on the round, framed mirror. With long strides, Vaylon hurried to it. He stared into it, seeking any weakness in his appearance. The face that stared back looked as it should, but still he studied it, concerned that even a hint of his true nature might be evident.

Yet, after staring for more than a minute, Vaylon finally had to admit that all appeared well. He exhaled again ---

Raas...

He gasped. The single word made him jolt. The face in the mirror distorted. At the same time, the image swelled in size and took on a monstrous aspect.

A crestless male drake of an ebony hue stared back at what had once been Captain Vaylon.

He immediately grabbed for a small emerald stone hanging at the end of a copper chain and resting on his chest. Even as he did that, the drake instinctively bared his teeth at his true form.

The moment he gripped the stone, the image reverted. Despite that, the officer’s true reflection remained burned in his mind. The scaled hide, the sharp teeth, the fiery crimson eyes, the helmed head...every stark detail mocked his existence even though the face of Captain Vaylon once again stared back.

Raas...

“Leave me be!” he muttered as he turned from the mirror. “Pleassse leave me be!”

Once, the voice would have been the most welcome sound he had ever heard. That had been in the days when he had actually believed he could live a life other than the one dictated to him by his master, the days when he had willingly betrayed his mission for the impossible.

Unfortunately, he had been caught. Caught and tortured and made to watch torture. The lord of Lochivar had bent his rebellious servant to his will again...until a mistake had been made and the hold the Dragon King had had on him had been eliminated.

Raas. This time, it was he who thought the name. His name, not Vaylon. Vaylon was a guise taken from a human long dead thanks to his master, dead after his knowledge had been drained from him so that a lowly drake with a better chance of successfully maintaining the magical disguise could play the role day and night for months, if necessary.

Or even years, now.

Raas scowled at his human image. Had there been a way to make it real, he would have accepted it.

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