Dragon Aster Trilogy

17: SLAVE



“She is a slave belonging to the Atrum’s Order, and it would be best to give her back,” Kayla said as she sat next to her mother, High Priestess Yri, in the Room of Reflections.

“I have never seen an entire Pack take specific interest in retrieving a human slave girl like this,” Tynar replied to Kayla, from where the Headmaster sat on the other side of the table. “Granted Jasper’s Pack has always been sympathetic to humans, but if she is a slave then she’s a valuable one to want her back so desperately. And has anyone seen Dyaus?”

“The General is not feeling well,” Lintrance quickly replied from the wall he leaned on, which was his own polite way of saying the old dragoon was too drunk to participate in the meeting. Dragons didn’t get sick.

“Has anyone bothered to look if she is branded?” Trista asked from next to Tynar.

“She’s not a slave,” Lintrance added.

“I don’t see the harm in checking,” Kayla said.

“I don’t want anyone touching her. She is frightened enough,” the dragoon replied plainly to his sister. Kayla returned a sharpened gaze of cold, grey eyes that she had inherited from her different mother.

“Well, as long as Jasper’s Pack continues to stalk this mountain, I’m more concerned about our kind being frightened,” Tynar replied, as his bright-red hair frizzed higher on his head. “The True can’t fly, and it’s the only reason they haven’t tried something more drastic in retrieving her.”

“If the phelan Pack continues to be a problem, then I will see to it that they’re dealt with. No one touches her.”

“You seem overly protective of this human stranger. Is there something you’re not sharing with the rest of us, Lintrance?” Tynar inquired.

He looked to Cecil to see if the dragoon would make the next move against him. When the blind dragoon didn’t, he looked back at the Headmaster. “No, but she has had a troubled life on Earth. Aside from my sympathy for her, I am adopting her as my own.”

The Elders whispered loudly between each other.

“That’s out of the question, particularly as we know nothing about her or her past. She could just as easily be a spy sent from the Atrum,” Tynar said.

“I wasn’t asking, and if you believe her to be a spy then your accusation falls on me. If you would like to test it further I won’t be far away,” Lintrance said, before turning and leaving the Room of Reflections.

Tynar sent his orange eyes towards his Bond, before setting them sternly on his son. “Just what was that all about?”

Cecil only melted further into his chair, as he was now alone against all the stress the room had ignited into.



Lintrance headed upstairs and went to the General’s room. He quietly opened the door and closed it behind him. The old, dark-green haired dragoon slept in his equally old and beaten wooden chair. The bottle of whisky Lintrance had set for him to find was tipped over and empty next to him. He had been saving it for an emergency and it ultimately worked in saving the Princess.

“Yikes, what did you do to our uncle?” Loki asked in concern as he peeked into the room.

“You be quiet and mind your own business,” Lintrance replied in a harsh whisper as he picked up the bottle and handed it to his younger brother. “Melt this.”

Loki did as told, as Lintrance’s concern went to where Dyaus’ somn was as it wasn’t in the room.

On having reformed the glass with his aeri fire into a statue of what he remembered Serena looking like, Loki turned it around in his hand to ensure it was accurate. “Can I meet her? Or is she off limits to me too?”

“When she has had more of a chance to grow accustomed to what we look like, maybe,” Lintrance replied as he inferred to the green birth markings on Loki’s face.

Loki only got a gentle carrying grip on the statue and left the room without saying anything to counter.

Lintrance looked back at the General one more time, before leaving to find where Dyaus’ fire breather of an Ancient had wandered off to. Before someone else might.