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16
“Anzi.”
She was on her feet in an instant. Night had fallen hours ago, but the flickering light of the standing torches in the courtyard illuminated every harsh line of Colonel Bisset’s face. “Yes, sir.”
“You’re needed. See the Emperor first, and you’ll be escorted elsewhere after.”
First? Escort her where? It was already late, and while she didn’t dare complain about the hour nor did she have any desire to, the timing was too odd to discount. At the sound of a loud, sudden snuffle, she glanced behind the stone bench she had been sitting on next to the massive snout of the colonel’s dragon. She had awoken finally. All this time she had done little more than sleep. Scaly eyelids twitched, then opened to reveal bright blue eyes that sent a tingle down Anzi’s spine.
She turned back to Colonel Bisset. “Will I find His Excellency in the throne room?”
“Yes. I won’t
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Called by the Dragon 17
The slanted, gaping hole in the ground utterly dwarfed Anzi. Five meters across at least, perhaps more, and now that her eyes were finally adjusting to the faint light, she saw it was not a hole at all but a long, long tunnel sloping down into some unknown abyss. The angle was such that she could barely see any illumination inside the giant passageway unless she crouched down and peered sideways. But the Emperor had no interest in her misgivings about entering the darkness. When she glanced back at him, there was a surprised gleam in his eyes, and she realized at once her hesitations were tantamount to disobedience. With a sharp, hasty exhale, she pushed herself off her knee and back to a stand. “Yes, Your Excellency,” she said, and while she remembered just in time that the man disliked being saluted, she couldn’t excuse herself from his presence without a bow, at least. “All right, all right, enough, get up. Don’t disappoint me, now.” “Yes, sir.” He turned and left with his long,
Called by the Dragon 18
This was impossible. Dragons were all but extinct; everyone knew that. Following the great Purge over two centuries ago, only the scant few taken in by the Empire had survived. The Imperial dragon bonded to the Emperor along with those partnered to his four generals - those were the only ones that had made it safely through the catastrophic war that decimated their population. After that, the only dragons eggs in existence had been those produced by those survivors, and that was why the Premier Guard only numbered so few, less than a dozen. But all these eggs. In two hundred years, had five dragons really multiplied into this unborn horde? She couldn’t hope to count the number crammed into this chamber. From wall to wall, some eggs were as long as her forearm and wider around than her waist while others could fit in the palm of a small child. Eggs scaled with rippling, iridescent patterns, eggs bearing feathers, eggs with fanned fins and horned spines - Anzi’s eyes burned as she stra
Called by the Dragon 19
“You haven’t slept.” It was only thanks to years of rigorous discipline that Anzi didn’t leap out of her skin. Instead, she reacted the same way she had when Bastien had surprised her earlier, lashing out with her arm at the source of the unexpected voice while simultaneously sliding backward off the stone railing. But a spark of something indescribable exploded under her skin when she struck warm flesh, and she nearly stumbled. Head reeling, she retreated several swift steps toward the doors before she finally realized who it was before her. “…Chieftain Kaizat?” “Do I have to get on my knees for you to stop calling me that?” She stared in silence at the darkened silhouette half-straddling the balcony wall. She hadn’t bothered to light a candle before coming out here, and with the clouds muffling the faint light of the moon, all she could see was the tousled, almost shaggy black hair
Called by the Dragon 20
“Are you Anzi?” She leaped to her feet and reared up like a serpent about to strike, only to realize the voice belonged to none other than a pretty girl wearing a pale pink chiffon gown and bedecked in numerous small articles of silver and pearl. Loose blonde ringlets fell about her pale face, giving her an innocent yet womanly look, but the pale blue eyes that stared back at Anzi were more alarmed than sweet. Her hands were clasped and folded in front of her chest, and she stood half-turned away from when she had jumped in fright. One of the harem girls. Anzi relaxed and made sure her relieved exhale was slow and silent. No need to reveal her agitated state this morning to anyone. “That’s me,” she said. “Are you the one His Excellency sent to see me?” “No, but she’s fallen sick this morning, and all I know is that I’m to see you instead. I was hoping you could fill me in on what I’m to do.” Anzi blinked. She hadn’t been told? Even if an emergency had arisen and they had hastily se
Called by the Dragon 21
“I don’t think about him at all. Except the things I told you about him. That’s it.” “Oh, don’t be like that. I want to help. Trust me, I know I said I’ve only been here a few months, but I’m very gifted at this sort of thing. You can ask any of the other girls when you see them next. They’ll tell you. I’ve been training for this since I was fifteen, and I know how to read people when it comes to those syrupy sweet feelings they try to hide.” Anzi leaned away. She most certainly did not like that. As a matter of fact, she felt threatened, as if Violetta was saying she could look right through her down to where she tried to quash the wild, twitching spark that was her attraction to Kai. Fine, then. So what? She was human. It was only natural that she would appreciate a fine musculature and handsome face. It didn’t mean she had things like syrupy sweet feelings. This was annoying. And humiliating.
Called by the Dragon 22
Nosy passersby chose that exact instant to cluster around the scene, and now Anzi was on the wrong side of the circle of murmuring civilians forming around the disturbance. Not for long. She forced her way through with savage shoves, earning strings of filthy curses, until finally she caught Violetta’s gaze over the last several shoulders. The woman was still on the ground, kneeling in the dust and twisted to the side as she shielded the lower half of her face with a dainty hand. A thick drizzle of blood dripped from her chin, and Anzi’s face tightened in hot anger. Who dared? Violetta was her responsibility. Whoever was stupid enough to lay their hand on her was going to lose it. She wouldn’t even give them a chance to apologize, neither to Violetta nor to the Emperor whose charge she was. But before she could charge in, the woman sent her an almost imperceptible warning, a quick shake of her head and a bright, frightened look. It stopped Anzi in her tracks, and instead of leaping fo
Called by the Dragon 23
Anzi said nothing after that, neither when she picked Violetta up from the ground nor when she helped clean off her bloody face nor even when they returned to the palace. Whatever the reason for Violetta’s willing subjection to such mistreatment, it was up to her to confess it. She was an adult. They were both adults. And they were neither friends nor each other’s confidants. “I lied to you,” Violetta blurted. She had whirled around to face Anzi with clear, stubborn eyes, and her hands were clasped together white-knucked-tight over her chest. A semi-defiant incline raised her chin. “Lied?” Anzi repeated. “How.” “I told you the girl who was supposed to teach you is sick. Berenice. She is, but what I didn’t tell you is that today, everyone else planned to go out into the city. But someone has to stay behind to entertain any unexpected guests, and that’s me. It’s always me, every time. I stay behind and mend the
Called by the Dragon 24
Kai came to her first. He wasn’t supposed to. She should have been the one to go to his room an hour from now, according to the timecatcher hanging from the window in the sunlight. But for some reason, he was standing here and looking at her with a slow, lazy smile that almost made her close the door in his face in the compulsive need to escape from it. He was too much. She couldn’t do this. He was too early. She had needed the extra time to steel herself so she wouldn’t do idiotic things in his presence, but now he had stolen that from her. “Anzi.” She hated how he said her name. It made her bones shake and her eyes hot. “Yes, sir.” “Come walk with me. I’m lonely.” “Weren’t you with His Excellency and his advisors just now?” “I was. But talk of business and trade doesn’t warm a man any.” He extended a hand to her across the threshold, palm up, and she dropped her gaze to it wit
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