The Dragon Kings Witch

Chapter1

I sighed to myself as I wondered how in the hell I kept getting myself into these messes. I flexed my wrists, testing the rope binding them together. It was a thick, coarse rope, obviously made for much heavier jobs than restraining a young girl. The fact they added handcuffs just made me chuckle. Someone thinks highly of me. I thought to myself as I thought about how I might get out of this one. If only it was just my hands restrained, I would have been able to escape easily. But the men who took me were smart. They tied my feet together with chains.

No, my best bet was to wait and see what they had in store for me. I didn’t know the men who took me. I’d never seen them before, but I could tell by their builds that they were dragons. I was shocked at that revelation as they pounced on me in the woods during my patrol. Dragons almost never left the mountain, and on the rare occasions they did, it never ended well for those they met.

I could only remember one other time they had been spotted. It was when the previous dragon king had been overthrown. Many dragon clans from all over the world came together to bring him down. Many lives were lost, and even more changed irrevocably.

The previous king was a tyrant. He held no morals and was merciless. Rumor had it that he would kill you for standing in his line of sight. I always believed that to be a bit dramatized hearsay. But the number of clans that went to war against one dragon gave me pause.

It was not long after the war ended that a new king was appointed, and the previous king was executed for his crimes. This all happened twelve years ago, when I was only seven, so I don't remember many details. Since the new king took over more than a decade ago the dragons have mostly kept to themselves.

Time seemed never-ending as the dragons flew us higher into the sky. I shivered against the cold air. We were clearly heading to the mountain and, for a brief moment, I felt my heart squeeze in something akin to fear. Outsiders have never been allowed on the mountains. It was an unspoken rule that humans ruled the land and the dragons ruled the skies. This seemed to work well, until recently. I’d heard rumors of young women disappearing all over the country. How is that different from any other day, you ask? These women were all witches.

It wasn’t uncommon for witches to occasionally disappear, some left their covenant to live amongst the humans, others chose to try and start their own covenant in an attempt to gain more power, while others simply went out to live on their own. Most of those witches were Seers. People who got glimpses of the future. It’s a heavy burden, and one I’m thankful I never possessed. I couldn’t imagine being able to see the future, knowing there is little if anything you can do to change it.

What drew the attention of other covenants was the sheer number of witches disappearing. The numbers were staggering. Given the amount of witches missing, the High Priestesses decided to send out investigators to look into the disappearances.

Which is how I got involved. Viany, one of the Head Priestess’s requested I come in and conduct a more thorough investigation. On the down low. We didn’t want to needlessly scare everyone without valid reason. I’ve only been in the forest for two nights before these brutes swept me up. In that time I’d gathered no information.

I’d asked around the nearby villages, but it seemed everyone was keeping quiet about the disappearances. I’d asked to speak to the families of the missing witches, but all I got were terrified looks as people ran away from me. It’s truly odd. I would have thought they’d be happy someone was trying to find the missing ladies. Guess not.

The air rushed from my lungs as the dragon carrying me made a sudden dip, and my stomach began doing summersaults. If I wasn’t already used to flying I’d have been sick. Who taught this i***t how to fly? I thought. I slammed my eyes shut not wanting to see our inevitable death when this i***t flew us into the mountain side.

Darkness engulfed me as we entered the mountain. I forced my eyes open to watch where we were going in hopes I’d be able to find my way out again later. That is if I wasn’t executed on sight.

In a way, this was perfect. I’d be able to see first hand what was happening to the witches they’d stolen. I just had to focus on staying alive long enough to report back. I thought back to the conversation I had with Viany before I’d left to investigate.

“We’re not talking about a couple dozen witches here. We’re talking thousands and more disappearing by the minute.” Viany’s face scrunched up in a deep frown. She was obviously concerned for the missing women. “We have to do something. But if we call out a massive manhunt on the dragons, it’d start a war. We are still hoping to be able to resolve this peacefully.”

“So you want me to go and have a look around to see if the investigators missed anything that might lead us to the missing witches?” I sighed in annoyance. True, Viany and I had become close over the years, but she was becoming much too comfortable sending me out to do her dirty work. “You are aware that I have my own work to do as well, right?” Annoyance laced my tone, but come on. I ran a*****e in the village, as well as doing all the bookkeeping for the covenant. I wasn’t exactly swimming in free time.

“I know, I know this is a big ask, but we’re running out of options and we need to get the situation under control. You’re the only one I trust to take care of this. Quietly.” Her big brown eyes were shimmering with hope and silent pleas. “I’ll arrange for someone to watch your shop while you look into this, and Daniel has already agreed to keep up on the bookkeeping here while you’re away.”

She was beyond prepared, knowing every objection I would levy and coming up with a solution. At this point, I had no real reason to refuse. She had me, and she knew it.

“I’ll leave in two days to investigate. Make sure this person that will be running my shop is aware that I expect zero mistakes when I come back.”

Viany was already eagerly nodding her head in something akin to a bobblehead doll. “Yes, yes! Of course! Thank you so much, Livi!” While she crushed me in a hug I found myself questioning my intelligence on accepting this assignment. A sinking feeling in my gut told me I may not live to regret this decision.

At this moment it seemed my suspicions were correct. I didn’t know if this would be the end of me. But one thing was for damn sure. I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I just needed to remain calm and level headed. Sounds easy enough.

I grunted when the brute dropped me on the hard stone floor, a musky smell filled the air, but the room was surprisingly warm. Glancing around the room I’d been dumped into I noticed there were no windows and the only door was the one we had come through, and it was huge. Obviously made with dragons in mind. I glanced around hoping I could find something to free myself with, but the room was barren. Not even a cot or blanket.

The room didn’t come off as your typical dungeon. In fact, it gave more of a storage room vibe. Boxes were stacked along one wall, while the other held shelves packed full with supplies. Looked like sheets and laundry. I thought I could make out a dress, but I couldn’t be sure. There were no lights in the room, no candles burning, nothing. It was beyond dark, not that that was an issue for me. I had excellent night vision. A rarity for a witch, but I was thankful for it all the same. Beyond all the storage supplies, there was nothing, no hooks, nails, not even a paperclip I could use to free my hands. I crawled as best I could over to an unoccupied wall, and leaned up against it. I didn’t know how long I would be there for, so I decided to use my time wisely. I repeatedly replayed the path we took to get here hoping that I’d be given a chance to escape, and hopefully find the missing witches.

Thanks to the lack of windows in the room, I had no clue how much time had passed and I wasn’t the best judge of the passing of time anyway. But when the huge door finally opened, the light that bled into the room was blinding and I could feel my eyes begin to water. It had clearly been at least a couple of hours since I was brought in.

I was still trying to get my eyes to adjust when I felt hands grabbing the back of my jacket as I was dragged out of the room. Because I’d been shrouded in darkness for the past couple of hours, it took longer than I would have liked for my eyes to adjust. Even with them closed, I could tell that we had gone about one hundred fifty feet before taking a left turn.

My eyes had finally adjusted enough for me to open them. Glancing around I realized getting out of here was going to be easier said than done. Every wall we passed, every door, even the artwork were all the same! Who the f**k did the decorating here? This was going to make it a little more challenging, but I’d always been up for a good challenge.

We continued down the never ending hallways until finally, we reached a massive set of double doors. The men dragging me exchanged a few words in some weird language I didn’t understand with the guards at the door before the groaning of the heavy doors being opened reverberated through the halls. The men dragged me further into the room, before literally throwing me ahead of them.

I hit the floor with a hard thump, and pain radiated from my shoulder down to my left hip, but I refused to cry out. Wasting no time I rolled myself onto my stomach and used my shoulders to push myself up into a more dignified sitting position. I huffed a breath to get my hair out of my face and took a quick glance around what was the obvious throne room. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest as I took note of all the dragons in the room. I began pooling all my magic, ready for anything, however my magic felt very weak. I could sense the magic there, but it was like it was slipping away from me every time I reached for it.

A feeling of panic threatened to engulf me. Without my magic I'll be a sitting duck! My chest began to feel tight and it felt like my throat was closing. I could feel a cold sweat begin to form on my brow. Get a grip! I thought. If I don't calm down I’ll be dead before I even know what hit me. Calm down.

The feeling of fear and panic began to subside and I felt like I could breathe again. Keeping my head lowered I glanced around the room. Everything about this room screamed nobility. Every piece of furniture looked insanely expensive. To my left there was what looked to be a makeshift living room. There were two very large sofas, along with a coffee table, and a loveseat. All the furniture surrounded an absolutely huge fireplace, which was lit. How odd. I thought. The flame didn’t burn with the usual orange and yellow flame. No, this flame was purple. I’d never seen a flame that color before. Glancing quickly to my right yielded nothing but the view of long denim covered legs. Not very helpful.

I heard the distinct sound of heavy footsteps approaching me, but kept my head down. Hopefully if I looked like a helpless low level witch, they’ll drop their guard and I’ll be able to slip away. A pair of heavy hiking boots came into my line of sight, but I still didn’t dare look up. I hated to admit it even to myself, but I was scared to see who was standing in front of me. I hadn’t trained without using my magic in a long time. I wasn’t one hundred percent confident in my abilities in hand to hand combat against dragons and this man’s power radiated from him in waves. It was dizzying. The best hope I had of getting out of here was playing helpless little girl.

“Look at me,” a deep voice commanded.

Gritting my teeth in annoyance at being ordered, I glanced up at the beast, and froze. This guy was huge, and I don't just mean his height, though that alone was intimidating enough. When I say this guy was huge I meant wide. Dude was built like a brick s**t house! I had no doubts that this man could single handedly bring down the entire mountain if he were to lose his temper one day.

An involuntary shiver ran down my spine as I stared helplessly at his deep blue eyes. So blue, you could mistake them for purple. Beyond his intimidating height and stature, he was beautiful. Lightly tanned skin, he wore a sprinkle of beard on his chiseled jaw. Almost like he hadn’t shaved in a couple days. His black hair was cut shorter on the sides and longer on the top and perfectly styled. He had an effortless kind of beauty to him. Like he rolled out of bed that beautiful.

He wore a simple black T shirt with dark blue denim jeans tucked into a pair of Doc Martens. He glared down at me with a frightening amount of indifference. His gaze seemed to peer into my soul. I didn’t have to feign the fear in my eyes. My hands began to tremble the longer he stared at me.

What the hell could he possibly be staring at?

I’d never had someone stare at me for so long before. I wasn’t all that comfortable with direct eye contact anyway, and he was just making it worse. After what felt like eternity he nodded to one of the dragons behind me. Seems I missed some unspoken conversation. A hand roughly grabbed the back of my jacket, and lifted me up over a massive shoulder. I huffed out a breath at the manhandling as the guy turned and we left the room.

Now where are you taking me?

I was really regretting agreeing to this insanity Viany pressured me into. If I ever made it out alive I was going to beat her ass. I had assumed we were going back to the makeshift dungeon they’d had me in before, but I was surprised to see us suddenly going down stone stairs.

Fuck, f**k, f**k!

I didn’t think I wanted to know where we were headed, and I sure as hell wasn’t planning on finding out. I began to wriggle my wrists hoping I’d cut one and could use my blood to slicken the handcuffs enough for me to pull my wrists free. I yelped as the man holding me jostled me.

“Stop squirming, or I’ll drop you on your head!” Mr. Handsy growled at me.

Kissing a stone floor from close to six feet up head first did not sound like all that much fun to me, so I stopped moving. I resigned myself to having to wait until at least my feet were free before I made a run for it. I just hoped I lived long enough to get the chance to run.