Taming The Dragon Lord

OPHELIA POV The ropes bit into my wrists, drawing blood, but I still refused to make a sound. I had made a promise to myself somewhere around the third day of this ordeal while I was trapped in the back of a cart that reeked of rust and old hay that no matter how much they hurt me, how much they tried to break me through starvation, freezing cold, or whatever else, I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me cry out loud. I wouldn’t break, not even once. “Move.” The guard yanked me by my collar, pulling me off the cart before my legs had a chance to steady themselves, and I hit the ground so hard that it sent so much pain round my body. My boots slid on the stone, still slick from rain that had stopped hours ago but left everything dangerously wet. I didn’t fall, though it was a close call. Actually barely because I did hit the floor. In front of me, past the guard, I could see a set of doors waiting; it was a black iron with golden bands, already opening as if they had been expecting me. I had grown up hearing tales about this place, the hall of the Ravenswood line, the home to the dragon lord known for burning cities to the ground in an afternoon without a hint of remorse. And as a child in Everhart, I thought those stories were exaggerated. But now, I was about to face the truth. “In.” The guard pushed me inside causing me to stumble through the doors, overwhelmed at first by the sound of the hall. It was like a low collective breath, everyone going still all at once. When my eyes adjusted, what I saw nearly knocked me off my feet. The hall stretched endlessly, with walls of stone, gold accents, and flickering firelight. Nobles and soldiers lined both sides, and every face turned toward me as if I were the only thing worthy of their attention. Keeping my gaze straight ahead, I made a conscious effort not to look down at the floor. Don’t show them weakness. Not here and not right now. “Kneel.” The guard commanded me, pressing his hand down on my shoulder. My knees started to bend instinctively. My years of court training kicked in, an urge to obey, to survive, and not give them a reason to hurt me. For a moment, it felt like my body would submit without my consent. But I caught myself just above the stone. My spine stiffened, and the strength came from an unexpected place deep within my chest, some hollow, cold part of me that had gone quiet since the day I lost the person I loved most in this war. I feared that loss might have shattered me, but now that emptiness felt oddly freeing. There was no space in me for fear. I heard someone gasp from near the front of the court. And at the end of the hall, a man stood up from a throne carved from black stone. Until that moment, I hadn’t dared to look directly at him, but now I had nothing left to lose. He was tall enough to make the grand hall feel smaller than it actually is, with dark hair and clothing that screamed of battle rather than courtly finesse. As torchlight flickered across his eyes, a chill ran through my stomach. I finally understood the stories. They called him something beyond human for a reason. There was a flicker of gold within his eyes, something alive and ancient, sending shivers down my spine even from afar. He stared at me so intensely and calculatingly, as if I had just done something impossible for a mere mortal. “You’re supposed to be on your knees.” He spoke out, his voice echoing across the vast hall effortlessly, low and almost unfazed. Yet his eyes were anything but indifferent. It was something sharp, something predatory that was lurked behind that bored facade, making my stomach tighten more and more. I didn’t know what he was capable of, but I knew I had just made myself noticeable to a man everyone in this room feared. Instead of bowing my head, I lifted my chin defiantly. I would not give him the satisfaction of seeing me submit. “Then you’ll have to make me,” I said, making the entire air in the room go still. I could hear the guard next to me take a sharp breath, as if he was bracing for some kind of fallout because of what I had just said. My wrists throbbed so hard beneath the ropes, but all I did was that I kept my focus on the man standing at the far end of the hall, even as every instinct in me screamed that I had gone too far. Don’t move. Don’t look away. Whispers began to circulate among those nearby but quickly faded as everyone seemed too uneasy to speak up over what was about to unfold. Surprisingly, he stepped off his throne himself. No signaling any guard, no barking of orders at subordinates. He walked the long stretch of the quiet hall by himself, moving at a steady pace. And with each step he took, I noticed the people around me stiffen, their breaths held tight. They clearly had never witnessed him approaching like this and were uncertain of what it meant. My pulse hammered harder with every step he took. When he finally stopped in front of me, the heat radiating from him was extremely intense that it cut through the cold that had settled deep in my bones after days of travel, but I barely noticed it as my main focus stayed fixated on his face. “Say that again,” he instructed, lowering his voice just for me to hear. “You heard me the first time,” I replied, keeping a steady gaze. Something flashed behind the gold in his eyes, a flicker that was gone before I could really understand what it meant. And then he reached out a hand and grabbed my jaw so tightly. His grip was so firm that I could already feel the bruises forming. He tilted my face up to the light, inspecting me like I was an object he was about to use instead of a person he might choose to spare. So much shot through my jaw, but I refused to react. I fought to keep still, refusing to blink even as his gaze lingered over my features. It felt like he was assessing me like a soldier evaluates a weapon, determining if I was worth keeping. “Most people don’t survive telling me that,” he said matter of factly. “Most people probably beg first,” I shot back which caused his fingers to tighten against my jaw. I flinch, but the moment I realize what I did I settle back immediately hoping to the gods that he didn’t notice that. “Did you think about it?” “No,” I said, the answer came without hesitation. He examined me for another moment, close enough that I could see the shifting gold in his irises. Whatever he was looking for, I could tell he found it. Then he released my face and stood back up straight, turning to address the court without giving me another glance. And it was like the room released a collective breath at that. “She goes to the guard captain,” a voice near the throne piped up, an older man in dark robes who clearly had authority. “The council will want to question her properly, my lord. There are protocols for prisoners of her rank. We cannot simply…” “She is not going to the guard captain.” He commanded, interrupting the older man so quietly that he froze mid sentence. “My lord,” the councilor tried again, trying to present a logical argument, “with all due respect, if this is about Everhart’s fall, the full council should be present for…” “I said that she is not to be executed!” He growled, his words landing quite harshly in the hall, and the reaction from everyone present was immediate. Murmurs erupted along the walls, disbelief spreading through the gathered nobles and soldiers. Someone shifted behind me. And then I heard another voice whisper something too low for me to catch. “And she is not to be ransomed either.” He added, which made the noise turn louder Someone near the front called out his name sharply and almost as a warning, but he didn’t glance in their direction. “She will be held. Indefinitely. For questioning.” The announcement sent a stronger wave of chatter through the hall, as voices overlapped, and shock mingled with confusion. The older councilor seemed to struggle to find his words, his mouth opening and closing as if trying to pick which response to use first. In the background, I heard a woman murmur something that sounded like, “My lord, you cannot be serious.” Beneath it all was a thick current of uncertainty that was pressing down on me. ‘Nobody seemed to understand what had just happened. Not even him’ I thought to myself. He turned back to me one last time, and whatever had been behind his eyes earlier was completely gone, and replaced by a flat expression that was even more unsettling. “Take her to the east tower,” he ordered, speaking to no one in particular but with authority that allowed no argument whatsoever, and he was already walking away before the guards even had a chance to react. “Chain the door. Not her.” The command moved through the hall. The guards immediately snapped into action, while the councilor continued to sputter objections. I remained frozen on the cold stone floor, with my wrists hurting from the ropes and my knees aching, and left with absolutely no idea what had just happened to my life moving forward. And he didn’t look back.