“Miss, there is news.”
Anika paused in her training, mid punch. The men around her all collapsed to the ground in relief. Anika had come to the training ground and had taking to pummeling every man not actively looking for Andrew’s attacher. Many were still low level recruits who had not finished the first level of training and thus wilted under her merciless “training”
“Speak.”
“Miss, our informants say that a criminal boss by the name of Andrew Landry has taken credit for killing the assassin Scorpion. He was given an award for his efforts by the pretorian guard.”
“Scorpion? That would make sense with the wounds he received. This landry fellow claims to have killed him?”
“Likely just a bluff miss. It is possible the body was dumped in landry’s territory. It is a good area to clean up mistakes.”
“I see. Landry.
When Anika finished her shower, there was a red blouse and white skirt wait waiting for her. “Hu.” She smirked. “Alright, I think I can pull that off. I really need to find my own personal staff.” She made her way out into the hall and flagged down a servant. “Please have a car made ready. I need to be a Fire Dragon Corporperation shortly. Also, please have the staff keep me informed. Any changes with Alexa or Andrew, alert me at once.” “Yes ma’am.” “Also, where is Keira?” “She called and said she will be arriving in town shortly.” the servant replied. “Have her get situated at my mansion and then meet me at the office.” “Of course miss.” An hour later, Anika was walking into the Fire Dragon Corporation tower. A guard at the front stopped her. “Which floor miss.”
Alexa held on to Raya’s silvery scales and the spikes on her back as they flew over desert sands. The world Raya had created was vast. “Raya, are those mountains somewhere I would know?” “Perhaps. You were found in the mountains north of Warrington. I believe Andrew calls those the Corrán Tuathail mountains. The great desert below us being the Hadrac desert.” They were hundreds of miles, if not thousands of miles from Durres then! Below she saw a huge pit open up at the edge of the desert, right at the root of the mountains. “The pit… of despair?” she asked skeptically. “careful, young skeptic, the mince worms there will peal flesh from bone. It is a good proving ground. It is also one of the reasons the empire has been hesitant to use that route to attack Dragard. The natural enemies found along this route make crossing perilous in the best of times
Raya allowed Alexa to mount up and she scoped Andrew up in a taloned foot before launching into the air again. When they turned toward the mountains, Alexa asked, “Where is this temple of fire?”“Deep in the Dragfir mountains, behind what you all call the Dragon’s lair, there once was a fire mountain. It has been dormant for many millennia now and its peak long since settled back among the other mountains.”The flight that should have taken days seemed to only take minutes in this subconscious world. Soon Alexa saw coastline that looked similar to that of Durres, but lacked the now familiar buildings of the port city.“Durres?”‘What it once was, before the dawn of Dragard, and before the dawn of men in this area.’ Raya replied.Raya came in for a landing on a snow capped
Alexa wanted to kill Raya. Her world was swirling again as she touched Andrew. This time when she came to, she was in a forest, with high mountains all around her. She looked around at the flat circle of land and realized, there was no way out of this valley except over the impossible cliffs miles above her. Even the sun had a hard time reaching over those peaks. As the world came into focus, the edges of her forest glen began to rustle with life. Animals of every kind lined the edges. There were large cats prowling beside huge bears. Birds of pray circled and dove toward her head. At the far end of the arena, as she supposed this area was, caves opened out of the cliff side. Ten of the caves showed movement and soon a rainbow of color burst forth as dragons of every color came forth. The largest, a gold dragon bellowed a roar that shook the foundations of the mountain. The whole area grew silent. A brilliant red stood to its left an
Alexa sat on a leather sofa waiting on Anika and Andrew. She looked around and realized they designers had made this into a huge library. Books lined the shelves from floor to ceiling. It was amazing to see so many books. When she had lived at the monastery, they had a lot of books, but not this many. She wondered where the servants had found them all. Had they raided local shops and stores for all of them?Anika and Andrew finally came out. Alexa felt a pang of jealousy when she realized Anika’s hair was wet as well. That explained the time anyway.“Ah, Alexa. Hope we didn’t keep you waiting too long. Oh, we have good news! First, the assassin was found, dead.”“Shame we cannot question him.” Alexa replied.“True. I have several creative methods I would have liked to have used on him. but it is what it is. That Landry fellow
Alexa sat on the sofa for a few minutes before asking a servant, “Is there a training hall?”“Of course miss. This way.” The servant led her down a hall near the bedrooms and into a huge exhibit room. the walls were lined with all manner of weapons. There were different size arenas with padded floors in every corner. She found a stave and took aim at a practice dummy. She began beating on it, feeling she was the dummy for even considering wanting Andrew.‘Odd jealousy for a young dragoness’ came a now familiar mental voice.“Raya?” she realized she still wore the medallion and had not given it back. She wondered if Andrew would come for it soon.‘Make him earn it if he wants it back.’ Suggested Raya.Alexa grinned to herself. Andrew may have trained in the dream world, but she would not be opposed to training more with him now. His daily training over the past few months
The next day, Alexa accompanied Andrew to the training ground. The men were downcast when they first saw Alexa. Several had seen the state Andrew was in and some had even doubted he would make it. For a normal person, such an attack could easily have killed them or made them permanently maimed. Seeing Alexa meant more hard training while they waited for news.As Andrew exited the car behind her though, there was a cheer from the men. Everyone was excited to see Andrew back on his feet.“Thank you, thank you all. For now, I am going to increase Alexa’s responsibility. She is going to be working harder on you all as we work to increase security around town.”A round of cheers met this. the men had a love hate relationship with Alexa’s training. They had taken a good break from her brand of torture while she was on tour with the Dragoness, but they were eager to see how they would do now.Andrew looked at Alexa, “show them
When the three were on the cargo plan heading the three hours to Ashai, Anika broke the silence.“Andrew, we are heading to Ashai. Your, umm, ‘ex’ isn’t going to be an issue is she?”“SHIT.” Andrew said, burrowing his face in his hands. “I had forgetting about that little twit.”“There is some talk that she may have had something to do with your assassination attempt.” Anika said.“I don’t think she is that stupid.”“You did try, simi successfully to convince her that the other fellow, Landry, was actually her intended. If she feels scorned by you… is there really any limit to what she might try? We saw what she was capable of with Roisin and Alexa.”“Well it will be a fine time to impress upon her father the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps after we handle Nash’s issue we will stop in on them on the way back.”