Every emotion he'd ever known raced through his aching, cold body whenever these thoughts crossed his mind, but here and now, it was a miniscule humming that caught his attention.
'Ah... here we go again,' he thought. 'I hope we have more success than last time, and that I'm doing the right thing. I'm ninety-nine percent sure it's not a trap.'
Ramping up substantially, the humming had transformed into more of a buzzing, and become much more pronounced. Fredric concentrated on clearing his mind, not easy given his previous train of thought. His emotions were running high, he realised, not exactly ideal for what was about to happen. Still, he lacked the ability to initiate contact, and so couldn't control the timing. Initiating that level of communication in these surroundings must be incredibly draining, and could only happen rarely and for very short periods of time, at least that was his assumption. Abruptly, the buzzing was interrupted by a low pitched whistle, and then a harsh, croaky voice rumbled,
"If yoouuu caann heaaarrrr meeee, fleeeexxx yoooouur leeftt armmmm."
Casually as you like, Fredric loosened his neck, rolled his shoulders twice, and then flexed his left arm, his huge biceps bulging like a giant honeydew melon. Out of the corner of his eye he watched the naga king give an almost imperceptible nod.
"Olllddd Booonnneessss ressstlesss tooodaaaayyy. Whhaaat maakkesss hiimmmm saaadddd maakees yooooou saaaddd tooooooo!"
Focusing his mind intently on the voice, trying his best to weave in and out of all the background noise in his head, he couldn't see any point in denying that he and Bag o' Bones had a connection, albeit slightly tenuous.
"Yes," he replied, hearing it echo off in the distance, which he found more than a little disconcerting.
"Ifff iitttt weerrreee innn myyy pooowerrr tooooo doooo soooo I woouuulddd puuutttt himmmmm ouuuuttt offf hissss missssserrrrryyyyy."
"So would I," he answered, with it again echoing off into the distance.
There was a short pause, not one of silence, more apprehension. Fredric knew the naga king hadn't finished because the noises in his head remained and were getting louder and more painful by the second.
"Dooooo yoouuuuu thhhinnnkkkk ddraaagggonnn thhaattt waaasssss herrrreee gooootttt awwwaaaayyyy?"
He'd gone over and over this in his mind. The jailer had told them that the dragon had been caught and executed on the spot, showing them some scales, a few shards of talon and a very ropey looking wing membrane in an effort to make them believe what had happened. But he'd sensed that there was more to that dragon that had at first been obvious. It was almost as if Fredric had looked into a mirror and seen a younger version of himself. Despite the jailer's claims and the blood splattered evidence to back them up, he was convinced that the dragon had escaped. Escaped to where though? If, as he assumed, they were hidden beneath the Antarctic inside the prison specifically built to hold Troydenn and his followers so long ago, where on earth could the other dragon have escaped to? Perhaps things had changed so much in all this time, both in the human world and dragon domain, that there were large cities and thriving communities nearby. Perhaps Antarctica itself had become hugely populated and that's how the dragon had stumbled across them in the first place. Still... the dragon had bought some hope, and however small that hope was, he refused to give up on it.
"That dragon was special. I believe he escaped the custody of our captors," he sent back to the naga king, all the time limbering up for as much exercise as his bonds would allow, just in case they were somehow being watched.
Moments passed before,
"Yessssss, I tooooooo thhhhougghhhttt hiimmmmm unussssuaaaaalll!"
Above the din in his mind, it suddenly occurred to him to ask a question.
"Have you been able to speak to any of your race?"
Trying desperately not to look in the king's direction, he waited patiently for the answer, despite the overwhelming noise that was now like standing directly beside the speakers at a rock concert.
"I'vvvvveeee trrriieeed mannnnnyyy timmmeeees, buuuut noooo luuuccckkkk. Eeeeveeen thhhoooosssseee thaaatttt I haaavvveee seeennn seeeemmmmm tooo bbeeee shhuuuuuttt offfffff frroooommm meeeeee!"
Against the backdrop of the rock concert assaulting his mind, he let out a string of curses. In the hope of planning some sort of rescue bid, he'd thought the king might be able to get through to members of his race, but as they'd discussed in their previous conversations, there must have been some kind of localised field, probably a mantra or some other magic blocking telepathic communications, which would explain why the short range communications between the two of them were so taxing, both physically and mentally. Before Fredric had a chance to respond, a few last words could be heard before everything went quiet.
"Haaaavvveee tooooooo goooooooo noooowwwww. Ssssoooorrrryyy!"
A sideways glance showed the king slump to the floor, curling up upon himself. For his part, he wished the king a good, dreamless sleep, continuing with his painful exercise, all the time wondering what was going on in the world he knew best... his beloved dragon domain.
19
Liar, Liar, Tail's on Fire
On reflection, the traffic hadn't been nearly as bad as she'd thought it would be, in fact the drive itself could almost be described as enjoyable. It wasn't something that she'd often done, preferring almost always to use the ease, convenience and speed of the monorail, but with the window part way down, the sun shining, and great music on the radio, a little shiver of pleasure pulsed down her arms, despite her feeling a tiny bit claustrophobic. They'd agreed to meet well away from Salisbridge, at her insistence, but with Tim having opted for Swanage as their destination, Richie was feeling decidedly nervous. At the time, she'd been unable to come up with a good reason why they shouldn't meet there, and Tim had been rather understanding about all the cloak and dagger stuff. With Swanage being almost the dead centre of Purbeck Peninsula, the dragon contingent was of course a worry, but by driving there and using a little known mantra that should, if used with the utmost care and control, render her almost undetectable to other dragons for a very short period of time, she thought she could blend in seamlessly. There was always the chance that her human form could be recognised but the chances of that were so remote, you'd get better odds on Peter, Tank, Flash and Gee Tee forming their own laminium ball team and winning the Global Cup. Just the thought of this brought a smile to her petite, freckly face.