A Bronze Rising: Justice
#22 of A Bronze Rising
There could be no ruder response from a visiting convoy to the Lord of his own lands.
The road was barely wide enough for me as I slammed down on the mountain pass. I was incensed. It seemed like all of the months I had spent in human company had meant nothing. I was still shot at on sight by the least of them. Fury pounded in my heart and made me want to fling all of them over the ledge and down into the valley below.
Tobias came forward, waving his arms. I wanted to smash him too. "My Lord! Master! Please calm down." I realized I was hissed and slamming my tail into the mountain again and again, sending chips as large as Tobias' head down into the valley.
"Get that man off the coach!" shouted Tobias, apparently realizing what was at stake. The sight of the perpetrator being dragged towards me by his former comrades calmed me somewhat. I breathed and my nostrils steamed in the cold air without the need for smoke. The man, dragged his legs and supported by the shoulders by two men to either side whimpered and I smelled urine begin to run down his trousers.
My pupils were the tiniest slits in the bright daylight reflecting off the white of the mountains around me. I calmed myself enough to form words in the slave tongue. "This man... must be punished." I breathed.
Tobias hurried ahead, his movement took my eyes from the doomed man. "Yes! Yes, M'lord. He will be punished. But perhaps-"
I didn't want to hear his simpering right now. "Bring him forward." I intoned. The men at his sides looked at each other and then threw him hastily forward where the trigger-happy guardsmen collapsed in a heap on his belly, covering his head and shaking, pleading for mercy. I began to lower my head.
"Dragon! Please hear me!" Tobias cried. Only his voice could have made me pause. I looked at him and showed my teeth. If my eyes could have spewed fire as well, they would have. "Please, My Lord." Tobias said, his hands out before him, "Take a moment to think on this matter. I don't think it's in our best interests to-"
"What is the usual punishment for attacking a Lord?" I asked, cocking my head. I moved my hand as the man in front of me tried crawling away. I trapped him between my forelegs.
Tobias put a hand to the back of his neck and looked away, "Uh... Death, usually. But I beg you to reconsider. It would be good for your image to show mercy, and besides, you were never truly in danger." The young man, still in his black and bronze outfit, jogged up to my side and motioned for me to lower my head with an ease in my vicinity that the other men gawked at. "My Lord," he whispered in my ear, "The ambassadors Lord Dominic sent are in the stage coaches behind me. You must do everything in your power to defeat the image of being a bloodthirsty monster... forgive my expression, but it is the truth."
I dug my talons into the dirt under me. I was in the right, damnit! Even the human laws agreed with me, the man's life was mine. My dragon blood rankled at the thought of letting him go... for mere political incentives. What was a dragon to do?