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(edited 12/10/08 for font correction and version update)

Nokala awoke with a splitting headache, made all the worse by the memories of the night before and his mates scathing comments. He cracked open a set of eyes that looked more like a greenish pair of lightly poached eggs than the usually stupendous visual apparatus of an adult drake.

"So... finally awake are we?" he heard a hard mental hiss as Carlina stalked into the lair and positioned herself in front of him "And what are you going to do about that monkey before he gets Cill with egg hmmm?"

Nokala groaned and put his paws on his head as her voice resonated through it like drums beating. He did still have some dignity though.

"Nothing at all" he replied, trying not to moan at the reverberations of his skull.

"They are very happy and since Cill's heat was only last week and no drake claimed her she may already be gravid"

Carlina gasped and her talons dug into the floor of the lair "You knew she was coming into heat? And you didn't tell me how soon? I knew she was having urges but..." She tailed off and wondered how and where she had missed the cues. The human... he must have triggered her heat with his silly actions and fancy words.

Carlina leaned down and grasped her mate's ears in her paw before giving them a hard tug.

"And I bet that old blue pervert friend of yours was giggling his head off over it too wasn't he... He's up to something I can smell it" She blew a gust of smoke over his face and let go of his ears, his head falling onto the bed with a thump "Ow" He groaned.

Carlina stalked angrily around the room, kicking at the walls as she did so.

"If your right and she is gravid then we have to protect her until she shows eggsign as until then she is vulnerable... as is her human" This last was muttered in a low threatening growl.

"You will leave James alone," said her mate as he slowly stood up, gingerly testing his legs. "In fact I am going to bring him here tomorrow so he can meet you and hopefully you will thank him for what he has done"

"For what he has done? Stolen my daughter and made us the laughing stock of dragons everywhere?" Carlina all but screeched at him, the sheer volume making his head pulse with pain.

Nokala sighed and shook his head "Yes ... for all that you despise him and his kind he has dared your wrath and mated with Cill. You cannot deny he is kind of heart and brave else Cill would never have chosen him" he said quietly.

Carlina growled under her breath but she knew it was true; the mating bond left no secrets between those joined by it. "I still don't like it"

"I'm not sure if I do either love," he murmured to her. "But like it or not we have to deal with the consequences as I am sure James is doing with his kind now"

James awoke with a splitting headache in a darkened room. Try though he might he could not make out more than a few outlines around him but the obvious smell meant he was in a prison cell. He wriggled a little on the cold flat surface he was on and found he been bound firmly by hands and feet to some sort of table.

The pain in his head diminished rapidly and he breathed a little easier. Several questions came to him slowly, the chief amongst them being why had Joe betrayed his trust and so quickly? The others involved more pragmatic items, such as where he was, and what was going to happen next.

He could feel he was naked, everything including his whistle had been removed, yet he was not cold. This last was probably due to the small brazier glowing in the corner and Lord Duncan's last words sprang unbidden into his mind "Put to the question" he mused and felt a chill run down his spine.

There was a click as the small window in the door flicked open and a little piggy eye peered in hesitantly as father Champlain nervously stood on a stool to look through at James.

"Try no tricks oh demon in human form," He quavered and stepping off the stool creaked the door open just wide enough for him to squeeze in.

James could see the shadows of two large guards through the gap and knew that escape would be nigh impossible in his current state.

Father Champlain was terrified. He had never performed an exorcism or questioning before and was truly confused at being thrust into the situation he now found himself in.

He looked at the man tied to the table and had a sudden surge of doubt... Surely, a demon would have ripped itself free and escaped by now if it was able to?

He shook his head, no - this was all a trick of the foul abomination that was no doubt controlling the body it had inhabited in order to corrupt as many innocent humans as possible. Steeling himself, he walked over to the brazier and placed several iron pokers upon the flat top.

"Seek not to confuse me o' foul spawn of hell" He said and gripped his bible tightly in his sweaty hand. "We found evidence of your sorcery in James's room... the vile circle with which he summoned you into his body"

James blinked. Cill's travel portal! He felt some relief at this as it meant Joe had not broken his word and betrayed him, but then again he had not done anything to help him either.

"You must confess to the evil and then only can you be shriven my son" Father Champlain murmured as he leaned over James, growing more confident at the silence of the man. "Submit to the lord and your soul at least shall be saved"

James thought furiously, trying to reach Cill but could not hear anything but the soft murmur of her sleep. "I'm not a demon father...just a novice caught up in something out of my control," he said to the cleric.

"You deny being here to destroy us all and enslave our souls for Satan?" There was the sound of a whetstone slowly moving over a blade.

"Of course I do. I no more wish to harm anyone than you do," replied James

The firelight gleamed off the priest's sweaty face as he turned a silvery dagger in his grasp. "But I shall rescue your soul, my son, fear not the pain of your flesh as your spirit shall rest with the lord"

He laid the dagger on the bench next to a line of other painful looking tools "But first... we shall begin with the showing of the implements."

Joe was frantically saddling his horse in the stable, Martin at his side "you can't defy his lordship" the seneschal hissed at the somber man-at-arms.

"He said the boy was a sorcerer and now he's down in one of those penitents cells in the dungeon! Ya could end up on the table next to him!"

Joe looked down at Martin's face as he mounted his mare, wondering what he could tell him. "The lad has some unusual friends is all, Martin. Friends I would seriously want on my side when they come a'lookin' for him"

Martin flushed and looked sullen "Ya know what's going on then... and ya didn't tell me or the Lord? There's fine loyalty for ya," he muttered

"There was no harm ta the keep and I had ta give 'em my oath I wouldn't tell. Now I have ta go tell his lady friend that her lover is tied up in a cell and about ta have his tripe's cut out..."

Martin blinked as he saw his friend shiver and a look of fear cross his face.

"Are they really that dangerous?" he asked with trepidation.

"Aye" said Joe "If Sir Nokal returns, let him in without delay or..." he leant down to whisper the last to Martin "He could flatten the Keep ta find his daughters lover".

Martin's eyes grew wide at this news and he followed Joe with his gaze until he had ridden out of the gates.

James stared at the pudgy priest as he lay on the table and tugged at his bonds. The priest had a look of profound beatitude upon his face as he slowly contemplated and savored the holy task the lord had set upon him.

Father Champlain moved down the table, picking up each item of torture and explaining it to him "This is a saw...not for shearing wood, but for tearing the flesh of the body you inhabit demon" he intoned slowly as he waved it in front of the sweating novice.

He pulled out a horrific device of curved claw-like steel spikes "And this is a cat's-paw" he murmured, running it along James leg slowly. "To rend flesh so you feel each inch of your body screaming in pain and so et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur peine forte et dure"* he stated, lapsing into the Latin of his youth.

James could only keep trying to call Cill in desperation.

* "so on step by step to the most severe pressing until death"

Joe galloped hard to the lake. His poor mare puffing foam from her nostrils as she finally came to a halt at the lakeside. Joe slid off and ran to the water's edge looking for the dragoness but unable to see any sign of her.

Taking a deep breath he yelled as hard as he could manage "CILL!" but there was no answer. Joe ran around the lake looking for her but finally sank to the grass in defeat. He had no idea where she lived or what to look for, surely, a dragon would leave tracks?

He slowly started searching for footprints, crushed grass or other signs that a large invisible animal had passed by and he slowly made progress. The trail was seemingly winding yet seemed to head deliberately towards a cliff where it was possible there could be caves.

James sweated on the table desperately and wondered what was going to happen next, doubtless, they had already erased the runes of the travel portal and that would prevent Cill from making a rapid rescue.

He was barely listening to the priest until he saw the man turning from the brazier with a glowing poker in his hand, his sweaty face lit by its glow.

"So now we begin, admit your guilt and you will at least be granted a swift death and a Christian burial" he intoned, advancing on the novice with the poker outstretched and the tip quivering in his eagerness.

"Father, listen to me" began James as he saw there was no way the man would believe him. He had already made his mind up, and would proceed regardless with what he considered a holy duty.

"I'm not a sorcerer... would I let you keep me here if I could summon demons?"

The priest hesitated briefly then waved the poker in James's face threateningly "one word of a spell and I will burn out your tongue" he hissed, squinting in the heat-haze of the poker.

"But first... a taste of what you shall feel if you do not confess your sins"

James watched in horror as the priest moved the burning poker down towards his thigh, the heat crisping the hairs and filling the air with a stench.

He could see the man frown as he prepared to use the poker and the final look of determination as he ran the tip along James outer thigh.

Cill woke with an abrupt scream in her head; her mate was in terrible pain! She erupted from the bed and frantically tried to use the portal in his room but found she was unable to connect the end of the spell. She tried calling him but could not reach through the red haze that was emanating from him. Rushing for the door of her lair she pushed through it and in her haste almost trampled Joe who was carefully finding his way to her lair

"Cill! " He yelled, "You have to help James at the keep! They suspect him of sorcery and are torturing him to get him to confess to it!"

Cill growled in anger and pushed Joe over, pinning him to the ground with a firm paw "Who are!... and why now...did you tell!?" she growled at the man groaning in fear on the ground She was confused and frightened and didn't know what to do next so she called urgently with a painful catch in her voice "Mama! Papa!"

James gritted his teeth in agony after the poker had left his flesh, he had not cried out yet he felt the tears in his eyes and the dull ache on his thigh as the glowing poker had seared him.

The priest watched him like a snake watches a rat, waiting for the demon to appear as the books said it should.

He hissed his breath in and his eyes widened in shock as he saw a brilliant yellow glow suddenly appear over the wound. His jaw dropped as the burn healed before his eyes. The edges sealed and healing until there was no sign of the dire wound.

"So... it's true, you have a demon within you but you can still feel pain cant you" He whispered and ran a hand over James's twitching belly then down to his groin to fondle it "Burn it out...we must burn it all out" he muttered

James felt a cool heat running through him as his latent powers awoke, the wounding had triggered its emergence and he did not know what it was but it felt wonderful. He felt a flush of anger as the priest lasciviously stroked his genitals and the uncontrolled surge of his newfound power lashed out violently at the hapless cleric.

Nokala and Carlina both heard their daughter's frantic distress call and responded immediately with dual calls of concern. They listened to her and looked at one another, there was no question of not helping her mate - this was family business now.

"Come here Dear, and bring that other human with you, he may know where your mate is being held"

Cill picked Joe up in a paw and swiftly ported to her parent's lair. Joe gibbering in fear as he suddenly found himself before two more huge angry-looking adult dragons.

Nokala looked at the human and sighed, "We'll never get anything useful out of him like this" he said to both Cill and Carlina as they watched Joe alternately shivering and moaning.

Cill was close to tears though she couldn't feel any more pain coming through from James - only confusion and fear "What shall we do?" she whimpered, gnawing a talon.

Nokala shrugged and intoned the shaping spell, guiding it carefully as he slowly shrank into human form and walking up to Joe who was watching bug-eyed.

"Joe..." said Nokala "Tell us what happened... and we will help. James is part of our family now and we will not allow this"

Joe blinked and took a shuddering breath "They found a circle in James's room and said it was a demon summoning circle so they have handed him to the priest to question as they fear he will use sorcery and bring ruin to the keep" he gabbled.

Nokala looked at Cill "A travel ring?" he asked and Cill nodded "You said he was in pain, is he still feeling pain?" Cill shook her head "No...I just feel confusion and alarm from him"

Nokala growled and thought carefully before answering, "There is a chance," he murmured to Cill "That James has some of your mana now"

Cill blinked and shook her head "How can that be? I didn't know humans had mana?"

Nokala nodded "They don't... until now. James is the first human to mate with a dragoness and in that mating... you gave him some of your mana"

Cill gaped at her father "And if he was hurt..." she trailed off in horror as she remembered her lessons about wild magic.

Nokala nodded "Untrained and unfettered he could easily be forced into instinctive defense reactions"

Joe blinked at the dragons not understanding what they were saying, "You mean James IS a sorcerer?" he asked disbelievingly.

Nokala nodded "He is now... and if he was provoked enough he could unleash enough wild magic to kill every human in that keep"

He took Joe by the arm. "Let's go and find him and stop those idiots before he brings down the walls"

Joe blinked as he suddenly found himself in the forest outside the keep with Nokala by his side "Come on, you have to introduce me to your Lord quickly and perhaps I can convince him that torturing young men isn't a nice thing to do."

They both started towards the gates in a fast walk.

James could only watch in horror as a tendril of blazing yellow light flashed from his palm, throwing the suddenly squealing priest against the wall and pinning him there.

Several other tendrils flashed over the walls and his bonds, the leather sizzling and smoking until he was free. Sitting up and stretching himself he looked at the priest writhing against the wall in obvious pain as the power ran through him "see how you like it" he muttered. He saw the priests eyes roll up in his head and the power just as suddenly released him letting him fall to the floor unconscious.

Crackling with lambent yellow energy James stood up easily, the table flashing into splinters as he looked at it.

Outside the guards looked at one another in trepidation. They had been ordered to stand outside and ignore any noises from within but they could see the yellow flashes through the base of the door and sidled nervously away from it. This was probably just as well, as the door abruptly burst its hinges and flew out across the courtyard impacting against the farthest wall.

Joe yelled for Martin as he stood outside the closed gates of the Keep "Martin! It's me...Let us in. And I mean NOW!"

Martin looked over the parapet and blanched as he saw an angry looking Nokala beside Joe "Isn't that..." he began.

"No time for explanations" snapped Nokala "I need to speak with your lord immediately before something dreadful happens"

"Dreadful?" quavered Martin as he looked down "Like what?"

Nokala frowned at him "Like me"

Martin swallowed hard and gave the signal to open the gates for the pair who swiftly walked in "Where's James being held" Nokala rasped at the bemused seneschal

"I don't know... one of the penitent's cells under the keep but the priest was in charge"

There was a sudden loud boom followed by frantic shouting at the rear of the Keep.

"Not any more" stated Nokala, grinning ferociously. He then frowned as he saw Lord Tarrant running frantically down the stairs from the donjon, strapping on his sword belt as he ran.

"Come with me" he growled, grabbing Joe by the arm and pulling him along as he walked towards Duncan.

"Lord Tarrant!" called Joe as he half ran-half hopped beside Nokala "Ya need to talk to er...Sir Nokal here right now!"

Duncan frowned as he saw the man clad in black leather dragging his master-at-arms like a small child beside him "Who are you... what do you want"

Nokala released Joe and stood with his arms folded "You have someone that belongs to me "he growled at Duncan"And I want him released"

"The sorcerer is being questioned and will not be released until he has been cleansed and shriven" Duncan shouted, "Are you saying he is innocent?"

Nokala snorted, "Of course he's a sorcerer. The first true human sorcerer and he's about to destroy this place unless you take me to him without delay"

Duncan looked shocked. He had expected hot denial, not blunt acceptance of Satan's work here in his keep "Why? So you can join in his unholy work?"

Nokala suddenly leaned forward and grasped Duncan by the front of his tunic, lifting him off the ground with ease, trying to keep his patience as he locked his fiery gaze on the man "If I wished to harm you, I could do so anytime I wished. Now let us go and talk to James and then I shall explain"

He dropped the astonished lord and followed him towards the rear of the keep

The explosion had catapulted the cell door violently across the cellar yard, narrowly missing the two cowering guards in the corners. James staggered out of the opening, the bright yellow glow surrounding him. Lightning-like tendrils crackled along the walls and ground around him as he moved towards the bailey in an erratic manner. He felt as if he was being gently tugged along by something out of his control and not caring where he ended up.

Nokala and Duncan saw him as he emerged from the cellars. "Leave this to me' ordered Nokala and approached James slowly, the amount of magic the boy was emanating could be dangerous in his current compressed form and he would have to bleed it off slowly to avoid a sudden disastrous release.

"James. Come here. It's Me, Nokala," he said quietly yet commandingly as he waited for James to focus on him.

N-Nokala?" James murmured as he staggered towards him "What's happening to me?" he sounded panicky and the glow intensified suddenly, the creeping tendrils licking at the ground.

"Give me your hand James, before you hurt someone. You have built up too much power and need to get rid of it" Nokala extended his hand and waited for James to reach him, the human tentatively reached his own hand out to grasp the Dragon's firmly.

Nokala let out a growl as the mana surged into him...So much power! His disguise spell was wildly fluctuating making it hard to control. He realized he would have to cancel it or risk damage to his own body. Nevertheless, to reveal himself in front of all these humans?

James fell to his knees as the power slowly drained from him, not seeing the look on Nokala's face as he wrestled with the dilemma facing him.