Like I was rejecting her.
So be a man, and tell her the truth.
I looked up, just in time to see a tear spill down her cheek. She sniffed angrily and hid her face from me, but it was enough to make my resistance crumble.
“Wearefriends,” I said hoarsely, unable to stay still. I stalked closer to her and blotted the tear with my thumb, while she gazed at me with her large, liquid amber eyes.
“This is the only way I know how to keep you safe,” I confessed finally, closing my eyes in self-loathing. Now, she would ask me why, and I would have to tell her.
“Keep me safe from what?” she asked softly. “From you?”
I whirled away from her to pace again. “I am more dangerous than you think,” I said sharply. Best that I lance the wound in one stroke, instead of dragging it on like this.Tell her the truth, quickly, and stay away from her.
“What do you mean?” her eyebrows went up, and she waited.
“You know that I have been living in this tower, but you have no idea how I came to be here,” I said stiffly. “I am a prisoner of war, from Drakazov.”
Seranni’s eyes went wide, and she swallowed hard. Despite her shock, she didn’t stop her questions. “But you speak Tellurian so well…”
“I’m from one of the border towns. Everyone in Kalinovo speaks both languages.” I smiled, remembering happier days. “Before the war, it was common for traders and peddlers to cross the borders from Drakazov into Telluria and back.” I shrugged. “Trade and commerce flowed across the borders, and there were a lot of inter-marriages, too.”
“But the war—”
“Yes,” I said darkly. “Thewar. I joined the army like all the other lads in my village, because I had no trade, no father to leave me a farm, and no master I could apprentice with. Becoming a soldier was an honest way to earn a living, and I would be protecting my country. My people. What more could a young lad want?” I shook my head. “And then we marched intothisgodforsaken country.”
Her eyes narrowed at the insult to her homeland, but I was too angry to care. “After three months of fighting, our regiment was ambushed. I was taken prisoner. And that was when I methim. The cursed mage.”
Her eyes went round, and she stared. “The mage?” she asked shakily. “What did he do to you?”
I laughed, and even I winced at how crazed it sounded. “Whatdidn’the do to me? There were ten ‘test subjects’ handed over to him here, in his cursed magical laboratory, hidden in the middle of this damned forest where no one would know.”
She reached out a hand to me, as if for support, but I didn’t take it. Nothing could calm me now.
“You wanted to know about his experiments, didn’t you?” I pointed at the book before her, and laughed. I knew I sounded a little crazy, but I couldn’t stop. “Well, here I am.” I spread my arms wide. “Meet the mage’s experiment!”
Seranni gasped, one hand going up to her mouth. “He…did he experiment…onyou?” her voice was low and pained.
I nodded, turning away again to continue pacing. The more I thought about the past, the more agitated I became, and I didn’t want to take out any more of my frustration on her. The truth continued to tumble from my mouth like a festering boil being lanced, spilling my pain and anger into the dark night air.
“For a whole year. We were nothing more than ingredients to him.Your king,” I threw a furious glance at her, causing her to shrink into her seat, “had asked him to create a weapon that could turn the tides of the war. A secret weapon.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “How would—”
“He was trying to create a dragon chimaera.”
She looked up, her eyes wide and fearful.
“Then that means—he was using you all—trying to combine you with dragons—”
“He succeeded,” I said shortly. “He turned me into a dragon chimaera—a creature caught between two worlds. Neither man nor beast, but something in between. He created dragons that could shift into the form of a man and back, at will.” I laughed darkly. “So what if half of us died in the process? Everyone knows you need to break the eggs when you want to fry them. Besides, your army could always get more prisoners for the mage.”
At my words, Seranni’s eyes filled with unshed tears and she looked away, her shoulders trembling. “That’s monstrous,” she said, her voice shaking. “How could anyone—?”
“Because they didn’t care,” I said flatly. “We were just assets to them. The mage, the soldiers, even your King. None of them cared how many of us died, as long as the experiment worked.”
“But—but, the war ended,” she said through pale lips. “It’s over.”
“It’s not over for me!” I roared. “Not until I find a way to turn back into a man.”
