Chp.37: Finally out!

"Uuungh"

Isaac reopened his eyes weakly. His body was in pain and he could barely sit up. He was pretty sure he had at least three broken ribs. Very quickly, he started chanting a healing spell on himself, to set at least the broken bones back into place.

"Damn... Maldor didn't go easy..." he whispered gritting his teeth. But despite the pain, he couldn't blame her for hitting him. Probably, in her place, he would have done the same thing... or maybe even worse. Isaac had no idea how far he would go if he was put in that situation. In a way he had to be grateful: Maldor could have killed him, indeed, prudence would have required her to kill him, instead she had limited herself to stunning him.

A brother. He still couldn't believe it. Maldor had a brother… well, it wasn't so strange actually, since dragons were known to be born in large litters… but it was amazing that they stayed together. Isaac had never seen the dragon of the arena, but he knew it was over a year and a half old; in fact, it was probably closer to two years old by now. Dragons became solitary long before that age. Instead, Maldor seemed to have a deep attachment to her brother... and maybe he wasn't the only one. Isaac remembered her words, in which she claimed that this plan was created by her and her siblings.

So there were many... how many were there? Two, three? A doubt crossed his mind: what if every individual attacking the capital at that moment was a sibling of Maldor? After all, he'd often heard her and Kotaru mistakenly calling each other 'sisters'. Until now he had believed that they were simply allies, or friends, or that Maldor was being subjugated by someone; it wasn't unusual, in fact, for some cults or terrorist organizations to use ferocious creatures for their purposes, and he had sometimes heard stories of people using dragons by catching them when they were still too young to defend themselves. Isaac had been convinced that Maldor had just been captured by such people who forced her to do as they wanted, or perhaps even indoctrinated her since she addressed Kotaru as 'sister'. But now, he realized he had it all wrong: his perception of events had been influenced by the fact that he knew dragons were solitary… but now that he knew it was different for Maldor, everything was clearer. In reality, all of the attackers were dragons, or a good portion of them at any rate, and they had done so to free their brother. It was almost like a fairy tale, a ridiculous joke; it was something that went against all common knowledge…

Common knowledge?

Isaac laughed and called himself a fool. Why was he still reasoning with common knowledge? For weeks he'd had the proof that his beliefs were completely wrong. Common knowledge defined dragons as monsters, predators devoid of any empathy, without any affection or love, selfish and narcissistic and dedicated only to themselves; instead, Maldor was kind, very helpful, loved to teach and was almost always smiling. And her sister, Kotaru, even though she was a bit more defensive, had always been a pleasant company. Neither matched the way people normally imagined dragons. Sure, now they were attacking the city and robbing the academy… but if indeed the one in the arena was their brother, then they couldn't be entirely blamed for that. After all, if a dragon kidnapped a human being, would his family let it go? Would she resign? Of course not! They would fight, even if it cost their lives. So why would Isaac blame the dragons if they were fighting to get a family member back? He would have been a complete hypocrite.

Maldor wasn't a dragon like any other. She was able to make connections with other people. And certainly family meant a lot to her. Isaac wasn't an expert on dragons, but he knew a few things about how awful their parental care was… and surely, their life away from their parents couldn't have been easy either. She and her siblings probably had no one to rely on for a long time but themselves. They had created a bond that everyone would call abnormal for dragons, but from Isaac's point of view it was a wonderful thing. Of course, he didn't know much about Maldor, and almost certainly she and her siblings had retained a certain degree of ruthlessness and ferocity typical of dragons... but they were also capable of feeling emotions other than simple survival instinct.

Once most of his more serious wounds was healed, he pulled himself up and walked out of the lab, and then looked out the window. The battle was still going on, so he couldn't have been knocked out for more than a few minutes, another sign that Maldor, while hurting him, hadn't used too much power against him. There was still time to reach her. He knew where she was headed, so maybe he could do it.

But why did he want to reach her, after all?

Isaac realized he didn't know. What did he want to do? If a member of her family was involved, then he certainly couldn't convince her to stay. The wisest choice would have been to let her go and forget about her. Still, he wanted to go. He wanted her to know that he wasn't mad at her. That he approved her decision. That he still consider her… a friend.

He didn't want that Maldor believed that there could be no friendship between dragons and other races. He didn't know why he cared so much, but he absolutely didn't want that to happen. And so, almost unconsciously, he ran and broke through one of the windows, and then he casted a wind spell that suspended his body in the air and he flew towards the arena.

Meanwhile, Maldor had already gained a decent lead. Like Isaac she too was using a wind spell to fly over the city, but unlike him she was also using an invisibility rune to keep herself hidden. As she approached the arena, below her she could see several of her sisters and also her brother Rhaegal struggling to keep the city guard busy. As soon as she was close enough she came down from the sky and deactivated her invisibility. "Guys, I have it!" she exclaimed showing the portable gate.

"Good!" Rhaegal exclaimed with his chest heaving with happiness, then he nodded to Efren, Carlos and Sarah. "You three, go with her! Unlike us, you can't just destroy your bodies to escape. Therefore, you will escape using the portable gate like everyone else!"

The three adventurers nodded; though they wore masks, Rhaegal was sure they wore expressions of pure relief now, since they had never talked about how they would escape and probably assumed the dragons had forgotten. He turned to Maldor: "We will continue to keep the city's defenses busy, but we don't know how long we can last! Go to the arena as soon as possible and get our brother out of here!"

Maldor nodded and cast the wind spell again, lifting herself and the three adventurers up and heading for the arena. Rhaegal let out a roar and charged the soldiers again, determined to buy as much time as possible.

Maldor and his party quickly reached the arena, but obviously they couldn't enter due to the magical barrier. For a moment they feared that something had gone wrong, but then they noticed several gladiators on the highest battlements who had spotted them and were running to warn someone. Maldor hoped that meant the barrier would soon be deactivated.

The gladiators rushed down the stands, yelling for attention. Zamor, Darbi and Haku immediately noticed the commotion. "A woman and three masked guys!" one of the gladiators exclaimed. "They are out of the barrier! The woman has a strange round object in her hand!"

"They are here!" Haku exclaimed. He didn't know who the three masked guys were, but they were probably just Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal, or some other of his other sisters. He looked at Darbi: "Quick, go! Destroy that barrier!"

"You don't need to tell me!" Darbi exclaimed running towards the gate, and then he nodded to Brenno and Gord: "Come on, let's go!"

The three quickly disappeared into the corridors of the arena. Haku looked at Zamor: "Tell everyone to gather here in the center of the arena! We're leaving this shitty place!"

Zamor nodded, then ran to do as he was told. Haku darted his eyes from one corner of the arena to the other. Where was Misune? He wanted to make sure she was there too. He hoped she hadn't wasted precious time convincing the other slaves, or gotten herself into trouble… but just as he thought that perhaps he should go looking for her, he saw her appear at the main gate, followed by more than a hundred other slaves. He immediately ran up to her, and that scared the shit out of the poor slaves who screamed and huddled together, and maybe some of them even fainted, but Haku couldn't care less. What mattered to him, rather, was that Misune was wearing the gloves he'd given her and that they were dripping with blood. "I told you not to take any risk"

"I didn't" Misune replied. "We ran into two or three guards on our way here, but I was able to handle them"

"I think you and I have different definitions of risk" Haku grumbled shaking his head. "Well, I'll scold you later, there's no time now. Follow me, we must all gather in one place"

The slaves followed him to the spot where the gladiators had gathered. For a while they waited and nothing happened, then there was a sound like a piece of glass breaking, and the magical barrier disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Maldor, Efren, Sarah and Carlos finally got through and entered the stands, making their way quickly towards the huge group in the center. As soon as they arrived, Maldor couldn't hold back her tears. "Brother..."

Haku felt his heart tremble upon hearing her voice, but he forced himself to keep calm. "Later. We need to focus on getting out of here first"

"Uh... oh, sure! Here, I've got it!" Maldor exclaimed showing him the portable gate. She looked a little disappointed, but after all she too knew they couldn't afford to waste time hugging and crying. They would have done all this when they were very far from the capital.

Haku nodded and then he exclaimed: "Everyone, shake hands with the person next to you! All the ones who are near to me, hold on to my scales!"

Haku remembered the rules of the portable gate: it teleported every living thing within a three meters radius, and also all living things that were physically in contact with them. It was impossible to fit all the gladiators and slaves in just three meters feet, but by connecting all of them then it would be possible to transport them all away.

The people present executed and all joined together in a giant human chain. Darbi, Brenno and Gord ran back and joined them at the last moment. "Okay, we're all here! We can go!" Haku exclaimed. Maldor nodded and she imagined she was near the river at the edge of the desert, where her real body was, and then she forced with her hands on the portable gate which began to crack, until it broke completely. But just then she heard a voice: "Maldor, wait!"

She turned slightly to see Isaac flying towards her using a wind spell, looking somewhat breathless, as if he'd just run for tens of kilometers. "Isaac? What are you...?"

There was no time to say more: an immense light was released from the fragments of the portable gate and enveloped everyone present, to then it vanish as quickly as it had appeared. And with it they all vanished too. The arena became empty.

Outside the arena, Rhaegal noticed the flash. A smile painted on his face. "They made it. Haku is free!" he exclaimed. "Sisters, it's time to go!"

His sisters nodded, and then they drew a flammable potion from their pockets and splashed it all over themselves, setting their bodies on fire. This potion was enhanced with dragon's blood, so it very quickly completely charred all the flesh and even some of the bones. Rhaegal and the others immediately cut their connection to those bodies: they weren't worried about losing them, since they could make more, and indeed in case they wanted to return to the city there were already several ready hidden in Sisna's shop.