Fire of Rebellion
This is a story, my gift to Miralage who really helped me start writing on YS.
The character Dreyst is copyright of Miralage.
Verity is mine.
Fire of Rebellion
There is a great nation that rules this world, a nation of powerful men and women with very little morals who will do anything to increase the power of their country and hence their own power. So what do? They do to free up their precious time so that they may figure out every more destructive and inventive ways to increase their power.
Slaves, millions of them maybe even more taken from their homelands by force or trickery and of course then there are the slavers. The foulest scum of the earth raid the distant lands and drag entire tribes in their foul plague infested vessels into the Empire.
The Empire does still reign supreme and powerful men and women still employ their slavers to take innocents from outside of the Empire's borders, the laws ban the slavery of one who was born to the Empire but it does not ban the slavery of one born outside of the Empire.
The waves slapped noisily against the hull of the ship rousing the passengers awake, most groaned or cried with misery, these were no voluntary passengers but slaves bound of the markets of Marrokan or Salgiers or maybe as far as the Red Gate of Tar'Korsh.
Huddle in a corner was a young dragon who could barely be described as a man, just old enough to evade the slaver's culling blades that had seen so many of his village left behind in shallow graves. His resentment grew like well fanned flames, his elders and village leaders all were huddled separately against the hull, some of them were crying.
Fury rose inside of him, too young to realise the full portent of the situation he raged against his bonds attracting notice of one of the guards from a spy hole "We should make sure that one goes far from opportunity to escape" he mentioned to the captain "You wouldn't want to lose business because of one such as that"
"I'll says what is to be done with such a one and any way he is bound for the halls of Verity so if he is hurt in any way what so ever the man who does that answers to her" the Captain warned.
A shudder went through the crew, Verity was one of the Mage Lords that ruled the Empire, annoying her would be similar to kicking a cobra with bare feet. The Captain grinned no one would touch the boy and then Verity would be happy and maybe she would give him a bonus. The thought of the money he would receive sent pleasant feelings through his body and with nary a thought for the slaves below he went to his cabin to celebrate his good fortune with a glass or ten of wine.
The youth kept struggling until one of the elders snapped at him "Oh still your struggling boy you will not loosen your chains all you do is draw down the wrath of the slavers upon yourself"
"He is right Dreyst those chains will not budge and it will do you no good to draw the attention of a Mage Lord" said the village mystic.
"Oh by the seven lower hells are we bound for the Red Gates?" demanded the axeman.
"We are not but he is" the mystic replied pointing at Dreyst.
That was met with total silence.
Dreyst sat in silence not wanting to draw attention to himself even he had heard rumours about the Red Gates of Tar'Korsh, apparently the worst place to be sent as a slave if you weren't a worker slave then you were a slave of one of the cruel and callous merchants or -gods forbid- a slave of the Mage-Lord of the city.
The slaver ship sailed on totally unsympathetic to the unfortunate captives within its hold and absolutely determined to not fail in delivering their load to the Mage-Lord that controlled the Red Gates. It was well known what happened to those who disappointed the Mage-Lords and Ladies, unimaginable pain and suffering would be inflicted not just to them but to their families not that many slavers cared about their families it was mainly their own asses they were covering.
The slave ship finally ported at Salgiers and disgorged its human cargo into the pestilential market place that was stank of rotten fish, dead bodies and other unspeakable odours. After the ship had pulled well out of sight of land the captain brought the furious Dreyst out of the brig, a few of the crew mocked him "A look at the little drake struggle I heard that the Wraith is in command of the Red Gates" trying to frighten him with the alias of the most cruel and vicious of the Mage Lords.
"No lads" laughed the captain "Verity shall be his mistress, The Queen of Deceivers and Pain, the Mistress of the Night and Terror. A fate far worse than servitude to the Wraith"
That drew a gasp from the crew, most had not known who the new master of the Red Gates was and assuredly a few of the crew would jump ship before they reached the Red Gates. Verity was the Mage Lord in charge of the law of the Empire and she had many sinister devices watching for anyone who had committed a crime against the Empire.
Dreyst slashed out against the crew members who were holding him drawing a rebuke from the captain "Now calm yourself before I am forced to return you to the brig. The only reason you are out is because I think Verity would be disappointed with someone who looks and smell like they have been inside a slaver vessel for months. I will return you for any reason at all for the whole trip. So either sit outside and in the fresh air or stay in the dark and in the stench of the death for the whole of the trip. What'll it be?"
Dreyst looked around trying to judge the distance to the land "Oh don't even think about" laughed the snake helmsman "I know how far a dragon can fly and you'd drown well before you reached land so don't try it"
The Captain smoothed out his fur and pushed down his hair trying rather unsuccessfully to make himself seem less like a jackal and more like a wolf, he failed miserably but no one said anything probably because they were smart enough to realise that they were twenty nautical miles out to see and the first mate was a bull of a man literally.
Dreyst decided putting up with the captain's obscene attempts at preening and the general appearance of the crew was worth staying out of the wretched hole that they called a brig. Of course that didn't stop him making as many insults as he could without pushing the captain over the edge, the general mentioning of Verity tended to make him stop and think. Dreyst found that even though he was a slave that he could still very much enjoy himself at the expense of fools.
There were several notable occasions when Verity's name didn't work. Dreyst quickly found out that the mother of the first mate was a forbidden subject of course being dangled by his foot over the edge of the ship definitely got that across.
Dreyst never missed a chance to ditch a crew member when possible, a helping hand or outstretched foot often sent clumsy crew members to the sharks that perpetually followed the slaver, dumping the dead - or sometimes not - bodies of slaves overboard attracted them to the slavers and of course feral sharks don't differentiate between a slaver and a slave.
The crew never missed a chance to make Dreyst do the hard or demeaning work so he quickly built up a lot of muscle which he used against the slavers every chance he got. By the time the slaver pulled into the docks of the Red Gates not one member of the original crew except the Captain disembarked the ship.
The Captain gestured to the Master of the Guards who was waiting by the docks "So this is Verity's new toy?" the Master asked.
"He is and he is more trouble than he is worth. He killed off every crew member that he could get his hands on whenever no one was watching" the Captain said edging away from Dreyst.
"Well here is your gold you filthy jackal" the Master of the Guards sneered tossing the Captain a bag of gold doubloons "I will take this dragon now"
The Master of the Guards was obviously very proud of his wolven ancestry though it appeared that his more recent ancestors hadn't been so fussy about bloodlines "So what are you a mix of wolf and desert fox?" Dreyst smirked and then ducked under the vicious blow that the Master swung at him.
"Watch your tongue knave I rule this city regardless of what anyone says. Verity is too wound up in whatever the hell she does on that hillside villa. Lastly if I see you outside I might test how good you are at surviving in my city" the Master of the Guard snarled.
"Gods I knew they said warriors were at least three parts fool but you must have missed out on the brave, Master of the Guards, if you are going to attack a man in chains" Dreyst returned.
"The only reason you aren't on the ground dead is because I know that bitch Verity is watching me right now so count yourself lucky" the Master swore.
Dreyst grinned and almost laughed but he felt that it would ruin the points he had just scored against the Master of the Guard, the Master marched him all the way up to the hillside villa and took him to the gate of the villa where a self important panda walked off to fetch Verity.
"You see those words up over the gate?" asked the Master of the Guard "It says Memento Mori which means 'Remember you are mortal' and believe me slave you won't leave this city alive!"
The Master of the Guard wheeled on his heel and marched off "You just made a very powerful enemy" noted a hyena that seemed to have appeared from nowhere "How did you do that?"
"I questioned his lineage. I said he wasn't a real wolf. Pissed him off a lot, Verity" Dreyst challenged.
"A smart tongue, hmm? Do not worry I will soon cure you of that" Verity replied.
Dreyst laughed at her and Verity's eyes flashed angrily, she spoke several words that made Dreyst's mouth taste like bile and Dreyst found that he could not speak "You see dear what you made me do? You made me use Free Magic against you. You really shouldn't do that" Verity said softly.
Verity spoke another two words and Dreyst found he could speak "Interesting but ultimately you couldn't do that to an army so what is the use of that?" he questioned immediately seeing her need to boast.
"We have our army to take care of that" Verity said offhandedly "Foolish men like Sirbold the Master of the Guard who believe that they are in charge of the Empire"
Dreyst regarded Verity with some suspicion "You were listening the whole time weren't you?"
"I'd never on any occasion turn my back to Sirbold. Not even when I am five miles away from him" Verity said coldly.
"So why me, why a farm boy from a town that would have never amounted to anything, I mean surely you would have had better choices from what you have planned?" Dreyst asked equally coldly "I mean aren't I more of a threat?"
"Yes but then I would have had to pay someone to dispose of Sirbold and then people could find out I killed my own Master of the Guards" Verity said lightly as if she were discussing the weather.
"So I guess you were watching the ship ride here as well?" Dreyst questioned.
"Oh yes. The first mate was truly magnificent, how ever did you think of what you did to him?" Verity said happily applauding.
"He held me upside down over the edge of the ship. I held his head under water near the sharks with some rope. Karma" Dreyst laughed.
Verity laughed delightedly "Oh you must tell me more of what you did to those awful slavers. I couldn't watch all of it and I do so delight in painful punishment"
Dreyst cautiously followed Verity in who seemed in a very bubbly mood for someone who was supposedly the coldest hearted, most vicious and sadistic of all the Mage-Lords. Dreyst should have tried to run from Verity but he didn't.
Dreyst was trained by Verity's best assassins and torturers in just how to kill and maim with the maximum pain for the maximum amount of time. Of course once they had taught him everything they knew Dreyst had to dispose of them but since they had been good teachers he granted them quick and silent deaths, after all he couldn't allow Verity to replace him. He had seen enough by this point to realise just how dangerous she really was when she grew tired or disappointed with someone.
Thankfully Verity had finally tired of Sirbold's presence in the mortal realm and had ordered his long and extremely painful death for treason against her. Unfortunately she wanted it to be a surprise to the people of the Red Gates so Dreyst couldn't just march into a bar with his personal legionaries behind him and execute him in the street.
Nor could he slip into Sirbold's room at night and strangle him because that would be too painless. This seemed to be a situation one of his now long dead teachers had warned him of, an assassin's dilemma, when the assassin's nature cries out against the orders of the contractor whether it is for moral or safety reasons.
Dreyst's decision was pretty obvious. He wasn't getting paid. He would be taking a huge risk for absolutely no reward. Dreyst decided to do it his way. Bad decision, he had forgotten the vital fact that although Verity might not be with him in the room she would most certainly be watching.
Dreyst waited for the Master to leave the bar and followed him back to his home, he waited until the Master turned out his lamp and the guards assembled in front of his door. Dreyst waited until it was midnight and the moon was obscured by the clouds, he ran full pelt towards the first guard by the door and had slammed his dagger into the badger's sternum and had dragged it fully up into the rib cage. He spun around and drove a second dagger up into the jaw of a muscular ferret killing him instantly.
Both guards were dead within seconds and not a sound had been made. Perfect.
Dreyst picked the lock of the door and entered the house quietly, he used a garrotte on the honour guard outside the Master's bedroom door and left the body leaning up against the wall, he eased the door open the dived forwards as a dagger large enough to be called a machete slammed into the place his neck had been.
He rolled out of the dive and reached for another dagger. Nothing, he kept his eyes on the Master of the Guard and laughed "Come now that is hardly a strike worthy coming from the Master of the Guard" he challenged.
The Master of the Guard snarled and dived at Dreyst, Dreyst dropped onto his back and seized the Master's knife arm and slammed the dagger into the wood of the floor and began punching the Master's face. The Master's swore and pulled the dagger out and tried to force it into Dreyst's chest, Dreyst rolled and slammed his elbow into the Master's neck stunning him momentarily.
He grabbed the dagger and wrapped his arm around the Master's neck and began trying to force the dagger into the heart of the Master of the Guards. The Master tried swinging his head back to stun Dreyst but Dreyst merely leant back and tightened his grip around the Master's neck "You'll either die by your own blade or by asphyxiation" he growled into the Master's ear.
Dreyst kept forcing his arm down towards the Master's ribs while crunching his arm around the Master's neck. Suddenly the Master's arm gave out and Dreyst's blade slammed between the Master's ribs and into his heart.
Dreyst pushed himself off the floor, this would be the piece de résistance, he packed the Master's coin bag full of coins from the kingdom of Marrokan ruled by a rival Mage-Lord and for a final touch he placed a series of names and addresses on the Master's desk that were linked to the city's most famous district for male prostitution. It might not have been a long death but it would totally discredit and destroy the Master of the Guards and allow Verity to expand her domain. Dreyst looked at his clothes which had become entirely soaked with blood his typical white cloak was stained red with the blood soaked up in it.
Dreyst felt reasonably pleased with himself. He may not have done entirely as Verity wished but in this way she would be far more advantaged by the Master's death than if he had merely tortured him. Surely she would understand.
Dreyst walking into Verity's antechamber and walked straight into the kitchen of her villa, he had practically lived in the place for almost five years and he certainly knew his way around. Dreyst sighed and ducked under the vase thrown at his head by a pissed off Verity "What?" he demanded "The man is dead and discredited! What more do you want?"
"You were supposed to make him suffer!" she shrieked.
"Oh and a dagger through the chest while being strangled doesn't count as suffering, I would count such an experience as very painful" Dreyst shouted back.
Verity spoke in the language that made bile rise at the back of his throat and Dreyst dropped to the floor clawing at his skin. Fiery pain rippled across his skin, it felt as if flaming poker were being run across his raw nerves and insides.
"Now you see. You do what I say or I make you suffer, do you understand?" Verity asked and let the pain cease long enough for Dreyst to choke out a yes "Good because it is irritating to do this" she said and started the pain again.
Dreyst thrashed in the pain as it coursed through his body like a twisted poison, Verity watched on with growing passion. Verity stripped off her clothes and began running her fingers across her cunt, at first she did it slowly and teasingly getting off on Dreyst's groans and screams but as she became more frenzied with her pleasure and Dreyst's pain she began forcing four fingers at a time into her cunt and then her fist. She brutally masturbated herself taking Dreyst's pain levels up with her pleasure, Verity screamed with ecstasy as she came and Dreyst slumped unconscious his body unable to take any more pain.
Verity walked over to Dreyst while her legs were still unsteady from the pleasure and checked for a pulse, she found his pulse and grinned "Oh this is just the beginning" she laughed before wiping her hand on his bloody cloak and leaving the room.
Dreyst groaned and opened his head, his nerves were cautiously rewiring themselves to his body parts making sure there was no awful pain awaiting them he shook his head to clear his vision and noted two very bad things.
One he was in Verity's playroom and Two he was in the centre of the room, naked and hence the toy.
"Shit!" Dreyst cursed.
"Very appropriate" Verity murmured her voice seeming to come from everywhere at once.
Dreyst grinned, Verity hadn't put in any bindings on him yet so this was his chance to get her as good as she had gotten him and Dreyst had one very vital advantage against her. He had seen her play this game before and knew where she would strike and when.
Dreyst closed his eyes and waited knowing that she would use phantasms to confuse him if he kept his eyes open he waited exactly five seconds then slammed out his fist to the right the place where she should have been. His fist met nothing but air and Dreyst reeled until something hard and cold clanked around his arm which held him in place.
Verity's mocking laughter surrounded him until he grew so enraged his struck out with his other fist and just as before another manacle which was invisible as Verity clanked on his arm holding him immobile.
"Oh come on Dreyst I was expecting more from the only assassin left in the Red Gates" Verity mocked from across the room letting the spell holding her invisible drop.
"Then why were you all the way across the room?" Dreyst snarled.
Verity motioned almost lazily and another two of the invisible manacles clamped around his legs and hefted him into the air thus totally immobilising him "This is far more fun" she giggled.
Dreyst noticed for the first time just how irritating Verity's laughter was "That awful sound that you call laughter? Is that common in hyenas or are you just that irritating naturally?"
Verity stopped laughing very abruptly.
"One point to me" Dreyst sneered.
Verity disappeared again and Dreyst felt a hand trace around his groin "Are you ready for the game?"
Dreyst stayed silent and Verity kept teasing his draconic cock out of its sheath. Dreyst was determined to give Verity anything to torment him with but not even he could fight his body's natural urge to fuck when it was stimulated.
Verity suddenly stopped when his cock was at full mast, Dreyst clenched his teeth and silently prayed to whatever god was listening. Dreyst felt cold steel running down his arm "Every injury you do to me I will do twice back" he swore to himself.
Verity let the dagger dig into his skin but just barely opening a shallow wound across the top of his arm, she slowly repeated the act on his other arm and the began to make a series of small and exquisitely painful cuts on his arms, legs and torso. Dreyst kept testing his manacles as often as he could but the cuts on his arms made the slightest exertion extremely painful.
After the cuts were made Verity kept on caressing his cock so softly but quickly, her teasing quickly drove Dreyst to begin cursing her aloud again but his time he knew that each one was a point to Verity. Her tongue flicked across the head of his cock just as rapidly as her hand teased his cock, he heard some words of that language which Verity used to bring him pain but no pain occurred so Dreyst knew that some absolutely awful was coming very soon.
Verity stopped all her teasing and there was total silence, he waited for whatever she had planned for him but she did what he least expected, a warmth wrapped around his cock. Clenching and unclenching quite rapidly and after the teasing he had just taken Dreyst knew he was about to cum inside of her, the feeling of pleasure kept rising and rising and Dreyst realised the nature of her spell.
The bitch had put a spell on him to prevent him from cumming, Verity kept riding his cock like there was no tomorrow and was enjoying it but what made the experience so pleasurable was not cock inside of her but the knowledge that she was torturing Dreyst.
Dreyst tried to think of something to do or say that would totally break Verity's concentration for long enough to let him get some release but for all his struggles not one thing could avail him in Verity's room of tricks.
Verity climaxed around his cock hard and Dreyst felt her concentration waver so he tried thrusting his hips to further weaken her concentration by making her maintain both the binding and the torture spell on him. It worked, Verity was so overcome by the pleasure of cumming from torturing her own assassin that her concentration failed totally at Dreyst's thrusts.
Dreyst came hard filling up Verity's cunt to the brim with his dragon seed but as his mind tried to slip into blissful unconsciousness he slammed his arm down on the cuts on his torso to reawaken himself. The pain soared through him but Dreyst forced himself to stand up and attempt to escape the room, nothing not even revenge was more important that getting out of the room.
Dreyst found a window and was about to jump out of it Verity shook herself from her orgasmic bliss and found what she knew would be the ultimate torture to Dreyst. She spoke the tones of the dark spell with total accuracy and bound it to Dreyst, Dreyst at that moment jumped from the window and found something very wrong, none of his limbs would respond.
Dreyst impacted the stone hard aggravating his flesh wounds further, a mind numbing pain overtook him as his muscles began to spasm and twist. Verity looked out the window at her handiwork "My dear Assassin I fear that you must pay for your crimes and since you acted like a beast working only to suit yourself that is what you shall become unless you pledge eternal fealty to me immediately" she said then began laughing.
"Never going to happen" Dreyst forced himself to shout as he pushed himself upright and began staggering towards the far wall.
"You think you can escape me?" Verity demanded.
"Very . . . hard to" Dreyst began before another muscle spasm made him choke "Get your possessions back from the sea"
Dreyst ran to the wall as fast as his cursed state would allow him and threw himself from the cliff that bordered Verity's villa. As he fell he unfurled his wings so that when he finished changing and by the power of all Verity's spells he knew it would be soon, he screamed in pain as his muscles and bones ripped themselves into a new shape and settled.
Dreyst pushed out with his wings and stopped his fall, he began using his newly grown flight muscles to push himself up towards Verity's villa, when Dreyst literally flew up the cliff and hovered in front of Verity's villa she knew immediately what he planned.
Dreyst tried to speak but found his words came out in a language totally unfamiliar to him, he had no idea that the language he know spoke was that which the Mage-Lords used to make magic. The feral dragons spoke the true language of magics as their own and no one but the Mage-Lords had any idea of what an adult dragon could really do.
Dreyst however had one very solid fact he knew about adult dragons. They could breathe fire and Dreyst inhaled deeply and let his new body do the rest. A huge wall of fire engulfed the Mage-Lord's villa and cleansed her presence from it, Dreyst landed on the smoking ruins of the villa and realised just how much his body had grown in such a small amount of time. He guessed he was at least forty feet long and his wings were absolutely massive, he let out a huge roar of despair as he realised that even though Verity was dead and gone her magic still bound him.
Dreyst had heard many tales that he had always assumed to be pure fairy dust of feral dragons living in the far west in the mountains beyond the cities of Arkalon and Faril. Now he knew that his only way of ever changing back lay in those mountains so far away and he unfurled his wings and flew up into the air to leave but not before using his fire to scorch the very earth of where the Mage-Lord's house had once stood.
Many myths emerged from that day and all stated that a dragon of red and gold had come from the sea rising like the phoenix from its ashes to cleanse the earth of the corrupt Mage-Lord. They vary about where the dragon was headed but again all stated that wherever the dragon went the Mage-Lords would fall.
That day the Rebellion began.
Number 1 is done.
Just wait for the next story.