Called by the Dragon
7

The Imperial City, from whence every good thing flowed. This was thecradle of the nation that had unified every divided territory from thewestern edge of the Adaraat Desert all the way to the sea. This was thebirthplace of all things just and fair, all things meant for greatness. Andof course, the seat of the Emperor's power could be nothing less thangrand and breathtakingly beautiful. Far below, the colors of thesprawling city blended and rippled into each other like threads in agreat tapestry, the red banners of the various districts twining all aboutwith splendid, curated groves of exotic trees lining every roadway.Many generations before, this place once had another name, but theEmperor had decreed long ago that it would simply become theImperial City. The Empire was therefore simply the Empire for thatreason as well. Instead of attaching a name to it and making it only oneof many, this reign was meant to be the one and only. Not an empire,but The Empire.

And that was what it had become. Under its authority, the peoplethrived. There were no more warlords, no more fighting, no moremisery. All of that had disappeared. Even the most destitute ofterritories that had suffered from the worst kind of poverty andstarvation were cared for now. The Empire conquered first the land,then the soul of it: this was how life should be, full of prosperity andpeace.

There had been costs, though. The dragons that used to inhabit theland were gone now, and there were no more wild serpents in the skies.The Purge had made sure of that, the difficult decision by the Emperorto wipe out all the wild dragons that could not be tamed. In the finaldays of the great creatures, the warlords were still fighting tooth andnail over the last of them in the hopes they could still use them to fightback against the Empire, and they all perished as a result. Now the onlydragons that existed in the land were those that hatched in theImperium under the loving care of their human partners. A bloodyhistory, but in the end, this was what it had become, and this was whatit had always been meant to be.

Anzi leaned forward and pressed her palms along the dragon's glintingblue scales, marveling at the cool smoothness on her skin. Maybe soon,she would be so lucky...She looked up at Colonel Bisset's back andwished once more that she could ask him all the questions burning onher tongue. But even if it weren't out of line to interrogate him thatway, trying to talk would be pointless. High in the sky with the windrushing in their ears, he would never hear her -

The dragon dropped into a sudden nose dive, and her stomachplummeted like a heavy stone thrown into a pond. She clutched at theknobs on the sides of the leather saddle, fingers wrapping around thehardened protrusions tighter and tighter as they dived toward theground. Her eyes watered against the wind, but she refused to closethem. The descent was the most thrilling part of the flight, and herheart thrummed in her chest with furious gusto as they cut through thesky, down, down, down.

When they finally leveled out, she released the breath she had beenholding with a loud exhale. Would there ever be a day when sheaccepted this as calmly as the colonel did? He didn’t look the slightestbit affected. Even his white hair remained perfectly groomed, everystrand still in place. That was the kind of poise she aspired to, but fornow, she savored the last few moments of being airborne as sheimagined riding her own dragon, taking to the skies and venturing forthto new lands, new worlds.

Here they were. Now they soared in wide circles, floating on warmthermals as they neared their destination. The Imperial Palace, right inthe heart of the city. It was as grand and fearsome as ever with its graystone parapets, hexagonal walls, and the river that circled around theentire structure with six stone bridges that led across the water intoeach gate. A hundred guards were stationed on top of the walls alonewhile a hundred more guarded the bridges, the gates, and the wideroads that connected the paths to the rest of the city. They looked likeants from this high up. She wished she could stay here forever, glidingon the wind and breathing in the crisp dawn.

When they landed, it was all too soon, but now there were other thingsto look forward to instead. Her blunted weapons needed replacing, andshe needed a refitting for her armor in case she needed to gussy up forofficial induction. And - well, she ought to send a letter to Oza at theTower, although she didn't know if she really wanted to...It wasn't as ifhe would answer. For now, she followed Bisset and slid off the dragonto stand on a grassy, open courtyard in the middle of the palace. It hadbeen difficult to catch the full aerial view of the grand structure fromwhere she had been sitting as they descended, but there would beplenty of other chances to admire the gold, silver, and gem studdedscenery later.

“We're to see His Excellency, so make yourself presentable.” The colonelhadn't even glanced back at her, but his tone made it clear sheexpected she was a wind-beaten mess, which she was. “Do what youcan with your hair. Unfortunately, we don't have time to cut it.”

Her hands jumped to her head, and she smoothed the tousled strandsthe best she could as she hurried to follow him across the large grassyenclosure. He had a way with words, making her go from exhilarated toashamed in the span of half a second, and now that he had called herattention to her messy appearance, she felt even more out of placethan before.

The blue-and-white clad guards posted between the slender whitepillars spaced around the area had nothing to say about it, but as sheand Colonel Bisset passed between two of them to enter the palaceproper, she could feel their stares digging into her back. When shelooked over her shoulder, however, she saw only the colonel's dragonstaring after them from the middle of the courtyard. With a rumblinggrowl-sigh, the enormous creature settled down to rest on the grass,and she quickly faced forward once more, hoping Bisset hadn't noticedher momentary distraction. She had to be perfect in every way now. Thesmallest mistake could cost her dearly. She was here in the home of theEmperor. This was her chance, her one opportunity. She had worked sohard, given up so much. She wasn't even sure if she could dare to hope.The white stone reliefs carved into the walls and ceiling of the palaceinterior told the story of the Empire's history. The beginning wasn'tlocated here, but this hallway that led in from the courtyard told thestory of the Emperor meeting his dragon for the first time, a greatgolden marvel with wings that spanned such a great breadth that ittook up the entire wall from one wingtip to the other. Too bad that shecouldn't linger long enough to see more; the colonel was striding alongtoo quickly for her to examine anything in depth.

“When you enter,” the colonel said, voice echoing between the wallswith ominous solemnity, “don’t bore His Excellency with any stories.When he asks you who you are, state your name, and when he asks youto speak about yourself, be brief. He has no need to know about yourchildhood or other useless things. Explain that you're a candidate tojoin the Premier Guard, and that you would be honored, and that willbe enough. If His Excellency attempts to draw you into conversation,don't forget that you are only a soldier. Do not distract him.”

"Yes, sir.” She didn’t turn her head to peek at him, but from the faintlydisgruntled edge in his tone, it sounded like he expected the Emperorto be easily distracted anyway. She didn’t know how to feel about that.This was the monarch, the head of the Empire. Did the colonel have anyright to criticize him, even indirectly? For the first time ever, she felt atrickle of displeasure and dismay at the man’s behavior. If it were her,she would never suggest any kind of disapproval over the Emperor,especially not to a subordinate.

So even Colonel Bisset had his faults. She pressed her lips together asthey continued to head toward the throne room, and she was glad hehad nothing else to say. But with every step she took, somethingnervous and tight coiled in her belly with increasing insistence, and shequietly wished they could stop a moment so she could catch her breathbefore the emperor granted them an audience. Stop it, she scoldedherself. This was no time to be agitated, no matter how lightheaded heranticipation was making her. This was nothing, just a preliminary step.She shouldn't be so excited when nothing was for certain yet.Nonetheless, the strangest sensation floated through her. It was theoddest thing, something like - as if she were on the verge ofremembering something she had forgotten, or was about to replacesomething she had misplaced. Like the moment a key hovered justbefore the lock, ready to enter, ready to turn. The inexplicablespecificity of it made her uneasy. It was something separate from theexcitement, something foreign. What was wrong with her? And whycould she feel her knees going weak, her thighs shaking like leavesunder her uniform?

“Colonel Alexandre Bisset of the Premier Guard, with Private Anzi fromTerritory Five. I'm aware he has company, but His Excellency isexpecting us.”

The two hulking guards standing by moved to open the massive twindoors before them, and her eyes lingered on their craggy faces. Theyweren't all human, she realized. Was this normal? Hybrids and mixedbloods in the palace? She had never been here before, but that couldn'tbe right - no. That was wrong. Again, she had to scold herself. Whywouldn't mixed-bloods qualify to be Imperial guards? She needed toput those thoughts away for good soon before she accidentally saidsomething offensive to the wrong people here. Moreover, with thingssuggesting that maybe she had some inhuman blood as well, she wasin no position to keep giving way to old prejudices. She was beingridiculous.

..Maybe it was this boiling anxiety in her stomach that was making hereven more irritable. Why, why was she so restless? She could hardlybreathe now; it was ten times worse than when she had been in thehallway. She forced herself to stare straight at Colonel Bisset's back andnothing else. With a burst of determination, she shoved down theagitation and resumed walking behind the colonel as they entered thegrand throne room. Here, the ceiling arched high over her head in adomed shape and gorgeous reliefs adorned the polished white walls allaround them, but she could hardly pay attention to them.

Really, why couldn't she breathe?

"Anzi, to my side. Greet His Excellency, the Emperor Ra-Tet.”

Ra-Tet? That was a desert name. Had she heard correctly? She steppedto the side and bowed low at the waist before the monarch on hisgolden throne. She only had time for a short glimpse, but even thatlittle was enough to confirm the validity of her confusion. The Emperorwas pale-skinned and blond with crystal blue eyes. She supposed it waspossible he was of mixed ancestry, but with the desert blood being sodiluted in him, why would he be given a native name?

Not that it should matter. She swept away the irrelevant ponderingsand focused her attention on the privilege of being in the Emperor'spresence. That should help her ignore the raging sensation in her belly,too, which had now become almost unbearable. Please go away, shethought desperately.

“It is an honor to be here today,” she said. “I live to serve.”

She heard a sound like that of a palm striking metal, and she realizedthe Emperor had just lightly slapped his armrest. “Up, up, that'senough.”

His voice was middle-toned, melodic. Graceful. This was the voice of theleader of all men. She took a deep breath and stood back up. Butinstead of looking upon the majesty of the great Ra-Tet, her eyesimmediately gravitated to the white pillar diagonally behind the throne,where another man leaned against it in silence with his arms crossed.Dark hair, black as night, and eyes so piercingly golden they looked asif they were glowing. He was wearing loose white pants in the style ofthe nomad tribes who wandered the Adaraat, and his deeply tannedtorso was bare save the wide, golden collar draped over his shouldersand chest. Various gems studded the article, lapis blue and ruby redand emerald green. And although he was half in the shadows, so it washard to tell exactly - she could swear those were golden piercingsrunning down the shell of his ear and hanging from the lobe as well.She almost dropped to the floor. She didn’t know why, but as shestared at him, as he stared back -

“Ah, yes, I forgot,” the Emperor announced with a flourish of his hand.“This is my honored guest, chieftain of the Mahot tribe, Kaizat-Amun.”She barely heard him. Suddenly, the most important man in all theEmpire shrank away to nothing but a speck of dust in her mind's eye,and Anzi thought she could feel her body splitting into a thousand,thousand shards as the room spun around her. Colonel Bisset meltedaway from her too, becoming nothing but a muddled smear in hervision as she stared and stared. The feeling inside her that had beenscreaming, shouting - it reared up and exploded, sending fire into herveins and scalding every inch of her soul. The room expanded, theroom shrank. The room did not exist. Just him, that man, even thoughshe had no idea who he was. Just his name, only his name -Kaizat-Amun pushed himself off the pillar, rounded the throne, andstepped off the dais to walk toward her.