Azure bonds - Kate Novak [22]
"Poor dear," rumbled the dragon. "Are you ill-versed in the common tongue? Where do they send these robbers from, anyway? Asken bey Amnite? No. You don't look like a southerner. Cheyeska col Thay? Not that either. Do you speak am' language known to the Sea of Fallen Stars? I detest not knowdng where my next meal is coming from."
The dragon's ramblings shook Alias from her trance. The beast had transfixed her with a gaze that would have done a basilisk proud, yet here she was, nattering like some fishmonger's wife. Alias tried to speak several times, until the words found purchase in her throat and she spat out, "I come from Cormyr." For the moment, she added mentally.
"Oh, so you are native flesh," said the dragon, coiling her neck back as if to view Alias in this new light. "How precious. I do hate foreign mystery meat. They put such odd things in their bodies."
Alias blinked hard, fighting the sudden drowsiness that descended on her. First the dragon's gaze, then its rich, rumbling words, seemed to drain the energy from her body, as if the rest she had received earlier in the week had done her no good. This must be what they call dragon-fear, Alias realized. She shook herself out of the lethargy.
"I am no foreigner, but Alias of the Inner Sea, swordsmaster and adventuress," she announced.
"Oh, really?" replied the dragon. "You must forgive me for not knowing anything about you, but I've been so out of touch. I am Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco. You may call me Mist. And I'll call you… supper? Yes, it's about time for a light, early supper. So nice of you to deliver yourself."
The dragon shifted its weight, and Alias saw for the first time the front paws of the beast, huge, three-toed triangles, each corner of the triangles sporting a claw. Further up each foot glinted an opposing dew claw. All the claws were as crimson as fresh blood.
Alias held up her sword with both hands-not to attack, but as a warning gesture. She replied, "You must forgive my unwillingness to serve as your meal, O great and powerful Mistinarperadnacles, but instead I think I will challenge you to the Feint of Honor."
"The Feint of Honor?" Mist echoed the last words with a tone of surprise. Then she chuckled, a sound that echoed like thunder about the cavern. "What can you know about the Feint of Honor, O Supper?"
Alias stepped back until her back was touching the wicker of the cage and replied, "It is the proper name given to the ritual combat of subdual instigated in the most ancient of times by the wisest of dragons."
Mist sniffed, "And I presume you know why?"
"Because, in the most ancient of times, your people fought amongst themselves so fiercely that many promising wyrms died. Indeed, scholars believe you may have wiped yourselves off the face of the land had not the Feint been decreed." Alias pressed her calf against the cage bars in hopes that the halfling would notice the dagger in her boot.
"Yes. True enough." The dragon nodded, settling back on her haunches. "Having heard of this custom, all manner of militia and mercenary have come barrelling into my home and the homes of my brethren, beating on us with the flat of their blades, firing blunt-headed fowling arrows, and generally disturbing our rest until we are forced to destroy them just to regain our composure. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It implies a lot of ignorance." Mist twisted her neck so that her jaws were uncomfortably close to Alias's head. "You see, the Feint is a code for dragons. It has nothing to do with you puny, but delicious, mortals."
"Not so, O Mistinarperadnacles. True, many humans may attempt subdual without following the formal codes, and their senses are as bootless as a halfling. And he who walks in here without sense, walks in here unarmed. You are then entirely within your rights to exterminate them as you see fit." Alias felt a pat behind her knee, a signal, she hoped, that the halfling had understood, but she had no sensation of her dagger being slid from her boot. "But you may not with honor deny a challenge properly