simple, so possible, to find a dragon and bond with it through your spells, O Great Magician,' Zyperis said playfully.
'But it is—it will be!' The human whispered, shrinking in upon himself, as one of the nearest Endarkened turned her gaze away from the Queen and rested it upon the human. 'Only let me draw near to it, and it will fall prey to my spells—then you will have all its power—and mine— for your own, to use as you choose!'
'But I already have you, and all your power, Henamor,' Zyperis pointed out with mock-obliviousness. 'How could I possibly be greedy enough to wish for anything more?'
'Only let me try again,' Henamor begged. 'It must have detected me somehow, hidden itself before I could discover its den. I have done all that you asked, Exalted One—for years I have been your eyes and ears in the Bright World, doing all that you asked of me, growing in your power, working your Dark Arts. I have given you many slaves, even my own wife and children—'
'But you promised me a dragon,' Zyperis said in jesting singsong tones. 'And you didn't give me a dragon. Now why should I give you a second chance to fail at what you didn't manage to accomplish once? I really don't think another failure would be at all good for you, my Henamor. Now come. You have always been curious about our secrets. Let me show you the heart of our power.'
He put an arm around the human's shoulders, and drew him close to his side, savoring the shudders of fear that Henamor tried hard to suppress, drawing ever-so-delicately upon that anguish. Zyperis directed his agent's attention to the wall paintings, as if to praise their beauty, knowing the man would only see their subject, the endless and exquisite ways that the Endarkened had devised for their victims to die, and think of his own fate. He summoned a servant—one of the Lesser Endarkened, its hoofed .and scaled form such that the Brightworlders found especially hideous— and pressed wine upon his guest, before directing his attention to a pair of golden boots. They stood upon a long wooden rack beside several other sets of oddly shaped footwear, all metal.
'Are they not lovely? Rather bulky, I'm afraid, but that is because there are hollows built into the outer shell that can be filled with boiling oil. And the wonder of it is that even filled, they are light enough to dance in. Imagine!' Zyperis smiled proudly at his guest. The Court ladies in attendance upon the Queen giggled approvingly, flirting their jeweled fans as they tried to catch the young Prince's eye. 'Have you ever seen such craftsmanship, such cunning?'
'A-amazing,' Henamor whispered. He gazed pleadingly at the Prince, begging silently for mercy. Zyperis pretended not to see.
'It is a wonderful thing to have a creature entirely at your mercy— but I need hardly tell you that, my friend,' Zyperis said. 'You, too, have accomplished great things in your time.'
'And I will do more, if you will permit me, Master,' Henamor gasped, seizing the opening. 'I know I have failed you—'
'Now, now—what are two old friends such as we to talk of failure?' Zyperis said chidingly. 'Still, I should so very much have liked to have had a dragon… But perhaps another time. Please allow me to show you the flaying knives. They are so wonderfully sharp and thin that it is quite possible to remove a man's skin in one piece, you know, though it can take weeks—sennights as you call them—to properly loosen the skin of the face. I understand that the best method is to make a small incision and then to inject brine beneath the skin—did you not tell me you had done that once?' Zyperis allowed his brow to furrow, as if in thought. 'Oh, yes, now I remember. You said the man died of the pain, but I assure you, that won't happen here,' the Prince added, in soothing tones.
Like all the so-called Masters of the Dark Arts with whom Zyperis had dealt in his lifetime, Henamor was brave enough when inflicting pain on others, but the mere thought of receiving such treatment himself made him weep like a child. Zyperis reveled in this delicious foretaste of the banquet to come—and the beauty of it was, the human had no notion his Demonic host was already siphoning off his pain and despair, while leaving its wellspring intact. Patience; that was the essence of success. Queen Savilla was right; patience won all, with patience, one could create a feast of fear and pain that would satisfy the most finicky of appetites.
Henamor was weeping now, quite frantic with terror, and Zyperis judged that it was time to offer some small modicum of relief, lest matters progress too swiftly.
'But I am sure that you will want to tell me more of what you know about the dragons, leaving nothing back,' Zyperis said, drawing the human away from his horrified contemplation of the crystal cases filled with slender glittering knives.
When Henamor had come here, the man had intended to withhold some of his information, to use it to bargain for his freedom, or at the very least, to persuade the Prince of his continued usefulness. Now he found himself telling everything he knew, or guessed, or suspected about the caverns where the dragons might be found —how to seek them out, the spells that might be used to compel them, how to force a bond upon one of them.
Zyperis listened intently, sipping the fear that radiated from the human just as he absorbed the information —though this was hardly the last time he would have this information from Henamor's lips before the Mage-man died. If only he could use it himself—but unfortunately, his race was unable to make an alliance with the dragons. Only a Mage could bond with a dragon, and only a human could become a Mage. But once bonded, a dragon was psychically and emotionally vulnerable to anything that its rider was vulnerable to, and humans were so very, very vulnerable…
As he listened, he watched Queen Savilla at her feast, savoring Tanilak's destruction nearly as much as she did. Though she had not taken him into her confidence, he had guessed her plans from the moment she had first begun to show favor to Tanilak, and had secretly been delighted when he was proven right. Zyperis had never tired of watching the two of them here together in the Heart of Darkness, glorying in the anticipation of the moment he knew was to come.
