“Sorry, Your Excellency,” one of them said. “But could you continue to calm him for just a bit longer?”
I understood their concern. I was reluctant to hand him over to them like this too.
“No worries. I’ll take him on a flight. Please prepare a cow for him.”
“Yes, sir.”
From there, I led Veralgon away and into the sky. I let him fly freely for a while, then urged him to perform a series of acrobatics to burn off some steam. Of course, this was more than a little risky for me, without the benefit of a saddle or any safety gear.
When we returned to the dragon house at last, the keepers were waiting with plenty of raw meat. I could only hope that one cow was enough to improve his mood.
Once Veralgon was done feasting, I left him with the keepers and set off for Dragonjaw Gate’s central tower.
I’d really gone through hell just now, blasted by icy winds while desperately clinging to the dragon. I could barely feel my face and hands, and I hoped I didn’t come down with frostbite. As if I hadn’t already felt bad enough from the previous night’s battle! I would need to get the doctor priest to look at me again.
Resisting the temptation to go sit by a warm fireplace, I headed underground. George, Lily, and two guards were waiting for me in front of the dungeon.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I told George. “That must have been terrifying. Are you all right?”
“Yes, Your Excellency. Thank you for rescuing us.”
George and Lily bowed their heads.
“Well, thank you for protecting Lily. Can’t lose her, now can we?”
My praise was sincere. George had stood up to Veralgon’s terrifying glare to protect her. While he looked somewhat underwhelming, he was still the son of a great lord. The same blood as Thret’s ran through his veins.
“Did you bring the dictionary and the stone slate?”
“Yes, sir… Right here,” he said, producing the sage’s book. The stone and chalk were in Lily’s hands.
“Then let’s go.”
A sentry inserted a hefty key into the dungeon’s main door and turned it. Once we were all inside, I heard the lock slide back into place.
“Where is the Black Dog?”
Another sentry inside stepped up to lead us. “He’s being held in solitary confinement, in the farthest cell in the back. Follow me.”
Two guards were stationed at the door of the farthest cell. Security was quite strict, though I could understand their concerns. Having expected us, one of them opened a peephole to peer inside, then took out a small key and opened the door.
The Black Dog sat with both hands bound with chains to the back wall. When he saw me enter his cell, his solitary eye gleamed with the same indomitable spirit as when he’d been captured. Then I saw his gaze grow even sharper. Fresh rage seemed to build in him, but why? I hadn’t done anything yet that might have provoked him.
I turned and saw that George and Lily had entered the room behind me. Oh, so that was what it was. Anyone with a sense of justice would have become enraged to see one of their own kind, especially a young maiden, with a collar around their neck and being led by a chain like a dog.
The door shut behind George, and the guard relocked it.
“George, remove Lily’s collar.”
“Yes, sir.”
Now, to get down to business. It was time to test the results of our language training, and I’d already decided on the basic approach. First, Lily would translate my spoken words into orcish by writing them on the chalkboard. Then, I would use the dictionary to decipher them. I hadn’t taught Lily any of the language of the humans in this world. When possible, I tried not to let her see the dictionary either. On the off chance that she ever escaped, the less information she could pass on to the orcs, the better. The only words I had taught her were in Japanese, which other orcs could never make use of.
Then again, from overhearing George’s daily conversations with our housekeeper and others, there was a good chance she had, in fact, picked up some of the words used by this world’s humans but had kept them to herself. Lily was smart, after all. It was said that all humans captured by orcs were brutally killed, but no one knew if that were really the truth of the matter. Lily had communicated to me that she had never seen a captured human before, but I wondered if any of them had ever been taken prisoner and used by the orcs to study the human language, in the reverse of what I was doing. Well, if so, they hadn’t used that knowledge to pursue a treaty.
But my thoughts were getting off track. I was here to interrogate the Black Dog.
I gestured to Lily, and she stepped forward and bowed to me. I was about to get things started, but before I could speak, the Black Dog entered into a series of emphatic grunts. Whatever he’d said to Lily caused her eyes to widen. Wait, did they already know each other?
When Lily oinked back to him, sounding powerless, the Black Dog grunted sharply and critically. Whatever his words meant, they were intense. After several of these short exchanges, Lily collapsed on the spot and began bawling miserably. George squatted down beside her and began patting her on the back, but the tears wouldn’t stop. How could she be of use to me like this?
The Black Dog switched his gaze to me, but upon seeing the reproach in my eyes, he awkwardly looked away, as if to say, Ah, I’ve really done it now.