Geralt's Arc

Chapter 17 of 17

The dragon's growl rolled through the tower room. Its wings folded against the roof. One golden eye fixed on the bound mage below, the man who had chained it in a sealed cave for years. Geralt held Malachar against the wall, steel still at his throat. Rain slumped against him, too spent to stand. The beast wanted blood, and it wanted it now. "Give him to me." The words came not as speech but as pressure inside Geralt's skull, low and certain. The dragon stretched its neck toward the window. Its claws scraped stone. It had crossed the marsh unbidden to collect this debt. Geralt looked at Malachar. Wrists bound. Magic silenced. A prisoner who could not raise a hand. "No," Geralt said. Malachar's purple eyes turned to him, unafraid. "Sentiment. From a Witcher." His voice held its usual contempt. "You kill monsters for coin. I am worse than any of them. Yet you flinch." "I've killed men," Geralt said. "Never one tied to a wall. That's not the work." He sheathed his steel. "The beast wants an execution. I don't do those." Rain gripped his sleeve. Her voice came thin. "Geralt. If you refuse it, it may take him anyway. And then it may take us." She had summoned this creature once. She knew what it could do. "It won't understand mercy. It's owed a death." The dragon's head pushed through the broken window. Heat washed over them. Its jaws opened. Malachar did not move, but his breath caught for the first time. Geralt stepped between the mage and the beast. He raised his empty hands. "You want him. I know why. But he's mine to answer for. Him and I broke your chains." He held the golden eye. "You owe us the guide's debt. I'm calling it. He faces his order, not your teeth." The dragon held still. Its eye searched Geralt's face. For a long breath the room did not move. Then the beast let out a slow hiss. It drew its head back through the window. Wings snapped open. It rose off the roof and beat once into the mist, gone. Malachar breathed out. "You spent your favor on me," he said. "A fool's trade. You'll want it back before the end." "Maybe." Geralt hauled him upright. "But you're walking to your order alive. They'll want to know how you slipped a binding twice." Rain's hand tightened on Geralt's arm. She was pale, but her eyes held something new for him. Not distrust. "You could have let it end here," she said. "You didn't." "Killing the caged one is the easy road," Geralt said. "I've walked enough easy roads." He bound Malachar's wrists tighter and pushed him toward the stairs. The dragon was gone, the debt burned. Now they had a bound mage to deliver, and a long road down out of the marsh to walk him there.