An Azure Stain on the Garnet Overlord

A Blood of the Dragons Tale

Just a reminder before we get started that if you don’t have the Substack app already, this story is much too long to display in its entirety in most email programs so I highly recommend downloading the app. There is a wonderful audio version of this story that you can listen to in the app as well.

---

Now, without further ado, as promised, I bring you…

An Azure Stain on the Garnet Overlord

Khell entered the vast entry chamber of the Overlord’s spire with his head down, eyes on the immense mural spread across the floor. Rays of golden light shafted into the chamber through the gaps between stalactites hanging from the mouth of the cavern.

“Come on, Khellandrian,” Thrianna said, her bright green scales shining like emeralds in the sunlight.

With each step she took, she widened the gap between them. Although smaller than Khell, her strong, healthy forelegs gave her a long, smooth stride he could never hope to compete with.

He shuffled along after his friend, going deeper into the Overlord’s lair, eyes darting nervously. “Anna, we shouldn’t be here. You know about–“

“Oh, wyvern snot! What do you think is going to happen, Khell? Is the great garnet himself going to swoop in upon us?” She swished her tail to one side in obvious annoyance.

“Well, maybe not that, precisely–“

She sighed. “Come on, Khell. It isn’t as if none of the others have done this.”

His eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious.”

The malachite dragon scoffed. “Of course I’m serious. All the younglings do it. You don’t think the Overlord is always watching everywhere, do you?”

Khell stopped and narrowed his eyes. Yes, that was exactly what he thought. His past experience with the Overlord made that clear.

After a moment, she stopped and turned to face him, her eyes alight with mischief.

He scowled. “You truly don’t know anything about him, do you?”

The malachite female took several steps closer to him, stopping less than half a wingspan away. A ray of sunlight struck her eyes, emphasizing her shining silver sclera around a vertically slit pupil of burnished, metallic scarlet.

She raised her head above his in a show of dominance. “I don’t need to, Khellandrian. He is an overlord, not a god. He cannot be everywhere at once.”

Khell shook his head in wonder. Could she truly be so blind? If the Overlord’s awesome power had limits, he had never seen them. “Like most, you underestimate him.”

Thrianna barked a throaty laugh. “You take yourself much too seriously. Let that guard fall, kick back, have some fun for once!”

Khell’s scowl deepened. How could she not be taking this seriously?

Thrianna lifted her wings in a shrug and turned her back on him. She moved deeper into the chamber, stopping when her claws touched the form of the majestic garnet dragon inlaid in the mural on the floor.

She turned back to Khell, the mischievous glint back in her eyes, and leaped into the air. Spreading her wings at the zenith of her jump, she glided around the vast chamber.

“Anna!” Khell hissed in a pitched whisper. “Anna! Come down from there! You know the Overlord’s decree! Don’t do this!”

She trilled a laugh and swooped down toward the cavern floor, flying so low the tips of her pearlescent talons scraped at the flakes of metals and gemstones inlaid in the floor.

“Surrethrianna!” Khell hissed in mixed terror and fury. How could she be doing this? She knew what his position was beneath the Overlord. He was duty-bound to turn her in for this.

She circled around to face him and flew nearer, hovering a scant wingspan from him. She narrowed her eyes, clenching her jaw in obvious annoyance.

“Please, come down from there. This isn’t the sort of defiance that makes you look brave. This is the kind that makes you look stupid.”

Her eyes flew open wide, turning hard and angry. “What did you think we were coming here for, Khellandrian, Overlord’s Pet, if not to defy the Tyrant’s will?” Her voice rose with each word, growing to a low shriek by the time she finished. “Did you think we were coming up here just to frolic around like wyrmlings?”

Khell’s heart sank to his tail. What had he expected?

“It isn’t as if you are even capable of frolicking anyway. With those crippled forelegs of yours, just walking with you is…” her voice trailed off, the blood rushing to her face darkened her eyes with veins of deep malachite green.

Khell’s jaw fell open.

“Oh, goblin breath.”

He gave a sharp nod. “I see. So that’s what you really think of me.”

She dropped to the cavern floor, eyes shining with emerald moisture. “Khell, no, I didn’t… I mean, that’s not–“

“Forget it,” he said through a lump in his throat. Turning away from her, he shuffled toward the exit.

You’re a fool, he thought. She’s healthy and sleek and probably has a dozen males battling for her affections. What possessed you to think you had any chance at all? Why would she want a maimed dragon when there are so many strong, healthy ones to choose from?

With an angry growl, he kicked out with a hind leg to speed his pace. His twisted, misshapen foreclaw failed to move as quickly, however, and he fell.

He struggled to catch his fall with his other claw. It struck at an awkward angle and the sound of snapping bone and scales came an instant before the fiery agony raced up his malformed leg into his shoulder and he shrieked in agony as he fell, his head striking the inlaid stone floor of the cavern.

A shriek sounded behind him. His name, he thought. Following it came the sound of beating wings coming nearer.

But a moment later, even that was drowned out by a sound coming from ahead of him. This, too, was the sound of beating wings, but much larger and more powerful than those behind him.

Oh, no, he thought. It’s the Overlord. He’s going to see Anna in flight inside his lair. What will he do? What brutal punishment will he mete out over this?