Chapter 10: Behind Closed Doors

I didn't know why this lizard was so happy, but he wasn't exactly making the trip very comfortable for me. He just dragged me across the floor by my tail! The jerk! What do they want with me anyway? "Let me go! When Spyro finds you you'll be sorry!" I yelled at him, Spyro would come for me, I knew he would.

The Lizard then lifted me up high so I was face to face with him. "SHUT UP! You will silence yourself or so help me I will smash your tiny skull against that wall!" The Lizard threatened me. The Lizard then rounded a corner and laid the rabbit mage he was carrying on a bed. He then violently tugged on my tail, dragging me to where he was apparently taking me.

We entered a large throne room of some kind. It was actually quite beautiful with stain glass windows and intricately designed carpets. A sharp contrast to the fat old hag that sat in the throne, she was some kind of weird lizard thing too, but she was a dark gray-blue color, her robes were really fancy and had a large white collar around the neck. She had an indignant look on her face as the Lizard approached her. "So I take it you have no purple dragon for me Rikor?" She asked the lizard, who's name was apparently Rikor.

"No Sorceress, however, one of the husks managed to take one of the young dragons at the temple." Rikor said, throwing me rather violently in front of the fat hag. "I wanted a purple dragon Rikor! Not this pink little rat!" She spat. Who was she calling a rat?! At least the ground doesn't shake when I walk!

However Rikor grew a sinister smile. "Oh, you'll get the purple dragon Sorceress. This little dragon claims to be a personal friend of the purple dragon." Rikor said. The fat hag's eyes widened with delight at this news. "So we use the pink rat as bait for the purple dragon! And when he comes to save his little pink friend, his wings will be mine along with hers." She said. Wait... my wings? Wh... what did she mean by that?! "Take her to the dungeon, we'll cut her wings off when we have her purple friend." She ordered Rikor. Wait! Cut off my wings?! Why?! I like my wings!

Rikor grabbed me by the tail and began dragging me again. I had to get away! I don't wanna lose my wings! I tried to scrape and claw my way free, but Rikor's grip was too strong, we soon came to a staircase that seemed to just keep going down and down into oblivion, however soon he came to were he was taking me. He threw me violently against the wall and quickly grabbed me by the horn before I could get away, he took a chain and locked it around my neck. "There, now you won't get away. I'll be seeing you again real soon little one, when I cut your wings right from your back!" Rikor said with a manic gleam in his eye before he got up and left me there.

I was so scared, more scared than I had ever been in my life! Oh why did I leave the room Cyril was holding us in?! I curled up in a ball and began to cry, please Spyro... save me...

Meanwhile...

We had searched the whole temple front to back, none of us could find hide nor hair of little Ember anywhere. Flame had explained to me that Ember got scared and ran off somewhere when the husks started busting into the temple. This only served to make me even more scared that The Sorceress had Ember and her wings were going to be a few inches shorter in a few minutes. I tried not to mention this theory to Flame, because he was already freaking out as it was he didn't need me making it worse.

"Flame calm down! I'm sure Ember's fine." I tried to reassure him, we had all split up to find Ember, Spyro had suggest I go with Flame to make sure he didn't, and I quote "Do anything stupid". Why I had to be the one to do this I had no idea. But whatever... better than him being alone I guess.

Flame shook his head. "No she isn't! She would have come back by now if she was! One of those husks got her I know it!" Flame insisted. It didn't seem Flame even knew about The Sorceress, let alone her... intentions. I debated with myself if I should keep it that way or just outright tell him the truth. I mean, thinking she got eaten or something couldn't be much better than knowing she was gonna lose her wings.

"GUYS!"

It was Darius, from the sounds of it it sounded like he found something. Me and Flame rushed over to where Darius was, "Darius, what is it?" I asked him. Darius turned to me with a sad expression on his face, he said nothing and pointed to the floor, right there were several claw makes like there had been a scuffle.

"They have the scent of a husk on them. And judging from the marks, it wasn't the only one that made them." Darius explained. He was right, some of them were smaller and thinner than the others. "I fear a husk got your friend Flame, I'm sorry." Darius said solemnly. Flame just stood in shocked silence, I could see tears welling up in his eyes. He then suddenly ran off. "Flame!" I called out before trying to go after him.

But Darius grabbed me by the front leg. "Let him go Dwayne, I think it's best we give him time to collect his thoughts." Darius told me. I reluctantly complied. I felt sorry for Flame, I had no clue how close he and Ember were, but judging from his reaction they were very close. I couldn't imagine being in his position.

I then heard Darius sigh. "This whole thing is just so revolting." Darius commented. I raised an eyebrow, where did this come from? "Cutting the wings from young dragons, all to make a potion for eternal life, their lives cut short to extend that of their murderer. It turns my stomach." Darius commented.

Why was he bringing this up? We all knew it was messed up, I'd be concerned if he didn't find it messed up. "Why are you bringing this up?" I asked him. Darius hung his head low. "Taven, he's always been a tender hearted cheetah, in fact it was he who saw you the day we met you and insisted we help you, I didn't want to because I didn't know anything of you, but he insisted, saying it was wrong to leave you helpless in the woods. he's always had a soft spot for the young, and cannot stand seeing them hurt." Darius explained. Where was he going with this? "I fear, if The Sorceress does indeed have Ember, and we arrive too late, it might break him." He finished.

Okay, now it made sense, Darius was worried about how Taven would react if he saw The Sorceress'... handy work. "You're an older brother too Dwayne, you understand how important it is to us to protect our younger siblings. Both physically, and mentally. I'm worried I might not be able to protect him from seeing horrors no one should ever have to witness." Darius said trying to fight back tears from escaping his green eyes.

"It won't come to that Darius, we'll save her, I know we will." I said, I wasn't really that sure we would, but Darius was really worried about this, I could tell. "For both Ember and Taven's sake I hope you're right." Darius replied, I hoped so too, the last thing I wanted was Taven to completely break, and to have a dead dragon on our hands.

Meanwhile...

I slowly opened my eyes to see that I was back at the castle, the infirmary to be more specific, I can't believe I let Dwayne blindside me like that! I could only imagine how angry The Sorceress was right now that I failed to capture the purple dragon. I got out of the small cot that I was laid on and made my way to The Sorceress' chambers in hopes I could somehow save myself from having my head chewed off... again.

However while I was walking down the halls, I noticed a door slightly opened, this door had always been there, but Rikor always had it locked for some reason, this being the first time I had ever seen it opened. I couldn't fight off my curiosity and decided to have a little peek, what Rikor didn't know wouldn't hurt him right?

The door slowly opened with a loud whine as I entered the mystery room. My heart stopped cold at what I then saw inside...

The room was rather small, with a single stone slab in the center, said stone slab having what could only be... restraints attached to it. And on the slab itself was what could only be... dried blood. I noticed on a table to the side there was a blade of some kind, it too was caked in blood long since dried.

And next to it, was a jar of some kind, and inside, were what could only be... dragon wings. What was all this for? I thought back to what Cynder had said, about how the Sorceress was cutting young dragon's wings off for a potion. It was crazy! We just needed them so we could use our magic! Surely killing them would get in the way of that! But it was hard to argue that now that I've seen what I have seen in here.

"You shouldn't be in here Bianca."

I turned to see Rikor standing in the doorway with a stern look on his face. "What the hell is this Rikor?! Does The Sorceress know you're cutting the wings off the dragons we're supposed to be using to power our magic?!" I said, I always thought Rikor wasn't right in the head, but this? This was beyond that!

Rikor let out a sickening laugh. "I guess there's not use in hiding it now is there? Yes, she knows, hell she told me to do it. That story about how we need them for our magic? Just a story we told you to make sure you did as you were told. Didn't you even once question why you could use magic during the attack on the temple? The Sorceress had ordered me to remove the wings from the young dragons we captured so that I could make an immortality potion for her." Rikor explained.

I just stood there in shocked silence, it couldn't possibly be true! The Sorceress wasn't exactly the most friendly person in the world, but I would like to think even she was above... this. "We knew you wouldn't approve, you were always too soft Bianca, too caring to see the bigger picture. With this potion, The Sorceress will be onto a god! We can finally remove the dragons from their seat of power! So what if a few worthless hatchlings die along the way? When we will soon live like kings!" Rikor said.

He was mad! Killing innocent baby dragons just for a chance to live in luxury! I felt so many different emotions right now, guilt, anger, fear, betrayal, they all swirled around my head in a mad storm of despair. I could see it in Rikor's eyes he was completely insane! I quickly grabbed the knife and pointed it in his direction. "You're sick! Sick in the head!" I accused him.

Rikor quickly shot a magic blast to disarm me. The knife hit the stone floor with a loud clang. "Now now Bianca, it's impolite to point." Rikor mused. He then grabbed me by the robe. "The Sorceress will be so disappointed when she learns you had to die because you couldn't keep your nose out of my affairs!" Rikor growled.

I quickly shot a magic blast right into Rikor's face, causing him to lose his grip on me and stagger backwards. "No more! I'm putting an end to this! All of it!" I shouted at him. This was disgusting! And I wanted no part in this!

Rikor laughed as he got back to his feet. "Is that so? And how do you suppose you're going to do that Bianca? You know you cannot hope to match The Sorceress power by yourself, and I'm certain the dragons won't be so quick to aid you after you attacked their temple. If I were you, I'd reconsider your stance on this issue, are these foolish dragons really worth dying for Bianca?" Rikor said. He had a point, I had no allies, the dragons would never trust me after all I had done. But I refused to help The Sorceress kill innocent hatchlings either!

I shot another blast at Rikor, knocking him into a wall and into unconsciousness. "Go to hell Rikor!" I hissed before running off to make my escape. I ran down the halls as fast as I could, I knew it was a bad idea to try to escape through the front door, no doubt the other mages would notice and question why I was leaving in such haste. So I had to take the back exit in the dungeon if I wanted to escape quietly.

But when I came down to the dungeon I heard a small whimpering. I used a light spell so I could see what the sound was, right there chained to the floor was a small pink dragon, chained to the floors not unlike Blaze was when he was in our captivity. I approached the little dragon, no way was I going to allow The Sorceress to take her wings! The little dragon saw me coming and quickly cowered away. "NO! Leave me alone! Don't cut off my wings please!" She cried hysterically.

I grabbed the chain, and used a spell to unlock it. "Calm down, I'm getting you out of here." I told her. The little dragon managed to calm herself at least a little bit. I scooped her up in my arms and made for the exit. Perhaps rescuing her would also make it easier to gain the dragon's trust? If not at least I prevented another innocent child from being killed in the name of The Sorceress' immortality.

Meanwhile...

I must have searched for hours for Ember, I hadn't really met her so I had no idea what I was even looking for, but I didn't like the idea of Ember getting her wings chopped off and hoped she was just hiding somewhere in the temple. Although as time went on I began to doubt that more and more.

I still couldn't get over it, The Sorceress was cutting off dragon's wings for a potion! Cynder had told me this while we were searching for Ember, Dwayne apparently already knew and so did Spyro and the cheetah brothers. "Dammit! I'm starting to really think she's not in the temple." Cynder said. As much as I wanted to think she was wrong, given all the evidence she was right, if she was in the temple, someone would have found her by now.

Cynder noticed how upset this made me. "Lisa it's okay, if the Sorceress has her we'll get her back." Cynder told me. It was weird, I didn't know Ember, heck I haven't even seen her before, but I was so worried about her, I couldn't imagine what it must be like, in The Sorceress' clutches, waiting to have your wings severed.

However I then noticed that Flame was overlooking a balcony in another room. "What's wrong with Flame?" I asked Cynder. Cynder paused for a moment, before she looked at me. "Flame and Ember are really close Lisa, they grew up together. They even arrived and Warfang together. No doubt he's taking her disappearance very hard." Cynder explained to me. I looked over at Flame again, I felt so bad for him, having a close friend go missing had to be a horrible thing to cope with.

Cynder then turned around. "I'm going to go check with Spyro to see if he's found anything, see if you can maybe help Flame out, I think he could use a friend right now." Cynder told me before leaving. I turned and walked over to Flame. I didn't know what I could say to help him feel better, but it was wrong not to try.

I sat next to him, Flame didn't show any signs of noticing me, just staring sadly into the landscape below. "You okay?" I asked him, Flame just whimpered and shook his head. Tears running down his face. "Flame, she's gonna be okay, we'll get her back." I told him.

Flame suddenly turned to me. "NO WE WON'T!" He snapped before breaking down into tears. "Why didn't I stop her?! Why didn't I do anything?! I'm so stupid! She's gone and it's all my fault!" Flame said hysterically. I didn't know what to say, I had never really been in a position like Flame's so I had no real perspective on it. But I needed to try at least, Flame needed someone to comfort him.

I put a comforting paw on his back. "Flame it's not your fault. The Sorceress took her not you." I told him. But Flame just shook his head, unwilling to take the blame off himself from Ember's disappearance.

"I never got to tell her..." Flame suddenly said. I tilted my head, confused. "I never got to tell her how much I really cared about her. I was always too scared to say it because of how much she fawned over Spyro. And now I never get the chance." Flame elaborated. Poor Flame, he never got the chance to tell Ember that he loved her, it was so sweet and tragic at the same time.

I rubbed up against him trying to comfort the poor fire dragon. "You'll get your chance Flame, I promise." I told him. Flame said nothing and just kept sobbing. Hopefully I can make good on that promise, for his sake.

Meanwhile...

I wasn't willing to give up the search, I had taken it upon myself to expand my search to the city itself, Warfang was bizarrely quiet at night, but it worked out for me, it would make Ember easier to spot. I shuddered at the idea of Ember being taken by that madwoman Sorceress, the idea of children being stripped of their wings filled my heart with anger. The Sorceress' mages best hope they don't cross my path, for I doubt I'll show them any mercy after what I had learned...

Hold on now! Calm yourself Taven, I mustn't lose myself in anger. I had to focus on finding Ember first. Part of me wanted to give up and go back to the temple, but I wanted to be completely sure she was taken by The Sorceress before I ended my search.

My heart skipped a beat when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Perhaps it was Ember? Still frightened by what had happened during the attack? I slowly moved in the direction I saw the motion from. "Ember? Is that you?" I asked. No response. I put my hand on the hilt of my sword in case it was someone less friendly.

However when I rounded the corner I had found who it was I was following, standing right in front of me, with a small pink dragon clutched in her arms, was the rabbit mage herself Bianca. She just stared at me with wide eyes. She was also not in her mage robes anymore, instead she wore a copper colored tunic with a small cape tied around her neck, a pair of brown gauntlets strapped to each arm, and a pair of knee high tan boots. What was Bianca doing here?

I didn't care! She was taking that dragon to her grave! And I'd die before I allowed such a thing! I'd run her right through! Such is a fitting end to one as evil as her!

A/N- Oh my, looks like Bianca's defection to the good side may be short lived as Taven is out for blood! Let's hope Bianca won't be a few inches shorter by the end of next chapter...