“Completely. You have my word, I’ll look after her.”
“As well you might. She is as unsafe here as we are in her world. With any luck, I won’t have to bring this to the elders in a week. I’ll be surprised if she lives that long.”
He went back to his writing as Ash and I left the room. My nerves, already frayed from everything else that had happened that day, were now on a knife edge.
“He’s all bark and no bite,” said Ash in an attempt to reassure me. It didn’t work.
“No bite? He just sentenced me to death!”
“The elders won’t allow it. Once they meet you and get to know you, they’ll know that you’re telling the truth. I know that you won’t tell your family about us; we just have to prove it to them.”
I gulped. I’d only said what I’d said because I was faced with certain death otherwise. If I never spoke of this place, it would be a massive betrayal to my family. Was I really able to do that? I wasn’t even sure myself.
“Where are we going?” I asked Ash as we left the circular building and headed down a street I’d not previously seen.
“I’m taking you home.”
Ash’s hand squeezed mine and I suddenly realized that he’d not let go of my hand the whole time.
Chapter Seven
We headed back toward the cliffs we had flown down from, but this time proceeded much further along.
“Do you live in a house on the outskirts of town?” I asked as the houses once again thinned out to be replaced by more of the farmed land.
“Kind of,” he replied mysteriously. We passed a field full of cows munching lazily on grass.
There was only one house I could see now—a pretty little cottage with a thatched roof and smoke drifting out of the chimney. It was here I thought we were headed but we walked past it.
“There are no houses left,” I exclaimed as we left the cottage behind.
“Look ahead of you.”
I looked towards the cliffs and that’s when I noticed a series of caves in the sheer rock. There were lots of them, maybe fifty or sixty, but unlike normal caves, they were uniform in the rock and each had a doorway or window intricately carved with effigies of dragons. There was no way these were natural. Someone had spent years lovingly carving homes out of the hillside. Ten of the holes were at ground level and had wooden doors on them. The rest were windows, some with balconies. They stretched quite a way up the cliff, showing the immense size of each dwelling.
We arrived at a periwinkle blue door that Ash pushed open. A huge, gangly dog came running up to him, its long ears flopping behind it. It jumped up and began to lick Ash as if he had been away for months.
“Hey, Firecracker,” Ash said, giving the dog a friendly ruffle of its hair.
It surprised me that a dragon would have a pet dog. A lot of things were surprising me today. The dog finally put its two front paws back on the ground and came to give me a sniff.
“He’s very cute.” I grinned, patting him on the head.
“She. She’s a girl. Come on, I’d like you to meet my mom.”
I hesitated. I felt comfortable around Ash but Spear had scared me. What if Ash’s mom felt the same way about me that Spear had?
The entrance hall was the strangest place I’d ever seen. The walls were roughly hewn out of the rock but the floor was polished wood. Framed pictures of unknown people lined the walls and coats hung on a row of hooks. A mirror hung next to where I stood, a shelf below it. A couple of unlit candles sat on an old table, waiting to be lit.
I hazarded a glance in the mirror. My hair had settled into a frizzy mess and I was covered in dirt. When I pulled Ash’s coat from my shoulders, I realized I looked like a warrior with my armor still on over my clothes.
Straight ahead was another door and to the right of that, stairs leading up to the next level.
“My mom will be in the living area, come on.”
He seemed eager to take me to his mom, but I couldn’t possibly meet her looking the way I did.
“Do you have a bathroom I can use first?”
“Sure. That door over there is a guest toilet.”
I opened the door expecting to find a hole in the ground but was quite surprised to find a true bathroom with a little sink and another mirror. Water poured out of a little channel and streamed into the rock basin where it gurgled down a hole in the middle. The water was freezing but it refreshed me as I splashed it over my face. I did my best to tame my hair with the few pins that had survived the journey and then pulled off all my armor. I wanted to meet Ash’s mom as an equal, not as a slayer. My tunic was filthy but it would have to do.
Looking in the mirror, I tried to imagine what Ash’s mom would think of me. Did I look like a slayer? I didn’t think so, not now that I had taken my armor off, but I hardly looked like a lady either. I was just about to tell Ash to forget the whole thing when he knocked on the door.
“Are you okay? You’ve been in there a long time.”
“I’ll be right out.”
Steeling myself, I opened the door and followed Ash to a landing with two doors. The stairs continued up to another level but it was the first door that Ash opened. Just like the hallway, this room had been cut out of the mountain. The walls were nothing more than jagged edges of rock but there was carpet on the floor and family paintings hanging alongside landscapes. Whoever had painted them was quite an artist. The room was also a lot lighter than I imagined it would be thanks to a large window at one end. At the other end of the room was a table with four chairs. An elegant lady with her hair in a long braid down her back sat at one of these.
“Hi, Mom. I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet.”
She looked up with a beautiful smile on her face but when she saw me her face dropped.
“Ash, who is this?” she asked although I could tell from her expression and the tone of her voice she already knew what I was, if not who.
“This is Julianna. She’s—”
“No!” said his mother, cutting him off mid-sentence.
“No, what?” asked Ash but he knew what she meant. We both did.
“Maybe you should just take me home,” I said quietly. It was obvious I wasn’t wanted here.
“No!” replied Ash. “Mom, I want her to stay with us. This is what we’ve been talking about for years. You’ve said it yourself a million times how you wished things didn’t have to be as they are. Well, now is our chance to make that happen.”
“I didn’t mean invite one into our home. I’m sorry, Julianna, is it? I have nothing against you personally although what Ash was thinking by bringing you here is beyond me. But you will have hardship here.” She turned back to Ash. “If Spear catches her with you, we’ll all be in trouble. Take her home quickly before he finds out what you’ve done.”
“He already knows. I took her to meet him first.”
“Spear knows? I’m surprised she’s still here to tell the tale.”
“He wants to put her to death but he’s giving her a week to prove her loyalty to us.”
“Ash, she has no loyalty to us and why should she? I’m surprised at you after what happened to your father.”
“That was nothing to do with Julianna and you know that. She had the chance to kill me today and she chose not to. All slayers are not what we have painted them to be. What if we have been wrong all these years?”
“Hundreds of our people slain over the centuries tell a different story, Ash.”
“If Julianna hesitated, why wouldn’t there be others who would also spare us? I’m only asking for her to be here a week. Spear told me I have to look after her. After that, if she has not persuaded enough of our villagers that she’s loyal to us, then I’ll take her to Spear myself.”
“If that is what Spear has said then we cannot go against it, but it will be for one week only, Ash. She can have the top bedroom. I’ll bring her some clean bedding later.”
“Thank you, Mom,” said Ash, crossing the room to kiss
her cheek.
“Thank you, Mrs.—” I paused, not knowing what to call her.
“Edeline.” Her eyes met Ash’s for a brief second before turning to me. “If you’re to live among my family, you may as well know my first name.”
“Thank you, Edeline.”
“I have no fight with you child, but you must know that being here among us will not be easy. People here hold grudges. Ash, show her to the top bedroom.” She sighed as she turned from us and disappeared down the hall.
“Yes, Mom.”
I followed Ash through the overly wide doorway and up the stairs which wound back on themselves. We passed at least three floors before the stairway opened into a large room. The walls were smoother up here and blackened by fire but there were none of the home furnishings of downstairs. The whole room was empty save for a mound of straw.
“I’m sorry, it’s not very homely. We don’t normally use this room as a bedroom. I guess you can say we don’t have many overnight guests.” Ash shrugged his shoulders. “We use it to fly in. Our landing pad is through those glass doors.”
Opening the doors he motioned to, I stepped out onto the large terrace. The view over the village was stunning, even in the fading light, with verdant fields laid out below me and the houses of the village in the distance now lit up with twinkling lights.
“I could sleep up here and you can have my room if you prefer.”
“I love it!”
“You do?” asked Ash as I followed him back into the room.
The hay looked dry and clean and was as good a place for me to sleep as any. It reminded me of our barn back home. I had fallen asleep there many nights, just gazing at the stars through the holes in the roof. If I ignored the faint burning smell, I could be comfortable here.
“I’ll find a bed for you to sleep on and bring it up.”
I bit my tongue, embarrassed that I had assumed they slept on hay, and thankful that I hadn’t said as much.
“That’s very kind of you. Thanks.”
“It’s beginning to get late. I’ll get it now.”
When he had gone, I stepped back out onto the terrace. The light was fading quickly. A whole day had passed since I’d jumped on Ash’s back. I wondered where my father and Jasper were now. Would they still be out looking for me or would they have gone back to the village to tell my mother that I was gone?
Either of those options was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Ash had promised I’d be loyal to the dragons but was that something I could really do?
A few moments later, a clattering in the room behind me told me that Ash had arrived back with the bed. He’d brought it up in four pieces which he dropped on the floor.
“It just slots together. Do you think you can manage while I bring up the mattress?”
“I’ll try.”
In reality, having something physical to do took my thoughts away from the situation. I’d just slotted the last two bits together when Ash came back with the mattress and a huge fabric bag, out of which he produced blankets and a pillow. Following that, he pulled a loaf of bread and some butter.
My stomach gurgled at the sight. I’d not had a bite to eat since my mother made me breakfast that morning.
“It’s not much, sorry. It’s all we had.” He chuckled quietly. “We hunt most of our food.”
“It looks delicious.” I eyed the bread still sitting in his hand.
We both sat on the newly made bed and Ash ripped chunks from the bread and dipped them in the warmed butter. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of my mother’s face if she ever saw anyone eating like that. She was the type of person that cut the crusts off her sandwiches.
Ash handed me the first chunk, gooey with butter. I bit down on it and let the liquid butter ooze down my throat.
I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t eaten all day or because it felt naughty to be eating in such a savage manner, but it tasted utterly delicious. We devoured the whole loaf between us and drank a bottle of milk that Ash had also brought out of the bag.
I felt completely at ease but something that Edeline had said was gnawing at me.
“Ash?”
“Hmmm?” he responded around a mouth full of bread.
“What did your mother mean earlier? What happened to your father?”
He chewed thoughtfully before swallowing the bread and turning his eyes to me. I could see the pain in them but there was no malice.
“My father was killed by a slayer last year.”
The way he looked at me was enough to break my heart. It took everything I had not to reach out to him, but how could I? One of my kind killed his father. Who was I to offer sympathy?
“I should leave you now. It’s getting late,” said Ash, standing and putting the empty bottle back in the now depleted bag. “Will you be okay?”
I nodded my head numbly, not knowing what to say to him. He was acting as though nothing had happened, as if everything was okay.
“Ash,” I called out as he was leaving the room.
He turned to me and nodded slightly. It was his way of telling me that he didn’t blame me. He closed the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I laid my head back on the surprisingly comfortable mattress and pulled the blanket over me. The only light in the room came from the glow of the town through the window. Strange sounds filtered from the outside, although it was so much quieter than I was used to. I heard shuffling from someone moving about downstairs and hushed voices although they were far too faint to tell who they belonged to.
My mind flew to my father and Jasper searching for me, the thought of them making me homesick even though I’d only been away for a day. No one had ever gone up to the mountains and not returned before. Some had been unsuccessful in slaying a dragon, but we had never had one of the villagers go missing. I wondered if they thought I was dead. Even if they still hoped I was alive, they would never be able to reach me—not this high up.
I closed my eyes and thought of Ash. How could he be so nice to me when one of my kind had murdered his father? I had felt no blame from him but my guilt was palpable. More than anything, I wanted to make it up to him, but how? I closed my eyes and shivered even though the room was warm. Thoughts turned into dreams which turned into nightmares of dragons and fire, and by the time I woke up, I still felt conflicted about my feelings towards Ash and the situation I had found myself in.
Chapter Eight
The smell of something cooking wafted up the stairs and woke me from my bad dreams. It was definitely some kind of meat and smelled delicious. My stomach gave a gurgle to concur. I followed the smell downstairs, expecting to find Ash or Edeline cooking. I searched the whole house, calling out their names but no one answered. I saw no sign of the sister that Ash mentioned, nor Firecracker.
As I searched from room to room, it became apparent that they did not own a kitchen and yet the smell of food was stronger down here. It was only when I got to the bottom floor and the entrance hall that I heard the sound of people outside. I opened the door hesitantly to find a large group of people sitting around a huge fire pit. Flames licked a grill that had been laid on top and filled with great slabs of meat.
“Here she is!” Ash stood up from the circle of people and walked towards me. Two dozen eyes swiveled my way, making me feel more nervous today than I had yesterday. I also spotted Edeline in the group and a young girl sitting beside her that must have been Ash’s sister.
Firecracker bounded over, passing Ash and licking my fingers. I gave him a pat on the head for his troubles.
“Come. There are some people I would like you to meet.” Ash held out his hand for me to take but I was reluctant to do so. I could see the expressions on some faces and they weren’t happy.
“They know about you. I’ve already told them. You’ll be fine,” Ash said in an effort to comfort me. I held out my hand to his reluctantly but when our fingers touched, I suddenly felt safe. It was as if nothing could hurt me when Ash was at my
side.
I walked with him to the group of people. There was a pretty even split between women and men, of young and old and of those smiling at me and those grimacing at my presence. Not that I could blame them.
“Everybody, this is Julianna.”
I gave a shy smile and waved. An elderly man to my right patted the rock beside him to indicate that I could sit there. I let go of Ash’s hand and took the offered seat so as not to cause offense. The young girl came over to me carrying a plate with a huge steak on it and handed it to me, grinning. She looked to be about twelve years old with burnished red hair in short braids at either side. Her coloring was different from the dark-haired Ash, but her cheeky face was the spitting image of her elder brother’s.
“What’s it like over there? I’ve never been over the mountain. I’m too young but I can’t wait until I’m big enough to fly there. Do you have rivers? Ash told me that the roads are made of gold.”
She was a whirlwind but I immediately liked her.
“We have rivers,” I laughed. “But we have roads much like yours. Very few of us have any gold. Only the richest people of our village own any and they make it into jewelry.”
“Wow!” Her eyes rounded like saucers. “I’d love some gold jewelry. I only have this.” She showed me a polished rock threaded through a bit of string that hung around her neck.
“Maybe one day I could give you one of my brooches. I have a couple of gold ones.”
She jumped up and hugged me, nearly causing me to drop my plate. “I’m so glad you brought her here, Ash,” she squealed before letting me go.
“Yes, that’s right, give her some gold,” sneered a voice from the other side of the fire pit. “That’s really going to make up for you murdering her father.”
I looked through the flames to a very good-looking man with blonde hair. Even sitting down, he was obviously tall. His shoulders were wide, topping off muscular arms and I could see the outline of his muscles under his tunic. His nose was scrunched as his eyes tracked me.
I had just opened my mouth to reply when I felt my arm being pulled up by Ash. I rose to my feet in surprise, knocking the steak to the ground. Firecracker ran over to my feet and picked it up between her teeth.
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