Ariane remembered her grandmother a little, and it was true that the two of them had understood each other well. Ariane’s mother had had a different nature. Less independent. Less clear-sighted. Ariane had paid the price for that.
Suppressing the memories, she said, “I think we must intervene during the next village raid. First, to stop the damage. Second, to reveal the truth to the people of Penruth. I don’t think the castle guards knows of Sir William’s treachery. Most are honorable knights who would not accept such disgraceful behavior.”
Kenrick frowned. “Do you have enough ability to see the future that you can predict the time and place of the next raid? Penruth is a vast, sprawling demesne. The raiders can easily strike and escape before we can reach them.”
Ariane grinned. “The next attack will come tomorrow night.”
Both men stared at her. “You are seer enough to see that?” Kenrick asked.
She shook her head. “The attacks have all come on the full moon. The next is tomorrow. I didn’t realize until I thought back.”
Her grandfather muttered an oath under his breath. “The full moon! The raids have been happening for a year now, and I never noticed. I am getting old indeed.”
“Do dragons need moonlight for night flying?” Kenrick asked.
“A good moon helps in navigation, especially when going to a strange place.”
Ariane felt the familiar catch in her throat at the knowledge that she was unable to fly like her dragon kin. She was too human, too earthbound.
Kenrick asked, “Have you asked your English dragon friends who might be making these raids?”
“Yes, but no one had an answer except to suggest that it’s a foreigner.” She frowned. “I slept through the previous raids because they were not close and I didn’t know of them until later. But I am good at touching the minds of dragon kind. My ability is strongest when I am in dragon form myself. Now that I know a raid is likely tomorrow night, I will stay awake in that shape and try to detect any dragons that come near.”
Kenrick’s eyes flashed. “Lord Magnus, forgive me if I what I ask is a breach of decorum. If Lady Ariane can locate a dragon raid, would you be able to take me there so I could confront the dragon and the raiders?”
Lord Magnus nodded his great head. “I have a leather harness that binds around my body so you can ride on my back securely.”
“So that we can hold on securely,” Ariane said. “I must come, too, to help you locate the dragon. If there is a dragon. If there are only human raiders, I will be unable to find them.”
She was amused by the glance the men exchanged. Clearly they would prefer to leave her here in safety, but they couldn’t deny her value in locating the raid.
“Very well,” her grandfather said. “Tomorrow we will attempt to prove our suspicions about Lord William.”
“If you are right, it will be the first step in stopping his evil,” Kenrick said softly.
His fierce, dark expression made Ariane glad that he was on their side.
Chapter 8
Full of good food and happy from the pleasant evening, Kenrick had settled in his bed when Ariane scratched at the tapestry door, then entered carrying a goblet. “You will need to be strong tomorrow night, so I’ve brought this posset and I’ll give you another healing treatment.”
He caught his breath, mesmerized by the way the soft magical light brought out the warmth of her red gold hair and creamy skin. “I shan’t need a posset. I’m tired enough to sleep till next Candlemass.”
“This posset contains healing herbs, so you must drink it all,” she said firmly.
He raised himself on one elbow, swallowing half the contents of the goblet at once. The hot drink had an astringent, not unpleasant, herbal taste. He drank again, more slowly. Safer to keep his attention on the posset than on his lovely companion. “This will help me fight raiders tomorrow?”
“This, and the healing treatment.” She took the empty goblet from his hand. The brush of her fingers made part of him come awake with embarrassing thoroughness. “Lie back now, Sir Kenrick.”
He obeyed, intensely aware of her presence. When she tugged at the blanket, he almost leaped from his skin. Before his imagination could run mad, he realized that she had exposed only his splinted lower right leg. Seeming unaware of his reaction to her, she laid her hands very gently over the throbbing pain of the damaged bone. She closed her eyes and her face smoothed out, becoming remote and a little stern.
Heat began flowing from her hands, heat so intense it almost burned. He had the strange feeling that the broken bones in his legs were being fused like metal fragments in a blacksmith’s fire.
The energy radiating from her grew more and more powerful, then suddenly dissolved away. She removed her hands and opened her eyes, looking tired. “Sleep now, Sir Kenrick. Tomorrow you will be much stronger.”
“What did you do?” he asked curiously. “I felt heat from your hands. Was it a kind of dragon magic?”
“I imagined the bone whole again and invoked healing power to speed that result. But that’s not dragon magic, either. I was taught this by a healer woman in the village of Tregarth. She did say I was unusually gifted.”
Ah, yes, Tregarth. “Your grandfather said you had a sweetheart in Tregarth.”
“He must have meant Calum, who has been very kind.” She had the expression of a woman who knew she was admired.
Well, Kenrick admired her, too. What man wouldn’t? He would like to see that smile every day of his life.
But the days of his life might be very few. If he didn’t get killed trying to stop the next raid on Penruth, Lord William’s castle guard would probably finish the job when he challenged their lord. This was no time for a warrior to be thinking of soft smiles and softer flesh….
As she rose to leave, he said impulsively, “Don’t go yet. Stay and conjure yourself a glass of wine. There is so much I don’t know about dragon kind.” And I don’t want you to leave.
“Very well.” She sat down on the bench, her skirts falling gracefully around her ankles. A steaming goblet appeared in her hand. “I would offer you mulled wine, but best not to have it with that posset. What would you know?”
Where to start? “How does a creature as large as Lord Magnus stay aloft? It seems impossible.”
She frowned. “It's hard to explain. There is a place that lies beside the world we know. When a dragon flies, much of his weight is held in that space. This is where we keep human garments when we change to dragon form. It is also where the additional bulk is held when a creature the size of my grandfather becomes a small human.”
Intrigued, he asked, “What does this place look like?”
“I don’t know. I can sense the space, but I can’t see it. I am not dragon enough for that.” A trace of bitterness sounded in her voice. “I cannot fly, I cannot breathe fire.”
“Surely there are advantages to being mostly human. You said that humans are more imaginative than dragons, and that’s a great gift,” he said seriously. “Plus, dragons seem to be solitary while humans can find joy in others of our kind. Friends and family are an even greater gift.” He heard yearning in his voice and stopped, not wanting to expose his weakness further.
Her expression turned thoughtful. “True. I remember when I was a girl and my parents were alive and I had friends to play with.” She sipped her mulled wine. “But such happiness is long gone. I have only my grandfather’s company and at heart, he is a solitary creature. Most dragons are. Sometimes days pass and I don’t see him because he is otherwise engaged.”
Kenrick frowned, not sure what to say. While Magnus clearly loved Ariane, living on the island had to be lonely. She needed a real human family again. He wondered what had happened to her parents, but didn’t want to ask about what was obviously a painful subject. “Your grandfather referred to a land in the west where only dragons live. Does that land exist in that other space you spoke of?”
Her brows rose. “He told you of this?
”
“In passing,” Kenrick replied. “It sounds as if there dragons might be companions to each other. Not like here.”
“Perhaps. I do not know what that land is like.”
With her eyes downcast, she looked like a painting of the Madonna on a church wall. He ached to comfort her, and more, but this was not the time or place. “Will your dragon form continue to grow until you are the size of your grandfather?”
She shook her head. “Because I am only a quarter blood, I have reached my full dragon size. If I ever bear children, they will be unable to change at all because they would have too little dragon in them.”
“What lucky children they will be, to have a mother who is so beautiful, and who has the gift of healing.” He yawned, no longer able resist sleep. As he drifted off, he thought he felt her hand on his hair. But maybe that was just a dream….
Kenrick awoke the next morning able to walk normally, with no more than an ache where the bone had broken. Ariane was a masterful healer.
He spent the day cleaning his hauberk and weapons in anticipation of the raid that should come under the night’s full moon. It was a quiet day, with all three of them keeping to themselves. Kenrick guessed they prepared for battle in their own ways.
After they dined and night had fallen, they gathered in the great library. Outside, moonlight shone on the sea, silver pure and cold as ice. Lord Magnus drowsed in the open area of the library, great eyes closed and his massive body crisscrossed by a heavy leather harness that included straps to secure riders.
Kenrick paced, following the tunnel out to look at the sea, then restlessly returning to the main chamber. Ariane was in dragon form to improve the odds of detecting the dragon raider. She was curled like a cat but with her eyes wide and her ears pricked with awareness. When the moon reached its apex, he asked, “Have you sensed anything yet?”
She flicked her tail with irritation. “No more than when you assked lasst.”
“Sorry.” Knowing she must be as restless as he, he paced away again. What if there was no raid tonight? Or what if Ariane was unable to sense the presence of a raider dragon? What if there was no other dragon, only Lord William’s mercenaries? The terrified villagers might have only imagined a dragon attack.
If they were unable to locate a raid in progress, Kenrick didn’t know how they might prove Lord William’s treachery. Though his head had wanted proof before he supported Magnus’s claims, in his heart he was already on the side of Ariane and her grandfather. But the world was a hard place, and evidence would be required if he was to charge a baron with the ruthless betrayal of his own dependents.
His gaze fell on the stacked nets in the corner of Magnus’s den. “What are the nets used for?”
“For carrying objects. Cows, sacks of grain, scrolls.” Magnus’s heavy-lidded eyes opened a slit. “Some are larger, some are smaller, depending on the load. The fishermen of Tregarth make them for me in winter.”
Kenrick frowned. “Perhaps we should bring some nets. They might be useful.”
The dragon’s eyes gleamed. “Indeed they might.”
Kenrick lashed several of the nets to Magnus’s leather harness. He was just finishing when Ariane reared up on her hind legs in excitement. “Another dragon iss flying into the ssky above Penruth!”
Kenrick spun around and Magnus snapped to full wakefulness. Her grandfather asked, “Do you recognize the dragon?”
“No. He is male and a sstranger.” She concentrated. “Inland, to the north. On the far sside of Penruth. We musst hurry if we are to catch him!”
Earlier they had rehearsed what they would do. Magnus bounded into the tunnel that led to the sea, followed by Ariane and Kenrick. At the mouth of the great cave, he straightened his legs and spread his wings.
Ariane scrambled onto her grandfather’s back and settled between his shoulder blades. Kenrick buckled two pairs of straps across her, careful not to trap her wings. “Are you secure?”
“Yess.” Her apricot scales shimmered. “Sstrap yourself on, Ssir Kenrick!”
He swung up behind her as if mounting a horse and buckled a strap across his lap. The nets were tied behind him. “We’re ready, Lord Magnus.”
“May the godss fly with uss!” Magnus rumbled as he leaped into space. He'd said he could easily carry two passengers, but when he launched himself outward he began plunging down toward the sea. Kenrick’s heart leaped into his throat as he tried to calculate the chances of them surviving a fall to the rocks.
Then the powerful wings caught the air and they soared upward, spinning through the moonlight as Magnus wheeled toward the land. He climbed higher and higher, until the land below was only a dark blur decorated with occasional silvery clouds. Wind whipped around them, the winter cold biting to the marrow.
As Kenrick looked at the ground falling away, panic surged through him. He would face any man’s sword, but soaring through the sky was terrifying! His fingers clenched the straps until his knuckles whitened.
“Issn’t it magnificent?” Ariane threw her head back and spread her wings, giving a cry of exhilaration. Despite her dragon form, she was still Ariane to him. How could a mortal man ever understand a being of such complexity?
He could start by trying to understand her joy in flight. Fighting his fear, he looked around them and saw beauty in the clouds that shimmered below, in the contrast between the dark land and the ever-changing sea. And Ariane was beautiful, and Magnus, too. Fear faded, replaced by awe at his good fortune to share these days with creatures of such magnificence. He could not be a dragon, but willingly he would be their champion.
Chapter 9
They flew perhaps half an hour, Magnus occasionally altering direction in response to mental commands from Ariane. In dragon form, her night vision was better than a human’s, and she picked out the dark clustered rectangles that indicated the widely scattered villages. Occasionally, a bright dot of fire could be seen. She wondered if any villagers would look up and see the dragon silhouetted against the moon-bright sky.
She arched and spread her wings again, feeling the blaze of the wind. The knowledge that she could not fly herself had less sting than in the past. Few people had the opportunity to ride a dragon through the sky like this. She was blessed to be part dragon, especially if the night ended in battle. At the same time, she was beginning to appreciate the advantages of being mostly human.
She twitched her tail as she settled again and felt Kenrick’s hand come to rest on the end. A frisson of pleasure buzzed through her. It wasn’t lust, really. More a matter of reveling in the intimacy of touching.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Kenrick was scanning the horizon with interest. He’d been nervous earlier, she thought, but had adapted quickly. Seeing her glance, he smiled at her. Her claws involuntarily curled into her grandfather’s scales. Careful, child, Magnus thought indulgently.
Wishing she could blush in this body, Ariane returned to monitoring the progress of the other dragon. Speaking aloud so Kenrick could understand, she said, “I think the strange dragon musst be heading for the village of Tenholm. Nothing elsse iss near.”
“Can you touch hiss mind?” Magnus asked.
“Yes, but he iss sso intent on looking for the village that he doessn’t hear me,” she said with frustration. “Also, hiss mind is different from that of the English dragonss I know. It iss like trying to understand a foreign language. I think he iss ssearching for landmarkss to locate hiss desstination. Ah, he hass been ssuccessful, and now he is desscending on the village!”
“Then we must catch his attention.” Magnus pulled his wings in and stooped downward like a hurtling falcon. Kenrick’s grip on Ariane’s tail tightened, but he said nothing even though a dragon’s stoop must seem terrifying to a novice flyer.
The village came in sight and Magnus leveled off into a glide. As they whizzed over the square tower of the church, Ariane saw the other dragon coming from the opposite direction. The beast was huge, noticeably lar
ger than Magnus, and his scales were dark, almost black, the sign of a young dragon.
Ariane tried again to touch his mind, but the dark dragon was concentrating on his own business and not expecting to hear from another dragon. Her heart jumped when he opened his mouth into the fire-breathing position. Lord Magnus!
Her grandfather saw the danger as quickly as she did, and responded by blasting a narrow flame at the other beast. He didn’t aim to strike but to signal their presence.
The black dragon’s smooth flight jerked as he swung his head around to search for the source of flame. Ariane caught her breath. “He seess us! He should be able to hear me now.”
“Tell him to follow us,” Magnus rumbled.
Ariane obeyed, and managed to touch the black dragon’s mind. He was startled, but willing to parley.
When they were south of the village, Magnus landed in a barren field. Kenrick unstrapped himself, then Ariane, and they slid to the ground. She took position beside him as the black dragon landed a dozen yards away. He kept his wings raised, which signified wariness.
“Sseldom do dragonss fight each other,” Ariane said quietly to Kenrick. “But it iss not unknown.”
Kenrick nodded and took a watchful stance, feet set apart and right hand resting on his sword. He was a splendid figure of a man. Ariane looked from him to the black dragon. The beast was impressive, but it was Kenrick who moved her.
Her grandfather called, “Greetings, friend! I am Magnus of Cornwall. How come you here, and why do you attack my villages?”
“You are Lord Magnuss? I didn’t know you sstill dwelled in the landss of men,” the other dragon said respectfully, speaking with an accent Ariane didn’t recognize.
The black dragon continued, “Why do you sspeak the language of men rather than the dragon tongue?”
“Because I am accompanied by a human friend, and courtessy demandss that we sspeak in a language he can understand.” Magnus waved a fore claw at Kenrick and his granddaughter. “Allow me to introduce the famouss champion, Ssir Kenrick of Rathbourne, and my granddaughter, Lady Ariane.”
DRAGON AND THE DARK KNIGHT, THE Page 5