Chasing Wings

by Hanna Dare

  Tris swallowed down a sour taste of panic at the thought of what Marius was capable of doing. “I thought you didn’t do revenge,” Tris ventured in what he hoped was a reasonable voice. “No profit in it, right?”

  Marius scratched his scar. “You believed that story about me letting my woman and her lover go with a sad sigh? I didn’t want to upset your delicate sensibilities. Truth is, I went back and slit both their throats while they slept. And I wasn’t even that angry about the scar. I think it makes me look kinda dashing.” He fixed hard eyes on Tris. “But you? I’m truly fucking pissed off. That log to the side of my head was a cowardly move. Took me a week before I stopped seeing double. Headaches every damned day since.”

  He leaned back a bit in the chair and Tris could see the hilt of a knife sticking out of the top of one of his boots. The crossbow was resting on the table, but Marius’s hand remained on the trigger. Lily and his parents sat close together on the other side of the table, their faces tense. He’d once thought the looks of disappointment they often gave him were hard to bear, but this mixture of fear and defiance on his family’s faces was close to breaking him.

  Marius, though, seemed to be enjoying the reaction he was causing. “I came here to find you,” he said to Tris. “Figured you’d show up eventually or I was gonna give it another month and then kill your entire family. Leave a note so you’d know it was me. Not as satisfying as seeing your face while I did it…” Marius spread his hands and shrugged. “But you finally showed up and, lo and behold, you brought the dragon with you.” He smirked. “The old hunters would joke about luring dragons in with young virgins. Maybe there was something to those stories.”

  Tris wanted to protest but reminded himself that wasn’t really the point right now. Still, it was annoying how everyone took him for some innocent.

  “What dragon?” Tris asked, widening his eyes as much as he could.

  Marius sighed. “Let’s not do this.” The hand not on the crossbow trigger, moved with purpose to the knife in his boot. “Start playing games and I’m just going to have to prove how serious I am by cutting off pieces of your family.” No one on the other side of the table flinched at Marius’s words, so Tris tried to do the same. “There’s a lot of fingers and ears and eyes to choose from. That’s why I’m here with all three. It would have been far easier just to snatch sweet Lily. She was practically begging me to.”

  Lily’s mouth opened, her face flushed in outrage, but Tris hastily jumped in before she could say something that could set him off. “Marius, do whatever you like to me, just let them go. Please.”

  “Sure thing, kid. Right after you deliver the dragon.”

  “The Earl’s dead,” Tris said. “I saw him die, so no one’s paying you to hunt dragons anymore.”

  “I was a dragon hunter long before I met that mad Earl and I’m still one now. Believe me, there’s plenty who’ll pay for a dead dragon. You bring it here, and I’ll forget this whole revenge thing. Even let your family live.” He picked his teeth with a splinter of wood. “Seems fair to me. And it’s the only deal you’re going to get.”

  Tris hesitated as he thought of what to do. Marius rolled his eyes. In one smooth movement he stood up and backhanded Tris’s father across the face. There were cries and gasps as he fell onto the floor.

  Tris started to move forward to where his mother and Lily were bent over his father, but Marius picked up the crossbow and swung it around to aim at him.

  Tris eyed the sharp end of the bolt aimed at his chest. “All right, Pa?” he called past Marius’s shoulder.

  “Don’t be worrying about me.” His father sat up and waved the women away, his other hand held to his bleeding mouth. “Worry about what’s going to happen to that piece of dung when he’s brave enough to face me without a fancy crossbow.”

  “Your family’s sweet.” Marius sneered. “I can see why you spend so much time away. Now do you and I have an understanding? Or do I get out the knife?”

  “All right, all right,” Tris said quickly. “He’s just outside. I’ll get him.”

  Tris went to the door, conscious of Marius at his back with the weapon. He hoped he could signal Ormur with his eyes about the danger. But as he swung the door open, he didn’t see Ormur or anyone there.

  Tris stepped outside, glancing quickly around. He thought to head to the back of the house, but Marius clapped a heavy hand onto his shoulder and pulled him back inside.

  Marius slammed Tris against the wall. “Where is the dragon?”

  “I don’t know! He’s gone.” Tris had a brief moment of fear that Ormur had left him and his family to their fates. But it was only a moment and he put the thought from his mind.

  Marius clearly didn’t like the thoughts moving over Tris’s face, because the forearm against his throat pressed in like an iron bar. “I told you we’re not doing games.”

  “No, I swear, I’m not playing you. I don’t know where he is, but do I know he’s coming back.”

  Marius’s face twisted in an ugly expression. “Well then, I’m just going to have to entertain myself until he does.”

  He grabbed Tris by the back of the neck and flung him toward the middle of the room.

  “Choose,” Marius said, sauntering toward him. “Choose who I cut first. And don’t bother picking yourself because you’re getting cut no matter what.”

  Tris straightened up to face him. “You’re not touching them.”

  Marius’s teeth gleamed. “So you’re going to fight me? We’ve danced to this tune before.”

  “And I survived.”

  “I’m not sure how, but you definitely had help.”

  “He has help now,” Lily said in a clear voice.

  Behind him stood Lily, brandishing a broom while his father held a mallet for tenderizing meat.

  His mother picked up the poker from beside the hearth and pointed it at Marius. “Get out of my fucking house, you,” she said.

  Marius scratched unconcernedly at his chin. “This is going to be a very bloody few seconds for all of you.”

  “No, you,” Tris blurted, aware that it wasn’t the best of comebacks.

  “Right,” Marius said, grabbing his sheathed sword from the back of the chair. “Everybody loses a hand.”

  Tris drew in a breath and shouted, “Ormur! Ormur, this is the signal, like right now!”

  There was a long silent moment where everyone stared at Tris and he feared that he had made a terrible mistake. Then from above there was a crashing sound as the roof was suddenly torn open.

  Bits of thatching and wood rained down. Lily was the first to move — pushing their parents under the table and ducking down with them. Tris stayed still, watching Ormur’s scaled head peering in and finding him with a fierce golden gaze. Tris thought he was probably grinning like a fool, but he couldn’t help it — Ormur was magnificent. He jerked his gaze away as there was a flurry of movement behind him.

  Marius moved fast. He fired the crossbow at Ormur with a sharp twang. The small bolt bounced harmlessly off his scales, but it struck close enough to Ormur’s eye that he jerked back. It gave Marius enough time to draw his sword.

  He raised the blade to face Ormur, looking like a knight in a tapestry. The gaze Marius fixed on Ormur was deadly and calm and locked completely on his prey.

  So he never saw it coming when Tris tackled him around the waist and carried him down to the floor.

  Tris punched Marius, hard. He hit him again and a third time for good measure because he knew that if Marius got a blow in, Tris didn’t have a chance. Tris was strong and he was angry. Blood covered Marius’s face.

  He grunted and flailed a hand up, blocking Tris’s fourth punch. Tris reached back and grabbed the knife from Marius’s boot and held it to his throat.

  “Well?” Marius turned his head to the side and spat blood. One of his eyes was already swelling shut. “You gonna end it?”

  “It is over,” Tris said. He raised his voice to call to the others without ta
king his eyes off Marius. “Do we have any rope to tie him up? Pa?”

  His father called out in a trembling voice. “There’s a dragon looking at us from where the roof used to be!”

  “I’ll get rope from the barn.” Lily scrambled to her feet and ran out the front door.

  Ormur’s voice rang out. “If you’re squeamish about killing him, I’ll do it. Gladly.”

  “That’s not making a good first impression on my parents.”

  “If the dragon wants to eat that horrible man, let him,” Tris’s mother said. “Good riddance, I say!”

  There was a rumbling sound from above that Tris realized was Ormur laughing.

  “So you, uh, know this dragon, son?” his father asked.

  “Ma, Papa,” Tris said, “this is Ormur, and I have a lot to explain.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Haymon rode up as they finished tying up Marius.

  Tris carefully secured a gag over Marius’s mouth before he straightened up to greet the Lord Protector of the valley.

  “Evening, Haymon,” Tris said cheerfully. “Out for a bit of a ride?”

  Lily elbowed him sharply in the side. Their parents were glancing nervously from Marius to Ormur, who was in his human form. There had been a lot of hasty explanations, a bit of confused shouting, and one scream from his mother when Ormur had shifted. But they’d all agreed — in answer to Tris’s increasingly desperate pleas — to keep Ormur’s identity a secret.

  “What happened here?” Haymon said, swinging down from his horse.

  Tris sucked in a breath, and then let it out, unable to come up with anything that could explain the gaping hole in the roof and the beaten and bound man glaring at all of them.

  “Kidnapping!” Lily jumped in, her voice filled with real outrage as she pointed at Marius. “He held us captive and threatened our lives.”

  Haymon frowned. “The spice merchant?”

  “He’s no such thing,” Lily said. “He’s a liar.”

  “Then who is he?” Lily fell silent and Haymon looked at each of their faces. “There were reports of a dragon sighted near here. A whole crowd is on their way from the village. I rode ahead.” Haymon stared up at the torn roof. “What happened here?”

  “It was the dragon that wrecked our roof.”

  Everyone turned to look at Tris’s mother. She stared back defiantly.

  “That man.” She jerked her head toward Marius. “He’s a dragon hunter.”

  “Rose,” Tris’s father said, putting a hand on her arm. “You’re upset.”

  “Damned right I’m upset,” she cried. “A dragon hunter came into our home, pointed a crossbow at us and— and summoned a dragon!”

  “Summoned a dragon?” Haymon repeated.

  She put her hands on her hips and very carefully did not look at Ormur. “I saw it. Some kind of dark magic, not that I know anything about such things, but you know how dragon hunters are.”

  The people of Shadow’s Vale didn’t think too highly of dragon hunters — their main experience with them being old Jack’s drunken bragging or the fortune-seekers who’d showed up in the wake of the Lookout’s destruction years ago. Those men had not been friendly to the locals and had spent their time poking around the caves on the mountainsides, startling sheep and generally making nuisances of themselves.

  “That’s right,” Lily said carefully. “He did some kind of magic.”

  “Right here in my own house!” She nudged Tris’s father. “Isn’t that so?”

  He nodded slowly. “Aye, and then when Tris knocked him out it must have broke the spell type thingie, so the dragon just flew away.” His gaze fell on Tris. “I was glad to have him home. He saved us. Him and his friend. They’re good lads, Haymon, and I’ll not have folk saying any different.”

  “I’m sure they won’t,” Haymon said soothingly. “Once I explain what happened.” He eyed Ormur, and Tris suddenly realized that Ormur’s braids were gone and his hair was close-cropped again. He guessed this was Ormur trying not to call attention to himself. Somehow he was staying quiet and was wearing a perfectly innocent expression. Tris supposed Ormur had had many years to work on it.

  Haymon paced a bit, scratching at his beard and staring around at the damage and the scattered weapons and the bruise on Tris’s father’s face. Marius grunted angrily around his gag and Haymon gave him a long, measuring look.

  “Seems clear,” Haymon finally said, his voice filled with authority. “A dragon hunter disguises his identity, deceives everyone. He summons a dragon for his own nefarious purposes—” Tris nodded. He knew that ‘nefarious’ was something villains were often called in stories, so it must be bad. “And it was fortunate that Tris and his companion were able to deal with this Martin person.”

  “Marius,” Tris added and then remembered he wasn’t supposed to have met him before. “He, uh, mentioned that his real name was Marius. Or at least I think that’s what he said.”

  “Whatever his name, he’s under arrest,” Haymon said.

  “He’s very clever,” Tris said. “He’ll likely say anything when you take that gag off.”

  “I won’t be taking it off until I get him safely locked up in the village. And then tomorrow he’ll be sent to the capital for trial. Disturbing the King’s peace, along with kidnapping, it’s serious business. There’s no need to keep him in the valley any longer than necessary. It’ll only stir everyone up.”

  “I’ll go back into the village with you, Haymon,” Lily said briskly. “The inn will be busy with folk worried about the dragon. They’ll need a lot of ale to calm down. Also, I can help explain what happened so no one will come up here tonight. Ma and Papa could use the rest.”

  “We’re fine,” Tris’s father insisted. “Though I don’t know about you, but I’m opening up the brandy tonight.”

  “Ormur can have my room.” Lily gave Tris a look. “I’ll be staying at the inn tonight.”

  “No one’s had their supper.” His mother suddenly looked distressed. “I was in the middle of making it when—"

  “That’s all right, Ma,” Tris said. “No one’s hungry.” Though as soon as he said it, his stomach growled in disagreement — in his stomach’s defence, it had been a busy day.

  “There’s still the evening chores.” Tris was horrified to see his mother’s eyes filling. “And the house — everything — is such a mess.”

  Tris felt helpless in the face of her tears, and his father only patted her arm, but Ormur stepped forward. “Tris and I will clean up.” His voice was as gentle as Tris had ever heard it, but his mouth couldn’t help but quirk slightly. “I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the mess.”

  Tris’s mother stared up at Ormur and then she barked out an unexpected laugh.

  “Maybe we should start with the brandy?” Tris said quickly, glancing at Haymon. “I really could use a drink.”

  Haymon stared around at them one final time and shook his head. He hauled Marius to his feet. “Let’s get this one out of here.”

  “Yes,” Lily sighed, dusting off her hands. “And we still have an angry mob to head off.”

  As night fell, everyone was exhausted. They had settled the chickens and the other animals in the barn, swept up most of the debris from the roof, and put together a stew that was now cooking over the hearth. There was still the problem of the huge hole in the roof.

  “It’s too dark to go up there with a ladder,” Tris’s father said. “It’ll have to wait until morning.”

  “We can’t just leave it,” his mother said worriedly. “Maybe a blanket thrown over top?

  “There’s no blanket big enough to cover that.”

  “If we stitched them all together—”

  “Then we wouldn’t have any blankets left for sleeping.”

  “I don’t like the idea of the roof sitting open like that. What if it rains?”

  “It’s a clear night.”

  “A bird could fly right in!”

  “Then we’ll
chase the bird back out again, Rose.”

  Tris watched his parents go back and forth while they all sat at the kitchen table. He was afraid to look at Ormur in case the other man either burst out laughing or ran screaming from the house. Tris wasn’t sure which he wanted to do himself.

  “I think it’s nice — eating like this under the stars,” Tris put in. “It’s… romantic.”

  He did sneak a glance at Ormur then, and caught a slight smile moving across his sharp face. Tris felt a bit of heat warm his own cheeks.

  His mother shook her head. “Eating under the stars. You always did have strange notions.” But her face softened. “But we’re safe and whole, and there are far worse things than dining beneath the open sky. Maybe it is like you say, romantic.”

  His parents smiled at each other in a private kind of way that had Tris blushing all over again. He felt a warm hand take his under the table, and he squeezed Ormur back gratefully.

  His parents were nodding off almost as soon as the stew was eaten, what with all the brandy and excitement. Fortunately, the part of the house with the bedrooms still had an intact roof.

  As soon as Tris was sure his parents were safely in bed, he got out of his own and crept into the room next door. Ormur looked up in surprise but lifted the blankets up and wordlessly shifted over to make room for him. Tris gratefully slipped in beside him and pulled Ormur close.

  “Really? In your parents’ house?” Ormur purred. “I’m shocked.”

  “Not to do anything!” Tris whispered, and hastily angled the lower half of his body away from the tempting movements Ormur’s hips were making. “I just want to, you know, be with you. It’s been, well, it’s been a day.”

  Ormur stilled. “I like having you here very much.” He stroked Tris’s hair. “It can’t have been easy, facing that awful man again after he nearly killed you.”

  “You too. I suppose I shouldn’t have asked you to spare Marius. Before, I mean, not this time. I don’t like the idea of anyone being killed in this house.” Also, he couldn’t imagine how his family would’ve handled it. His mother and father had given Ormur plenty of stares when they thought Tris wasn’t looking, but over the course of the evening it had almost been like they’d forgotten what Ormur was. It wasn’t a situation that could last — or even one that Tris wanted to last — but he would take a night of peace.