Chapter Eight
Keltie drifted back to consciousness, her head pillowed on Larkan’s chest. Sunlight played across the greens and golds of the leaves piled around them, a light breeze stirring against her cheek. At first she didn’t want to move. She could have remained nestled in the warmth of furs and skin, listening to Larkan’s strong, steady heartbeat for an eternity. But then she remembered why they were there. Memories of the festival and the angry queen brought her fully awake with a start.
Larkan stirred, stretching his long limbs. Keltie tried to reconcile the man with the great dark dragon. Oddly, the task was easy. Man and beast had the same power and grace. Both possessed an alert readiness that reminded her of the cats she’d seen patrolling the high mountain places. A shiver skittered down her backbone, a mix of fear and pride that such a being had chosen to be with her, even for a night.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice thick with sleep.
“Good morning.” Keltie craned her neck to kiss his rough, dark cheek.
He caught her and kissed her properly, nearly plunging them back into the maelstrom of heat and desire, breaking away only as Keltie felt herself losing her grip on reason. She reached up, her palm cupping his face and her thumb tracing the curve of his mouth. Something flashed in his eyes, a fierce energy as hot and bright as dragonfire.
“I can’t let you go,” he said simply.
The declaration struck with a soft pain. “And I want to be with you.”
“Then we shall be together.”
Keltie’s breath caught, but she snatched her heart back before it could fly free. She had to face facts, though the weight of them crushed her into the mountainside. “I can’t hide in your cave forever. Nadiana knows I’m around, and she’s not very happy with me. It might have been the ax.”
The corners of his mouth quirked as he brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “You got the best of her.”
“Almost,” Keltie said, her tone dry. “I doubt she’ll let that happen again.” With that, she rose and snatched up her shirt from the heap of leaves beside them.
“Keltie,” Larkan protested softly.
She wanted to lie down again and curl into him, but worry chafed her. She would leap over most obstacles for the sake of a relationship, but she wasn’t getting them both killed in a mountain filled with angry dragons. “We have some decisions to make, and I’ll need my clothes on to think.”
Larkan muttered in his own language, and then he got up and began dressing himself from a stash of clothes bundled at the back of the cave. His were drier than Keltie’s. Dew had soaked anything dropped outside the shelter of the rocks, but she was too preoccupied to care.
Until Larkan’s hand fell on her shoulder. She finished lacing her boot and looked up to see the outline of a dragon rapidly blotting out the sky. She recognized Rand, the great bronze dragon, at once. She rose, instinctively stepping closer to Larkan, but the dragon landed and transformed at once to the tall, fair man Keltie remembered from the amphitheater.
“He’s not going to fight us, is he?” Keltie asked anxiously.
“Unlikely,” Larkan said. “The festival is done.”
They fell silent as Rand drew closer. He said something to Larkan, his tone urgent but not hostile.
“Speak the language of humans,” Larkan replied. “This woman, Keltie, deserves respect.”
Rand’s expression flickered, passing through understanding, alarm and finally a touch of humor before he bowed. “Of course. I am sorry, my lady.”
His accent wasn’t as good as Larkan’s, but she had no trouble understanding him. “Apology accepted.”
“Why do you come here?” Larkan asked. “As one of the Flameborn, to take my head? Or as a priest, to remind me of tribal law?”
“I come as your friend, to warn you,” Rand said, turning to Larkan. “The queen demands your immediate submission for punishment.”
“I don’t think so!” Keltie shot back at once, startling both men.
Rand pressed on. “Larkan, it is my duty to remind you that you cannot leave the den, much less consort with a human.”
Keltie ignored the bit about consorting, but moved to stand between the dragons. “Of course she doesn’t like it if he leaves the den. It’s a lot more trouble to keep tabs on your subjects if they’re flying wherever they please.”
“Keltie,” Larkan said softly.
She whirled so she could see them both. “You know she keeps you under the mountain because that’s where she can control you. She told me so. She said that was the secret recipe her ancestors had used since the Old Ones flew into the rift.”
Rand’s expression grew weary. “Nadiana is young and foolish.”
“That’s it?” Keltie said. “That’s all you have to say?”
Rand looked away. It was Larkan who answered. “You say nothing we have not come to expect. Traditions are hard to break. Dragons are loyal and change is slow.”
“Yet you have come among us like a stone thrown into a still pond,” Rand added.
Keltie shrugged. “All I did was nearly get myself killed in your trials.”
“The trials were never completed,” Rand said. “Though the festival is over, the queen has chosen no consort.”
Larkan looked at his friend sharply. “How is that possible?”
Rand shook his head. “The den is in disarray. Everything is coming under question and Nadiana’s authority is in tatters. The example of a lone human has shattered generations of obedience.”
Keltie frowned. That seemed a bit dramatic, even for dragons. “Why? What’s the big deal?”
It was Larkan who answered, taking her hand as he spoke. “Nadiana failed to defeat you.”
“Only because you got me out of there before she killed me.”
“Whatever danger you faced, she did not make you cower.” His smile was rueful. “You defied her even though you knew the fight was hopeless. You did what we should have done long ago.”
Keltie blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“You are an example to us. You refused to surrender what you loved. Dragons have all the strength we could wish for, but have never embraced our right to freedom, to mate where we love and fly where we will. You fought for that. Can we do less?” Larkan’s green eyes transfixed her, seeming to suspend her soul in their light.
Keltie felt herself melting. As declarations went, this was unusual but oddly sexy. “Go on.”
“You’ve changed everything,” Larkan said, his voice sunk to a husky growl. “The dragons have been turned inward, caught in our mountain and ruled by tradition. The festival has occurred four times a year, at the quarters of the sun, from time out of memory. We fly for ceremony, but never for ourselves.”
“Then what was last night?”
“Last night I flew for you.” Larkan’s eyes darkened. “And for myself.”
And he’d seemed to enjoy it. Keltie couldn’t hold back a tiny smile. “Do I have to wait until the next festival for it to happen again?”
“No. The festivals are celebrations. Whatever our customs, they were never meant to be the sole occasions for love.”
Her mouth went dry with the promise hidden in that statement. “Any day is fine with me. But why haven’t the dragons rebelled before?”
“To speak of such things is forbidden, so I do not know what has happened in the past. Perhaps no one dared to make a challenge. Perhaps some tried and failed. All I know is that I need to be with you, and that means I am no longer content with scraps of liberty. I’m leaving the mountain.” Larkan swallowed hard, the sun etching the fine, strong lines of his face. “Come with me, Keltie. Come to the Summerland.”
The power of his words tingled like electricity against her skin. “I thought no one knew how to get there.”
“I will find it.” Gently he pulled her close, reminding her of how he had carried her through the sky. “I know I can, if you are with me.”
Keltie’s mouth dropped open.
Until now, their time together had been an adventure straight from a fantasy—mysterious caves, dragons and a flight beneath the stars. If she went home now, she would have memories that could never be rivaled. Yet what Larkan was proposing had all that and more. It had tomorrows, and she desperately wanted those. She knew without question that she wanted a future with Larkan in it. They were bound in ways she couldn’t explain.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Larkan put a finger over her lips. “Before you answer, know this. Wherever I fly, I can return. I know we are different, and I’m not asking you to abandon your life, just to share it with me. I will learn to walk in your world if you spend some time in mine. And do not think you must abandon your studies. Just think what wonders you might find when in the company of dragons. We have a talent for finding treasure, and once we have left the mountain there will be no need for secrets, no hidden doors and hiding. What you and I find together will be yours to study.”
He removed his finger and smiled in that way that turned her to putty. She would have promised him anything. Together, their lives would be more amazing than either of them could dream.
Finally, Keltie let her heart fly free. “Yes, I’ll go with you.”
If possible, his smile grew even wider. “Then we shall be unstoppable.”
“Larkan,” said Rand.
His voice startled Keltie—she’d forgotten everyone but Larkan. She shaded her eyes and looked in the direction Rand pointed.
Another dragon, this one a rusty red color, landed on the crest of the mountain. It was smaller and more delicate, and Keltie wondered if it was female. It reached its long, sinuous neck up and bellowed into the sky. Moments later, a green dragon landed nearby, then a gold, and then a black. More and more came until the ridges of the mountains were covered with every size and shade of them. Keltie’s breath caught in wonder. They are so beautiful. Beautiful, strange and miraculous.
One smaller blue-black dragon thumped to the ground nearby and quickly transformed into a boy.
“Mickel!” Larkan exclaimed, and followed that with something in the dragon’s own language. Keltie didn’t have to know dragon to tell it was a gentle scolding.
The boy said something back as he ran forward and grabbed Larkan’s hand.
“Is he yours?” Keltie asked, a sudden shyness overtaking her.
Larkan shook his head, but it looked more like exasperation than denial. “He is mine by affection only.”
Mickel gave a grin of pure mischief, and Keltie relaxed. She’d had brothers. Young boys were something she understood.
It took a moment to realize the crowd of dragons was utterly silent. The pressure of waiting silence made her look up, first at the assembly and then at Larkan. “What’s going on?”
Rand answered. “These are the dragons who believe Nadiana lost the fight. They want to know your orders.”
Shock made Keltie stammer. “M...my orders?”
“It seems that you have started a revolution,” Larkan said, more than a little amused. “They want to follow your example.”
“I’m not their new queen. I got away in one piece. That isn’t exactly a victory.”
“That’s good enough for them,” Rand said. “They are eager for change.”
With a pang of sympathy, she could tell Rand’s feelings were mixed. He’d flown away with Nadiana last night, but he’d come in peace to Larkan. He was caught in the middle and trying to be fair to everyone. She almost forgave him for toasting her truck.
Keltie cleared her throat. “You want orders? Fly as much as you like and to go wherever you want to go. You don’t need to live underground if you don’t want to.”
Both Rand and Larkan turned to look at her. The weight of their combined gazes made her want to squirm, but their eyes held a wild, vital hope.
“You are first among the Flameborn,” Rand said to Larkan, his tone grave and full of ceremony. “Do you endorse her words?”
“I do,” Larkan answered.
Rand raised his hands. “Then speak them to those who have gathered to hear, and whoever follows you shall be your tribe.”
Larkan turned to the assembly and repeated Keltie’s words in their own tongue. Every last dragon raised its head in a triumphant bellow, wings fanning out as they roared, and then they shot into the air, one after another. Mickel ran in circles through the valley, popping into dragon form and back again with whoops of delight.
“They accept you as their leaders, though one of you is but a human,” Rand said, his face troubled. “Half the dragons of the den have joined you. Nadiana will be wroth.”
Larkan put a hand on his shoulder. “Will you come with me, friend?”
Rand bowed his head. “No. Nadiana needs someone to lead her to wisdom, by degrees if necessary. I must be there for her.” With those words, Rand turned and leaped into the air, transforming before his feet even left the ground. The huge bronze dragon lifted high above, flapping his massive wings.
“He must love her,” Keltie said.
Larkan nodded. “Rand is not easily dissuaded once he sets his heart upon a task. I have hope for them both, though it is fortunate he has a thick hide.”
* * *
From decision to action took little time. Keltie stopped long enough to pick through the wreckage of her campsite, but Rand’s flames had reduced almost everything to ash. She gathered what supplies she could, and by the time the sun reached its zenith they were in the air.
This time Keltie rode on Larkan’s back, perching between his massive wings. They flew north because that was where legend said the Old Ones had gone to find the rift that would take them to the Summerland. The other dragons fanned out behind them, a dozen of the Flameborn in a protective ring around the others. There was an almost equal balance between the males and females, along with a handful of younglings, including Mickel. Keltie craned her neck to take in the sight of the tribe flying behind Larkan. It was breathtaking, their bright coats like a multicolored tapestry sewn with gems.
Larkan flew high, skimming through pockets of cloud. Of the dragons he was by far the most comfortable in the air. He did not rush the pace, but by the middle of the afternoon, she sensed that the smallest of the dragons were growing weary.
She was tired, too, but curiosity kept her from complaining. Keltie had never seen the mountain range from that viewpoint, the valleys and rivers mere wrinkles in a relentless landscape of rock and snow. And it was cold. She leaned forward, almost lying down on Larkan’s back for warmth and shelter from the wind. The air was so icy her nose had gone numb, and her eyes were half-blind with tears. And yet despite her blurred vision, she saw something she hadn’t expected.
Intuition jolted her, and before she even realized she was doing it, she was holding on to Larkan with one hand and fishing in the pocket of her jeans with the other. She extracted the printout she’d made of the cave painting and unfolded it, using her teeth and one hand. At last she pinned the paper down against Larkan’s back, comparing the drawing in the cave against the landscape spread out below.
Keltie’s perceptions grew clear and sharp, as if her racing mind had pulled everything into focus. It was the dark arrow of Larkan’s shadow that had given her the clue. It slid over the ground like a fish through rippling water, a perfect duplicate of the image on the page. The bird in the cave painting was clearly a dragon, and the squiggles in the drawing weren’t random lines—they formed a map of the mountains. Maybe, just maybe, the painting was an invitation left behind by the Old Ones in case anyone chose to follow them.
The realization made her heart pound. If the map did mark the path to the rift, why had no one tried to erase it? Obviously those who thought like Nadiana wouldn’t leave directions to freedom in plain view. But they forced everyone underground, didn’t they? No one saw it for years. Centuries. They forgot what it meant.
But Keltie was trained to interpret the barest scraps of information. She squinted at the horizon, comparing painting to reality one m
ore time. The bumps of twin mountains lined up perfectly. The hot thrill of her sudden understanding, of knowing she was right, brought a laugh to her lips. Take that, Switzer. He could steal the accolades for discovering her find, but only she knew what it represented. Giddy with pride and excitement, Keltie leaned forward and pointed a little to the west. Without question, Larkan stretched out his enormous wings and angled that way. Like a long, jeweled tail, the other dragons followed.
And that was how they found the rift where the Old Ones had gone. It was but a shimmer in the air, perfectly circular but visible only at certain angles, like a transparent disk of glass. It was no wonder human eyes had missed it. Larkan and the others, however, sensed it at once. Where necks had drooped and wings slowed, now the dragons of the Flame flew with eagerness.
Once they were facing the rift head-on, Keltie could see it clearly. It was several dragons wide, rimmed with a crystalline sparkle. The sun refracted in rainbows, blinding her. She thought she caught glimpses of what lay within the glistening circle, but she was forced to close her eyes. Larkan let out a mighty roar and dove for the shimmering ring. Keltie let go of the map and it flew away behind her. She flung her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life and love. They plunged through the space between worlds, the taste of clouds and wind on Keltie’s lips.
There was a moment of nothingness, as if they were suspended in a silent mist. It would have been terrifying, but the feel of Larkan below her, warm and strong, kept panic at bay. In that strange, surreal second—no more than a beat of the heart—she realized how strongly their bond had formed. To say that they were hurtling into the unknown was an understatement, and yet they had chosen to do it together. She belonged, and she was wanted. Everything was possible.
And then they soared high above a tropical sea, beach to one side and cliffs to the other. It looked pristine and wild, so beautiful that Keltie’s chest ached at the sight of it. “This is paradise!”
Lord Dragon's Conquest Page 7