by Rinelle Grey
But now he needed that information. And he didn’t know how to get it.
If the dragons hadn’t written it down, and he was pretty sure he would have read it if they had, then their only chance of finding an answer was to read between the lines. Something he struggled with.
He was going to have to enlist Mary’s help. Ostrian heaved a sigh, staring at her.
She stared back, her expression challenging him.
She looked so strong and powerful, with her blue eyes sparking. A few wisps of hair had escaped her serious bun and curled around her face, adding a little sweetness to her severe formality. They made her look more… well… human, as the humans would say.
His attraction to her was undeniable. If she were a dragon, he’d be sorely tempted to have a quick fling with her. Not anything serious, that was far too risky, but to sleep with her once, just to get her out of his head.
But she wasn’t. She was a human. And if his hunch was right, that very fact could be why he was attracted to her. He needed to remember that. Even if, right now, he did need her help.
“I suspect that whatever I’m looking for,” Ostrian admitted, “the dragons didn’t want to admit it, to write it down. There could be hints in amongst the scrolls, but chances are I’m going to miss them. I’m reading them as a dragon, and not seeing the same things you are.” He winced, waiting for her response.
It wasn’t disappointing. Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth twisted in a knowing smile. Not quite the smile he’d been hoping for, but it warmed his heart none the less. “Are you asking for my help, Ostrian?”
Ostrian searched for a denial, some way to twist this around so that he didn’t have to admit that he needed her.
But the expectant, even hopeful, look on her face, somehow made it easier to admit the truth. “Yes, I am,” he said softly. “You’ve already caught something I missed on my many reads through that scroll. I didn’t even consider the fact that it had been humans who broke off the mating, not dragons. You… you see things differently to me. That may just be the key to finding the answer.”
He braced himself for her gloating. Surely she wouldn’t let that admission pass without some sort of response.
But instead, Mary regarded him thoughtfully. “I think that was a very difficult admission for you to make. I’m proud of you. Of course I’ll help you.”
Ostrian wasn’t sure whether to bristle at her condescending comment or be relieved that she’d agreed to help him. Who was she, to say she was proud of him? Did she realise she was talking to a dragon? One who had lived far more years than she ever would?
Ostrian took a deep breath and made himself let the irritation go. Especially since at least half of it was in response to the warm feeling her compliment had given him.
Instead, he reached for the next scroll in an attempt to distract himself. Reading it at the same time as translating it into more modern English was a little tricky, but though it slowed him down a little, it was faster than Mary reading on her own.
She listened intently, a small, endearing frown of concentration on her face, even though the scroll wasn’t very interesting. It was mostly a description of the dragons packing their hoard to transport it across the ocean. Nothing at all that Ostrian could see of interest.
When he was done though, he waited for Mary’s response.
“So, at least some humans came with the dragons,” she said thoughtfully.
Ostrian skimmed the scroll again. Where had she gotten that idea from? One or two references stood out. There was a mention of packing human clothes in sacks, though that could have been for dragons, who did spend much of their time in human form, after all. The same could be said of the books or musical instruments.
Ostrian couldn’t see anything conclusive at all. “What makes you say that?” he asked, curiosity shaving the edge off his gruffness.
“There was a mention of lashings, strips of leather,” Mary pointed out.
Ostrian frowned. “Well, the dragons would have tied all those bundles on, not carried them in their hands.”
Mary nodded. “True, but they mentioned choosing soft leather, and I’m assuming that isn’t because it would cut into a dragon’s scales.”
This time, Ostrian saw what she meant immediately. “It was for humans to hold onto.”
Ostrian felt a smile twist his lips, the expression unfamiliar. He was right. Mary was very perceptive. And very useful in this quest.
He was a little unsettled to realise that his appreciation wasn’t even grudging.
Maybe that was because she wasn’t being grudging about explaining to him. She offered the information with no hint of reservation or judgement. She didn’t even try to make him guess, as his father always had when he’d known something Ostrian didn’t.
Even if she was, potentially, helping him find out something that would keep dragons and humans apart forever.
For the first time in this quest, he kind of hoped he did find out that human and dragon relations were perfectly natural and normal.
Even if he wasn’t sure what he’d do if they were.
Chapter 6
Mary watched Ostrian staring off into space, lost in thought. He seemed almost bewildered by the fact that dragons had taken humans along with them on their migration, but she wasn’t surprised at all.
Like humans, when dragons mated, they mated for life. Their magical bond made that connection perhaps even stronger than for humans. Of course any dragons who were mated to humans when they had left England would have wanted to take their mates with them.
But that fact didn’t help her prove that dragon/human relationships were perfectly normal, just that they’d existed, and they were important to dragons.
She needed something more. And Ostrian seemed too lost in thought to find it.
“So, do we go forward from here and find out what happened when they arrived in Australia, or backwards and find out more about what the situation was before they decided to leave?”
Ostrian stared at her for a few moments, his face blank. “What?”
Mary wondered just what he had been thinking about. His cheeks had a slight pink tinge, and the stare he gave her stirred something deep in her belly.
If it were anyone but Ostrian, she would have suspected he was thinking about her. But if he had been, it was probably how he couldn’t wait to get rid of her. And he wouldn’t find that embarrassing, he’d probably be proud to proclaim it.
She shook her head at her own foolishness and repeated the question.
This time, Ostrian seemed to take in her words. He frowned and stared around the room. “I don’t think there is anything to be found once our people moved to this continent, we had very little contact with humans here, so I suggest we go back to before that.”
For some reason, his assertion made Mary curious. “Are you so sure that there was no contact with humans once you were here?” she asked curiously. “And what happened to the humans who came with you?”
Ostrian shrugged. “They would have grown old and died, and not been replaced. Dragons have mated only with dragons for many generations now.”
Quietly, Mary wasn’t so sure. But she let it slide for now. “Right. Let’s go back a few generations then, get a picture of what life was like before dragons and humans started disagreeing,” she suggested.
Ostrian moved across to another pile of scrolls, these ones even more ancient. He pulled one out of the pile and began reading.
Mary listened with half an ear, unrolling scrolls and staring at the contents. The scroll he read was very dry. It appeared to be an account of a dragon meeting of some kind. Mary hadn’t even realised dragons had meetings. Mostly it appeared to be about acquiring gold, storing gold, protecting gold from other dragons.
She was momentarily interested in the idea that dragons had fought amongst each other, even then, when Ostrian stumbled over a word, as he did occasionally.
“Manncynn,” he said, frowning. “Uh, mankind… tha
t is, their numbers were growing, taking over more of the continent.”
Mary hesitated, torn. His words were fascinating, and she wanted to hear more about what dragons thought of the humans taking over more of the continent, but a word on the scroll in front of her caught her eyes. Mann. Could that mean human?
She held onto the scroll, she’d get him to read that one next, and listened to Ostrian.
The scroll told that dragons were coming into conflict with humans more and more, not like the old days where they lived in peace together. Humans had even stolen from dragon hoards from time to time. Dragons may have roasted a few humans who tried that, though the scroll insisted that those rumours were greatly exaggerated.
It sounded so much like a fairy tale, that Mary couldn’t help being amused. She’d always assumed that dragon-slaying-knights were stories told to make knights seem more brave and bold, but perhaps there was some truth to the tales.
Ostrian reached the end of the scroll and reached for another, but Mary pushed hers towards him. “Here, read this one.”
Ostrian took it willingly enough, then stared at it with a frown. “This one’s just a personal letter,” he said dismissively. “There are a few of them floating around the archives. I’m not sure why they didn’t get thrown out long ago.” He moved to put the scroll towards the back of the pile, but Mary laid a hand on his arm.
His robe had fallen back and her hand touched bare skin. Bare, muscular, strong skin.
He froze, staring at her, his face only inches from hers.
She felt it too, the current that seemed to wash through her, then draw her towards him, like waves pulling her feet on the sand. The pull was relentless—gentle, but strong. It was all too tempting to let herself be drawn along.
Was this what Ostrian was so afraid of? It was strong, certainly, but she couldn’t find it in herself to fear it. In fact, she wanted to welcome it.
Mary felt herself rising on tiptoe, her lips edging closer to his.
Ostrian cleared his throat, and the moment was gone, leaving only a lingering awareness that tingled through her body.
Mary stared down at her hand on his arm. What had she been doing?
Oh, the scroll.
“Don’t dismiss a resource just because it’s a letter,” she said firmly. “People, and presumably dragons, are far less ordered in their personal communications. It’s entirely possible they will say things that they wouldn’t consider important enough to include in an official document. Besides, we’re looking for information about dragon’s relationships with humans. That’s personal. What better place to find it than in a personal letter?”
Ostrian stared at her for a few moments, but Mary wasn’t quite sure if his mind was on her words, or… something else.
She wasn’t quite sure about her own mind, for that matter.
The way she’d felt when she’d touched Ostrian’s arm couldn’t have been natural. For the first time, she began to believe there might be something to his assertion, that some magic was involved in dragons and humans falling in love too easily.
A few hours ago, she’d thought Ostrian a grumpy old man who needed to be put in his place, and now suddenly she was nearly kissing him? That couldn’t be natural.
Their fingers brushed again as he took the scroll from her, resulting in the same current of feeling. Mary pulled back, startled. Her eyes met Ostrian’s, and she could see the same uncertainty in his face.
He cleared his throat again and began to read, translating as he went.
Dearest Caroline,
It is with the greatest regret that I must leave you. Our King has forbidden any more mating with humans before our departure, stating that it’s unfair both to humans and dragons, who may make impulsive decisions based on the finality of our move.
I have implored him to reconsider, tried to tell him that we should, instead, be taking as many humans with us as we can possibly carry, but he has refused to listen. He’s just too angry after his son was killed in his sleep by a passing knight.
It is, indeed, a tragedy, but I still firmly believe that this animosity was as much the dragons fault as the humans. We need to live in peace together, not fight each other. We both have much to offer each other.
If only I could convince them of that. But my continued support has already resulted in my removal from the Council of Elders, and I will be removed from my position of records clerk if I continue to fight.
Much as I do not want to leave you behind, I must make this sacrifice for my people. It is the only way. I must leave them the evidence I have collected, so that maybe, one day, when it has all collapsed, they can see that they were as responsible for it as the humans.
For I fear that without humans, our species is doomed. The evidence I have collected is clear. Only one in…
Ostrian broke off his reading abruptly, staring at the page.
Mary frowned. “What is it?” she demanded.
Ostrian shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “It can’t be.”
“What can’t be?” Mary demanded.
But Ostrian was staring at the scroll as though he were so mesmerised by its story he wasn’t even hearing her.
Mary put her hand on his arm, her only thought to snap him out of his absorption. Her curiosity made her forget the spark when they touched. But her body hadn’t. It responded immediately, her pulse quickening and her breathing deepening.
Ostrian reacted just as quickly, his own breathing matching hers. He met her eyes, his dark and intense.
Mary caught her breath. “What is it?” she asked, her voice hushed.
“One in five human/dragon pairings produce a life dragon,” he whispered. “As opposed to one in two hundred dragon/dragon pairings.”
Chapter 7
Ostrian couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scroll. He kept reading the damning words over and over again, as though somehow they could change in front of his eyes.
All around him, his whole world was crumbling. If this were true, everything he had fought for, everything he had believed—it was all wrong.
Life dragons were vital to a strong clan. No one could deny that. Ostrian had always quoted the fact that they could they use their magic to help protect the clan—to hide them, or use fear or persuasion to convince enemies to leave so they didn’t even have to fight them—to explain why he had spent hours researching how they could breed more. But the truth was, they did so much more than that.
Ever since their last life dragon had died, fifty years ago, morale in the clan had fallen. Every defeat they suffered at the hands of the Trima dragons felt that much more crushing, every death, whether through age, illness, or injury, seemed only to lower the clan’s confidence even further. On top of that, there weren’t even enough births to keep the population stable. Their lack of a life dragon seemed to drop fertility rates, whether through some sort of magic, or just the general malaise that affected everyone’s hope, it was hard to say.
Ostrian suspected even their victories would not lift the spirits of the clan much without a life dragon. Not that they’d had much of an opportunity to test that. Victories had been slim in recent years. Until the humans had arrived anyway.
Did the fact that things had turned around since the humans arrived indicate that there might be some truth to the outrageous claims in this letter? Ostrian couldn’t deny that everyone had been more positive and cheerful. But they had also had their first taste of victory in centuries and woken their first prince. Surely that was the reason for the surge of hopefulness, not that there was some connection between humans and life dragon magic.
But Ostrian couldn’t just ignore the possibility. What if humans did have some sort of power that he couldn’t sense, something related to life dragon magic? He had questioned it himself just today, when he’d stared into Mary’s eyes and felt a pull stronger than anything he’d ever felt before. He’d considered it as a possible explanation as to why dragons were so attracted to humans.
&n
bsp; Yet, now, when a dragon long since dead had suggested it in a letter, on paper, in black and white, the idea terrified him. His heart pounded, and blood rushed in his ears. If it were true, it threatened everything the dragons believed. Everything he believed in.
Ostrian pushed the possibility away, not wanting it to be true. Dragons didn’t need humans. He refused to believe that they did.
It couldn’t be true. This was just a letter. Anyone could quote statistics, but without the evidence to back it up, it meant nothing. This was obviously a dragon bewitched by humans, as many here were. As Ostrian nearly had been. That obsession meant he’d say anything to convince his king to let him bring his human with him, mated or not.
Ostrian had seen it play out right here several times over the last month. Dragons ready to throw away everything they believed in for love. He could even feel the pull himself, and might have succumbed if he hadn’t been strong. This letter was no different.
It proved nothing. The very idea that whatever was causing humans to affect the dragons in his clan was related to life dragon magic, the most powerful magic of all, was ludicrous. Sacrilegious even. Humans had no magic. Everyone knew that. Only dragons possessed magic. And the very implication that dragons needed humans, that they would be less without them, just didn’t make any sense at all.
It was far more likely that there was something else at work here, a force that not only caused dragons to be incredibly attracted to humans, but that confused their natural instincts and their loyalty to their clan. This letter could simply be more evidence for the very thing he’d been saying, that humans were dangerous. That they filled dragon heads with lust and made them forget their common sense.
But no matter how much he kept stating it in his mind, doubt remained.
“Are you okay?” Mary asked, her voice soft. Sympathetic.
Her sympathy only made him feel more torn. He didn’t want to be attracted to her. Or he didn’t want this attraction he felt to be dangerous. He wanted to be strong for his clan, and at the same time he wanted to give in and forget all about his responsibilities. The way he wanted her, his body throbbing and aching, demanded it. But he couldn’t. If he couldn’t be strong, who could?