Keeper of the Flame: Dragon Knights, Book 7

by Bianca D'Arc

  “I’ll start packing if you want to wash up. There’s an empty water skin in my pack. Maybe you could fill it in the stream while I take care of the embers?”

  “Certainly, my liege.” She made a funny little bow as she stood, reaching for his pack.

  Hugh wondered how she’d react when she found out that he really was of royal blood. He wasn’t sure why he’d kept that fact to himself, other than some vague idea he had about being wanted for himself rather than his social rank. He didn’t think Lera was like that, but all too many highborn ladies were. He’d felt hunted in his brother’s kingdom by more than one court lady intent on marrying into the royal household.

  Third in line for the throne wasn’t a bad place to be. Or so many of those shallow women thought. One had even whispered to him that with the dangerous life Roland led and Nico’s commitment to the Jinn Brotherhood, it was likely Hugh would wear the crown sooner rather than later.

  Hugh had thrown the conniving wench out of his bed for even thinking such a thing. He’d had her banned from court as well, though he’d gone about that more subtly than the middle-of-the-night ouster from the royal apartments accompanied by armed guards. He’d alerted his brothers to the possibility of trouble from her, and Hugh had only been satisfied when Nico had sent one of his operatives to check on her noble family from the inside. Nico wasn’t the Prince of Spies for nothing.

  Miss pranced down to the stream with Lera and he watched his two females with a softness in his heart. They both had beautiful souls. Miss was so eager, so trusting, as only a child could be. Lera, on the other hand, was all woman, mature and strong, and more than a match for him on so many levels.

  He’d been blown away by their night together and hoped it was only the first of many spent in her company. First, however, he had to take care of the threat against her. Those Eyes had been deadly and more skilled than he liked. Three times now, one of them had snuck up on them without his knowledge. It was unheard of. Such things did not happen to a man with the senses of a dragon. He should have smelled them coming even if he didn’t hear their whisper-soft footfalls.

  Or perhaps the woman had been too distracting. Now there was a thought. He was off balance, worrying about Lera when he should have had all his senses focused on the danger they faced. Hugh had to get over that. He had to be ready for the next time they faced Eyes. He had no doubt the asougdoubt tsassins wouldn’t quit. He’d have more blood on his talons before this was over. In a way, he almost looked forward to it.

  Proving his strength and skill against highly trained opponents was thrilling in a primitive way. Even more primitive was his desire to protect his woman. Proving himself the victor when her very life was at stake was a dangerous game, but one he planned to win. He would die before he’d let harm come to Lera. Or the baby gryphon.

  Miss was every bit as precious to him. He couldn’t feel more protective of her if he’d fathered the little girl himself. Odd, that. But there it was. He loved the poor, brave creature and would do all he could to keep her safe from harm.

  Lera and Miss came back in short order and Hugh had his bedroll and the few items he’d used from his pack back together. Lera gave him the filled waterskin when he reached for it. Slinging it over one shoulder, with the small pack on his back, he was ready to go.

  They walked for a half hour or so, steadily uphill, though the grade was easy. The small sand dunes were hard packed and rolling across the landscape toward the much higher hills. The city of Alagarithia sat on the other side of the hilltops, in the triangular valley nestled between them and the cave-filled cliffs where so many gryphons nested. The sea was the third and final border to the city, which allowed some protection as well as easy trade via the many ships that docked there from other lands.

  Their pace was easy, no hurry to their steps. Hugh wanted to time their arrival to take advantage of his natural, dark camouflage. They had hours to go before the sun would set. There was no reason to hurry. All rushing over the dunes would do is tire out the ladies and he didn’t want to put either one of them through any more strain.

  He coached the gryphlet as they walked, giving her little exercises she could do to strengthen her wings as she walk-hopped alongside them. A few times she actually caught air and the delight in her prancing steps was clear to see.

  “Try cupping your wings when you hit the top of the next rise, sweetheart,” he told her. “Gather a little speed and leap. You might be able to coast down to the bottom of the dip.”

  “I try,” she promised very seriously, then ran ahead to test her wings.

  Hugh lost sight of her for a moment, then had to laugh when he saw her practically galloping back up the dune from the bottom, triumph in every step.

  “I fly, Hoo! I fly!”

  She ran right up to him and rubbed up against his legs, her wings folded sloppily along her back. She was so excited, she hadn’t even taken time to tuck her feathers in. He patted them into place as she pranced around his feet.

  “Want to show me?”

  “Yess!” Miss ran back toward the top of the dune.

  Hugh glanced at Lera before following the gryphlet so he could witness her first little triumph in flight. As he expected, she instinctively caught the air and coasted beautifully down the small hill created by the sand dune. She was a natural flyer.

  “Hoo! Did you ssee?” she asked from a few yards away at the bottom of the dune. She bounced on her front paws, excitement making her fur stand on end in places. She looked adorable.

  “I saw, sweetheart. You did great.” He crouched down to her level when she ran back toward him, nearly bowling him over with her enthusiasm as she jumped into his arms.

  He praised her a bit more before she got impatient to try it again overaugt again the next dune. He let her go, enjoying the moment.

  “You’re very good with her,” Lera observed, coming even with him as they watched the boisterous gryphlet.

  “She is a joy. It’s good to see her like this. Especially after the way I found her. Or rather, she found me.”

  “I can imagine.” Lera’s focus was on the child as they walked along, side by side. “It was during the last round of storms, wasn’t it?”

  “She was shivering and half frozen. Her fur was wet through and through. It took hours to get all the mud out of her feathers and fur. She was so afraid of the fire at first. Her front paw was badly burned.”

  Lera turned toward him. “She was burned? Did she say how it happened?”

  “No. She didn’t want to talk about it. I assume, like most children, she didn’t know that fire could hurt her until she tried it.”

  “You healed her, didn’t you? I can’t see any evidence of a burn on her anywhere.”

  Hugh nodded. “She might’ve been crippled otherwise. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “She’s lucky she found you.” Lera turned her attention back to the scampering child.

  “I don’t think luck really had anything to do with it. The more I think about it…” He trailed off, not sure whether he should share his suspicions.

  “What?” Lera turned back to him again, her expression very serious.

  “I told you that a seer’s vision sent me here. I think Miss is part of the reason I was the one who had to come.”

  Lera regarded him intently for a long moment, then turned her attention very deliberately toward the gryphlet again.

  “I think you might be right.”

  That was all she said before forging on ahead, in the gryphlet’s tracks.

  The rest of the morning passed much the same way, in a leisurely walk over the sand dunes, enjoying Miss’s antics and what little scenery there was to see. A few hearty souls were attempting to graze domesticated animals here and there along the sand flats. They crossed a few fence lines, but didn’t see many animals. There wasn’t much natural vegetation. Hugh doubted such vast and mostly barren land could support large herds. It was more likely the animals naturally gravitated toward th
e more verdant land near the coastline. Certainly, the few farmhouses he saw in the distance were all toward the coast, where trees sprang up to shelter them from wind and storms.

  There were a couple of dilapidated barns along their path. No more than crude shelters for whatever animals might graze this far afield. Perhaps they saw seasonal use. Hugh didn’t know enough about this part of the world to say for sure. He only knew that an empty barn could be useful on their journey.

  In fact, he called a halt at one of the mostly empty structures at midday. They’d been following the stream all morning. He knew it came down out of the hills and it was as good a path as any to take, since the distant hilltop was their destination. They were close enough to take a break. One last push and they’d be climbing the hill in no time at all. Best to wait until near dark for that.

  “Hungry?” Hugh asked as he shrugged out of the straps of his travel pack.

  “I could eat something,” Lera confirmed. “Are you going hunting again?”

  “I have a ration bar or two in here. You can have them.”

  Her eyes lit up and he was glad he’d remembered the fruit and nut bars he had thrown into his pack in case of emergency. The consistency of boiled leather, they were rolled in waxed fabric because the boiled and concentrated fruit had a tendency to make everything sticky. That made it a natural for adhering any number of shelled tree nuts, seeds and dried berries into a compact bar. The result didn’t look very good but tasted delicious. Especially when you were hungry from the road.

  Hugh rummaged around until he felt the familiar waxed fabric. There were two of them, each about half a foot long and half that size across. He took them both out and placed them on an upturned crate in the shadowed interior of the barn. Other than a few empty wooden crates, there were only a few bales of hay stored in the structure.

  “You make a start on these. I’ll just have a little word with Miss.” Hugh met the gryphlet who stood poised on the threshold of the shadowy barn. He knelt down so he could talk to her at eye level. “Are you up to hunting, sweetheart? I hear some rustling in the corner over there.”

  It might not be appealing to the lady, but Miss needed every chance she could get to learn her natural skills. Both raptors and cats were natural born hunters. Miss was a little of both. She needed to learn how to hunt both on the ground and from the air, and if Hugh was serious about taking her in, he had to use every opportunity to teach her. The younger she was when she started to learn, the more readily such things would come to her.

  Hugh knew he’d guessed right when he saw the way her eyes lit up and her whiskers twitched. Furry little ears swiveled to catch the sounds of scurrying rodents near the back of the barn.

  “Where do you think they are, sweetheart?” He spoke in a low tone, near one mobile ear.

  “There.” She gestured with her right forepaw exactly where Hugh thought the critters might be hiding. “Good. Now how will you stalk them? What is your approach?”

  The little head turned to him in question, tilting in puzzlement. “Sstalk?”

  “When you crouch low and wait quietly so they don’t see you coming.”

  “Oh. Like diss…” Miss moved silently on her paws, advancing carefully until she was only a few feet from the corner where the rustling noises had been coming from.

  She crouched, maneuvering her approach so that the rodents would be boxed in between the two walls in the corner of the barn and her. There would be little chance of escape unless they were much faster than a pouncing gryphlet.

  Hugh watched as she waited, willing to let her demonstrate before he tried any further instruction. She seemed to know what she was doing. He’d watch this time and critique if necessary to teach her how to sharpen her skills.

  He saw the moment when she moved to strike, as the first of two black round things with bald tails came running out from under a loose bunch of weed stalks that had blown into the back of the building. Her claws came out a split second before she pounced. Two slashes with her front paws and she went still. Neither of the rodents had escaped her incredibly accurate stabs.

  Miss turned to Hugh, calm as could be, holding one of her catches up to him. “Want one?”

  Hugh couldn’t help the grin that split his face. “Thank you, sweetheart, but you earned them both. You did such a great job.” He reached out to pat her head, bestowing the.&bestowie love and approval the little one needed so much. “Where’d you learn to hunt so well, sweetheart?”

  “Hungry,” she said simply, though she moved into his caress.

  Hugh’s heart broke again for the baby who had been roaming the streets on her own for who knew how long.

  “I guess that would do it. Get hungry enough, you learn how to catch dinner, eh, Miss?”

  The gryphlet didn’t reply. She sat down on the ground to enjoy her catch, tearing into the dead rodent as neatly as she ate everything else.

  Hugh headed back toward the doorway and the lady who watched with no discernable expression on her face. Lera was making good progress on the first of the fruit and nut bars.

  “Sorry if that wasn’t exactly the entertainment you’re used to at table,” Hugh apologized as he walked closer.

  “Some of my best friends are gryphons.” Lera surprised him by waving his words off nonchalantly. “I’ve seen worse table manners. She is really an incredibly neat eater for a child.”

  “I noticed that too. Most young dragons don’t have her level of coordination or her natural grace. I haven’t been around enough gryphlets to know if that’s normal for the species.”

  “It’s not. Most gryphlets are little fuzzballs of mischief. Of course, most are spoiled rotten from the time they’re in the egg to the time they fledge.” Lera smiled and handed Hugh a slice from the ration bar.

  He noticed she was using the throwing knife he’d seen in her hand on the roof of the inn. The blade had to have been secreted somewhere in the fabric of her gown, though he hadn’t seen it or felt it when he’d taken her dress off last night. There must be some kind of secret compartment in there somewhere.

  “There’s a sheath in the stays of my bodice.” She must’ve noticed the direction of his curious gaze. The grin she gave him was both sassy and shy. An intriguing combination.

  “You’ll have to show that to me sometime.”

  Her smile deepened. “Maybe I will.”

  He took the slice of ration cake from her hand with a lingering caress. “I certainly hope so.”

  Hugh looked at the corner where Miss had been sitting quietly, devouring her catch, and found the baby gryphon fast asleep. He wasn’t altogether surprised.

  “What do you say we stop here for a few hours?”

  “I don’t think we have a choice,” Lera replied with a soft smile toward the gryphlet. “She’s already had a big day dancing up and down the dunes, testing her wings.”

  “Yeah, she’ll probably sleep for a couple of hours, at least.”

  “Whatever will we do in the meantime?” Lera’s question sounded innocent, but her expression was chock full of mischief.

  “I don’t know, but why don’t you come over here and sit on my lap. I’ll try to think of something.”

  The curve of her mouth promised a delicious kind of trouble as she walked slowly toward him. Far from the innocent miss, she prowled right up to him, hiking her skirts as she moved in a way that made his mouth water. She held his gaze as she straddled his thighs, perching on his knees, her arms looped around his neck.

  “I can think of a lot of things I want to do to you,”re& you, she whispered against his lips before joining them in an intimate kiss.

  The kiss deepened as she slid forward on his lap so that her warm heat rubbed up against his straining erection. Their bodies moved and swayed against each other, bringing little tingles of excitement, while the kiss went on and on. Lera was in charge and Hugh didn’t mind at all. She twined her tongue with his, commanding his response in a way that sent shivers of pleasure down his spi
ne, through his insides and straight to his cock.

  Quick as that, he wanted to be inside her. She enticed him like no woman before and though he let her call the pace, he was ready to go whenever she wanted him. Thank the stars, she seemed as quick to catch fire as he was.

  Lera bounced off his thighs and his hands went to her waist in reflex. He didn’t want her to go. But then he saw what she was about. Her clever hands were at the ties that held her drawers and she was working at the dainty little bows, loosening them. He wanted to help but knew his big fingers would just get in the way.

  He watched, impatient as she seemed, while she conquered the knots and let the fine fabric slide down her luscious thighs. She still wore her skirts, but she was naked beneath. If he had his way, he’d keep her like that at all times—naked and ready to take him.

  He just about died when she sank to her knees in front of him and coaxed him to move his knees farther apart. Her fingers went straight for the buttons on his fly and he forgot to breathe.

  When her small hand wrapped around his cock and squeezed, he had to fight for control. Then she moved closer, her long hair sliding over one shoulder, and her mouth closed over him. Hugh gave in to the pleasure as she explored him, letting her do what she wanted with his willing body.

  He only pushed her away when he was too close to the edge. He didn’t want to come in her mouth. No, he wanted to feel her tight pussy around him before he gave up his seed.

  Which reminded him of something.

  “Lera, honey.” He stroked her hair back from her face as she lifted away from his rigid cock. “I’m sorry. I never thought about the fact that you could get pregnant.”

  “Oh, don’t worry.” She smiled at him and he felt like the sun had come out on a stormy day. “I am not a virgin and though I have not been with many men, I do know how to take care. I eat a particular herb that helps regulate my system and prevents me from conceiving. I’d have to stop eating the herb for a few weeks in order for the effect to wear off.”

  She stood as she spoke, hiking her skirts up as she moved into position. She straddled his legs again and her intent was clear. Oh boy, was it ever clear.