by Bianca D'Arc
It had taken a few days, but eventually, Genlitha had spoken the words of Claim to him, and his life had been changed forever. From that moment on, Gowan had become a dragon knight, God help them all.
But the woman who could talk to dragons… She fascinated him. Her name, he had learned from the fisherman, was Livia, and she was the only child of the most successful sea captain and trader in the town. She ran her father’s various business interests while he was at sea, which seemed to be all the time now that his wife had passed. The fisherman seemed to respect and genuinely like her, which counted in her favor to Gowan’s way of thinking.
“Yon dragon now, he’s a newcomer. Strange one, but a good-hearted creature. Most from on high never come down to the sea, but he looks as if he were born to it,” the fisherman observed as he and Gowan sat, watching the floating dragon and the small boat he sat next to in the water.
“They say he’s part sea dragon,” Gowan said carefully, not wanting to give away where he’d heard that from.
The fisherman only knew Gowan was new in town. He probably had no idea Gowan was a knight, which was how he preferred to keep it for now. It wasn’t all that long ago that Gowan had just been a soldier. Nothing special about him, really. Becoming a knight had been one hell of an adjustment.
“Sea dragon, you say?” The fisherman looked at the distant dragon speculatively. “Aye, that would make sense. I saw a sea dragon once, you know, when I was a wee lad. Smaller than him yonder.” The man nodded toward Sir Hrardorr. “But colored near the same. Maybe a bit more blue and green, but very close. ‘Course, that sea dragon had no flame. This one, you can see smoke rise from his nose now and again, so I take that to mean he’s got fire in his belly.”
“You’re probably right about that, aye,” Gowan agreed good-naturedly. “But I’ve never seen a fighting dragon swim like him.”
“Seen a lot of dragons, have ye?” The fisherman looked at Gowan speculatively, but with a friendly grin.
The fisherman was fishing for information, but Gowan didn’t mind. It was natural to want to know about a newcomer.
“I came here from Castleton. There are scores of dragons there,” Gowan hedged. “I’ve seen a few fishing in the river, but none ever swam that I saw.”
“Rivers be different than sea,” the fisherman observed.
“Fishing’s different too,” Gowan said, trying to redirect the conversation. “I’ve done all my fishing to this point on rivers.”
“Oh, aye,” the fisherman agreed, going on at some length about all the different kinds of fish that could be had from the sea. “And there are worse predators,” he said, gesturing broadly as he frowned. “Shark, giant squid and the like. The dragon lord, though, he’s made things safer and more profitable for us of late. The warm weather this year has brought more predators closer to shore than usual, but ol’ dragon there has been evening the odds for us. Quite a sight it is to see him chewing on a four-yard shark, too. Better than a tavern show!” The old fisherman grinned, chuckling a bit as they both looked at the dragon, still sitting docilely on top of the light waves, apparently chatting with the girl on the boat next to him.
“He brought up a giant squid yesterday,” the fisherman went on. “Never saw the like. It was still wriggling. That dragon must be able to dive deep. Such creatures live in the darkest fathoms. The only time we ever see them is if one shows up in a net, already dead. Usually in pieces, with teeth marks on ‘em. Ain’t never seen one still alive before. But it weren’t for long.” The fisherman cackled with something like glee.
Gowan was impressed at what he was learning about the dragon known as Hrardorr. Genlitha had been surprisingly tight-lipped about the male dragon, though she had admitted to having a crush on the brute when they were still youngsters. Gowan wondered privately if there was more to it. Maybe Gen still held feelings for Hrardorr. Maybe, if the stars aligned and the Mother of All blessed them, Hrardorr might turn out to be Genlitha’s mate.
Of course, that would mean Gowan had to find one first before Gen could consummate a union with whatever dragon turned out to be her match. And whoever that unknown dragon’s knight was would be the man with whom Gowan was supposed to share his mate.
Gowan scratched the back of his neck, still uncertain as to how that was supposed to work. He’d never really been exposed to the three-way relationships that were the norm in dragon Lairs. Knights and their problems were about as far removed from Gowan’s old life as a simple soldier as the stars were from the ocean he found himself fishing that day.
Feeling a telltale tug on his line, Gowan set to work reeling in the fish who had taken his bait. The fisherman wandered off to check his own gear, and only the lap of the waves against the hull of the wooden boat and the occasional splash could be heard for a long time.
When they’d caught enough fish for the day, the fisherman turned his boat toward the shore, and Gowan helped the man clean up and prepare the small vessel for the next day. It was only polite. And Gowan liked the guy, rough as he was.
The sea-colored dragon and the girl were still out fishing, so Gowan calculated that he could make it to the Lair—to drop off his catch and clean up a bit—and back, to see if he could accidentally-on purpose run into the lady. He wanted to meet her. It was like a compulsion in his blood. He didn’t really understand it, except that she intrigued him on every level.
When Hrardorr took off, winging his way back toward the Lair, Livia headed her little sailboat toward home. She would dock at the pier near the marketplace where her father’s offices were. There was something she wanted to check before she went home for the night, even though she’d given herself the day off to fish.
She’d been doing that more often since she’d made friends with Hrardorr. She enjoyed his company, and she thought he enjoyed hers as well. He came down from the Lair to fish most days, but she could only spare a day or two each week to goof off in her sailboat. The weekends were hers, though, and she spent those two days with her new dragon friend. All in all, that meant she’d been spending three or four days out of every seven with Hrardorr for the past few weeks.
If she had her way, she’d do that for as long as possible. She really liked spending time with the dragon. He wasn’t like any other being she’d ever met. He didn’t judge her by the same standards humans applied. Her father’s business meant nothing to him. Her wealth didn’t impress him. And her social standing didn’t matter in the slightest. Which was very freeing to a woman who had spent all of her life being weighed and measured like the stacks of coins in her father’s safe.
The day seemed a little darker now that Hrardorr had left. It always felt that way when he took off for the Lair. He made her world a little brighter when he was near her. She didn’t question why that was. He was a dragon, after all. They were magic personified, in her opinion. Of course she would miss him when he left each day they were together.
She maneuvered her boat next to the dock and got help from a young boy just waiting to earn a copper for catching her lines. He helped her tie up and agreed to take her catch of fish up to her housekeeper for an extra coin. Livia knew the boy and had hired him to do this same thing on a few other occasions, so she knew her fish would make it to her home—and that her housekeeper would give the boy a decent meal before she let him leave.
Livia smiled as she headed for her father’s office in the marketplace. She paused by a public fountain to rinse her hands and tidy up a bit before heading to make her final stop on the way to the office.
Liam’s pie stand served everything from sweets to savories and had the tastiest pocket pies in town. He had a market stall close to her father’s building, and she wanted to stop by and get a snack before heading into the office.
“That looks good.” A deep male voice came from over her shoulder as Liam placed the pocket pie—a creation of meat, onions and spices baked inside a flaky pie crust—in front of her.
She looked back to find the owner of the voice and nearly
did a double take. He was handsome. And tall. Exceedingly tall…and handsome. And did she mention handsome?
“Liam makes the best pies in Dragonscove,” she answered, knowing she needed to say something and feeling at a bit of a loss when confronted by such a specimen of manhood.
She slid the coin for her pie over the counter while the man behind her placed his order for the same thing she was having. He was affable and polite to Liam, which spoke well of his manners, and he moved back just enough for her to pass when she picked up her pie and headed for the little pots of sauces Liam kept farther down the counter for those who liked to add a little zest to their purchase.
The man joined her by the sauces, a few moments later, with his own pie. He looked over the selections but didn’t move to take any of the spoons that were in the various pots.
“What do you recommend?” he asked her, striking up conversation again.
“The red sauce is hot. The orange sweet. The yellow is primarily mustard seed with dill. The brown is beef gravy. Any of those would go well with what you ordered,” she offered.
She noticed he picked two of the sauces and placed a cautious dollop of each on the edge of his plate. A discerning man, then. Not one to jump in blind with both feet. He was more cautious than that.
When Livia took a seat at one of the wooden tables Liam kept for his customers in front of the stall, the man followed. He held his plate in his hand, waiting until she looked up at him.
“I know this is very forward, but may I sit with you? I promise I am not some random stranger. I’m actually from the Lair and on my first day off in a strange town. I’m only recently arrived.” He managed to look harmless, which was quite a feat for someone of his size and build. He was clearly a soldier of some sort—probably a knight, if he truly was from the Lair. “My name is Gowan Hunter, youngest son of Lord Dariath Hunter of Hunt’s Keep along the River Arundelle.”
“Impressive pedigree,” she nodded, having heard such things from suitors in the past. Suddenly, the man was a little less interesting. “If it’s true,” she muttered.
He had the grace to look sheepish. “It’s true, though I rarely use any of that anymore. Forgive me, I made assumptions knowing you were a gentle lady.”
“I may have been born to a life of ease, but I am not noble,” she protested.
“Truthfully, none of that matters to me. I left home long ago and have lived the life of a simple soldier for many years.”
He was still standing there, holding his plate as his pie cooled. She took pity and gestured toward the seat opposite her, across the wooden plank table. He sat, placing his plate in front of him.
“I’m Livia,” she introduced herself as he sat down. “Something tells me that you are no longer such a simple soldier though,” she said, before biting into her pie.
He smiled somewhat ruefully. “My life has taken some strange turns of late. One minute, I was training a company on the plain outside of Castleton. The next, a pretty blue dragon landed beside me and struck up a conversation. My life has not been the same since.”
“There was talk of a light blue dragon arriving recently,” Livia offered, still unsure if this man was for real, or just a spinner of tales.
“That would be Gen. Lady Genlitha, if you want to be formal. She trained here as a young dragon, and we were sent to take over for an injured knight while he recovers. We are learning our way as a new partnership, as well, before heading into battle. I hope.” He added that last little bit almost under his breath, but she heard it.
“You wish to join the fighting in the north?”
“We both want to do what we can to keep our land safe,” he replied carefully. “I do not revel in bloodshed. I have seen enough of it in my time.” His eyes took on a weary cast that made her heart go out to him. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to stray into such dark waters.”
They ate in silence for a few moments.
“The gravy is a nice complement to the flavor,” he said a short while later, clearly wanting to change the subject.
She nodded, still unsure of him. Was he a fortune hunter, simply trying a new tack with her? She’d seen it all in recent years. Without her father here a lot of the time, she’d had to learn how to fend off unwanted attentions from scoundrels who thought to marry her and live off her father’s money.
“If you’re a knight, where is your dragon?” she asked, speaking her mind bluntly. It may not be polite, but she’d learned how to come to the point since running her father’s businesses in his absence.
Gowan chuckled. “She is teaching some of the younger fliers today while I went fishing.”
“Fishing?”
He nodded. “Yes, milady. I saw you out there with your dragon friend. I was duly impressed by him. Sir Hrardorr, wasn’t it?”
“He doesn’t like people from the Lair to study him,” she said carefully, not sure what her dragon friend would make of this. Perhaps it would be best not to tell him.
“He’s been avoiding Genlitha. She knew him when they were both youngsters. I think her feelings are hurt that he refuses to stand still long enough for her to say hello.”
“He’s still healing. He doesn’t like people to make a fuss,” she hedged.
“People, I can understand. I don’t much like being fussed over when I’m hurt either, but his fellow dragons?” His voice dropped to a lower, more intimate level. “Is it because he’s blind? Does it bother him that much?”
Livia didn’t answer. Few, if any, in town knew of Hrardorr’s handicap. She didn’t think it was her place to talk about it, so she remained silent. She didn’t really know this man. She didn’t know what his game was, but she refused to betray her new friend, Hrardorr, in any way.
“I cannot say,” she said finally, hopefully putting an end to this line of conversation.
Gowan sat back and regarded her. She held his gaze, refusing to give in. Finally, he shrugged.
“I can respect that. You don’t know me. We’ve only just met.” He leaned back, looking upward. “But maybe seeing Gen will help you believe me just a little bit.”
He pointed upward, and she followed his finger with her gaze, seeing a flight of dragons circling high above. There was an almost invisible sky blue dragon in the lead, several other colorful youngsters behind her.
“Lady Livia?” A strange, rumbly, yet somehow feminine voice sounded in her mind. Was it the dragon? “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered, still looking upward, hoping her words would communicate silently to the dragon high above—if that was who was talking to her.
“Fabulous!” came the feminine rumble in her mind again. Apparently her reply had gotten through. “I am Genlitha, and you have met my knight, Gowan. He asked me to communicate with you for two reasons. First, he wanted to see if you could, indeed, hear me. Second, he wanted to provide you with some proof that he really was who he claimed to be. I can assure you, he is a knight, though he is newly chosen and knows little of our ways. He is still learning, which is why we were assigned here—to both teach and learn. I’m teaching these youngsters, and he’s learning how to be a knight. We’re also learning how to be a team. It takes time when a new pairing is formed.”
“Amazing,” Livia breathed.
“Yes, she is,” Gowan said softly, drawing Livia’s attention from the sky, back down to earth and the man who was sitting opposite her. Gowan was smiling at her, but she wasn’t as easy to impress as he thought—or at least, she didn’t want to appear that way.
“All right. I believe you are who you claim to be.” She shot him a narrow-eyed look. “But you are not the first person from the Lair I’ve met, and you likely won’t be the last.”
“Ouch.” He winced, smiling broadly. “I see I will have to work harder to earn your regard. Good. I like a challenge.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Livia allowed Gowan to walk her to the door of her father’s offices, and he left her with a kiss on her hand. It was a courtly
gesture from his youth at the keep that just seemed right in this particular situation, though why that was so, he wasn’t sure.
He only knew that she seemed to bring out the gallant in him, and making her smile made him feel good. So good, in fact, that he whistled a jaunty tune all the way back to the Lair.
He was happy because she’d agreed to see him again. They’d made a date for the weekend, and he was looking forward to it with a great deal of enthusiasm. If he’d paused to ask himself why he was so excited to be seeing this young woman, he couldn’t have answered. There was just something about her. Something unlike any other woman he’d ever met.
She drew him like a loadstone. Her smile made him want to be around her. And her wit challenged him in ways he hadn’t known he liked to be challenged. She was the full picture. The kind of woman a man could get serious about and consider spending the rest of his life with.
And the very fact that such thoughts didn’t have him running in the other direction was surprising as well. Gowan had known that he would need to start searching for a mate because of Genlitha. It would be unfair to his dragon if she had a mate she could never claim because he couldn’t get off his ass and find a woman to share his life. He’d known that academically, but he’d always shied away from commitment before. Frankly, he hadn’t been sure he’d be able to adjust his thinking so radically, or so quickly, but it seemed meeting the right woman made all the difference.
When he returned to the Lair, Gowan retrieved his fish from the cool water chamber in which he’d stored them temporarily. He’d been taking all his meals in the great hall with everyone else, but the rooms he and Gen had been assigned had a small, serviceable kitchen. Tonight, he would eat the fruit of his labors and spend time with his dragon. They’d been either working or off on their own since they’d arrived, and he missed just spending time with Genlitha, he was surprised to note.