The Red Dragon Girl (Firethorn Chronicles Book 3)

by Lea Doué

  She stopped and swallowed hard. She’d come here intending to have the upper hand… but she would be the one asking for something this time. Granted, she shouldn’t have to ask for it, because he shouldn’t be throwing storms at them or even following them, for that matter.

  She wanted to smack the smug look off his face.

  Taking a couple of quick breaths and tightening her fists around the daggers, she marched right up to the fire and looked him in the eyes. “What do you want?”

  He remained silent, and so did she. If he wanted a staring contest, she’d give him one. She wanted answers, and she wouldn’t leave until she got them.

  Or at least tried.

  Finally, he grinned. “I’m surprised you keep asking the same question that I… can’t answer.” He spoke in that deceptively smooth voice that had fooled her and her sisters when they’d first met him.

  “Wait. You can’t answer?” Was he referencing the curse he’d put on her and her sisters barely two months before? The one they hadn’t been allowed to talk about with anyone? Already she had new questions she hadn’t intended to ask. “You’re not under another curse yourself, are you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Should I even bother asking you any more questions?”

  He shrugged and sat up straight. “I won’t tell you what to do.”

  Her knuckles whitened. If he only knew how her fingers itched to drop the daggers and beat some sense into him. But she wasn’t twelve anymore. “Your manner of speaking around things is extremely irritating.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve come to ask you to please stop sending storms to slow us down. It’s dangerous. If you’re trying to help us, then help us.”

  His grin disappeared. “You should never assume to know my motivation for doing anything.”

  “But I do know. You want revenge on Idris above all. But that revenge—even if you get it—won’t be what you expect. You’ll lose chances along the way to better your own life, to make amends, to make friends. I’m not stupid. I know you’ve helped us so far to get what you want. I just don’t know why you can’t ask for it already and be gone.”

  “I don’t expect you to understand. There’s no need for you to.” He leaned back against the tree. “Now, what did you come looking for, other than to ask for a halt to the rain showers?”

  Rain showers? How dare he downplay the dangerous risk he’d taken with their lives. She threw a dagger quick as lightning, and it lodged beside his thigh in the tree root. He had the decency to flinch.

  She drew another dagger into her hand. “You need to stop the storms. You want something from me, but whether or not I can or will give it to you is pointless, since you won’t tell me what it is. Stop working against us and let us get Gram to safety and break this curse before King Lotario hurts someone.” How could she make him see that lives were at stake? She drew breath to speak again, but he interrupted her.

  “I agree.”

  Her jaw dropped. She closed it with a clack of teeth. Had she heard him correctly? “You agree?”

  “What do you need from me?”

  Her eyes narrowed. Complacency would get her caught in another trap. She couldn’t take anything from him without offering payment of some sort. His advice had worked out well enough, but asking for anything in particular could be tricky.

  “We don’t need anything. But if you insist on following us, we’ll slow down and wait for you at a designated spot in the morning if you’ll agree not to stir up any more storms.”

  “Anything else?”

  She adjusted her grip on the daggers. “No. This is our best compromise, unless you’re planning to leave us alone altogether.” His storms had slowed them considerably, but they could accommodate the pace of a rock dragon and still make good time to the tower. “Do you have any better ideas?”

  He crossed his arms, lifting his brows in contemplation. After a few moments, he glanced over her shoulder and then did a double take. His eyes widened with interest.

  Vanda stepped up to her side, the pack basket—and dragons—secure on her back. Orin joined them, hand on his sword hilt and True at his feet.

  “I don’t think your goose boy approves of our plan.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mel kept her gaze on Tharius across his campfire. Had it been ten minutes already? She hadn’t quite finished negotiating.

  Tharius’s eyes lit up, and Mel followed his gaze to True, who stood at Orin’s side. The man had to be starving for an old goose to look like a good meal, but True wasn’t up for trade. Mel ignored his comment, already aware of what Orin thought of her plan.

  Orin glared at Tharius. “You could always decide to leave.”

  “I could, but where would that leave you?”

  “A whole lot better off than having you around.”

  Tharius chuckled. “You don’t know what you’re saying, boy. Where would you be if I hadn’t warned your dragon girl about the king’s deception?”

  Orin’s jaw tensed. Tharius had a point.

  Wait. Did he just call her dragon girl? She shook her head. “What do you know about the red dragon girl?”

  Tharius eyed Vanda, along with the dragons on the basket. “That you’re as much the red dragon girl as she is, and I’ll give you that piece of information for free.”

  Mel sheathed her daggers and glanced at Vanda. They’d guessed as much, but how did Tharius know?

  “What else do you know of this?” Vanda asked.

  He stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. “The threads of this curse are too complicated for even me to make them all out, but our little princess here became tangled in the whole thing just by being present. And then your prince decided to save her from the razor-tails, which sealed the deal. Even now there are loose ends waiting to snare anyone who gets too close. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Mel glanced around as if she might be able to somehow see the curse floating in the air, but of course it was only an expression. Or else something that only actual sorcerers could perceive or understand.

  “Enough talking,” Vanda said. “Enough not talking. Enough talking around everything. We all need to get out of here, but it’s my grandmother the king of Mazereon has locked in a tower, and that’s who we’re going to free first.”

  Mel agreed wholeheartedly.

  Vanda gestured towards Tharius. “You may have had nothing to do with this, but you’ve chosen to follow us, to follow her,” she pointed a thumb at Mel. “And you’ve been asked to get out of our way. I don’t know what you want, but I want my family back together. All of them in one place. You can fly with us for all I care, but are you going to do as Melantha asked?”

  Vanda’s pleas would either annoy Tharius or move him. Maybe both. He’d said he had no desire to interact with anyone but Mel, and he hadn’t yet actually agreed to her proposal.

  He studied Vanda, one eyebrow raised. “I appreciate the offer of transportation, my dear, but no thank you. I am, however, willing to stop the storms and meet up with you in the morning.”

  Orin’s hand dropped from the sword. “Good—”

  “But your little princess will travel with me.”

  Orin made a strangled sound in his throat.

  “Why would I do that?” Mel asked.

  Vanda answered for him. “He trusts us as much as we trust him. He wants assurance that we’ll stop, so he can catch up to us by morning.”

  Tharius tipped his head in acknowledgment.

  “Absolutely not,” Orin said.

  Mel glared at him. It wasn’t his choice… it was hers. Then Baz’s words came back to her. What would be the best choice for everyone?

  Tharius stood for the first time since she’d been at his campfire, his towering presence more intimidating than ever. She swallowed hard. The glint in his eyes said he wouldn’t take no for an answer. If both she and Vanda were required to break the curse, it made sense that he wanted to have one piece of the puzzle in his presence
.

  Could that be what he wanted from her? Just… herself? If so, he could have come right out and said it.

  Tharius addressed Orin. “You do realize that I’ve offered my help outright to your little princess? She’s refused anything that smells like sorcery, and I’ve respected her wishes—although I’ve been forced to use it to keep her from running so far out of my reach that even my advice will do her no good.” He took a step forward, and his voice lowered, taking on a menacing tone. “The man who put the barrier around this kingdom is the same man who created the barrier that held me prisoner all my life. I will find him, and I will make him pay. But there are things that need to be… done first.”

  Mel caught the slight pause before the word done, as if he might have been about to say something else.

  He continued less forcefully. “You have my word that I mean no harm to Princess Melantha, but if you wish the storms to stop, she will be traveling with me.”

  “Then let Vanda travel with you, too,” Orin said.

  Mel stared at him. Did he just agree she should go with Tharius?

  “I have no use for or interest in any of your companions.”

  “I don’t care what you’re interested in,” Orin said. “Vanda will accompany you so we can keep in contact.”

  Mel grinned. He was a genius.

  Tharius didn’t blink at the suggestion that Vanda could somehow keep in touch over long distances. He crossed his arms. “Besides the fact that I just said I will travel with our little princess here, I only have one rock dragon. Their speed has nothing to do with sorcery. It’s due in part to limiting the weight they carry. It’s simply not possible to travel with more than one extra person.”

  “Well, good luck keeping up with us. Come on, Mel.” He turned to go, and Vanda joined him.

  Mel didn’t move. Orin made sense, and she had no desire to travel with Tharius, much less alone. But she also had no desire to risk flying through a storm again. She had no desire to fly at all. At least if she traveled with him, she could keep an eye on what he was up to. She wouldn’t let him get away with bullying anymore.

  “Mel?” Orin held out a hand.

  She took it and drew close. “Give me one minute more alone. Please?”

  His expression turned stony, and he dropped her hand. “I’ll see you back at camp, then.” He stomped an angry path into the trees.

  Mel sighed. She picked up True, interrupting her forage among the weeds, and put her into the basket. The dragons nestled down with her, mission accomplished and adventure over.

  She squeezed Vanda’s shoulder. “I’ll see you shortly.”

  Tharius’s gaze followed Vanda and the goose until they disappeared from sight.

  She really should catch him a rabbit or something.

  Turning, she approached Tharius slowly, looking him in the eyes as she spoke. “You’re taking both of us on your rock dragon. I’ve seen those things in action, and Neylan has told me more than I’ll ever care to know about how they work. They’re perfectly capable of carrying three people, especially when two of them are small, and one is about to waste away from overusing his special talents.” She stopped walking and looked up into his face. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I know you can’t afford to keep using sorcery as much as you have been lately.”

  Tharius’s eyebrows arched high. Did he think her so clueless that she couldn’t see the evidence in front of her?

  “You’re obviously underfed,” she said. “You’ve got dark shadows under your eyes. You’re a rumpled mess with a stilted way of talking to people. You could save us all a lot of headaches if you’d say what you want from me right now and went on your way. I don’t wish you any ill. I wish you would just go away.”

  She swallowed a few times, longing for the waterskin back at camp with Baz.

  Tharius turned his back on her and walked to his root, where he put out a hand and leaned on the tree. He sighed and then turned to face her, an earnest look in his eyes she’d never seen from him before. “I’ve never had anyone… see me the way you do. You’re determined to get what you want. I understand that. And you have every reason not to trust me, but… that’s exactly what I need from you, Melantha.”

  Her head jerked back at the use of her name with no titles. “That’s what you need from me? My trust?”

  He sat on the root and plucked her dagger from its resting spot. Propping his elbows on his knees, he looked just as he had when she entered his camp. “For now. I truly mean you no harm. I’ve pushed the rock dragon harder than I should to keep up with you—I won’t overburden it with three people.”

  She growled in frustration. Was he being honest, or was he trying to win her trust by appearing to be honest? Either way, it didn’t matter. She would never completely trust him, and so why not play his game? What better choice did they have? Orin wanted to leave him behind, but Tharius would throw more storms at them with no thought about who he might hurt, including himself. And what if he had more helpful information? As much as it burned her inside to admit it, he’d given good advice.

  If only she could talk to her sisters. But she’d wanted to forge her own path, which included the freedom to make her own choices. And mistakes. At present, she chose to trust Tharius—as much as she could—and hope it wasn’t a trap. Hopefully, Orin and the others would trust her enough to accept her choice.

  “I don’t think I have to explain why I’ll never be able to completely trust you,” she said. “Once we get Vanda’s grandmother free, we can work on getting the barrier down. Let Prince Sebastian free his red dragon girl. And… me. Or something.” They’d figure out the details as they went along. “After that, you can ask for whatever it is you need from me, and if I’m feeling generous, I might cooperate.”

  Surely what he needed was nothing more than knowledge only a royal would have access to, and he’d targeted her because of their previous acquaintance. Or she could be totally wrong and he would ask for her firstborn child, or something equally odd and random.

  “I’ll let you get some rest—goodness knows you look like you need it—and be back… when?”

  He blinked rapidly as if surprised by her presence. “I plan to leave two hours past noon. What will you tell your prince?”

  She retrieved her dagger from his hand, and strode away, saying over her shoulder, “None of your business.”

  When she reached camp, Keir sat beside the campfire eating with everyone else. The dragons rested under True’s wings, except for Hunter, who slept on her back as usual. Vanda handed her a wooden bowl with spicy-smelling stew made from dried meat and tomatoes, and she sat on the grass beside Orin. His posture relaxed, but she gulped down one spoonful after another to avoid talking right away.

  The silence weighed on her, and the food sat heavy in her stomach.

  Baz set down his bowl. “So, who’s going to tell us what happened with the sorcerer?”

  “I will.” Mel wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “Long story short—I’ll be traveling with Tharius, and we’ll meet up with everyone at a predetermined place in the morning, and for however many mornings it takes us to get to the tower. If nothing else, it lightens the load on Keir, lets us keep an eye on Tharius, gets me out of the air, and keeps the storms at bay.”

  “What about Vanda?” Orin asked.

  “He made it very clear that he doesn’t want to overburden the rock dragon. He’s already been pushing it too far.”

  “Mel, I—”

  “I know what you’re going to say, but I’ll be fine. I’m tied to this curse now, so he needs me in one piece, and he needs me cooperative if he wants to get anything else from me.”

  “How can you trust him all of a sudden after everything he’s done? Knowing what he is?”

  She set her empty bowl on the grass. “I don’t trust him. I know very well what he is and what he’s done and what he’s capable of. In theory. I also know a man who turned from sorcery.” She’d never told Vanda about Yarrow
, Ivy’s bodyguard, who’d been a sorcerer once upon a time. “I feel there’s something about Tharius that’s… different from last time I saw him. Something changed or is changing. I could be wrong, and he could go on to do more horrible things—but so far, other than being a nuisance creating storms, he’s done nothing but help us.”

  Orin scoffed. “You’re already buying in to his lies. He’s luring you into a false sense of security to get what he wants in the end.”

  “I’m fully aware that’s probably what he’s doing, but King Lotario is expecting us at the palace, which is almost as far away as the tower. He’ll be looking for us, and we can’t waste any more time, which is exactly what will happen if we don’t cooperate with Tharius.” She didn’t like the plan any better than Orin or the others did, but it was the best choice for them all.

  Keir stood abruptly, his bowl falling into the dirt and rolling near the fire. “Just let me know where to land.” He grabbed a water skin and wandered off towards the stream.

  She’d almost forgotten he was there. She squeezed Orin’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

  He rolled his eyes and gave her a halfhearted smile.

  “I know. I’m running off again.” She did that a lot, didn’t she? “I’ll work on it.”

  “Wait a second.” Vanda fetched a small pot of cream from the supply basket. “See if you can get him to put this on his back, or just do it yourself. He won’t ask me or Baz for help. Doesn’t want us to know how bad it is, I suspect.”

  “I’ll do what I can.” She followed Keir at a distance. He didn’t glance back, but he tilted his head from time to time when a twig snapped or a squirrel chittered at her.

  Knee deep and about as wide as a carriage, the stream splashed and burbled over a rocky bottom. Keir sat on a small boulder near the bank, took off his boots and socks, and rolled his trousers up to his knees.

  Mel sat on a fallen tree nearby.

  He walked to the water’s edge and filled the water skin. Washed his hands. Splashed his face. After wading into the middle of the stream, he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the rock, all while keeping his back away from her. “So, little princess, what do you want?”