Seeking The Dragon

by Sarah J. Stone

  “Okay. It’s getting late anyway, and I don’t want to disturb the other guests working in here. Go find her some linens, and I’ll put away my things.”

  Maggie nodded and left to get some linens from the closet. Tio made his way downstairs to talk to Cassi.

  “I’m sorry, Tio. I just didn’t know where else to go. I can’t go to my family right now, and Mr. Baker has… other issues. Maggie said she wasn’t sure if you had a room, but I’m willing to just sleep in a dark corner somewhere out of the way if I need to. I can find someplace else tomorrow if I need to do that.”

  “Don’t be silly, Cassi. You’re in luck. We are full right now, but we were just renovating a room. If you don’t mind it being a bit unfinished, you can stay in it at no charge. I should have the repairs in there made in the morning. It’s nothing major, other than I have to get a washstand to go in there, but you can always come down and use ours in the morning, while I work in your room to finish it if you want.”

  “That would be fine, and it sounds perfect. I really appreciate it.”

  “It’s no bother at all. It’s like you said once before, it feels like family when you are here with us.”

  “Thank you. You’ve no idea how much that means to me.”

  “Let me go help Maggie get your linens on the bed and clean up the last of my mess in there. We’ll have you snuggled in shortly. Feel free to sit by the fire or make yourself some tea. Make yourself at home.”

  “I’m fine, but I think I will go sit by the fire. It’ll be too warm for one soon, so might as well enjoy it while I can.”

  “Very true. Be back in a bit.”

  Making his way back upstairs, he helped Maggie finish tidying up the room as best they could before making their way back down. Once they had Cassi settled into her room, they made their way to their own, falling into bed and fast asleep with hardly another thought about why she was there. They were too exhausted from all the excitement and activity from the day.

  Chapter 14

  The following morning was bustling with new guests coming in even as the current ones were checking out. Lauren had come in to help so that Maggie could get the rooms remade for new guests and Tio could focus on getting breakfast set up for the guests. He was surprised when Cassi turned up in the kitchen to give him a hand.

  “This isn’t necessary, Cassi,” he told her.

  “Of course, it is. I owe you for putting me up on such short notice last night.”

  Tio smiled at her and let her help, getting breakfast out for those who chose to stay for it prior to their departure. She sat down to enjoy a meal with the others, while he made his way up to her room to finish the work he had started there the evening before. He noticed that she had no bags, something he hadn’t paid any attention to when she had turned up at their door.

  Once he was finished, he returned downstairs to find her in the kitchen with Maggie, cleaning up after their guests. They were chatting away as he came in, not breaking it off when he arrived, and he waited for a pause in their conversation to ask his question.

  “Cassi, do you not have any things to bring in to your room?”

  “Oh! No. I left in such a hurry. I will have to figure out how to get them. Is it okay if I stay here a few days? I have money. I can pay.”

  “Of course you can stay. Your money is no good here, though.”

  “What? Don’t be silly. You are running a business. I’m taking up a rentable room.”

  “Actually, you are taking up a room that is still being renovated and wouldn’t have been available for a few days anyway.”

  “Then I am keeping you from getting it ready.”

  “Absolutely not. I can get the work done during times you aren’t in there. I’ve already gotten what I needed to do today finished while you were at breakfast.”

  “Well, I don’t know why you are being so kind, but I do appreciate it. If you won’t let me pay, I will at least help out around the place while I’m here.”

  “I won’t argue with that. I’m sure Maggie will be thrilled, as well,” he said, nodding toward his wife.

  “Then, we will work it out.”

  “Did she tell you the good news, by the way?” he asked, smiling toward Maggie for a moment.

  “Good news?”

  “Yes. We are expecting our first child.”

  Cassi’s face lit up as she instinctively reached for Maggie’s barely swollen belly and put her hands on it as if to give it her blessing. Then, she pulled them away, an old pain dancing across her face for mere seconds before it was gone.

  “That’s wonderful for you. I hope you have a happy, healthy child. I don’t think there is anything more beautiful than bringing a tiny life into the world.”

  “We are thrilled.”

  “Yes. I can only imagine you would be. Listen, I’m going to go lie down for a while, and then I’ll go into town and retrieve a few things.”

  “Do you need me to go with you, Cassi?” Tio asked her.

  “Oh, that won’t be necessary. I will be fine.”

  Tio wanted to ask what had happened, but he knew it was none of his business and that she would tell him if she chose to do so. He could only hope she wasn’t in any danger. Unknown to her, when she left, he followed, marveling at her lovely peacock dragon overhead as he maintained his cover inside the tree line below. He waited there, pacing back and forth in his tiger form until he saw her returning, and then ran back to the inn to get dressed so she wouldn’t realize he had ever left.

  “Cassi, let me help you with those,” he said, noting the long straps on the oversized bags she had been carrying on her back.

  “That is amazing,” Maggie marveled as she joined them outside, admiring the rather odd sack Cassi had been carrying on her back. She hid behind a large flap on it, pulling on a dress over her head before stepping out.

  “Isn’t it? A shifter in town made it for me. She measured my dragon form and made the straps so that if I step into it in human form, they will fill out when I shift. That way, I can carry large amounts on my back. Plus, it has the privacy curtain sewn on to one side so that I can get redressed in private.”

  “It’s brilliant!” Maggie exclaimed.

  “We will have to get you and Tio measured for one,” Cassi replied innocently.

  “Yes, of course. Come on, let’s get you inside,” Tio replied, changing the subject as he hauled the large burlap contraption inside, tucking the straps in so that it didn’t look so odd. Cassi had landed in a fairly secluded private area of the inn so as to not be seen. He couldn’t have his human guests picking up on the fact they were among shifters.

  Once he had her settled back into her room, she came down to help with supper. It turned out that she was a brilliant cook, and Maggie was very grateful for the extra hands with the inn at full capacity. Afterward, they all worked to clear away dishes and then settled in among the guests that remained out in the main parlor. Eventually, the three of them were alone and the conversation shifted to Cassi’s stay.

  “I really appreciate the two of you letting me stay here. I will try to find another place soon and get off your good graces.”

  “We love having you here, Cassi. When I came here, yours was one of the first faces I saw, and without you, I might have never met Maggie.”

  “I remember. You looked so downtrodden and lost, staying in that rundown little cottage down near the pub. No one had lived there for years. I don’t think it even had a fireplace, did it?”

  “No. It was pretty scarce. But, you know, it could be a beautiful place with only a little work.”

  “You’re right!” Cassi said with a broad grin. “Would you help me with it?”

  “What?” Tio replied.

  “The cottage. Can we fix it up for me? It would be convenient for the restaurant. I’m not going back to my father’s, the pub, or any of the family businesses. Mr. Baker offered me a job at the restaurant, and the cottage would be convenient for it.”

  “Bu
t I don’t even know who owns it,” Tio said. “I was not exactly there by invitation.”

  “No one owns it. It belonged to the elder Tillerman, and he died years ago, left it to rot with no kin to take it. I can stake a claim to it and make it my own.”

  “Are you sure?” Tio asked.

  “Yes, I’m positive. In a few months, when it warms a bit more, I want to go on a trip to the south, but I can have it fixed up before then, and it will be here if I come back.”

  “If?” Tio replied, getting an uneasy feeling about what he thought it was she was hinting at.

  “Well, I haven’t been there in a long time. I don’t know if there is anything there for me anymore,” she replied.

  “What do you mean?” Maggie asked, noting that Tio seemed to be speechless for at least a moment.

  “Well, that is what my father and I argued about. You see, there was a man I met years ago. I loved him very much, but I had to leave him. It wasn’t safe for him if I stayed. My father threatened him and…” her voice trailed off for a moment before she continued. “It was just a bad situation. My father didn’t approve of him, and he told me he would hurt him if I didn’t come home. I believed him. I had no choice.”

  She seemed near tears as she tried to find the words to continue. Tio leaned forward and touched her hands, trying to hold back his own emotions. Maggie looked at him uncertainly. He knew she understood how close he was to telling Cassi the truth.

  “Anyway, he told me that there was nothing there for me, that he had gone back and finished the job after I left. I don’t know if he is telling the truth or if he just wanted to hurt me, to keep me from going, but I can’t stay in that house with him anymore.”

  “So, you are going to see for yourself?” Maggie asked.

  “I was, but no one will take me. I had been asking for someone that could accompany me there, but no one will, and one of them told my father. Now, no one will help me.”

  “What do you hope to find there?” Tio asked quietly.

  “I don’t know. He came for me once, you know. He came to try to get me to go back with him. His name was Khalil, and he was so strong and so handsome. I loved him with all my heart. I still do. Honestly, I always will. I want to try to fix things, to resume our lives together, but I’m afraid.”

  “Afraid of what?” Tio encouraged, not sure what it was he expected to hear her say.

  “I’m afraid he won’t still love me, or that I won’t find him. I’m afraid it is too late, and that I won’t ever be with him again. This may sound strange, but I used to be able to feel him. Even though he was far away, I could feel him with me. Then, it was gone. I’m afraid that something has happened to him, and I don’t know if I can bear that. I can’t bear knowing that he is no longer alive and I… I left something that may have gone with him. It was important to me. What if I get there and it is all gone?”

  Tio understood why she didn’t tell them about the child, about him. She kept the secret about him being a tiger shifter. She kept her shame about having a child that was the fruit of a forbidden relationship. It was hardly something she could share.

  “That is a lot to bear,” Tio said finally. “It’s late. Why don’t we all get some sleep? In the morning, we will talk some more about the cottage.”

  “Yes, of course. I’ve kept you up too long. You’ll have an early morning as it is,” Cassi replied, rising to go to her room.

  “Goodnight, Cassi,” Maggie said quietly, giving her a hug.

  “Goodnight to both of you,” Cassi replied, her eyes watery from the tears that threatened to fall.

  Back in their bedroom, Maggie and Tio got undressed for bed, speaking quietly as they climbed beneath the heavy covers and curled up against one another.

  “Are you okay, Tio?”

  “Yes. I am fine, love.”

  “You can’t let her go there, Tio. You can’t let her go all that way only to find an empty home.”

  “It is not empty. My father left something there for her in a secret place they shared.”

  “Tio, it is a dangerous journey for a woman. She won’t be able to stay in the air the whole time.”

  “I know, Maggie. I just don’t know what to do right now.”

  “Isn’t it time to tell her the truth?”

  “Perhaps, but I don’t know what it will do to her. My father never really knew why she left. He assumed that it was at her father’s hands, but I don’t think he really understood why she never came back. She’s still terrified that her father will harm me or my father.”

  “But he can’t. Neither of you are there. He doesn’t know where to find you.”

  “No, but something she said stopped me.”

  “What was that?”

  “All this time, I’ve been so afraid that she might one day say something about my father. I’ve feared that she didn’t love him in the same way he loved her. I couldn’t bear the thought that he might have gone to his grave heartbroken over a woman who didn’t love him like he did her. Now, I know that she did. She didn’t leave because she wanted to do it. She left to protect us. She left to give me a chance to live some sort of life without fear of dragons.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “She succeeded. All my life, I’ve never feared your kind. I’ve known the dangers of revealing what I am in your village, but outside it, I’ve never been afraid of other shifters of any sort. Always, she has been my mother, the dragon. I’ve been fascinated with what she might be like.”

  “And now that you know her?”

  “She is just as beautiful as my father said she was, inside and out. I can’t hurt her, Maggie.”

  “Don’t you think she hurts without your father, without you?”

  “Yes, but it is an old wound. If I tell her the truth now, she would be able to know me as her son, but she would also know that her love, her one and only, laid on his deathbed, wanting her there with him. She would know that he never moved on and sent her all he had left of himself, of them, once he was gone. Not only is it a fresh wound, but it is a finality that she doesn’t have to experience.”

  “I understand.”

  “Do you?”

  “I think so. I think that, if you and I were separated for so long, and you perished before I could find you, I would want to not know. I would want to believe you were still out there somewhere, enjoying your life in some capacity.”

  “You will never be separated from me again. Even the brief amount of time before we were married was too long. It is agonizing, but mostly you learn to adjust to it, not to think about it. I think Cassi has done that, and telling her the truth will do her no favors.”

  Maggie didn’t respond. Instead, she put her hand to his cheek, stroking it softly and looking at his face that was shadowed by the moonlight.

  “I love you, Maggie,” he breathed against her fingers as they slipped onto his lips.

  “I love you too, my Tiogar,” she replied softly.

  Tio smiled up at her and pulled her closer to him, eventually slipping into a quiet sleep.

  Chapter 15

  In the days that followed, Tio helped Cassi put together the old cottage he had temporarily called home before he had gone to Maggie’s father’s place. He had considered offering her space at the house on the farm, but this would be more convenient to the restaurant, and she could call it her own. Once they had it put together well enough for her to live there in warmth and a fair amount of comfort, he brought her things in on his wagon while getting supplies from the mercantile and various traders.

  “You will be okay here?” he asked.

  “I will be just fine. Thank you so much for all you’ve done, Tio.”

  “My pleasure, Cassi. I will be back to take care of some other repairs as I get the things I need for them, but if you need anything else before then, just let me know.”

  “I will.”

  Tio was halfway out the door before he stopped and turned back to her, examining her face for a momen
t. He was going to miss having her there at the inn with them, but he realized she had to get back to her own life. She hadn’t mentioned anything further about traveling.

  “Cassi, do you still plan on going south?” he asked.

  “No. Maybe one day, but not right now. Something tells me that I will no longer find what I am looking for there,” he said sadly.

  “People rarely do find what they think they will,” he told her.

  “Perhaps, but sometimes things find them, don’t they, Tio?”

  Her eyes met his gaze, and his heart almost stopped. Was she telling him that she knew? Could she know? He had always heard that mothers knew their own children, and there was the tiger hair she had plucked from him. There was no way of knowing for sure without just saying the words, but he just couldn’t do that to her.

  “My father, he used to say that love doesn’t die with the body. It lives on in us, in our spirits, and that love floats to where it belongs, and it lingers there, waiting to be reunited with the heart of the woman it loves.”

  “Your father is no longer with you?” she asked.

  “My father is always with me, Cassi. Just as the man you loved will always be with you.”

  “Thank you, Tio.”

  “Of course,” he said, making a hasty retreat to hide the tears that slipped involuntarily down his face.

  Climbing into his wagon, he set the horses toward home. Sadness fell over him like a cloak, covering him in its grim, gray veil. He did his best to shake it off before he arrived at the inn, but he quickly remembered that his wife knew him well. She was immediately out the door to greet him.

  “Are you okay? Did you get her well sorted?” she asked, her eyes roaming across his face.

  “Yes, she seems to be doing fine with everything. I got the house fixed up a bit, enough to be comfortable, but it will still need work. I’ve asked Henry to bring in a few things, and I will pick up more from the merchants on market day.”

  “Good. I’m glad to hear it. I packed us a picnic. Let’s go out to the cliffs and enjoy the sunset.”