The dragon hissed. Halfway through, the hiss became words. “…spell should translate our words for each other.”
Gawain’s fear drained away into astonishment. His jaw gaped as he stared up at the great beast studying him with such interest. Nobody had told him dragons were intelligent.
He retained just enough wit not to say so, however. Clearing his throat, he managed, “Your spell worked.”
“Good,” the dragon said, examining him with lively interest. “My name is Kel. And it seems you just saved my life.”
A year later
“Come, Kel,” Gawain muttered under his breath. “Where are you? I want to fly.”
As if hearing his complaint, a point of light flashed like a star in the heart of Avalon’s central square. An eye-blink later, the light expanded into a vertical shimmer the height of a man. Gawain grinned in anticipation.
He and the dragon had become fast friends over the past months, hunting Hellhounds together or exploring the Magekind’s new world. Since learning to assume human form, the dragon loved seducing Majae almost as much as Gawain did. Tonight, however, Kel had promised him a flight. If the dragon would ever show up…
A huge, blue-scaled head thrust through the glowing opening, which rippled around it like water. Horns topped the massive skull, and crimson eyes gleamed with intelligence from below bony brow ridges. Knife-length teeth flashed as the creature spoke. “What are you waiting for?” Kel demanded in a voice so deep, Gawain felt it in his bones. “Step on through. I have a few friends I’d like you to meet.” His head withdrew through the magical gate, which rippled and bounced in reaction.
“What friends?” Frowning, Gawain strode over to cross through the gate himself. Magic slid across his skin with his passage, tingling and foaming, but he’d grown used to the sensation by now. “Kel, I thought we were going to fly…”
Reaching the other side, Gawain broke off in blank astonishment. He’d been to Kel’s cavernous stone home in Dragon Lands before, so he was no stranger to its curved, alien walls and strange green lighting.
But during the previous visit, he hadn’t been surrounded by dragons.
Four of them filled Kel’s echoing cavern with their powerful bodies and restless tails. They were massive, brawny creatures, like animated hillsides covered in shimmering scales of gold, blue, red, or white. Great wings rustled as they shifted from foot to clawed foot, and their tails flicked, long as chariot teams.
Vampire or not, Gawain felt his mouth go dry in instinctive fear. “Jesu.” He had to clear his throat as he turned to give his blue-scaled friend a tight smile. “Well met, Kel.” What the hell are they doing here?
“Welcome, Gawain!” Kel gave him a grin so full of teeth, Gawain would have been terrified if he wasn’t already used to his friend’s idea of good humor.
“This is the human?” a white-scaled dragon asked. Green eyes the size of dinner plates blinked and narrowed as the creature examined him. “Why, it’s small. It can’t be very smart, with such a tiny head.”
In this company, Gawain had to admit he felt tiny. He was also beginning to wonder if the creature had a point about his intelligence. What was he doing here? “Kel…” he began through a fixed smile.
“Don’t be deceived.” Kel edged protectively closer, forcing the white dragon to step back. “Gawain and his people may be smaller than we are, but they’re just as intelligent and equally courageous. As my friend proved when he saved me from those Hellhounds.” Lowering his huge head, he muttered, “Please, Gawain—patience. I’m trying to overcome my people’s fear of you.”
What about my fear of them? Gawain thought. He contented himself with a nod and stepped closer to his friend’s towering shoulder. Kel would protect him. He hoped.
A golden head swooped down, huge nostrils flaring. Gawain managed not to jump. “It smells odd,” the dragon said. “Like blood. And it looks rather disgustingly soft. And…hairy.”
“On the other hand, they have a certain quick grace,” Kel told him evenly. “As for their looks, I’ve found you get used to that.”
“You flatter me,” Gawain said dryly.
“Well, I don’t like it,” the red dragon announced, stepping back with what looked like revulsion curling its lips. “Nothing good can come from associating with such…creatures. The Dragon Lords won’t like this at all.”
“Soren is a Dragon Lord, and he has no problem with it.”
“Soren is an ambassador,” the red retorted. “He has to associate with the disgusting things. And at least he has the grace not to enjoy it.”
Kel laughed darkly. “I could tell you a thing or two about what Soren enjoys.” As the others looked scandalized, he added smoothly, “He, too, realizes the humans have much to offer us, if we but put aside our fear long enough to learn from them.”
“Fear?” Now offended smoke rolled from the red dragon’s nostrils. “I certainly feel no fear of that revolting little beast. Nor do I believe it has anything to teach me I wish to know.”
“You would be surprised, Rawiri,” Kel said. “I have made several visits to their city, Avalon, and, like Soren, I find their ways intriguingly different from ours. For example, their males and females mate for life instead of a single season, and…”
Rawiri snorted, his breath ruffling Gawain’s hair. “I have flown over that city, as you call it, and I fail to see how I could even fit inside one of those tiny stone hovels.”
“Hovels?” Gawain muttered.
“To begin with,” Kel said, ignoring his irritation, “you assume their form.” Magic flashed in the dragon’s crimson eyes. Knowing what was coming, Gawain straightened hastily away.
The next instant, the huge beast was gone, replaced by a muscular man his own height, dressed in a doublet and breeches. His skin held a faint blue sheen, while his hair fell to his shoulders in a fall of indigo. His eyes, however, were the same red they’d been in dragon form. Kel flashed a smile. “As you can see, the transformation is not even difficult, once you learn the trick of it.”
“Perversion!” Rawiri hissed, his spined crest fanning in agitation. “Consorting with those creatures is bad enough, but to assume their revolting shape—you are as mad as they say!”
“Revolting?” Gawain drawled, his sense of humor suddenly reasserting itself. “You wound me.”
The dragon glared at him with hatred. “I would eat you, but I do not care to pollute my belly.”
Kel went still. “Or face my rage.”
Fear flickered in the dragon’s eyes and turned to defiance. “This will not be allowed. They will stop you.” He turned and lumbered to the front of the cavern, then flung himself out through its mouth and fell like a stone. An instant later he reappeared, wings beating furiously as he flew upward.
“That can’t be good,” Gawain murmured to Kel.
The gold dragon flicked its tail. “He’s off to tattle to the Dragon Lords, Kel. You’d best take your new pet and fly before he brings their outrage down on your head.”
Kel glowered and returned to his true form. “Am I some new-hatched fledgling supposed to cower every time one of the Dragon Lords huffs? Not likely.”
“Why must you try to change everything?” the white dragon demanded suddenly, frustration growing in its voice. “Why can’t you simply let things be?”
“Because it’s boring, Ngalo,” Kel snapped back. “We’re so locked in our own ways of thought, one day we’ll merge with the stone of our own caves. And nobody will even notice.”
Ngalo spread massive wings, then refolded them with a flick. “There’s nothing wrong with a little boredom.”
“Actually, I begin to agree with you,” Gawain murmured.
The dragons ignored him. “If nothing else, you should consider what your actions are doing to your uncle,” the gold dragon told Kel. “People begin to talk. Tegid could lose his position as a Dragon Lord if they decide he’s unable to control you.”
“He doesn’t control me.” Kel’s ta
il whipped once. “He is merely a hidebound bully who has tormented my mother since they were hatched. I hope he does lose his seat. In fact, perhaps I’ll challenge him…”
“I would not advise it, nephew.”
Kel and Gawain turned. A red dragon even bigger than Rawiri filled the mouth of the cave, a muscular green dragon standing a bit behind it.
Without taking his gaze away from the newcomers, Kel extended a forearm to Gawain and lowered his voice. “Climb on. I may need to get you to safety.”
Gawain did not have to be asked twice. He grabbed his friend’s clawed hand and quickly scrambled up to straddle his neck. They moved toward the entrance, but the two newcomers blocked the way.
“So, Kel, you plot against me.” The red dragon’s tone was chillingly pleasant. “I’d reconsider, were I you. The bones of my past challengers ring our cliffs.”
Kel displayed impressive teeth. “I’m faster than they were.” Around them, the others went very still.
Gawain winced. Sitting on the back of a dragon during a duel suddenly struck him as a very bad place to be.
Uncle and nephew glared at each other, spiked tails lashing with clicking sounds on the stone. Then the green dragon spoke, his voice deliberately loud.
“When Rawiri told me you’d brought one of these…creatures to our lands, I did not believe him,” the green dragon said, cold yellow eyes focusing on Gawain. “Yet it seems there are no depths to which you will not sink.”
“Evar, befriending humans is not a perversion.” Kel growled, without taking his eyes from his uncle. “Learning new things keeps one quick of mind.”
“And more importantly, it embarrasses me.” The red dragon fanned his spiked crest, eyes narrowing. “Which is the whole point, is it not? To create doubt in my leadership?”
“Doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way for centuries is not leadership, Tegid. It’s laziness.”
“You accuse me of laziness?”
“Kel…” Gawain murmured, wishing for his sword. If the dragons began to fight, he could end up crushed between those huge bodies. And there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it.
Kel ignored him in favor of glaring at his rival. “Have we become so weak, Uncle, that any new idea can throw us into a panic? Do we have so little strength—or so much cowardice?”
“Cowardice!” Evar turned to Kel’s uncle. “Are you going to let that stand, Tegid?”
Tegid’s eyes narrowed. “Kel, I order you to stop consorting with these disgusting apes. I—”
“You’re in no position to order me to do anything.” He stalked closer. “Now, my friend and I are going flying.” A taunt in his voice, he added, “Don’t look for me to return anytime soon. Magekind females are soft and eager.”
Both dragons recoiled, and Kel swept past, forcing Gawain to grab one of his spines to keep his seat. Reaching the cavern opening, the dragon flung himself out over empty air.
Gawain’s belly rose into his throat as they plummeted downward. Kel’s wings grabbed the air and they leveled out, soaring. The earth flashed below, far too close, before falling away with dazzling speed. Kel’s heavy wings beat hard in the climb, carrying them out over the Dragon Lands, whose peaks shone silver in the moonlight.
“What’s going on, Kel?” Gawain shouted over the wind, when he judged his friend’s temper had begun to cool.
“My uncle has been a Dragon Lord too long,” Kel shouted back. “And our people need to grow and learn.”
“That may be, but you can’t force them.” Gawain’s hands tightened around the spines he held as he hunkered against the wind. “Kel, are we really friends, or am I an excuse to fight your uncle?”
Kel snorted. “If all I wanted was to call Tegid out, I don’t need an excuse. It’s my right as a male of the Bloodstone clan. I believe what I told them back there, Gawain—we need contact with your people. It’s been generations since Dragonkind produced so much as a poet. All the creativity that flourishes among you is all but dead in us. We grow slow and complacent.”
“Do you really think killing Tegid is going to change that?”
“No, but it’s a—”
BOOM! The spell blasted out of nowhere, a raging explosion of energy that tore Gawain from the dragon’s back. Kel roared, writhing in midair, huge wings contorting in agony…
Gawain plummeted through the night like a brick dropped into a well. As the ground sped toward his face, he wrapped his arms around his head and prayed. It took a lot to kill one of Merlin’s immortal vampires, but a fall like this just might do the job.
He hit the ground in a white-hot blast of pain. In an instant, everything went black.
The world was on fire. Gawain managed an agonized wheeze and instinctively shifted form. His skull elongated, hands becoming paws, golden fur racing over his twisting, changing body.
Until he was left lying in the grass, panting like a bellows. At least the pain was gone. As it always did, the transformation to wolf had healed his injuries.
Whole again, he rolled to all four legs, shook himself, and growled, scanning for the enemy that had attacked him and Kel.
He’d landed on a grassy hilltop. There was no sign of the dragon at all, not on the ground or in the sky. There was nothing, in fact, except Avalon in the distance, shining pale and ghostly as a dream.
Then, from the corner of one lupine eye, he spotted the glint of moonlight on silver. With a wary growl, he trotted over to investigate.
It was a sword, lying in the high grass. That was strange. Moving closer, he lowered his wolf muzzle to investigate.
The weapon smelled of magic so strongly, his hackles rose. It was beautifully made, with a four-foot blade. A small silver dragon curled around its long hilt, spiked tail extending down the tang.
To his amazement, the dragon’s tiny head lifted and looked at him with dazed ruby eyes. “Gawain?” it croaked.
Astonished, Gawain returned to human form. “Kel?” Gingerly, he reached down and lifted the sword with both hands. Rotating it so the dragon was upright, he asked, “What happened?”
Fear twisted his friend’s face as the tiny dragon clung to the hilt like a drowning man. “Gawain, I can’t change back. The egg-sucking bastard has trapped me!”
“Who? Tegid? Or that green one? Jesu!” His mind raced. Avalon was full of witches. Surely one of them could cure the dragon. “Don’t panic. The Majae will be able to help you, and if they can’t, your mother will.”
Ruby eyes blinked hard. “It’s not going to work.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s only one way to break this spell.” The dragon curled a silver lip. “My attacker was kind enough to plant the knowledge in my mind.”
He blew out a breath in relief. “Then whatever it is, let’s do it and get you out of there. Then we’ll find…”
“No.” The dragon looked him in the eyes. “The only way to break the spell is to kill you, Gawain. And that I’ll never do.”
“What?” Back in his own cavern again, Tegid stared into an enchanted pool, the tip of his tail lashing. As he watched, the ape knight began to walk back toward Avalon, carrying the sword that held Kel prisoner. “You always were a stubborn fool,” he growled under his breath. “We’ll see how long your pride lasts.”
Actually, this might be for the best. The longer Kel refused to do the obvious, the longer he was out of the way.
“You saved my life,” Kel said to the ape with all his usual unshakable sanctimony. “The cowardly egg-sucker doesn’t know me very well if he thinks I’ll repay you with death.”
“I’m relieved to hear it,” the ape replied. “But who do you think did this to you?”
“I don’t know.” His reflection wavering in the scrying pool, Kel frowned. “It could be any of them.”
“Tegid?”
“Possibly, but I doubt it.”
“He certainly hates you enough.”
The small figure lifted its wings in a shrug. �
�But if he were caught, it would be politically ruinous. Everyone knows I was about to challenge him. It’s highly dishonorable to use a spell like this on a challenger—and what’s more, it’s an admission of weakness. Tegid would find himself swamped with Bloodstone rivals eager to topple him. No, it was more likely Evar, that big green dragon. Or perhaps one of the other Dragon Lords, since none of them is exactly happy with me at the moment.”
Which was exactly what Tegid had intended him to think. With any luck, the others would believe the same.
Either way, he had avoided a duel with Kel he might not be able to win. The dragon was young, powerful, and skilled in battle, more so than any of Tegid’s previous challengers. And Tegid had no intentions of joining the bones at the base of the Dragon Cliffs.
Of course, he could have used a spell to kill Kel outright, but that kind of death magic was much easier to detect. The other Dragon Lords might be willing to turn a blind eye to trapping the young rebel in a sword, but killing a challenger through death magic…they’d execute Tegid for that.
Even if the Dragon Lords chose not to move against him, Kel was right. His clan would swamp him with challengers, and one of them might get lucky.
No, imprisoning the little egg-sucker was the best choice. Given his stubbornness, it could be years before Kel finally yielded to the inevitable and killed his ape friend. That would, of course, anger the other apes, who’d want nothing to do with Kel or the Dragonkind after that.
Even better, a long imprisonment would weaken Kel. By the time he escaped the sword, he’d be easy prey, assuming he was foolish enough to challenge Tegid at all.
It was all working out exactly as he’d hoped.
ONE
The present
The low-slung black sports car shot through the night with a rumble of power that vibrated all the way to Lark McGuin’s bones. She shifted in the expensive upholstery, breathing in the scent of leather blended with the lush masculinity of the driver’s cologne.
From the corner of one eye, Lark watched him. The profile painted in the dashboard’s blue light was starkly elegant—regal cheekbones, a strong blade of a nose, an equally aggressive chin. He’d rolled down the driver’s side window, allowing the wind of the car’s passage to whip his blond hair around his impressive shoulders. He looked, at most, no more than a year or two older than she was.
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