by Sher Dillard
The men looked like a mish-mash of cutthroats, highwaymen, and army deserters. Stray armor, long knives, and short swords. Dirty, and unafraid.
She gulped as Thad wrapped the reins around the handbrake and leaned back to get his sword.
“Stay here,” he said to her, as he hopped down off the wagon. Rachel could feel her heart pound in her chest. What did they want? Even the mighty Thad could not defeat ten men. Not men like this.
She swallowed hard and tried to maintain control of her pounding heart.
The obvious leader, a big man with an evil smile, had his horse step forward a few steps. Thad walked out in front of the wagon horses, his large sword held at his side.
The leader glanced at the sword in Thad’s hand and laughed.
“That won’t be enough,” he said.
Thad didn’t answer, just brought the sword up ready for anything.
The big man shook his head and smiled. “Let me tell you how this is going to go,” he said. “We will be taking the wagon, the horses, that pretty sword of yours, and the woman of course. My boys have been lonely. If you don’t give us grief, you will live. We will even let you keep your boots.”
Thad didn’t respond. He just stood there waiting.
Rachel’s heart fell. Knowing Thad, he wouldn’t give up without a fight. These men would kill him and take her anyway.
This wasn’t right. This wasn’t fair. They hadn’t done anything to these men.
Suddenly, an arm snaked around her middle and pulled her off the wagon and onto a horse in front of another thief. The sharp smell of sweat and spoiled meat engulfed her as the hard hand trapped her to his chest.
Obviously, there were more men, she thought. They had come up behind the wagon.
She screamed and fought to get away. Twisting and beating at him with her fists. The man laughed and placed a knife next to her throat. The sharp blade pricking her skin as he sneered down at her with evil eyes.
She could well imagine what was crawling through that twisted mind of his.
Suddenly, her world changed. This was real. Thad was going to die. She would be raped and used by these men, then tossed into the bushes like a piece of trash.
Her world shifted to pure despair.
She stopped thrashing about less the knife do more damage. Although, a part of her thought it might be best to make the man kill her. That very well might be the best thing to happen over the next few hours.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Looking up, her eyes searched for Thad.
She found him still standing in the middle of the road. He looked back over his shoulder, his eyes growing big at her situation. His eyes left her attacker and captured hers. He silently begged her to forgive him. Even now, she thought. He is taking this on as his responsibility, his fault.
She tried to let him know that she didn’t blame him.
He grimaced and dropped his blade into the sand. Her heart lurched at the defeated look on his face.
Turning back to the men he called out. “I would have let you live. But, not now.”
The men laughed. Then, the laughter died in shock as Thad erupted into a pillar of fire and brown smoke.
Rachel screamed again, the man holding her choked, and his horse shied away from the flaming pyre. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the fire. Thad, her Thad, had disappeared into the fire. How was this possible? What had the men done to him?
The shock on their faces told her it had not been their doing.
The long, tall pillar of fire began to coalesce, gathering together to become a form. A large brown form.
Rachel felt her world spin with disbelief as a giant dragon emerged out of the smoke. Thad, where was Thad? How? Who...?
She fought to regain some semblance of control. Fought to understand. Thad had been there on the road, and now a Dragon. A magical creature of her nightmares, stood where he had stood.
Her father had been right. Dragons did exist. But, it was impossible. Rachel felt her world shift. What was true? What was real? Her father had known. He had always believed.
Rachel’s heart sank with sadness at the thought that her father was not here to see this. To know in his soul that he had been proven right.
Everyone, highwaymen, horses, young librarians, all of them were frozen in shock.
The giant beast lifted his massive head and roared. A deep, guttural sound that vibrated off the far hills and sent a chill down her spine. A primeval sound that spoke to that ancient part of her soul. The sound of death and destruction.
The beast turned around to face Rachel and her captor. It’s eyes stared into hers, and she knew. Thad, this was Thad. There was no doubt in her. Every part of her being told her that this beast was the man she had loved.
Her insides fell to mush as the world began to grow dark. She would surely have fainted if the horse had not reared in fear. The animal screamed and fought to get away from the monster in front of him.
Instantly forgetting all about her and any plans he might have had, her attacker dropped her and fought to control his mount.
Rachel felt a sharp slash of pain in her arm as she fell to the ground. The sharp landing threatened to push the air from her lungs. She rolled over to look up as the horse reared again, his sharp hooves thrashing only inches above her head.
She twisted and rolled under the wagon to get away from an immediate death. Her new found haven though quickly became another death trap as the wagon horses screamed and twisted to get away from their greatest fear.
The wagon rocked back and forth, then tipped to the side as the horses snapped the wagon tongue, tore the reins, and disappeared into the distance.
Rachel scrambled to her feet.
Thad, the dragon, her mind still refused to accept what was before her very eyes, lunged at her attacker, using a mighty claw to sweep him off his horse and thirty feet up the hill. He landed with a large oomph sound, and collapsed, battered and broken. If the dragon’s hit hadn’t killed him, he was certainly dead now.
Rachel’s world narrowed to just the dragon. Everything about him became locked in her brain. His size, the huge leathery wings, the sharp spikes down his long back to the very tip of his tail. The missing talon on his left claw.
Thad has claws? she thought. How is this possible? No, it couldn’t be.
She might very well have continued to doubt, but the dragon chose that moment to shift back to face the highwaymen as they fought to regain control of their horses. One of them, just to the left of the leader, was fighting to retrieve a bow from behind his saddle.
Thad is placing himself between them and me, she realized.
She had a sudden fear of arrows piercing Thad. Of him dying here on the road as a dragon. What had happened to her world?
The attackers might very well have regained control of their horse. The bowman might even have gotten his bow free. But, the dragon, Thad, showed them why it was never wise to attack such a monster.
He lifted his head, sucked in a huge gulp of air, held it for a second, and then shot a long stream of yellow and orange flames at the feet of the horses.
What had been fear and fright became instant panic. One of the horses twisted in mid-air to escape the fiery death. Men fell from their backs. Two men fell from their horses, with their feet trapped in their stirrups and were dragged into the bushes.
Another horse, twisted away, its foot finding a rabbit hole and snapped. The loud crack and even louder scream rising above the sound of flames.
Rachel pushed her back to the upturned wagon and pulled her knees to her chest as she fought to breathe. A dragon, fire, dying horses, dying men. When would it stop?
She closed her eyes and tried to make the world go away.
The screams of pain from both animals and men continued to echo around her until slowly, the sounds stopped. The thrashing about and calling for friends ended.
She swallowed hard and opened one eye. What now? she wondered. What would the dragon do to her once
it was done killing everyone else?
One horse and three men lay on the ground, obviously dead. Men’s necks were not made to twist into that shape. Other men were walking, running away. Some were trying to help friends. Others just ran.
She held her breath as she searched for the Dragon. He had disappeared. How? What had happened to him?
A frantic fear overtook her. Was she alone, had they killed the dragon? Had they killed Thad? No!
A dark shadow passed between her and the noon sun. She looked up and gulped. The dragon, no Thad, was flying through the air like a giant bird headed south for the winter. His mighty wings beating a time, as he circled above her, obviously making sure the men did not return.
As she watched, the huge beast dipped his wing and swooped down to lay a beam of fire behind the men, reminding them what would happen to them if they stopped running.
Rachel couldn’t look away. The beast was magnificent. Large, powerful, yet so graceful. As if it belonged to the air. A leaf on an autumn wind. Her insides turned over.
She fought to think, fought to understand. Oh, how he must have laughed at her when she told him that dragons weren’t real. That only fools and little children believed in such magical beast.
What else had he hidden from her? she wondered, then laughed at herself. Thad was a monster. She had fallen in love with a terrifying monster, and she was worried about more secrets. Wasn’t that enough?
Chapter Twelve
Thad caught a thermal updraft and lifted higher into the sky. His beast was free. Reveling in the softness of flight. That heady feeling of being above everyone and everything. Home, in his natural element.
Tipping a wing, he brought himself down behind the fleeing men. An urge to kill them all surged through him. To burn them into black dust. They had threatened Rachel. They had threatened his woman.
At the last moment, he swerved and held back. She wouldn’t want them dead. He was already enough of a monster in her eyes. No need to confirm her beliefs.
Twisting, he rose up into the sky and looked back. He could see Rachel, standing by the upturned wagon, a hand to her brow, as she shaded her eyes and followed his path in the sky.
Oh, how she must hate him, he thought. The violence, the monstrosity that was the man she traveled with. He was everything she despised in the world. An unthinking monstrous brute.
Sighing, he turned back towards her. Best to get this over with. Delaying would not erase the disdain he would find in her eyes.
He flared his wings and settled onto the road before her. She stared back at him, her face registering fear, disgust, and disbelief.
This is so not good, he thought to himself.
As soon as he had seen the men on the road, he had known it would lead to this moment. There could be no other outcome.
Taking a deep breath, he erupted into flames and returned to human form. His beast begged to remain free, but he pushed him aside and finished the transition.
She stood there, waiting. Like a soft kitten’s kiss. Pure, sweet, harmless. Yet, she held his heart in her hand.
At least she’s not running away screaming at the top of her lungs, he thought, as he stepped towards her.
“You ... You’re a dragon?” she whispered, as she obviously fought to come to some kind of understanding. Her eyes raked over him, cataloging pieces and parts.
So like Rachel, he thought. Even now, confronted with the unknown and unknowable, she searched for something to know. Something to learn.
“Yes,” he said in answer to her question.
“How, I mean ...”
He shrugged his shoulders. “My families curse, or gift. Depending upon how you look at it.”
She stared down at the ground for a moment, her eyes unable to look at him. Unable to see what he was.
A glint of wetness on her upper arm caught his attention. Blood, too much blood. The bastard had hurt her. The beast roared to be set free. To kill again. To kill them all.
Rachel looked down at her arm and frowned, her face growing white with shock. Obviously, she hadn’t even been aware of the wound. The adrenaline of danger had masked the pain.
Rushing forward, he slowly helped her to sit next to the wagon. Her back against the hard wood. His heart jumped in his chest. The thought that she might have been seriously harmed burned a hole inside of him.
He gently held her arm and examined it. A deep gash ran across the top of her bicep. A clean knife wound. His stomach clenched up into a ball at the thought of what the bastard had done to her.
He glanced up the hill to see the body still resting where he had thrown it a few minutes ago. The man was lucky he was dead.
Swallowing his anger, he examined the arm. Fresh blood continued to ooze out from between her fingers. He gently pried her hand away from the wound and inspected the nasty cut.
“We need to clean this,” he said, as his mind frantically searched for a solution.
“You’re a dragon,” she repeated, as she stared up into his eyes. The shock of being wounded, seeing men die, and discovering his secret was too much for her, he thought. This is Rachel, he reminded himself. A librarian’s daughter. Give her time. She wasn’t intimately familiar with such violence and pain.
“Hold your hand here,” he said, as he placed it back over the wound. “We need to bandage it. I’ll be right back.”
He left her there on the ground as he raced around to the other side of the wagon. Her pack had the healing herbs he had bought before they started the trip. She also had a small piece of cloth he could use for the bandage.
Grabbing her pack, he rummaged around until he found the small leather pouch. The strong smell of dried herbs greeted him as he opened it to make sure it was the right thing.
Setting it aside, his hands dove back into her pack to find the small cloth. It would be better than tearing one of her petty coats.
At last, his hand found the soft cotton and he pulled it from the pack to make sure it was what he was looking for. As he unwrapped the cloth, a flash of gold fell from the folds. A piece of metal clinked off a rock, as it and a long chain, escaped the cloth.
His hand instinctively reached to retrieve the item. It was Rachel’s. She would want it back.
As his fingers prepared to scoop up the trinket, his eyes registered what it was.
A gold coin on a necklace. A double-headed dragon stared up at him. His family’s crest.
His heart fell, and his blood ran cold.
A medallion. Rachel possessed a medallion? How? Why hadn’t she told him? An anger began to build inside him. She had lied to him. She knew how important this was, yet she had kept it from him. Why?
Was she working with the others? Was this some kind of elaborate trap? No! The Gray man would have taken the coin. Then, why?
Gritting his teeth, he returned back around the rear of the wagon and approached the woman resting on the ground.
“Here,” he said, thrusting out his hand holding the necklace. “I believe this is yours.”
Rachel’s face drained of all color. As white as a summer cloud, confirming her guilt. She knew, yet she had kept it hidden.
Her eyes searched his, obviously trying to determine his thoughts.
He looked away and knelt beside her to work on her wound.
“Thad ...” she whispered. “I’m sorry, I ...”
“Hey, you don’t owe me an explanation,” he said, as he used two hands to rip the sleeve of her dress to get at the gash in her arm.
“It’s yours. You can do what you want. We’re just sharing the road. There is nothing that says you have to tell me about the damn thing.”
She looked up at him, her eyes pleading with him to understand.
He grit his teeth and poured water over the wound to clean it, then sprinkled the dried herbs over the nasty slash. He gently worked them into the cut, then wrapped it up with her small cloth.
“Just because I thought we were sharing more than the road,” he continued,
“doesn’t mean you owe me anything. It won’t be the first time I was wrong.”
He pulled the bandage knot tight, maybe a little tighter than he should have. She winced and pulled her arm away from him.
He stepped away from her. Turning his back, so she wouldn’t see the hurt in his eyes. Why had she lied to him?
“Hey, you’re a dragon, remember?” Rachel said, as she stood up to confront him. “When it comes to secrets. That might rank up there as a pretty big one. So, don’t be so quick to judge.”
Thad turned back to look at her, the anger inside of him raged.
“I had my reasons,” he snapped.
“Yeah? What?” she demanded with her hands on her hips. “What could be so important that you kept that fact from me? A woman you were bedding every night. Don’t you think I might have wanted to know the man I was with was a monster?”
He winced, then shook his head. “I didn’t want to see that look of disgust in your eyes,” he said, as he turned and retrieved his sword from the road.
Rachel stood there in shock, not saying a word.
Speechless, he thought. That will be a first. Shoving the sword into the scabbard, he belted it around his middle and went to retrieve their packs.
“Come on,” he said. “We can be in Quaster in a few hours.”
She didn’t move, still looking at him as if he were a puzzle that wasn’t worth solving.
Shrugging his shoulder at her, he donned his own pack and carried hers in his off hand. Leaving his right arm free for his sword if needed.
Sighing to himself, he began to walk down the trail. It was going to be a long day, he thought. An agonizingly long day.
.o0o.
Rachel watched him gather their things and begin to walk away.
Her heart was breaking. He had discovered her secret. She had been keeping it from him, and he looked devastated.
‘He’s a dragon,’ she whispered to herself. How the hell should she know what his looks meant? Maybe that scowl was a leftover effect of flying. Or, that stern set of his shoulders was because he’d just killed three men and a horse.