by Ashley Frost
The old woman reached a bridge, then started to undress.
“Oh gods, no,” Constance yelped, glancing away.
“Humans,” Greta said. She could imagine the old woman rolling her eyes as she said that. “I take offense at that. Is my body that ugly?”
Greta still looked younger than most elderly because of her dragon blood, but the female dragon wasn’t something Constance wanted to look at naked. Not because she was bad-looking, but Greta was too much like a mentor to see unclothed. “You’re nine hundred years old.”
Greta snorted. “So that’s a yes. Well, I’ll try not to mind your comments too much.”
“I haven’t even seen your body. I’d just rather not look at it.”
“Not that it matters. You start to care a lot less about looks after a certain age. You can turn around now, child. Stop acting as if you’ve seen a gho—”
Greta suddenly stopped speaking. Instead, Constance heard a low rumbling growl coming from the same spot she had heard Greta.
Relaxing her hands from her eyes, she turned around. An enormous purple dragon swung its tail over the edge of the cliff. The dragon was a towering beauty. Its color shone vivid, even in the night.
“Is that you, Greta?”
The dragon snorted as if to say yes. It acted annoyed, just as Greta was at most times.
“Why are you a dragon?” She knew the speaking Greta would call her stupid at such a question, but the mute, dragon-Greta merely rolled her eyes. Then she lifted her tail and pointed it to the direction of the valley between the cliffs.
“To cross?” she asked. “Is that where the hares are?”
The dragon snorted again, agreeing with her. Smoke rose from the dragon’s nostrils. Not being able to speak seemed to grate on Greta’s nerves. The dragon swished its tail back and forth then used it to point to its own back. When she didn’t respond to the dragon’s gesture, Greta growled, then arched her neck to the same spot her tail was pointing to.
“Get on?” she said, finally understanding what Greta was trying to convey. “No. I can’t ride a dragon.”
The old dragon lady flared smoke from her nostrils, then swung her giant tail toward her. Constance flinched, bracing for impact. But the impact didn’t come. Instead, she found herself being lifted by a purple tail. Greta roughly placed Constance on her back. Then the dragon flapped its wings. Before leaving the ground, the dragon grabbed the boxes Constance was carrying with a claw.
“Wait, wait, wait, no! I’m not ready to fly.”
The dragon didn’t bother with her pleas. It continued to levitate from the ground using its wings.
“Greta, you can’t do this to me.” She held on tightly to the dragon’s neck.
A low rumbling sound, which sounded an awfully lot like laughter, came from Greta.
“You’re finding this amusing?” she said, half-seething, half-terrified.
Constance clenched her eyes shut as the dragon jumped off the ledge of the cliff. It made a sharp dive, which made her almost wet herself, before it swooped upward and glided with its wings. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” she asked. Her teeth chattered as wind blew past her face. Thankfully, she wasn’t too cold despite the chilling air because her body lay pressed against Greta, who warmed her up like a crackling hearth.
Greta didn’t bother to respond.
In a few minutes, they reached their destination and Greta landed on another mountain. It had a wide clearing with mounds of leaves—burrows. Constance climbed down from the old dragon and followed closely as Greta moved to one of the burrows.
The dragon tipped its head toward its entrance and breathed. Smoke wisped from the burrow’s entrance. Within moments, hares started to hop out from the ground. There were so many, Constance nearly squealed.
One of them ran toward her. The smoke had distracted the hare so much that it didn’t notice her presence. She picked it up and promptly placed it into one of the semi-crushed boxes Greta had flown with. She only needed one sacrificial animal, but she collected a couple more, just in case she wanted to perform any other spells.
Crouching, she sealed the boxes and felt for a stick. She poked breathing holes into the boxes for the hares. “All done,” she said, standing up and carrying the boxes, which were now heavier.
Greta the dragon wasn’t anywhere in sight.
How can such a giant beast sneak off so easily?
She wasn’t surprised about Greta’s stealthy disappearance, however. The dragons always moved with a certain grace. They could be quiet if they wanted to. Every predator needed to know how to sneak around enough to stalk their prey. Even dragons.
Greta emerged from behind a rock, fully clothed. Thank the gods for that. The old woman must have brought the clothes along without Constance noticing.
“I should have instructed you better on what we were going to do before shifting. Trying to talk to a human as a dragon is such a pain. I forgot that you people can’t understand dragon language.”
“Dragon language?”
“Yes, our vocal chords work differently as a dragon. Dragons can understand each other, but humans just aren’t built that way.”
“Interesting…”
Greta suddenly pushed her aside. She fell onto her behind, nearly knocking her head onto a large boulder. She sighed in relief, realizing how close she came to accidentally getting knocked out. “Can you stop being so violent, old lady?”
The dragon woman didn’t respond. Instead, Greta placed a finger over her lips and made a hushing sound. Gesturing her to lay low, Greta stalked forward.
The woman started to shift into a dragon again. It was the first time Constance saw the entire process up close. It looked grotesque, but a glowing aura obscured most of it, thankfully. She heard the sound of bones cracking and readjusting. Scales grew over skin. Greta’s comparably small human frame grew to over a hundred times its size in mere seconds. Sharp, deadly claws replaced her hands. The woman hadn’t bothered to take off her clothes. Her enormous frame tore through the silk dress, leaving it to shreds.
Constance had an aching urge to demand what was happening, but she could tell danger loomed close from the way Greta acted.
Three dragons descended from the clouds and mist. Greta didn’t give them time to land. The old dragon charged at them. The fight started so abruptly, Constance stood there frozen and numb.
The scaled beasts flew up into the sky and into the fogged atmosphere. She saw sparks of different colored fires thundering in the clouds. Greta’s flames, the purple ones, were the brightest.
“She doesn’t stand a chance,” Constance said to herself, realization striking her like lightning. Rayse mentioned Greta’s power, and how she could beat a young dragon, but that old woman couldn’t defeat three of them. They had strength in numbers, and youth gave them an advantage. Why were these dragons attacking them? Were they the ones from another clan? The ones Rayse had mentioned? This close to the Everstones? How did they even get so close with Rayse and his men patrolling the borders?
She had to do something to save her mentor. But what? What could a helpless and small human like her do?
She glanced at the hares, and the answer came to her—magic.
She knelt in front of the animal’s box. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to it, and plucked it from the box. She had culled animals back home for food, so the brutality of it wasn’t new to her. “Es rea misreagou, “ she chanted, quickly extracting the bright soul so the death would be painless. “Kisla misreagou.” The dull soul left the hare’s body and swirled into the bright soul. The two spirits mixed with the other, whirling and blending in a glimmering, prismatic circle. The souls wisping together looked gorgeous. The souls from plants barely compared. But there was no time to be enamored by the dancing mass of smoky rainbow.
She recognized Greta’s purple form dipping from the clouds. A loud agonizing roar came from one of her opponents. A wing had been torn from its back. Unable to steady itself, the sm
aller beast spiraled to the ground, but the two other assailants were still fighting strong. One of them held Greta’s arms, immobilizing her. The remaining dragon dove in for the kill.
Panic shot through Constance, almost stilling her body, but adrenaline kept her going. “Ignitia provoto.” Fire burst from the rainbow-colored souls. She wielded the weapon in her hands, sensing her ability to control the fire. It’d do anything she willed it to. She directed it at the dragon who was far too close to Greta. The fire shot through the air and toward the beast.
And it hit.
She gasped for breath. Did the fire hurt it?
The dragon flew backward, but not a single scratch had landed on it. The suddenness of the fire merely managed to throw it off balance. It acted more surprised than hurt.
Dragons are immune to fire, she remembered. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She should have used a more effective spell. All her attempt managed to achieve was to distract the assailant from Greta and redirect its attention to her.
“ Dragon’s teats,” she cursed. She went for another hare, scolding herself for wasting a life. Why did soul magic had to come at such a high cost? Greta had managed to free herself from the beast who had held her down, but the lady dragon had no time to save Constance. Constance had to defeat her assailant, who had decided to give her his attention instead, otherwise, she’d end up as dragon food.
She quickly performed the ritual. By the time she summoned the colorful souls, the dragon had landed right in front of her. It loomed over her like a darkening sky. She didn’t believe she could defeat such a majestic, terrifying creature. Her chest thumped madly with fear. It didn’t attack. It stalked along the cliff edge. A low rumbling sound—like mocking laughter—reverberated from the beast. It blew its hot flames toward the sky, as if declaring, Fire is my domain; you can’t hurt me with it.
“Glacilia provoto. “
A ball of icy cold air formed over her hand. The dragon stopped stalking. It had figured out what she had planned. It lunged.
She sent the magic flying toward the beast. The ice didn’t manage to freeze the entire dragon, but it kept its legs in a tight hold. The dragon groaned in pain. The ice must have stung.
The beast was immobilized, but not for long. Its hot body was thawing the frost. Time ticked away at what felt like light speed. She glanced at the last hare. She had to use it.
Greta descended from the sky, carrying a nude, human man with her back foot. The dragon woman landed and roared into the frozen dragon’s face. The noise sent a blast, which almost threw Constance off her feet.
Then Greta swung her tail squarely into the dragon’s jaw, knocking the beast out. The fire-breathing creature started to shrink. A bright glow lit the cliff. After seconds, a man lay naked where the assailant dragon once stood. Her mentor picked him up with a claw.
It was over.
Greta made a gruff sound and gestured to her own back with her head. Climb on, the dragon woman seemed to say.
Constance picked up the last box and walked toward the purple beast.
***
In the infirmary, Constance studied two dragon men lying on the straw beds. The third assailant had fallen to his death after Greta broke his wing off. She questioned why Greta had left them here with her. They were knocked out cold, so they posed no imminent threat, but surely they should have been placed somewhere where they belonged? The dungeons, perhaps? What if they woke up? She hadn’t had the time to ask Greta questions. The purple dragon had yet to change into a human to speak. The dragon woman dropped them off, before flying away.
Did Greta intend to treat these two men? But they had tried to kill them. She scrunched her nose.
“Why are his feet blue?” Marzia asked, examining the blond man alongside her.
“Long story,” she said.
The other dragon, whom Greta had defeated by herself, bore two large gashes on his back. Greta must have torn his wings off as well during the fight.
“How did you find two injured men in the middle of the night?” Marzia asked.
“They attacked us.”
Marzia’s eyebrows shot up. “They did? Thank the gods you’re unscathed. Are they from another clan?”
Greta entered the hut. “No, they’re from our clan,” the dragon lady said.
Constance and Marzia both shot confusing looks at the old dragon.
“There were three of them. Frederick, Eodahayne, and Braith. I watched them grow up as dragonlings.” Greta looked into the fire. “I’m afraid I had to kill Eodahayne, but at least the other two are alive.”
Constance tightened her jaw. “But they attacked you.”
“No, child. They were attacking you. “
“Me?”
Greta sighed. “Rayse demanded I not say a word about this, but there are rumors about you spreading in the clan, child. They think you’re making their leader weak. And honestly, you are. There is much disapproval about you. I didn’t think they’d try to assassinate the Black Menace’s wife, however.”
Constance stood and clenched her fists. “What do you mean I’m making Rayse weaker?” There were times when Rayse acted more tense. She remembered the night with Ranwynn’s mother. He wasn’t like his usual, calm self. She worried there was something wrong with him. It didn’t click in her mind that it could have been her fault.
“It’s been three weeks. Yet, the dragon bond isn’t completed.”
“That has nothing to do with anything. We take things at our own time.”
“Three weeks… is uncommon.” Greta clicked her tongue against her teeth. “I don’t blame you for it, dear. I understand that trust isn’t something that is so easily fostered. But the bond is normally finished in a week, at most. The clan members are starting to think there was a mistake during the initiation of the mating. They want Rayse to find someone else.”
She shrunk bank. “I can’t imagine him with anybody else.”
“Of course you can’t. You’re his mate. But it is not only that. Constance, haven’t you been feeling more tired lately, especially when around Rayse?”
“It’s because the lust makes it hard to sleep.”
Greta bowed her head in approval. “And your soul is trying to force a bond with him, despite not having enough trust. It is a strange conundrum. Whatever you feel, Rayse feels ten times worse.”
She gaped. “But he seems fine.”
“He is strong and good at hiding his weaknesses. The male counterpart feels the side effects more. Their souls are more territorial and aggressive, so it takes a lot more to hold the lust back. His soul is screaming at him to claim you. Every waking moment, Rayse is likely holding back from forcing himself on you. A common part of the ritual is to have sex until the bond is complete. That will help curb the tiredness, although not completely. Rayse told me that he is not laying with you to gain your trust. It is not healthy for him. I don’t think he has slept for a week.”
“I… I didn’t know.” Guilt swelled in her. An aching in her chest clenched over her heart. She loved this man. Weeks of spending time with him let her know that. She couldn’t accept him wholly—not when he bullied weaker women—but her soul told her she had to love him. What her soul wanted and needed was too difficult to resist.
“Sometimes, you wake up and Rayse is burning like a furnace, correct?”
She nodded.
“That is what happens when dragons start to lose control. There are instances when a mate is killed before the mating is complete. That dragon will start to heat up uncontrollably, even to temperatures that are hard for the dragon itself to bear. Then he will go crazy and take his own life.”
Constance couldn’t stand the thought of Rayse having the same fate. A lump seemed to have stuck itself in her throat. She swallowed to push it down.
Greta let out a deep breath. “Don’t worry, child. I’ve said too much. You need rest. Stop looking as if the world has ended. I’m sure Rayse can deal with giving you more time. He’s no ordinary dragon. “
I look worried?
“I let myself get carried away,” Greta said. “I care for our clan leader. And I’m quite annoyed at losing Eodahayne today. He was a child I saw grow up, although he was from the outer parts of the mountains and we didn’t spend much time together.”
“You had to kill Eodahayne because of me.”
“I had to end his life because of his own actions. I’m not even sure he came for you for the sake of the clan. What he did was cowardly and unlike how a dragon should act—coming after an old woman and a weaker human? Goddess bless him. I think he wanted to kill Rayse indirectly by assassinating you.”
“Am I… a trouble to Rayse?”
Greta pressed her lips together. “You make him… different. He seems more troubled now, although he doesn’t make it obvious, but you’ll be good for him in the end, child.”
Constance’s shoulders sagged, and she wrapped a hand over her wrist. “I keep giving him reason after reason to tax himself and worry.” She felt her childhood biting back again. The need to run away and hide from the problems that surfaced past her fake, seemingly strong exterior.
“But now he has someone to love.” Greta stroked her hair comfortingly. “I’ve never seen him smile more than the last three weeks. And once you bond, it’ll only make him stronger. He has something more dear to him to protect now. A good leader only serves well when he has something to fight to keep safe.”
Constance pushed herself away and sat back down. Placing her hands over her forehead, she shook her head. Rayse told her waking to burning temperatures was normal for a dragon, and she believed him. He hid what he had been going through, and the dangers of it, to stop her from worrying. He went through so much torture just to make her feel better.
How could she live with herself then, after the truth had come to light?