by Lucy Lyons
Rhea. Oh yeah. He remembered the look on the ancient dragonesses’ face as she watched him beaten by his own soldiers. It was a moment of victory for her, but one Tem intended wouldn’t last long.
Astrid. Oh, god, Astrid. The fear and pain in her face as that witch of a vixen laid hands on her and dragged her away would haunt Tem to the end of his days.
Tem tried to stand, but found to his consternation that the thick bands on his forearms were locked to the chair in which he sat. The iron bands, bracers as they were more properly called, restricted his ability to shift.
“Damn you, Rhea Gentrix.”
He was worried about Astrid and what the dragon Queen would do to her.
Astrid.
He called to her in his mind, but she did not answer. Immediately he was concerned. Had Gentrix done what she promised? Had she dissolved the bond between him and Astrid?
Tem didn’t know that such things were possible, but then apparently Rhea had hidden much information from them.
Rhea considered mating bonds a danger to dragons? Why? Did it have anything to do with her breeding program? That made some sense, but there had to be more to it than that. Rhea had always hidden the bulk of the knowledge about mating bonds from the dragons. Why? There was a deeper secret here. Tem was sure of it.
But all he had were questions and an ache in his heart because he was separated from Astrid. That was far worse than the pain in his body, because those would heal. He suspected the longer he and Astrid were apart, the more the ache could grow.
You are right about that.
Rhea! Damn it! She was in his head.
And outside the door.
The locks clinked and the door creaked open. Rhea entered holding a lantern that she hung on a hook by the door. It cast a faint light, just enough for Tem to see he was in a small bare cell. Even if he didn’t have the bracers on, he’d never have been able to shift in this size room.
His chair, he saw, was pushed against the furthest wall, which explained the chill at his back. To his right there was a sleeping platform of the same gray rock that made the walls of his cell.
Rhea stood at the doorway and regarded Tem with cold, glittering eyes.
“I should have you killed,” she said.
“Why not? That seems to be the theme of the day. Everyone wants me dead.”
“That is not true. Tem. I don’t want you dead. I just want you obedient.”
Tem twisted his palms upward. “How’s that working for you?”
“You are a stubborn dragon,” she said taking a step closer.
“What do you want, Rhea?”
“What I said.”
“Not happening. Where’s Astrid? Because if you’ve harmed her, when I get free, I will kill you.”
Rhea asked. “Obviously, she is alive and well. You’d be dead otherwise. A mate bond is nothing to fool with, Tem. A human. How could you? How long could she live? Another sixty years perhaps. And then where would that leave you. Why would you give up your immortality for a human?”
“Life means nothing with her.” In his heart he knew it was true, realized it the moment he put his claiming mark on her.
“Ah,” she said pacing the small cell. “That is where you are wrong. The war with the humans is coming Tem. It was foretold years ago. But to win it I needed my general, and when you were born, I knew it was you. You were always the strongest male, the one the other dragons followed easily.”
“Obviously, not so much now.”
“That is because you laid hands on me and no dragon can stand to see that. But I can forgive that. I need my general, Tem. I need the man that the dragons will follow into battle. I won’t give you up to a silly headed piece of fluff.”
“So you’ll do what you claimed? Destroy our mating bond?” Tem spoke his words scornfully. He had hoped that was an empty claim, but he never did know Rhea to make pronouncements she could not fill.
“I will,” she said with an infuriating lightness in her voice. “I’ve done it before. And the moon is right for it tonight, so we’ll do it then. In the courtyard.”
“What do you mean?”
“All the dragons here will be there. I will perform the ceremony. When it is done, you won’t even remember her.”
Tem rattled his braces linked to his chair.
“You will regret this, Rhea. I don’t care who the fuck you are.”
Rhea scoffed. “You will.” She turned her back on him, lifted the lantern from its hook and left the room. The door clanged shut and Tem was left alone in the dark.
What made him think it was a good idea to come here? Clearly, he had misjudged the whole situation. And what were these prophecies she talked about?
Tem roared with frustration. He needed to get out of here and find Astrid. Rhea wouldn’t stop at erasing their bond, if indeed she could do that. No. Once she was sure that their bond was broken, she’d kill Astrid, just as she had killed the other seneschals.
The sun came up and sent slices of light across the floor from the wind behind him. But the light did not cheer him. Shackled yet again, after being released from a two and half decades long imprisonment, and unable to protect Astrid, his heart was dark with his own failings. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her.
He roared again, but his frustrated vocalizations only rang emptily around the stonewalls of his prison. Tem vowed to find a way to punish Rhea Gentry, mother or no.
The shadows lengthening on the stone floor was all that marked the passage of time. No one came to the cell, offered food, or even clothes. He was still naked and he supposed that Rhea wanted to humiliate him for disobeying her.
It only made him angrier.
Finally, the cell fell into total darkness and grew cold while anger blazed in his heart. He resolved that whoever came through that door would have a very bad time of it when they released the shackles from the chair.
The door opened with a creak and Tem was ready to fight. But he was surprised to see Reanne peak in then enter the cell.
“Are you taking me to the ceremony?”
Reanne hiked the lantern onto the hook by the door, just as her mother had hours before.
“No. I’m supposed to talk some sense into you.”
“She’s so sure she can break my bond with Astrid,” he said bitterly.
“No, she’s not. The spell she wants to use is an ancient one for when a dragon is grieving to death over the loss of a mate. It works best if she has consent. She doesn’t have it, does she?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m afraid, Tem. She wants a war with the humans. She doesn’t know how they’ve changed, the weapons they have. My mother will doom us all to death. And I don’t want to die.”
Reanne pulled a key from a pocket from within her robe. With shaky hands she unlocked Tem’s iron braces. He pulled his arms free and shook them.
“You’ve taken a big risk here,” he said.
“No. I haven’t. You go, and get Astrid and get as far away from us as you can. Rhea will think twice about going to war with the humans if you aren’t there to lead the troops. Here.”
She slung a pack off her back and handed it to Tem.
“Clothes, for when you need them. Now make it look good.”
Reanne stood straight with her shoulders back.
“Make what look good?” asked Tem. He suspected what she wanted but he was loathed to do it.
“Make it look like you’ve overpowered me. Strike me on the chin so I pass out.”
“Reanne, I can’t do that.”
“If you want to protect me, you will. If I have bruises she’ll believe my story, at least until you are far enough away to be safe.”
“Where’s Astrid?”
“England. Rhea ordered Calvin to take her there and when he got the word, kill her.”
“Damn her,” muttered Tem.
“Yeah. Mother is a real piece of work. So it’s time for you to go, Tem. Get to it. Strik
e me. It is the only way to protect me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Astrid
Astrid woke shivering with wind pushing at her furiously. It was as if she were standing in a wind tunnel. Only she knew she wasn’t standing. Instead, when her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she found to her horror that great, gray dragon claws were holding her.
Hold on, Astrid. She recognized the voice in her as Calvin’s.
Where are we going?
But he didn’t answer her question. Instead he asked another.
Do you remember Tem’s instructions when you rode him to the palace?
Yes.
Then get ready and when I say ‘now’ hold your breath and don’t move.
Calvin rose and then flew in a great circle.
Now!
He dove and Astrid gripped his claws with all her might as the air around them grew deathly cold and quiet. But she held her breath so long that her lungs wanted to burst. Astrid didn’t remember it taking this long the first time Tem took her here, wherever “here” was.
Then air rushed around her again, buffeting her body painfully and filling her ears. Calvin rode the air currents in great circles.
Where are we?
But as before, Calvin said nothing. He rose suddenly, the swoop in great spirals toward the Earth. Astrid felt lightheaded, as if she wasn’t getting enough air as the ground rushed toward them.
Calvin transferred her to one claw, back stroked his wings, and landed on his back legs, then fell forward with a thud on his free forepaw. He let go of her close to the ground and she rolled onto soft grass.
She got to her feet and brushed her hands off as she surveyed the broad field they stood in.
“Where are we?”
“Devonshire.”
“England? You brought me back to England? I’m a fugitive here.”
“That is what Rhea instructed me to do. And it was smart of her. You are less likely to try to escape if you know the law will take you in.” Calvin pulled a sack off his back and fished through it. He drew out her shoes and a black cape.
“Here,” he said. “To ward off the chill and to cover that matron’s uniform. That’s a dead giveaway.”
Astrid, thoroughly annoyed, jerked the items out of Calvin’s hand. “So, I save you from prison, and you are all willing to do Rhea Gentrix’s bidding,” she said sharply.
“She is my Queen, Astrid, and has been for thousands of years. She’s been a good Queen for us, mostly, and has her reasons for fearing and hating humans. If it wasn’t for Rhea, dragons would have died out on the Earth many generations ago.”
“You’re just making excuses for her,” snapped Astrid.
Calvin didn’t answer. Instead he turned where he stood, and then stopped and nodded his head then walked in the direction he faced.
“Wait!” she called.
“Come,” he said. “I have place for us.”
Astrid looked at her surroundings. She had no idea where she was, or where she could find help. But Calvin was correct. She was more likely to get turned into the authorities than not. And the dragon could fly faster than she could run. Astrid put aside her misgivings and followed the elder dragon through the soggy field. But she didn’t like it, not one bit, especially when she remembered how Calvin had put the bracers on Tem while the soldiers held him down.
It upset her to think about that and the pain in Tem’s face as Rhea dragged her away.
She marched up to Calvin.
“Is Tem okay?” she demanded.
“Yes.”
The one word answer maddened Astrid.
“What’s going to happen to him?”
“Nothing. Rhea doesn’t want him harmed.”
“And what’s going to happen to me? What are we doing here, Calvin?”
They came on a little rundown looking garden shed.
“Here,” said Calvin simply.
“Here? This place?” said Astrid incredulously.
“Yes,” said Calvin firmly. He opened the door and it shrieked on rusty hinges.
She entered the shed, which barely had room for both of them. But Calvin pulled up a section of flooring, revealing a tunnel.
“Down you go,” he said.
“If you think I’m going down into that hole, you are insane.”
Calvin sighed. “Look, Astrid. I know you don’t like this and you have every reason to hate me right now. But I’m not going to hurt you and I’d like a space where we can sit and explain some things to you. So please, climb down that ladder.”
Astrid huffed, but descended the ladder, and Calvin followed her.
“It’s dark,” she complained.
“Just keep going.”
When she came to the bottom lights flashed on around her revealing concrete walls.
“A bunker?” she said.
“A little more than a bunker,” said Calvin. He walked ahead of her to a door set in the far wall and keyed numbers into a touch pad. The door opened with hiss.
“Come,” he said as he entered and Astrid followed.
Lights flicked on and Astrid gazed on the scene amazed. Spread on the floor going to the back of the room was a huge mound of glittery gold. It was a mass of jewelry, plates, coins, cups and statues.
“What?”
“Tem’s hoard. Or rather one of them.”
“One?”
“A smart dragon doesn’t leave his gold in one place.”
“But this, this—I mean how did he get all of it?”
“The usual,” said Calvin unhelpfully.
“That’s illustrative.”
He shrugged. “Inheritance. War. Finding old hoards. Tem is especially good at the last.”
“I see,” said Astrid sinking to the floor. “Why did you bring me here?”
“It’s our meeting place should things go bad. Should Tem escape he’ll come here.”
“So you aren’t on Rhea’s side.”
Calvin’s eyes blazed. “I’m on the side of my people, Astrid! And we are at a critical point. Should we mess this up, we might cease to exist.”
“Mess up what?”
Calvin sighed and sunk to his heels.
“There is a reason that Rhea is against dragon-human pairings and it’s not racial purity. Well, not entirely. She does believe that humans pollute the gene pool of dragons. But mainly, it is because a prophecy was made on the day she took the throne: that she wouldn’t keep it. A male dragon would take the throne from her and install his mate, a human, on it. This is why she was so infuriated when one of the dragon Lords, one of her own council, took a human mate, a seneschal. Rhea demanded he set aside the mate, but he refused, and the Council of Lords were divided on the matter.”
“Wait, I’ve never heard about this Council of Lords,” said Astrid.
“I know. It was broken. There was war between us then and many good dragons, many dragon Lords died.”
“And then the seneschals.”
“Yes,” sighed Calvin. “Rhea was just as glad to rule without the oversight of the Council. One of the things she decided was that we couldn’t associate that closely with humans again. And for many centuries she felt safe, until Tem brought you to the palace and her old fears were inflamed again.”
“And then she came to my room and found—”
“Yes. A dragon had taken a human mate. But not just any dragon, but the one she counts on to lead the dragons into battle against the humans.”
“Oh, dear Lord.”
“She means to kill you, Astrid.”
“How do you know?”
“She ordered me to do it.”
“What?” Astrid skittered back, and looked around wildly for something to use as a weapon.
“Astrid, relax. I’m not going to kill you. I’ve killed too many humans and that never should have happened.”
There was such regret in his voice, that Astrid understood something new about Calvin.
“In Hawthorne, you stopped eating no
t to protest your captivity.”
“No. Out of the all the dragons, I deserved it. They just didn’t schedule my death fast enough.”
“Oh, Calvin. No. You can’t think like that.”
“I can’t now. Tem needs all the help he can get to avert disaster for our kind. We can’t win in a war against your kind. There are too many of you. Your weaponry has grown with your technology. We must find a way to coexist.
“Astrid, I don’t know why things happened like they have. I don’t understand why Tem felt compelled to take you as a mate. But all that has happened was foretold many centuries ago. And dragon prophecies usually—” He stopped speaking and cocked his head toward the door. “I hear something. Get behind me, quick.”
Astrid didn’t hear any noise, but she trusted the super sharp hearing of dragons. She scuttled to position behind Calvin, who stood and drew a long knife from inside his robe.
Finally, Astrid heard scrapping noises at the door.
“Intruders?” she asked.
“I smell, along with the blood of Englishmen, the telltale scent of their weapons.”
“Government?’
“Yes, military.”
“Is that door locked?” asked Astrid.
“Yes.”
“And I don’t suppose there is a back door to this place,” she said.
“A dragon doesn’t need back doors,” said Calvin scornfully.
“Right, because they never come in handy,” said Astrid.
“Get down!” said Calvin.
Astrid barely had time to hit the floor before a horrendous blast shook the walls and tore the door off its hinges.
One word tore from her throat.
Tem!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tem
The natural healing powers of dragons couldn’t work fast enough to heal Tem from the beating he had taken at the hands of the palace guards. When he took to the air every muscle complained. But there was one thing that drove him: to get to Astrid as quickly as possible.
He hoped that Calvin would take them to his dragon hoard on his property in England. They had set it up as an emergency meeting place, long ago. But he wasn’t quite sure of Calvin’s loyalties at this moment. Calvin’s admission that he participated in the slaughter of the seneschals was a shocking confession. And Calvin had backed up Rhea’s arrest of Tem. He would just have to trust that Calvin would wait for Rhea’s word before he harmed Astrid.