Dragon Lord

by Dragon Lord (NCP) (lit)

  The defenders of the Fortress had had plenty of time to regroup and recover from their shock, Simon saw grimly as he burst above the rim of the plateau and then had to bank sharply to avoid an incendiary bomb launched at his breast. It slammed into the skimmer behind him, sending it spiraling toward the ground far below like a fire bomb itself. It exploded halfway down, but the men inside had long passed beyond feeling it.

  Sucking in his breath, Simon expelled a fire wall at the men who’d launched the weapon. The flame licked at the wall they’d hid behind, the wall built by dragon men to withstand dragon fire. He flapped his great wings, boosting himself higher into the air until he was above them, and belched a ball of fire at them.

  Two managed to scream before they died.

  Looking around for more to satisfy his need to kill, Simon saw that the skimmers were swarming round the fortress. The disk-like vehicles were armed to the teeth, gun barrels sticking out in every direction that fired shells as big as man’s fist and powerful enough to penetrate the hardest material known to draconians--the crystal stone Draken Fortress had been built from.

  From the top of the fortress, Jaelen’s skimmers rose, firing as they lifted. Simon swerved and dipped, avoiding the bulk of the shells, then roared in agony and rage as one pierced his thigh. He spiraled downward for several moments before he gained control of the pain and lifted his wings to catch an air current to break his fall.

  Through pain glazed eyes, he searched for a place to light and finally struggled upward again, moving off to the nearest peak to the fortress and settled to examine his thigh. The bone in his leg had stopped the shell. Gritting his teeth, he used his talon to slice the hole wider and dig the shell out. Blood flowed freely from his leg for a moment before his accelerated cell regeneration sealed it.

  He paused to catch his breath, watching the battle while he waited for the weakness to pass and finally returned his attention to the fortress. Jaelen, he thought. He needed to find Jaelen before he managed to escape.

  Now where, he thought, would my murderous little brother be hiding?

  * * * *

  Audric leapt from his naybst the moment it skidded to a halt and raced to Raina.

  She lifted her arms to receive him, gasping as he caught her to his chest and lifted her clear of the ground.

  “Raina! Gods! How did they find you? I thought you were safe,” he ground out hoarsely. “I never would have left you if I had thought otherwise. I thought my heart would fail me when I saw you up there.”

  Raina clung tightly to him, her teeth chattering in reaction, tremors of cold washing through her. The warmth of Audric’s body chased the chill, though, the strength of his arms around her drove the terror away, the steady beat of his heart against her cheek comforted her. She sniffed, fighting the urge to let go of the emotions roiling inside of her.

  He cupped a hand along the back of her head, pressing her more tightly against his chest. “My brave woman,” he murmured soothingly. “You were so brave. I was so proud of you.”

  Raina sniffed again and burst into tears. “I was scared to death! I was so scared, Audric! There was no place to go. No place to hide. I thought I was going to have to try to climb down the mountain.”

  He rocked her gently until she’d calmed and finally pulled away to look at her. A frown drew his brows together as his gaze wandered downward from her face to her belly. “Why did you not tell us? I know you did not tell Simon. He would never have left you if he had known about the babe!”

  Raina gave him a resentful look. “I tried to tell him.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You are saying he would not listen?” he demanded in patent disbelief.

  She sniffed. “I asked him if he’d be mad if I got pregnant and he said ‘happily that isn’t possible’.” Her chin wobbled. “I thought he just didn’t want to know. Obviously, he didn’t want me to have his baby.”

  He studied her for a long moment in tight lipped silence and finally slipped an arm around her waist and guided her over to his beast, dragging a shirt from his pack. He watched her uncomfortably as she slipped her arms into the sleeves and began to fasten the buttons. “Did they …? What happened to your clothes?” he asked in a strangled voice.

  Raina looked at him questioningly and then it dawned on her that he thought she’d been raped. She shook her head. “They didn’t do anything--I don’t think. I guess they figured it would make more of an impact if y’all could see I was pregnant--otherwise, god only knows what they would’ve done to me.”

  He frowned. “Do not think?”

  She sighed, but glanced around uneasily, feeling a shiver skate along her spine as she listened to the noises of battle. “Are we really safe here?”

  Diverted, Audric lifted his head to look around, as well. “Simon checked. He would not have left you here if he had not been certain it was safe. But you are right. We should find a place less exposed.”

  He stared down at her rounded belly, and then looked at the beast, and then looked at her belly uneasily, and then looked around. “Gods be damned! I do not think it is at all safe to put you on the beast, but you can not walk like that.”

  Raina plunked her hands on her hips. “Like what?”

  Audric looked at her belly uncomfortably and finally down at her feet. “Your feet are bare,” he pointed out meekly.

  She knew damned well he hadn’t been talking about her feet! She didn’t like the looks of the thing he’d been riding, though. “What is that thing?”

  He glanced at his beast. “A naybst.”

  “It’s horrible looking. It looks like a … big rat.”

  He looked affronted. “It is a noble beast … but it is trained for war. It is no ride for a lady … especially …. I will carry you,” he added hurriedly at the look she gave him.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Raina said, thinking about the possibility of running into soldiers.

  “I do not either, but I do not see an alternative. You can not walk--your feet are bare. You will cut them on the rock.” As if that settled it, he moved to the beast and took the reins he’d left trailing down on the ground. “You hold the lead. I will hold you.”

  Studying the animal doubtfully, Raina took the leather strips he held out to her. The moment she took hold of them, however, the beast began nodding its head and making a strange clicking noise. Audric balled his hand into a fist and slugged it in the jaw. “Behave you ugly brute!” he snarled.

  Raina’s lips curled as he turned back to her and bent to lift her into his arms. “I thought you said he was a noble beast.”

  “He is. But he is not a beautiful, noble beast,” he retorted, his eyes gleaming with humor. “He is a vicious, disrespectful brute, and he will run off it I leave him and we will be stranded.”

  After glancing around, he followed a fairly level path for a bit and then began to climb a slight incline toward a rocky overhang. When they’d reached the wall it formed, he set her on her feet and brushed the rubble from a fairly flat stone close by. “There. Sit. I do not want it to fall out.”

  “Excuse you!” Raina demanded angrily. “Fall out? Just how fucking big do you think I am?”

  He looked disconcerted. “Wrong word?” he hazarded.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, wrong word, asshole!” she snapped and flounced down on the rock, wincing as it bit into her next-thing-to-bare ass.

  He misinterpreted the wince. “Gods be damned! Do not have it here!”

  Raina gave him an irritated look and then stared down at her belly, placing her hands over the mound to study it. “It’s not that big.”

  Audric obviously didn’t want to argue about it, but he studied it with a good deal of uneasiness. “It is not ready?” he asked hopefully.

  “I honestly don’t know. How long does it take to get here from Earth?”

  “We traveled three months Earth time--two and half our time.”

  “I guess that means I’m over half way--six or seven month
s. It’s supposed to be like nine months, I think. I’ve never had a baby before.”

  If possible, Audric looked more uneasy, but he apparently decided against voicing whatever doubts were running through his mind. Taking the beast’s reins, he led it a short distance away from them and settled a rock on the ends of its reins. After studying the beast thoughtfully for a moment, he reached into one of the packs and dragged out a handful of some sort of grain, holding it in his palm for the beast to eat. Wiping his hand absently on the leg of his pants when the beast had finished eating, he made a sweep of the area with his gaze and then returned to stand beside her with his back to the rock wall.

  Raina studied her stomach. “That … dragon was Simon,” she said finally.

  Audric sent her an uncomfortable glance. “Yes,” he said. “We are dragon folk, Raina--that is why Simon said to you that it was not possible, because we thought it was not possible.”

  “Draconians.”

  “From the name of our world, Drack, but, yes, that is why it is named that … or perhaps why we are known as dragon folk.”

  “I don’t understand. Everybody I’ve seen … they look like people, not dragons.”

  “This land has not seen dragons for generations--until Simon. I do not know how he learned the way. I thought--we all thought--that the knowledge had been lost to us long ago.” He was silent for a time. “That is what Simon meant when he said to me that he knew the secret of Draken Fortress. He was telling me he knew the old ways.”

  He grinned suddenly. “He is magnificent! I was so afraid for you that I could scarcely take it in at the time--I thought that his fear for you had unhinged his mind when he began to tear at his clothes. And then I saw him begin to transform and I could scarcely believe even seeing.”

  Raina swallowed a little convulsively. “Will he change back?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Audric sent her a sharp glance. “You are not afraid of Simon?”

  Raina thought it over. She had been afraid. She’d also been awed. Audric was right. He was magnificent--but she’d always thought that, always.

  She still didn’t want to think about her baby and the ‘transformation’ at the same time. She’d known even before she’d climbed happily into Simon’s bed that he wasn’t human. But she’d still thought he was the same … not as different from her as he was.

  She looked up at Audric unhappily. “I just want my baby to be alright.”

  He looked away. She could see he wanted to reassure her and at the same time he had doubts, too. “We have not …. We have never mated outside our own kind,” he said finally. “If it is possible, then ….”

  “It will be a miracle if he’s alright,” Raina said sadly. She didn’t want to think about the fact that the odds seemed stacked against him. She’d been through so much, though, since she’d gotten pregnant and now it had been brought home to her just how great a risk she’d taken when she’d had sex with Simon, knowing her birth control was no longer effective and hoping she would get pregnant.

  She’d been thoughtless because of what she’d wanted. She hadn’t been able to resist the temptation to have Simon’s baby, though, knowing all along that she could never have Simon. She loved him so much! She’d wanted some part of him to love that would love her back.

  It was Simon’s baby, she told herself. Simon was so strong. How could his baby not be? The baby seemed strong. He was very active, she thought. Though she had nothing to compare her pregnancy with, he seemed to move almost constantly, and he was certainly growing.

  She struggled to put her anxieties from her mind. All she could do was do her best to take care of herself and her baby. She was six or seven months along, she was sure. In a few months, she would know and that would be soon enough to deal with problems if there were any. It couldn’t be good for him if she spent all that time worrying about things she had no control over. He knew when she was upset. Every time she was distressed, he was, too.

  “Audric?” she said tentatively.

  He looked at her questioningly.

  “Do you have an extra weapon?”

  His dark brows shot up. “Why?”

  “Don’t look at me like that! I’m pregnant, not crippled! There are soldiers everywhere. I’d just feel better if both of us had something.”

  “Women do not fight--especially women who are breeding.”

  She gaped at him in outrage. “Oh! Don’t even start that macho man shit with me! It’s ok for them to die if they get overrun, but not ok to fight? I’ve just spent weeks in a fucking prison--by myself!--and chased all over hell and gone by soldiers bent on … doing horrible things to me. I have absolute faith that you’ll try your best to protect me, and I know you’re very good at what you do, but what are the odds only one or two guys might show up? There’s an army out there! Give me the damned pistol!”

  He studied her with a mixture of anger, reluctance, amusement, and grudging respect. “Do you know how to use it?”

  Raina frowned at him. “Point and shoot, right?”

  “You would not be able to bring yourself to kill, Raina. You are a woman. Women do not do these things.”

  “I shoved a man off the damned cliff! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, damn it! If anybody threatens my baby, I’ll blow his fucking head off and I can assure you I’ll sleep just fine!”

  A slow grin curled his lips. “You are so ferocious, dearling!”

  He chuckled when she glared at him, but finally pulled the weapon from his shoulder holster and instructed her on how to use it. “Just do not shoot me in the back. I do not like to have holes in my hide.”

  Raina gave him an irritated look, but finally relented. “I’m fond of your hide, too.”

  They were distracted by a sudden roar in the distance. Both of them stiffened and strained to hear what that roar of sound might mean.

  “Pater-Draken!”

  “The Emperor has fallen!”

  “Long live Emperor Pater-Draken!”

  Raina and Audric exchanged a look. “What are they saying?” Raina asked breathlessly.

  Audric grinned suddenly. “We have defeated Emperor Jaelen! They are cheering Simon--our new Emperor!”

  Raina smiled back at him, feeling her chest swell with pride, and at the same time a sickening sense of loss. He was Emperor. He’d won. And she’d lost. She swallowed against the nauseating pang. She’d never had. There had never been a chance of any other outcome. Even before she’d known exactly who and what Simon was, she’d known that he was a great man, not a man who could or would seriously consider having a woman like her as anything more than a mistress or temporary plaything. “That’s good, then. That’s what he wanted. I’m … so happy for him.”

  Audric frowned, looked as if he meant to say something. Before he could, however, he heard a sound that diverted him. It was a moment more before it penetrated Raina’s misery and she realized it was the sound of pounding feet, heavy, as if it was many feet. Four men mounted on naybsts burst into view, bent low over their beasts’ heads and riding hell for leather.

  Audric recognized the man in the lead before she did, calling out to him before she could gather her wits and stop him. In truth, he’d already called out before it dawned on her that he didn’t know, that she hadn’t told him.

  “Haig! We are here!”

  “No! Audric! Oh god! He’s the one that took me, that brought me here. He’s with that asshole, Jaelen.”

  It was too much to hope they hadn’t heard, but then Haig might have spotted them anyway. He veered toward them without slowing the beast by much. Raina froze in abject terror, certain for several moments that the riders were bent on running them down. Before it had clicked in her mind that they couldn’t very well do that unless they were willing to flatten themselves on the rock face behind them, all four men pulled their beasts to a rearing, skidding halt and leapt from their saddles, pulling long, lethal looking swords from the sheathes strapped to their backs. Audric pulled his o
wn, taking up a fighter’s stance.

  Raina came out of her stupor, stared at Audric a moment, looked at the advancing men and then down at the weapon in her hand. Without giving it any actual thought, she pointed the thing at the first man that caught her eye and depressed the lever Audric had told her would make it fire. A beam of light shot from it, stunning Raina, who’d expected a deafening explosion of sound. It stunned the man it hit, too, knocking him into the air and backwards.

  It stunned everyone, actually. Audric went rigid with shock. The three men still standing froze. Raina recovered first, firing at wild random as the men surged forward again at a hard, ground eating run.

  “Raina!” Audric bellowed, grabbing blindly at her to either push her back, or stop her. “They have only swords!”

  “Good thing, too!”

  “It is dishonorable!”

  “And I give a shit!”

  Either her first shot was just blind luck, or her panic ruined her marksmanship, or the speed they were racing toward them combined with her poor hand/eye coordination made hitting any of them in a vital spot impossible. She managed to hit all three, but they kept coming--and the weapon stopped firing. Audric grabbed her blindly by the shoulder, and began dragging her toward his beast. She stumbled to follow him, wondering if he thought they could get on the thing and get away before the men reached them.

  “Stay behind the naybst,” he ordered grimly.

  Raina looked at his back in dismay, realizing he was trying to form a shield around her with his body and the beast’s--which might be a good plan if the beast didn’t decide to stomp her to death.

  She screamed as Haig, teeth gritted, his eyes wild with fury, leapt at Audric and swung his blade. Audric caught the blow with the edge of his own blade. The loud clang of metal against metal nearly deafened her. The high pitched screech of the blades sawing against each other as Haig’s blade continued its downward arc made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

  Clamping her hand over her mouth to keep from distracting Audric by screaming again, Raina danced behind him, trying to stay out of his way as he and Haig hammered at each other with the deadly things as if they were swinging clubs, not four foot long blades. The men with Haig didn’t seem to be worried about ‘honor’ or being dishonorable about ganging up on one man. They hobbled up behind Haig, watching for an opportunity to thrust at him. One of the men, spying her, tried to get between Audric and the beast. “Hasar!” Audric bellowed.