by Zoe Chant
And then, as the mansion lit up with fire, the entire clifftop started to crumble. From above, it seemed to happen in slow motion. It was like a movie special effect; it hardly seemed real. Destabilized by the explosions, the rock gave way beneath the flaming ruins, and the entire thing went down the cliffside in a growing avalanche. It missed the town completely, but left a scar down the mountainside, all the way to the lake, where the flames were finally extinguished in the dark water.
Loretta could only stare in shock and a growing sense of dismayed grief. "Maddox," she whispered.
"The self-destruct," Darius rumbled. The massive destruction below them seemed to have shocked him out of his stupor. He beat his wings and turned in midair. "My lair. What. Who—"
"Maddox triggered the self-destruct. There was no other way."
"Where is he?" Darius demanded. "That idiot—"
"He stayed behind to cover our escape." Loretta covered her mouth with her hand. "He was there when all of that ... happened."
Darius was silent, and then he started to swoop back toward the ruins.
"Darius, don't." Loretta swallowed her tears and gripped at the spikes on his neck. "Look. There are still some of them down there."
She'd spotted dark shapes moving against the light of lingering flames still flickering in the ruins. The remaining flying gargoyles were milling around in midair.
"Do you think that explosion could have taken out Sharpe?" Loretta asked.
"It didn't," Darius rumbled heavily. "The stoneskins would cease to function the instant he died. He's still down there."
"Then we can't go back. Darius, we have to go. They'll kill us if we go back. Don't waste Maddox's sacrifice."
She had to force the last words out through tears choking her throat.
Darius hesitated, then made a wide turn in midair and stroked his way across the mountains. Loretta looked back until the valley had vanished from view.
It was so hard to believe it was gone. The entire mansion. And Maddox. Gone at the push of a button.
Darius's entire life, gone.
After a little while, wiping her eyes, she realized that he was flying with a steady sense of purpose. Not fleeing, but going to somewhere.
"Where are you going?" Loretta asked.
After a moment, Darius said, "The only place we can go. I must seek sanctuary with someone powerful enough to protect us. And," he added quietly, "heaven help us if he demands a higher price than I can pay."
Chapter Eighteen: Loretta
Loretta was half drowsing on Darius's back when he swooped down and landed. It was the darkest part of the night. They had been flying over mountains for some time now, occasionally passing across roads or small towns. Now they appeared to be in some kind of fairyland.
Curiosity brought her back to full wakefulness as she looked around. They were in a garden, a vast and slightly eerie garden bright with solar-powered lights along the paths and strings of fairy lights glittering on the hedges and on the trees. All the pale, moonlike light was what had given the fairyland impression to her dazed, sleepy gaze.
Beyond the garden, however, was nothing but darkness. She couldn't tell where they were. It wasn't a city, and the air was sharp and chilly. They were still somewhere in the mountains, she thought.
"Can you get down?" Darius asked, his voice rumbling through her.
She slid off his back, and her legs nearly buckled under her. They'd been flying for hours; she was exhausted and cold. Darius shifted back and put an arm around her, supporting her. He looked worse than she felt, still ragged and blood-soaked, and she could feel him trembling when she leaned against him.
"Where are we?" she asked, wrapping an arm around him for mutual support.
Darius's voice was hoarse. "We have come to the home of the Corcoran dragon clan. This is the lair of their clanlord, whose name is Heikon."
"Friend of yours?"
"Not really," Darius said. "But as the humans say, any port in a storm."
A new light appeared through the trees. This turned out to be a lantern carried by a young Asian woman, really no more than a teenager. She had dark hair pulled back in a simple braid, and her oversized sweater looked like it had been flung on in a hurry; her bare feet were shoved into sneakers.
"Who are you?" she asked, holding up the lantern to look at them.
Darius straightened his back and tightened his grip on Loretta. "Darius Keegan. My mate and I have come to seek sanctuary from your lord."
The young woman yawned. "Sanctuary from what?" she asked.
"From gargoyles."
That seemed to wake her up. "I'll need to talk to Grandfather."
"I understand. I'll wait here."
The young woman hurried off. Darius looked around, found a bench, and sank down onto it. Loretta sat beside him. "Are you all right?" she asked softly.
"I will be." He ran a shaking hand across his face. "My kind heal quickly. And wounds sustained as a dragon are not so severe when we shift back—they shrink relative to our comparative size."
He still didn't look good. In the cool light of the garden, she could see the dark blood streaking his face and his haggard expression. It wasn't all physical, she thought. They had both just been through a hell of a lot.
"Maddox," she began quietly.
"I don't want to talk about it." His voice was harsh.
Loretta tried putting her arms around him, but he didn't seem to want to be held at the moment, either. So she got up and wandered to investigate a fountain with a sculpture of a dolphin, lined with fairy lights.
"This is all very beautiful," she said, turning back, "but if this is the home of a dragon lord, where's the house?"
"Underground," Darius said with a faint smile.
"Oh." Startled, she looked around again at the moonlit garden, the utter darkness beyond it, the stars overhead. "Where are we, anyway?"
"High in the mountains. Heikon's lair is inside a mountain."
"Oh," she said again, trying to get her brain back online. There was just so much to deal with. "Are we really safe here?"
"As safe as we would be anywhere. The Corcorans are a numerous clan. If Sharpe wants to attack them, he'll have one hell of a fight on his hands."
"And you think he'll let us stay?"
"I don't know," Darius said quietly. "This is not his fight. But I can think of nowhere else to take you."
Before she could answer, there were footsteps on the garden path. Loretta turned, but it wasn't the young woman this time. It was an older man, tall and powerful, with bronze skin and iron-gray hair swept back from a high forehead. There was something draped over his shoulder that glittered in the moon-pale lights of the garden. She took it at first for a jeweled ornament, but then its eyes blinked and she realized there was a very small dragon draped around his neck, looking at them.
"Darius," the newcomer said in a dry voice. "Welcome to the Aerie. This is, I should say, quite unexpected."
"Heikon." Darius struggled to his feet, and Loretta could see Heikon's sharp gaze taking in Darius's difficulty getting up and the way he swayed slightly before regaining his balance. Resting a surreptitious hand on the back of the bench, Darius inclined his head in a gesture of polite respect. "We've come to seek ... your help." He seemed to have to fight to get the word out.
"So I heard." As he spoke, Heikon idly uncoiled the baby dragon from his neck and cradled it in his arms, where it blinked sleepy eyes at the visitors. "My granddaughter came rushing into the nursery babbling something about gargoyles. I sent the poor girl off to bed before she could get the entire household in an uproar. Haven't you heard of calling first?"
"We didn't have a choice," Darius said. He stood straight and tall, and Loretta wondered if anyone else could see what it was costing him to stand there, let alone to come to another dragon like a supplicant. Wordlessly she moved closer to him, lending him her silent support. He glanced at her and, with the slightest of strained smiles, put an arm around her. "My mate and I—"
Quiet emphasis here. "—were nearly killed by gargoyles tonight. They destroyed my lair. Took my hoard. We barely escaped with our lives."
Heikon gazed at him thoughtfully, and then let out a low series of whistles. A moment later, a middle-aged woman ducked under a trellis and entered the softly lit area by the fountain. She was small and round and bore a strong resemblance to the girl who had met them earlier. Heikon handed her the baby dragon. "I think," he said quietly, "that this is not a story for children's ears. Put this one to bed, would you, dear? You two, come with me."
With that, he kissed the woman's cheek and, smiling, she put the baby dragon's small head over her shoulder and took it off past the trellis. Heikon led them through the garden in a different direction. Loretta heard a rushing sound, which soon resolved itself into a waterfall. Light shone eerily out through the curtain of water, shimmering like liquid moonlight. Heikon ducked around the end of it. Loretta followed, braced to get wet, but quickly discovered that there was space between the craggy rocks and the waterfall for herself and Darius to walk single file, dampened only slightly by the spray before they emerged into a large room hewn from rock and lit with lamps recessed into the walls.
"Come," Heikon said. "My personal quarters are back here, but there's also a guest suite."
"A high honor, or a desire to keep an eye on us?" Darius asked. He took Loretta's hand in his own, keeping her close.
Heikon's gaze flicked to take in the hand-holding. "No reason why it can't be both," he said, and turned to guide them up a set of stairs hewn into the rock. Narrow windows, little more than slits in the rock, looked out over the lights of the garden. Beyond it was a vast dark wilderness, broken only by a few scattered, distant lights of houses and small towns.
"This place is amazing," Loretta murmured as they climbed.
She meant it for Darius's ears only, but Heikon looked over his shoulder. "I'm glad you think so. It is a necessity for our kind to have somewhere to retreat that suits our spirit." His glance flicked to Darius. "It is different for all of us."
At the top of the stairs they entered a hall, also hewn from rock and also lit with recessed lighting that gave the impression of gently glowing rock illuminating their way. Heikon opened the door onto a modest suite with comfortable-looking, squashy furniture.
Darius went straight to a couch and sat on it. Seeing him in the better light of the suite, Loretta sucked in a breath. His face was pale and bruised, smeared with drying blood, and blood stained his tattered suit. He looked nothing like the well put together man she'd come to know.
Heikon's only reaction was the slight raise of a brow. He went to the room's small kitchenette, a hotel-style kind of thing with a sink and a coffeepot that Heikon plugged in. "Coffee?" he asked. "Tea?"
"Coffee for me, please." Loretta's earlier sleepiness had evaporated; she had a feeling she was going to be awake for awhile. She did peek longingly into the suite's small bedroom, dominated by a large inviting-looking bed with four posts and curtains.
The bathroom was an equal blend of modest size and understated luxury; it was just large enough for a toilet and a sunken rock tub. Loretta wet a washcloth at the tap and took it back out to the living room.
No one was speaking. Darius seemed to be lost in thought, and Heikon was merely leaning against the wall next to the perking coffeepot, watching them both. Loretta sat on the couch next to Darius. He came back to himself when she started dabbing at the blood on his face.
"Unnecessary," he said with a hint of his usual prickliness.
"You're getting blood on my furniture," Heikon said. "Let her take care of you. Idiot."
Darius looked like he was winding up for a vicious retort, but just then there was a tap outside the room, making him flinch and turn his baleful attention on the door. A young man with glasses entered quietly and left a small bundle of clothing on the couch before retreating at a nod from Heikon.
"A change of clothing, which you both appear to need," Heikon explained. He poured cups of coffee. "If there is anything else you desire, ask one of my grandchildren. They've been told to make you at home, at least for as long as you stay here."
Loretta noticed he hadn't said how long they could stay. Darius said nothing, and made no move toward the bundle of clothing. It was clear that his pride was currently strained to the breaking point.
For her own part, Loretta was wildly curious about these dragons, who clearly had a very different lifestyle than the one she'd grown used to while staying with Darius. "Do you have servants?" she asked.
Heikon shook his head. "It's only family here. I have always run my clan thus. Though it hasn't always worked out well for me—Darius, I'm sure, can tell you the story of how I was nearly deposed when my own brother betrayed me some years back. Since then we've done a bit of, how should I put it ... housecleaning." He leaned over to open a minifridge under the counter. "Cream? Sugar?"
Darius finally spoke. "You don't need to serve us," he said stiffly.
"Don't tell me how to host a guest in my own home." Heikon's tone was mild but uncompromising. "I assume you take your coffee black and bitter, like your soul."
Darius looked incensed, but Loretta noticed the faint hint of a smile at the edge of Heikon's stern mouth. She found herself liking him despite wanting to defend Darius. "Cream and sugar for me, please," she said. "Real sugar if you've got it, not sweet'n'low. And a little cream for him."
The mugs were thick, serviceable china. Loretta didn't want to admit it even to herself, because it felt terribly disloyal, but she found herself feeling more at home here in Heikon's cave than in the luxury of Darius's mansion. She reminded herself, lest she start feeling too relaxed, that she was in a cave in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dragons and entirely dependent on them to get back to civilization.
Heikon added a dash of sugar to his own cup and brought it over to one of the chairs. "Tell me about the gargoyles," he said. It was not a request.
Darius was silent for a long moment, while Loretta dabbed at his cuts. At last he said, "It began a long time ago, when they attacked my clan."
Loretta listened in silence as Darius told the story, sketching in the same details he'd given to her earlier. The dragon-versus-gargoyle feud, the loss of his clan.
Heikon inclined his head with a thoughtful look. "I think I remember hearing about this. It was long ago, but I was alive then. A dragon clan destroyed, down to the last child ..."
"Not the last," Darius said, very softly. "Not the last."
"All but one, then. So you took the fight to them, I assume?"
"When I was grown," Darius said. "Of course I did."
"And now they're back to return the favor."
Darius growled under his breath. "Don't tell me you're taking their side."
"Naturally not, but I don't wish to be drawn into your feud, Darius."
Darius straightened his back. "If you wish me to leave, I will leave. I ask only that you give sanctuary to my mate."
"Darius, no!" Loretta grabbed his hand. "Wherever we go, whatever we do, we do it together."
He gently freed her fingers from his. "It won't be safe."
"Nowhere is safe for me without you."
"Touching," Heikon declared. "And pointless. Get some sleep, both of you. We'll discuss this in the morning. Summon one of my grandchildren if you need anything."
With that, he turned to leave.
"What are you going to ask in return for this?" Darius asked, his voice stiff.
Heikon glanced back. "We'll discuss that in the morning," he said, and left them alone.
Loretta went to the door and tested it. They weren't locked in. Small favors, she thought.
"You might as well get some sleep," Darius said, turning away to stare out the window at the garden below them.
"I don't want sleep." She came closer and laid a hand on his back. The muscles were rigid. "Come on. There's a nice bathtub here."
"I don't—"
"Darius. You nee
d a bath. So do I." She coaxed him around with gentle touches, until she could get her lips on his. At first he resisted; then he opened his mouth to her, relaxed against her, and suddenly with a shuddering sigh he had his arms around her, his hands all over her.
They tore off each other's clothes with hardly a pause to breathe as they kissed frantically. "I thought ..." he gasped out into her mouth, "... thought I was going to lose you. I couldn't ..."
"Shhhh. I'm here now. I'm here."
They made love on the floor in the bathroom, Loretta apologizing when she accidentally hurt his bruises, Darius murmuring that it didn't matter, he only wanted to feel her against him. There was desperation in it, but also infinite amounts of affection and relief. They made love again in the bathtub, and at last, as the storm began to calm, he washed her long hair in the tub, combing out the wrinkles with his fingers. Scented soaps were provided in small stone holders, liquid soaps with warm jewel tints and soft floral and piney smells. Darius rubbed palmfuls into her hair and stroked soap-slick hands down her bare shoulders.
"Unless at least one of these dispensers has conditioner in it," she murmured as she leaned against him, "my hair is going to be a frizzy mess in the morning."
"I don't care." He tipped her head back, and she went trustingly into his hands, letting him lower her into the water until his next words came to her dimly through the water rushing into her ears. "I'd love you frizzy-haired or bald."
She couldn't help grinning. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that."
By the time they got out of the tub, her fingers were wrinkled and the stress had finally eased out of her body, leaving her rubbery-kneed. Darius was no longer bleeding; the many cuts on his body had closed, leaving only faint pink lines behind, and the bruises had faded to purple and yellow as if they were days old instead of hours.
Loretta ran her fingertips wonderingly along a pinkish, half-healed cut on Darius's arm. "You really do heal fast."
"It's the way of my kind." His smile was weary. "I'll be starving in the morning, to replace all the energy I've expended healing. Right now I just want to sleep."