The elder eyed her closely. “It’s times such as these when it helps to have a man in the house. A young, healthy man,” she qualified when Elsbeth opened her mouth to argue that there was a man in the house. “Don’t be daft, girl. You know what Imean.”
Of course she knew what Irena meant; she just didn’t agree with her. “A man likeMalcolm?”
Irena blew out an indignant huff. “Of course not. You’d kill that lumbering tarse within a month.” She grinned, and Elsbeth couldn’t help but grin back at the ridiculous image of her felling the hulking Malcolm Miller with a skillet on her weddingday.
Irena’s expression turned earnest, questioning. “I’m old, Elsbeth. I’ve earned the right to meddle and ask indelicate questions. Why haven’t you taken a husband? We’ve had no wars for decades. There are many men to choose from here in Byderside and Durnsdale, and you’re a handsome woman. Do you want to reach my years with no companion or children? Do you want to face a village mob on yourown?”
Elsbeth resumed her place on the bench and stared into the fire. Bright memories, always skating the surface of her mind, bloomed before her in the flames. A solstice celebration, the eve of her twenty-second birthday, a dark-haired man with a silver tongue and eyes that caught the moonlight and reflected back lightning. Caressing hands and the heat of a matingfever.
For two miraculous days, she had loved and been loved by the wanderer Alaric. When he packed his belongings and set out for the road, he’d offered his hand. “I cannot stay, Beth,” he said. “Come withme.”
Elsbeth had stared at that hand with a terrible longing. She wanted to reach out, grasp his fingers and walk beside him on his journey, sleep next to him beneath the flicker of stars and a waxing moon. But another man waited in her village, one who had loved and cared for her since she was a child, one who needed her in his illness. “I cannot leave,” shereplied.
He’d kissed her then, a hard possessive kiss that branded and claimed her as his, though he would leave her and notreturn.
The memory had left its mark—a scar never faded, a pain never dulled with time. She shrugged. “There was a man once, one I’d have gladly shared my life with then. But circumstance isn’t always kind.” Her short laugh held sorrow as well as amusement. “No mob would have dared visit this house had he livedhere.”
Irena’s face was grave. “But there is no such man, and the mob waits for council. The old dragonslayer cannot remain if the dragondoes.”
Elsbeth rubbed her hands over her eyes and sighed in frustration. “What should I do, Irena? March out and beard the beast in its lair? I’ve no warrior’s skill, and this creature is formidable. News is that it’s already killed five men and their horses for challenginghim.”
“Then face it with another weapon,girl.”
Puzzled, Elsbeth waited for Irena to expound on her enigmaticremark.
A smile of pure satisfaction curved the elder’s mouth. “Remember, I know a little about dragons. Those foolish boys set out to fight the beast and kill it. You, my girl, will play for it andbargain.”
Elsbeth grimacedat the village elder. “I’m going todie.”
“No you’re not.” Irena watched with an eagle eye as her grandson, Ewan, helped Elsbeth don Angus’s notorious dragonarmor.
“And then I’m going to be eaten.” Elsbeth grunted a protest when Ewan pulled the straps on the breastplate tight against herribs.
“No you’re not,” Irena repeated. She thumped Ewan on the arm. “Here, you’re working too fast and overlooking things, you nitwit. You missed a buckle there.” She pointed to a spot somewhere near Elsbeth’sthigh.
They stood in Irena’s solar, fresh from a shouting match with the village council earlier that morning. Elsbeth peered down at herself, trussed up in layers of dull gray dragon scale, and groaned. “Irena, you and the council are sending me to my death. I’ll never survive this meeting—if I even find thedragon.”
Irena shushed her. “Hush. You’ll live through this and come away with a bargain that ensures the villagers leave Angus in peace, and the dragon leaves us and our sheep and cows alone. I have every faith in you,girl.”
She beamed as Elsbeth took a turn about the room. The dragon armor made only a faint whisper as the scales rubbed together with her movements. Angus’s boasts about the armor’s superior qualities weren’t empty ones. Stitched and laced with a combination of leather and chain mail, and lined in silk, the suit was lightweight, flexible and quiet—certainly compared to clanking plate armor. It resisted fire, spear point and broadhead, as well as a broadsword’s lethal slash. Elsbeth thought it a wonder anyone had ever killed a dragon with that kind of natural protection covering itsbody.
She spread her arms. “How am I supposed to play my fiddle inthis?”
Irena rolled her eyes. “You’re a right good fiddler who can play wearing a fish barrel. Besides, if you reach such an accord that the dragon asks you to play, you can shed thearmor.”
“If?” Elsbeth never liked “ifs” and Irena’s plan, backed enthusiastically by her fellow council members who weren’t risking a hair on their heads, was full of “ifs.” This one promised a gruesome end for her if it didn’t turn into a “when.”
Irena frowned. “There are no guarantees, girl, but it will work.” She patted Elsbeth’s back. “Trust me. Besides, you faced down an angry crowd last night. What’sdifferent?”
“I don’t think they planned to kill and eatme.”
“Considering Malcolm was in that little party, I wouldn’t be so quick to make that assumption. Imagine if you had to face him alone with naught but your armor andfiddle?”
The elder had a point. Elsbeth made a last adjustment to her pauldron. “I’d want the entire dragon with me, not just thearmor.”
By the time Ewan loaded the dragon scale shield and supplies into the waiting cart outside, a sizeable gathering had converged in Irena’s garden. Elsbeth tucked Angus’s helmet under arm, took a breath and marched out to greet herspectators.
Raucous laughter broke out among the villagers but was quickly silenced when she asked, “Any of you brave souls care to accompany me to Maldoza?” She smirked at the sudden quiet and shifting gazes. “I thoughtnot.”
