“They say that the ashen are born from mankind to remind dragons that from the least of you come great things. Dragon blood runs in tiny ways through so many people—a drop or a dram. And when a soul of a dragon rests in the heart of a man—an ashen will be born. And like a seed, the blood grows until a dragon allows your flower to bloom.” Ghreid pulled Varis to him, bare chests touching. It made him so aware of how rough his skin had gotten in the salt and sun without care. Ghreid didn’t seem to mind, though. He leaned down and their lips connected.
The passion in their dreams came with unavoidable hunger, a lack of inhibition, and an urgency demanding their completion. Whatever it was when they touched? It was more and less. Varis needed to be in Ghreid’s arms. “I need to make sure the cargo on this ship makes it to the royal house. Are you truly a prince?”
“I am prince and sovereign of the portnation. We’re a territory of Sauria as of a month ago. The king of Monsmount ceded the territory to my brother, the king of Sauria, in exchange for debt forgiveness.” Ghreid traced fingernails with sharp tips through Varis’s shaggy mane, his dark eyes almost glowing gold from the irises as he touched and studied him. “What is in my power to do for you, I will do.”
Varis sagged in a near faint. Truly, there was nothing he’d wanted to hear more. “There is cargo on this ship! I have been guarding it for years. I—”
Ghreid sank with him and drew the male into his arms, shushing softly as tears welled and poured. Varis didn’t know how miserable he’d been. His every day was survival, boredom, fear, and when they kissed again, the salt of tears and sea passed between them. Ghreid leaned into him, his horns casting a shadow from the high sun, as if Varis had horns of his own. “What is this cargo?”
“It is a jealously guarded type of silk only royalty is allowed to possess.” Varis shuddered. “A skein of it is worth more than my life.”
“Show me.” Ghreid gestured for Varis to stand, and together they moved. Varis nimbly hopping down into the cargo hold, stepping over broken boards and strategically stacked crates, keeping a pathway leading to the highest part of the ship where the lead casket lay.
Ghreid stared at it with hard thought in his eyes, fingers traversing the lid before he dug his strong nails into the material and tapped a few odd places. “Sealed.”
He studied the inscription on the lid, the wooden frame of the lead meant to help it be hauled up by a crane. “Definitely appears to beDraynarian.”
“If this gets to the king, I can organize a pardon for myself. I can escape the call back to my homeland. A new identity.” Varis rested a hand on Ghreid’s forearm and the dragon chuckled.
“You are a prince’s mate. You have your pardon in my word alone. We will get this to the king, though. I highly suspect that the contents of this belong to you now. It’s been written as lost.” Ghreid glanced about and hefted the impossibly heavy casket into his sinewy arms. Wasting no time, he marched his way back through murky water, climbed atop groaning crates suffering under the added weight, and with considerable effort, he flung the casket up through the cargo port and jumped, flitting his wings to land by the buckled floor of the ship, groaning under the weight. “We fly home. You will be bathed and clothed. I wish for you to rest, and I will handle everything to do with your cargo.”
Varis nodded dumbly as he climbed up and out of the port on unsteady legs.
“I need rope.” Ghreid glanced around and Varis dove into the captain’s cabin, hefting out a generous spool over hisshoulder. Ghreid tested the fibers and found them satisfactory before he lashed it around the crate.
“How are you going to get this to your home? It will sink.” Varis twisted his fingers, a nervous habit he’d had since childhood.
“Lav will carry it, but it’s too much for him to carry with you or I on his back.” Ghreid continued his work with the rope and halted when Varis stepped in, undoing Ghreid’s work to make more secure knots in the arrangement he needed.
Ghreid nodded once before whistling sharply. “Lav!”
That awful whipping crack like a loose sail broke the breeze, and gentle creak of hulls echoed about as a wyvern dove, not the beautiful silvery-white beast Varis had seen before. This one bore patches like wild Wyverncrest mounts but listened like a Saurian. “Crate, stables!” Ghreid slapped the top of the casket, the dull sound of his hand against the lead ringing out easily.
The beast wasted no time in snatching the ropes Varis had aided Ghreid in tying off, and faltered, his laboring wing-beats slowing as he huffed and hauled away.
Varis swallowed hard. “I’ve been waiting so long…”
“What’s the first thing you want?” Ghreid welcomed Varis into his arms, wrapping him gently.
“Real food. If I ever see fish again, it will be too soon.” Varis sighed, sinking into the warm embrace of his hero. “Who is coming for u—”
Ghreid scooped Varis into his arms and unleashed his wings in a fierce flick, spreading them in a golden display.
Varis flinched upon takeoff and stiffened in Ghreid’s arms. The clattering hulls and barnacle-laden ropes that had kept him company for so long became smaller and smaller as they sailed toward the shore.
As Varis stared at the ground below at the murky bay’s waters, he had the urge to leap from Ghreid’s arms and into thesalty flow. The greater the height, the more thrill he had when jumping down. So often, he’d volunteered to go into the waters for one thing or another, at home in the water more so than he could ever recall on land. So, as the wind tore at his uneven hair, shaggy and unshorn, he breathed in cleaner air so high up and thin.
The world had graced him with another chance, a new life, and everything would be fine, he was certain as he watched the wyvern ahead of them bank and sail toward the lighthouse, the one that had relit and been a beacon to him.
The flight was remarkably short, and Varis laughed as Ghreid angled his wings and brought them in to the shore. Every hair on his body stood on end, and he found himself wanting to stretch his arms out and sink into the flow of air that Ghreid made seem so easy.
The wyvern landed first, the bulk of the casket thundering as it came down. Wood splintered upon its fall, but no damage came to the structure or sealed points that Varis could see. In any case, the journey was almost over. “So, Monsmount says anything on those ships is fit for our seizure. I should call my brother. He’s a textile expert.”
“Hopefully it’s still fine after all this time.” Varis gasped as Ghreid swept over the lighthouse and banked to swing them down.
“We’ll see, but it’ll stay sealed until we have Lapryda.” Ghreid came down for a landing, his legs taking the brunt of the impact with immovable grace, but he didn’t let Varis down right away. “Easy. You’re bound to feel a little unsteady after being seabound for so long.”
Varis scoffed and slid free, bare feet hitting worn cobbles an instant before the ground rippled and he windmilled his arms. “Fuck!”
