“Quirky,” Sylin reiterated.
Rylana dropped her load of branches by the oven where Jildarin now knelt, adding kindling to a small fire he’d started. She didn’t remark on the fact that he didn’t have matches or any of the other various gnomish fire-starting devices.
As Rylana turned to go back for more wood, the nearby pillar started gonging. She jumped, startled. The dragon had come closer—muchcloser—and the noise didn’t deter her. She roared and flapped her wings, heading toward the island.
26
“Isthis about more than female distractions?” Sylin asked as the dragon flew toward the island. “Does she object to us working to stop the curse?”
“I don’t know, but you can ask her while you’re swinging your shovel at her horned head.” Rylana knelt beside her bow and quiver. While keeping her eyes toward the dragon, she worked on the tranquility knots, grimacing at how hard they were to untie while she remained within the city’s claimed territory.
Sylin stepped behind a pile of rubble from the explosion and hefted her shovel.
“I will protect you,” Jildarin called, glancing toward the oncoming dragon, but he was busy willing his magic into his fire, quickly building its size and heat. He also pressed his hand against one of the inner walls, pouring magic into it as well, and warmth emanated from the entire oven. “But I must also protect the dough. The dwarf was able to make only one batch with the aquatic yeast that we brought.”
“It’s inconvenient when your ally is distracted by the need to protect bread ingredients as well as you,” Sylin observed.
“It’s all right. I’m ready.” With several arrows extracted from her quiver and her bow strung, Rylana stood and took aim. Even if she hadn’t landed a devastating blow during her previous encounter with the sisters, shehadhurt one of them.
Before their aerial visitor reached the shoreline, the pillar glowed a brilliant golden, and a beam shot out over the water. The dragon screeched and banked hard. As fast as she was, the beam still struck her in the shoulder near the wing. Much louder, her second screech was filled with pain and must have traveled miles and reached all nooks and coves of the lake. Flapping her wings hard, the black dragon flew away from the island, and the beam stopped, though the pillar continued to glow and sound its alarm.
“That’s a relief,” Sylin called over the noise.
“And more effective than shovels, I’m sure.” Rylana started to lower her bow, but movement in the trees made her swing about.
Her first thought was that the peacekeepers might have heard the pillar and come to investigate, but an intensely beautiful woman with lush blonde hair and voluptuous curves walked out of the woods. No, that was the other sister, Loxvonla, shape-shifted into human form. With a confident smile on her full lips and her silver eyes like liquid pools, she gazed at Jildarin.
Rylana aimed her bow at her. “Stay right there.”
“Will you shoot me, female human?” Loxvonla looked at the pillar.
It continued glowing, and Rylana realized with a jolt that it might send a beam atherif she did something violent while standing near it. Loosing arrows into someone’s chest—even adragonsomeone—doubtless qualified.
“Only if you try to kill me first.” Rylana glanced at Sylin.
She was alternately watching Loxvonla and keeping an eye on the flying dragon, who was doing the aerial equivalent of pacing just outside the pillar’s range. When their eyes met, Sylin fished ina pocket and withdrew a compact square with gnomish writing on the side and held it up, as if to say she wasn’t afraid to deploy it.
Great, but whatwasit? Before Rylana could ask, Loxvonla spoke again.
“I’ve not come for you, human. I’ve come for Jildarin-grozanarav, who is, this time, in the form that he seems to prefer. We shall mate in this way, if that is what draws him.” Loxvonla gestured to the curves of her body. “It is now my fertile time, and Iwillhave offspring of his lineage.”
“He’s a little busy right now.”
A scraping noise came from the beach. The air above the rowboat shimmered, dense with magic, as the wooden craft shifted across the pebbles and into the water.
“Uhm,” Rylana said.
“Jildarin-grozanarav, your great power and magnificence during the war has brought us to mate with you,” Loxvonla called past Rylana, flicking her fingers as if to make her disappear completely. “I will have offspring as strong, fast, and blessed with stamina as you.”
“I believe this dough requires more proofing.” Jildarin had removed it from the box and was considering it. The air shimmered around him as he applied more of his power, not to the oven but to the dough itself.
“Jildarin-grozanarav,” Loxvonla said tartly. “Youwillpay attention.”
“The other one is coming,” Sylin said quietly.
The rowboat had floated out into the lake, and, as Rylana looked, the black dragon descended toward it with her wings outstretched. Her size dwarfed the small craft, and Rylana couldn’t imagine her landing on one of the benches, but, before her talons would have touched down, she shifted into a human woman. In that form, with black hair flowing around her shoulders, she was every bit as beautiful as her sister.
The dough resting in his hands, Jildarin kept gazing at it as he applied his magic to do… whatever needed to be done before it went into the oven. He only glanced at Loxvonla, not giving her his focus. Hediddeign to say, “I must bake this offering for the troll gods.”
