The village suddenly feels impossibly far away. Nobody is coming. Nobody?—
Something moves. Fast.
The Tretter warrior freezes.
A tall figure stands in the doorway as if he has always been there, blocking the daylight with his massive bulk.
Dark skin veined with gold catches the sun in thin molten lines. Silvery-gold eyes gleam with icy intelligence.
Vyrathion the dragon.
He glances at me once before shifting his attention to the warrior holding my wrists. For a moment, his expression turns faintly curious. “You’re stealing a woman,” he says in that smooth, impossibly calm voice. “How creative.”
The warrior shoves me partly behind him and yanks out a knife with visibly shaking hands.
“She’s mine!” he blurts.
Vyrathion tilts his head slightly, as though considering an unusual insect. “Oh?” he says softly. “I have reason to believe that she isn’t.Areyou his, little female?”
“No!” I manage as something cold slips through me. I would have expected a snarl. But the dragon doesn’t sound angry at all. He sounds mildly entertained. Like someone who has stumbled across an unexpectedly amusing problem.
And standing there in front of us, radiating power and calm and sheer confidence, he somehow feels much more dangerous than the man who just tried to drag me into the jungle.
“‘No,’” he echoes thoughtfully. “That was the word I thought I heard.”
3
- Vyrathion-
I snatch the knife from the male and bend the blade so that it can never be used. That silly weapon would be no threat to me, but the female is soft and round and delicate.
The male grabs the handle of his sword and tries to draw it. I allow him to draw it halfway out, and then I grab both it and him and fling both out the door.
“Such a nuisance,” I sigh. “Are you the female I deigned to entertain on top of that mountain? I see they allowed you to come down from there. Just so you could meet that ludicrous male and his sophisticated seduction technique. Is that the mating ritual for your species? It’s just, I saw you resist.”
“I…” the female tries, flustered.
I raise one hand to shut her up. “It’s of no concern. Now answer me this: Where does that damned Praxigor keep his hoard? Plainly not on that mountain. Is it one of these laughable straw huts? Is it buried? Is it elsewhere?”
She looks up at me with big eyes, breath going fast. “I… he… he doesn’t have gold.”
I smile and take hold of her throat, just hard enough to make a point. “Lying to me issodangerous. I’ve seen Praxigor in the sky. He flies, in full dragon form. But he has been on this planet as long as I have, and I’m near death from weakness. I can’t even Change without gold to strengthen me. Plainly Praxigor has a hoard with gold. Or at the very least, gemstones or silver. Where is it?”
The female grabs my wrist with both hands. “He’s married,” she gasps. “He doesn’t need gold!”
I let go of her. “You see, a simple ‘I don’t know’ would possibly have been smarter here. Making up insane lies is not the path to take. It makes me think youdoknow. So where is it?”
“It’s… in the jungle!” she exclaims.
I suppose shecouldknow something I need. “Try not to force me to handle you again. It may kill you, seeing as you bruise easily. How do you know that his hoard is in the jungle?”
She breathes deep and fast, clutching her neck protectively. “He goes out there. Sometimes. I just guessed.”
I hear men with clanking weapons approach, their eager voices echoing from the wooden wall. “You guessed. I see. Well, your people are coming and I can’t be bothered to deal with them. Enjoy their seduction technique.”
I step out of the hut and sigh as I consider the tall palisade. If I were in my dragon form, I could simply fly over it and then burn this silly village to the ground, wait for Praxigor to arrive, trickhim into telling me where his hoard is and then kill him and take it. As it is, I must climb like a mud-dragging ground-dweller.
Something I hear makes me frown and turn around. “What was that?”
