Page 39 of Redeeming the Dragon

Mama placed her candle stump on the nearest table and took a seat beside me. Against my better judgment, I opened up, telling her absolutely everything…including how the man who shared my bed would hold my hand. Talk to me. And had gifted me the mirror.

“But you’ve never seen him,” Mama pressed at the end of this recital. “You truly have not seen his human form.”

Again, I shook my head, denying it. “No, Mama, why do you keep asking? The magic of the cave cloaks my room in total darkness. It will not allow me to see him.”

Determination firmed her features. “This will not do,” she declared. “Lorna, you don’t know if you lie next to a man or a monster. Suppose—suppose he is a troll? Or a Cistweigh—one of the living dead? Or—or even a Simathe, one of the dread immortals? There are any number of horrible creatures who assume human form. You do not know what shares your bed at night.”

“A Cistweigh? A Simathe?” I almost laughed. Cistweigh were creatures of myth, so far as I knew. Living corpses imbued with a sort of life from the Dark Powers. As for the legendary Simathe, they were immortal warriors of the most secretive order. “Why would a Cistweigh or a Simathe hold me in a cave?” I questioned. “That makes little sense. No, I believe he is Warkin, just as he claims.”

“But you don’tknow.”

My mother had something in her mind. She would not let this go.

“I suppose not. What matters it, really?”

“It matters because you should be aware,” Mama insisted. “Furthermore, if your father is to find information to break the dragon’s hold over you, does he not need to know what manner of magic he faces? What sort of creature holds his daughter captive? We need facts, Lorna.”

I shook my head. “I cannot fathom my captor being anything except what he claims. There is the dragon by day. The man by night. Who else except a Warkin…”

“Someone who has tamed a dragon, that’s who,” Mama cut in bluntly. “Which means someone with magic. Little enough do I knowof the Warkin, but, prior to this, I have never heard of a Warkin morphing into one of their beasts, have you?”

I had not.

“Then what makes us so certain this is the case? No, Lorna, we need more information. If you are to be safe, if your father is to help, we must know who—or what—visits your room. Clearly, whether this person is Warkin or not, they possess strange magic.”

“How am I to find out?” I asked. “I already told you the cave is deeply dark when he visits.”

“There is a solution for that,” Mama said firmly. “I can assure you. We will outwit this dragon, or whatever it is, at his own game. We will redeem you from his power, Lorna. I promise.”

I should have drawn great comfort from her assurances. I did not. Instead, I felt vexed and troubled.

Chapter 24

My mother had succeeded in trespassing the dragon’s one command. When the beast returned for me unexpectedly, two days later, I wondered if he could tell.

As late afternoon descended, a fierce bank of clouds rolled in. They were nothing compared to the anger of the storm the night I’d first met the dragon. Yet, when Marisa called, “Lorna, come see the strange clouds,” and I stepped outside to comply…

My stomach twisted in knots. At once, I knew what the clouds signified.

“The dragon is returning for me,” I said quietly.

“Already?” My sister’s voice held a thread of desperation. “You’ve scarcely arrived, Lorna! He cannot take you away so soon.”

“I fear he can,” I replied solemnly. “There was no refusing him the first time. There will be no refusing him this time. Nor will I try. After all, he did not promise a long visit. Simply a visit. And that promise he fulfilled.”

“Are you certain, Lorna?” Neena, who’d been preparing the evening meal, had heard our conversation through the open door. She joined us on the porch, anxiously scanning the sky. “It could be merely a storm.”

The wind chimes swung in the wind, tinkling a warning. A cold shiver tracked down my spine and over my arms, raising goosebumps.

“I am certain,” I whispered. “Don’t ask me how I know. I simply know.”

In dreadful silence, I stood between my sisters, observing the clouds rolling in from the sea. Sorrow closed my throat. There was no help for it. My life would never be what it had been before the dragon. My family would never be who we’d been before the dragon. I would never be who I’d been before the dragon.

Conceding to the inevitable, I said quietly, “I must pack my things.”

Neither sister attempted to prevent me.

I’d barely slipped into my room when I heard rushing feet in the direction of my parents’ bedroom, followed by Marisa’s voice announcing, “Mama, I’m running into the village to find Father. There are strange clouds on the horizon. Lorna swears the dragon is returning to fetch her.”

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