Page 63 of Redeeming the Dragon

“Here I am,” I said. Adding dryly, “I have a name. I told you. It is Lorna.”

“I care not for your name,” she replied. “I merely wish to have the fairy’s jewel. If my mother catches us, she will have both our heads.”

Considering the Scraggen’s fearsome reputation, I did not doubt her. What a frightening notion to so fear your own mother! Bidding myself stay quiet, I followed as she darted around the other jumble of stones. Once more, she glanced over both shoulders, then darted in between two rocks. It happened so quickly; I wondered if I’d gone mad.

“Peddler!” she insisted, and a pale hand jutted out from the dark cleft, beckoning fiercely. “Come along!”

“Coming,” I said, and hastened after her. Dropping to my hands and knees, I poked my head into the space where she’d vanished, and found a narrow tunnel. We crawled for a time until we could walk hunched over, then we finally stood. At this point in the passageway, the Scraggen’s daughter stopped. I heard rustling around and braced myself, lest she should retrieve a weapon and attack me. No, the nextsound I heard of was a light being struck, then she said, “This will help. Hurry.”

She held a lantern, and it did, indeed, help as we hastened along the tunnel which finally ended at a heavy iron door.

How do we bypass this,I wondered.Has she a key?

As it happened, she did not have a key. Rather, she stopped in front of the door, circled her free hand in an odd fashion, and mumbled strange words in a language I’d never heard. With a quiet creak, the door swung inward. The Scraggen’s daughter glanced back at me, her face half-hidden in shadow and half-illumined by the lantern, giving her a sinister appearance.

“Come, Peddler,” she beckoned.

I followed, even as I gathered the courage to ask, “How did you open the door? Magic?”

“My mother’s spells,” she responded shortly. “She has taught me some. My mother and I alone can bypass this door.”

Ah. As I trailed the young woman down quiet, hidden corridors in her mother’s castle, hoping that she was not leading me into a trap, I considered what it would be like to live your life with a mighty witch-woman as your mother. Was this girl happy? Unhappy? Did she resent her mother’s power or celebrate it? What type of life did she lead? Did she wish to wed my dragon prince, or had she an aversion to it as great as Kidron’s to marrying her?

I dared not inquire, fearing to anger her. Anyway, we were at a wooden door in short order. A door that was bolted and barred…from the outside.

My heart sank.

Oh Kidron,I thought.To be treated so because of your father’s greed…

Even as the Scraggen’s daughter produced a key with which she opened the lock, I considered her once more, thinking,

What of her? To be forced to marry a man because of your mother’s quest for power. Is she any happier than he?

“Go inside,” she motioned. “Quickly. Here, take this.” She passed me the lantern. “I shall have to lock you in so my mother and the servants suspect nothing. I’ll return at dawn to let you out. I’ll take my gift then.”

“Agreed,” I said and slipped past her into the dark, quiet room. The door closed behind me and I heard the rasp of metal as the bolt slid into place.

At last! I’d journeyed from the underbelly, the very heart of Aerisia, to the mystical location that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. I’d found my dragon prince. Time to figure out how to break his curse and escape Moonswept.

Chapter 37

“Kidron! Kidron!”

Lantern in hand, I hastened towards the bed. The familiar shape of my dragon prince’s body beckoned to me. A thrill shot through my core as I recalled how it felt to lie beside him, holding his hand, the warmth of his body melting mine.

“Kidron?”

I wanted desperately to see him awake. Setting the lantern down on the bedside table, I reached out to touch his cheek, the dark whiskers of his beard slightly scratchy against my palm.

“Kidron?”

Why was he not awakening? Why did his golden eyes not meet mine?

“Kidron!” A panicky feeling gripped me. He was not dead. His flesh was warm. His chest rose and fell with breath. And yet…he was not awakening. Desperate, I seized both of his shoulders, shaking him.

“Kidron, you must awaken! Please!”

How could he sleep through this? His entire body trembled beneath the force of my shaking, and yet…he released a quiet snore, his body slumping into stillness the instant I’d released him.

---