Page 49 of Ties of Bargains

Golbet strode to the center of the raised area, looking over the gathered dragons. He motioned to Harm, Val, and Daisy. “As I promised, this human stands ready to bind himself in service to a dragon. What will you bargain for his service?”

“Now hold on just a moment.” Val strode forward, gripping Daisy tighter as the dog squirmed in her arms. “I’m not a part of this bargain. I’m the mercenary tasked with delivering him. You need to accept the delivery and let me go my way.”

Harm was looking at her with something almost like betrayal in his eyes. But he didn’t understand. Yes, she was trying to save her own skin. But it was more than that. If she was bargained to a dragon alongside him, then she couldn’t…

Couldn’t what? Rescue him? Even if she was free, she couldn’t rescue him from a dragon.

“Too late. I put him up for the bargaining before you arrived. He isn’t mine to accept.” Golbet gave her something almost like a shrug before he turned back to the gathered dragons. “Well? What will you bargain for him?”

A pair of blue dragons pushed off one of the upper ledges and glided toward the raised center of the cavern.

Yet even as those two dragons swooped closer, a black dragon with red highlights along his scalesclimbed onto the edge of the raised section and transformed into a tall man with long black hair and even blacker eyes. “I’ll bargain for him.”

“We’ll bargain for him.” The pair of blue dragons landed next to the black dragon. They transformed into a young man and young woman, both wearing blue shirts and with brown hair. The young man wore tawny-colored trousers while the young woman had a swirling blue skirt that ended at her knees with leggings and tall boots beneath.

“Damig of Flight Thunderwing has first claim.” Golbet nodded toward the man who had been the black dragon. “Taran and Tora of Flight Clawstone have second claim if the first offered bargain is unsatisfactory.”

Damig and Golbet launched into a back and forth bargaining that Val didn’t even try to follow.

Harm eased closer so that his arm brushed hers. “This is barbaric.”

“It is.” Val adjusted her grip on Daisy. The dog was getting heavier by the moment. “Technically, they’re bargaining for your services, not your person. An indenture, if you will. But it still amounts to the same thing. Once you’re bound to a dragon, it’s difficult to free yourself.”

Harm’s jaw flexed beneath his beard, something almost like despair filling his blue eyes.

Val clenched her teeth, looking away. This whole time, Harm had clung tenaciously to his belief that he would escape. She couldn’t watch him break, watch that optimistic cheeriness die, as the dragons bargained overhis fate.

“It’s—” Golbet started to nod toward Damig.

“Wait!” The young dragon man—Taran—lurched a step forward.

“We can offer more!” The young woman reached out, as if to drag Val and Harm away.

Damig glared down a nose that was long even in his fae form. “Better luck next time, dragonlings. But I’ve already secured this bargain.”

“Then let us bargain with you for him.” Taran straightened shoulders that appeared as if they would someday be broad, once he finished growing.

“No. I have no wish for another bargain. I already have a use in mind for him.” Damig turned, his shoulders moving, as if shrugging away the annoyance of the other two dragons. “Besides, aren’t the two of you a little young to be bargaining at this assembly? Shouldn’t your parents keep you better in line? Go back to your eyrie, Clawstones. Now, Golbet, as you were saying…”

Golbet glared at the two young dragons before he faced Damig again. “Yes, it’s a bargain. He’s all yours. I’m ready for a good soak in a lava pool after all that waiting around in the cold for him to arrive.”

With that, Golbet jumped from the raised walkway, turning into a dragon and spreading his wings on the way down.

The two young dragons who’d lost the bargaining shared a look, but they didn’t protest again.

Val’s stomach sank, and she couldn’t look at Harm. It would have been far better for him if the youngClawstones had won the bargaining. Their Flight was rumored to be good to humans—freeing them, even.

But she didn’t know Damig, and Flight Thunderwing had a reputation as a hard lot, even among dragons.

Damig gestured to Harm and Val. “Come.”

Val tried to motion to the cord without dropping Daisy. “Damig of Flight Thunderwing, I’m the mercenary who was tasked with retrieving this human from the Human Realm. If you would please accept his delivery, I’ll be on my way.”

Harm made a noise in the back of his throat, as if he couldn’t believe Val was just abandoning him now.

But she couldn’t do anything else. This was her job. They’d both known it would come to this, in the end. No matter how much her heart hurt. Or how much the guilt squirmed through her chest.

She was a free mercenary, and she couldn’t let herself get caught in a binding with him. Her throat tightened at the thought, her heart pumping harder in her ears. That was the whole point of being a part of the Wild Hunt. The freedom it gave her.

---