Page 30 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

It was just as well. I had questions for Pollox, many of them. For whatever Griffin had said, I hadn’t ever seen Pollox behave cruelly, and I’d certainly never seen him kill a person, even if he joked about eating them occasionally. But were they just jokes? Was Pollox the monster Griffin claimed, or was he the friend I trusted? If he was trustworthy then he wouldn’t harm me, and if he was the possessive dragon Griffin described, he still wouldn’t harm a part of his hoard. I was safe either way, right?

The alarm gong sounded, and a cry came up from the soldiers standing watch. “The dragon! The dragon is coming!”

“This is it,” Griffin said. Even though there were people watching, he reached for my hand, then after hesitating for a fraction of a second, crushed me into a tight hug. “Stay safe.”

A shadow briefly passed over us as Pollox came soaring out of the sky, with Drake squealing beneath him, trapped within the confines of his claws. Pollox circled the castle then plummeted straight down toward us. With a cry, Griffin threw his body in front of mine, trying to protect me, but Pollox’s wings flapped open at the last moment so he landed just beyond the moat.

“Bring me the princess,” Pollox bellowed. His voice vibrated the very stone. “I know you have her. And fetch the ransom if you want this piglet back.”

Two servants came into view, tugging a heavy treasure chest on a small cart as the captain took me by the upper arm and led me over the drawbridge. A small crowd of people all clustered close behind us, including Griffin, who kept his hand on the small of my back. The moment I came into view, Pollox’s orange eyes fixed onto my blue ones.

“Give her to me. Now,” Pollox snarled, smoke furling from both his nostrils.

“Send the knight over,” the captain called. “We have your ransom.”

“I’ll take the ransom and the girl before I release him.” Pollox’s tail curled around Drake’s middle and turned him upside down so he turned purple in the face. “I assure you I have no interest in keeping a prisoner as obnoxious as this one, and if you don’t send the ransom, I’ll let you have him back as soon as I’m in the air again. How good are you at catching?”

“Send her over!” Drake spluttered. “Hurry!”

“My hero,” I grumbled before stepping forward.

Pollox swiftly dumped Drake onto the grass, wrapped his tail around me, snatched at the treasure chest, and launched himself into the air, all within a few seconds. I closed my eyes as we rocketed upward. The takeoff was always the most unpleasant part, and I had to endure the few moments of nausea while my stomach took time to remember it hadn’t been left behind.

From far below, I heard Griffin call out, “Rapunzel!” but his voice was soon lost to the roaring wind.

Pollox’s powerful wings beat the air, rushing us away from the castle. As soon as it was out of view, Pollox deposited me onto his back, where a rope encircled his neck like a large necklace. I wrapped my hands around the rope and straddled the spot where his neck curved into his back, reveling in how my skirts flapped back in the wind, pushed up so that the brisk air around us chilled the outermost part of my thigh while Pollox’s heated body warmed my inner legs. Glancing down, I saw the treasure chest still clutched in his claws.

“You got it!” I called.

Pollox let out his sawing laugh. “We’ll have to open it first to make sure they didn’t fill it with rocks instead of gold, but odds are in our favor. Having human hostages is the best idea I ever had. I don’t even need to pick many arrows out of my scales now. They are too scared to do anything that might hurt whoever I’m holding.”

“Getting you a human hostage was the best ideaIever had,” I corrected him. “I was the one who came to you, remember?”

“Ah yes. That entitles you to what, one tenth of the treasure?”

“Try to cheat me and find out what happens! I’m not afraid to put you in your place.” Even as I teased him, I couldn’t help remembering Griffin’s warnings.

“Cave or tower?” Pollox asked, turning smoothly to catch a different air current.

“Cave first,” I decided. “I’m hungry.”

* * *

The meal was much more sumptuous than anything I’d had at the castle. “You’re very quiet,” Pollox commented. “Did any of the humans bother you? I can eat them for you if you’d like.”

My stomach lurched, and my pudding looked much less appetizing. “No, nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Have you actually eaten people?” The question sprang from my mouth. “Truly?”

Pollox fixed me with a beady stare. “No. There’s too much fabric on people. Then the metal plating on knights would get stuck in my teeth, and dragon-sized toothpicks are hard to come by.”

I studied my plate. “Have you killed any humans, then?” I felt sick even asking.

“Why do you ask?”

My stomach convulsed. “Someone told me that you had.”

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