Page 19 of Dragon Lord
“I hate it with the fire of a thousand dragons.”
“Because to be dragon is to have flight.”Her tone turned wistful.
“To be dragon is to be free.”
Her forehead furrowed, then after a moment, it smoothed out again.“Because if someone tries to take away your freedom, you can eat them?”
’Twas part of it, so Draknart nodded.
The furrows returned, and her arms moved, flexed.She looked at them in the moonlight.“The stronger you are, the more freedom you have.”She sighed.“’Tis why men have more freedom than women.”
Draknart considered her words.“Being strong helps.Yet the birds are free in the trees, and the fish are free in the lake.”
Silence stretched between them.
Then she said, her voice full of melancholy that was unlike her, “At the village markets, I’ve seen birds in cages that could not fly away.I’ve seen fish sold in barrels.”
Draknart was used to thinking about her kind as reasonless vermin.They lived in villages bound by rules.They bent the knee to their lords and their priests.Yet, Einin… Could she value freedom as much as he did?’Twas an odd thought to have about a human.“You wish to be free?”
“More than anything.I want to choose the path I take.”
A twinge of guilt cut through him.She did not choose to go to Belinus.Yet he was fair certain she would, if given the choice.To be the god’s favored one was an honor.She would be safe in Fae Land.She would see neither hunger nor whippings.Aye, when Draknart handed her over, she was going to be grateful to him.
She had her eyes closed.Draknart closed his own.At first, he heard the wind and the wolves, a brook in the distance.Then, after a while, he heard her teeth chatter.
He opened his wing again.“Come on, lass.You survived being given to a dragon as sacrifice.No sense in freezing now.”
She fixed him with an uncertain look, but then she moved over and carefully laid herself under his wing, with her back to him.She made sure her back did not touch his body.
He settled his wing over her as he would a blanket.The clamoring of her heart slowed first, and then her breathing.By the time Draknart turned to man at midnight, she was asleep.He pulled her closer to the heat of his body and kept his arms around her.He was hard but did not try to seduce her.Her back pressed to his chest, he satisfied himself with breathing in her scent.She smelled faintly of roast pigeon.What dragon could find fault with that?For a while, he just watched her sleeping and enjoyed the sight of her all soft and relaxed.Then he slept.
The next day,they took to the sky once again.He pointed out a proper town—few and far between in the Black Hills.She exclaimed over everything with far too much excitement.A stone bridge.A windmill.A rich merchant on the road in a wagon pulled by a team of six matched gray oxen.Which, were Draknart alone, he would have eaten.
In fact, of all the things in town, without Einin, he would have noted only the oxen.Her enthusiasm made him notice details he would have otherwise missed.She made him see the world anew.
They barely traveled, however, when a thunderstorm forced them to land.They waited out the storm under an old wooden bridge.He found Einin another batch of eggs, and since they were on the ground this time, he baked them in his fire, right in their shells.She offered him half.
He shook his head.They amounted to even less than the pigeon the night before.“Not worth the bother.”
She tried to hide how happy she was with his response, and Draknart tried to hide his smile.He liked feeding her.
“Tonight, we’ll dine on fresh-caught fish,” he promised.
The lashing rain and blinding lightning refused to stop.The bad weather lasted most of the day, but he almost didn’t mind.While they huddled together, Einin entertained him with tales from her village.’Twas dark by the time the storm passed, and nigh midnight by the time they reached their destination.
“Look.”Draknart dipped his wing to offer her a better look.“That’s Fern Lake.”
His landing was controlled, but he stirred up the fine sand on the lakeshore nevertheless.Everything was dry.The storm had missed the lake.Einin coughed as she slid to the ground.Draknart stayed still so he wouldn’t stir the sand again.She walked away with a stiff gait, then stopped to stretch her shapely limbs.
The dragon now knew the feel of those long legs wrapped around his neck.The man in him demanded to know the feel of them wrapped around his waist.
She was a fine woman.Belinus would grant any request for a gift such as she.Yet the eager anticipation Draknart had felt when the idea first occurred to him had dissipated since.
The change was upon him before he could think much more about his suddenly dark mood.He was man again.And naked.
Einin turned from him, quickly enough to trip.She righted herself then hurried toward the water, nearly at a run.Draknart let her go.She was heading straight for the lake; she was clearly not running away.
He rolled his neck, watching the end of her thick red braid swinging over her shapely arse that popped into his mind a lot more often than was comfortable.His body was hard and ready.He’d never before been naked with a maiden and not had her.His body pulsed with the need to have Einin under him as he seduced her.He wanted to be looking into her amber eyes as they widened with pleasure.He craved the tight heat of her body squeezing his…
