Page 25 of Dragon Lord
Draknart was about to bite the fool knight in half when it occurred to him that to kill a human while on a pilgrimage to ask for the reversal of the curse he’d received for killing humans might not be the smartest course of action.He never knew when the goddess might be watching.
He snapped his jaw shut and contemplated the little bastard.He’d never been in a fight before while trying to protect someone as he wanted to protect Einin behind him.He’d never been in a fight before where his immediate goal hadn’t been to incinerate his enemy or rip the man’s throat out with his talons.
That moment of hesitation cost him a painful cut on the wing, clear through sinew and muscle.He held back the blast of fire in his throat.
Instead of roasting the pup, he asked, “Can you swim?”
The startled youth nodded.“Aye.”
“I wish you a swift journey.”Draknart swept him up with his good wing, catapulting him toward the middle of the lake.The knight flew in a soft arch, screaming all the way, then a splash, then sweet silence again.
The fool was probably struggling to peel off his armor.Draknart had half a mind to fly over and sit on his head, keep him under water.He would have, if he wasn’t convinced that the goddess would take drowning a human as badly as she would take eating one.
His keen ears picked up the sound of more splashing.“There you go, nitwit.Swim.”
He failed to comprehend what Belisama liked so much about mankind.Yet shewasfond of them, for she kept their kind alive.She was the goddess of fertility.She blessed them with offspring.And she blessed their fields so they could gather in the harvest and go on living and multiplying.And still, instead of worshipping her, many betrayed her for the new god the priests had brought to the villages from distant lands.
Draknart turned to Einin.
She was standing right behind him with her sword drawn.Not scared at all.
If anything…
He narrowed an eye at her, then asked, without heat, “Have you been preparing to help me or stab me in the back?”
“I meant to help you.”She cleared her throat.“Most certainly.”
“You’d say that either way.”He waited until she shoved her sword back into her belt before he returned to the fire and plopped down onto the sand.
She followed him.“I would,” she admitted, with a slight twitch of her lips.Then she eyed his injury and stepped closer.“Does it hurt?”
He snorted.“I’ll heal once I step into Fae Land.”
Her sweet little chin dropped.“You mean to go in?”She thumped down onto her shapely bottom.“We haven’t come just to see the circle?”
“We shall pass through, if we can.”If the gods are willing.“I restored the stones.”He glanced that way.“But I am not certain their magic will return.If it does, the gate will open at twilight.”
He wanted his curse lifted more than he’d ever wanted anything.Yet, even as he thought that, his gaze sought out Einin.
Chapter8
Draknart lay on his belly, his nose filled with Einin’s soft scent.She’d washed his wound and was dressing it, using a strip torn from the bottom of her shirt.He oddly liked the fuss she made.
“’Tis not necessary, sweeting,” he told her anyway.
“I’m loath to leave you to bleed.”
“Why?”
She shrugged, then looked away.“You carried me on your back, flying and swimming.You fed me.You kept me warm in the night.”
Wispy locks of hair escaped her braid, creating a halo of sunshine around her head.Her hands were small and delicate, her touch soft, yet Draknart knew her arms were strong enough to wield a sword.
She met his eyes.“Why have you been cursed?”
A cough rumbled around in his chest.She was not going to like the tale.Then again, ’twas not as if she liked much about him.None of her kind did.Hewasreviled.
For a moment, he wished it could be different, that he were a different kind of beast, that mayhap he hadn’t done all he’d done in the past centuries.But the past was the past, and he was the beast he was, no help for it.
