Page 116 of A Scar in the Bone
No one breathed. No one moved. Even the trees stopped rustling. All eyes stared straight ahead without blinking.
A great breath escaped me as Fell stepped from the woods.
33
FELL
LET HER GO.”
A ripple traveled through the soldiers at the sudden sight of me. They thought me returned from the dead. A ghost.
Tamsyn, trapped behind bars of dragon bone, watched me, her eyes widening, the enormous orbs of flame the only light in a face gone deathly pale.
Tamsyn in acageenraged me. More rage than I thought I could ever feel, and I knew rage. At this point, we were quite well acquainted. I pointed to her. “Remove my wife from that cage.”
Magnus murmured something at my back that might have been a warning, a caution for me to have a care, but there was no treading lightly into this, not with my blood pumping, my wrath demanding the freedom of my mate.
Stig moved forward, not bothering to dismount his horse. He looked down his nose at me. “Dryhten,” he announced. “I suppose I should say it is good to see you. Good to see you are, in fact, alive and this she-demon did not kill you.” His lip curled in a sneer that indicated he did not think itgoodat all. He looked out over his soldiers with a thin smile. “Although it must be said, your absence has scarcely been felt. Things have flowed most smoothly without you. You were not so indispensable as we were led to believe. The Borderlands thrive. Clearly, your people just needed a firmer hand.”
I resisted the bait of the reference to my people. I knew they did not thrive. They suffered. Because of this man.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Well, make no mistake. My reappearancewillbe felt.”
Stig shifted in his saddle, his features tightening. A few murmurs among the ranks met my pronouncement. I was too focused on the man atop his horse in front of me, however, to note if those murmurs reflected approval or disdain.
These soldiers had always served the captain of the guard, son of the lord regent. It was safe to assume that I had no allies among this rabble. Even more reason to make quick work of this bastard before me—the man who had betrayed Tamsyn. She had gone to him for help, and at the first sign that she was different, that she was a dragon, he had raised his sword to her.
I went cold at the thought of what could have happened to her that day.
“I won’t say it again.” I inclined my head toward Tamsyn.
“AndIwill say it only once,” Stig countered. “She is not getting out of that cage. You know what she is. You were there that day. Don’t dare to stand before me and pretend otherwise, you dragonloving piss-swine. You’re a traitor to the crown.”
My gaze flicked to Tamsyn. She gave a swift shake of her head, and it was all I needed to know. She had not revealed herself today. She’d given nothing away. No one here aside from Stig knew she could transform into a dragon. I noticed the way the soldiers exchanged glances at his mention of dragons. They were not convinced of their existence. They were merely following orders.
Tamsyn’s gaze drilled into me. I understood what she wished to convey. That I had to take care and do nothing to give us away. I sent a single nod in her direction. Except I knew this was not a promise without limits. I would do as she wanted insofar as I could. I swallowed thickly.
I would not stand by idly if her life was in jeopardy. I would bare my teeth, actually, if it came to that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I tapped my head. “You’re cracked up here, friend.”
Stig’s face mottled with fury. “I’m not your friend!”
Ignoring him, I strode past with hard steps on a path directly for her, determined to get her out of that cage myself.
Stig lifted his hand, shouting an order. Immediately I was swarmed. No less than four men tackled me to the ground. I struggled, fought, landing more blows than I received. Curses rent the air, and suddenly there were even more men on me, the weight of additional bodies bearing me down into the snow.
I heard Tamsyn cry out my name as I was dealt blow after blow and kick after kick. I could hear Magnus’s voice plead with me to stop fighting, stop resisting.
A booted foot caught me in the face, and the pain of my cracking jaw reverberated through my head, stunning me.
Ears ringing, I held still until I recovered enough to keep fighting, snarling, the beast inside me stirring and pushing, pounding at its walls, ready to break out. Somehow, I wasn’t bleeding. A quick glance down at myself confirmed this. My skin was too tough, dragon hide at its very essence. There was that blessing. I had not revealed that anomaly of myself and exposed my dragon blood.
“Enough!” Stig shouted.
My attackers paused their onslaught.
“Hold him! Let him see!” Stig’s voice came to me through the roaring rush of blood in my ears. Hard hands grabbed my arms, forcing me to watch. My blurry gaze focused on Stig as he dismounted and charged toward the cage that held my life inside it.
