Page 9 of Dragon Fight

“Gods, Glimmer!” I said, feeling an intense rush of guilt at neglecting her this morning. Was this the way it was going to be? The two of us pulled further and further apart by the demands of our worlds; our bond growing thinner? I took Ged’s arm and let him escort me out to the dragons’ field, vowing that I wouldn’t let such a thing happen. When we arrived, we found the adult dragons tearing apart the pig carcasses Philip had sent over, each of them ripping off smaller strips to give to Glimmer.

“You don’t have to worry too much,” he told me. “Dragons have amazing instincts. They’d never let the little queen starve.” Glimmer reached out for what looked like a tiny scrap of meat in Cloudy’s grasp, growling as she tore it away with her claws and began scissoring it with her jaws. “If anything, Cloudy sees this as a courting gift.”

“Courting?” I said in alarm.

“The books say that wild dragons used to spend a long time working out who will suit them as mates.” Ged glanced somewhat shyly at me, an incongruous look on such a big man. “They have to be sure, because they mate for life. Not as fickle as humans.”

“And will you be?” Another harsh question that betrayed my emotional state, making me feel like I wasn’t just being nakedly vulnerable, it was as though I no longer had skin and my raw flesh just stood there, flayed and raw in the sun. “You have a lot of women willing to join you in your bed, your shower…”

I frowned at him as I remembered the stories he’d told me, the obvious experience he had.

“And I was a fucking fool for telling you any of that,” he told me, coming closer, though not too close, given where we stood. Stable hands brought horses out to let them graze in the nearby pasture, farm workers walked past us to the fields. We had an audience everywhere. He may not have been touching me, but his tone became intimate. “I tried to pretend that I wasn’t completely besotted the moment I laid eyes on you, even covered in mud and pig shit. I wanted to pretend you were just one of the boys because that’s all you could ever be, but…” He reached over and put the bowl of meat in my hands, giving him the excuse to touch me even if just for a minute. “But there are no other women for me, just as there is no other queen for Cloudy. Good, bad or indifferent, we’re yours utterly.”

The moment felt like it stretched on and on because I couldn’t reply to his words, couldn’t reach out and throw my arms around his neck like I wanted to. All I could do was look at him and acknowledge his words with my gaze. As we looked at each other, Glimmer spied the bowl and ran up Cloudy’s spine, not stopping when she got to his head. She threw herself into the air to the sound of my yelp of horror, but she landed on my arm with ease, her claws digging in as she shoved her muzzle into the bowl.

Gods, Glimmer!I said to her, but she just rolled her golden eyes up at me as she continued to eat.

A dragon must fly,she replied as she ate.And I will soon.

7

We got a glimpse of Glimmer’s new-found proficiency on the flight to Brom’s family. Thankfully my husband made no such demands of proper ladylike clothing as Draven had on my trip to the capital, and I wore my leathers as we circled down, descending on a large, though remote, estate. Brom’s family seat was a sprawling building full of tall steepled roofs and Gothic arches, set against a backdrop of the sea crashing against the rocks beyond. As we started to circle down, I remained wedged tight against Brom’s body, his arms keeping me safely in the saddle. Glimmer had ridden the whole way clutching the pommel, her snout up in the air.

“Glimmer!”

I felt as if I was starting to sound like the mother of an unruly child. As we dropped lower, her wings went out, the harsh sea winds tugging at us, at her. Brom just chuckled.

“Someone’s ready to stretch her wings.”

“But she—”

The end of my sentence was cut off by a gust of wind that seemed to sweep up and under Glimmer, lifting her from the saddle. All sense of self-preservation left me as I pulled my hands off the pommel and leaned forward to try to catch her.

“Gods, Pippin!”

Brom’s arms wrapped tight around me as Obsidian shifted and I almost went with him. My heart felt like it was smashing around in my rib cage, adrenalin making my limbs shake. And to what end?

“Glimmer is fine. Obsidian would never allow her to fall or be swept away. She’s a dragon, Pippin, and you’re not,” Brom told me urgently. And sure enough, the shift of Obsidian’s body put him squarely underneath her. And I felt what she did.

Sky drunk, that’s what the rider had called it, the rush of sheer ecstasy that dragons felt when they were in the sky. Glimmer wasn’t afraid, she was elated—she’d never felt as strong. She wasn’t being carried around like a child or fed like one; she was a dragon, complete and whole, a queen of the air. But all good things must come to an end. The muscles around her wings began to ache with the pressure of keeping them wide, so she was forced to flap a few times, then alight on Obsidian’s neck, the big dragon letting out a congratulatory bugle that had her preening, especially when the other dragons did the same. That feeling of excitement, of having dared something and won, filled me, right until we reached the ground.

“Never do that again!” Brom lifted me from the saddle and set me down so I leaned against Obsidian’s side, his mouth coming crashing down on mine before I could answer. It wasn’t my wing commander who was directing me now, it was my husband. However, any lesson I might have learned about caution was lost entirely in my enthusiastic response to the feel of his mouth, his hard body.

“Well, that is a very convincing display.” We broke apart, panting, to see a sardonic Prince Draven standing there smirking at the two of us. “And in full sight of your family.” He nodded to the two people who were walking towards us. “Well done.”

Brom dismissed him with a frown before turning back to me.

“Pippin, Glimmer knows what she’s doing, what she is. She possesses instincts we are never likely to understand, and our dragons are utterly committed to her safety, so look after your own safety first.”

I do too, the dragon herself said, throwing herself off Obsidian’s neck and landing heavily on my shoulder, her weight forcing me to stagger. But having tasted those moments of independence, she wouldn’t be held, and was intent on clawing her way down so that I was forced to set her on the cobblestones.

“Son, we weren’t expecting you.” A big man approached. He had Brom’s eyes and brown hair, though his was liberally streaked with grey. Before he reached us, his gaze shifted to me. “And who is this? The lovely dragon rider you’ve written so often about?”

“Written often?” I asked Brom, but he just ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

“May I present Lady Pippa, Father. Royal rider and…” Brom smiled, “my wife.”

“Wife?” His father blinked and then his grin got wider. “So she agreed?” He didn’t wait for his son to answer, instead he stepped forward and took my hands. “Welcome to the family, my dear!”

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