Page 40 of Dragon Fire

Lizbet’s head was spinning from the unexpected kiss. What in the world had possessed her to kiss the handsome knight? To be sure, Sir Leo was easy on the eyes, but she knew many handsome young men, and few had ever turned her head. And if they had, it didn’t stay turned in their direction long.

Lizbet had been searching for the kind of loving partnership she saw her parents share. She wanted a life mate, not just a quick tumble or a relationship that lasted a few years out of mutual convenience, then petered out.

She was young by her people’s standards, but she wanted love in her life. She had felt it was just around the corner for a long time. Could it be? Had her true mate arrived in the form of this most attractivehumanknight?

“If you like him, you should act on it,”Shara said in her mind, the dragoness’s advice unasked for, but welcome.“He is joined to Xanderanth. The dragon magic will keep him alive almost as long as you, so the difference in your race isn’t an impediment. You won’t lose him early because he’s human, though heisa fighting man, and there are no guarantees he won’t die in battle.”The dragon paused as if musing.“Of course, that’s all the more reason, to my mind, to grab for happiness while you’re both here and feeling the pull.”

“Like you and Xanderanth?”Lizbet dared to send her thoughts back to the dragoness. If Shara was going to butt into Lizbet’s love life, turnabout was fair play.

“Maybe,”Shara said, considering.“I do like him an awful lot. But there’s Leo to consider. The land dragons bond to their knights and make certain sacrifices to do it, or so I’ve been told. I’m not really sure how it all works. That is something I will need to ask Xanderanth about…if we decide to move forward. I mean, I only just met him.”

“But you feel the attraction, don’t you?”Lizbet didn’t wait for an answer to her question.“I thought so. I felt little sparks around the two of you all night. Even when you were in so much pain from the wound and apprehensive of the humans. They turned out to be nice, though, right?”

“You sound as surprised as I was,”Shara said, humor in her tone.

“I’ve never met a human before,”Lizbet confided.“Though I’ve heard many tales about them. Some are good, like Leo and Seth, but some are very bad indeed.”

“Just like your folk. And mine, too, if truth be told.”Shara sighed, and Lizbet could hear the gentle exhalation even outside the cave.“There are always a few bad squid in the sea.”

“We call them bad apples, but I get your meaning.”

The easy rapport with Shara was unlike anything Lizbet had ever experienced. She and Shara were friends, but it went deeper than that. Somehow, Shara always sensed what Lizbet was thinking, and when she wasn’t with her friends at sea, they spent a lot of time together here on the far side of the island, away from both Lizbet’s and Shara’s people. They were happy together, as they weren’t among their own kind, which was odd, when Lizbet stopped to think about it.

But she didn’t question it much, really. They enjoyed each other’s company too much to wonder the why of it. Lizbet had just come to accept the fact that the being most close to her heart—other than her family, which was a different sort of bond altogether—was Shara. Their friendship was like a family link, but closer, because they each hadchosento be the other’s friend. They hadn’t been forced together by an accident of birth.

They may wear totally different skins, but they were sisters at heart.

Lizbet sat quietly by the fire, warming up while Seth took Leo off somewhere. When they returned, they each held a big pack in their hands. She watched while they both bent to open the packs and pulled out the makings of a campsite.

She was amazed, really, at the ingenuity of some of the items. They folded up to almost nothing but, when open, were useful items. Bedrolls. Even a tent. A pot for cooking. Foodstuffs and other supplies.

Lizbet offered to help, but both men told her to sit and relax. They claimed to have everything well in hand, and watching them, she believed the claim. Although Seth wasn’t a bonded knight, he certainly shared all the skills Leo displayed in unpacking and using the supplies that seemed to be standard among dragon knights.

When Leo stepped up to the fire to set up a small metal grate over the top of the burning coals, Lizbet offered to help once more. This time, Leo smiled at her, giving her the pot and water skin, along with the makings for tea. Lizbet boiled the water and herbs as she watched the men move around, setting up tents and creating a little home away from home for them.

The two tents were set up just inside the mouth of the cave, one on each side of the entrance, tucked behind the outer wall for both protection from the wind and anything that might try to sneak up on them in the night. One wall of each tent was against the inner wall of the cave, while the entrances to the tents had been situated a few feet back from the cave opening.

With the dragons inside, between the two tents, there would be plenty of warmth. The dragons also made for fierce guards, even with Shara injured. She still had sharp claws and teeth, along with a mobile tail that was one of her wickedest weapons. And Xanderanth could fry anything approaching that had nasty intent. They’d be safe enough.

Leo walked back to the fire, and she handed him a cup of tea. There were three cups. Seth had put one of his potion cups into use along with the mug that had been in his camping gear, so they could all drink at once.

“You can have my tent, Lizbet. The one on the right. I’ve also set up my bedroll for you, so you can sleep comfortably. Seth and I will switch off on watch,” he told her as he sat down beside her. “We’ll share his tent and bedding since only one of us will be sleeping at a time.”

“I can stand watch too,” Lizbet offered.

She’d been raised in a warrior family. She understood the need to keep watch in uncertain situations. The island had been attacked. Everyone would be posting watches all around the island for the foreseeable future, just in case it happened again.

“That’s all right,” Leo told her. “I doubt I’ll be able to sleep much anyway. This is my first real adventure with Xander…and maybe our last. The leaders of our Lair didn’t exactly sanction our trip out here. When we go back, there will be some consequences to face, I’m sure.”

“Really?” That was the first Lizbet had heard of it. “I’d wondered why there were so few of you. It’s just the three dragons and four humans, right? I thought you had a lot more dragons and knights in your land.”

“We do,” Leo told her. Seth was inside the tent the men would share, fixing something, so for the moment, it was just her and Leo by the fire. “We have almost a hundred at the Southern Lair alone, and we’re not one of the real fighting Lairs. The Border Lair has more, and the Northern Lair has been fortified since all the fighting started up there. I think the largest concentration of dragons and knights, though, is probably in the capital.”

“What do you mean about your Lair not being a real fighting Lair?” she asked.

Leo made a face. “Some call it theretirementLair. Where old knights go when they’re too old to fight and want to spend the rest of their days in the balmy weather by the seaside. It’s also where they send the really good young fliers to learn how to skate on the tricky air currents we have along the coast. That’s part of why they sent me and Xanderanth here. He’s going to be one of the best fighters in the land one day. He just has to grow into his powerful frame and learn how to best utilize his strength, and his wings. Plus, my family is from the Southern shores. My parents actually picked up and moved closer to Dragonscove when they heard I was going to be stationed there for the first part of my career. We’re very close.”

“Do you come from a big family?” she wanted to know. She was intrigued by the things he was telling her about the land of men.

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