by T. S. Ryder
Pain exploded through Karina’s head as it cracked back against the wall, stars swimming before her vision. She was strong, stronger than some men, yet here she was, being tossed around like a rag doll. Warm trickles of blood ran down her neck and nausea curled in her stomach.
“Wee jouster coming to beat the baddest woman of the land? And here she’s in love with the King of the dragons, who’s stuck as little more than a human,” Queen Danasi cackled, as she blew out a breath. Immediately, the throne room filled with wind so strong, the straps of Karina’s armor broke apart and the plate armor fell to the floor.
“Shut up!” Karina shouted as she kicked and flailed in the air, desperate to get down, to get at the witch below her.
But Queen Danasi wasn’t listening. Instead, she stared up at her victim. Fury was clear in her clouded eyes, as they stared transfixed at the unnatural bulges in her stomach. They’d grown twice their size since she’d put her armor on that morning until they were the same length as her forearm and pressed outward a palm’s length.
“You,” she spat, very real fire burned in her eyes as she dropped Karina. “You’ve lain with him?!” “What have you done?!” she shouted, forcing Karina back onto her back to stare at the ovular, undamaged masses in her stomach.
Suddenly, magic all but singed through the air it was so intense. The thick, stone floor of the throne room cracked open wide and the windows all shattered outward. A burst of flame so bright it was near blinding, yet cool enough to touch, flooded through the room in the form of a massive dragon.
“This cannot be so! You! What have you done?! The Dragon King was never to recover from his broken heart!” Queen Danasi snarled as she watched the flame dragon swell larger and larger until it pressed against the high vaulted ceiling. As Karina watched, the Queen’s very form contorted and convulsed. Her arms bent impossibly backward and her eyes which were already disgusting and malformed, elongated up her face until they looked like those of a snake.
While all this happened, Karina lay on the ground, hand roaming slowly over the eggs in her stomach as she watched the flame dragon soar higher and grow larger still, until it winked from existence.
For a moment, all was silent. Danasi glared daggers at her while she slowly sat up and got to her feet. The Queen stared at Karina as she walked slowly across the cracked ground and retrieved her sword from where it had been ripped from her.
“Your curse is broken, witch,” Karina smirked. As if to accent her words, a monstrous thundering roar sounded from outside.
True terror crossed Queen Danasi’s face at the sound and she scrambled away from Karina as if the Lady Knight had stung her.
It gave Karina the chance to slash against her chest with her sword and blood as black as ink spilled across the floor. Her head ached and the entire throne room felt as though it had filled with a dense fog that slowed her movement and robbed her vision of its clarity. A sense of victory came over her.
“Karina!” a voice lower pitched than humanly possible, yet heart-wrenchingly familiar, called her name as the entire throne room shook violently, serving only to deepen the cracks on the stone floor all the more.
A massive head, bigger than anything Karina had ever seen, broke through the castle wall and straight into the throne room. Gold dazzled her eyes as the sun reflected off of scales the size of her head. With haste, she scrambled over to the golden creature, even blown up the size of a small pumpkin, she’d recognize the fierce gold eye that peered at her from anywhere. Carmichael had come to rescue her.
Before she had made it halfway across the room, she was struck with such a strong blast of magic, it felt nearly as though her skin was being cleaved from the bone, though no physical damage seemed to show.
“No! No, no, no!” Queen Danasi shrieked as she shot from the ground and exploded in a burst of purple light out of the ceiling of the throne room and into the dusky sky. “This is not how this is supposed to go! You can’t lay with a human!” she shrieked hysterically, bleeding magic as it swirled around her in a thick cloud. The magical purple energy crackled tangibly in the air, but Carmichael, golden eyes the same even in the face of his dragon form, stared her down.
“Danasi!” he boomed, wings spread wide and sun gleaming off his scales in a shower of flickering golds. “You have committed crimes against the kingdom of Grizlenzadi and her people. You have exterminated an entire race, murdered my beloved and my brothers and stolen my throne.”
The Queen shuddered visibly and her purple magic faltered slightly with her fear. “You were weak!”
“You betrayed me, personally and destroyed my eggs!” Carmichael roared, flame flickering inside his nostrils and great plumes of smoke escaped past his mouth.
“I betrayed you?!” Danasi spat. “You betrayed me! You said you loved me! I wanted to be yours, Caichmiorral! I wanted to bare your eggs! I was willing to give myself completely to you!”
Carmichael snorted angrily and flames shot out from his nostrils. A low, booming growl rolled thunderously in his throat and his chest that quickly turned into an earsplitting roar of pure rage.
“You were a child! I had raised you! I loved you as a daughter, Danasi! I named you in my own tongue! You scorned that care and compassion and committed murder on a scale I had never seen before out of spite!”
Again, the purple magic faltered around Danasi, until it all but winked out of existence. She barely remained steady from where she hung, floating in the air, level with Carmichael’s great head.
“I wanted to belong to you!” she whined, tears in her scarred over eyes. “I wanted you to love me like I loved you! I... I could still be yours! Take me, right here and now! Claim me as your mate and we can be together!”
“Danasi,” Carmichael rumbled, plucking her from the air in a clawed hand and holding her up close to his eye. “I can never forgive you for what you have done. And the time has come for you to die.”
“Please... You could learn to love me...” Danasi begged, her eyes were wide in crazed terror. Carmichael tossed her up into the air and blew a great jet of blue-white flame high into the sky. The Queen sobbed audibly as she burned. It was so loud, even Karina could hear from where she still lay, dazed, in the destroyed throne room.
Queen Danasi, the witch, was dead.
Chapter Eleven
Karina leaned heavily against the destroyed castle wall as she stared, awestruck, at her Carmichael’s dragon form for the first time. She had heard many a tale of Carmichael’s grace and beauty, but the stories did little justice. He was indescribable. Simple as that. And yet she found herself trying to comprehend him with her human brain.
His head was ringed with six horns, longer than her legs and thicker than her entire body, while great whiskers hung from his snout and beneath his chin. His jaws held rows of teeth, some of which were larger than her hand. Of course, most importantly, his eyes were still gigantic pools of gold fixed below the most prominent pair of horns. They were the same piercing, intelligent eyes she had fallen for. Perhaps, the most impressive though, were the wings that displayed grandly on his scaled back.
“Caichmiorral...” she wheezed, a smile on her blood caked face. “You... have been freed.”
A rumbling thunder-like laughter rolled deep in Carmichael’s chest as he lowered his head to the ground until he could fix his golden eyes on her.
“That I am. You have freed me, and for that I will owe you, always.”
Karina laughed softly and shook her head as she approached him, pressing a kiss to his massive, scaled snout. “My love, you have given me more than enough,” she assured him gently. As she spoke, a soft glow took hold of Carmichael’s form as he slowly shrank in size, changing shape until, he resembled a human again.
Laughing, he threw his arms around Karina and pressed a fierce kiss to her lips. His hands were everywhere, pressing against her cheeks and her hips as he pulled her close before they rested lightly against one of the eggs that slightly disfigured her perfect bui
ld.
“I love you, my dear. This is all over... Danasi is dead,” he whispered softly against her lips.
At this, Karina pulled away enough to meet his familiar golden eyes. “This two-century-long conflict between you two was all over the fact you didn’t love her in such a way as you love me?” she asked, sounding both appalled and slightly amused. Had it been a legend or epic, it would have almost been a romance story ended in tragedy.
Carmichael nodded as he hugged her close, the sun almost completely disappeared from the sky. “In simple terms, that is what had happened,” he agreed lightly.
They fell silent for a moment, but the night air was soon split by Karina as peals of laughter fell past her lips. It was hardly funny considering that thousands of people had died because of Danasi, yet she still laughed as she pressed against Carmichael’s familiar warm chest.
“What does my sweet Karina find so humorous?” he asked her, curious to know why she was suddenly so amused.
“Just... how petty this whole war was!” Karina said, laughing softly. “When I have heard of wars in the past, it has been over murdered monarchs and stolen lands. Yet the biggest war in our history was over a scorned heart.”
It was only when put in such terms that Carmichael himself laughed. “I suppose you’re correct.”
But Karina suddenly jerked from his arms as a look of wonder crossed her gaze. If the curse for Carmichael had broken and Danasi was dead, what did that mean for Grizlenzadi?
“What will happen now?” she asked, aware that now Carmichael would likely return to his rightful place as King.
“What do you mean?” Carmichael asked in confusion. “The dragons will return. They’ve been freed by you as well. Perhaps, the elves will return if they still exist. Grizlenzadi will return to its former glory as a place of peace for all three races.”
“No... I mean...” Karina trailed off as she nibbled her lip with her teeth. “What is to become of us? Where will we go? Am I to return to Rostlecastor? Or will I live in the Hall of the Dragons with you?”
Carmichael just stared at her blankly as he processed her question, but soon was pulling her back into his arms once again. “I return to my place as the Dragon King. You, having mated with a dragon, share my immortality. You will rule beside me as my Queen and my mate. We will be happy together,” he promised, enveloping her in his arms. “If you wish to return to your home, I won’t stop you, but I had hoped you would join me in the Hall of Dragons."
To his surprise, Karina shuddered in his hold and sobbed softly against his shoulder. It wasn’t until after he caught a watery smile on her lips he realized it was in relief that she cried and not sorrow.
“I was afraid you’d not love me now that I am not useful to you,” she admitted. Her words rewarded her with a slow, sweet kiss that was nothing but loving and adoring. “You had promised it before, but the relief I feel after hearing those words with the Queen’s death is reassuring.”
“My dear Karina, you will be mine forever. That is a promise.”
A contented smile crossed her face as the first stars of the night shone overhead. Carmichael transformed once more into a golden dragon. “Come, my dear. The Hall of the Dragons has been empty for too long.”
Slowly, Karina climbed up onto him and settled between the spikes at the base of his neck. As they took off, a warm golden magic surrounded her exhausted form and she found herself slowly drifting off to sleep in the midst of thousands of stars.
Chapter Twelve
It took mere days for Karina to lay Carmichael’s eggs and the process was quite laborious. Thankfully, with the curse now lifted, dozens of dragons had returned to the land.
“A den mother lies in her dragon from around the eggs in order to keep them warm,” Carmichael explained. The young dragon, Yzmalan, a water dragon that had been buried at the very bottom of the sea, circled around their eggs and breathed a small jet of flame on the stone ground around them.
Karina watched warily, but when the eggs didn’t appear harmed, a smile spread across her lips and she looked towards Yzmalan with gratitude. “Thank you, Yzmalan, for taking care of them,” she said, heart genuinely happy that someone more capable could care for her and Carmichael’s children until they hatched.
“Human Karina, it is little trouble. I have a brood of my own that’s been waiting to be laid since before the war,” Yzmalan insisted as she lifted her slender, pale blue head from the eggs just long enough to meet her new Queen’s gaze.
“You need rest and you won’t get that here worrying over these little ones. Go relax and get your sleep,” she commanded, just before returning to bathing the newly laid dragon eggs in her care with jets of blue toned fire.
Carmichael, as his magnificent golden dragon form and Karina, sitting on top of his scaled head, walked out of the egg den and up into the castle. It was still unfamiliar, and needed great care to once more return to its former glory. The Hall of Dragons was the real castle of the land, not Danasi’s human sized castle. It was almost as magnificent as the dragons themselves were. But then, anything large enough a full sized dragon could walk through would be impressive.
“How many broods and den mothers stay in the egg den at one time?” Karina asked as they walked, hand moving as if to run along an egg bump, but instead, it ran against her stomach. In some ways, she missed carrying the eggs herself.
Carmichael looked thoughtful for a brief moment and shrugged smiling. “We nested in an offseason, either spring or fall,” he explained, looking a little sheepish. “It would protect each brood from too much heat from the summers or too cold of winds from the winters.”
“I see. Is it bad we nested early?” Karina asked, anxiety fluttering in her heart. She didn’t want any hardship to befall her unhatched babies.
Carmichael laughed softly, the sound enormous and thunderous as it echoed through the massive stone hallway they walked through. “No. This was long ago, before human or even elf lived in the land, before the Hall of the Dragons and my reign as King. Give it a few months and allow more of the dragons to shake free from Danasi’s curse. There will be a dozen or so den mothers, all with broods of one to four. I wish you could have seen this place in the spring and summer before it had sat abandoned for over two hundred years,” he sighed. For a moment, his gaze was far away as he imagined what his home had been.
“The elves sang to the flowers and trees, until they bloomed so brightly and fully that the scent of flower permeated the air. Hatchlings would be around every corner, getting under feet and causing trouble. They were always cute and innocent though, unable to do any wrong.”
Karina smiled and closed her eyes, almost able to picture what Carmichael said.
“Someday, it will be that spectacular again,” she assured.
“Of course it will, some day,” Carmichael agreed. “One day, I’d like to go out and see if the elves are truly all gone. They were such a smart, gentle race... I wouldn’t be surprised if they managed to hide in the forests of the mountains all this time, just biding their time until it was safe to return.”
“Mmm...” Karina was unsure of how to respond. Like most humans, she knew little about the mysterious elves. Even less had been known of them than had been known about dragons.
Inevitably, though, her thoughts were drawn back towards her eggs. Her thoughts always seemed to be with her eggs. She sighed wistfully.
“How long will it take them to hatch?” she asked, to which another low bout of laughter rumbled up through Carmichael’s chest. “I miss them...”
“Patience, my dear,” he hummed, as he slowly unfurled his wings just beneath the opening to their quarters and leaped up into the air with Karina on his back.
Though the flight was over within seconds, Karina’s heart still pounded with blissful exhilaration. If she had things her way, she’d never be on the ground, but as King of a broken kingdom, Carmichael was busy enough that they’d only take a single flight per day.
“
They’ll hatch soon and you’ll be able to meet them,” he promised, lowering his head so she could climb down from him and onto the bed.
“I know, I know. I was not gifted with patience,” Karina admitted, just as their room filled with a light golden glow as Carmichael’s massive dragon form shrank smaller and smaller, changing shape until he was fully human once again.
Slowly, he joined her on the bed, smiling as he pulled her up into his lap. “My dear, soon they will hatch and all will be well.”
“Of course it will,” Karina agreed with a sigh.
The pair relaxed on the bed. Humming, Karina crawled over to Carmichael so he could wind his arms around her and pull her close to his chest. Their breath mingled together as she stretched out against him, a contented smile on her lips.
“You know... I love you so much,” she whispered softly, pressing her lips against his neck.
Carmichael laughed a low, rumbling laugh and kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, my dear Karina, more than my life.”
Karina had never been happier and as they embraced together in bed, curled up in each other’s arms, she couldn’t help but smile at his affectionate words. How far away her jousting life seemed now. She was going to be a mother of two, was the Queen of all the land of Grizlenzadi and was mated to the long-lost Dragon King. A happiness flooded her long indifferent heart and for once, she looked forward to the future.
After all, she had a family now and she’d do anything to keep it.
Epilogue
Karina and Carmichael’s eggs hatched just two short months later, much to Karina’s surprise.
“Dragon eggs are very different than any other creature’s. Once an egg is laid, the baby is ready to hatch when it feels the time is right.” Carmichael had explained. Carmichael, Yzmalan and Karina all crowded around the pair of eggs as both began showing great, spider web-like cracks along the smooth surface of the shell.
