The Black Dragon

by Allyson James

  Without analyzing the situation or questioning further, Malcolm turned and ran down the hall to the database room.

  He found the cave dancing with light, the crystals singing, humming, and chiming. Metz flitted from one bank to the other, his wings buzzing. "It works! It works! She did it!"

  Axel, now man-shaped, knelt on the floor, lifting the limp form of Saba against him. When he saw Malcolm he shifted over, allowing Malcolm to hold Saba against his own bare and scarred chest. Saba lay unmoving, face white and drained, her breath shallow and faint.

  As Malcolm bent to press a kiss to Saba's forehead, he realized the extent of Lisa's gift. Not only did her magic allow Malcolm to use his human shape in Dragonspace, she'd let him retain his full powers as a black dragon.

  He sent his healing magic through Saba, finding the music of his name still inside her, weaving them together. His healing filled her, and color rushed through her skin, her chest straining for a long breath.

  Her eyelids fluttered. Malcolm waited, tense, until Saba opened her lovely brown eyes and looked directly at him.

  Axel creaked to his feet and clapped Malcolm on the shoulder. "Good work, black dragon."

  He winked at Saba, then strolled away and left them discreetly alone. Malcolm heard him strike up conversation with Lisa in the outer room, who was singing to herself as she continued to heal the archive.

  Malcolm smoothed the hair from Saba's forehead. "My witch," he said. "You did it."

  "Only because you helped me." Her voice was barely a whisper. "Is everything all right?"

  "The white dragon is dead, the darkness is gone. Lisa got here in time."

  Saba collapsed against him, blowing out her breath in relief. "Thank the Goddesses." She looked around at the humming, buzzing brightness and Metz swooping happily from crystal bank to crystal bank. "You see?" she said, smiling weakly. "I knew all it needed was a good re-boot."

  * * *

  Chapter 22

  Saba had to rebuild the database. Once she could stand, Metz herded her to the monitor and keyboard he'd once more attached—by magic, seemingly. The archive database had no conventional cables or ports.

  "It's a mess, a complete, bloody mess," Metz moaned, hovering behind her. "Can you fix it, lass?"

  His respect for Saba had gone up markedly now that she'd summoned the silver dragon and blown away the darkness from the archive. Instead of snapping and snarling and giving her accusatory looks, he rubbed his hands and looked at her hopefully. I.T. geek to the rescue, she thought silently. I should get a cape.

  "I don't know." Saba took a deep breath. "I'll have a look."

  Her body relaxed against the chair as she scrolled through the odd patterns of the database. It had been erased to the basics, but perhaps somewhere in here the original catalog was preserved. Metz had given her a blank look when she'd said, "Backup copy."

  The silver dragon drifted to her side and became Lisa again, looking fresh and rested, dressed in one of the light dresses she favored. Saba still felt as though she'd crawled out of bed three hours early after no sleep to discover she'd run out of coffee. Her eyes felt sandy, and her limbs ached.

  "This is going to take a while," she said. She glanced sideways at Lisa who looked too cheerful to be real. "Know anything about databases?"

  "No." Lisa peered uncomprehendingly at the squiggles of code. "I trained to be a chef."

  "Well, that's helpful." Saba turned back to the screen. "You've just reminded me how hungry I am."

  Metz buzzed behind them. "There's bound to be something I can scrounge up here, We get mice and bats. Tasty, fried on a skewer."

  Both Lisa and Saba said, "Eewww."

  "Metz," Malcolm rumbled from the doorway.

  He'd retained his human form, which was extremely distracting, because he hadn't brought any clothes with him to Dragonspace. Saba felt his warmth behind her, then saw his tight biceps as he leaned over and rested his fists on the crystalline surface next to the keyboard. Dragonlike, he didn't even notice his own nudity, and dragonlike, Lisa seemed not to care. No one was fully human in this place but Saba.

  "I can possibly help," Malcolm said. "I have never programmed computers, but programs are mathematical formulae, very simple ones if I understand correctly."

  "More or less," Saba agreed. "The trouble here is not rebuilding the shell of the database but restoring the records. How many books did you say were here? Six trillion?"

  "About that, yes."

  "How long to input all that again, I wonder?" She looked up at him. "I suppose a task that takes a thousand years sounds fun to a dragon."

  His lips twitched into an almost smile. "I can think of more entertaining things to do, believe it or not."

  The warmth in his voice made her hope that those entertaining things involved her.

  "Then we need to find out if the computer made an auto-backup of the records," she said crisply. "Many databases build that in, in case of a crash, although most people rely on off-site storage." She met Malcolm's silver gaze. "I suppose you don't have off-site storage, either."

  "I might."

  She studied him in surprise. "Thank the Goddess for small favors. Or anal-retentive black dragons. Where is this off-site storage?"

  The slight smile increased. "Would you like me to show you?"

  Saba glanced at Lisa, who'd suddenly found great interest in the computer screen. Malcolm held out his hand, his scarred, bruised hand covered with dust. The battle had been hard on him, and like Saba, he needed a long rest and time to recover.

  "Yes," Saba said, keeping her voice calm. "I'd like that very much."

  "Lisa," Malcolm said, bending an eye on her.

  Lisa looked up, her expression innocent. "Don't worry, I've taken care of everything."

  "Everything what?" Saba asked in suspicion.

  Lisa beamed a smile at her. "Never mind."

  Through the thought threads in Saba's mind, she felt something pass between Lisa and Malcolm, but she had no idea what. Thought threads weren't the same thing as telepathy—it was more an empathic bond and a feeling of being wrapped in a cocoon than mind-reading.

  "I hate it when dragons conspire," she muttered.

  Lisa only laughed and turned her attention back to the computer. "Not too long," she said to Malcolm. "I need to get back."

  "We won't be," Malcolm said. He looked at Saba again, his hand still extended. "Shall we?"

  Saba got to her feet and closed her fingers around his. "I'm game. Let's go find your off-site storage—wherever that may be."

  I hey had to fly, of course. Malcolm felt his dragon-ness take over his body as soon as they walked out of the archive through a man-sized hole Metz had cleared in his absence. On the ledge outside the cavern, Malcolm's form changed to dragon, and he swept Saba up as he plunged from the cliff.

  He could feel Saba's magical presence under his claws, soothing hurts he didn't realize he had. He remembered the conspiratorial smile Lisa had sent him when he'd glanced at her in the database room, willing her to understand what he wanted. Lisa had done everything short of giving him an obvious wink.

  Damned chipper, gloating, silver dragon, he thought, growling out of habit. No wonder she and Caleb got along—both of them were shiny objects.

  They flew through the lands of the black dragons, on the western side of the world. Here lush forests covered craggy mountains, impossibly high waterfalls drained into deep folds of valleys. Wild deer and antelope climbed up and down these valleys, running in terror as the black shape of the dragon loomed overhead.

  Once, in the distance, Malcolm caught a glimpse of another dragon, but when Saba bellowed a question, Malcolm shrugged off the occurrence. "Just a blue dragon. A dumb beast."

  "But he flies so gracefully. Look at him dive."

  "He is a fool to hunt in the territories of the black dragons. He is lucky I have better things to do."

  Saba didn't reply, but when Malcolm drifted to a halt far up a cliff next to a thu
ndering waterfall and released her, she stared up at him with that look—the one that said he'd done something annoying.

  "I didn't want to say anything when you could drop me," she began.

  Malcolm swiveled his gaze to her. "Yes?"

  "But black dragons are insufferably arrogant," she finished, then she looked around and gasped. "Goddess, what a view."

  The waterfall tumbled several thousand feet into the river below, mist boiling upward and swirling in its own wind. Trees here grew straight out from the cliffs, twisted, fragrant juniper and trees like the piñon pines in Saba's world.

  A large cave mouth led from the basalt cliff into Malcolm's home. Saba walked inside without waiting for him, curiosity in her eyes.

  "Where are we? It's not a bit like the dragon archive."

  "No," Malcolm answered. "It's only a dragon's cave."

  Black dragons didn't hoard as much as goldens, but they agreed that gemstones and precious metals were happiest when in the seams of their home mountains. The floor of this cave was paved with onyx, the walls coated in diamonds and quartz.

  "This is your cave," Saba said, catching on. "I thought you lived at the archive."

  "I spend much time there, yes. But this is my home."

  The word rang against the cavern walls, echoing back. Home-ome-ome-ome.

  Saba drifted across the cave, touching the walls in wonder. The cave was not very large—although large enough to hold Malcolm and give him room to move. Black dragons didn't keep to one cave, however, they had vast territories with many caves and clearings in deep woods they called their own.

  "This is your off-site storage?" Saba asked. "Which you leave totally unguarded?"

  Humor touched Malcolm. "No. And it is not truly unguarded. No other dragon would dare to venture here."

  "No one but a white dragon bent on stealing the secrets of the universe."

  "The database backup is not here," Malcolm said. He concentrated on the new power Lisa had given him and felt himself compress into his man-shape.

  Saba watched, her mouth a round "O." "Then why did you bring me here?" she asked.

  "To show you my home." Again the word echoed, lending it a significant note. "I also brought you here for healing."

  She looked nervously around at the stones, both precious and semiprecious. "Onyx and obsidian are good for that."

  "So are black dragons."

  He came to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He read exhaustion in her eyes, bone-tiredness in her body, her mind still in a daze. Metz had had no business insisting she plop herself down in front of his database right away and restore it.

  He was tired as well, but the magic of the silver dragon had done its work. The hurts he'd suffered fighting the white dragon and the terrible drain from the fingers of darkness had already faded. Saba, on the other hand, was still wounded deep inside.

  Saba tried a laugh. "I remember how you healed me last time. The floor in here looks a little hard for that."

  Malcolm remembered as well, how he'd ridden her on the bed in their apartment until his brain went blank with climax. A black dragon's mind never went blank, but Saba drove him over the edge every time.

  "I did not mean by having sex," he said.

  "Oh." Did she sound disappointed?

  "We will—fuse. The silver dragon's magic kept me from death today, and I will share that magic with you, as well as my own healing powers. This is something dragons rarely do, except in times of dire need."

  Saba gazed at him uncomprehendingly. "Should I be honored? Or terrified?"

  "I will try not to hurt you."

  Her look turned ironic. "That's what I love about you, Malcolm. You're always so reassuring."

  "I tell the truth."

  "That's what I mean."

  His brows drew down. "You mean I should lie to you?"

  "Sometimes." She withdrew from his touch and took a step back. He didn't like not touching her, it was like having an itch he couldn't reach. "Sometimes lies are comforting," she said. "Will we do this fusing in here?"

  "In the woods nearby. There is a place that is calming and magical."

  "I see. I hope I don't get altitude sickness."

  Malcolm took a step toward her, concerned. "Are you unwell?"

  "A little, but it's not a big deal."

  "We will fix that." He held out his hand. "Come with me?" he asked softly.

  "Stuck up here in a cliff-top cave, I don't have much choice, but it's nice of you to ask." She took his hand, and then laughed suddenly. "That was a joke, black dragon. We need to work on your sense of humor."

  He became a dragon again to fly Saba not a mile away to a velvety meadow on the cliff tops. Up here the mountains flattened into huge bluffs covered with woods and grassy glades. Looking across the terrain, Saba never would have guessed the bluffs were high except for the occasional crease that dropped sickeningly to the lush valley thousands of feet below.

  Malcolm touched down, released Saba, and became human again, bronzed skin over honed muscles none the worse for wear.

  "How can you be a human?" she asked. "I know Lisa let you be one in the archive, but we're not in the archive."

  "It is what I asked of her before we left. To let me be human here in my own territory. At least temporarily."

  "And she agreed?"

  "She is very agreeable at present."

  Saba put her hands on her hips to disguise the fact that her fingers shook. "She's excited about the babies. We should go back soon and let her go home. She needs to be with them."

  "We won't keep her long. Caleb can care for them at present. He is a fighter—he'll defend them to the death."

  "Yes, but he also has to change their diapers and feed them." She began to laugh as she thought of Caleb the hunky warrior dashing from twin to twin trying to soothe first one, then the other. "Poor Caleb."

  "He will manage," Malcolm said. "He wanted the babies."

  "What if it were you? Would you want them?" Saba closed her mouth quickly, wondering what had prompted the question.

  Malcolm regarded her with an enigmatic expression. "I would. I told you, remember, that a black dragon has need to mate at least once in his life, to produce offspring."

  "You sound like a narrator on the nature channel."

  "It is easier to speak of it that way."

  Saba thought about what he'd said. If he was having the mating urge, he would need to find a female dragon and go for it. "So you do want children. Or little dragons, anyway."

  Caleb had described to her, ad nauseam one day, how dragons carried on in a mating frenzy that lasted for days, then the female turned around and tried to kill the male. Caleb had survived two such matings, he boasted, before he met Lisa. From the gleam in his eye, he much preferred mating with Lisa.

  "Is that why you brought me out to this beautiful place?" Saba asked. "To let me know you're flying off to find a mate?"

  He gave her his I have no idea what you're talking about look. "I brought you here to complete the healing, as I told you." He hesitated. "And…"

  Saba braced herself for more she wouldn't understand about black dragons. "And what?"

  "I asked Lisa for something more."

  "Seriously taking advantage of her good mood, are you?"

  "I am, yes, but I would not if it weren't important."

  Saba waited. Malcolm stopped, and for the first time since she'd met him, he looked uncertain. Malcolm uncertain was an incongruity interesting to behold. Usually the man had an arrogance that no mere human could match. But now he looked at her with a pucker between his brows, his eyes holding caution.

  "I asked her to give me another power," he said. "I asked that if I took you as my mate, I could give you my seed. I asked that the child be viable, though I am dragon, and you are human."

  His words were so unexpected that for a moment Saba could only gape at him.

  "Are you… ?" she broke off, wet her lips, and tried again. "Are you saying you wan
t me to have your baby?"

  "Yes." He looked relieved that she understood. "That is what I mean."

  She blurted the first thing that came into her head, "But we're not married."

  Malcolm shrugged with a ripple of muscle fine to see. "We can perform such a ceremony in your world. We have none like it in Dragonspace."

  "Because female dragons always try to kill the male." Saba laughed shakily. "I can see where there'd be a shortage of bridal showers and rehearsal dinners."

  He gave her the odd look again and remained silent.

  "Why?" she demanded. "Why do you want to have a child with me?"

  His dark brows drew together. "Is this not what you want? Children and a family? Whenever you look at Lisa's young I see it in your eyes. The longing."

  She passed over the phrase Lisa's young and got into the heart of the matter. "Of course that's what I want. But why do you want it? Because of your black dragon mating urge?"

  "I do not know." He came close to her, his six-foot-six perfect body looming over her. "I only know I cannot imagine mating with anyone but you, siring children with anyone other than you."

  Saba stood still, feeling the cool breeze ruffle her hair. The sharp odor of cedar and resin came to her and the silence of the day, broken by the hum of insects and the calling of birds that sounded alien to her. A different world—different birds, trees, insects. And dragons.

  She couldn't quite take it all in. "I am not sure if this is the most romantic moment of my life," she said softly. "Or the least. But perhaps we can discuss it later. What is this fusing you were talking about?"

  "Healing," he responded, his eyes never losing their watchfulness. "It is like a healing spell."

  "And we both know what those make us want to do."

  "A risk I am prepared to take."

  Saba peered at him. "Was that an actual joke? Never mind, what do you want me to do?"

  He backed away a step, his eyes going dark. "Remove your clothing. Clothing would hamper us, and I want to see you bare to the sunlight."

  Saba swallowed as excitement began to trickle through her. "All right." She raised shaking hands and began to unbutton her blouse.