“That was an unfortunate event I wasn’t aware was going to happen as neither my Gargoyle Protector nor I have the gift of seeing the future. But one thing I can tell you is that Private Erika Emerson is fine. And my son will be as well once he calms and realizes Erika was never really at risk. Lord Draydrak wasn’t planning on harming the Null. He just needed to use her to force out Gryton’s dragon. Our son fears that side of himself.”
“Wise of him,” Sergeant Maracle muttered under his breath. He stood at Resnick’s shoulder, his rifle held loose, his body posture surprisingly relaxed as he studied Lord Draydrak. Maracle was one of the most laidback people she’d ever met. Lillian knew an old soul when she saw one. While he wasn’t nearly as old as the soul living inside Erika, the sniper of Mohawk heritage was far from young.
Major Resnick cast the man a stern look before returning his full attention back to Lillian. “You’re going to start from the beginning and break everything down until I’m satisfied with your answers or this alliance is over.”
Lillian bowed to the major. “I shall begin now.”
And she did. Even Gregory turned talkative in his effort to help smooth things over. An hour later Major Resnick was still scowling but had calmed.
“Fine. I’ll think of something to put in the report that will save the alliance, but we damned well need to get Private Emerson back first.”
Lillian nodded and then looked out over the ocean. Distantly she could sense her son. He’d flown very far, very quickly which suggested he was in no mood for company. She looked to Thayn next.
“Old friend, we will need some of your strongest fliers to carry riders that distance.”
“Of course.”
“Strong, not fast,” she added along a private link. “We need to give Erika time to soothe the dragon.”
He winked at her. “Only the strongest and the slowest for the Avatars.”
Chapter 3
Erika
THE ELEMENTAL DRAGON had flown swiftly away from Lord Death’s kingdom, wings beating tirelessly. After the first half-hour, Erika had noticed the dragon’s body had cooled significantly. She hoped that meant he was regaining control of his elemental fire.
“Gryton, can you hear me?” She attempted the words verbally first since she wasn’t sure what would happen if she tried to use the soul link to touch his thoughts. If the dragon was still all instincts and rages, he might think it another type of attack.
But just then the big dragon flexed his neck and focused one giant eyeball upon her.
“Hey, you did hear me.” She patted one of his claws. “That’s good. We’re making progress.”
Or at least she thought they were until he looked ahead again.
“Or not.” She scowled at him, and then tried to wiggle enough that she could see more of their surroundings through a crack between two of his fingers. All she saw was the sky. With a huff, she sat back down.
“Oh, come on. I know you might not be able to talk in this form, but you’ve spoken in my mind in the past. “Say something. Anything?”
He continued his flight. Sighing, Erika settled back down to wait and decided the silver lining in all this was that she didn’t have to pee. He flew for another hour, and eventually, she relaxed against the warm scales of his chest.
“I’m trusting you here,” she told him.
And it was a moment of trust because if he shifted his foreclaw away from his chest, she’d fall to her death. Or if they weren’t high enough that the fall would kill her, she’d have drowning to look forward to. But he didn’t drop her, and eventually, she dozed.
Sometime later, she jerked awake to find him banking in the air.
Shouting, she scrambled at his fingers, hoping to secure herself in some way as her body tipped forward. He slowed even more and then reared until he was almost vertical.
“Whoa! Easy!” But then there was only a slight jolt as he came in for a landing.
Heart pounding, she dragged in calming breaths and decided it was good to be on solid ground even if she couldn’t see it. Soon she wondered where they were and what she was supposed to do now. The dragon seemed calmer, his power levels mellower, but it was hard to gauge if he’d sustained physical damage in the fight, which might explain the diminished amount of magic he was giving off. But he had been able to fly this far, so he probably wasn’t too damaged—physically.
Magically and mentally? That was to be determined.
The narrow strips of light between his fingers grew in size, and then he was lifting her away from his chest and placing her on the ground.
She glanced around. They were on a large island, or perhaps this was still the mainland, just far from where the forward operating base was being set up.
A rocky beach led up to steep cliffs. She craned her neck.
“Oh, look. More forest.” There didn’t seem to be a speck of civilization for miles. Though that might be a good thing if the dragon was still twitchy. The last thing he needed was another fight.
She turned back to the dragon. He was just as big as she remembered, but now his scales were more of a shimmering bronze with a hint of flame-red color at the edges. As far as she could see, there were no open wounds or fire anywhere. And no flames dripping out his mouth had to be a good sign.
She leaned back to meet his eyes. “Howdy.”
The dragon huffed and lowered his long, narrow head toward her.
“Please don’t be about to eat me. Not one of the ways I want to go out.”
But he didn’t. Instead, he sniffed at her, nuzzling her gently. He had two long whiskery tendrils growing from the ridges above both nostrils and several shorter ones lining the underside of his jaw. They wiggled rather like a cat’s whiskers as he sniffed her. It wasn’t until a bright red forked tongue flicked out that she realized he was tasting the magic she was radiating.
“The magic isn’t a weapon, I promise.”
The dragon snorted out what might have been a humorous ‘I know that’ before he continued to nuzzle and inhale her scent.
“You’re drinking the magic I’m giving off, aren’t you?” She was pretty sure he was. “You sure that’s a good idea? Just a little while ago, you were dangerously close to losing control of all that fire magic.”
He huffed at her again, and this time he actually rolled an eye at her.
“Well, I’m glad one of us knows what we’re doing.” Her words seemed to please the beast even more, and he puffed up his chest and arched his neck as the rest of his body coiled around her.
It was the first time she realized how long and sleekly built he was. Other than his powerful chest, which was likely developed to that extent to power flight, he was long, slim, and trim. He was positively elegant for such a large creature. His long, snake-like tail coiled around his body and then the tip wrapped around her.
“Ease up there, big fella. I’m not going anywhere, and I really don’t need you squeezing hard enough to pop my eyeballs right out of my head.”
He loosened his tail enough that she could draw in a deep breath without cracking a rib.
“Hah. You really can understand me.” She tilted her head inquiringly. “Now what?”
He lowered his head until it rested on the ground. Then he just studied her. After another fifteen minutes of staring, his eyes slowly drifted close.
“Uh-oh. Wait one minute. If it’s nap time, I want a safer place to nap. I don’t want to die by you rolling on me in your sleep.”
His eye blinked open and he snorted in what she was coming to understand was humor. The dark eye with a vertical pupil peered at her for a moment, and then the lids drifted closed again.
Erika patted the topmost coil of his tail with a bit more force than might have been wise, but she wanted him to know of her dissatisfaction. When he blinked his eye back open, she gentled her patting.
“If it’s nap time, is there any chance I can stretch out on the ground. Humans don’t sleep standing up, you know?”
&n
bsp; He regarded her for a moment as if she was asking a lot of him, but slowly his coils shifted, opening up a space large enough she could recline. After a brief pause, she did just that. No point annoying the dragon, or he might take away the extra space.
She wouldn’t sleep, but she’d indulge the dragon and see if he’d fall asleep and then once he was out, she’d try climbing over his coils to have a look around. But as she lay there looking up at the darkening sky, she realized she was tired. It had been a long day by any standard.
When the dragon shifted, she jerked back to full wakefulness, fearing he was already asleep and about to crush her, but the eye facing her was open once more. Suddenly the tip of his long tail gently inserted itself between her head and the hard ground.
Oh...was he really making a pillow out of his tail for her? That was sweet and totally not something Gryton would worry about.
“Thanks, Big Guy,” she said because her grandad always said you should appreciate hospitality when it was offered.
After another yawn, she relaxed as much as she was able on the hard ground and soon her own eyes were drifting closed.
Chapter 4
Erika
THIRST WAS THE FIRST thing to register on her consciousness. It might even have been thirst that woke her from sleep. She rolled over and looked around. Above her, the sky was already brightening with dawn. Her slight movement must have woken the dragon too, for his nearest eye was open and watching her.
Standing slowly, she studied him for a response. When she didn’t get one, she walked closer to his head. As she approached, she even dared to run her fingers along the scales of his neck. He didn’t react to that touch, so she determined he was in a pretty mellow mood.
“Morning. Any chance you’ll let me go find some potable water and maybe a place to pee in privacy?”
He huffed again. This was softer than his humor one, so she thought it might be a ‘yes’ to her question. A moment later, the dragon uncoiled from around her. She immediately noticed what was missing.
“Where the hell did your wings go?” She stood on her toes, trying to get a better look. “We’re going to be needing them to get back home.”
He arched his neck and glanced over his shoulder at his bare back as if he found her question perplexing. But he made no attempt to answer her question. Instead he rose and shook himself, dislodging pebbles and sand from his bronze hide.
Actually, now under the morning light, he looked a different color again, more like a fire’s embers, dark at the base of each scale lightening as the scale proceeded to the tip. As he moved, the scales seemed to pulse with a soft glow in time to his breathing. It reminded her of the tattoo Gryton had had on his chest.
“The tattoo you had when you looked human,” she gestured at her own chest. “Gryton said it was a representation of his true name. But what he really meant was that it was your name. It’s a visual representation of you, like your coloration or the color and type of magic you command or something along those lines, isn’t it?”
Once again, the dragon didn’t answer her. Instead he merely started off down the rocky beach. When she didn’t immediately follow, he turned and looked back.
“Oh, you want me to follow. Why didn’t you say so?” She rolled her eyes and started after him.
It wasn’t long before she heard falling water. “Oh, God in Heaven, that has to be fresh water if there’s a waterfall.”
She hurried her steps, running to catch up with the dragon. And sure enough, it was a small waterfall rushing over the side of the cliff high above her head. She approached closer, not caring that she was getting sprayed.
Bending, she dipped her hands in the fresh water. She was so thirsty; she was tempted to just gulp it down but paused to grab the purification tabs from their pocket. Of course she didn’t have a container. She glanced up at the dragon, but it wasn’t like he’d have anything hidden behind his scales that would be useful for her, so she ripped open the package. She held the tab between her teeth while she scooped up a large handful of water and then awkwardly dropped the tab into her waiting hands.
The most difficult task of her life may have been keeping the water from leaking out between her fingers for the required time. After fifteen minutes, she lost patience and lowered her head and drank. All the while she felt the dragon watching her. The water was probably safe, and he likely thought her an idiot for not trusting him, but she wasn’t going to risk picking up some nasty alien bacteria from the water. There would be no horror movie alien busting out of any part of Private Emerson, thank you very much.
After she’d drained the water from her hands, she looked up at the dragon.
“Thanks for leading me here, but now I need to pee, so be a nice, polite dragon and stay here while I move a little way down the beach to that nice pile of rocks over there.” She waved her hand in the direction.
When he didn’t do anything, she took that as permission and made her way over to the rocks and attended to nature. Once she was finished, she returned to the dragon to find him bathing—or maybe that was playing—under the waterfall. Erika watched him as she knelt down and washed her hands in the stream flowing into the ocean.
“You being a fire elemental and all, it never occurred to me you would like water. Gryton didn’t even have to bathe. He didn’t stink, and I’m pretty sure he just used his elemental fire to purify his body.”
The dragon paused in his play and then his tail whipped out of the water, sending a wave of it in Erika’s direction. She shrieked in surprise and attempted to duck, which did absolutely nothing to protect her from the onslaught of water that hit her.
“Thanks a lot!” She growled at him and then scowled for good measure.
The dragon flicked more water at her and then pointed his muzzle at the small pool. His two longest whiskers trailed in the water as if trying to communicate something to her.
She glanced down at herself and then over at the dragon in the pool. Raising one arm, she gave herself a sniff. Ugh. Yep, not so fresh. “Ah hell, you’re trying to tell me I stink.”
She approached the pool and then looked up at the dragon with narrowed eyes.
“You better not be doing this just to get me naked,” she said in jest as she started shedding her gear.
Casting a subtle glance toward his underbelly, she studied the region but didn’t see any equipment or telltale bulges there, then remembered what he’d said about being neither male nor female when he’d first been born. Perhaps the dragon was genderless still.
She shrugged, stripped out of her clothing, and stepped into the pool. The water was cool but not cold. There was no danger of hypothermia and the day felt like a summer morning though she couldn’t guess what season it was here on this alien world. Maybe it was always like summer here, or they were in a tropical location. The trees looked like a strange mix of conifers and deciduous. Though the plentiful numbers of thick, fleshy vines suggested tropical vegetation.
With another shrug, she put it out of her mind and grabbed handfuls of sand to scrub herself with. Some soap or any kind of supplies would have been nice, but sometime between the time Lord Draydrak had caught her and when the dragon had snatched her up, her pack had been ripped away, the straps shredded by someone’s claws.
Once she was finished, she glanced up at the dragon to find him watching her.
“You been watching me the entire time?” Why you great perverted beast.
The dragon smirked, and she suddenly wondered if he’d been in her head this entire time and she just couldn’t detect him. If so, it stood to reason that he was even more powerful than Gryton. Not the most comforting thought.
“Fine. Enjoy my lily-white ass. She turned and grabbed her clothing and pulled on the sports bra and pants before kneeling at the edge of the pool to scrub her shirt. Her attire was a little rough from getting manhandled by demigods, but it was still serviceable with a little more cleaning.
She eyed the dragon, hoping after a day
in the wilds he would calm enough to relinquish his hold and allow Gryton to return. Not for the first time she wished she had her radio, but that had been lost at some point as well.
She dragged on the rest of her still wet clothing. It was warm enough they should dry unless she got the complementary dragon rinse cycle again. Glancing back at the dragon where he was coiling himself on a large rock to sunbathe, she snorted.
“Oh no, you don’t. I’m hungry. Food first and then you can sunbathe to your heart’s content.”
Looking unimpressed at her words, the dragon grunted and hoisted himself back to his feet and started off down the beach. He paused and looked over his shoulder, repeating what he’d done earlier.
“I’m coming. Don’t get your knickers in a knot. My legs are way shorter than yours.” All the same, she hurried to catch up. The faster she moved, the sooner she’d eat.
It wasn’t until they reached a section where the beach vanished and the cliff wall met the ocean, that Erika slowed. But the dragon didn’t. He started up the side of the cliff wall like he was walking on flat ground.
“There’s no way I can do that.” If she had ropes for climbing, she could do the ascent in an hour or so. Depending. But she wasn’t about to do it without a line.
The dragon was twenty feet up when the end of his tail slid past her. Then in the next moment, she was being wrapped by the vice-like appendage and being hoisted up the side of the cliff.
Screaming and wailing like some chickenshit on a rollercoaster, it certainly wasn’t one of her finer moments, but she and the dragon made it to the top of the cliff, and soon she was in the forest.
“Hey. You can put me down now. I can walk.”
He partly did as she asked as his tail deposited her just behind his head. She found herself straddling his neck. Reaching forward, she grabbed fistfuls of his spiky mane. She would have grabbed one of his horns for a more secure grip, but they were too far above her head. Besides, they moved every time his head did.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 182
