“According to the Morgannians, yes, there are,” Magda answered. “Supposedly here, in Merlinia.”
That was excellent, superb, and quite amazing, except it didn’t help me find my way now that we were lost. Sighing, I resigned myself to another night of sleeping under the rain clouds.
But then, something unexpected happened. The road in front of us shifted, the country path turning into bricks of every color in the rainbow. They glowed with a magical light, and Magda neighed, as startled as I was at the sight.
I stared at the shining bricks and actually laughed. “Guess we were going the right way after all.”
“It’s not funny, Kirril,” Magda berated me. “Do you have any idea what this is?”
Of course I knew. Even Arthurians like me, who had no magic abilities whatsoever, had heard of the Rainbow Brick Road. I hadn’t actually believed in the legend. As far as I was concerned, I could be delirious now. Perhaps I’d succumbed to fever, excessive rain having finally affected my health. In any case, I could either go straight ahead or back the way I’d come, and I definitely wasn’t going back.
With that in mind, I urged Magda onward. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she mumbled.
Actually, I didn’t, but if I had any hope of finding the famous dragon I needed to slay, it obviously lay through this road. The Path of Fate. That was what my people called it, and it was said to appear as guidance in moments of great need.
Grinning from ear to ear, I urged Magda on with renewed zeal. She burst forward in a gallop, and for all her skeptical words, I knew this discovery encouraged her as much as it did me.
We rode on for the longest time. Hours slid by, and gradually, both my enthusiasm and hers decreased. The scenery seemed to remain exactly the same, and at one point, I had the feeling we were going in circles. But nothing that was actually worth it ever came without effort and persistence, so we continued our journey in spite of our fatigue.
Soon enough, I was forced to slow down. We trotted onward at a slower pace. Even Magda was tired, the road through the peculiar path far more strenuous than the usual one. At one point, I actually dismounted and started to walk beside her.
“We’ll stop soon,” I promised. “Just a little farther.”
I didn’t know why, but even with my exhaustion, I was reluctant to stop or stray from the brick path. The forests looked very inviting, and it would have made sense to take a break in the shadow of the trees, but something told me that I needed to keep going.
Magda seemed to agree. “A little farther,” she said.
The forest grew denser, thick bushes and large trees shadowing the colorful path. At this point, I was so tired that when I heard a sneeze I almost thought I’d imagined it. “Did you hear that?” I asked Magda, relying on her equine senses.
“It came from that way,” she said, pointing to an apparently innocuous shrub. My senses sharpened, and I retrieved my sword from its scabbard. Nothing moved, and the very air seemed to still. My weariness vanished completely, eliminated by the knowledge of the upcoming battle.
Releasing Magda’s reins, I jumped forward, lunging toward the bush. I had no clue what I’d expected. A bandit, perhaps. Instead, an animal leapt out of the shrubbery, dodging my blow with a startled yelp and pushing me back with its hind legs as it did so. No, not an animal. A dragon.
“Oh, Gods!” Magda exclaimed. “It’s a dragon.”
Under different circumstances, I’d have teased her for pointing out the obvious. A magical horse should have said something a little wiser, in my opinion. But I had no time for sarcastic comments or remarks. Here was my prey, conveniently delivered to me by the Rainbow Brick Road.
I swept my sword in an arc, and I’d have hit the thing had a small white blur not landed straight on my arm, deflecting me. I groaned as sharp teeth embedded themselves in my flesh, a remarkable feat indeed, given that I was wearing my hunting armor. Granted, it was only reinforced leather, as a long journey in chainmail or anything of the like would have been a fool’s errand. However, it still should have kept most creatures at bay, more so one the size of my attacker.
Cursing, I tried to shake the animal of me, only to find myself even more confused when my world grew white as a peculiar substance clouded my vision.
“What the fuck…?” Now furious, I blindly reached for the source of my pain, releasing a sound of victory when my fingers found fur. Before I could get a good grip on the thing, it released me and plopped down to my side, apparently intending to attack my legs instead.
However, Magda rode to my side, snorting angrily and chasing it away. The air began to clear, and I was able to see again. I reached for the crossbow bound to Magda’s saddle, already knowing that the sword would probably be useless in this fight. The dragon could escape me by flying away, but I could reach it with a well-placed projectile.
As I loaded a bolt, though, I finally took in my unlikely foes. A small white rabbit sat in the center of the path, glaring daggers at me. Next to it, a tiny flying creature hovered, its wing fluttering rapidly. A pixie?
“He’s after you, Dini. Run,” one of them cried. I thought it might have been the rabbit, but I couldn’t be sure. “We’ll hold him back.”
The dragon was actually in flight now, its wings keeping it aloft over the path. It could have flown off during my odd and embarrassing fight with the small beings, but even now, it seemed reluctant. “I can’t just leave you.”
I already had my hand on my crossbow, aiming straight for the dragon, but I faltered when I heard its voice. It was soft, softer than anything I’d heard in my life. I wasn’t necessarily surprised that it spoke. After all, Magda did, and she originated from Morganna. Likely, most Merlinian beasts had similar abilities. But that voice…It reached out to a part of me that I hadn’t known existed.
For the first time, I realized my target seemed quite small. Was it a baby dragon? If so, it would be cruel to slay it. The dragon’s scales glittered in a strange purplish color, as if a million shades of it danced over its reptilian skin. Even its eyes were a deep shade of violet, and as our gazes met, I had a strange thought that it was truly a beautiful creature.
Before I knew it, I lowered my weapon, hesitating. Both the rabbit and the pixie noticed. “Go!” the pixie shouted. “He’s not paying attention. We can make a break for it.”
They leapt at the dragon, and it landed, managing to somehow catch them. It stashed them into something that looked like a pouch. As it launched itself into the air, though, my body moved instinctually. Pointing my crossbow at it once again, I attacked.
The bolt hit true. The dragon let out an agonizing cry and fell out of the sky into the bushes. Immediately, a feeling of horror invaded me, and I rushed in that direction, my brain focused on one single idea.
“Oh, Gods, please, please, please…Please, let it be alive.”
I didn’t know why it was so important to me. After all, the whole purpose of this journey had been to slay a dragon. Still, that brief moment when I’d heard its voice and met its gaze had touched me somehow.
Fortunately, when I reached it, I noticed it was still moving around. The pixie and the rabbit had jumped out of its pouch, trying to help it, but failing. The dragon whimpered as it lifted its right wing, where my bolt had struck.
When they saw me coming, all three creatures froze. “Go,” the dragon whispered to its friends.
“No, Dini,” the pixie refused adamantly, much like its—his?—reptilian friend had done earlier. “We’re not letting the human kill you.”
“It is the road,” the dragon insisted. “This is my fate. I won’t have you sharing it. Go!”
In the end, they were arguing about who was going to sacrifice himself for who, and I got tired of it. “Would you mind?” I asked. “I’m still here, you know.”
As I spoke, the dragon looked at me, and suddenly, his form blurred into a human-like shape. “Are you going to kill me?” he asked, purple eyes wide with fright.
His voice swept over me like a caress, and I couldn’t have held on to my weapon if I wanted to. The crossbow fell from my hand, unwanted, as I gaped at the lovely sight in front of me. “No,” I replied in a daze. “I think I won’t.”
Chapter Three:
In Which Introductions are Made and a Journey Begins
The slayer’s appearance had taken me completely by surprise. This province of Merlinia had not seen humans in ages. When my friends and I had spotted him riding from the distance, Larue had been so startled that he’d waved his wings around too much, emanating pixie dust. It had made me sneeze, which brought us to my current predicament.
“You won’t?” I asked the man, unable to suppress the tremor in my voice. We had been taught to fear humans, and here one was, right in front of me. “Why?”
For a few seconds, he scanned me from head to toe, and I wondered what exactly interested him so much about my current shape. It was a form I had little experience with—I much preferred my dragon one—but all of my kind had it. Most shifters did, as it made it possible for us find a mate beyond our own species.
Larue released a soft gasp, and I glanced back at the human, my sharp dragon senses detecting something about him that I couldn’t quite put my claw on. He was handsome, this slayer, big and brawny, his muscles framed nicely by his armor. His loose blond hair fell over his shoulders, and days of riding had left him with a bristly stubble. And his eyes…They were so blue, reminding me of the Merlinian sky.
I quickly squashed my thoughts before they could develop any further. Attractive though he might be, he remained my enemy and I needed to remember that.
“I won’t kill you because you’re a person,” he finally replied.
It was my turn to gasp. “Of course I’m a person,” I shot back, outraged. “What did you think? That my being a dragon makes me inferior to you somehow?”
He looked taken aback and started to stammer. “Err…Actually, I…”
“He doesn’t know,” Vesper said, sounding as shocked as I felt. “Sweet Goddess, these barbarians are more ignorant than we thought.”
Larue let out a disgusted hmph. “That’s only because they don’t want to know. It’s more convenient to believe certain things than to find out the truth.”
He was probably right, but something in the slayer’s gaze beckoned to me. It wasn’t his fault that he had no clue about the nature of Merlinian beings. In the end, our lands had very little contact. Few dared to brave our wilderness. A measure of trade existed between the elven citadels and other such cities and Morganna, but Arthuria was distant to us. And I would have bet my wings that the slayer hailed from Arthuria.
I took a step forward, aiming to reach out to him, but a pang of agony stopped me. Releasing a small cry, I leaned against the tree. What in the world had made me shift into this form anyway? Self-preservation? Maybe. Either way, it had only worsened the wound the slayer had inflicted on me.
“Oh, Gods,” the human said, stalking toward me. “I hurt you. Let me help.”
“Back off,” Larue said with a growl that sounded quite silly when coming from a pixie. He fluttered in front of the slayer, blocking his path. “We’ll do it.”
He didn’t have the necessary strength, so Vesper changed into his human form as well. My bunny friend was a little clumsy in this shape, as he didn’t use it often, either. However, with Larue’s assistance, they managed to extract the bolt from my shoulder. I couldn’t suppress another gasp of pain as they pulled it out, and if anything, it made the slayer look even guiltier. “It’s all right,” I heard myself say. “It will heal right up. I’ll be as good as new by tomorrow.”
A cold chill swept through me even as I said the words. Tomorrow. I had no way to get to my cave without flying, so I was stuck in the forest for at least a day. My arm hurt badly, and if I tried forcing my way home, I’d likely fall out of the sky.
“Oh, no,” Vesper said. “Where are you going to go, Dini?”
“I’m not sure.” I absently clutched my injured shoulder, already trying to come up with a solution. I could attempt to cast a spell to rush my natural recovery, but I was no healer, and I could easily botch it up. Shifters had no affinity with such magic, and I reacted badly to pixie spells—ergo, my allergy to Larue’s pixie dust.
“What’s the matter?” the slayer asked. “You all look very worried. Is it the wound?”
“Yes and no,” I replied. “Because of it, I can’t fly to my cave, and this area gets very dangerous at night. The veil between realms thins a lot in Merlinia, so all sorts of unpleasant beings run around.”
“Unpleasant beings?” the human repeated. “I haven’t seen anything like that. The only real problem I’ve encountered during my trip is rain.”
Of course. He was Arthurian. A Merlinian rock had more magic than him. Undoubtedly, the creatures wouldn’t have any interest in him. His horse, however, seemed to be enchanted.
“Is that right?” I looked at the mare who’d stepped behind her master and was eyeing me with interest. “Why don’t you tell him the truth?”
“The truth isn’t always the best policy,” she replied matter-of-factly.
He seemed more confused than ever, and even if I knew I should have feared him, I softly suggested, “Perhaps introductions are in order? It might help us figure things out a little.”
“Dini!” Vesper and Larue shouted at the same time. My bunny friend actually lost his balance and fell on his ass because of his shock.
“What?” I asked defensively. “He said he wasn’t going to hurt us.”
“Uh-huh.” Vesper struggled to his feet and glowered at the slayer. “Let’s just go, Dini. We’ll find you a cave to stay in.”
“You can’t go,” the human blurted out. “It’s my fault he was injured. At the very least, I can protect him.”
“I know what you want to do to him, and it’s not protecting,” Larue shot back. “You’re crazy if you think we’ll trust you with our friend.”
“Oh, enough of this.” I glowered at all of them. “Standing here looking at each other doesn’t help.”
Now frustrated, I stalked out of the bushes where I’d fallen and returned to the still-shining path, coming to stand straight in front of the human. “By the way, I’m Dineiro, and they’re my friends Larue and Vesper.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” the slayer mumbled, looking anywhere but at me. “I’m Kirril, and this is Magda.”
My friends made disgruntled noises, but joined us. “For the record, I don’t approve of this,” Larue said.
“It was your idea to come see the road,” I pointed out. “Let’s make the best of this, shall we? Magic has a way of balancing itself out. Perhaps if we follow the path farther, it will lead us to shelter.”
“We’ll do that if you think it’s best,” Kirril said, now meeting my gaze, “but first, you’re going to let me look at your shoulder. At the very least, it should be bandaged.”
I highly doubted any sort of human medicine could help me, but he insisted and I eventually agreed. He gestured for me to wait for a few moments and retrieved a small satchel out of his saddlebag.
As he returned to my side, I couldn’t help but tense. He was so close now, invading my personal space, and my fears were returning. Yes, he had said he wouldn’t kill me, but what if he changed his mind?
His ancestors had been hunting mine for ages. The stories I’d heard in my tribe had filled me with fear. For me, humans had always been the scariest thing in the world, scarier even than the spirit hunters that roamed the night to steal magic. He seemed to be apologetic now, yes, but humans were deceitful.
When he touched my shoulder, I released a soft yelp and recoiled. He immediately pulled back, looking at me in horror. “I’m sorry,” he said, stammering. “Did I hurt you? Fuck…I’m so clumsy…I didn’t mean…”
His uncertainty would have comforted me, except that, in my confusion, I ended up slipping, much like Vesper had done before. However, unlike
him, I blindly reached out for an anchor. The human reacted on instinct and grabbed my hand, but before he could steady me, I pulled him down. I fell back, fortunately landing on the grass and not on the brick tiles of the road. Kirril collapsed on top of me, his large body pinning me to the ground.
I should have been terrified at my new circumstances, but his scent enveloped my senses, soothing me. He smelled like sweat, man, and something else, something rough and raw, pure strength. I shivered, arousal coursing through me and drowning out my doubts. I felt something hard nudging my hip, and I finally understood what Larue had been accusing Kirril of. I understood a lot of things.
In the end, my mother had been right. Destiny had delivered my fated mate to me. Of course, she probably hadn’t expected that the mate in question would turn out to be a human, but then, neither had I.
A small part of me screeched in panic at the realization. My rational side pointed out the crossbow and the sword still lying within his reach. It screamed at me to ask myself why he’d even come to Merlinia with such an arsenal. But my soul, my lonely soul that had waited for this moment for so long, rejoiced. Okay, so maybe the situation wasn’t perfect, but my mate couldn’t be a bad man. Our hearts had to match, and I could never love a person who was in any way evil. Admittedly, fate was a fickle thing, and it wasn’t exactly impossible for a dragon to end up with someone not suitable for him. However, my kind believed that this only happened as punishment for a grave misdeed. I didn’t think I’d done anything to warrant that. Had I?
Unfortunately, as I tried to figure this out, Kirril pulled away, his face very red. “Err…I…I’m sorry about that. Let me just…I really didn’t want to hurt you.”
Once again, he was doing the not-looking-at-me thing. I realized that my nudity made him uncomfortable, especially now that my cock was hard. Alas, I wouldn’t be able to help him with that one. Dragons didn’t wear clothes, and I didn’t plan to get dressed anytime soon.
“You didn’t hurt me,” I replied, deciding to be honest on this one. “I just panicked. I’m still jumpy.”
My Mate's a Dragon Slayer? [A Tail Like No Other: Book One] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 2
