by Lizzy Bequin
But she hadn’t, and now they were all paying for it.
The other women were out there in that dangerous wasteland. Meanwhile she was shacking up with a dragon.
“Skal, if you fly me out there, I’m sure I can find the place from the air.”
Skal’s face grew serious as he thought about it.
“I do not wish to take you outside, Katrine. It is dangerous out there.”
“You can protect me,” she said.
Skal shook his head and sighed gruffly. “You don’t understand. There is another dragon. His name is Mordragg. He is the lord of this territory.”
“Mordragg?” Even just the name sent a shiver up her spine. “But what does that have to do with me?”
“You were meant to be an offering for him. A sacrifice for him to devour. But I found you first.”
Katrine was grateful for that, at least. She didn’t know who this Mordragg was, but he didn’t sound nice.
Skal went on. “By now Mordragg knows that his seasonal offering is missing. I doubt he suspects me. But if he catches me flying around with a woman on my back, he’ll make the connection.”
Katrine thought for a moment. She had an idea. Perhaps she could appeal to Skal’s masculine ego. Goad him into it. She hated to do that—hated to be manipulative—but lives were on the line here.
“You must really be afraid of him,” she whispered. “I guess Mordragg is a lot stronger than you are.”
It worked.
Skal leapt to his feet in the middle of the nest. He towered over Katrine like a colossus, his winged body lit dramatically by the glow of the fire. His yellow eyes blazed, and with each heaving breath, pale blue flames shot from his nostrils, like the burners on a gas stove.
“I’m not afraid of him!” Skal bellowed. “I will tear him to pieces if he touches you!”
His voice quaked the cavern. Dust sifted from the shaken ceiling above. Katrine cowered back against the rim of the pillowed nest in fear.
Maybe it had worked a little too well.
When Skal noticed Katrine’s trembling fear, his rage softened to a simmering anger. He crouched and stroked her thighs, showing her he meant her no harm.
“It’s not myself I’m afraid for,” Skal said. “It is you. The truth is, Mordragg is no weakling. He is bigger than me, and older. It would not be an easy fight. And there are many things that could go wrong. If any harm came to you, my atma, I would not be able to bear it.”
Katrine’s trembling subsided under his touch.
“Then you could go without me,” she said. “I know that the place where my friends are hiding can’t be too far from the village where you found me.”
The more she thought about it, however, the worse the odds seemed. After the hunters and the feathered priestess had captured her, they had marched her for several hours before arriving at the village. That left a pretty big area to cover. But Skal could fly, and he had an outstanding sense of smell.
Skal refused this option too.
“No.”
“No?” Katrine pouted. “Why not? I would be safe here in your lair. Nothing to worry about, right?”
“Wrong,” Skal growled. “There would be plenty to worry about. How do I know you wouldn’t just try to escape me again?”
Katrine sat on the edge of the nest and glared at him.
“You don’t trust me?”
“Why should I trust you? You already tried to elude me once, little thing.”
It reminded her of Tom again. The way that he had been so distrustful of her near the end.
With Tom, it had not been about escaping, of course. Her ex was always accusing her, unfairly, of cheating on him. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. For all of Katrine’s many flaws, unfaithfulness was not among them. In the end, she discovered, Tom’s suspicions and accusations had just been a way to mask his guilt for his own infidelities.
If there was one thing, Katrine knew beyond a doubt, it was that a relationship could never work without trust.
She swung her feet over the side of the nest.
“Fine,” she said coldly, “Don’t help me then. Enjoy your nest.”
She stepped down to the stone floor, rose, and began walking away.
“You think you can goad me into it by denying me?” Skal growled behind.
Anger scorched. Katrine whirled.
“I’m not denying you shit, asshole!” she screamed. “I just don’t want to sleep with you in your dumb nest. You don’t trust me. You don’t want to help my friends. As far as I can tell, you don’t even care about me at all.”
Skal’s yellow eyes narrowed.
“Kat, that’s not true. I want to protect you, keep you safe—“
“Yeah right!” Katrine cut him off. Angry tears scalded her cheeks. She was breaking her rule about crying, but she didn’t care. “I’m just another one of your trinkets. Just a vessel for your eggs.”
“Kat…”
“Good. Night.” she said with angry finality.
She whirled again and stomped away toward the far side of the room, her bare soles ringing on the smooth stones of the floor. She lay down by the wall and curled into a ball.
After a moment of tense silence, there came a fiery grunt behind her. A scary, animal sound. Next came the thump of charging feet vibrating the floor. Clicking claws. Her heart tightened in her chest, but she remained still.
The arm that lifted her this time was the dragon’s. In his fury, Skal had shifted back into his primary form.
“What are you doing?” Katrine demanded angrily.
She realized part of her wanted him to carry her back to that nest he had built for her and just hold her there. But that is not what the dragon did.
He carried Katrine to another section of the wall, in between the fire and the heap of darkplums.
“At least sleep nearer the fire where you’ll be warm.” His voice was a growl, but it lacked fury.
Then, with great, ground-quaking steps, the dragon moved off toward the other side of the room and curled up by himself, resting his chin on his long tail as a cushion.
The newly built nest remained empty in the middle of the chamber.
CHAPTER 20
At one point, it must have been early morning, Skal was roused from his light slumber by the patter of tiny feet followed by the crackle of branches and the rustle of leaves.
When he cracked one eye, he discovered that the female was up and about. She was tugging some materials out of the nest—an extra pillow and a blanket.
She noticed him watching her.
“I just got a little cold is all,” she muttered.
“You know you could sleep in the nest,” Skal said. “It would be more comfortable.”
“No thanks.”
Her bare feet slapped the floor as she marched back to her spot by the wall, arranged the pillows, and lay down, pulling the blanket over her body.
Skal snorted and closed his eyes again.
Nobody had told him an atma could be so damn infuriating.
Still, part of him wanted badly to go to her. To gather her up, kicking and screaming if necessary, and toss her down in that damn nest. Toss her down hard.
He’d spent hours constructing the nest for her, and he knew it was more comfortable than a stone floor. He’d seen just how much she’d enjoyed it earlier when they were talking.
It was her stupid pride that kept her from sleeping in the nest.
Then again, it was his own stupid pride that kept him from going to her.
Goddess, she was a fiery little spirit. And the truth was, as much as her defiance infuriated Skal, something about it excited him even more. He wasn’t used to being challenged so fiercely, especially not by such a small little creature.
She was brave, he had to give her that.
Brave and protective of the ones she loved.
Those were good traits for a mate. She would be a protective mother.
As the time slipped by and
Skal’s blood cooled after their argument, he began to see Katrine’s side of it more clearly. She was concerned about her friends. Of course she was. No wonder she thought him overly possessive.
She probably wondered what made him that way. She didn’t know how much he had lost.
She didn’t know about Arcturus.
Dragging a long, deep breath through his nostrils, Skal made up his mind. He would tell her. He would tell her everything. And then he would help her find her friends.
Still in his dragon form, Skal raised himself up on all fours and treaded across the chamber to where Katrine lay sleeping. She was completely bundled in her blankets. Goddess, she must be cold over here by herself. That thought made Skal feel bad for neglecting her.
“Kat,” he whispered.
His little mate did not answer. He nudged her gently with his muzzle and called her name a little more loudly.
“Kat…”
Still no answer.
He listened carefully, trying to discern if her breathing had that slow steady rhythm of a sleeper. That’s when Skal realized there was no sound of breathing coming from the bundle of blankets. No sound at all.
Katrine’s scent was there, but no sound, no movement.
With a claw, he pulled the blanket back. There was nothing inside but wrapped pillows.
Anger flared within Skal’s chest. His roar shook the walls.
She had tricked him. His little atma had tricked him again. Earlier, she had purposefully made a great deal of noise with her feet, which made Skal think he would easily hear her if she tried to slip away. But his little Kat was aptly named, for her footfalls had been silent as a cat’s indeed.
Skal bent and sniffed the pillows.
Her scent was strong on them. She had made an extra effort to rub her body on them, saturating them with her scent. That attention to detail made Skal grin despite his anger.
She was a clever little thing too.
But she couldn’t avoid leaving a scent trail behind when she sneaked away, and now Skal followed that, snuffling the stone floor like a hound dog. The invisible trail led to the southern archway. Skal followed it down.
It didn’t take Skal long to figure out what her plan had been.
First she had gone to the treasure room. Her scent was stronger there. She had lingered.
What had she taken?
Despite the size and seeming disorganization of his treasure hoard, Skal knew every item that he possessed. He held them all in a mental register, which he could call up at a moment’s notice. A quick glance around the area where Kat’s scent had pooled was enough for him to notice what was missing.
Armor. A sword. And one other nameless weapon from the time before the dragons came.
Goddess, she really was planning to escape.
Moving faster now, heart pummeling his breastbone, Skal ran through the tunnels that led to the crystal water chamber. The sound of rushing water filled his ears. Her scent trail led into the water. Skal dove in, his massive body displacing the steaming warm fluid. He peered over the rim of rock at the end of the pool and gazed at the terraced ponds leading downward like watery stairs lit by a crystal glow.
Her scent was temporarily lost in the water, but he knew this was the way she had fled. There was nowhere else she could have gone.
All his anger was gone now. His only emotion was fear.
Fear of losing his atma.
With an anguished roar, the dragon rushed down the terraced ponds, sending up glittering sprays of water as he went.
CHAPTER 21
At last, Katrine saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Pale white light gleaming on the slippery rocks of the ceiling and walls. The terraced platforms of flat pools had gradually given way to a shallow river in which she now waded. The warm current tugged at her legs as if trying to speed her toward the exit. She balled her fists tightly around the handles of her sword and her pistol.
Briefly she thought of Skal, and she felt bad for leaving him behind.
But he had refused to help her, so she had to take matters into her own hands.
Upstairs in the armor room, Katrine had gathered items to defend herself against the dangers outside the mountain. She had found a suit of alien armor that fit her reasonably well. It looked almost like a football player’s helmet and pads, except it was constructed of some light-weight, greenish alloy Katrine could not identify. A sort of loincloth of chain mail, apparently from a much earlier age, gave her lower body meagre coverage.
Then there were the weapons.
The curving steel saber would have looked right at home in the hands of a seventeenth-century pirate. The pistol, on the other hand, was straight out of a Flash Gordon movie. Long-barreled, lined in dark chrome, it felt light and balanced in her hand. She wasn’t sure if it even still worked, but there was a white dot glowing on the side by the handle. It looked like a power indicator light. She had been afraid to test it inside the cave, for fear of causing a racket and waking up the dragon.
Now, as she neared the mouth of the cavern, Katrine almost wished the dragon would wake up, come rushing down to her, and drag her back inside. Then she would be safe again, but she could tell herself she had tried.
Immediately she felt guilty for that wish. Her friends were out there somewhere, and she was going to find them.
Or die trying.
The cave tunnel opened onto the outside world, and bright sunlight filled her eyes. She moved carefully down a series of waterfalls and then stepped onto solid ground.
What now?
Katrine hadn’t worked things out that far. She was playing this by ear.
When Skal hadn’t been watching, she had taken a leftover stick from the nest and placed it in the fireplace until it had caught. Then she had blown it out and used it as a dim torch, the orange ember at the end providing just enough light in the total darkness.
Her trail of pebbles from before was still as she had left it, and she had been able to follow that back to the treasure room. From there, it was easy enough to find the chamber with the springs and the crystals, which provided enough light that she didn’t need her little torch anymore.
Now she had made it outside.
But she had no clue where to go from here.
She was standing at the top of a low ridge of stone. The sides sloped off at shallow angles. The river spilled down the slope to her left and slithered away into the whitish-gray fog that encompassed everything. Even in the daylight, Katrine could not see very far.
Shit.
She had been worried about this. She remembered how smoky the planet had been before, especially that impenetrable gray cloud covering the plain where she had been offered up to the dragon. However, she had hoped, perhaps a little stupidly, that the wind might have blown that smog away, that she would have a view across the plains to where the village was, and that would give her an idea of the general direction.
And if she had not been able to see the village, she had at least hoped for some indication of which way she needed to go. A sign.
Just as she was about to give up and turn around, that sign came.
She almost didn’t hear it at first. It was so far away, and the sound was muffled by her helmet. She set down her weapons and removed the metal headpiece so she could hear better.
Yes, there it was. Clear as day.
Oddly, the sound took her back to her high school days. It reminded her of the sound of the marching band practicing in the distance. Only this sound was coming from much farther away, and the rhythm was much simpler.
Drums.
The same animal skin drums that had beat when she had been chained to those pillars as a sacrifice.
An icy fear gripped her heart. She pictured her friends, Nora and Blair, now chained up just as she was. She imagined another dragon—what had Skal called him? Mordragg?—swooping down from the smoke-swirled skies. She doubted that dragon would give them the same treatment she’d received from Skal.
; It was already to late. Her friends were doomed, and it was all her fault.
With a shake of her head, Katrine cleared that thought out of her mind. She wasn’t sure that was what the drums meant.
It might not be Nora and Blair. It might not even be a sacrifice at all. In fact, Katrine couldn’t even be certain that it was the same village. But right now, it was the only clue she had to go on.
Katrine hesitated a moment.
Decision time.
She glanced back at the mouth of the cave, carved like a dragon’s head, its mouth belching out the clear river of water like a giant fountain. There was still time to go back. She could make the climb back to the treasure room, deposit her armor and weapons where she’d found them, and sneak back up to the sleeping chamber.
If she hurried, Skal might never even realize she was gone.
Next she looked into the distance, in the direction of the drums, and she thought of her friends.
Katrine pushed her head back into the alien helmet, took up her weapons, and set off down the slope in the direction of the sound.
***
She had not made it far, however, before a new problem was added into the mix. The sky had begun to darken, and Katrine feared that she had misjudged the time. After all, she didn’t even know what the day-night cycle of this planet was like. It could be longer or shorter than Earth’s. Being out here alone in this inhospitable world was bad enough, but to do so at night would be positively terrifying.
It wasn’t night that was rolling in, however. An ominous rumbling of thunder let her know that it was a storm. A few seconds later, the first spits of rain thumped her helmet.
Damn it. She didn’t need this.
Katrine could still hear those drums in the distance, providing a beat for the dissonant music of the thunder. But those drums still sounded as far off as when she first heard them.
She still had a long way to go.
Again, briefly, Katrine considered going back. The last place she wanted to be was in the middle of a thunderstorm in a metal suit of armor.
