by G. A. Aiken
She stood alone, in the middle of the chamber in the center of a rune design etched into the cave floor. She held her head high and stared at each Elder without flinching. He felt unbridled pride watching her. She’d give him hatchlings to be proud of.
“Shalin the Gold,” said Elder Cilydd—he had to be nine hundred years old if a day and, last Ailean heard, very nearly blind—“we’ve made our decision on this matter.”
The herald strode up behind Ailean with his brothers right behind him. Ailean reached back and batted the green dragon out of his way and grabbed Bideven’s shoulder and dragged him forward.
He motioned to his brother and Bideven only stared, so Ailean slammed his fist into his shoulder, hard enough to break something.
“All right. All right. Don’t hit me.”
Bideven stepped forward. “Elders. My Queen. I must interrupt these proceedings in the name of Ailean the Blue.”
Ailean slammed his brother with his claw and Bideven hissed at him. “In this chamber all monikers are stripped save for the one given to you at birth. Now would you shut up and let me handle this?”
Forcing a smile, Bideven turned back to face the Elders and the queen.
The queen looked over at the brothers. “I’ve known Ailean the Blue many years, Bideven the Black. Can he not speak for himself?”
Bideven cleared his throat and glanced at Ailean. All Ailean could do was shrug and Arranz agreed with a shrug of his own.
“Actually, my Queen, he cannot. At this time.” Another throat clear, and this time a furtive glance at Shalin, who refused to look at any of them. “His throat was cut while human and it still heals. It will be a few more hours or even days before he’ll be able to speak without pain.”
The queen’s body went rigid and her eyes lashed across the hall to the Lightning dragon.
“Is this down to you, Theodoric?”
“Not I, Queen. Nor my kin—that I’m aware of. I sent them back to the Northlands yesterday.”
“Then who did this to Ailean?” She looked around the chamber and finally settled her clear blue eyes back on Bideven. “Who, Bideven?”
Bideven scratched the back of his neck with his tail and stared down at his claws. “Uh…well, my Queen…uh—”
“I cut his throat,” Shalin suddenly piped in, grabbing everyone’s attention. But it was Ailean she now stared at and, with a viciousness he never heard from her before, she added, “And I’d do it again at the asking.”
The room fell deathly silent and Ailean raised an eyebrow. Something Shalin took as challenge. Gasping, she stormed toward him but Arranz stepped between the pair.
“Now, now, hatchlings,” his brother chided with obvious amusement, “let’s be calm here.”
“This is your fault,” Shalin snarled over Arranz’s shoulder. “Your fault. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
Frustrated that he couldn’t speak, Ailean grabbed Bideven by his hair and dragged him forward.
“Ow!”
He hit the black dragon on the shoulder and gestured at Shalin. Looking between the pair, Bideven shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
Gritting his teeth, Ailean pointed at Shalin, pointed at himself, made circles in the air with his claw, and slammed his fist into the palm of the other.
Bideven’s eyes grew wide. “Am I supposed to understand any of that?” he demanded.
But Shalin gasped and stepped back. “I’m being unreasonable. How can you say that? I’d told you to leave my father to me, but you wouldn’t listen. Like always!”
Ailean slapped his claw against his chest, pointed at the ground with it, and then slashed both arms across each other, accidentally hitting Bideven in the snout.
“Ow!”
“Ho, ho!” Shalin barked. “Do you actually expect me to believe that? Or to base my whole future on that load of centaur shit?”
Ailean flashed his fangs and smoke curled from his snout.
“Don’t you dare threaten me, Ailean the Slag!”
Resting his fists on his hips, Ailean slammed down his back claw, accidentally crushing Bideven’s claw in the process.
“Ow!”
“No,” Shalin answered with a haughtiness he’d never noticed before. Damn royals. “Absolutely not.”
He brought his tail forward to make his point, accidentally slapping Bideven in the back of the head and shoving his kin forward.
“Owww!”
“That’s enough.” And then the queen was there, gently lifting Bideven’s massive head, examining his wounds. “Much more of this conversation and your brother will be dead before the two suns set.”
She gestured Bideven and Arranz away and stood between the pair. Enormous, and one of the rare white dragons, Queen Ganieda towered over Shalin while meeting Ailean eye to eye. “I have to tell you two that all of this complicates things. When your father came to me, Shalin, this was all very simple. Simple because what happened to you was and is unacceptable. Dragons don’t sell dragons. I don’t care if you’re a lower-born, a royal, or future heir to the throne.” Glittering blue eyes cut across the room to a glaring princess. “It was something that was understood, but now the Elders and I have been forced to put that down in writing so there is no mistake ever again.” The queen sighed. “And once that decision was made, well, all need be done was track you down and let you know you could safely return to your life among the humans. Return home to your father. Or, if you so wished, and as Theodoric of the North so humbly offered, go with him into the Northlands and see if you could find your mate there. The choice, of course, was yours.”
She took several steps away from the pair before turning back to face them. “Now, however, things have changed, haven’t they, Ailean the Blue?”
He nodded, his eyes locked with Shalin’s. Without a word, without moving, the greatest battle took place between them. The greatest and the most important.
“You wish to Claim her as your own, do you not?”
Ailean gave one determined nod in agreement.
“No!” The word rang out over the chamber, but it wasn’t Shalin who spoke. She’d only shaken her head to let him know she’d rather eat stone than be his mate. It was from the princess.
She pushed past the other royals into the middle of the chamber. “I demand to speak,” she snarled.
Her mother chuckled. “Denied. Your mate has already been chosen for you.”
“I have not agreed—”
“You’ll do as I say or regret that I ever gave you life,” the queen hissed. “Your future mate waits for you. Go to him. Now. And on the next full moon, he’ll make you his own.”
“You can’t make me—”
Ailean grabbed Shalin by the arm and yanked her against him as a line of flame lashed by, hitting the princess in the chest and sending her flying back across the chamber. Then Queen Ganieda, in a rarely seen full rage, stormed forward. She grabbed the heir to her throne by the neck and lifted her from the floor.
“You dare tell me what I can and can’t make you do? You betray your friend, break our laws, and bring the potential of war down on our heads, and you think you have rights to tell me anything?”
Adienna gasped and slapped at her mother’s claw, but the dragoness was simply too powerful. Even Ailean would have thought twice of challenging Ganieda. But he would have—for Shalin. For Shalin he’d take on an entire army of Lightnings and even his own kin.
“And you do all this,” the queen continued, “for a male. A male who never loved you and never will. Now,” she threw her daughter across the chamber to the exit, “go to your chosen mate before I can no longer control my temper.”
Palpable rage radiating from her, Adienna dragged herself to her feet. The onetime friends locked eyes, but Shalin never backed down. She never looked away.
Then Adienna’s gaze moved to Ailean and although he expected to see the same rage, he saw nothing but an obsessive longing that unnerved him more than the rage could have.
>
Without another word, the princess left, and the queen let out a disgusted sigh and shook her head. “Honestly. These hatchlings today.”
She turned back to face Ailean and Shalin. “And as for you two—”
“My queen,” one of the Elders gestured to her and she went to him. The queen and the council whispered amongst themselves while Shalin snatched her arm out of Ailean’s grip and stepped away. She glared at him and didn’t seem to appreciate when he blew her a kiss and winked at her.
“I agree,” the queen finally said and turned to face them all. “I have one question for you, Shalin the Gold. Did you give yourself willingly to Ailean or did he have to seduce you into his bed?”
“What does that have to—”
“Answer me, dragoness.” Shalin gritted her teeth and the queen smiled, showing many rows of bright, white fangs. “You’ve already seen how I handle my daughter’s impudence. Do you really want to test me as well?”
Shalin glanced once at her father before looking away and answering, “Willingly.”
“I see. Then yes, we have no choice but to follow the law regarding this. Ailean the Blue has until the next full moon to mark you as his own. Shalin the Gold will stay on his territory until that time. If she is not marked by the full moon, Ailean, you must leave her be. Is that understood?”
Ailean nodded and he could see it in Shalin’s eyes. She had no intention of letting him mark her…ever.
“That being said, Shalin the Gold, Ailean can use anything in his, shall we say, arsenal to convince you to remain with him forever. Except, of course, violence or the threat of violence against you or your kin.” Suddenly Shalin’s father moved up behind the queen and whispered to her. She frowned in confusion and added, “Or against your…dog?” Shalin’s father whispered something else, “Or against your…horse?” The queen blinked and shook her head. “You have a dog and horse?”
Shalin nodded, her head down to hide the rage Ailean could feel like he could feel the cold wind whipping through a hole in the cave wall.
“As pets?” Shalin nodded again. “How…fascinating.” Although the queen sounded more disturbed by it than fascinated. “That is the decision of this council,” she walked back to her dais. “We wish you both good luck.” She smiled again, her rows of fangs twinkling from the light of the pitfire nearby. “I sense you’ll both need it.”
Livid beyond all reason, Shalin stormed to an exit that would take her from Devenallt Mountain. That’s where Ailean caught up with her, grabbing her arm and pulling her around.
She slammed her two front claws against his chest and pushed. Of course, she might as well have pushed the mountain instead, for all the good it did.
“I hate you, Ailean the Slag. I’ll always hate you and I’ll never be your mate!”
She tried to pull away, but he held fast. He swallowed and she saw him wince from the pain. She ignored the pang in her heart that ordered her to soothe him. To take him to a healer and help control the pain. She ruthlessly tamped that desire down as ruthlessly as she’d cut his throat in the first place.
“Shalin, wait.” His voice, always low, sounded like the hardest gravel and she knew each word caused him immeasurable pain. “Please.”
“No. I’ll come back to Kerezik as I’ve been ordered, but I’ll not stay in your bed or even in that blasted castle. But I’ll be on your territory until the full moon. Then I’ll be heading back to school, and I never want to see you again.”
She yanked her arm away and walked to the edge of the exit, ready to take flight.
“I’ll come for you, Shalin. I don’t care if you’re on my property or living in a desert cave in Alsandair. I’ll not give you up. You’re mine. I am yours. Face it.”
Shalin didn’t even turn around. “The only thing I have to face is that I’ll be paying for the foolishness of leaping into your well-used bed for decades to come.” With a sigh, she glanced at him over her shoulder and the look in his eyes nearly tore her heart from her chest. She ignored it. “Leave me be, Ailean,” she forced herself to say. “I’m sure there are thousands of females who’ll happily warm your bed. Someone more suited to you and your life—for it is not me.”
Shalin let her wings stretch out, but before she took off, she felt compelled to add, “And I wouldn’t shift to human anytime soon. You’ll only bleed to death if you do.”
Without another word or another glance back, she pushed off from the edge and headed back to Kerezik.
Ailean stood at the edge until his brothers arrived. Without bothering to look at them, he managed to ground out, “We need to find a healer.”
“I know,” Bideven answered. “My snout is still bleeding.”
Rolling his eyes, Ailean snapped, “Not for you, you big baby.”
“You really do love her, don’t you, brother?” Arranz asked, awe in his voice.
Ailean nodded rather than answering. With every spoken word, pain ripped through him.
Arranz grinned. “Then we’ll help you, Ailean. We’ll get you your dragoness.” Abruptly looking off, Arranz stroked his chin. “In fact…I think we should round up the entire clan.” When his brothers only stared at him, he shrugged. “Trust me, Ailean. We may be low-born Battle Dragons, but we’ll do whatever necessary to help one of our own. If you want that royal…you’ll get her.”
Ailean smiled, loving his brother more than he ever thought possible. He placed his hand on Arranz’s shoulder and Arranz did the same to him.
“If you two are done having this moment of brotherly bonding, I am possibly bleeding to death here.”
Ailean gave a small shrug at Arranz before using his tail to ram Bideven in the back, shoving the poor bleeding—and now screaming—bastard out of the cave.
He hit the side of Devenallt Mountain three times before he could catch flight.
“He’s going to get you for that,” Arranz warned.
“Perhaps,” Ailean said, ignoring the pain so he could get this out. “But it was so worth it.”
13
It started the first morning she woke up in that cave she found on Ailean’s territory. Big and roomy, she’d nearly crashed into it, immediately falling asleep in the first chamber she found. She’d been more exhausted than she realized and slept a good twenty hours. She awoke when something indescribably small and adorable nipped at her snout and climbed up onto her head.
He’d brought her the puppy.
A few hours later she found Nightmare in one of the caverns with lots of hay and water.
The next day books began to appear. All sorts of books. Many she’d read. Quite a few she hadn’t. She’d find piles of them in chambers, lined up against walls. Everywhere.
Then his kin came to visit. His aunts first, in teams of two or three.
“Just talk to him,” they’d say.
“You know you love him,” they’d accuse. “Why are you fighting this?”
Her favorite comment of the day? “I heard you were smart. You couldn’t be that smart.”
After the aunts, the uncles and male cousins arrived the following day. But they said very little and mostly brought flowers or cows before hastily leaving.
If only the same could be said of the female cousins. They came back and stayed for hours. They talked. They cajoled. They outright threatened. Except the twins. They never spoke to her and instead sat on the edge of the cave entrance sharpening their weapons. Every once in a while, they glared out over the land. Their silence hurt the most because Shalin had grown so fond of them. But unlike the rest of Ailean’s kin, they clearly had “not forgiven you for the whole slashing throat incident,” as Ailean’s Aunt Briaga put it.
By the fourth day, and as the full moon neared, they all stopped coming. Leaving her alone to fully realize exactly how much she missed Ailean. Gods, and she did miss him. With her very soul she missed him.
Determined not to focus on the acute ache in her heart, Shalin shifted to human later in the day and put on one of the dresses the
aunts had left for her, since the cave could get quite chilly for human flesh. She groomed and fed Nightmare, appreciating the way he kept nuzzling her, trying to cheer her up.
Once done, she didn’t bother to shift back and instead walked to the cave entrance and sat down, her legs hanging over the edge. She stared out over the land. It was quiet. Not like the busy streets of Kyffin, where it was never quiet unless it was a religious holiday or a public execution was taking place.
Shalin didn’t know exactly when Ailean sat down beside her but she wasn’t really shocked.
“I’m surprised to find you as human, Shalin.”
She gave a little shrug. “It’s easier to tend Nightmare.”
Glancing at him, she saw that his wound had healed but it had left a nasty scar behind. Would take a decade or two for that one to fade.
“Are you all right out here? Need anything?”
Shalin couldn’t help but smile. “Hardly. I’ve had quite the influx of your kin stopping by with gifts.”
“Good. Madenn sent up some food for you as well. It’s cooked, though.”
“That’s fine,” she said casually, although she’d already scented the food and her mouth had begun to water. Nothing like fresh meat she’d torn open herself, but she’d learned to enjoy the herbs and seasonings the humans used to enhance their cooked meats and fish. She’d definitely begun to miss it.
Not that she’d ever admit that out loud.
“Thank you for bringing my puppy and Nightmare.”
“I had to.” He chuckled. “Big bastard wouldn’t eat and nearly stomped one of the stableboys when he tried to groom him. And the puppy whined incessantly when he couldn’t find you at evening meal.”
As if sensing they spoke of him, the puppy yipped and charged forward, but Ailean easily caught him before he slid right out of the cave. “You ever going to name this little one?” he asked as he placed him back on the floor and patted him back inside.
“Name him?”
“You have to name him, Shalin. We can’t keep calling him ‘puppy.’ Especially once he gets to be about two or three hundred pounds.”
