She stared down at her handiwork. She ought to be proud of herself, but she couldn’t congratulate herself on this moment. She hated herself. She would almost rather starve than rob a beautiful creature like this of its life.
She couldn’t do that, though. She had a job to do, and she already killed the buck. Starving wouldn’t bring it back. She had to take it so she would live, and she wouldn’t waste its sacrifice by backing down on the job.
She took her sharpened stick and set to work skinning the animal.
Later that night, she rested by the campfire with a full stomach and plenty of food for the long road ahead. She didn’t quail before the mountain and its challenges now. She would find Robbie and save him from this dragon
She fell asleep, and when she dreamed about the dragon, it didn’t bother her as much as it did before. She faced her first obstacle and overcame it. The others would fall one by one. She would puzzle them out and conquer them.
In her dreams, she stood before the caldera. The dragon’s scaly hide grated against the rocks the way it always did, but she didn’t cringe in horror. The reptile curled its hot body around her to protect her. Its slithering length aroused her to the depths of her flesh. It awoke deep-seated lust in her being. She ached for it, and when it caressed its scales over her skin, she moaned and writhed in ecstasy.
Chapter 11
Elle stood on a mountain peak and gazed across at the caldera smoking on the next jagged peak. There is was, and there was the dragon, just like Obus told her it would be. It bobbed its spiked head on its long neck and weaved back and forth. It narrowed its fiery eyes at everything in search of any threat. It scratched its belly against the hot rocks, and its long tail whipped through the air.
Elle studied the creature for a long time. She thought long and hard about how to approach it, but her ideas got all mixed up with her fevered dreams. She didn’t understand her own feelings toward this lizard. She shouldn’t find it appealing, but she did. She fantasized about it touching her, and her dreams aroused her beyond anything she ever thought possible.
Now she saw the thing in the flesh. She gazed down on its scales flashing iridescent green and purple and blue in the sun. The caldera bubbled and rumbled in the distance. She planned to approach the dragon and see if she could trick it into giving up Robbie. Now she didn’t hesitate to do it. She wanted to get close to it, to see if it produced the same effect on her in person that it did in her mind.
She watched for several hours without moving. She didn’t see any sign of Robbie anywhere. Where was the dragon keeping him? Was he dead? She had to go somewhere. She used up all her food supplies on the long journey here. She still carried a bundle of the deer skin, some sharpened bone tools she made out of the animal’s remains, and her club.
The dragon made one circuit of the caldera after another. It stretched its leathery wings and beat the air, but it didn’t take flight. Why not? It glared all around it in hawkish vigilance, but it never left the caldera. How could a creature that big fly down, capture Robbie, and fly away with him without waking Elle from her slumber? She still didn’t understand why it would steal Robbie in the first place if it didn’t plan to eat him.
Obus seemed to think Robbie would still be here after the long trek up the mountains. She had to find out. She shouldered her pack and set off down the long pass to the other peak. The journey took three days without food. She ate some icicle plants she found clinging to the bare rock. She ate a few tart berries off the bushes. None of them curbed her hunger, and she had no idea whether they would poison her or not. She no longer cared.
She struggled up a steep gravel scree to the mountain’s highest pinnacle. She perched on the very apex and stared down on the caldera directly below her. There was the dragon, curled up with its eyes closed. This was the moment she dreamed and planned for so long. She had to make her move before the dragon woke up.
She stowed her bundle in a hollow under a boulder. She set off down the long slope toward the reptile. Her heart pounded, but she wouldn’t quit until she found out if this would actually work.
The amulet rested in her jacket pocket. She carried no other weapon but her wits. This had to work. She couldn’t walk away from this without Robbie.
She got halfway down the slope of slick rock when her foot slipped. She stumbled and tumbled a few feet before she caught herself, but a few pebbles dislodged under her boots. They pattered down the walls ahead of her, and the sound woke the dragon.
It raised its wicked head, and its slit eyes fixed on her. Her nerves stretched to the breaking point. She wanted to run for cover, but she forced herself to continue climbing. She picked her way down the slick surface, but she refused to look at the thing. Its eyes hypnotized her so she couldn’t think.
The closer she got, the more its mesmerizing presence confounded her until she couldn’t remember all the plans and schemes she cooked up to trick it. Nothing made any sense but moving toward it. Was this how it captured its prey—by hypnotizing it into walking to its death in the dragon’s jaws?
She climbed all the way down to the very lip of the caldera. She stopped near a large rock. She faced the dragon, but she couldn’t think of what to do next. She looked up at its face in wonder. It looked more beautiful and majestic and terrifying than she ever thought possible. It exuded death and magic and intoxicating power. Its eyes bored into her soul until she couldn’t look away.
At that moment, it spoke in a clear voice as low as thunder that shook the mountain. “What are you doing here?”
She never thought she could talk to it. Maybe that was the answer. She always could persuade people to do what she wanted if she talked to them in the right way. She looked straight into its eyes. “I came here to see you.”
Its head slithered back and forth on its serpentine neck. “To see me? For what purpose?”
She surveyed the caldera. She saw no sign of Robbie. “I had dreams about you. I had to find out if they were true, if you would be the same in person as you were in my dreams.”
So far, she hadn’t spoken any untruth. His eyes wouldn’t let her, even though she couldn’t come straight out and say she’d come to render him powerless so she could steal Robbie Cameron from him.
When did she start thinking of him as a ‘he’? She didn’t even know if this dragon was male. Correction: she knew he was male. She didn’t know how she knew, but he was definitely male. He was as male as any male she ever met. She couldn’t yearn for him that way if he wasn’t.
Didn’t she read some storybook somewhere about dragons who mated with human women? What was she thinking? She wasn’t going to mate with him. Whoever heard of any such thing? Jesus, Elle, get a hold of yourself! She couldn’t mate with a dragon. That was out of the question. It was preposterous.
She looked up to find him scrutinizing her with his demonic, flashing eyes. Could he read of her thoughts? Did he know what he did to her when he looked at her like that? God, she couldn’t deal with this. She couldn’t cope with the sheer power of her emotions, the emotions he elicited in her.
What was she becoming? She turned into a puddle of seething fire on the way up this mountain. The caldera and the dragon cast a spell on her, and now she couldn’t break free of their overpowering allure.
She had to get her mind working. She wanted to trick him, so now she better do it. First, though, she had to determine if he did have Robbie here. None of this meant anything if he didn’t.
She made herself smile up at the dragon. “What’s your name?”
He strutted around in a circle and rustled his wings against his back. A hissing sound came out of his mouth. “Ushne.”
He dragged the sound out into a long, breathy hiss. His forked tongue darted out of his mouth at her before she realized he was answering her question.
“Ushne. What an interesting name. I’m Elle.”
He slid his head closer to her, but he didn’t answer. He was proving to be one tough nut to crack. None of her cha
rms worked on him.
She thought hard for any way to open up a conversation with him, short of asking point blank if he was holding Robbie somewhere around here. “You’re alone up here, aren’t you? Are there others of your kind in these mountains?”
“There are no others of my kind anywhere,” he rumbled. “I am the only one.”
“The only dragon!” she exclaimed. “I find that hard to believe.”
“I have never seen another of my kind.”
She stared at him in astonishment. “Have you looked? Do you fly around the countryside very often?”
He cocked his head to one side. He could tell she was making chit-chat for no reason. Why couldn’t she break the ice and talk to him? He wasn’t a person. He was an enormous lizard.
“I never fly around the countryside. I stay here.”
“You don’t? You don’t fly around the countryside?”
“Never.”
“If that’s true, then how do you….?” She broke off. She was about to ask how he found food. If he didn’t fly around the countryside, how did he capture Robbie? That’s what she really wanted to ask, but she didn’t dare.
What if Obus steered her wrong? Maybe Obus worked for the dragon the way the imps claimed to work for Obus. Maybe he directed hapless idiots to the dragon’s caldera so it wouldn’t have to go hunting for food. It could just eat the fools that happened upon it.
“This country is too cold for me. I stay here where it’s warm.” He talked to himself while he strutted around the caldera.
“How do you find food?” she blurted out. “How do you eat if you don’t go out and fly around?”
He hooked his neck to stare back at her. He stopped in mid-stride to fix her with his intense gaze. “What are you doing here? You didn’t come to see me. No one comes to see me.”
“The wizard down in the valley—Obus is his name—he told me I could find you up here.”
“For what purpose?”
He already asked her that. He must not have believed her. How did he sense she wasn’t telling the whole truth?
She threw all caution to the wind. “That wizard told me you captured a young man I was …. I was traveling with. He said if I came up here, I could find him here and I could free him from your power.”
The dragon flared its nostrils at her and let out a puff of hot air. It dragged its long body over the rocks and stretched out next to the caldera where the rocks were hottest. It sighed and closed its eyes. “I don’t know who this wizard of yours is, but I have no captive up here. I never took any captive, and I would never hold anyone up here. I’m alone.”
Chapter 12
Elle slumped against the boulder and closed her eyes. So it was all true. Obus either made a mistake or deliberately gave her faulty information. This dragon didn’t have Robbie. Now what was she gonna do? She had to trek all the way back the way she came, and she had to do it alone. She had no choice but to continue on to the castle without Robbie.
What would she tell his brothers when she got there? She had no way to find him. She wouldn’t go back to Obus. Even if he made an innocent mistake, she didn’t trust him not to make another one.
Some mistake. He gave her this amulet—and for what? What was the use of it all? She didn’t want to trek across country to the castle. She didn’t want to trek wherever she would have to go to find Robbie. She didn’t want to trek anywhere. She didn’t want to face this alone.
How long would it take her to find Robbie’s brothers and Carmen? Maybe they would never lift the curse, and Elle and Carmen would never get sent back. Maybe she would be trapped here forever with no one but Carmen to talk to.
The thought made her shudder. She didn’t want to stay in this empty, hollow world full of mystery and magic and unknown forces. She didn’t really want to go back to her old life, either. She had nowhere in the universe to go.
The dragon’s silky voice touched her ear. It vibrated through the rocks into her legs and body. He barely made any noise at all. Somehow the concepts worked their way into her brain without her hearing them in the normal way. “Come and have something to eat. You must be tired after climbing all that way.”
Her eyes popped open. “Something to eat? What do you have to eat up here?”
“Come over here and see. I think you’ll be pleased.”
She pushed herself off the boulder and took a step forward. She had no idea where he wanted her to go, but she would do just about anything for a mouthful of something to eat right now.
She walked forward until she stood next to his side rising like a green wall next to her. He pointed his head at a hollow under a different rock. “In there.”
She inched forward until she stood next to his head. She looked under the rock he indicated and beheld a white crust of large crystals jutting out of the rock. She glanced back at the dragon watching her. “What is it?”
“It’s something to eat. Try it.”
She stared at the stuff. It looked like large blocks of white quartz embedded in the rock. How could she eat that? She squatted down and touched one of the larger formations. It crumbled under her hand and left a dusting of shiny particles on her fingers. She put her fingers in her mouth, and it tasted sweet, buttery, even a little fruity.
She broke off a large crystal and took a bite. It filled her mouth with delicious creamy goodness. She crammed the whole thing in her mouth and ate it all. Then she sat down next to the hole and ate as much as she could hold.
The dragon reclined on his flat rock next to the caldera and watched her eat. She sucked the powder off her fingers. “Thank you, Ushne. That was delicious.”
He purred under his breath. “There is water over here for you to drink.”
He showed her another hole with a clear, fresh spring of sparkling water resting in a pool. She cupped it to her lips and washed down the food. She resumed her seat and gave a sigh of satisfaction. “So is that what you eat? Is that how you survive without flying anywhere.”
“No, I don’t eat that food.”
“What do you eat, then? You couldn’t survive up here if you didn’t eat something.”
He looked all around him like he was seeing it for the first time. “You can lie down anywhere to sleep. The rock is warm enough to keep the chill off at night. Even when it snows, this caldera stays warm. That’s why I never leave it.”
She regarded him for a moment. He never told her what he ate or how he survived without flying out for food. What was he trying to hide?
The setting sun touched the rim of peaks beyond his head. The light went out of the sky, and a frigid wind blew over the caldera. A pocket of warm air hung over the bowl where the dragon lay.
Elle looked around her. She better find a warm spot to sleep tonight. She needed to rest her legs after driving herself up here all these days. Now she was here, and she could relax into the job of winning his trust.
The instant that thought crossed her mind, he spoke again. “Lie down here next to me. This is the warmest spot, and my size will protect you from the wind.”
She looked up at him, but he didn’t look at her. He faced away so she couldn’t see his eyes. Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? How could he know what she’d been thinking about him all this time?
He couldn’t. It was impossible. He wasn’t suggesting anything. He simply offered her a warm place to sleep, the same way he offered her something to eat. It was common decency—nothing more.
She got up and went to his side. He rested his head on the rock and didn’t open his eyes. He wasn’t paying the slightest attention to her. She crossed to his side and sat down. The rock seeped warmth into her limbs and relaxed the tension and weariness from her long trip. She stretched out on the flat stone and closed her eyes.
She told herself to stay awake, to stay alert, but she must have fallen into doze. In her dreams, she felt him slithering around her. His scales scratched against her skin, but the rough sensation only excited her more.
She jerked awake in darkness. Clear, bright stars sparkled over the mountain, but peaceful heat warmed her from below. She spread her body as flat as she could make it against the rock to soak up as much of that delicious heat as she could get.
Ushne grumbled in sleep. His massive sides rose and fell next to her. She lay still and listened. Power and majesty vibrated off him toward her. It infected her in ways she couldn’t comprehend. How could she feel this way about a serpent? She must be sick. Maybe her long loneliness hiking up these mountains made her susceptible to falling for the first thing that spoke to her in an intelligible voice.
She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t fall back to sleep. Her emotions warred against each other. Disgust for herself fought against her desire for him. She hated herself for wanting him. She would never let herself touch him or let him touch her. She couldn’t. She had to keep all these feelings and desires and cravings hidden where he would never find out about them.
How long she stayed awake, she couldn’t know without a clock. She fell asleep again and dreamed about him the way she did on the trail. She woke in the grey morning light and sat by the hollow to eat.
Ushne rose from his slumber and paced around the caldera. He flexed and flapped his wings, but he never lifted off the ground. Elle watched him. Maybe he couldn’t fly. Maybe he was stuck here.
If that was the case, what did he eat? She couldn’t deny the fact he was trying to hide something from her. She considered long and hard before she decided what to say to him. “How long have you lived up here, Ushne?”
“I can’t say,” he replied. “I don’t really remember when I came here. From what I can tell, I’ve always been here.”
He couldn’t have been here long without something to eat. Didn’t he ever get hungry? She never saw him drink from the spring, either. Then again, he was a dragon living in a magical world. Maybe he didn’t need to eat. Maybe he lived on magic. How would she know?
Dragon Quest Page 7
