Song of Smoke and Fire

by Megan Linski

  No. I’m not going to make a fool of myself. Not this time.

  I notice the barricades have been removed. I dismount my horse and wander to the entrance of the cave. The adventure I had this morning has turned into a cruel trick. Why did I ever come here? I sealed my own fate.

  “Be cunning, Fliss,” the king tells me. “You have more courage than all of us for venturing inside.”

  I nod. My voice can’t make a sound. Summoning all the bravery I have left, I pick up my skirts and venture into the dark, alone.

  When I’m halfway through the cave, I look back. The torches of the knights are dots in the distance. They’re waiting for me to die. I can’t go back. I can’t stay here. Nothing else to do but go forward.

  I take a deep breath and continue on. I won’t look back. Not again. I can no longer see what’s in front of me, but I place one foot dutifully in front of the other anyway.

  I hope I don’t run into the dragon’s rump, or something equally awkward. That wouldn’t help for first impressions, though I’m sure I ruined that earlier when I awoke him from his nap.

  I expect to meet an awful smell, but there’s nothing but the mustiness of stone and the sharp taste of metal. I turn in a circle, but I can’t see anything. I wonder if I’ve walked into the belly of the dragon already.

  “Who are you?”

  That voice— deep, commanding, and abrupt— chills me to the bone. Through shadow emerges a pair of bright red eyes.

  Chapter Six

  Nervousness and pure fear rattles my every bone. Those red eyes are like fire. They burn throughout my core, sending each part of me ablaze. I am equal parts terrified and spellbound. Though deadly the dragon’s eyes, like rubies glittering in the night, are beautiful. I’m enchanted by them.

  “I asked who you are,” the dragon says. “SPEAK!”

  I jump at his shout. “Yes. Um…” I lick my lips. “I am Fliss.”

  “Do you have a second name?” The eyes blink.

  I shake my head. “No. Just Fliss.”

  “Hmm.” The red eyes narrow. “I suspected they’d send a servant.”

  “Not even a servant. A slave,” I say, before I can stop myself.

  “No matter. Princess, servant, or slave, they are all the same, and serve the same purpose.” The dragon snorts. “Very well. Let me get a good look at you.”

  Flame sweeps in a circle around the room. The cave instantly brightens as several torches along the walls alight simultaneously. Light glints off the piles of gold that are stacked up to the ceiling, coins mixed with an array of precious gems and rare artifacts. Ornate rugs pelt the floor. They are stacked with food, medicines, and treasures of all kinds. The dragon’s horde makes King Krakus’ fortune seem like mere pennies.

  I nearly choke when I see the dragon. He’s easily three times bigger than the copper one I witnessed yesterday, the largest dragon I’ve ever seen. His scales, each one as big around as my hand, are blood-red in color, silver spikes lining the top of his neck to the tip of his tail, which ends in a thick, red fan. Five silver claws line each foot. His garnet wings are tucked tightly to his sides, curled hooks rounding the end of the appendages. This dragon has horns, four on each side, lining his reptilian face. Two fans splay out behind his cheeks, and sharp, jagged fangs poke out of his mouth, even though its closed. I can see the fire glowing through his belly from here.

  The king wasn’t joking. The Wawel dragon really is formidable. The copper was a tiny lizard by comparison. Now I understand why Krakus felt he had no choice but to give me up. The Wawel dragon would crush Krakow easily, even without his fire.

  I don’t miss the fact that he’s male. My concern over what he really wants me for increases.

  It might be a figment of my imagination, but when he looks at me, the dragon appears shocked.

  “No. It can’t be,” he whispers. He shakes his head, and mutters, “No matter. It must be done.”

  I’m dead anyway, so I don’t see the harm in asking the next question.

  “Uh… Sir Dragon?” I ask feebly, because I can’t think to call him anything else. “When you eat me, could you perhaps make it one bite? Or possibly two, if you could? I would appreciate it if my death was quick and I didn’t feel anything.”

  Here I go, making demands from a dragon. Who do I think I am, some sort of queen?

  “I am no sir,” he replies. “I am merely Smok. Call me by none other. And I don’t intend to eat you, girl.”

  “You don’t?” My hope rises and falls at the same time.

  “No. And I don’t intend to use your body for my own pleasures, dear girl, so you can put that out of your thoughts as well.” The dragon twirls his tail behind him.

  A whirlwind of confusion starts whirling around my head.

  “Begging your pardon, Smok, but if you don’t intend to eat me or harm me, what is it you want with me?” I ask curiously. Krakus was right. There is more to this story.

  The dragon flicks his tongue out, tasting the air. “I am going to ask you a series of questions. Answer honestly, and do not lie, for I will know if you do.”

  He opens his mouth to show me all his sharp, horrifying teeth. I gulp. “All right. What do you want to know?”

  The dragon taps a claw on the stone ground. “Are you a virgin? Truly?”

  My cheeks redden. The way the dragon looks at me makes my skin crawl. “Yes. The king wouldn’t have handed me to you if it weren’t so.”

  “Think carefully. Has a man ever touched you in a sacred place, even leaving your maidenhood intact? Please try to remember.”

  “I believe if I had been with a man, I would’ve remembered it.” I cross my arms. This dragon is on the verge of being insulting. “Unless it was so bad that it was entirely forgettable, but if that was the case, it wouldn’t have been my fault. You’d have to go searching for the man.”

  The dragon’s mouth twitches, but he presses on. “I understand these are unusual inquiries, but they are important,” he insists.

  All these intrusive questions. They’re quite embarrassing. If he doesn’t intend to do anything with me, why are they important for him to know? Why does it matter what I have and have not done? It doesn’t change me, nor who I am.

  But you don’t say no to a dragon, so I reply, “No. I’ve never even kissed a man. Happy to know?”

  The dragon seems reassured. “Very well. It’s clear you’re telling the truth.”

  The dragon sweeps around me. He spreads his wings throughout the cave, drawing closer and closer. “Now onto other matters. What were you doing in my cave this morning?”

  I can feel his hot breath upon me as he asks. I shudder. “You saw me?” I ask.

  “Of course I did,” he says. “No one has dared to venture into my cave before.”

  “I thought you were just trying to scare intruders away with your flame, after I made noise,” I admit sheepishly.

  “No. You woke me up, and gave me an idea in doing so,” he replies.

  Good going, Fliss. I knew my journey into the cave this morning started all this madness. “This isn’t a coincidence?”

  “No. I’ve thought of doing this for a while, but your intrusion spurred me to action,” he says. “If slave girls are courageous enough to venture into my cave, Krakus would have no trouble doing so as well.”

  “I see.” It appears Krakus wasn’t just watching the Wawel dragon. The Wawel dragon was also watching him.

  “My question still stands. Why did you walk into my cave of your own free will? Are you brave? Or foolish?” the dragon asks. “Both will make your task, and mine, much more difficult to achieve. A brave heart is also careless, and hard to control, but a fool needs to be watched always.”

  I’m sweating as heat rolls off the dragon’s tongue. What task does he possibly want me, a skinny slave girl with no power of any kind, to achieve?

  I wipe my forehead with the back of my arm and say, “I’m neither. I was merely curious.”

  “Curious
. Ah.” The dragon pauses. “That’s even worse. Too many questions.”

  “I did have questions. I want to know the truth,” I insist.

  “The truth about what?”

  “Dragons,” I say, and the beast’s eyes spark. “I want to know them. I want to understand who they are, or what they are.”

  “There is no understanding a dragon, dear girl. Even we don’t understand our ways,” he replies.

  My hand skims one of his scales by accident, and I jerk back. It was warm and smooth under my palm.

  “I didn’t sit and ponder it,” I say. “It came to me to visit your cave, so I did.”

  “Ah. Makes sense. Truly like a Pole, to get an idea in their head and not think it through before following it blindly.” The dragon snorts. The sound rakes the walls of the cave.

  “You don’t know me. You don’t know who I am,” I protest, though he’s got me right on the dot.

  “Of course I know. You are a Pole. Poles are proud. A difficult, stubborn people, with too many opinions,” the dragon says. “They’re too loud, too emotional, and obsessed with death and glory. It’s no wonder you thought it a good plan to venture into a hungry dragon’s cave.”

  “You talk as if you’re one of us,” I say.

  “I am. And I am not.” The dragon pauses before me. “Do you have any special talents? Abilities, or the like?”

  My head swims. What’s something that I can do that a dragon can’t? Something pops into my head. “Actually, yes. I can,” I say. “I can sing.”

  “Sing?”

  “Yes. The king often asked me to sing for him, at balls and parties.” It’d probably be what I’d be doing now, if I wasn’t down here entertaining a dragon. You can never get out of work no matter where you god can you?

  “Well, let’s hear it.” The dragon stomps his foot, and the cave shakes. “Sing!”

  I don’t know what use is song to a dragon, but I guess monsters enjoy music just like everyone else, so I open my mouth and start singing a familiar folk tune.

  “There once was a poor adventurer,

  And a maiden who loved the sea,

  The adventurer quickly fell in love,

  But it was not meant to be.

  She wandered into the ocean,

  One night dark and gray,

  The adventurer wept upon the shore,

  As the waves carried her away.

  He called out to the lover,

  But it was not meant to be,

  He had lost her to the ocean,

  He had lost her to the sea.

  When I finish, the dragon is completely still. “Your voice is very beautiful,” he says. “Magical, even.”

  “That’s what folks say.” I shrug. “Though I don’t know how it’d help you.”

  “It would help. In fact, it could be just what I need.” The dragon starts to pace around the cave. I have to steady myself to keep my balance as his thumping feet shake the ground.

  “Did you need a bard?” I ask, completely grasping at straws. “I suppose I could sing for you, but don’t ask me to play the lute or the drums, because I’m completely useless. You’ll be clawing your ears off in days.”

  “No bard. Merely your voice,” he says.

  “Is that all?” I ask. If he really demanded a sacrifice to get someone to sing to him whenever he felt like it, I’m going to be very upset. Couldn’t he have posted a notice on the town board?

  “I have what I needed to know,” the dragon says. He leans his head inward, until his snout nearly touches my stomach. If I move at all, I’ll bump into him. The nervousness wells up in my stomach again.

  “You have nothing to fear from me, dear girl. I will not hurt you, or cause you any harm. This I swear,” the dragon says. “I will keep you alive, and even in good health. But there is one condition.”

  “Ask it,” I say. “If you have need of anything and it’s within my ability to obtain, I shall give it to you.”

  The dragon hums. He nods his head. A gust of wind picks up throughout the room, circling the dragon. It encloses him in a mist of smoke and fire, so he is no longer visible. The flames lick up the sides of my tunic as they pass, but they’re not hot or painful. Rather, they’re cool to the touch. Almost like tender caresses.

  When the smoke clears, I stumble backwards in shock. Where there was once a dragon, there is now a man.

  Chapter Seven

  I’ve never seen a more gorgeous person in my life. The man looks only slightly older than I, twenty or so, with a stance that is tall and lean. He towers above me. His tunic stretches over massive shoulders, and is open in the middle, exposing large muscles. A direct nose offsets a strong jawline, high cheekbones and soft lips. His square face is handsome, kindly even.

  The only thing that still resembles the beast inside are small sparks of red that dance within his black eyes.

  It’s hard to believe the person standing here was a giant, flame-breathing dragon only seconds before. What happened?

  “You… you’re a man?” I ask, baffled.

  “I have the ability to change into a man.” When he speaks as a man, the Wawel dragon’s voice no longer rumbles or shakes, yet it’s still strong and deep. “Though I can’t remain as one for longer periods than a day. I must take the form of a dragon at least once.”

  “Then what are you? An animal, or a human?”

  My boldness surprises even me. The dragon raises an eyebrow, and I remind myself to be quiet.

  “I suppose I don’t know what I am.” He shrugs. “That is what you’re going to help me with.”

  “Huh?” I ask.

  “This might take a while to explain.” He gestures to the rug beneath my feet. “Come. Sit.”

  I glance down at the rug. It’s not ladylike to sit on the floor in front of someone that isn’t your gender, but I don’t even know if I can consider him a person, so I sit down and tuck my legs behind me. He sits as well, crossing his ankles and dangling his wrists over his knees.

  “First, there is something you need to know,” he starts. “I wasn’t always like this. I was born like you, as a human. But I was cursed to live as a dragon for the rest of my days.”

  “Cursed? By who?” I ask. Whoever cursed Smok must’ve been a man or been blind, because it’s definitely wrong to ruin a work of beauty like him by turning him into a giant lizard.

  “It happened years ago. The one who cursed me was an enchantress, the Queen of the Baltic Sea. She’s an underwater witch who lives within deep waters, far away from here,” he explains.

  “Why did she curse you? What did you do?” I ask.

  “It was to serve as punishment for sins I don’t want to get into.” Smok’s face hardens.

  “I apologize.” My gaze drops downward before I look up again. “But if it’s been years, why do you want to break the curse now?”

  “At the time, I thought it was just. But being a dragon has become a curse to me. I can no longer handle living as a monster forever.”

  “I thought it was only for the rest of your days?”

  “That’s the point. Until death becomes forever, if you’re immortal, and the sea witch made me so when she cast her curse upon me.”

  It crosses my mind what a cruel and vile punishment that is. I think that the enchantress must be evil for doing such a thing, but then my thoughts take a different direction. What did Smok do that made him believe he earned his suffering, made him think he was obligated to live forever as a hideous beast?

  Perhaps I should fear him more than I already do.

  “What does this have to do with me?” I ask. “How can I help?”

  “There is always a way out of spells. A back door, if you will. The enchantress gave me a way to break the curse, but she made it as difficult as she possibly could.”

  Smok holds up a hand, counting on his fingers. “She made it a requirement that I go on a journey to the Baltic Sea with a virgin pure of heart and soul. If I could convince a single virgin to come with m
e, a dragon, on a journey underneath the sea to meet the enchantress, she would break the spell. So far, I haven’t found anyone willing to partake in the quest with me.”

  “You should’ve looked into slaves earlier. No choice in the matter.” I laugh.

  “That’s the problem. A person, even a slave, must choose to go willingly. I cannot take them by force, or the queen won’t break the spell.” Smok’s face sombers.

  “And you believe I want to go?” I cross my arms, and raise an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon, Sir Dragon—”

  “Smok.”

  “Whoever you are,” I shoot back. “I’d most likely die anyway on the quest to the Baltic Sea. It’s very far away, and riddled with terrors and monsters. Why would I risk a painful death out there when I can die in here, warm and comfortable?

  “You are a slave, aren’t you? Yet Krakus sold you to me to keep his village safe. I now hold possession over you, and decide your fate,” Smok says. “But If you travel with me to the Baltic Sea, meet the enchantress, and break the curse, I will set you free.”

  That changes everything. “What?”

  “Yes. If you help me break the curse, you’ll no longer be in my service. I’ll let you go wherever you please. You will be a free woman.”

  Hmm. A dangerous quest, made even more perilous by the guarantee of pain and (most likely) certain death?

  Nothing compared to the allure of freedom. “All right,” I say. “I’ll do it.”

  “This isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. You will face many dangers on the way to the Baltic Sea,” the dragon says.

  “You were the one who asked. Do you want my help or not?”

  Smok smirks. He takes my forearm, and grasps it firmly. His skin, rough like scales, is hot against my skin. “Very well. We shall leave in the morning at first light.”

  Smok stands up. The fog swirls around him again. In his place is the dragon, red and terrible, but somewhat less formidable now that I know who lies within.