by Lee Hayton
“I can’t hear the dragon,” Baile said, walking over to Shandra’s side. “I think it’s retreated into the other side of the cavern and is sleeping. It won’t expect another intrusion into its territory so soon.”
“Let’s hope you’re right. Where do you want me to stand and what should I do when it makes it out?”
Baile talked her through the motions, always insisting he would take the brunt of the fight. Shandra nodded along with everything, privately wondering if he was as strong as he made out.
When Baile stood behind her, placing her arms in a position to thrust upward into the dragon’s heart, Shandra felt the beat of his heart on the skin of her back. Warmth flooded through her body and not just from the sunlight striking down from overhead.
“Can I ask you for something before I start?” Baile stared down at her with his usual easy grin and Shandra couldn’t help but reciprocate.
“Anything. What?”
He grasped the back of her neck and tilted her face up to his at the same time he lowered his lips to hers. The heat of his body pulsed through into Shandra who dropped her sword to wrap her arms around his body.
“I’ll see you soon,” Baile promised as he released her, far too soon for her liking.
Shandra stared at his back, a pulse ticking high in her throat as he walked into the dark maw of the tunnel entrance. She stepped to the side as Baile had told her, waiting with her sword poised, ready for one dragon to come flying out in chase of another.
She didn’t have long to wait.
Before the sun had managed to lengthen the shadows by another hour, Baile came running out of the second tunnel. He skidded to a halt and pressed himself flat against the rock face farther along.
With only a second to spare, Shandra rushed forth, sword at the ready. As the fearsome creature emerged from the mountain at full speed, she thrust the blade up, letting its forward propulsion drive it home.
The dragon tipped its head back and roared, then bent forward and swept flame in a semi-circle of death. Praying that Baile was right in his assumptions, Shandra clung onto the hilt of her sword and swung her legs up and over, mounting the surprised beast, her legs straddling just behind its head.
She reached for the knife in her boot to help finish the job the sword had started but had to cling to the dragon with her fingers digging in tight as it swayed to and fro, attempting to shake her loose.
The beast took two steps forward, then Shandra’s lungs and heart seized as the creature spread its wings wide and launched into the air.
“Dammit, Baile!” she shouted, apoplectic with rage and fear.
The scales of the dragon were slippery but Shandra managed to thrust her fingertips into the gaps between, giving her some purchase as the beast hurtled into the sky. She daren’t look down as the air swished past them. If she caught sight of the ground below, she might loosen her grip in terror.
While pushing her knees tightly into the dragon’s side, she crawled forward. Although it seemed she must have moved whole yards, when Shandra risked a look she saw she’d only advanced a few inches.
It was enough. The move placed her within reaching distance of the creature’s swampy green eyes.
With a brief prayer sent out into the world for whatever gods were listening to laugh at, Shandra forced herself to let go of the dragon’s scales with her right hand and once again reach down to her boot.
A swerve changed her mind, but when the creature steadied again on its path through the air, she tried again. This time, her stretching fingers grabbed hold of the handle and she drew it out of the sheath.
“One,” she muttered, planning on counting to two and three but unable to wait. Shandra thrust the knife as hard as she could at the dragon’s right eye. The blade disappeared, sliding so easily into the jelly-like substance that it threw her off-balance.
Her cry of triumph turned to a shriek of despair as Shandra slipped off the edge of the dragon. She clutched at the scales, but they just sliced through the skin of her fingers as a final insult.
She plummeted toward the earth.
With her eyes tightly closed, Shandra didn’t see Baile grab her around the waist. All she knew was that one minute she was falling and the next, she was being held close to his chest.
His dragon chest.
Shandra opened her eyes and saw the brilliance of orange scales gleaming in the sunlight. In a few seconds, he landed and placed her carefully on the ground, before once again thrusting forth into the air.
Instead of fire, he breathed out a noxious cloud of steam or gas that soon enveloped the already-writhing dragon. Two passes, three, and the foul creature lost its bearings and fell straight to the ground.
Shandra leaped forward, retrieving the knife out of the beast’s eye and using it to slash the dragon’s throat. Blood oozed rather than sprayed from the creature, a sure sign it was already dead.
With a sob, she stepped back, emotions overwhelming her until she sank to her knees, shaking. The flight, the fall, the fear. It crowded up against her until Shandra surrendered, tears falling from her eyes.
Baile landed nearby, changing back into a man who strode toward her, picking her up from the ground and cradling her in his arms. He didn’t ask if she was okay and Shandra was grateful. They clung to each other, both weary from the short battle.
“Out of the way.”
Shandra gave a startled yelp and leaped backward as Zen raced past them both. He raised his sword with both hands and plunged it deep into the dragon’s chest, using his full weight to drag it along the body until its innards spread out like a stain on the ground.
With a war cry, Zen plunged his hands into the opening he’d just made, driving his arms into the creature up to his shoulders before he found what he sought, and withdrew with another bellow of triumph.
“What are you doing?” Shandra took a step toward him, then shrank back as he turned, the dragon’s foul blood coating him from chest to knee.
“The fire gland.” Zen held it up as though no other explanation was needed. He pulled a leather pouch from his waist and shoved the organ into it, pulling the strings closed. Only then did he seem to notice Shandra’s puzzled face. “It contains the mineral your overlord is seeking.”
His eyes moved from Shandra’s face to glance over her shoulder. “Heads up,” he yelled out, beginning to sprint away from her and Baile. “Your favorite army is on its way. I’d keep your mouth shut about this if I were you.”
Zen held a finger up to his lips, then cackled laughter and turned to continue running like the wind. Shandra turned and saw the dust clouds that heralded the arrival of Wella and the briefly hidden army.
“How in fuck’s name are we meant to pretend we didn’t see that?”
Chapter Eleven
“Perhaps we could hide and act like we didn’t see who did it?” Baile looked around but Shandra was already shaking her head.
“There’s nowhere. The closest hiding place is the tunnels, and the army’s already past there. We could dig ourselves into the dirt”—which she thought her brother Zen had done—“but it’s too deliberate to be an excuse.”
In the flight, they’d moved far away from the mountainside, but the empty landscape offered no immediate respite from their situation. While Shandra felt panic start to nibble, Baile walked forward and pushed at the dragon until it fell forward, hiding the gaping wound in its chest.
“I don’t think hiding the slash will work for long.”
“Lay down.” Baile smeared some blood on Shandra’s face, then lay face-down on the ground. “When they get here, pretend to be unconscious. If we were jumped from behind, then Wella can’t hold it against us.”
“Yes, she can.” Still, without another immediate alternative, Shandra did as Baile suggested. She closed her eyes and tried to place her arms and legs, so it would look like she’d fallen down following a blow to the head.
Soon enough, the sound of hoofbeats grew closer, and then a guard g
rabbed hold of Shandra’s shoulders, shaking her fit to raise the dead. She let him do it a few times before groaning and opening her eyes slowly. Luckily, the brightness of the afternoon light meant she didn’t need to act as she winced and her eyes watered.
“What’s that? Is it time to get up?”
Her slurred words sounded like play-acting to her own ears, but the guard swallowed the thing whole. “She’s been knocked out,” he yelled back to Wella. “Maybe the dragon threw her off as they landed.”
“Can you help me up?” Shandra asked in a whisper, staggering as the guard took most of her weight and lifted her to her feet.
“Watch yourself,” he warned. “You should rest after a nasty crack on the head.”
Shandra lifted a hand to her forehead and winced, making a show of peering at the blood as she pulled it away. “What happened? Did we get the dragon?”
“Yeah, you got him.” The guard helped her to walk away from the dead beast, then looked back as another guard roused Baile. “It looks like you and your friend took a nasty turn at the end there.”
“Baile?” Shandra opened her eyes wide. “Is he okay?”
Wella suddenly appeared at her side, sticking her face into Shandra’s until she drew back.
“What in fuck happened to you two?” she spat out, then turned without waiting for an answer. “Nice work with the dragon. Hasho? Help me turn him over.”
The guard left Shandra’s side and worked in tandem with Wella to push the beast onto its back. A second later, the overlord gave out a roar of anger.
“Who did this?” She was back in Shandra’s face, this time poking her in the chest with her finger. “Did you take it? Where did you put it, you fucking thief?”
“What? What happened?”
“The dragon,” Wella drawled out the syllables. “Somebody ripped out his fire gland.” She ran her hands up and down Shandra’s body, even sticking her hand down the front of her trousers to root around in her crotch. “Where did you put it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s a fire gland?”
Wella shoved her back so hard that Shandra tripped over her own feet and fell onto her butt. She gave another roar of anger, then walked over to where Baile was pretending to come to. “What about you? I suppose you saw nothing, either?”
She kicked his thigh with the toe of her boot, hard enough that he winced.
“Somebody hit me.” Baile looked around at the circle of men and women now crowding them. Some of the soldiers went to stare at the dragon, poking at its snout, its wings, its scales.
“Get away from the beast!” Wella yelled, drawing her sword. “If you didn’t help to slaughter the thing, then stand back. Go and hide out in the undergrowth again, for all I care.”
She whirled around, staring hard at Baile. “Who hit you? Was it that wench over there?”
Wella pointed a finger straight at Shandra, but Baile was shaking his head, pretending a wince of pain as a result. “No. Somebody came up behind me after I set her down on the ground. Was it the dragon? I thought I’d killed it.”
“Whatever.” Wella walked over to the dragon’s body and gave it an almighty kick. After a few more for good measure, she appeared to calm down.
“What is it that you think I stole?” Shandra scrambled to her feet and walked over to help Baile to his also. “Did you keep hold of the jewels you got out of the dragon’s treasure cave?”
He nodded and pulled out some shimmering baubles. Wella stared at them for a moment before striking them from his hand. “It doesn’t matter. The dragon’s dead but there’ll be others. We’ll return to our camp for the night. Now we have a way into the mountainside, we can set off early tomorrow. Since the dwarves won’t be expecting us, the battle against them shouldn’t take long.”
Wella turned to look at the men and women, some just arriving. All eager to peer at the once-in-a-lifetime sight of a slain dragon. “What do you say? Call it a day and sit down to some good food and good wine the promise of a good battle in the morning?”
The soldiers sent up an enthusiastic cry before roping up the dragon to drag back to the campsite. Shandra shot Baile a look of gratitude and fell into step behind the noxious corpse.
Chapter Twelve
Shandra woke later that night from dreams of blood and falling. Her head pounded from the exhaustion that finally claimed her late in the day.
For a minute, Zen’s grin hung in front of her face, his hand clutching its bloody prize. What did he intend to do with the precious gland?
Wella might have stumbled across the plans for the weapon but her elder brother could probably reinvent it from scratch.
Was he crazy enough to actually create such a thing?
She turned onto her side, sleep far away for the moment. Forget about Zen, there was nothing she could do to stop him. In the hours that had passed since he gutted the dragon, he would be long gone, and she didn’t even know in which direction. Considering it had taken her five years to stumble upon him after thinking him dead, it might be twice that before she laid eyes on him again.
Wella slept only a few yards from where Shandra lay and the terrible actions the overlord was capable of were enough to occupy all of her attention. Now they’d found a way into the mountain, a place probably stuffed full of dragons complete with the magical mineral Wella sought, there’d be nothing to stop her.
As Shandra thought of the bloodshed and harm that could come if Wella developed the weapon—and it worked—she pondered if killing the overlord right now, while she lay sleeping, was the righteous thing to do.
Even her imagination shied away from performing such a horrible act.
Shandra turned over again, putting her arms behind her head and staring into the starry sky. Unless she could come up with a better solution, then it seemed likely they were stuck with a horrendous outcome, no matter what.
Instead of eliminating all harm, perhaps the best she could hope was to reduce the harm inflicted on the innocent people. If Wella got hold of the mineral, maybe Shandra could infiltrate the development team and grind the gears to a halt there. Maybe she could wrangle herself a position on the council and try to influence the overlord from a seat of power.
Maybe, maybe.
As the ideas churned through her head, Shandra finally managed to fall back to sleep.
The next morning, Shandra woke early and went to the nearby stream to bathe before it became crowded with the other soldiers. Baile must have had the same thought, because he stood in the middle of the stream, lifting handfuls of water up to his naked chest. His lower half was covered by the rushing water, but she imagined it, too, was bare. Blood flowed into her cheeks and she turned away for a moment.
“Morning.” Baile waved at her.
Too late now for her to pretend she hadn’t caught sight of him. Shandra moved down to the water’s edge, poking her toes in to test the temperature.
Baile laughed and splashed a handful of water toward her. “It’s warm. You don’t need to worry about that. Get on in here.”
She paused for a second, looking around at the still undergrowth surrounding them.
“No one will see you if you’re quick. With the celebrations last night, I don’t think there’s many will be showing their faces this early.”
Shandra had to agree with that. Other armies might run on their stomachs or their thirst for honor. Wella’s army seemed to be fueled by wine and beer.
With a quick intake of breath, Shandra lifted her top above her head and tossed it to one side before sliding her trousers down to join it. To begin with, she tiptoed into the water, but when she grew close enough, Baile roared and dragged her full into the stream.
“Nothing’s going to bite,” he said with a grin, then changed it to a leer. “Unless that’s what you desire.”
She laughed and pushed him away, swimming to the middle of the stream before standing and beginning to wash the dirt and blood off her, still caked on from the fig
ht the previous day.
“You’ve completely changed color,” Baile said with a wink. “At least, the bits of you that I can see.”
“I thought you saw all my bits as I got into the water. I should make you get out first, so I get to see all of yours in return.”
“Just remember, some bits act differently in water than you might expect. There’s a fair amount of shrinkage that can happen.”
Shandra stared at him for a second, nonplussed, then understood what he meant. She blushed and splashed water on her face to hide the color. Dammit, but one day she was going to get control over her emotions, so they didn’t write themselves all over her face!
“I’ll make allowances if you need me to do that. Perhaps we should make a date for another time and you can show me again in better conditions. Just for research’s sake, you understand.”
Baile shook his head, still grinning, then ducked himself fully under the water. When he emerged, he strode toward the edge of the stream until she saw his body in its full glory.
And what a glory it was.
The water streamed down his firm torso, gliding over the defined musculature until it reached the tangle of hairs on his thighs and covering his manhood. Well, covering part of his manhood, that was. To Shandra’s eyes, if the water had caused any shrinkage then he usually sported a weapon between his legs larger than any she’d seen so far.
At the thought of how that would feel, thrusting inside her, Shandra had to duck her head under the water and stay there for a moment until the cold stream washed all the heat away.
When she popped back up, the display was at an end. Baile had dressed from head to toe in record time. As he bent to pick up his belt, the last item of clothing, she had to imagine the smooth skin and muscles working underneath the fabric.
“Do you want me to stand guard while you finish up?”
“Thank you.” Shandra nodded with appreciation and quickly washed all over. It wasn’t until emerging from the stream that she realized the task could have been turned into a show.
