Dragon Fire: Dragon Knights (The Sea Captain's Daughter Book 2)

by Bianca D’Arc

  That Xander was a land dragon and Shara a sea dragon had been quite the talk of the island there for a while, but once Gryffid had given his blessing to the mating, and young Leo, who was Xander’s knight partner was also granted permission to marry Lizbet, a fey healer soul-bonded to Shara, it all worked out. Shara’s parents had come ashore to bless the union as well and they’d brought Shara’s little sister, Zera, who had quickly captured everyone’s heart, two-legged and four-footed alike.

  Little Zera stopped and faced Livia, waiting for her. Zera’s kind heart wouldn’t allow her to play keep-away for a long period of time. She turned and presented the scarf back to Livia, who accepted it with due ceremony.

  “Here’s your scarf, Livy. It’s all right if you keep it,” Zera’s little voice came to Livia in her mind. She was one of the rare human females that could hear dragons’ silent speech, which came in handy, seeing as how she was friendly with so many dragons.

  “You are very sweet to give it back to me, Zera. But what if I want to give it to you? Would you like that?”

  In truth, Livia had brought the colorful length of fabric for the toddler. Her tender little feet weren’t quite used to sand and rocks yet, since she hadn’t spent much time ashore in her young life. She’d received an injury to her right foot the day before and Livia thought it would help to cover the foot with something soft. And being that Zera was female, it should be pretty too, Livia thought.

  She’d presented her needs to the fey weaver in the marketplace and that venerable woman had come up with the perfect length of fabric, which Zera held now. Livia could see the way the young dragon was stroking the cloth with the pads of her fingers—the soft parts on the inside, under her small talons. She liked the cloth, Livia could tell.

  “Truly?” Zera’s big eyes blinked. Oh, yes, she definitely liked it.

  “Yes. Well and truly. I bought it for you, for your booboo. I thought maybe if we put this over the bandage Lizbet put on for you, it would make it prettier and feel softer against your scales. And when your booboo is healed, you can use it in other ways, like to sleep on or throw over your shoulders if you feel a chill. There are many uses a girl can think of for a length of pretty cloth, and I want this one to be yours. What do you say?” Livia tilted her head in question, smiling softly at the child.

  Flurrthith had come over and was watching over Livia’s shoulder.

  “How doess your foot feel today, Zera?” Flurrthith asked, his beak interfering with the letter S as it did for most gryphons when they spoke aloud.

  “It still hurts,” Zera admitted. “Lizbet looked at it and replaced the bandage just a little while ago. She said it’s healing, but I have to be careful.”

  Livia wanted to smile. Zera’s tone made being careful sound akin to being in prison. Livia remembered feeling that way as a child too. Perhaps all children had that in common.

  “Why don’t you sit down and I can wrap this around your leg. It will cushion your injury a little more, and in case you forget to be careful, you won’t hurt yourself again, all right?”

  Zera plopped down onto her little dragon butt, her tail stretched out behind her in the sand, her little feet sticking up. Livia could see the bandage and the waterproof wrap Lizbet had put over it. Livia intended to reuse the waterproof layer at the very bottom so Zera could still walk on her foot without ruining the fabric, but the wrap would cushion everything a bit more and the colors and texture would please the patient.

  Livia had asked Seth’s advice before buying the fabric and he told her they often did such things in the Lair, especially for the younger patients. Seth had invaluable experience treating dragons and he was teaching Lizbet as much as he could, but she hadn’t consulted him on this yet and Livia wanted to do something nice for Zera anyway.

  Livia unwrapped the waterproof layer and brushed it free of sand, setting it aside for use after she added the new soft and colorful wrap. She worked through the wrapping process the way Seth had told her to do it last night when she’d asked, and was pleased with the results. The two ends of the long swath of fabric tied off in a showy bow, much to Zera’s delight. Livia quickly replaced the waterproof layer, folding it into a sort of walking sole or bootie just on the lower part of Zera’s foot, talking all the while to the youngsters.

  Flurrthith was watching everything with his hawk-like eyes. He was a curious child with a keen mind.

  “Will that make it heal fasster?” he asked Livia, nodding to the colorful wrapping.

  “Not faster, but more comfortably. And it’s pretty too. Isn’t it, Zera?”

  Zera looked down at her leg, examining the fabric and the big bow. “Oh, yes. I like it very much. Thank you, Livy! You’re the best human female I know.”

  Livia had to laugh. “I’m the only human female you know, sweetheart, but I’m flattered.”

  “What about when I go in the water? Will this get ruined?” Zera asked, the thought apparently just having occurred to her.

  “No, that’s the best part,” Livia told the dragonet. “The weaver assured me that the colors are fast and will not be ruined by water. Also, the weave is particularly tight, and the fabric itself has been treated to repel water. The weaver believed that it would not become waterlogged and weigh you down. But you’re supposed to keep your foot dry for another day or two, right? Isn’t that was Lizbet told you?”

  Zera nodded solemnly. “She said she didn’t want my booboo to get ‘fected.”

  “Infected,” Livia corrected the child, nodding kindly. “When something gets infected, it hurts even worse and doesn’t heal for a long time, so you don’t want that. And it’s not so bad up here on land, is it?” Livia caressed the dragonet’s cheek affectionately, rubbing up behind her ears the way Livia had come to learn Zera liked.

  “No, it’s nice. I like the sand pit. And I like playing with Flurrthith, and you, Livy.” Some of Zera’s enthusiasm was returning. “And I really like learning to fly.”

  Under her parents’ watchful eye, Xanderanth was showing Zera how to catch the wind under her little wings. She’d accomplished short hops over the dunes that made her trumpet in childish delight. She probably wouldn’t fly any real distance for months yet, Seth had told Livia when she’d asked, but these little hops were important on the way to learning. He’d seen it in the Lair, with the few dragon children they’d had there during his lifetime.

  The sea dragons, surprisingly, were strong fliers once they got the hang of air. Most of them stayed beneath the waves as a general rule, but they knew how to fly in air, if need be. It was a skill they learned as children, but didn’t use very often.

  Once they started flying with the gryphons, they proved to be strong and fast, if not very accurate. Xanderanth was as strong, if not stronger than they were, even though their wing muscles had been built up against the resistance of water, which was much greater than air. Still, Xander had dexterity and control over fine movements that they lacked and he was looked to as a teacher for those sea dragons who wanted to learn better control in the air.

  It was quite a juxtaposition since Xander had originally been sent to the Southern Lair to learn flying from those dragons older and more experienced than he was. Still, he had the basics down better than the sea dragons did at this point, so he was as good a teacher as any for the moment. More experienced teachers could be brought in from the Lair if the sea dragons wanted—or they could go there and seek out lessons from the mainland.

  Now that was something Livia realized nobody had expected. That they’d even made contact with the legendarily elusive sea dragons was something surprising in itself. That they’d made friends and forged an alliance of sorts with them through a mating was simply astounding.

  Zera had toddled off with Flurrthith beside her to show her big sister her new scarf and Livia watched the four-footed creatures with a happy smile. Gryphons, land and sea dragons working together and being friends. Who would have ever predicted it would happen, much less that Livia would be
present to witness it all.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Seth’s arms came around her waist from behind.

  He’d snuck up on her, but she was delighted by the surprise of his presence. She’d thought he’d be holed up with the healers at the keep all day. She’d left them discussing the merits of different herbs hours ago and figured the debate would keep them occupied until she got back from her trip to the beach.

  She turned in his embrace to kiss him hello, glad of the freedom to do so, here on the wizard’s island, far from home. If her father had been around, she’d never have been so forward. Even without her father’s disapproving presence, Livia would have to have been much more discrete in Dragonscove, since the people there loved to gossip and somehow everything she did always seemed to make its way back to her father if she wasn’t careful.

  “I’m glad you found a way out of the keep today. Being inside all the time can’t be good for you,” she chastised him after the kiss ended.

  “I don’t like it either,” Seth said quietly, looking into her eyes, his handsome face smiling in that sexy way that lit a fire in her insides. “You know I’m more a man of action than sitting around inside all day, but it’s important work we’re doing. If the sea dragons are going to come to the fey healers who live here for help, they need to know how to treat dragons.” Seth kept his voice low and she realized he hadn’t come to the beach alone. She could see a number of the blonde fair folk on the beach, observing the dragons. “I missed you. And I couldn’t take being cooped up in the keep for one more hour, so I proposed a field trip.”

  Livia laughed at the sparkle of merriment in Seth’s blue eyes. “A brilliant idea, if ever I’ve heard one,” she complimented him. “But how did you get here?”

  The distance from the keep to the sea dragons’ beach was the width of the island, which wasn’t a short distance by any stretch of the imagination. If they’d gotten here this fast, they had to have flown.

  “Some of the healers who specialize in treating gryphons have a partnership of sorts with some of those they care for. I was able to hitch a lift with one of the gryphons who help support the healers who are attached to the gryphon flight wings. It’s all very orderly, now that they’ve explained the structure to me. It’s military. Like a cavalry and its support functions. The healers are considered adjunct to the gryphon organization. We don’t have anything like that in Draconia. Of course, the bond between dragon and human is different than the relationship between gryphon and fey. At least from what I’ve been able to observe.”

  She loved the more academic side to Seth. He wasn’t just a brawny bruiser, though he had proved himself in defense of their home harbor when it had come under attack. Seth was a thinking man, which meshed well with her personality. Which was probably why she was so head-over-heels in love with him.

  But it was a mess. She also loved Gowan and Gowan was bonded to the dragoness, Genlitha. So, if she wanted to marry Gowan, she had to accept whichever knight was partnered to Genlitha’s dragon mate. The only problem was, they had no idea who Genlitha would mate with.

  Livia had hoped it would be Hrardorr, but the blind dragon had sworn to never choose another knight. Livia still inwardly wished for a miracle. That Hrardorr would choose Seth as his knight and Hrardorr and Genlitha would become mates so that Livia could be permanently bonded to the two men who had stolen her heart.

  It would be so perfect.

  But there were so many obstacles on that path. Hrardorr’s blindness was something the dragon would have to deal with if he was ever going to be receptive to choosing another knight. And then he had to choose Seth, which was in no way guaranteed, no matter how much Livia might wish it.

  And then there was Genlitha and Hrardorr… Were they really interested in mating with each other, or was that just all wishful thinking on Livia’s part too? She had no idea, and no real way to ask them without putting the figurative cart way before the figurative horse.

  “I see you gave Zera the scarf.” Seth nodded toward the dragonet who was showing off her pretty bow to her indulgent parents.

  “She loved it,” Livia agreed, smiling at the toddler as she stepped back from Seth.

  Livia didn’t go far though. She just turned and Seth’s arm settled over her shoulder as they watched the gathering on the beach.

  Zera wasn’t as shy of the land creatures as some of her elders, so she was toddling over to the newly arrived gryphons and showing off her scarf and explaining about her booboo to any who would listen. Surprisingly, the fierce gryphons were just as susceptible to Zera’s cuteness as everyone else. Even the battle-hardened warrior gryphons bent down to admire the little one’s new scarf and speak kindly to her. Compassion, it seemed, was universal to beings of good character.

  To read more, get your copy of Dragon Mates by Bianca D’Arc.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Bianca D’Arc has run a laboratory, climbed the corporate ladder in the shark-infested streets of lower Manhattan, studied and taught martial arts, and earned the right to put a whole bunch of letters after her name, but she’s always enjoyed writing more than any of her other pursuits. She grew up and still lives on Long Island, where she keeps busy with an extensive garden, several aquariums full of very demanding fish, and writing her favorite genres of paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi romance.

  Bianca loves to hear from readers and can be reached through Twitter (@BiancaDArc), Facebook (BiancaDArcAuthor) or through the various links on her website.

  OTHER BOOKS BY BIANCA D’ARC

  Paranormal Romance

  Brotherhood of Blood

  One & Only

  Rare Vintage

  Phantom Desires

  Sweeter Than Wine

  Forever Valentine

  Wolf Hills*

  Wolf Quest

  Tales of the Were

  Lords of the Were

  Inferno

  Tales of the Were ~ The Others

  Rocky

  Slade

  Tales of the Were ~ Redstone Clan

  The Purrfect Stranger

  Grif

  Red

  Magnus

  Bobcat

  Matt

  Tales of the Were ~ String of Fate

  Cat’s Cradle

  King’s Throne

  Jacob’s Ladder

  Her Warriors

  Tales of the Were ~ Grizzly Cove

  All About the Bear

  Mating Dance

  Night Shift

  Alpha Bear

  Saving Grace

  Bearliest Catch

  The Bear’s Healing Touch

  Guardians of the Dark

  Half Past Dead

  Once Bitten, Twice Dead

  A Darker Shade of Dead

  The Beast Within

  Dead Alert

  Gifts of the Ancients: Warrior’s Heart

  Epic Fantasy Erotic Romance

  Dragon Knights

  Maiden Flight*

  The Dragon Healer

  Border Lair

  Master at Arms

  The Ice Dragon**

  Prince of Spies***

  Wings of Change

  FireDrake

  Dragon Storm

  Keeper of the Flame

  Hidden Dragons

  The Sea Captain’s Daughter Trilogy

  Book 1: Sea Dragon

  Book 2: Dragon Fire

  Book 3: Dragon Mates

  Science Fiction Romance

  StarLords

  Hidden Talent

  Talent For Trouble

  Shy Talent

  Jit’Suku Chronicles ~ Arcana

  King of Swords

  King of Cups

  King of Clubs

  King of Stars

  End of the Line

  Diva

  Jit’Suku Chronicles ~ Sons of Amber

  Angel in the Badlands

  Master of Her Heart

  Futuristic Erotic Romance

  Resonance Mates
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  Hara’s Legacy**

  Davin’s Quest

  Jaci’s Experiment

  Grady’s Awakening

  Harry’s Sacrifice

  Print Anthologies

  Ladies of the Lair

  I Dream of Dragons Vol. 1

  Brotherhood of Blood

  Caught by Cupid

  The Beast Within

  * RT Book Reviews Awards Nominee

  ** EPPIE Award Winner

  *** CAPA Award Winner