by Freya Garth
‘You can’t always detect ill-use,’ Narvi said hesitantly, ‘if it affects a person’s mind, or their feelings.’ She met Doraya’s gaze without flinching. ‘Your eyes, Lady. They are strange, like the dragon riders’ eyes.’
Doraya explained about the mind-meld while Narvi’s own eyes grew rounder and rounder. The other women were also looking astonished and disbelieving. Doraya realised that she would have to give more of herself if she was to convince them. The thought almost paralysed her with fear, and she felt Fiami stir in response to her strong emotion.
The last thing she needed was Fiami going rogue. There was no way out but through.
‘Before I was a dragon rider’s woman,’ Doraya said, ‘I worked as a lowly kitchen drudge at King Panac’s castle. I was the one everyone picked on. Perhaps you have someone like that in this kitchen.’
A few heads swivelled, and Doraya noticed a girl she hadn’t seen before, dressed in rags and cowering beside the hearth.
‘One of the castle soldiers wanted me. I didn’t want him.’ She wrinkled her nose as she remembered. ‘He was crude, and harsh, and he stank.’
The eyes of the ragged girl were fixed on Doraya as if they could never look anywhere else.
‘I couldn’t see a way out. In desperation, I asked my dragon rider if I could go with him. I thought I might be eaten, but it seemed like a gamble worth making.’
She noticed with satisfaction that some of the kitchen women were looking ashamed of themselves.
‘It has turned out so well for me. I am loved,’ she said simply.
The door to the kitchen slammed open and Goril burst through, looking wildly around. ‘Doraya!’ he called.
‘I’m here,’ she said calmly. ‘We’ve been having a chat.’
He strode across to her, pushing women out of his path, and took her in his arms. ‘Are you hurt?’ he demanded.
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘These women have been very careful of my safety.’
‘They’d better have been,’ he growled, and kissed her as if to assure himself of her well-being. ‘Fiami picked up on your fear. She guided me to you.’ He kissed her again and she could feel his relief, and Fiami’s, vibrating through his lips.
‘Lady.’ Narvi’s voice sounded worried. ‘Please forgive me.’
Doraya broke away from Goril and put her hand on the older woman’s arm. ‘There is nothing to forgive, when my safety was your first concern.’ She smiled reassuringly.
‘Thank you,’ Narvi said. ‘If there’s anything I can do for you, please, just ask.’
‘You all know what our problem is.’ Doraya saw with satisfaction that Goril was surprised at the way her voice rang around the kitchen. ‘If any of you can help us solve it, I will be very pleased to hear from you. And in the meantime, Narvi, I was looking forward to that bath.’
She was bustled back to the chamber and into the hot tub in short order. Narvi was clearly ashamed of herself and much less talkative than usual. That suited Doraya, who was glad of a little time to recover from her ordeal.
When Doraya was dressed to Narvi’s satisfaction, they joined Goril and Banic. Doraya walked straight to Goril and held up her face to his. He gave her a lingering, affectionate kiss on the lips, and ran his finger down her jawbone.
‘Narvi has looked after me so well.’ Doraya turned, her hand on Goril’s arm. ‘She could not have been more helpful.’
Goril gave Narvi his best crinkle-eyed smile. ‘Thank you, Narvi, for looking after my lady.’
Narvi dimpled and curtsied. ‘It is my pleasure, sir.’
‘We will rest now,’ Goril announced.
Banic and Narvi both bowed.
‘I will be in the corridor if you need anything, sir,’ Banic said.
‘Banic can fetch me in a moment if you want, Lady,’ Narvi added. ‘I will be back to help you dress for supper.’
They left and closed the heavy chamber door behind them.
Doraya turned to Goril, but he put his finger to his lips and took her in his arms. ‘They may be listening,’ he whispered. ‘How did it go with Narvi?’
‘She wanted to rescue me from you,’ Doraya said demurely.
‘From me?’
The look of outrage on his face made Doraya giggle. She touched his lips to remind him to be quiet then told him briefly, in a whisper, what had passed between her and the kitchen women.
‘I didn’t exactly explain how things work at our caves, with the women and the men. I thought that might come as something of a shock. It did to me.’
‘Did it?’ Goril let go of her and paced to the window and back. ‘I suppose it seems normal to me because I’ve grown up with it, but I know things work differently in the castles.’
* * * *
Goril knew Saban had been right. He was selfish. The realisation seared itself into his mind. It had never occurred to him that it might be hard for new women to find themselves the property of so many men. None of them had seemed to mind—but then, had they any choice? Once they reached the caves, there was nowhere for them to go. Just because he and his fellow riders treated their women so well, wanted them to be happy, didn’t mean they necessarily were content.
‘Doraya.’ He looked at her beautiful face in its frame of red-gold hair, golden eyes lifted questioningly to his. ‘Are you happy, now, as a dragon rider’s woman?’
‘I don’t know.’
Her answer surprised him.
‘I haven’t had time to think about it,’ she went on. ‘I’m not unhappy, like I was before.’
She dropped her eyes and raised them again, and he knew there was something else she wanted to say. He stepped closer and took her hands, raising an eyebrow in a silent question.
‘I’m happy with you,’ she said softly.
‘Are you unhappy with others?’
‘Everyone is very kind, very caring.’ Her luminescent eyes were fixed on his face. ‘Perhaps I should have said I’m happiest with you.’
His heart danced with joy, and he bent to kiss Doraya, trying to convey from his lips to hers the feelings he found hard to put into words. She returned his kiss with surprising passion, as if she, too, had unsaid messages to express. A fire grew between them swift as dragon’s breath, and sure enough, Fiami was there, too. This time, there was no pretence of control. Goril was already achingly hard and desperate to reach Doraya’s soft, warm body through her layers of ridiculously complicated robes.
‘These castle clothes are stupid,’ he growled, undoing ties and pushing back fabric with clumsy fingers.
Doraya struggled with his breeches and finally managed to free his throbbing cock. Her hands on him soothed for a moment, but then made him crave her cunt even more. A low groan escaped from his throat as he finally found her skin.
His touch made her convulse. ‘Please,’ she gasped, ‘fuck me now. I can’t wait. I need you inside me.’
He threw her onto the bed and dove on top of her, plunging his rock-hard cock deep into her cunt. Clothes tangled around them, but there was no time for him to miss the feeling of her skin on his. The pounding of his cock into her cunt was all-consuming. Judging by the way she was working her hips against his, she felt the same. Fiami was urging them on with great delight, and, with his face enveloped in Doraya’s soft hair, Goril flew unerringly toward his peak. His woman’s moans in his ear, her mouth on his neck, her fists beating on his back, all combined with the thrusts of her hips and his to create a perfect explosion of ecstasy. The pulsating spurts of his hot spunk splashing into her cunt brought Doraya to her own peak, and her cunt spasms drew more spunk from his cock than he would have thought possible.
* * * *
It was lucky, Doraya thought, that they were soberly dressed and sitting by the fire when Banic knocked on their chamber door and ceremonially announced the arrival of King Tinis. They stood to greet him, but he waved them back into their seats. Banic brought a chair for the King and then returned to his post in the corridor.
‘
I hope you don’t mind me coming to you here,’ King Tinis said, ‘but I have news and, well, I thought it better to discuss it in private.’
Doraya’s palms were damp, and she ran them over her skirts as if to smooth the fabric.
‘Lady,’—the King turned to her—‘it seems one of your ancestresses must have had a, er, liaison with a dragon rider.’ He looked at Goril. ‘There are so many questions I have never thought to ask. All my life, dragon riders have appeared from time to time, performed useful services, and disappeared again. I know the history, but until I met your lady here, it never occurred to me to ask you how life is with the riders now.’
‘And we have been too proud to tell,’ Goril said, ‘but it is time, I think.’
‘How many riders are you?’
‘We are thirty-five.’
‘And,’ Doraya said, ‘seven women.’
The King’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Children?’
‘We have one boy halfway to manhood, and men of all ages. When I was young’—Goril’s expression turned inward, remembering—‘we had more women, and more children. As the women grew old and died, fewer and fewer young women came to replace them.’
‘Dragon riders don’t often sire children,’ said the King.
‘Those we do sire,’ Goril said, ‘are mostly sons.’
‘Your ancestress’s liaison,’ King Tinis said to Doraya, ‘probably resulted in a girl child. It is quite possible that nobody even knew her father was a rider. The old scrolls say that you must have rider’s blood to meld with a dragon. It’s rare, for a woman, but it has been known.’
Doraya’s heart soared. So she really did belong with the dragon riders.
‘King Tinis,’ Goril took a deep breath, ‘the dragon riders are in danger of dying out.’
‘Tsk, tsk, tsk.’ The King’s brow was furrowed. ‘We can’t have that. I know the custom dictates that you can’t approach women, but you’re a fine-looking bunch of chaps. Very active. Some women seem to like that kind of thing. Why aren’t they approaching you?’
‘There are so many rumours, sire,’ Doraya said. ‘When a woman goes with a dragon rider, usually she is never seen again. So people believe that women are eaten by dragons, or enslaved, or used and abandoned and left for dead.’
She had both men’s full attention. Goril looked horrified, while King Tinis wore his usual fascinated, intent expression. He pointed a finger at her.
‘But you are being seen.’
‘Because of the meld,’ she said.
‘Yes. You have to travel with Goril. So you will be seen everywhere in time. That may help to dispel these rumours.’
‘And then’—Goril leaned forward, elbows on knees—‘more women may begin to approach the riders. Which would be very helpful for us, but wouldn’t it cause dissent elsewhere?’
‘Not in my castle,’ King Tinis said firmly. ‘Plenty of women here. We can spare you a few if that’s what they choose.’ He stood to signal that the interview was over. ‘I’ll see you in the dining hall at supper.’
They stood, too, and bowed to the King as he departed. When Banic had closed the heavy chamber door, Doraya saw that Goril was grinning like a boy.
‘We’re flying now!’ He punched a fist into the air. ‘You were so nervous about all this, but you’re doing so well. How does it feel?’
‘Easier now it’s real people to talk to, and things to work out,’ she said, ‘instead of something I couldn’t imagine.’
When Narvi came to help Doraya change into her evening robes, as soon as the dressing room door was closed, Narvi spoke.
‘Lady, I’ve found you three women.’
Doraya’s mouth fell open in astonishment, but Narvi was fiddling with her robes and didn’t notice.
‘There’s the chief cook’s third daughter. She’s always looked to the horizon. Then there’s a drudge who says she fancies one of the riders, although she doesn’t know his name, but she’ll know him when she sees him. It’s not your rider, Lady, I asked her.’
Doraya felt a glow of happiness at hearing Goril described as ‘your rider.’ If only it was true. She hoped the drudge Narvi spoke of was the ragged girl she’d seen earlier.
‘Also there’s an older woman. I don’t know whether you’ll want her, but I said I’d ask. She’s a good friend of mine and a fine worker. Her husband was a guard until he died of the failing sickness last year. She has two daughters, near to womanhood. The younger one would want to go with her.’
‘She sounds perfect. And as for you’—Doraya placed her hands on the older woman’s shoulders—‘you are a miracle.’
Narvi blushed and dropped her eyes. ‘Nothing of the kind.’ She wriggled away from Doraya’s touch. ‘Just like helping folks. Anyway, we need to get you ready for supper.’
Doraya longed to pass on the news to Goril, but had to sit through a supper of plain roots and unseasoned fowl, tedious political discussions all around her, without showing her impatience.
Finally, they were alone together in their chamber. Goril pulled her into his arms.
‘Castle life is not my favourite,’ he said. ‘I’m happier in our caves, but I do like being able to spend every night with you.’
He began to kiss her face, but she put up her hand to stop him.
‘Goril, listen, I have news.’ She told him what Narvi had said, and watched his eyes widen.
‘Three? And a girl approaching womanhood?’
Seeing his expression lighten with pure joy, Doraya wondered how she could ever have thought his face impassive.
‘That’s more than I dared hope,’ he said. ‘My darling Doraya, you’ve done this.’
‘We’ve done it together,’ she said, and kissed him to emphasise her point.
* * * *
Goril and Doraya spent half the night up discussing how to manage the transfer of the new women to the caves, then fell into bed exhausted. Fiami was already sleeping, and they were happy just to hold each other for once. Doraya dozed off almost immediately, her head on Goril’s shoulder, red-gold hair streaming out across the pillow. He had been so glad of her keen intelligence in helping him solve some of the problems they would face the next day. Fiami could carry six people seated in a row. They had decided that Goril should be at the back and Doraya at the front. A length of rope could be made into a foot loop to help the women mountFiami. Doraya would talk with the women before they left, to answer any questions they might have about life with the riders. Each woman would be given the opportunity to change her mind if she wished.
It felt exciting to be developing a new process, and delightful to be doing so with the woman he loved. Goril went over their plans again in his mind to make sure he’d got them straight. He decided to talk it all through once more with Doraya in the morning, in an attempt to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. She murmured in her sleep, and he leaned close to listen, but could only hear the word ‘Fiami’. Goril’s heart expanded with love for his beloved woman and his beloved dragon. How lucky he was. How lucky.
Goril kissed Doraya’s beautiful face, softly so as not to wake her, and settled himself for sleep.
* * * *
Doraya and Goril were woken by Banic and Narvi coming in with goblets of hot spiced milk. Narvi wanted to know about their plans, so Goril explained while Doraya sipped her drink. Then, Narvi bustled her out of bed to dress, and after that, the day seemed to whiz by in a blur. Odd moments stood out with clarity. She had spoken to the women who wanted to join the riders, and seen with relief that the ragged drudge, Abalee, was among them. Her eyes had met Goril’s in a look of mutual consternation as the women, saying good-bye, promised their families and friends they would be back to visit—but then, Doraya thought, why not? She and Goril had set a precedent that others would follow. Helping Abalee put her foot into a loop of rope, and steadying her slender body as Goril began to pull her up Fiami’s flank, had been a poignant moment, reminding Doraya of her own departure from King Panac’s castle. She
was proud to sit in front of the women on Fiami’s back, feeling the familiar stomach-lurching sensation as Fiami’s wings began to take the strain. This was so very different from the last time she left a castle on dragonback.
When Fiami swooped into the entrance cavern, Doraya looked over her shoulder and caught Goril’s eye.
‘We’re home,’ she mouthed, and he smiled agreement.
She’d never known what ‘home’ felt like before. It was secure and welcoming, like Goril’s embrace.
‘We’re back!’ she called, exultant, and slid down Fiami’s flank.
The women came running, Saban at their head. Doraya met her with a warm embrace.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘You were right, I was selfish.’
Saban returned her embrace with equal warmth. ‘I was wrong to lose my temper.’ She kissed Doraya. ‘It’s good to see you again.’
‘Doraya!’ Mabbi’s pert voice rang out. ‘How many women have you brought us?’
Saban and Doraya turned to look where she was pointing, at the row of people sitting patiently on Fiami’s back.
Saban gasped and clutched Doraya’s hand. ‘Four more women? Doraya, that’s marvellous!’ She kissed her again, quickly, on the cheek. ‘We’ll talk later.’
The dragon riders’ women clustered around Fiami to help the new women down and welcome them. Goril was the last to dismount. He drew Doraya to one side, his arm around her shoulders, and they watched the dragon riders’ women guide the new women away towards the women’s caves. Abalee looked anxious and hesitant, reminding Doraya of her own first arrival at the caves. How different was this homecoming. She looked forward to bathing in the grotto, flirting with the women, bantering with the riders, and eating in the dining cave. First, she would have a little time with her beloved Goril before they had to say goodbye. She was in no rush for that moment to arrive.
‘We’ve done well, little one,’ he said, and gave her a loving look.
‘We’ll do better,’ she said boldly.
Goril smiled, but then his expression changed. ‘I’ll miss our nights together.’
