Bar. Flinging my hair back, I looked up. His yellow raptor’s eyes on the flying form racing toward us, he shrieked, breaking the spell that kept the warriors in thrall. They drew weapons, cursing, and stumbled through the water to cluster close to Ly’Tana and I.
Weapons?
Kel’Ratan drew his sword, ready. Corwyn placed himself, his blade in his fist, between Arianne and the death approaching on swift wings. Swords, bows? How could swords fight against something that huge that flew on wings? What earthly good would those do against whatever now threatened us?
Bar shrieked again. Circling higher, he flew straight towards his doom, keeping his body between the threat and his beloved Ly’Tana. Bar had no chance against such a creature, I knew, if it proved hostile. None of us had a single chance of surviving.
It grew closer. At last more definition became apparent as the creature grew closer. I shaded my eyes against the sun, now seeing a huge head, spiked horns, a long leathery tail. Flames suddenly erupted from its muzzle.
Gods above and below! I staggered back, making Ly’Tana squawk and flap her wings to maintain her balance. Her talons dug deeper to remain attached to my arm, but I felt no pain.
A dragon.
I didn’t know I muttered those words aloud until Kel’Ratan repeated them. “A dragon? Where in Nephrotiti’s name did a dragon come from? And what’s it to do with us?”
Bar didn’t care. He’d die before the dragon even came close. He flew higher, his front talons out and ready for battle. He, like all of us, paused, frozen in time, as Ly’Tana chirped.
She didn’t screech, shriek, scream or vocalize any other hawk announcement of fear. She glanced up at Bar from one eye, then turned her head to look at me from the other. She clicked her beak a few times, gathering the attention of her people, Tor and Arianne. She chirped again, a mild, unperturbed sound. She spread her right wing to preen it.
“It’s Rygel,” I muttered. “That’s Rygel.”
“Impossible,” Kel’Ratan muttered, stunned.
Rygel, if it was Rygel, reached us. A thing of raw, primal beauty, rugged strength and awesome power, winged up and over, its shadow plunging all into shadow for two or three heartbeats. Flames once more blew forth, white smoke trailing behind from its nostrils as it banked high. Long front legs ending in razor-sharp talons lay tucked against its belly. Long hind legs and an even longer tail tipped with a huge spade trailed behind. If the gods came to earth, I swear they’d come as this incredibly powerful and graceful creature.
Horses whinnied. Milling about restlessly, tails swishing, the horses announced their rather intense dislike for the newcomer. Curses abounded as the Kel’Hallans and Corwyn splashed back through the muck to grab bridles, to calm, to soothe. To prevent damage to the only thing that kept us out of Brutal’s hands: the precious legs of our horses.
I cursed. Transferring Ly’Tana from my arm to my shoulder, I grabbed Rufus by the bit. Ly’Tana’s buckskin, well trained and accustomed to Bar, had obviously never encountered a dragon before. He announced his intention to panic with a sharp snort. His eyes showed white, his ears flattened as his thick neck arched in preparation. I caught his reins before he could bolt and break like sticks his most important possessions. Hauled up short, the stallion relaxed, quieted, his flanks quivering and his eyes still flaring white. But he stood fast.
By now, the dragon sailed high above. Bar, after hearing my translation of Ly’Tana’s explanation, also relaxed his guard. Calming, raptor eyes on Rygel, he resumed his short circles over our heads.
The dragon, swept downward, broad leathery wings covering all the earth we could yet see. In a blink it disappeared.
Yet before we could react, or look to see where it went, a red-brown hawk looped up and around, arrowing out of the sun toward us.
When the dragon popped out of existence, the horses calmed immediately. Long equine sighs blew down noses in relieved snorts when they realized they were not on the dragon’s menu that day. I relaxed my hold on Rufus and Mikk, while the others also released reins and long held breaths.
Ly’Tana found a comfortable spot on my shoulder and chirped. I had no spit in my mouth to translate, even had I known what she said.
The red-brown hawk backwinged, its talons grabbing hold of a large stump, free of the nasty water, its former trunk sunk down low. There the hawk perched and chirped at Ly’Tana.
Before I could glance at the hawk on my shoulder, the other hawk vanished. On the stump stood Rygel, safely and fastidiously clear of the water and laughing.
He blew out a huge wash of air that gusted his yellow locks from his brow. We all, even Arianne and Tor, stared, open-mouthed as Rygel whooped and flung back his wheaten mane.
“Whoohoo!” he laughed. “What a rush!”
His amber eyes dancing, he stared down at us, arms akimbo. “Nothing like a good firefight to get the sluggish blood moving again,” he said, still laughing.
“Damn you!” Kel’Ratan roared. “We thought you were dead!”
Rygel stopped laughing, but his smile remained. His cocky, fully arrogant Rygel smile made me grit my teeth. On my shoulder, Ly’Tana squawked, flapping her wings in what seemed like annoyance. I reckoned she didn’t much care for his attitude, either.
“Ah, ye of little faith,” Rygel remarked. “You should know better by now. Did Ly’Tana tell you what happened?”
Kel’Ratan flung his arm toward me and Ly’Tana still perched on my shoulder. “She’s a bird, you idiot! None of us speak hawk.”
He chuckled. “I expect that might be a small problem, at that.”
He gave only a tiny flick of his eyes toward me. Certainly not enough time to warn me or allow me to prepare. So when Ly’Tana’s fully human weight tumbled from my shoulder and into my arms, I fumbled and nearly dropped her into the water.
As it was, she landed, more neatly than I would have expected, given the circumstances, into my arms. She fell tidily on her back, her hair cascading around her face and shoulders, the sword at her hip biting into my chest. When her hand cleared her wild hair from her face, I saw she laughed, her angular green eyes shining into my own. I caught her feminine scent, that hint of lilac, leather and Ly’Tana.
Male laughter rumbled around us, Rygel’s own added into the mix. Caught as I was, deeply mired in that emerald gaze, I could not look around at the warriors who chuckled. My blush crept back up my jaws and into my cheeks. My ears burned. Gods, but I hated blushing.
Ly’Tana giggled. Her left arm wrapped about my shoulders, she brushed my hair from my eyes with her right hand. Then, gods above and below, she nuzzled my neck.
“You smell nice,” she murmured.
Dragon fire had nothing on the blaze that heated my face now. I had no need to look around to witness for myself the amused grins of those who watched. I could feel their eyes on me, on us. Ly’Tana’s own grin told me how she played with my emotions, my embarrassment. What was it with women and their perverse need to humiliate men?
“You are evil, woman,” I muttered, casting around again for a dry place to put her.
“You’re an oaf,” she answered primly. Her lips nibbled my ear.
Her saddle. Her buckskin stallion stood just behind me. Whirling, I spun her in my arms so my hands were wrapped around her tiny firm waist. Setting her in her saddle, I was free to turn my embarrassed fury on Rygel.
“Well?” I demanded. “Ly’Tana managed to tell us you fought with Ja’Teel. What happened?”
He coughed and shrugged at the same time. “He spoke of things that really irritated me.”
He flicked an eye toward Arianne. His lightning fast glance told me everything. Ja’Teel threatened Arianne, his beloved. “Sorry, Princess. Even though we spoke through a mind link, Ja’Teel sensed my anger.”
“I told you to be silent, now didn’t I?”
“So tell us what happened,” Kel’Ratan demanded.
“We found them about thirty leagues from here, camped on a hill,” Ry
gel said soberly. “He’s got quite an army with him, bent on finding us and marrying her.” Rygel jerked his head toward Ly’Tana. “Again, he plans to kill her and then marry Arianne, to cement his claim to Connacht.”
I growled. The deep throated wolfish rumble started in my chest and emanated outward like a small earthquake. I knew my eyes flattened, for I saw them mirrored in Kel’Ratan’s wide blue ones and in Rygel’s frown of concern. “I’ll rip that son of bitch’s head off his neck with my bare hands.”
“I’ll hold your coat,” Ly’Tana said, her tone light yet underneath held a note of steel. Her hand crept around my shoulders to cup my cheek. I nipped her fingers within mine and quickly kissed them, fighting to keep my rage under control.
“That’s it?” I barked. “You listened to him make useless threats and fought Ja’Teel because you let him get under your skin?”
Rygel coughed. “Er, we heard and saw more than that.”
“What?” Kel’Ratan demanded. “Get on with it, we haven’t all day.”
“All right, all right, calm down,” Rygel said, eyeing me sidelong. “Brutal was expecting someone, an important someone.”
“Brutal called the Commander General of the Shekinah Tongu to explain last night,” Ly’Tana added.
“Tell me you’re kidding,” Kel’Ratan gasped.
“I’m not,” she snapped. “He had with him a cat, a most beautiful black panther.”
Bar screeched from on high.
“I do want one,” she called up at him. “At least that creature can sit in my lap and purr. Unlike some cat-things.”
“A panther?”
Rygel took over the tale quickly, regaining his status as lead story-teller. “Yes. One of the Tongu survived last night’s divine temper tantrum and told Brutal everything. So thusly, Brutal called the Commander General to account.”
“Did he leave the man alive?” Kel’Ratan asked.
“No. He sicced the puss on his own man. For his betrayal.”
“Then what happened?”
“He’s got fifty assassins and fifty hounds,” Ly’Tana added, “ready to hunt us.”
“Just how in the devil did they find us anyway?” Witraz demanded.
No one seemed interested in clouting him for impropriety.
“Not important,” Rygel said. “Just know they have openly aligned with Brutal and will hunt us down for him.”
“Because of the blood oath,” Ly’Tana added.
“Blood oath?” Kel’Ratan asked.
“It’s quite rare,” Rygel said, as though that explained everything. “But once in a great while, someone pisses off the Tongu badly enough they’ll drop every contract they own and pursue that someone until that someone is dead.”
“I suspect you pissed them off rather nicely,” I said dryly. “Since you rather coldly left a number of them, blind, to starve in the forest.”
Rygel shrugged. “They had it coming.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
“So they swore out a blood oath against you?” Kel’Ratan asked, his eyes bulging slightly.
“So what.”
“So what?”
Kel’Ratan’s eyes swelled. If they protruded any more, I feared they might fall out and dangle by their stalks.
“Because of you,” Kel’Ratan roared, “we have not only Brutal wanting our hides, but the Tongu actively helping him!”
Ly’Tana suddenly reined her horse into Kel’Ratan’s space. He recoiled, wrenching his fierce blue eyes from Rygel into a wide-eyed stare up at her. Leaning across her pommel, she roundly smacked her cousin on his left cheek.
“Don’t forget, you stupid ass,” she snarled, her hand still raised. “Rygel avenged the insane beating they gave Raine. He avenged their attempted rape of me. They did have it coming, and I for one will defend him against them to my last drop of blood. What will you do?”
Kel’Ratan raised a hand to his stinging cheek, his blue eyes no longer furious, but wide and staring. His mustache failed to bristle. If I chanced to raise my glance from the blood kin to the rest of the Kel’Hallans, I might have found shock. Ly’Tana and Kel’Ratan quarreled often, but never like this.
“Damn,” Kel’Ratan murmured, rubbing his reddened cheek. “I reckon I ought to be more careful in my words.”
Baffled, Ly’Tana sat back and exchanged a confused glance with me.
Suddenly grinning, Kel’Ratan seized Ly’Tana’s hand with his own and kissed it. “I apologize, Your Highness. I meant no disrespect toward our illustrious wizard. I do realize Rygel acted in the best way possible and I respect him, no, I believe in him. As I did then, as I do now, I stand behind his every action.”
“Then why—“
“Ly’Tana, dear girl.” Kel’Ratan grinned. “You know me. When I get excited, I don’t always say things the way I should. Rygel did right and if the Tongu swore out their silly blood oath against him, they’ll have to go through me to get him.”
“Kel’Ratan—”
“No worries,” Kel’Ratan said, still grinning. “You know damn well I’m just more blunt than I should be.”
Ly’Tana leaned in again, but this time kissed him east of his nose and north of his mustache. “I do love you, you bull-headed boob.”
“Ditto, my queen.”
“Kel’Ratan isn’t the only one who doesn’t think when he’s excited,” Rygel said, his voice forgiving and expansive.
If I thought his choice of words rather inappropriate, it appeared I was the only one. The Kel’Hallans as a whole deferred to him as though he was an oracle, while Ly’Tana held both my hand and Kel’Ratan’s. I noticed Rygel’s need for drama and wisely, I thought, refrained from pointing it out.
“Let me,” Ly’Tana begged. “Do let me tell the story.”
In the face of his liege lady’s request, Rygel’s face sagged. Generously, he gestured leave for Ly’Tana to speak.
“You should have seen it,” Ly’Tana said, excitement in her tone and body as she leaned forward. “We were sitting in a snag of dead trees, listening to every word. Brutal had Tenzin shaking in his boots.”
“Tenzin?” I asked.
“The Commander General,” she answered impatiently. “His panther, Shirel, sat at his side like any common dog. Brutal reamed him up one side and down the other about last night and all he did was stand there and take it.”
“The Tongu did act rather stupidly,” Rygel added, his ego deflated, “last night.”
“So then Brutal offered Arianne and me to Ja’Teel as reward for his loyalty—”
“Offered you?”
The growl in my chest rumbled from down low and radiated outward. Damn my temper. The thought of anyone touching Ly’Tana’s soft flesh—
Chill out, bucko.
I sighed and scrubbed my hand over my face. I’ll try.
“Well, yes,” she replied slowly. “Of course, Brutal threatened…you know.”
“I do know,” I sighed, releasing my inner tension. “Of course Brutal will offer his minions what isn’t his to offer.”
“Then what?” Witraz asked, obviously on behalf of those who dared not ask. “What happened?”
Ly’Tana jerked her head toward Rygel. “His turn.”
Once more in the spotlight, Rygel puffed out his chest and grinned.
“Ja’Teel felt my anger,” he said, nodding his blonde head toward me, “when he threatened my queen and my—”
His voice broke as his helpless anguished eyes found Arianne. She smiled, tossing her jet hair from her eyes and burying Tor.
“Quickly, now,” Kel’Ratan said, his eyes on the sun. “We have only so much daylight and lots of leagues to get through.”
Rygel nodded, taking a deep breath. “Their threats irritated me. Ja’Teel felt my anger. He sent Brutal to safety and turned himself into—”
“A dragon,” Ly’Tana breathed, her eyes shining.
“No, Princess.” Rygel raised an admonis
hing finger. “He turned himself into what he thought a dragon should be.”
“I’m confused,” Kel’Ratan said. “Was he a dragon or wasn’t he?”
“Yes,” said Ly’Tana.
“No,” said Rygel, in the same instant.
They glanced at one another while Kel’Ratan and I rolled our eyes.
“No, he wasn’t,” Rygel went on. “You see, my cousin never studied the anatomy of beasts to any extent. He’s impulsive and lazy, always taking short cuts. He never bothered to seek the why of things, but craving only their seductive power.”
“So?” I asked, growing impatient.
“My prince, listen,” Rygel said earnestly. “If you changed yourself into a dog, or a horse, you would instinctively know what a dog or horse looked like, correct?”
“I suppose so.”
“Four paws, a tail, fur, long teeth, no problem. You get the tail too short or too long, it looks weird, but, hey, who cares. A leg too short, you limp.
“But with a creature that flies, a hawk—” His slender hand flapped lazily toward Ly’Tana. “Wings that are too short, it doesn’t fly. Wings too long, it won’t get off the ground. Take a creature you’ve never encountered before, how the hell would you know what it looked like?”
“Good question,” Kel’Ratan said, biting his lower lip.
“Consider the dragon,” Rygel went on. “It’s big, is reptilian, breathes fire, and it flies. Right?”
“I reckon so,” I answered slowly.
“But how do you know how long to make the wings? The tail? A flying creature’s tail is its rudder. Again, too long or too short and the entire beast is crippled in the air.”
“I had no idea.”
“Nor did Ja’Teel.”
“So what you’re saying,” I said slowly, glancing at Ly’Tana’s shining emerald eyes. “Is that Ja’Teel had no prior knowledge of how to make a dragon, but made one anyway?”
“Exactly, my prince.”
“And you knew how to turn yourself into a dragon?”
Rygel sighed. “I keep reminding you about my education,” he said, sweeping his hair from his eyes impatiently. “I reckon you all tend to forget. I trained on how to heal, how to change the weather, how to level mountains—”
Catch a Wolf Page 18
