Page 9 of Lady Dragon

Cat , Samansa thought with a smile. “What about pleasure?” she asked, hanging up her own sword on the other side of the rack. In placing her hilt, her fingers nearly brushed Kirek’s, but the dragon girl pulled away.

“I assume you mean more than the pleasure of having an itch scratched.”

“Joy, rather,” Samansa said quickly, not wanting to hint at other types of pleasure. “Happiness.”

Kirek considered. “We’re more amused. Or satisfied when expectations are exceeded. We feel pride very strongly—as strongly as anger.”

Definitely a cat , Samansa thought. She hesitated. “Love?”

Kirek moved toward the bench where her own sword was propped.

“We feel protectiveness and concern for our eggs and hatchlings. We take great pride in one another, especially daughters and mothers, and possess fierce loyalty to those we pair-bond with as mature adults. But love as you humans mean it…” She shook her head as she tested the edge of her blade with her finger.

Samansa felt bold enough to ask, “What is a pair-bond? You mentioned it before, and I didn’t want to pry. But I’m supposed to learn about you, too, after all.”

Kirek sheathed her blade in one smooth motion.

“Guarding a nest, keeping the eggs warm, and feeding oneself all on your own is difficult. So if there’s one you trust above any other, the bond just…

happens, on both sides, or so I’ve been told.

I haven’t experienced it myself. But the not-brooding partner feels compelled to protect the one brooding—with her life, if necessary—and the brooding partner will in return be unwaveringly loyal to her. ”

Samansa couldn’t help wandering a few steps closer.

Something about such an arrangement was fascinating.

Or maybe it was just the dragon girl who drew her—which probably made Samansa as intelligent as a moth drawn to flame.

“And pairs continue to feel this way toward each other after the eggs hatch?”

Kirek shrugged, her shoulders slender even under their armor.

Despite her greater height, it should have been impossible for her to be so strong.

“At least until the hatchlings can fly. Sometimes longer. Sometimes it will happen several times with different individuals. And some pairs bond for the entire span of their lives, especially if the other female wishes to brood in turn.”

“Sounds strangely like marriage. And also not,” she said as Kirek opened her mouth in indignation, silver eyes narrowing. “And you say there’s no love in this?”

Kirek looked perplexed, if not affronted. “No. It’s all we’ve ever needed. Love isn’t necessary.”

“I suppose not. Just as niceness isn’t.” Samansa forgot to hide the glumness in her voice. She sank onto the bench.

The dragon girl only continued to frown down at her. “Why does this bother you?”

“Maybe because I’m facing something similar—a marriage to produce heirs and provide protection and increase ties of loyalty to the throne.” She sighed, picking at her fingers in her lap. “I was just rather hoping there would be more to it than that.”

“What? Love? ” Kirek sneered. “Love is not a boon. Love is a complication, like most of your excessive emotions that leave you flailing and drowning in them. Besides, how could you love a man , of all creatures?” She actually shuddered in disgust, turning away from the mere thought.

Samansa laughed, covering her face in her hands. Muffled, she cried, “I don’t even know!”

“I find the whole idea of this human… intercourse… revolting, honestly. Dragons certainly don’t have anything like it.”

The princess choked and dropped her hands. Right. Of course. They had no need of it, not with an entirely female population that reproduced on its own. The physical pleasure that humans took in the act would be as useless as love or niceness or gracefulness, to a dragon. If not impossible.

Except Samansa was realizing Kirek was rather graceful, despite herself—at least when she was fighting.

Maybe grace was permitted then, if it had purpose.

The princess couldn’t help admiring the line of her shoulders again and found herself admitting, “Sometimes I find the idea of it revolting as well. Usually when my mother introduces me to a suitor old enough to be my father.”

Kirek abruptly asked, “What about Jamsens?”

Samansa opened her mouth, but no words came out. She didn’t know how to explain why that felt impossible to her.

Why it felt impossible with almost anyone.

Kirek was squinting at her, as if she were a book that was hard to read.

“I don’t understand your reaction. He’s strong and attentive.

He’s your protector. He taught you to fight.

According to your human standards, he should look handsome enough.

He seems to be the exact sort of man a woman should want to pair with. ”

Samansa laughed again, but this time it was short and shrill.

“He’d make a perfect consort, no doubt. My mother has even intimated the same.

His father, Tordall, is my mother’s most trusted commander—aside from my brother,” she said quickly.

“Tordall was friends with my father before he died in a skirmish. He helped raise and train Branon alongside Jamsens as if he were another son. Those two would still be like brothers if Jamsens had chosen to captain Her Majesty’s armed forces instead of my personal guard.

It’s just…” She raised her hands helplessly.

Kirek cocked her head. “You don’t feel a bond?”

Samansa shook her own. “No. But perhaps I don’t need one, to do my duty.”

For a moment, there was only awkward silence between them—well, awkward at least on Samansa’s end—as Kirek studied her, and as the princess herself scrutinized a rosebush lining a nearby wall to hide the sudden burning in her eyes. She would not cry in front of a dragon, so help her.

“You know,” Kirek began hesitantly, which was enough to draw Samansa’s eyes even as Kirek’s own gaze shifted far away.

“While our pair-bonds aren’t tainted by love, they are strong.

We have a story of one among us even dying from its loss.

Even you must have heard of Nakor, our queen who defeated your King Wyleth in the War of Fire?

” She didn’t wait for the princess’s nod.

“You may not have heard of her partner, Raka. When their bond was broken with Nakor’s death, Raka allegedly flew far away to eventually die of grief. ”

How is that not love? Samansa wondered. And between two dragons— females —out of legend, it seemed all the rarer and more incredible.

As if reading her thoughts, Kirek insisted, “So, while it’s not love, there are other bonds that are just as powerful.”

“Powerful enough to kill?” The princess snorted, even though her throat was tight. “That’s comforting.”

Oddly enough, it was comforting to know that dragons felt such devotion, even if it wasn’t love. And that Samansa might find something similar, someday—something close enough .

“Powerful enough to see you through doing your duty,” Kirek said, arching her brow meaningfully.

“Are you trying to make a match of me and Jamsens?” Samansa gaped at her. “Please, don’t.”

“Where is Jamsens, by the by?” the dragon girl asked abruptly. Almost irritably. “He usually follows you around like a hound.” She said it as if he were neglecting his duty.

“I was going to the bathhouse. His presence isn’t appreciated with so many women about in a potentially indecent state. Dara was with me, but I sent her on ahead.”

“That’s why I go at night,” Kirek said abruptly. “To avoid the others.”

“You go—? Yes, of course.” Of course the dragon girl bathed , Samansa hissed at herself.

And of course she would want to go alone because of ignorant fools like you who would probably say something rude.

At night, the bathhouse was quiet and dark, steam rising from the hot pools to further cloud any view within.

Perhaps Kirek especially wouldn’t want anyone seeing her human body if she thought of it as degraded.

Never mind that it was more akin to a work of art .

Suddenly, Samansa could almost see the dragon girl in the darkness, water pouring over her sleek hair—which would look almost black when wet—tracing the elegant slope of her shoulders and back, trickling along lines of smooth muscle, her skin slick and softly glowing like it had just been with sweat, her silver eyes flashing through the steam—

What on earth am I thinking?

Her own eyes latched on to something else—someone else, walking by the courtyard—that could give her a moment’s respite from her fevered thoughts.

“Aunt Marsa!” she called, standing in a rush and waving, forcing Kirek to step back. “How are you today? Apologies for missing you at the bath.”

Her mother’s younger sister turned in surprise and curtsied, her damp hair braided in a crown atop her head.

“Oh, hello, dearest. Rather, I should get used to calling you ‘Your Highness’ now that you’ve come of age.

” She gave another nod for Kirek. “Lady Dragon. I’m afraid I can’t pause, though I would love to chat about your incredible performance in the tourney. The queen awaits me.”

Samansa waved her onward, grimacing at Kirek as soon as her aunt’s back had turned. “My apologies for Lady Dragon . I’ll try to get everyone to quit calling you that.”

But Kirek was hardly paying attention to her, staring after her aunt.

“Now, that is interesting,” the dragon girl murmured.

For a moment, Samansa couldn’t imagine what had drawn her attention, until she remembered what might look different about her aunt to a newcomer and yet was entirely commonplace to everyone now. “Oh, you noticed. ”

“Her voice, her jaw, her shoulders,” Kirek began. “Despite the styling of her hair and her lack of any beard, I studied how to tell a man from a woman—”

“She’s a woman,” Samansa said firmly. “We all found out when I was very young. It only took her a while to realize it herself.”