Page 11

CHAPTER 11

D onover’s castle had just come into view when I heard the telltale whoosh of dragon wings above me. Ahead, the guards began to lower the drawbridge and were shouting for us to hurry, pointing at Pollox soaring overhead and urging us on. With a thud , Pollox landed between us and the castle.

The horse reared off in fright, sending both me and the knight tumbling to the ground. This time, I landed on top of him, elbow digging into his side. He shoved me off and scrambled to his feet, unarmed, and faced the dragon. For a moment, both he and I stared at Pollox, whose eyes were aflame with fury.

“You stole from me,” he snarled at the knight, who squeaked in fear, then bolted, trying to dodge past the dragon to get to the castle’s safety. Pollox’s serpentine neck followed, and with a flash, Pollox pounced on him like a cat onto a mouse, trapping him beneath his taloned foot. The knight wriggled and shouted, and a hailstorm of arrows sailed toward him.

Pollox spread his wings wide, intercepting any arrows that might have accidentally come my way.

“This way, hurry!” a man’s voice came from the battlements, and from between Pollox’s legs, I saw a man gesturing me into the keep.

Pollox lowered his head to stare at the knight pinned between his talons, intentionally not looking my direction, and his tail flicked ever so slightly toward the castle.

I held my skirts above my knees in a most undignified manner as I dashed across the drawbridge and headed for the keep at top speed. “Help!” I screamed, gesturing frantically at the guards stationed by the portcullis’s winching mechanism to hurry up. “Let me in!”

“It’s Princess Rapunzel; raise the portcullis!” The two men continued to heave on the bars protruding from the circular wheel where the portcullis’s chain was attached, which looked like a ship’s helm fashioned out of metal and heavy oak.

The portcullis groaned as it finished raising. I waited until it was nearly all the way up before I ran under. Ever since I’d seen a guard slip and let the portcullis fall when I was young, I’d harbored the fear that one day, while I crossed under the heavy metal grille, it would fall and impale me with the lethal spikes that jutted from the bottom. It would be just my luck to have it fall on me after everything else that had happened that day.

The guards locked the portcullis in place and rushed to my side, where I had stopped, hands on my knees as I gasped dramatically for breath. “The dragon…” I choked, scanning the skies. “The dragon…”

“You’re safe now, don’t worry.” The guard speaking had a fatherly air about him, and he patted my back.

There was an unearthly screech as Pollox flapped his way into the air again, the knight dangling from his claw and squealing like a stuck pig. “I’ll get the girl back!” Pollox roared.

The soldiers fired a catapult in return, which would have hit Pollox if he hadn’t given a tremendous beat of his wings and rocketed upward. The knight’s high-pitched scream faded away, lost to the wind.

“You’re safe,” the guard who held me repeated. “We’ll send a carrier pigeon to your father and let him know you’re safe.”

I nodded, still pulling air into my lungs in great gulps. The fatherly guard stayed by my side and began walking slowly with me across the courtyard, up to the keep. All I had to do now was glean information and wait for Pollox to come take me back. We passed maids carrying buckets of water, knights practicing their swordsmanship, and a knot of gossiping squires.

“Princess Rapunzel?” The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it until one of the squires broke away from his group of friends and approached me. “Is that you?”

I caught my breath. “Griffin? What…why are you here?”

He looked just as handsome as I remembered from our chess match two months earlier, perhaps even more so since I’d grown accustomed to having only a dragon for company. His white linen tunic stretched tight across his chest, a fact that I worked hard not to notice.

“The knight I serve came here for a tournament just yesterday.” He looked just as surprised as I did at finding me here and couldn’t stop staring. It got to where I nearly blushed. He was a squire , I reminded myself. Princesses weren’t allowed to keep company with servants, even if they wanted to.

The guard cleared his throat. “As you two seem to know each other, perhaps he can escort you to the keep?”

“Oh… yes.” I had momentarily forgotten my mission. “I must relay a message to my father.”

“Allow me,” Griffin said, awkwardly offering me his arm. He clearly didn’t escort women often. He held his elbow out far from his body and kept it rigidly stiff. Any man who routinely entertained women would be more practiced, but the knowledge that he hadn’t been flirting with many other women felt strangely endearing. I looped my hand into the crook of his elbow and allowed him to guide me up to the keep.

The walk was a short one. Along the way, Griffin seemed to remember his manners and dug into his pocket for some hardened deer venison jerky and stale traveler’s bread, which he offered to me. I politely declined, insisting that I really must send a carrier pigeon to my father as soon as possible, and that I would venture down to the dining hall afterward. I nearly let out an audible sigh of relief when he accepted my excuse without question. Whether it was because I was too high maintenance or had become spoiled with all the gourmet food Pollox provided with his enchanted table, I would have to be an inch from death to eat the sort of military rations that squires toted around in their lint-filled pockets.

The room with carrier pigeons, all labeled with the destinations on their cages, was tiny, with only a narrow window that allowed a thin beam of light to stream into the room. Straw covered the floor, and if I hadn’t been so wholly distracted by Griffin, I might have wrinkled my nose at the smell in the room. But Griffin didn’t drop his arm, and I didn’t move my hand. I hadn’t realized I was so starved for human touch. On the pretext of getting a better view out of the small, open window, I moved slightly to press my side against Griffin’s arm. Scales, that felt good, too. I should feign concern for the knight that had rescued me, but I also had no intention of letting Griffin assume I was thinking of other men.

“Princess,” he began.

“You can just call me Rapunzel,” I interrupted.

“Rapunzel,” he repeated, testing how my name sounded on his tongue without the accompanying title. Chills ran up and down my spine, and my nails began to turn purple as the temperature of my hands plummeted. Griffin turned to look at me. His eyes were a rich coffee color that reminded me of Pollox when he was calm.

The pigeon loft really was much too small to keep an appropriate distance from each other, and Griffin didn’t seem too bothered by it. On the contrary, his eyes were skating across my face. I suddenly wondered what I looked like in that moment. When was the last time I’d spent time preening in front of a mirror when I only had Pollox to impress, and he considered all humans ugly, no matter what they looked like? I’d intended to look like a princess who had only narrowly escaped a dragon, but after the fall from the tower, being scratched in the hedge and brambles, rolling in the dirt of that dry riverbed, then galloping through the forest and swallowing the bug, I must look like a disaster. With Griffin paying such close attention to me, I wished I looked my best.

“You have a little ash on your neck,” Griffin murmured, raising his hand to stroke the side of my throat, and I closed my eyes at his touch. It felt cold since I was so used to Pollox’s blazing heat, but his hands weren’t nearly as icy as my own. His fingers slowly wrapped around the back of my head, leaving his thumb where I could feel my heartbeat pounding against it. Flames alive, I’d almost forgotten what it was like to be held by a man. Either I couldn’t recall just how good it felt, or this time was even better than any other. Moments trickled by as I waited, eyes still closed, for Griffin to make a move.

“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I forgot myself.”

I opened my eyes. Griffin, looking shame-faced and wrong-footed, had dropped his hand and stepped away. A pox upon Griffin’s infernal sense of propriety! I was going to do something rash and poorly planned out if I didn’t get some affection soon. It wasn’t like I could get a proper hug from a fire-breathing dragon many times my size. But then I remembered—our station difference would never allow a match.

“Of…of course. I was at fault as well.”

Griffin shook his head. “No. You’ve been through a traumatic experience and you’re not to blame. You focus on feeling safe.”

Just as I was about to respond, the door flew open and a footman came panting in to deliver the message that Donover’s steward was making arrangements for my quarters. A rush of gratitude that Griffin had stepped away swept through my body. As interesting as Griffin was, I wouldn’t risk my plans being ruined by a fleeting, girlish fancy and the ensuing scandalous rumors that would inevitably follow.

“Did you find all the supplies?” the footman asked courteously, pointing me to the cabinet bearing writing slips, ink, and the leather straps to tie messages onto pigeon legs. “And I can fetch you anything else you need.”

“This is perfect, thank you,” I told him. The footman bowed in response and left as I quickly scrawled a message to my father, informing him that I’d escaped from the dragon and was waiting in Donover castle. What would his response be? Did he actually care that I was gone? Or was Father’s offer of a grand reward for my return yet another publicity stunt?

With each word I penned, I felt Griffin’s eyes on the back of my head. Once I was finished, Griffin took the paper from me, his fingers pausing as they brushed against mine.

“I can send that for you so you don’t get your hands dirty,” he murmured, rolling the paper tightly and slipping it into a tube. What nonsense. I was a walking mud pile. If anything, he should be worried that my touch would soil the parchment. He searched the cages until he found one labeled Rookwyn Castle and fastened the tube to the bird’s leg.

“Thank you,” I said, watching as he carried the bird to the window and let it flutter out.

“Do you…do you want to get something to eat?” he asked awkwardly. “Together?”

“I’d rather get cleaned up first.” I’d never felt more self-conscious about my appearance. What I wouldn’t give for the enchanted wardrobe right now. Would Griffin have duties to attend to, or would I be able to find a way to keep him to myself for just a little while longer?

His shoulders slumped. “Of course. I’ll call for some maids to help and I’ll go?—”

“No, I meant to ask…have…have you played any chess recently?” I couldn’t let him go, not yet.

“No, not really since I saw you last at your ball. Have you?” The moment he said it, he began stumbling all over his words. “Of course not since you’ve been with…unless dragons could…but they can’t move pieces because, you know…claws. I shouldn’t have asked; that was a foolish question. How have you been lately?” I had to smile as he paled again. “Another bad question,” he lamented. “You don’t have to talk about your captivity—what an uncomfortable topic. I mean…we can talk about…”

“Let’s start with a game of chess after I change,” I told him. “We can talk then.”