Page 7

Once the egg is nestled in the bag, I climb back out of the crater and do another quick survey of the barren landscape, looking for the stranger.

He’s still nowhere in sight. Satisfied that I’m safe for now, I reach down and carefully haul the net out of the crater like my father used to haul up salt trout from the ocean.

My muscles strain from the effort, but I push through it and then squat down and up so that I’m carrying the egg on my back, clasping the bag over one shoulder.

Sweat stings my eyes again and I glance tiredly at Lemi. Some days my body is weaker than others, especially when I’ve had a bad bout of my ailments. This is one of those days. Nothing I can do but accept it and keep going.

“Shall we go?” I ask him.

He snuffs at that, protesting that he wants to hunt more, but I start walking, the bottom of the egg bouncing off my ass with each stride.

I go carefully, taking one step at a time across the rugged terrain, ignoring the way my muscles are starting to ache, the way that my armor is sticking to my skin.

Perhaps the boatsman is doing me a favor by making me swim all the way back to the boat. I’m burning up.

I’m about a hundred feet away from the nest when the dragon’s roar fills the air, so loud that it reverberates in my bones, my heart rattling in its cage.

I cry out in surprise, trying to freeze in place, but my toe stubs into the edge of a rock and I’m falling off-balance, twisting to the side, the weight of the egg pulling me backward.

I land on my back, crushing the egg beneath me with a devastating crack, the red yolk spilling out around me like blood, just as the wingbeats from the mother elderdrage fill the air, blowing back my hair and filling my nose with sulfur and spice.

I lift my chin just enough to see her soar down in front of me.

Fuck me.

She’s terrifying.

She’s glorious.

And she’s looking right at me.

She lands just beyond my boots, her massive thirty-foot wingspan blotting out the glow of the volcanoes, her head lowered, showcasing the spiky scales that run from the tip of her flared nostrils over her expressive brows and down her neck and the length of her gigantic body.

She takes a step forward on heavily clawed feet, thick muscles rippling under her pebbled skin, her movement shaking the ground, her ghostly silver eyes focused solely on me.

Lemi must have shifted the moment he heard her roar, but now he’s back and doing what he always does, which is to be a distraction and save me from certain doom.

Though he could easily take down a person or large animal, he is no match for a dragon of this size, so he’ll get the dragon’s attention off me enough to let me escape before he shifts to keep from being caught.

But the moment that Lemi shifts in front of the dragon, she has her sights on him.

She raises a clawed foot and brings it down on Lemi just as I scream at him to shift and get away, my cry breaking in the air.

But it’s too late.

Lemi lets out a howl that shatters my heart, she pins him under her claws. Blood starts to seep out from under his motionless body, and I choke back a gasp, staring at the sight, willing it to be untrue. Willing time to start ticking backward. Willing all of this to be some awful dream.

But I’ve seen loved ones die in front of me before.

And they weren’t dreams either.

A rattling sound comes out of my throat and I’m choking on fear and pain, the agony of a heart being pierced, and I have to force myself to look away. I don’t want to look away; I feel I’m betraying Lemi if I stop staring at his unmoving body.

Oh fuck.

No. Please don’t let this be happening.

But I must. I bring my attention back to the dragon’s face and I don’t dare move, I don’t dare breathe, even though tears are running down my cheeks.

Lemi, Lemi, please not Lemi.

No matter how much I want to run over there, no matter how much I want to scream, to cry, I know if I don’t try to stay still, I’ll end up dead as well.

The dragon spears me with her gaze, her head coming closer and closer, until her nose is at the sole of my boots. She lets out a snuff.

I’ve never seen a dragon this close before. I’m not sure anyone has and lived to tell the tale. I’m shredded by the pain of losing Lemi and yet I’m so utterly enthralled by this creature, even though I know I’m about to die. It’s like I’m trying to suck in every last detail of life that I can.

I don’t really believe in any gods or goddesses, but if I had to it would be the one my father believed in. That god was fair and just and merciful. So I pray to him in vain, to let this be quick and let me be reunited with Lemi and my parents soon.

The dragon inhales, her nostrils flaring to the size of dinner plates, then blows her hot herbaceous breath on my body. Ever so slowly she runs her nose over my boots, over my calves, up my thighs, pausing and sniffing as she goes, her eyes pinned on me the entire time.

I’m practically squirming as I try to hold it together, try to keep myself from screaming, from running.

My lungs are tight, my breath coming sharp and shallow, hot tears spilling from the sides of my eyes and to the ground.

I lie as still as possible, locked in her gaze as she brings her mouth over my stomach, her scaled lips pressing against my belly.

Terror, terror, terror.

I feel the hard poke of ancient teeth against my armor, and then she continues to smell me, up, up, to my chest, to my chin.

Oh god.

Then she stops on a sharp inhale.

I stare at her wide-eyed.

Predator and prey.

This is it.

This is the end of everything.

I should close my eyes. I shouldn’t watch my demise as it happens.

But I don’t.

I suck in the last drops of life.

I had so believed in a better tomorrow.

But that tomorrow ends today.

I watch as her head tilts ever so slightly and her pupils contract into dark slivers before expanding into black holes that swallow all the silver pigment. It’s like staring into a void. Then she pauses and her head tilts ever so slightly, enough to make me frown right back at her.

I swear she’s looking at me like…like…

An arrow comes from nowhere and slams into her neck, piercing her thick hide with ease.

The elderdrage lets out a deafening bellow that blows out my eardrums, raising her giant head in surprise, her attention on her assailant.

My attention follows. I turn my head to see the stranger standing nearby, a bow at their side.

They’re cloaked and I can’t see their eyes but they are standing still, their focus on the dragon.

They should be running, for no arrow could ever do any significant damage to a dragon unless it went straight through their eye, but the person doesn’t move at all.

They’re merely watching and waiting.

Then the dragon gives another roar, which trails off into a low whimper, and the great beast starts to sway on its feet until it topples over to the ground in a heap just a few feet away, the impact creating cracks in the rock and shaking the earth.

What in damnation just happened? Did they kill the dragon?

How is that possible?

I’m staring at the dragon, waiting for it to get up and take its fury out on me, but it lies totally still, its eyes closed. The only sign that it’s alive is the faint rising of its pebbled stomach.

I look back to the stranger now and they’re crouched at Lemi’s side. They run their gloved hands back and forth over my dog’s body, muttering something under their breath.

Lemi!

“Get away from him,” I manage to cry out, my words caught in my throat.

I roll over and try to push myself up but keep slipping on the red yolk that coats my armor in crimson slime.

A few minutes ago this substance was worth everything in the world and now, without my dog, it’s worth nothing at all.

I manage to get to my knees, then stagger up to my feet, off-balance and hollowed out. The stranger still has their hands on Lemi, though something is different. I swear I see Lemi’s tail twitch.

No.

Then it thumps in a lazy wag.

Once, twice…

“Lemi!” I yell, and start running toward him, hope rising inside me like a weed.

I come to a stop beside the stranger and see Lemi’s side rising and falling in steady breath.

There’s no longer blood around him and he looks completely unharmed, his shiny black coat untouched except by the stranger’s hands.

I fall to my knees beside my dog as the stranger straightens up. I meet their eyes briefly, golden and disarmingly bright and framed by the same black salve I use around mine.

“What did you do?” I ask them just as Lemi lifts his head and gives my arm a lick. Tears trickle down my face again, this time from joy. He’s alive!

How is he alive?

“He’s a tough dog,” the stranger says. A man. His voice is low but his tone light, as if we all weren’t just in a life-and-death situation.

Lemi continues to lick my hand until he gets up and shakes his body out from head to toe, drool flying everywhere, landing on both of us in gooey strips.

The man chuckles and holds out his hand, and Lemi goes to him for a pet, which he gets around his ears.

Usually he’s wary with strangers but he isn’t with this guy, probably because he just saved his life.

Or did he? Perhaps that dragon never really hurt Lemi after all.

I swear I saw blood, but maybe I only thought I did in my hysteria.

But he did save your life , I remind myself.

I get to my feet, wiping my hands on a patch of clean, dry armor.

“I guess I should be thanking you for saving my life,” I tell him.

The man continues to pet Lemi, though his golden eyes are fixed steadily on me.

With the cloak still over his head and a mask that covers the bottom half of his face, all I really see are black brows and those gleaming eyes.

They aren’t telling me much. If I could at least see his hair color I’d know what moon he was born under and get a hint of his personality.

“I’m sure you’d do the same for me,” he says wryly, as if knowing that I wouldn’t. “Lavender girl.”

I ignore the nickname about my hair. “I would if I had an arrow that could bring down an elderdrage,” I admit, twisting around to glance at the dragon that’s still lying on her side.

She’s absolutely massive, seen from this angle, and a chill runs through me at the thought of how close to death I was, how close I was to losing Lemi.

I glance back at the stranger, frowning. “How did you do that, anyway? Is she sleeping?”

“She’s sleeping for now,” he explains warily. “She’s been tranquilized. We have about ten minutes before she wakes up. We won’t want to be here when she does.”

Tranquilized? In all my time doing this I’d never heard of any sort of potion or formula that could make a dragon go to sleep. How much easier my job would be if I had that.

“Where are you from?” I ask him cautiously.

“A small town called Stormglen Creek,” he says. “And you?”

Stormglen Creek. Creek. There are no creeks on Esland.

The only source of water in our realm comes from two aquifers deep underground that are heavily controlled by the Saints of Fire.

It’s only with their “blessing” that they allow people in the Banished Land to access it, but even then our rations are tight—when it’s not poisoned.

“It doesn’t matter where I’m from,” I answer, not wanting him to have any information about me, information he might be able to use.

His eyes flick over my face, squinting in amusement.

“I see. Well, I’d say you’re from Esland due to your dialect but you don’t seem like a Soffer.

” He uses the derogatory term the Freelanders have for Saints of Fire followers—interesting to learn that they’re known as that in the other lands as well.

Because I’m not a Soffer , I want to tell him, but I bite my tongue. If I do that he’ll know that I’m from the Banished Land, though I guess that’s already a given since I’m here stealing eggs.

He chuckles again and then reaches up and tugs his mask down around his neck so I can see a long straight nose and full lips that are twisted in a half smile. “I’m Andor Kolbeck,” he says, extending his hand.

I stare at him, awestruck. It’s not just that he has the most charming smile with dazzling white teeth, but that his name is Kolbeck.

“From House Kolbeck?” I exclaim quietly.

He stares down at his gauntlet-clad hand, the one I’m not shaking. He takes it back. “I suppose the greeting customs of your people are different.”

“House Kolbeck? Of the Norland syndikat?” I repeat, ignoring that.

Something dark flickers in his gaze for a moment. “Yes. I take it you’ve heard of us.”

Easy now , I tell myself. Don’t let it slip who you work for.

“Everyone knows the houses,” I explain.

He crosses his arms. “Is that so? See, I would have thought everyone would know the different kings and queens of the realms. Not the houses. The kingdoms are the ones thought to have true power. Unless you know exactly what power the houses have.” He pauses, his tone growing unkind. “And I think you do.”

I swallow, my mouth thick and dry, and give him a quick smile. I think it’s time I make an exit.

“Hard to know what to think,” I tell him, adjusting my holsters on my back. “I’m just a girl from Esland. Well. I better get on my way before the dragon wakes up.”

Andor nods at the remaining egg in the crater. “You’re not going to take that?”

“Best not to push my luck. You might not save me a second time.”

He lets out a dry laugh and I glance at Lemi quickly.

“Come on, Lemi,” I say as I turn around and start walking off. I expect to hear the gallop of his paws on the rock as he races after me, but I hear nothing at all.

“I’m afraid the dog is coming with me,” the Kolbeck says, his voice turning cold and hard. A command, a sentence, another knot in my plan. It’s enough to make my heart freeze. I stop and turn to look at Andor, wide-eyed.

His mouth lifts slightly, his eyes darkening. “And so are you.”