Page 40 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 40
“Breakfast delivery.”
I woke up the next morning on one of the hospital beds to see Flynn had brought us a tray and a bunch of flowers. Make that he’d brought me a bunch of flowers. He offered me a bouquet of perfect apricot-coloured roses and I took them with a blink, instantly hit by the heady scent. I breathed them in deeply, the sweet smell with just a slight acidic twist always intoxicating and these were some of the best I’d ever smelled.
“Where’s mine?”
Ged rolled upwards with a grumble, shooting his wing mate a sleepy smile.
“I’m not asking you to come flying with me on my day off, am I?” Flynn said, slapping a hand on Ged’s shoulder, which made me wince.
“Shouldn’t you—?” I began to say.
“Don’t need to baby me,” Ged replied with a smile. “We’ve all copped a beating or two over the years. A sleep and some of Doc’s medicine is all it takes to set us right.”
“And you’ll be on light duties for the rest of the week,” the doctor said, appearing at the end of Ged’s bed to scribble down something on a piece of paper and then hand it over to him.
“Even better,” Ged said, folding it and shoving it into his pocket.
“So how about it?” Flynn held out his arm to me with a smile.
There was something easy and jovial about his tone, but as I dared to meet his eyes, I felt there was something else there. I didn’t get a chance to investigate that though. Glimmer let out a raucous squawk, something that had Ged chuckling as he slipped off the bed, like he hadn’t been flogged half a day ago, finding the container of meat on Flynn’s tray and setting it down for her on the bedside table. She was the size of a medium sized dog now. I watched her crouch over her food, then start chewing. But when I looked away with a smile, I found Flynn still waiting for my response.
Vulnerability, that’s what I saw in his gaze. I dare say he had given up all hope of ever having to court a woman, and yet here he was. Or was that why he was here? Perhaps this was just a friendly overture or Brom had sent him down or?—
“I could spend the day introducing you to the delights of Wyrmpeak.” His voice was much lower pitched now and he’d moved closer, so only I could hear him. “We could walk down by the pier, traipse through the markets, perhaps catch a show?” Right then, Flynn sounded like the Great Deceiver, whispering a million diabolically tempting suggestions in my ear, so perhaps that’s why I nodded, putting my hand on his arm. “Or we could pile on Glacier’s back and get the hell out of here.”
My eyes went to Ged who nodded with a smile. “Go with him. He’s insufferable when he doesn’t have enough to do and I’ll be in bed for most of the day.”
I looked up at Flynn then and nodded shyly.
“Well, now that’s settled…” Ged pulled me closer, settling my back against his bare chest before he took the tray from Flynn and began to feed the two of us. He nuzzled his nose into my neck, making me stiffen with the sensation, which made him chuckle.
“So what is this…?”
I’d gone upstairs and gotten dressed in my leathers. Glimmer dug her claws into the shoulder pad, curling her tail around my neck as we walked towards the eyrie.
“A fine day?” Flynn asked, gesturing the cloudless sky. “A perfect one for being out and about and in fine company?”
“The company bit.”
My arm was tucked in his, which must’ve made a strange sight to those that watched us pass. We must’ve looked like two lads, arm in arm, as we walked across the bridge. And that’s when I started thinking of Ged.
“Worried our Ged is pining his heart out for you back in his room?” Flynn pulled away to walk backwards as he faced me, a gently mocking smile on his face. He glanced up at the keep behind me, as if searching for evidence of that, and my feet slowed. He shook his head. “And if he is, what of it?”
“Well—”
“Pity isn’t an emotion a man wants to inspire in a lass,” he told me, turning back to face the same direction as me again, walking at my side while his arm went around my shoulders. “He’ll thank me for taking you away while he has time to recover. He’ll be back to being his obnoxious self tomorrow. And in the meantime…”
His hand slid down my back and I felt every step of its passage until his fingertips skipped across to my hand and brushed against my palm, questioningly. My fingers twitched in response and he took that as a sign to grab hold of my hand, lifting it up and pressing a kiss to the back, his blue eyes shining.
“We can have some fun. It’s been bloody horrible in the keep since you’ve arrived and you need to know the life of a rider isn’t all like that before you decide to steal Glimmer away and disappear off into the Highlands. C’mon.”
I found myself grinning despite myself, even though we started Glimmer squawking as we went running up to the entrance of the eyrie.
I wasn’t sure what I’d feel coming back here so soon after my ordeal, and Flynn seemed to sense that, slowing our pace and rubbing his thumb across my knuckles as we walked in. Lamps had been set up for human eyes, the bright sunlight not reaching far inside the eyrie and he led me through a maze of corridors before arriving at one special den.
“Glacier!”
When I’d been sent to work in here, the dragons had been mostly absent from the dens that were being cleaned. But now? I moved towards the blue dragon, feeling a rush of pleasure that was a combination of my emotions and Glimmer’s. She crowed out a greeting and the big dragon’s head jerked up, his massive yellow eyes blinking as he took us in, then scrambled around to face us.
“Slowly, lad…”
Flynn stepped in front of us and held his hands up, because the blue dragon’s head had swung closer towards us, his nostrils working as if he needed our scent to confirm we were actually there. The dragon pushed his muzzle gently into his rider’s chest, forcing Flynn to slap his hands down on his beast’s head and hang on. Glacier’s eyes closed as his rider rubbed at the dragon’s eye ridges, a low rumble forming in his chest.
“Now, gently with the ladies. They’re not as accustomed to your brutish displays as I am.”
Glacier seemed to take this to heart, sniffing at the two of us with almost coquettish care. I just stared, reminded again of just how massive and powerful he was. On the top of the keep he was dwarfed by the whole sky, but here I could appreciate his true size. I reached out tentatively to put a hand on the very tip of his muzzle, jerking my hand back when I felt the icy wafts of his breath.
“He’s a bastard to be around in the middle of winter,” Flynn said with a smile. “Makes me regret not bonding with a red.” Glacier shot him a scathing look. “No, of course not really. As if Cloudy is a patch on you.”
“He’s talking to you?” I asked, remembering that thin tendril of a thought in my head when I was shovelling shit.
“Doesn’t stop. He has thoughts; soooo many thoughts. Glimmer will too soon, I’ve no doubt.”
We watched my dragon scramble down my arm and launch herself at the big dragon, a shout forming in my throat as she did. But her wings flapped out, stopping her from falling, letting her glide down and land between the dragon’s eyes. My shout turned to a strangled chuckle as she rubbed her face on his blue scales, letting out a low hum.
A hum that Glacier returned.
I turned to Flynn with a question in my eyes and he just grinned.
“He likes the little queen a great deal. I had a nice day in the capital planned, thinking we could go for a walk down the pier, then we could wander towards the artists’ quarter. Peruse a few galleries and then have some wine at a cafe owned by a friend of mine.”
He sighed and then moved over to rub the fin of spikes that ran from the centre of his dragon’s head and continued all the way down his spine.
“But this lad has been pestering me all night. Got me up frightfully early this morning to try and catch you before anyone else swept in.”
“So what are we doing today, Flynn?”
We were back to my original question, the one he’d neatly sidestepped.
He answered by walking over and retrieving my dragon, keeping her cradled up against his chest before he set her back up on my shoulder. But once he was up close, he didn’t back away again.
I anticipated the feel of his fingers before he even touched me, sliding them down my face and tracing the shape of it.
“Getting to know each other, Pippin, that’s what we’re doing. Are you a lady, a pig herder, a queen-in-waiting or a cadet? A woman that prefers the clothing of men, but does not dally with the serving women when they offer?—”
“You heard about that, did you?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.
“Or someone who’ll bear the considerable wrath of our crown prince on her shoulders rather than bring her co-conspirators down with her?”
He stared into my eyes and I stared back. This felt like a… test of sorts, but I had no idea how it worked and Flynn wasn’t going to tell me, instead brushing his thumb against my now tingling bottom lip.
“I’m not sure any of us know what the hell you are.” The light coming in through the den opening seemed to bleach his eyes to sky blue. “But damn me if I don’t want to find out.”
We both let out one long shuddering breath.
“Get on my dragon, Pippin, and ride away with me. Away from the city and the keep and all the shit that lives within. We’ll sit in the summer sun and eat fine food until we forget all about everything that happens here.”
“Sounds perfect,” I said, and it was. Exactly what I wanted, needed.
“Keep thinking that,” he encouraged me, almost as if exacting a promise as he lifted me into the saddle and then settled in behind me, Glimmer tucked down into my jacket.