Page 16

Chapter Sixteen

V al forced her hand away from her dagger as she faced the dragon before them. If the dragon wanted to cause trouble, there was little she could do.

The dragon swung his head, and his slitted, green-gold eyes fastened on them. “Are you the human bargained to me and the mercenary escorting him?”

“Are you Golbet of Flight Talonstorm?” Val worked hard to keep her voice from shaking. She didn’t fear much, but she didn’t know anyone, no matter how brave, who could keep their knees from knocking when facing a dragon in this form.

“Yes, I am.” The dragon’s deep voice held a growl.

“Then, yes, we are.” Val couldn’t relax, even though they’d found the dragon they’d been looking for.

“Finally.” Golbet shook out his neck, then raised his wings, as if preparing to take off once again. “Took you long enough. I’ve been flying these mountains for the past few days, waiting for your arrival. The Dragon Moot will be nearly over by the time we arrive.”

“If you could just—” Val lifted her wrist with the magical cord.

Golbet pumped his wings and heaved his huge body off the ground. This time, the blast of air pummeled her so hard that she stumbled backward. With Daisy pressed tightly to the back of her legs, Val fell, landing on her tailbone on the ice.

Harm, too, tottered, though he stayed on his skates by crouching and bracing himself with a hand on the ice.

As Golbet rose into the sky, Daisy all but crawled into Val’s lap, whining and shaking.

“Val, what is—” Harm started to scramble toward her across the ice, all his gracefulness disappearing.

The dragon swooped out of the sky. His front talons opened and reached toward them.

Daisy flailed, and Val wrapped the dog in both arms to keep her from racing off. Harm shouted, covering his head with both arms as if that would save him from a dragon.

Then the dragon scooped all of them up in his front claws. Val tumbled, unable to brace herself with her grip on Daisy. The dog’s head clunked painfully into her jaw, and Daisy’s frantic clawing left bruises on her legs.

Val’s stomach dropped as the dragon rapidly ascended into the sky. The cold deepened into a chill that the dragon’s warm claws around them only somewhat mitigated.

After a few minutes, the dragon leveled off, and Val squirmed upright, her back resting against the dragon’s palm—pad of his paw? Despite his size, the dragon was at least gentle with his grip, cupping Val and Daisy instead of squeezing them tight.

Peeking between the talons, Val assured herself that Harm rested just as unharmed in the dragon’s other front claw, only a few feet away thanks to the limitation of the magical cord.

Harm caught her eye. His mouth moved as if he were shouting, but his words were lost to the wind and the beat of the dragon’s wings.

Val shook her head and pointed to her ear.

Harm nodded, then waved first at the dragon, then forward. Perhaps he was asking where they were going?

Val shrugged. She had no idea where the dragon was taking them. The Dragon Moot met whenever the Elders of the various Flights called one, but it changed caverns each time so no one besides the dragons knew where it would be held.

As she didn’t know how long the flight would be, she might as well be comfortable. She leaned over Daisy as much as she could, somewhat squishing the dog, and fumbled to unbuckle her ice skates.

In the other claw, Harm did the same, though he got his skates off much faster since he wasn’t hampered by a panicking three-headed dog.

Once she had her ice skates off, Val stuffed them into her magical pocket. After a moment, she fished out a harness and leash. She didn’t put the leash on Daisy often, but she couldn’t risk Daisy running off in fear once they landed at the Dragon Moot .

It wasn’t easy, wrestling the frenzied dog into the harness. But Val managed it eventually.

Then she settled in as best she could with a shivering three-headed dog curled up in her lap.

After several hours of flying, Golbet abruptly dove downward. Val braced herself while she held on to Daisy.

A black mountain stood out against all the white of the surrounding court. Rivers of glowing lava flowed down the mountainsides.

Golbet swooped through a large opening in the side, gliding down a long black tunnel.

The scent of sulfur and an overwhelming heat smacked into Val. She immediately started sweating beneath her layers of clothing. Daisy’s agitated panting grew even worse.

At the edge of a huge cavern, Golbet landed on his back talons with a jolt. He dumped Val, Daisy, and Harm onto the floor, and Val barely managed to keep a grip on the end of Daisy’s lead as the dog tumbled, scrambled to her feet, and attempted to bolt. Val was dragged a few feet over the ground before Harm’s weight at the end of the tether halted her.

Val struggled to her feet, keeping a tight grip on the leash as Daisy’s claws scraped desperately on the stone floor.

In a blink, Golbet shrank, and a large man with straggling brown hair and wearing a yellow-green shirt beneath a black jerkin stood in his place. When he spoke, his voice held a similar timbre, though it lacked the growling depth. “Keep moving. We’re late.”

After sharing a glance with Harm, whose eyes had gone wide, Val staggered forward, leaning back against the pull of Daisy’s leash.

A few yards ahead, the tunnel opened up into a large, well-lit cavern, and the sounds of voices thundered down the passageway toward them.

Daisy stopped pulling toward the opening and instead scrambled back to Val, cowering behind her legs again. Not that Val blamed her dog. Daisy was plenty brave. But anyone would cower in the face of a Dragon Moot.

Val took the last step into the cavern, blinking at the smoky haze burning her eyes and choking in her lungs.

Daisy dug in her paws, refusing to move another inch. Val hefted Daisy into her arms, toting the dog rather than dragging her.

Before them, pools of lava were scattered throughout the cavern, and dragons in their dragon form lounged in them as if in a soothing bath. More dragons in their fae form stood in clusters on the raised edges of the room while a large walkway led to a central space.

“Golbet!” One of the dragons in fae form standing in the center raised a hand. “Finally!”

“Are these the captives you promised for the bargaining?” Another dragon, this time in his scaled form, climbed out of one of the lava pools. He shook lava off his scales almost like a dog .

“I’m not—” Val tried to speak again, but Golbet shoved her and Harm forward before she could get the words out. She tried again. “I’m a mercenary. He’s the one with the bargain. If you would just—”

Golbet strode to the center of the raised area, looking over the gathered dragons. He motioned to Harm, Val, and Daisy. “As I promised, this human stands ready to bind himself in service to a dragon. What will you bargain for his service?”

“Now hold on just a moment.” Val strode forward, gripping Daisy tighter as the dog squirmed in her arms. “I’m not a part of this bargain. I’m the mercenary tasked with delivering him. You need to accept the delivery and let me go my way.”

Harm was looking at her with something almost like betrayal in his eyes. But he didn’t understand. Yes, she was trying to save her own skin. But it was more than that. If she was bargained to a dragon alongside him, then she couldn’t…

Couldn’t what? Rescue him? Even if she was free, she couldn’t rescue him from a dragon.

“Too late. I put him up for the bargaining before you arrived. He isn’t mine to accept.” Golbet gave her something almost like a shrug before he turned back to the gathered dragons. “Well? What will you bargain for him?”

A pair of blue dragons pushed off one of the upper ledges and glided toward the raised center of the cavern.

Yet even as those two dragons swooped closer, a black dragon with red highlights along his scales climbed onto the edge of the raised section and transformed into a tall man with long black hair and even blacker eyes. “I’ll bargain for him.”

“We’ll bargain for him.” The pair of blue dragons landed next to the black dragon. They transformed into a young man and young woman, both wearing blue shirts and with brown hair. The young man wore tawny-colored trousers while the young woman had a swirling blue skirt that ended at her knees with leggings and tall boots beneath.

“Damig of Flight Thunderwing has first claim.” Golbet nodded toward the man who had been the black dragon. “Taran and Tora of Flight Clawstone have second claim if the first offered bargain is unsatisfactory.”

Damig and Golbet launched into a back and forth bargaining that Val didn’t even try to follow.

Harm eased closer so that his arm brushed hers. “This is barbaric.”

“It is.” Val adjusted her grip on Daisy. The dog was getting heavier by the moment. “Technically, they’re bargaining for your services, not your person. An indenture, if you will. But it still amounts to the same thing. Once you’re bound to a dragon, it’s difficult to free yourself.”

Harm’s jaw flexed beneath his beard, something almost like despair filling his blue eyes.

Val clenched her teeth, looking away. This whole time, Harm had clung tenaciously to his belief that he would escape. She couldn’t watch him break, watch that optimistic cheeriness die, as the dragons bargained over his fate.

“It’s—” Golbet started to nod toward Damig.

“Wait!” The young dragon man—Taran—lurched a step forward.

“We can offer more!” The young woman reached out, as if to drag Val and Harm away.

Damig glared down a nose that was long even in his fae form. “Better luck next time, dragonlings. But I’ve already secured this bargain.”

“Then let us bargain with you for him.” Taran straightened shoulders that appeared as if they would someday be broad, once he finished growing.

“No. I have no wish for another bargain. I already have a use in mind for him.” Damig turned, his shoulders moving, as if shrugging away the annoyance of the other two dragons. “Besides, aren’t the two of you a little young to be bargaining at this assembly? Shouldn’t your parents keep you better in line? Go back to your eyrie, Clawstones. Now, Golbet, as you were saying…”

Golbet glared at the two young dragons before he faced Damig again. “Yes, it’s a bargain. He’s all yours. I’m ready for a good soak in a lava pool after all that waiting around in the cold for him to arrive.”

With that, Golbet jumped from the raised walkway, turning into a dragon and spreading his wings on the way down.

The two young dragons who’d lost the bargaining shared a look, but they didn’t protest again.

Val’s stomach sank, and she couldn’t look at Harm. It would have been far better for him if the young Clawstones had won the bargaining. Their Flight was rumored to be good to humans—freeing them, even.

But she didn’t know Damig, and Flight Thunderwing had a reputation as a hard lot, even among dragons.

Damig gestured to Harm and Val. “Come.”

Val tried to motion to the cord without dropping Daisy. “Damig of Flight Thunderwing, I’m the mercenary who was tasked with retrieving this human from the Human Realm. If you would please accept his delivery, I’ll be on my way.”

Harm made a noise in the back of his throat, as if he couldn’t believe Val was just abandoning him now.

But she couldn’t do anything else. This was her job. They’d both known it would come to this, in the end. No matter how much her heart hurt. Or how much the guilt squirmed through her chest.

She was a free mercenary, and she couldn’t let herself get caught in a binding with him. Her throat tightened at the thought, her heart pumping harder in her ears. That was the whole point of being a part of the Wild Hunt. The freedom it gave her.

She had to get out of here. Get out of here and…and…

Would she return to the Realm of Monsters as if nothing had happened? Report to Diego that her mission was complete and wash her hands of it? Of him ?

Or she could do what she could to try to free Harm. Perhaps if she contacted the Primrose League, the Wild Fae Primrose—that fae nobleman who rescued humans—would step in or send one of his men to rescue Harm. Or she could figure out a way to rescue Harm herself. She was a mercenary. Being sneaky was part of her job.

Assuming Diego let her out of the Wild Hunt ride he was planning.

Damig spared her a single glance before he gripped the center of the cord and began leading both her and Harm. “I’m afraid I can’t accept the delivery any more than Golbet could. I already bargained whatever human I could secure at the Dragon Moot to Warlord Zaya in the Court of Sand. I’ll be taking both of you to her in the morning.”

“What? No! That’s not how this is supposed to work!” Val gritted her teeth as she staggered forward under Daisy’s weight.

The Court of Sand. She couldn’t go to one of the warlords. She just…couldn’t.

Why couldn’t she just make one simple delivery? It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. None of her past missions had gone like this. At this rate, she’d never get this dragon-cursed rope off and regain her freedom.