Page 84 of Under Gorse and Stone

I nod, and he kisses my temple, nuzzling into the hair in what is becoming a lovely, familiar gesture. “Then I would repeat those words to you.”

“You’re a dragon. Please don’t say squiring me around is thrilling.”

“It is when you open your mouth and words come out. I never know what you will say next,” he says solemnly, laughing when I punch him.

He steps back. “Well, we are free from the Mer court. I always want to cleanse myself in clean air and rain when it happens.”

“You too?” I say astonished.

He shudders. “I am not comfortable with subterfuge and plotting. And they are the chief tools of a Mer at court. They are a wily people. Ah, feel the air, Cary.”

He turns his face to it, and I watch him. “So, what now? What did she mean when she said to seek the stone men? Do you have any idea?”

He nods. “She was talking of a site near Lamorna Cove.”

“That name sounds familiar.” I rack my brain. “The Merry Maidens?” I say tentatively.

He beams. “My clever human. Yes, we must go to Lamorna.”

“I presume we’re flying.”

He nods. “I shall go to the edge and change. Do not come any closer. You remember?”

I nod, trying to hide my anticipation, and he chuckles, not even fooled for a second. I know it pleases him that I like flying.

I startle when a peal of bells fills the air. “What the hell was that?” I ask, immediately going to the edge of the rock. There’s no sign of a church—just the restless sea heaving around the rock.

Sigurd immediately pulls me back. He makes a tsking noise. “’Tis not safe, nosy human,” he chides. “I do not want you taking a tumble into these waves.”

“But it sounded like church bells under the sea.”

“It is,” he says simply. “And definitely not a reason to go for an unplanned swim.”

“Do the Mer have churches, then?”

“Nay.” He unfastens his watch and hands it to me.

“What do you normally do with it when I’m not here?”

“I don’t carry it. I can conjure my clothes, which I have to say is a huge relief because nudity can cause consternation.”

I lick my lips. “Not in me.” Then I check as something occurs to me that I really should have thought of sooner. “Hang on.When you changed the first time, you took off your clothes.” My eyes narrow. “One could even say youposed.”

He laughs, his eyes a little wicked. “Mayhap I just like the way you look at me when I am naked.”

“And how is that?”

“Avidly,” he says, stretching out the word. I can’t help my laugh and his eyes twinkle merrily. “But jewellery is more challenging. It is my dragon nature that covets gold and so cannot bear for it ever to vanish, even if it be only for a few minutes.”

“I thought that was a myth.”

He laughs. “Nay, definitely not. We like our possessions. I am not particularly fond of gold, but I have an affinity for books, music, and art. It's lucky that my second cousin is a banker in Switzerland, and he grows my wealth very ably. Our love for gold stands us well in this world of yours.”

The bells sound again. There’s something mournful about them that raises the hair on the back of my neck. To hear bells in the middle of the sea is eerie. “If it’s not a Mer church, then what is that?” I ask again.

“’Tis Lyonesse.”

Excitement fills me. “The land that once stretched to the Isles of Scilly and was engulfed by the sea a thousand years ago?”