Bound By Dragons: A Standalone Fantasy Romance, page 4
He pressed his eyes shut. There wasn’t enough patience in the world…
A squawking sounded and suddenly a youngling dragon barreled across the arena. Ragewing launched himself toward his nephew by blood. The female Fae’s eyes widened and she ran—surprisingly quickly—toward the youngling, getting between the dragons. Marius’s heart shot into his throat and his head pounded as he sprinted to catch up.
She held out her arms and spoke up to Ragewing. “He’s not intending to threaten your rider.”
“Back away,” Marius commanded. “Ragewing, she means no harm. Back away!” he shouted at the female. “That youngling is his kin.”
The female glanced at Marius, then slowly moved away from the dragons. Ragewing loped forward and set his wing over the yowling young beast.
“Aww, look at them.” The female was grinning and had her fists tucked under her chin like she was witnessing the most wonderful thing in the world.
Ragewing licked the youngling’s head, cleaning the small dragon as if he were his own. It was rather adorable, but also dangerous.
“You could have been killed,” Marius said to the female. “That was incredibly reckless.”
“There’s no need to shout at me. I realize I made a mistake. Is this how the High Captain trains you to respond when someone is trying to help? No wonder everyone is scared of him.”
He stared, waiting for her to figure it out. She was the most infuriating person he had ever met.
Her gaze slid to the whip curled around his shoulder, then her fingers flew to her full rosy lips and her cheeks pinked.
Warmth coiled low in his body and he cleared his throat.
“Old Ones save me,” she whispered. “You are the High Captain!”
Inclining his head slightly, he glared. “Indeed.”
Shadows had bloomed across the arena, and a dark-haired, purple-skinned female leading a horse walked up to the south entrance of the arena. It was past time to finish this and get Ragewing back to his stall.
“I… I didn’t realize…” she stammered.
For the first time, she seemed at a loss for words. A miracle.
“And you are late to the sign-ups,” he said tightly. “Is that your squire? You must turn in your vial of blood immediately.”
“Thank you. Yes.” She gave him a grin and bow, then ran to meet up with the other female that he assumed was her squire. They hurried out of the arena, horse in tow.
At least she had listened to his warning about time. Foolish thing.
He ran a hand down Ragewing’s shoulder. “Surely, she won’t make it past the interview. We can’t let more of these fools enter and get themselves killed. Some just do not have the proper respect for our work…” Grumbling, he tried to focus on herding Ragewing and the youngling back toward the stables, but the female with the dark honey eyes and the pink cheeks never really left his thoughts.
Chapter 6
Tahlia
High Captain Marius Leos Valentius. She had actually met him. Spoken to him. A stuttered breath left her. Just with his gaze, he’d given her lovely shivers.
“I lost you at the bend in the road.” Irritation clipped Fara’s words.
Tahlia held up a hand. She hadn’t meant to worry her friend. This place was just so incredible that she could hardly focus on doing anything. The sights and sounds and smells drew her attention back and forth and around again like she was watching a pitchball game.
“I’m sorry. I noticed the arena and just had to see it for myself immediately.”
A reluctant grin crossed Fara’s mouth. “Fine.”
“Did you ask what we need at the sign-up table?” Tahlia asked. “I assume you found it past that crowd?”
“I did. They want your blood for the test right now and they say if we don’t have it turned in by the next bell, you can’t compete.”
A grimace tugged at Tahlia’s mouth. “I had no idea there was a time limit.”
“Where are we doing this?” Fara was already fingering the hilt of her dagger.
Tahlia dug around in the bag strewn across her body. There had to be a bottle in here somewhere.
“How about over there?” she whispered.
Fara curled her lip. “Near the public piss pots?”
Finally, a cool, curved item touched Talia’s fingertips. She drew out a green vial, one that their former employer used to gather seeds of medicinal plants. “Yes, come on.”
She dragged Fara into one of the curtained toilet tents, leaving Daffodil chomping on a clump of weeds outside. Thankfully, this particular tent was empty. Uncorking the bottle with her teeth, Tahlia let loose a horrible groan.
Fara’s eyes went wide. “What is your problem?”
“If everyone thinks someone is sick in here, they’ll leave us alone.”
Nodding, Fara pursed her lips and gave a cough and a groan too.
Knocking the rest of the seeds from the vial, Tahlia grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
Fara used her dagger to make a small cut about halfway up her arm and Tahlia held the bottle up against the wound. Fara’s Mistgold Fae blood flowed into the vial.
Tahlia found a bandage at the bottom of the sack and helped Fara tidy up her arm and roll her sleeve back down. Tahlia took Fara’s face between her hands.
“Thank you for doing this.”
Fara grinned, her cheeks puffing around Tahlia’s fingers. “Just don’t die on me.”
“I’ll do my best to live on and annoy you forever.”
Back at the sign-up table, Tahlia handed the vial over to a barrel-chested, blue-skinned male. “My blood sample.” She gave him what she hoped was a winning smile as her heart rate increased and her hands grew clammy.
His features held no emotion. He took the offered bottle and set it beside a long sheet of parchment. “Name?”
“Lady Tahlia of Northwoods.”
“Experience in years?”
“With dragons?”
His gaze snapped to her face and he just stared.
“Oh, of course.” A nervous laugh bubbled from her. “Six years at Grimsbrook.”
The male’s grip tightened on his red feather quill. “Really?” He looked her up and down.
She tugged at her leather vest and raised her chin defiantly. She was so lucky the human half of her allowed her to lie. “Yes.”
He jerked his head in a nod and inked her name onto the parchment. “Sigil?”
“Tree and dragon tooth.”
Waving a hand to indicate he needed more detail than that, he paused in writing.
“The tooth sits longwise above an oak’s silhouette.”
“Ah.” He jotted down some unreadable notes, then set his quill down and cracked his knuckles. “Your interview will be at the Brass Lantern with High Captain Marius.” He handed her a scroll shut with a waxed blue and silver seal.
“But…”
“You’re lucky. With that level of experience, you will have plenty to discuss with him.”
Tahlia’s neck heated and she gripped the tiny scroll tightly. “Of course. Yes. Thank you. What time?”
“At sundown. You can eat together if he is in the right mood.”
Fara leaned over Tahlia’s shoulder. “Right mood?”
Tahlia imagined that Marius would be in a foul mood considering he didn’t agree with how she behaved with the youngling dragon. But she would win him over. Somehow.
The male chuckled knowingly. “You’ll see.” He shooed them on and began asking the male behind them the entry questions.
Fara urged the horse around a cluster of children trading painted stones. “You didn’t ask when we’ll hear the results of the blood test?”
“I am sure they’ll let us know at the interview if there was any issue, which there won’t be.” Each of the children’s stones had a sigil on it, perhaps of their favorite knight or dragon…
“It’s nearly sundown now. Tell me about that knight in the arena.”
They walked the winding path that wound through a market and along the higher cliffs that stretched into the peachy late-afternoon sky. Stairs ran along the cliffs and numerous Fae walked here and there. They lived in the caves carved from the mountain’s face and each cave boasted a crystal above its arched entrance.
“It was the High Captain.” Tahlia grimaced at Fara.
Fara gripped Tahlia’s arm. “What?”
“Yes, I didn’t recognize him. He seemed too young to be the male everyone talks about.” And too good looking. That whip on his shoulder made her mind whirl with thoughts that were decidedly unknightlike…
Fara’s grip on Tahlia’s arm went slack. “We are as good as dead.”
“Why?”
“Because.” Fara shoved her hands in her hair and turned in a circle. “Now he knows your face and you didn’t know who he was. A terrible first impression. He’ll know you’re sneaking in here,” she whispered in a hiss, “and that your blood is false and he’ll come looking for us and will have his dragon roast us for his supper.”
“Fara.”
“I don’t want to be someone’s supper.” Fara’s eyes were wild—a sure sign of her losing it. “I want to have a meal, not be one!”
Tahlia grabbed her by the arms and stared her in the face. “Fara. You must stop yelling.” Especially yelling about our secrets, she tried to say with her eyes.
Fara’s gaze took in the crowd around them. “Right.”
“But you didn’t let me tell you the best part,” Tahlia whispered as the crowd stopped paying them any attention. “He was tending to Ragewing. That dragon is glorious. The colors, the scales, the fire-bright eyes… And High Captain Marius wasn’t too bad himself with his immense height and that fierce stare. He has this powerful presence…”
“Yes, yes. Attractive and dangerous male. Just every idiot’s type. Now, can we go find our lodgings?”
Tahlia leaned close. “We don’t have the money for that.”
“They provide lodging to those who have one of those.” Fara jerked her chin toward Tahlia’s hand—where the small scroll was gripped in her fingers.
“Ah. All right.” The street branched out, and down at the end of the western route, an archway made entirely of crystal sparkled above the crowd. “I’m guessing that is the entrance to the inner bailey.”
The crowd thinned as they approached the archway and one of the four guards in Mist Knight livery standing at the entrance raised his sword.
“I swear on the Old Ones’ greatest crystal,” the guard shouted at the gathered folk. “If you don’t back up, I’ll lop the heads from the lot of you!”
“Calm down, Severin. They’re just excited,” another guard said.
“Only competitors! No rabble!” Severin said, glaring at the people straining their necks to see through the arch.
The second, more level-headed guard shook his head and waved Tahlia forward. “You have your mark?”
She held up the tiny scroll. “You mean this?”
He took it, cracked the seal, and read it over. “Yep. You’re in. This your squire, yes?” He was looking behind her at Fara.
“Yes. Where do I find our lodgings?”
“Straight through there.” He pointed down a side street inside the archway. “A stable hand will take your horse at that second archway. Then you’ll come to an unmarked door where competitor lodgings are given out. Remember, be on your best behavior. There is always a dragon watching the castle.” His smile was sharp. He elbowed her. “Just kidding you, knight. Get on in there and make your hometown proud!”
Tahlia’s heart thudded and her smile turned absolutely feral. She was more than ready to do just that. Fara shut her eyes—she was probably praying—and they passed into the legendary castle of the Mist Knights, the very heart of the Shrouded Mountains.
Chapter 7
Tahlia
Fara paced the chamber the Mist Knight’s servant had given them for lodging during the two-day tournament. “I hope Daffodil isn’t stabled beside a dragon.”
Tahlia gave her a look from where she lounged on the bed by the door. “They know we didn’t bring her as a midnight snack.”
A strangled noise came from Fara. “I can’t believe you’re going to jump onto a dragon tomorrow! Are you certain about this? Can’t we just set up a nice little table here and sell arts and crafts?”
“You’ve never made anything crafty in your entire life.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“It isn’t.”
“No, but Mist Knights can be cruel. They test you when you’re up there,” Fara said, pointing at the ceiling but presumably meaning the sky, “and if you fall, they will just let you die. Ack! I’d forgotten! You met the High Captain! Tell me everything. Was he covered in blood?”
“Stars, Fara, no, he wasn’t coming back from war.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I doubt they’d be holding a tournament if we were suddenly at war.”
“Fine. Now, how did he act?”
“Polite. His dragon was amazing. And his dragon’s nephew made an appearance. Cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Did he scold you for being in the arena without permission?”
“The dragon?”
Fara’s nostrils flared, so Tahlia ceased the teasing.
“He was a touch grouchy looking but he didn’t say anything negative,” Tahlia said, the High Captain’s storm-gray eyes and deep, stony voice flashing through her mind. “Maybe his face is just like that.”
Fara lifted the blanket on the bed and examined the sheets underneath. It was her usual spider check.
“He said if I pass the interview,” Tahlia continued, “he would find me some better riding leathers.”
Dropping her bag on the bed, Fara spun. “He what?”
“And the fact that he is the one assigned to give me the interview, I bet I’ll have a brand-new set by tomorrow morning.”
“You actually feel good about him interviewing you? I’d be a puddle of fear on the floor. Plus, you didn’t recognize him at first, right? He has to be irritated.”
“There’s more chance he is annoyed with the way I slipped between his dragon and the youngling dragon.”
“What?” Fara looked ready to keel over.
“It’s okay. I put myself between his dragon and the youngling because I was afraid the big guy was going to attack him. The youngling was running straight at the High Captain.”
“You did what?”
“Your voice is doing that squealy thing again.”
Making claws of her fingers, Fara glared.
“I was trying to help and the High Captain didn’t think that was a good idea. But he knew the youngling was his dragon’s nephew and I didn’t. An honest mistake.”
“You got between the dragons? Seriously? That wasn’t some sort of slang idiom I am not aware of? Like ‘oh, today I was between the dragons. It was a hellish afternoon.'”
“No. Not an idiom.”
Fara covered her face with her hands. “We are doomed.”
“I choose to believe he isn’t mad at me. He isn’t that horrible. He was gentle with his dragon and I think he’s a good person. Truly. Maybe everyone just believes he is cruel because of his grouchy face.”
“But what about the high number of foes he has killed and the great number of knights-in-training that he has kicked out of the castle?” Fara asked.
Tahlia shrugged. “We don’t know what stories are true.”
“I wonder if that one about him chasing a stable hand off the mountain with his whip is true.”
“I doubt that. He could probably have scared the fellow away with just his glare.”
Fara laughed, her shoulders relaxing away from her ears a bit. “What are you going to wear to the interview?”
“Not this?” Tahlia patted her leathers.
“You are supposed to wear civilian clothing, I believe.”
“I’ll see what I can do with our lady’s green trousers and that scarlet tunic of hers.”
Nodding, Fara pulled them from the saddlebag. “I’ll shake them out and smooth them as best I can while you go to the baths.”
“Ooooh, the baths.”
“I’ve heard they are the best in the land besides King Lysanael’s.”
Thoughts of hot steam and lavender-scented soaps were already making Tahlia swoon.
Fara grabbed her arm before she could leave. “But be careful. You must go to the trainees’ bathing area, not the knights’ area.”
“Or I’ll be in hot water?” Tahlia wiggled her eyebrows.
Fara rolled her eyes. “Go on.”
Tahlia whistled as she left the chamber and headed down the corridor. There was only one way to go, as the corridor dead-ended the other direction. At a fork, a chalked sign hung from the ceiling. One arrow was marked GREAT HALL and the other said BATHING CHAMBERS. Simple enough.
The bathing area’s high ceiling let in the sunset’s orange glow. A few males and females walked this way and that, mostly wrapped in bathing sheets and carrying folded stacks of clothing. Some had tall cups of something that smelled like mint. Multiple rooms branched off of the main area, and without signs, she had to guess which one was for her.
Tahlia ended up in a smaller room with a deep circular pool of steaming water and a set of shelves stocked with sheets as well as a pitcher and three of those tall cups. Had there been a sign as to who was supposed to use this bathing room and she had just missed it? She went back to the arch she’d passed through but didn’t see a sign anywhere.
Well, no one was here anyway, so it had to be fine. She set to peeling off her road-stained clothing and boots. Three steps led into the water, and the feel of its heat was dream-worthy. Sinking all the way in, she let the water cover her head. It was incredible. She was in good shape and could handle a lot, but that climb up the mountain had made her muscles sore. The hot water loosened them up and helped her relax.
