Page 125 of Realm of Thieves

Both heads peer down at me.

“Go,” I whisper. “Please.”

The dragon lowers one head and grasps Andor’s legs in them.

Oh no, please no.

“Stop,” I say. “Let him be.”

But the other head comes for me now, about to bite my own head off.

I close my eyes, refusing to let go of Andor’s body.

Teeth pinch at my arm, grazing the skin without breaking it.

And suddenly a weight is lifted.

I open my eyes to see Andor’s upper body in the dragon’s mouth, the other half held by the other set of teeth.

I stare in awe, unsure what to do, what’s happening.

Then the dragon carefully turns around, keeping its heads together so that Andor’s body remains intact.

It turns, its tail whipping alongside me, and starts slowly walking back to the cave.

“Stop!” I yell. I try to get to my feet but my ankle gives out and I go tumbling into the scree. I start picking up the pebbles and pelting them at the dragon, each one bouncing off its blue hide, and still the dragon doesn’t stop.

Meanwhile Lemi is trotting after it, barking as he goes.

“Lemi!” I scream but no to avail.

I try to get to my feet again, wincing as I have to put all my weight on the other leg. I start shuffling forward at an angle, grunting in pain as I try my best to hurry after Lemi and the dragon. Now the dragon has already reached the cave and has gone inside, and Lemi runs in after it, disappearing into the shadows.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I swear, moving faster now, ignoring the sharp stabbing pain that wants to bring me to my knees. My body is releasing some sort of chemical to keep me going and I let it run through my body, until the pain doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

I limp into the cave, yelling and pleading for Lemi to come back.

Then I come to a stop.

And can’t believe my eyes. Lemi is standing right in front of me, staring at the dragon, which lowers Andor’s body to the ground, gently, as if with reverence.

Right in front of a bubbling pool of lava.

“No,” I whisper. “This can’t be.”

But the lava pool, with its small channel that runs off it, is exactly the same as the one in my vision, the molten fire causing a faint glow that illuminates the cave.

I stare at the middle of the pool, daring it to come true, to be real.

And yet even when it starts to move, like waves in an ocean, I still can’t believe it, not until the top of a head emerges.

Then a full head.

A woman’s head.

Her hair, her shoulders, her arms, her breasts. Torso, hips, thighs, calves.

All of it made from swirling magma, shades of red and orange and blinding yellow, flowing in some places, like her stomach and down the middle of her thighs, hardened into cooled lava in others, like her breasts, hips, hands. Her face is like rock, most of her features obscured.

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