Page 42 of Consorting with Dragons

“I don’t see any of them.”

My face got a little warm, because I had gone to great pains to slip away from the guards that morning. “I didn’t feel like I needed any today. Talon was with me, and we just wanted to go swimming for a while.”

“So, you left without letting them know? That’s dangerous, Rylan, and it needs to stop. You’d be an attractive target for kidnapping and hostage taking. I’ll speak to your mate about it.”

“No, please don’t do that, or I’d never hear the end of it. Please, Grandfather. I promise to do better. Look, just follow me to the house and I’ll ask the cook to fix you something to eat. Omak-ahn, you can ride Talon with me, if you like.”

“No, he can’t,” Davos answered, before Blake could say anything. He pulled Blake away. “He needs to come with me.”

Blake rolled his eyes and gave me an apologetic smile, but patted Talon again and followed my grandfather back onto their hovercraft. That was exactly the kind of high-handed treatment I hated for myself when Quinn answered for me and made decisions about me. I was a little surprised that Blake didn’tspeak up, but maybe Blake had learned to pick his battles over the years. Then too, I guess the idea of riding a dragon with no safety equipment didn’t really appeal to him like it did me.

“I’d be very careful, and if you do fall, I’m pretty sure I could catch you before you hit the ground,” Talon told him.

Blake threw back his head and laughed, while Grandfather’s eyes got wide. I kissed Talon on the snout. “Not really helping, honey, but thank you. They can just follow us home.”

I ran over and jumped on his leg that he held out to assist me, and Talon and I did our trick where I vaulted over his shoulders, twisted in the air and landed neatly in the saddle. Blake shook his head admiringly, and my grandfather laughed. Then the two of them went back up the hovercraft ramp so they could follow me home.

****

Quinn

I got the call from Rylan that his grandparents had unexpectedly come for a visit around lunchtime that day and immediately cleared my schedule for the entire afternoon. A visit from King Davos was huge, and something I’d been dreading. Sulamon and I flew out soon afterward, heading home, but since the flying distance was around sixty miles, it would take at least two or three hours for us to arrive. Sulamon wasn’t as fast as some others, due to his large size, and I didn’t want to overtire him.

Our training was taking place in the high mountains, and it was a little too far to go home every night. Instead, I tried to make it home once a week or so, and it really wasn’t enough. I had a constant ache in my chest, which was surprising, because I hadn’t expected to miss Rylan quite so much. I’d really thought that not seeing him around all the time would mean I wouldn’tbe thinking of him so much. I thought that going back to work, keeping busy with training would keep lonely feelings for him at bay. I was wrong. It did help, but not nearly enough.

He was the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last thing at night. And all during the day, little thoughts of him would steal over me. If I had a good meal, I’d find myself wondering if I should tell the cook about it, because Rylan might really like it, and so far he hadn’t been a huge fan of Horvathian food. If I saw a nice view, or came across a pretty stream, or even sat outside my tent in the evenings, watching a nice sunset, I’d wish he was there to see it with me.

But damn it, I refused to become one of those foolish people who pined for their mates when they weren’t with them. It was fairly common here on Horvath, where so many had the Lycan mating bond, or Lycan curse, as I called it. Most of those people just dealt with it or worked closer to their homes, if they couldn’t manage it in any other way. I’d always thought it foolishness until I experienced it for myself and realized that it interfered with concentration on the job at hand. The only other thing I could do was travel home every night or bring Rylie to me. Bringing him here was just impractical, and what would he do when we went on a mission?

Rylan, naturally, had been all for it when I’d casually mentioned it in passing, trying to explain why thatwouldn’twork. He had begun pestering me to let him join the Dragon Riders, which horrified me and was just out of the question. The Riders were an elite fighting force, and it wasn’t simply a job that just anyone could apply for. The Riders were all experienced soldiers and each of them had been submitted by their commanding officers for consideration after they had expressed an interest . And only then were they even allowed to apply for the training.

With only a handful of Rider groups, there weren’t that many slots to go around, and some people had waited years to be able to join us. Not only was it far too dangerous for Rylan, but I doubted that the other riders would ever accept him. They would consider it to be extreme nepotism on my part to bring in my untrained, foreign mate as a rider. Then too, he was too small and too closely related to the Tygerians, who were still unpopular on our moon, even so many years after the end of the war. And even if I could put all of that aside, Rylan was a complete unknown in any kind of battle situation. He might be a good soldier—I had only his word to go on for that—but then again, he might not be up to my standards. If he wasn’t, then it would be dangerous for him and his entire group.

Besides all of that, I felt as if Rylan had been badly spoiled by his parents and his grandparents. He wasn’t terribly mature and seemed younger than his age to me. I’d given Rylan one excuse after another every time he brought it up, trying not to hurt his feelings, and we’d had another epic argument about it just before I left to go back to work this last time, in which I finally told him a few of my concerns. Not in so many words and not so bluntly, but I had expressed some of my thoughts about it. He’d been highly insulted and hadn’t spoken to me for three, very long days.

I’d waited him out, and finally, we’d come to a point where we just didn’t speak of it at all, because we were never going to agree, and I thought neither of us wanted to risk our relationship over that one issue. I did find a folder on my desk not long after that, full of glowing reports about his performance and experience as an officer and soldier for the Moravian army. It had apparently come from his Army files and must have arrived with the last mail he’d received from his family. Most of their correspondence was by communicator, but his “omak” sent him things from time to time that he’d asked for.

He was twenty-one years old. How much experience could he have had in the Moravian army? And it was highly doubtful that his superior officers would give him a bad report, anyway He was the son of the king, and the grandson of Davos, and I knew how that would go.

We didn’t speak any more about it, but I felt as if he were biding his time and letting things cool down a little before he started asking me about it again. I had begun to dread the inevitable furious argument that was coming, when, again, neither of us would be willing to back down.

I landed in the enclosure yard about an hour before sunset. Large moonslike ours had atmospheres due to a combination of factors, includinggravity, size, distance from their planet, and the presence of a magnetic field.Horvath had sufficient gravity to retain atmospheric gases, as well as greater gravitational pull than other moons and therefore retained a substantial atmosphere.Here on Horvath, our atmosphereextended from our surface to a height of many thousands of miles, and our sun set in a dull red glow on the horizon. We experienced a sunset every night and afterward, our star shone brightly in the night sky. Our moon rotated on its axis, and our atmospherescattered and refracted the sunlightjust like on Lycanus 3.

I got Sulamon settled in his enclosure and saw Talon peering out at us from his own shelter next door. Waving to him, I called out to tell him I’d be out to say goodnight later and he chattered excitedly to me about “visitors.” I told him I’d be out to see him later and went toward the house. I had to admit I was happy at the idea of seeing Rylan. His grandfather? Not so much, but it was important that I tried not to lose my temper, like I’d done with his son, Prince Mikos when I’d spoken to him. I knew I’d left a bad impression there.

I went to the house, which was lit up inside in almost every room. I found the king and his consort in the main room, alongwith Rylan, of course, who jumped up to fling himself at me. I had no resistance when it came to him, especially when he was in my arms, so I had to hug him and endure the many kisses he was giving me all over my face. I may have even enjoyed it a little. I finally peeled him away and bowed deeply to King Davos, who had risen off the long bench in my main room and was watching us closely.

“Your Majesties,” I said, and then bowed again to the king. “It’s very nice to meet you, sir. Nice to see you again, too, Royal Consort Blake. Rylan has missed you.”

Blake surprised me then by immediately coming over to me and giving me a warm hug. “Nice to see you as well, General. I see that you’ve taken good care of my boy.”

“Always,” I said, glancing down at Rylan again fondly. He was still hanging all over me, and though it wasn’t a Horvathian custom in any way to be so demonstrative with our mates, I found I didn’t mind it. In fact, I pulled him in a bit closer.

I turned back to King Davos, who was larger than I’d thought, and a handsome, vigorous man of perhaps sixty years. For a Tygerian, who typically lived to be around two hundred years old, sixty was just a number, and not even a high one. He was still very much in prime condition. I could only surmise a guess at his age by being familiar with his history. And as leader of the Axis, he was probably the most famous—some might say notorious—man in our galaxy. He was immensely powerful.

He returned the brief bow I’d given him, saying, “It’s nice to meet you as well, General Fortina. Rylan has been telling us all about you. He seems to be very fond of you.”

“I hope so, sir. It’s certainly mutual.” I indicated the bench behind him. “Won’t you sit down, Your Majesties? And can I offer you another glass of wine?”

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