Page 23 of Dragon Lord
Why it should please him to have pleased her, Draknart couldn’t fathom.Yet a rare contentment came over him.Should a plague come, he was glad Einin would be with Belinus.The god would keep her safe.And should Belinus have sent her back to her village by then, Draknart decided he’d swoop in.A plague could take all mankind, for all he cared, but not his Einin.
The sun warmed his belly pleasantly, but not as pleasantly as her body.When he could smell her light, sweet sweat, he splashed some cool water on her with a wing.And when she laughed, he did it again, playing like a dragon pup, a long-forgotten feeling.He only stopped when her stomach grumbled again.
“Was the rabbit not enough, sweeting?”He would have thought, as small as she was, the meal would satisfy her.
“’Twas, and I thank you for the meal,” she said, but watched the water with a wistful expression as if searching for the fish he’d promised.
“You eat every day?”he asked.He was reasonably familiar with humans and their ways, but not with every little detail.
A fond look came over her face, as if reliving pleasant memories.“During the good times, even twice a day.”
Dragons ate but once a sennight, could easily go a fortnight, and would survive a full month without a feeding.While they slept the long sleep, they could go without food for years.Draknart didn’t forecast humans a bright future.As a species, they were most ill-suited for survival.
“Come and gone,” he muttered under his breath.“Mark my word.”
“Mark what?”
“Never you mind.”
No sense in vexing her just when they were beginning to get along so nicely.
He floated to shore with her and let her off on the sand before turning back into the water.“I’ll see about some fish.”
He swam out and plunged into the deep, zoomed by half a dozen pike, picked a lively one that gave him some sport, and carried it to Einin in his maw.She already had wood gathered for a fire.He dropped the fish, then used a talon to gut it.
“That’s a five-footer,” she said, wide-eyed, heaving to lift the pike by its tail.“And weighs three stones at least.”
Draknart smiled modestly, if such a thing was possible for a dragon.So maybe he was showing off for her a wee bit.He wanted her to see him as something other than an evil beast.He wanted her to remember him well, after she went to the god.
He lit the fire, and she handled the roasting, a piece so small, it was hardly worth bothering with.While she ate that, he swallowed the rest of the raw fish.
“I thought you said you didn’t eat every day,” she remarked.
He shrugged.“No sense in letting good food go to waste.”
She’d loosened her braid to dry from their earlier swim, and her hair spread around her shoulders, cascading down her back.Her still-damp shirt stuck to her skin.The man inside Draknart craved and demanded.He couldn’t trust himself with Einin much longer.He hoped Belinus would come to the circle at twilight.
Einin looked across the fire.“Before the curse, could you turn into a man?”
“Aye, at will.”A form close enough to human so humans wouldn’t know the difference.That was how he’d swived the usual virgin sacrifices.Then he’d turned back to a dragon and eaten them.
Einin’s gaze flickered over him.“Why not stay in the shape of a man and live in one of the villages?”
“If you can be a dragon, always be a dragon.”He was a little offended at the suggestion.
“How old are you?”
He tried to think back through all the changes of the human world he’d witnessed: the great plague, the wars, the succession of kings.“I’ve been in the hills since before the first villages.”
She stared at him.“But that’s a thousand years, at least.”
Sounded like a lot when she said it like that.“And you?”
“Twenty.”
He’d had stomach aches that had lasted longer.She was such an insubstantial wee lass, ’twas hard to fathom how she managed to fascinate him so thoroughly.Aye, she was small, but her fire and her courage were great.She’d been willing to give her life for her village.A village with people like the cowherd’s wife who’d whipped her bloody.Einin was more of a hero than any of the knights who’d come to challenge Draknart, knights bought by the village, men who fought for gold coin.
Einin licked her fingers, and for some reason, Draknart found even that interesting.She seemed equally fascinated with him.She watched him through narrowed eyes.“Are dragons immortal?”
