Page 37 of Dragon Lord
How was that possible?She’d only flown a few times.And would probably never fly again.Draknart must be thinking the same.Einin wished she could see his face, but he walked in front of her so he could bend all the pesky branches out of her way.
Night had fallen by the time they reached Castle Blackstone.
Draknart stomped forward.“We’ll spend the night in the ruins.”
Einin was grateful that he would think of her and make sure she was all right.He had the strength of a dragon still; he wouldn’t tire, but she did.He could see in the dark, but she could not.She preferred to continue their journey in daylight when she wouldn’t have to stumble over every root and rock.
The castle towered before them, lit by silver moonlight.Draknart couldn’t fly them to the top of the last remaining tower like the last time, but the great wooden gate hung open and allowed entry.
Einin followed Draknart through to the castle yard, then to the tower’s base.The door lay on the ground to the side.In the middle of the darkly yawning opening, a small light drew her eyes.A fireflyshe thought.But then the light grew.And grew.
She drew her sword.Draknart stepped in front of her.Then neither of them moved, although, Einin did peek around Draknart.
“I have you to thank for the reconciliation between myself and the goddess,” Belinus said as he expanded into a towering beam of light.
They waited.Interrupting the god would not have been wise.
“As my gift, accept this castle and the blessing of the gods.Lord Draknart,” Belinus said, “and Lady Einin.”
Then the light blinked out, and Einin couldn’t see anything, until her eyes once again adjusted to the dark of night.Her heart pounded so hard in her chest, they probably heard it back in Downwood.
Draknart strode into the tower in silence, then up the stairs, his shoulders rigid.
“What did he mean?”she called after him.“Lord Draknart and Lady Einin?”
Draknart refused so much as to turn back.A dark, dangerous energy radiated off him.Of course.This wasn’t what he’d wanted.He hadn’t gone to the gods for a castle.He’d gone to be returned to his former self.
A couple of wolves howled in the woods.Irritated former dragon or no, Einin hurried up the steps behind him.
She came out of the staircase and into the tower room just as Draknart spit fire on a few pieces of broken furniture by the wall.She stopped just inside the doorway.“I am sorry that the goddess took your dragon shape.”
Draknart stared into the quickly livening fire.The flames illuminated his tense body, his muscled chest rising and falling with each breath.He shot Einin an unfathomable glance, then strode to the window and looked out into the night.
Exhausted to the bone, she sank to the stones, hugging her knees to her chin.“It’s all right.We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
For a moment or two, she closed her eyes.When she opened them, he was dragon, turning his great body from the window to look at her, the scales of his tail scraping on the stones.
Midnight.
“Draknart!”She scrambled to her feet.
He growled, his lips pulled back, the light of the fire glinting off his fangs.“The goddess reversed the curse.Man from dawn to midnight, dragon from midnight to dawn.”
“Why?”
His enormous dragon body shook with fury, his talons scratching lines into the stone floor.Smoke curled from his nostrils.“A jest, I suspect.”
He would spend more of the day as human than he would as dragon.The goddess doubled her curse.
Einin’s heart clenched.She pressed her back to the stonewall behind her, expecting Draknart to rage and blow fire, to bring the tower down around them.He hated being a halfling more than he hated anything.
Instead, the dragon watched her, and measure by measure, he calmed, the fight and tension going out of him.His black eyes turned thoughtful.After a few more moments, he lay down in the middle of the room and opened one wing in invitation.“You are tired.I will keep you warm in the night.Come.”
The merciless cold of the drafty tower made her shiver.She hurried over and snuggled against Draknart’s warm body.
His draped his wing over her like a blanket.“Do you wish to stay and become lady of this castle?”
You.Did he mean without him?Her heart pounded.Now that he could fly again, why would he stay?
