Page 45 of Dragon Valley
“She does seem a little off,” he admitted. “Like she might be going mad too, from what she saw.”
“Maybe, but,” I shook my head, “I’m not sure that’s it. I just have this feeling we shouldn’t do exactly as she says.”
“What do you suggest, Nadi?” He wrapped a hand around my waist and pulled me closer. Heat spread from his palm along my body, hindering my ability to focus my thoughts.
“Which direction is the capital? Where the Royal Army would be coming from?”
“Northeast.”
“I’ll fly that direction. You go to the village with her. If—”
“No.” He cut me off with a sharpness that took me aback. “You’re not riding off somewhere alone.”
“I just want to verify her story,” I said. “If the Royal Army is splitting off into tiny units to raid villages, there’s probably more than one, right? If the king really wants to systematically take out any resistance, that’s what he would do, right?”
“Maybe,” he relented. “That’s assuming the king is of sound mind and thinking logically. That might not be the case.”
“I just want to check,” I reiterated. “I won’t go far and I’ll double back and meet you at her village. If she’s telling the truth, I’ll probably spot the unit that raided her home and torch them to dust.”
“That’s my girl,” he chuckled with an affectionate swat to my ass, but then quickly lowered his eyes shyly. “Alright, just be quick. Come back to me.”
“Of course I will.”
I sealed my promise with a long, lingering kiss as he held onto me like he never wanted to let go.
“I mean it,” he said gruffly, his forehead against mine. “At the first sign of trouble, you turn around and fly to me.” He hesitated before adding, “I can’t lose you.”
“I will,” I promised, catching his mouth in another kiss. Why were we saying goodbye like this? I would just be a few hours at the most.
I wanted to tell him I couldn’t lose him either, but the words felt stuck in my throat as we parted.
He went to tell Myra our plan as I climbed back on Dusa. Just as I suspected, she shook her head as her wide eyes fixated on me.
“No, I need both of you to come. They were really strong fighters, you can’t take them all on yourself!”
“If anyone can take on eight royal soldiers, it’s Caden,” I affirmed as Dusa lifted us airborne and turned toward the northeast. I looked back until Caden and Myra were nothing but tiny specks on the landscape below.
“Do you trust her, girl?” I asked.
A huff of smoke and a snort were my answers.
“Yeah, me neither.”
18
CADEN
“You’ll breakyour neck if you keep looking up at the sky,” Myra told me in another attempt to be humorous.
I ignored her, craning my neck in all directions hoping to spot Dusa’s long wings flapping somewhere on the horizon. But the sky remained clear and the pit of worry in my stomach grew deeper. It had been nearly two hours already. Dusa could cover nearly a hundred miles in that time. Where in the Gods’ names were they?
“How did you meet the dragon girl anyway?” Myra tried again.
“Not important,” I muttered. “How much farther to your village?”
“Not much farther. Just over this hill.”
The more I thought about it, the stranger this situation felt to me. As we walked together, Myra seemed oddly relaxed for someone whose home and family members were just burned to nothing. Once in a while, she sniffled, sobbed and wiped away tears. Whenever I asked if she wanted to stop, she insisted we keep going. At first I wrote it off as not understanding female emotions but something still didn’t seem right to me. Thank the Gods for Nadi and her good instincts.
