Page 30 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
Cighyss reached up and covered my fingers with his. I leaned down and kissed them, dirty and bloody though they were. He gave me a smile that made his lip split open, and I wanted to tell him then that I loved him, like I’d promised myself I would do, but my voice failed me. He nodded. Maybe he already knew.
“Warfield,” Bromley said in his rumbling voice, “where are you taking us?”
I looked around and realized we hadn’t been going back toward the docks. While I’d known we couldn’t take that same ship back—obviously, since it was most likely destroyed now—Ihad thought we’d try for another one. A merchant ship. Hadn’t that been the plan?
“Imelda said there’s another dock on the other side of the bay,” Warfield answered. “There will be more merchants with smaller vessels there.”
Reassured, we continued through posh residential streets where only the servants seemed to be out. When they saw what we had, they scurried back inside or huddled away from us. No one stopped us. No one questioned us.
Could it be that the simple folk of Xanthous didn’t want their captured dragon? Didn’t agree with his imprisonment? Some of my anger faded as a seedling of hope grew within me.
The homes turned into shops as the merchant docks came into view. Ladies and gentlemen in their finery roamed around, peering in windows and carts, as workers loaded and unloaded the ships. There were gasps and screeches and running feet as we passed, but again, no one contested us.
And when Warfield marched us right up to a frocked peacock of a man standing beside the gangplank of a ship loading water barrels, the man threw up his hands before Warfield even drew his sword.
“It’s my employer’s ship,” the man said urgently. “Take it! But please don’t harm anyone.”
The laborers paused, we paused, and for a moment, I was certain none of us knew what to do.
“Finish loading those barrels and foodstuffs,” Hagen barked like a seasoned captain, “and then get the fuck off my ship!”
I couldn’t keep quiet another moment. “Why isn’t anyone trying to stop us?” I asked the merchant.
He shook his head, eyes wide. “We struggle enough as it is from the treaties King Wolfgang has broken with our allies, and now he angers the dragon by capturing its mate? We none of us want to die!”
I blinked at him, dumbfounded. They thought Cighyss was the dragon’s mate? Did that mean they thought there was something more terrifying than him coming for him? A mate that would destroy them for imprisoning their love?
They were afraid of me?
I chuckled and looked down to see Cighyss laughing weakly. Well, what the people of Xanthous didn’t know was their problem. And it didn’t mean I couldn’t help them solidify their rumors.
“You are quite lucky his mate sent us instead of coming himself,” I told the nervous peacock of a man. “He would’ve razed this kingdom to the bedrock it stands on.”
He made a squeaky sort of noise before running off without a backward glance.
The laborers finished and left the ship, while four of us carried Cighyss below. The moment we stepped into the darkness down there, a din of yapping started up from crates throughout the space.
Apparently, the merchant had been about to transport a hold full of puppies.
“Well, the children will be thrilled,” Phineas said over the noise of the animals. “Camille keeps trying to sneak lambs into our chambers!”
“Now she can have a pack instead!” Because there had to be at least a hundred dogs down here based on the noise they were making.
I slowly became aware of a deep vibration coming up through the floorboards and looked down at Cighyss. Was he growling on some sub-vocal level? In a moment, every last one of the animals around us quieted down to a couple of whimpers before absolute silence.
The dragon had spoken.
“Now if you wouldn’t mind getting me free?” Cighyss said. “I should very much like to go home.”
Thirteen
FREEDOMS & DECLARATIONS
While Bromley and Phineas used their brute strength to batter at the hinges and welds of the door on the cage, Eglantine and I fetched food and water for Cighyss. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he’d had either, so we had him sip and nibble, consuming everything slowly so his body could adjust.
I hated that he was still trapped, the wrongness of it, but comforted myself with being able to see and touch him and know he was safe. At least he was in good spirits, smiling and joking with us as though he was a pampered lord on a chaise being fed little snacks by his minions. I played the role of a dedicated servant to keep him happy even as I longed to free him.
We sailed away from Xanthous uncontested, the sun set, and finally Bromley’s latest hit to the metal sounded different. He and Phineas grasped the small door and pulled before Eglantine and I joined them. They’d managed to break the joins at the top, but we had to bend the door down in order to get Cighyss out. Was it made of iron? Steel? Gods, it was near impossible to move, and I was shaking by the time we had the door three-quarters of the way open.
