Page 31 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
“Pull me out,” Cighyss said, a touch of stress in his voice.
“We’ve almost got it. Just a bit?—”
“Now!” He pushed himself down, his legs wiggling free. “I can’t— Please!”
He was panicking. We moved as one to help him through the gap. Eglantine stood on the door at one point to bend it just a bit more, and we yanked Cighyss out.
He and I clung to each other there on the floor of the ship. He cried, I cried, and I just held him as tightly as I dared. I could feel the others touching me, leaning, and then Cighyss was pulling them in closer.
“My hoard,” he croaked. “My beautiful hoard.”
After a few minutes of clinging to each other, we slowly separated and wiped up our tears. Our work wasn’t done yet—Cighyss needed more of our care than just hugs.
Fatima appeared then, saying she’d found the captain’s quarters and filled his copper tub with water for bathing. Phineas and I helped Cighyss walk there and got him into the bath, while Fatima gathered more food and drink.
“We’ve made it out to sea,” she said quietly. “We could see that the fire’s out at the other docks, but both ships might’ve been damaged.”
“And none follow us?” I asked.
Fatima nodded. “Now we wait to see what awaits us at home.”
I turned my mind away from contemplating that since I was fair certain that a merchant ship like this wouldn’t have cannons and might not have any weapons at all. If treaties had been broken, it was possible this ship had been set to sail around Xanthous selling the dogs rather than going to other countries through open water. No, I didn’t want to think about how vulnerable we were.
I focused instead on Cighyss.
While Phineas found a vial of soap for Cighyss’s hair, I lathered a soft cloth and started at his toes. Was he already healing? The raw redness to his skin seemed to have calmed. Even the peeling seemed improved. That his injuries could’ve been solved with so little effort made me hate his captors that much more.
“Stop,” Cighyss said and smoothed his thumb over the wrinkles between my eyebrows. “We’re all safe and heading home. Stay in this moment.”
But he was on his side so that he didn’t cause himself any pain by leaning on the stubs where his wings should’ve been.
I tried to sigh and push that away, but instead I said, “I want to burn Wolfgang’s palace to the ground.”
“Gilda said we could,” Phineas added, “if it came to that.”
“Maybe we should’ve.”
Cighyss smacked the water with an open palm, splashing both of us. “I could recover and return there, burn the entire island to ash, and watch a million people die. Would that change anything? Hmm? No, it would not. It could be what finally unites you humans, bringing each of the nine kingdoms together to defeat me. And would that change anything?”
Feeling like a reprimanded schoolboy, I shook my head and mumbled a “no” right along with Phineas.
“Besides,” Cighyss continued, “Wolfgang has lost the trust and respect of his people. I heard their whispering. I listened to them try and convince the guards to afford me the same level of treatment they would give their horses. That girl who tried to give me water wasn’t the first.”
“A revolution would make me happy,” I said as I resumed washing his legs one at a time and by only scrubbing downward so as not to flip his scales. “Perhaps a new branch of the family treeshould lead.”
Cighyss sighed, but Phineas smiled, and I had to wonder if either of his children might someday claim their birthright. If anyone would ever know that Xanthous and Besia were aligned by marriage even now.
Phineas rinsed Cighyss’s hair, and then found an oil to combat dryness. While he massaged that in, I continued bathing Cighyss even though most of him was underwater. He could take a proper bath once we were home safe, so this was more of a relaxation session. A little pampering for our bruised dragon.
Apparently, he liked it quite a bit because there came the pink length of his cock slithering free of the pouch between his legs. I paused in washing his stomach and chest, not sure if I should notice or ignore what had just happened.
Cighyss huffed an annoyed sound. “I’m tired and injured, but I am notbroken.”
Laughing, Phineas stood while massaging the oil on his hands into his skin. “I’ll leave you to it then. Remember to hydrate.” And out the door he went.
Why suddenly being alone with Cighyss made my throat close up and tears spring to my eyes, I couldn’t begin to understand. I was grateful that he ducked underwater to swish at his hair, rinsing it, and gave me a moment to compose myself.
When he resurfaced, he attempted to stand, and I abandoned the washcloth to help him up. After making sure he was steady on his own, I grabbed a towel and gently patted him dry from head to knees. He stepped from the tub on his own, shuffled over to the captain’s berth, and landed face down on the mattress with a groan.
