Page 45 of Lady Dragon
And then, just like that, he blinked, and all consideration disappeared from his eyes—leaving only furious determination. He drew his sword in a swift motion, and opened his mouth to shout for the guards.
The shout never came. His mouth gaped soundlessly, his eyes wide in shock. His searching, bewildered gaze wandered down to the dagger protruding from his neck, where Branon had thrust it with brutal precision. Blood dribbled from his lips, and the hilt of the sword slipped from his fingers, falling into the dirt with a muffled clang.
Samansa tried to scream, but Branon was back at her side in an instant, clapping a hand over her mouth with more violence than he’d ever treated her.
Jamsens looked at her once more, tottered a step, and then collapsed to the ground. Eyes staring. Blood pooling beneath him.
Something much more powerful than a scream built within Samansa. It started in her chest, about where the shard of Heartstone was, and grew from there—a force so hot and raging, she thought she might burst with it.
And then, shedidburst.
When she did, it wasn’t a scream she released, but aroar.
And fire.
12
KIREK
The chains and straps abruptly fell away from Kirek. Rather, she fellthroughthem. Because she was no longer shaped like a dragon, but rather a human, crouched on all fours on the forest floor, in the spot where her much larger body had just been chained. The links and coils lay in useless lines on the ground all around her, and her body was clad in leathers, not scales. The only claws and fangs she possessed were her daggers and sword.
Which must mean …
She heard the roar ripping through the makeshift camp before she saw the largest of the tents burst into shreds of canvas. Before her eyes, a huge, red dragon rose from the scraps, breathing fire and screeching with earsplitting agony.Samansa.
“Samansa!”
Kirek realized she was shouting her name aloud. But all the soldiers that had been standing guard around her were far more interested in the new dragon that had suddenly appeared from nowhere than in the strange girl in their midst, however well armed, who had replaced the restrained dragon. Kirek took advantage of their confusion and ran from them, stumbling.
Notaway, exactly, but she dove into a line of horses whereshe could hide and gather her wits. Her head was cloudy, her limbs aching with the phantom pain of her pinioned wing and the imprint of chains.Cursed dragonsbane.And yet she had a human body now, and the fumes didn’t bother her anymore. Only the effects lingered, but she shook them off and looked toward the screams.
The red dragon was decimating the camp. She towered above it all, wings spread and flames blasting in terrific gouts that consumed smaller tents and running, shouting figures alike, leaving only heaps of sizzling ash. Horses were squealing and rearing, even those in Kirek’s more distant group—though perhaps that was because they realized Kirek didn’t smell quite human, either.
“Don’t worry, I’m not after you,” she muttered to them, blinking away the last of her haze.
And then she strode out into the chaos.
She could see the humans readying their weapons, but not for her. Those cruel, tethered iron balls, the smoking cauldrons of dragonsbane oil, and the bristling arrows—they were all meant for Samansa.
Kirek would kill them all.
She marched up behind the first soldier and broke his neck before he even sensed her coming. She relieved him of his sword and dagger just as quickly, not even bothering to unsheathe her own yet. A few humans were beginning to notice her, but that didn’t stop her. She tore into the next group of soldiers like a hurricane. She ducked swinging swords and parried others as she twirled, slicing and stabbing all the while. Men screamed and fell around her like autumn leaves to a winter wind. Except she wasn’t cold and implacable as such. She was fury incarnate, and wanted to burn them toash and crush them beneath huge, clawed feet. She wanted to bring them fire.
But Samansa was big enough and breathing fire enough for them both. Her flames were even beginning to set the woods alight as the dragon spun and crouched, roaring over a body on the ground beneath her, as if protecting it. Kirek couldn’t tell who the downed figure was.
But Kirek recognized another figure at this distance—with red hair like Samansa’s, shouting orders.
Branon.
At first, soldiers readied bolas and tried to drag the cauldrons of dragonsbane closer to the red dragon, but Kirek swept into them and brought them down before they could. A row of three archers raised their bows and let loose their arrows, but a spinning sword thrown from Kirek’s hand cleaved the shafts from the sky before they went more than an arm’s length. The archers turned on her in shock, and died with surprise on their faces.
Kirek was dragon flame in human form, and she wanted to consume them all. Rather, she felt such rage until she heard a shriek from the red dragon, which stopped her in her tracks. She spun and again spotted Branon’s red hair—so like Samansa’s butnot—and saw that he had thrown a lance that had pierced through the dragon’s wing. A line was attached to the end of the shaft, and he’d looped it around an anchor in the ground and a string of men had pulled it tight, dragging Samansa into a sideways lurch.
The red dragon tried to blow fire at him, but her wing was in the way. Kirek would have simply righted herself and charged him, had she been in the dragon’s place, but Samansa didn’tseem to know what to do in her obvious pain and confusion—and perhaps awkwardness in this new form—and kept trying to pull away.
SoKirekcharged him. He didn’t see her coming until her sword nearly took his head from his shoulders.
Branon was skilled—he proved it not only by living, but by pivoting and bringing his own sword to bear before she could try again.
