Page 54 of Lady Dragon
The first sight of High Nest sucked the breath from Samansa’s lungs more than the hot wind lashing her. The line of craggy mountains it rested upon already breached the sand dunes like the ridges on a dragon’s back, but High Nest soared above even that to spear the unforgiving, sun-bleached blue sky. Its towers climbed, not like shards of rock, but in bulbous lumps like something more organic—everything that anestimplied. If anything, it resembled a fistful of candlesticks that had been thrust into the air and partially melted by the fire of the sun. Even from a distance, she could see the dark specks of dragons flying in and out of it, betraying High Nest’s immensity with their comparative minuteness. She knew well how big dragons were, especially since she was perched precariously atop the back of one—and since she had now several timesbecomeone.
The very conundrum that had brought them here. Otherwise, she would have preferred to be runningawaywith Kirek.
Samansa desperately hoped they were making the right decision. She didn’t know where else she could go after what had befallen her and Kirek with the broken Heartstone, but HighNest didn’t resemble a place that was remotely meant for humans. And, at least right now, Samansa was human. It made her feel small, even on dragonback. And even though she was sweating, she shuddered and pulled the horse blanket, meant to keep the sun off her pale skin, tighter over her shoulders as if to ward off a chill.
But she wanted to fix this, as much as Kirek did—if not for the same reasons as Kirek. Samansa had gotten a glimpse of how it could be if they succeeded in repairing the Heartstone, when their fingertips almost met back in the oasis. They’d been so close, and the ache of falling short still throbbed within her. Kirek had grown quiet afterward, but so had Samansa, thinking of everything she wanted. She imagined touching Kirek’s human hands, her face, her hair, slowly, lingeringly, with her own fingertips. Her lips with her own lips. She’d never so badly wanted to kiss someone before.Again.
She could hardly believe they’d kissed the first time—not counting her kiss of favor on Kirek’s cheek. Even if it had resulted in their troubles, she couldn’t help wanting more.
And yet, Kirek was now a massive dragon—only human when Samansawasn’t. Entirely out of reach. Being unable to touch the one you craved was a torture worth facing even High Nest to alleviate.
She took some comfort in the fact that Kirek had insisted that this was the way they must approach—with Kirek as a dragon and Samansa in human form. This was how the dragons would best understand their predicament. And hopefully welcome and help them.
High Nest looked forbidding more than anything. The fact that Kirek had pair-bonded with Samansa, supposedlyshielding her from danger, seemed flimsy in comparison, at the sight of it. The princess truly hoped it was the one thing that would force dragons to protect the vulnerable among them. Because she was surely vulnerable.
And yet she wasn’t exactly one of them. While she wanted to stay this way, at the moment she wouldn’t have minded armored scales around her instead of a ratty blanket.
“Kirek,” she breathed, unable to help it, “are you sure this is safe?”
Nothing is sure, little one, Kirek said, in that infuriatingly even-tempered dragon-way of hers.
Samansa grimaced. “Yes, but now that I’m faced with our destination, I find I’d rather not go to my death with eyes wide open.”
That is the only way death should be met—teeth first. Would you rather it take you unawares while your back was turned?
The princess wasn’t too afraid to roll her eyes. “Still, might it not be wise for you to go in first and me wait outside, hidden?”
It’s too dangerous for you to stay outside without me, Kirek answered.You wouldn’t remain hidden for long, not with this many sharp eyes in the sky. I cannot risk leaving you so unprotected.
Samansa had no argument to that. The dragons at this distance swarmed like bees around the hive that was High Nest. And, she had to admit, the thought of Kirek wanting to protect her warmed her in a way that had nothing to do with the heat.
“So,” she said with nearly a giggle. “We just fly straight in?”
Well, Iamthe favored heir of the Queen Mother.
It wasn’t often that Kirek wielded her title or her mother’s, at least not when speaking with Samansa. The princess didn’t know if she found it comforting or further unsettling. Likeraising a wall between them, even if it was one she might hide behind for protection.
It was an entirely invisible wall from this vantage, so she decided not to put too much weight behind it, whether for good or ill.
And yet, Kirek had been overly quiet since the oasis, and while Samansa had, too, she had a hard time believing it was for the same reason—fantasizing about touching each other with human hands. Kissing each other.
Dragons, she imagined, didn’t fantasize. Especially not about something as no doubtabhorrentas that.
Samansa gritted her teeth as Kirek picked up her pace, her wide wings taking great bites out of the air to propel them upward, the wind a roar of heat with an undercurrent of sulfur. The princess didn’t let herself imagine what transforming would be like at this height—or Kirek falling with arms and legs flailing, like she had before. Samansa had enough to worry about herself. The dragons in the sky only seemed to multiply as they drew closer. Maybe it was the princess’s imagination, but the attention of a few of them seemed to focus on her even at this distance, riding on Kirek’s back. Carrying humans like that was, apparently, a disgrace not to be borne by dragons, literally or figuratively, but Kirek hadn’t deemed clutching Samansa precariously in her claws worth the risk. The princess had appreciated the consideration for her person then, but now she wasn’t so sure that the danger was lesser approaching like this.
At least it didn’t make Samansa feel very dragon-like. Only terribly human.
High Nest loomed above them, growing larger in Samansa’s vision until it consumed the sky. It was like a living beast,riddled with gaping mouthlike holes seeming to inhale and exhale an endless stream of dragons. It was further speckled with smaller openings as numerous as a spider’s eyes—which must have been windows or the entrances to individual dwellings within the teeming structure.
Impressive, isn’t it?Kirek remarked, a touch of awe in her silent voice.
That wasn’t the word Samansa would have used, but calling itmonstrousmight not be the best way to greet High Nest as a representative from the human realm.
Was she thefirstever representative from the human realm? The dragons had always sent someone to Andrath using the Heartstone, never the other way around. The Heartstone made it possible for a dragon to fit inside a human castle, whereas High Nest didn’t look remotely accessible to humans this far up in the sky, never mind hospitable. Scaling the walls would be impossible, which meant one would have to be carried in by a dragon. All of which probably made her the first human to come here.
No other human had had such a unique relationship with a dragon, to let them ride on their back. Which meant Samansa was either very lucky or she was about to be very dead. She desperately hoped the pair-bond was as strong as Kirek insisted it was.
“Why, exactly, did your mother want you to kill me?” Perhaps it was absurd that this was the first time Samansa had asked. She hadn’t wanted to before, in case the answer was too terrible, but now that she was facing the monstrosity that was the dragon queen’s lair, she felt it was a prudent question. “Does she intend to support my brother?”
