Page 6 of Heart of Fire
Those eyes narrowed.“It was you humans who broke the tithe first. I only took what waspromised.”
“From one who had not promised it,” she retorted. “Each family knows the roster, and who must make the sacrifice. I paid mine monthsback!”
The dragon suddenly launched itself to its feet, and Freyja stumbled back in fright, tripping on a pile ofkroner.
“It would not do,”he said at last,“to see such a fierce little mousestarve.”
Freyja’s fists clenched. “I amnotamouse.”
“No?”Again the satisfied rumble.“No, you are not.What are you? You smell sofamiliar.”
What are you? Words she had been taunted with all of her life, for the oddness of her eyes and the strange intuition she had always suffered.“Don’t let anyone ever know what you can do,”her mother had whispered.“Not even your father.You are special, Freyja.Likeme….”
“Am I a changeling?”she’dasked.
Her mother had smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead.“Ignorance is your best weapon, my love. You are special, that is all you needknow.”
Freyja stared up at the mighty wyrm. “I am a woman,” she said carefully, for he would taste on her breath any lie she spoke. “I amhuman.”
“You are a mystery,”thedrekimurmured.“And there is nothing I like more thanmystery.”
“What do youmean?”
A claw lashed out and swiped through one of the glittering piles. Gold coins scattered toward her, tumbling over her boots and brushing against her trousers.“Take as much as your cupped hands can hold as payment for the ram.It would not do to see you starve now I have foundyou.”
Now I have found you…. Freyja didn’tmove.
“Each new moon, you shall come and visit. I find myself curious about you. That is the punishment for daring to enter my lair, and price for your continuedexistence.”
She was right; he did have some plan for her, some perverse desire to… to…. She didn’t know. Couldn’t even comprehend why he would ask this ofher.
“Next time I would suggest you do not bring the sword.”The wyrm glanced at her, its lips curling in an odd way one would almost think asmile.
Freyja knelt down and dug her hands into the gold. The price was more than she wished to pay, but she was pragmatic. Refusing his gifts would see both her father and herself starve, and some part of her doubted she would be allowed to refuse. She had been granted a reprieve. For whatever reason he granted it—wyrms were not human after all, and bound by their own whims—the truth was thesame.
She hadsurvived.
She had actually challenged the mighty wyrm, andwon.
Still, Freyja did not feel as though she had won as she stood and pocketed the veritable fortune. Staring into those amber, cat-slit eyes felt as though she stared into the burning furnace of the sun. He was not finished with her, notyet.
“Now go.”A whisper across her senses, one that sounded eminently satisfied with itself.“You look weary and shouldsleep.”
Freyja took a step back toward the entrance, not daring to turn her back on him atall.
“I shall see you soon, littlemouse.”
* * *
After she left,Rurik exploded into the storm-lashed sky with heavy thrusts from his magnificent wings, barely feeling the faint sting ofrain.
Exhilaration danced through him, sending lightning crashing down again and again, dancing in tune to his desire. He pinwheeled through the sky above a ridge, gliding in and out of the flickering stabs of lightning, whipping it to a greaterfrenzy.
Fierce joy rode him, and a hunger he had not felt in many years. He felt as if the cobwebs had swept from his drowsing mind, as if a dash of icy water had splashed over him whilst he lazed on the heat-baked stones of his tunnels. A shock of life,returning.
Who isshe?
Rurik circled high, his eagle gaze lighting on the tiny, bedraggled figure far below, fighting her way across the bleak landscape. She would not see him, but he watched over her. Thedrekiloved puzzles, and she was a curiosity wrapped up in amystery.
