Chapter 17
T anis lay in bed, listening to the sound of Dash’s heart beating beneath her cheek. It still amazed her that he could choose to sleep as either a human or unicorn.
Or more to the point, that he trusted her enough to sleep with her in a human body. She still hadn’t forgotten what he’d said about unicorns and their horns. He was vulnerable in this body. Especially while he was sound asleep.
Which made her curious where he hid his wand when he was human. She never saw any sign of it, but she knew he had to keep it nearby. For that, she gave him credit. He was talented at hiding it.
Not that she would ever use it against him. She was only curious.
Just as the elves, Dove and Ryper were about the true nature of their relationship. It’d been hard these last couple of days avoiding their personal questions as they made plans for how best to invade Dash’s lands and regain his army.
Neither of them was willing to elaborate on the nature of what existed between them. Mostly because they didn’t know themselves.
They really didn’t discuss their relationship when they were alone.
She was too afraid to ask because she knew better. Even if he wasn’t the High King, he was a unicorn. She was a dragon. Her current body was only temporary.
Once she returned to being a dragon, there would be no way for them to have any kind of relationship. At least not a physical one.
Her father would kill her if he ever found out, and there was no telling what he might do to or demand from Dash. Dragons were forbidden to cross species. They were barely allowed to mate outside their clans, and only then for political reasons that had to be sanctioned by their councils.
She could only imagine the scandal this would cause in Indara. A dragon princess with their unicorn High King. Her life would be the least of what they’d take.
Not that it mattered. They were leaving today to march toward Licordia where the dragon slayer was in hiding.
And where Meara sat on Dash’s throne.
A sudden knock sounded on the door, startling her.
Bolting upright in her arms, Dash came awake with a curse, ready to fight.
They both laughed as they realized no one was crashing through the door to attack them.
Dash placed a kiss on her forehead then pulled a fur over her. He grabbed another to wrap around his lean hips before he went to answer it.
Tanis reached for his tunic on the floor to pull it over to her. It was tangled with his belt and dagger. As she separated them, she noticed something odd.
The ornate black dagger that he carried. The way the early morning light caught the engraved design of it highlighted the center spiral design.
The center spiral design...
It’s his wand.
She gasped in shock. Though it was hidden in the design, it was unmistakable once seen. Very clever. Especially since the black leather of the hilt wrapped around part of the horn to protect and disguise it. No one would see it, even though it was right there.
In plain sight.
Glancing at the door where he stood, she quickly set the dagger aside and shrugged his tunic on before he caught her inspecting it.
He’d be furious if he knew she’d discovered his weakness. Wouldn’t he? Yes. Yes, he would. She was sure he would.
Act normal.
She wrinkled her nose and cursed herself silently. Why did she always do this? She knew she couldn’t really act nonchalant when she was trying to. Her panic rose to a frantic level.
Distract yourself.
Like that was easy.
At least that was her thought until her gaze went to Dash at the door in his near naked state. The fur had slipped so that the curve of one buttock s was mostly exposed to her.
Yeah... That was... very, very nice.
Smiling, she cocked her head to better appreciate the sight he made.
That definitely distracted her and took her mind off everything except how wonderful he’d tasted last night.
He closed the door, then turned back toward her, and frowned. “Are you all right?”
Heat scalded her cheeks. “I was admiring my view.”
He flashed a wicked grin at her before he dropped the fur. “My ever hungry dragon. What am I to do with you?”
She squealed as he launched himself at her and rolled across the bed so that she landed on top of him in the center of the mattress. Cupping her face, he kissed her deeply.
“Who was at the door?” she asked.
He pulled back with a groan. “An elf.”
“I figured that. Care to elaborate?”
“An irritating elf.”
She smirked at his humor.
“It was another update. From what they’ve gathered from their spies and allies, we’re facing a number of mercenaries she’s put together. Only a handful of her own troops—probably because she’s afraid of officially violating our contract. They suspect Dythnal, Vaskalia, Ningyo and Cosaria have offered money for my head, but none of them are offering any soldiers to her, probably because they’re afraid of violating our treaties. Since she has my lands and army in addition to hers, those rulers don’t want to leave their territories and risk thinning their numbers for fear of her killing their commanders, and then invading their lands. Or of my regaining control and retaliating against them.”
“Makes sense.” The elves were helping because their lands fell between Meara’s and Dash’s. If the centaurs kept Dash’s land, then the elves would be surrounded by her troops on both borders. It would only be a matter of time before she’d attack them and try to conquer their lands, too.
“I suppose five kingdoms against you is better than seven.”
He shook his head without comment. But his expression said he was less than amused.
“Was there anything else?” she asked.
“They’re planning to march within the hour.”
Gasping, she started to climb off him.
He pulled her to a stop. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“We don’t need to be the last ones out the door.”
He scoffed. “I’m the High King. They can wait on me.”
She gave him a droll stare.
“Can’t I pretend to be selfish?”
She kissed him. “You can pretend, beast, but we both know better.”
As she started to pull his tunic off, a dark shadow fell across the room, followed by a familiar deep, thrumming rhythmic sound.
Dash scowled. “Is that...”
“Dragon wings.”
They both scooted from the bed and ran to the windows. Dash opened the wooden shutters.
Tanis stood frozen as she saw the last thing she’d expected. There were several dozen dragons flying in the air over the elfin fortress.
“Do you know them?” he asked.
Yes, she did. “It’s my sister, Ragna... with her elite guard.”
“Is she here for you or me?”
That was a good question. “I don’t know. She’s never been particularly fond of me.” She glanced sideways at Dash. “You, even less so.”
“Beautiful. You should probably get dressed. I can’t imagine any scenario where our current relationship would be met with applause from any member of your family.” He immediately conjured a pair of chain mail breeches.
Tanis snorted at his wardrobe choice. “You’re not meeting them as a unicorn?”
“I want as much protection between my balls and your sister as I can get at the moment.” He added a few more layers of armor to his groin.
Laughing, she went to retrieve her clothes. “You know, if she is thoroughly pissed, that will only melt and scald those sensitive areas of your body. You’re better off as a unicorn.”
“Fuck me, you’re right,” he breathed before he changed into a unicorn... with leather armor covering his equine groin.
Laughing even harder, she dressed as quickly as she could. One thing about Ragna, she had no patience, and Tanis couldn’t imagine what had brought her here.
It wasn’t like her sister to leave home for any reason. She loved Indara. Reva would at least travel from time to time to other cities, and even other kingdoms.
Ragna seldom went more than a few leagues from their father’s palace, as she believed Esin to be the greatest city in the world, and the dragons to be the superior race above all others.
But if this was because Tanis had left home, she didn’t want to keep her sister waiting. Ragna would be furious over having to come fetch her. The slightest delay would only serve to grow her anger exponentially. Something that really wasn’t hard to do.
Tanis had been known to infuriate her older sister by simply entering a room.
Clearing her throat.
Being seen...
Sadly, she and Ragna had never gotten along. From the moment of Tanis’s birth, Ragna had hated her and begrudged her everything.
By the time they made it to the courtyard where her sister had landed, Baldur, Tova and Hinrik were trying to calm Ragna who was having one of her more stellar tantrums.
Tanis drew up short as she realized just how big a dragon was when she wasn’t in a dragon’s body. Funny how her sister had seemed rather small to her in the past.
Now... she was barely the size of one of Ragna’s black dew claws.
This was absolutely terrifying. No wonder most of the other species wet themselves in their presence. She suddenly had a whole new respect for Dash when he’d confronted her in that net.
Ragna reared up to tower over them. Like Davin, she had a green head and wings, with yellow accents. Her belly was a warmer gold that blended into orange scales. Tanis had always thought of them as much prettier than her own orange ones.
Her sister far more graceful in movement.
Their father had thought so, too. He’d often called Tanis clunky, and truthfully, she was in comparison.
At least that was her thought until Ragna stamped her foot and shook the ground so hard that she almost fell from the tremor it caused. Had Dash not been beside her, she probably would have fallen. Instead, she caught herself against his side.
“I know my sister’s here, and I demand to see her. Where do you have her chained?”
Without thinking, Tanis pushed herself away from her unicorn, and went to her sister. “Ragna, stop.”
Her sister whipped her tail.
Tanis barely ducked it in time to let it whistle over her head.
Then, Ragna would have scorched her had Dash not rushed to cover her. “Enough!” he roared.
Ragna froze at the authority in his tone. “What is this?” She studied his unicorn form, trying to figure out if he was the king or not.
Tanis straightened up so that she could face her again. “It’s me, coal-breath. Would you stop terrifying the natives?”
Ragna finally understood what she was saying. “Tanis? What did they do to you?”
“Nothing. I asked to be made human.”
Her sister sneered as if that was the worst thing she could imagine. “Why would you do such an awful thing? Are you insane?”
“I had my reasons. What are you doing here?”
Ragna glanced around at the others before she tapped her claws against the ground with a thunderous tapping. “I was sent to find you and bring you home before you started a war.” She made an awful face. “Not like that, though. Ugh! Have you any idea what they’ll do to you if I take you home as a human ? What were you thinking? Idiot!”
Something about this didn’t seem right.
It wasn’t her sister’s anger or outrage. That was completely normal. Ragna was eternally furious.
No...
There was something more going on here.
“You came to fetch me with an army?” Tanis gestured at the dragons that circled above them. That was what bothered her. Ragna barely tolerated anyone. And those weren’t just random guards.
They were an elite force.
And the fact that her sister was here at all. What was going on?
“After what happened to you last time, we were worried.” Ragna raked a furious glare over her. “And apparently, we had every right to be. Look at what you did to yourself!”
“Should I make her human, too?”
She cast a bemused stare at Dash who spoke silently in her head. “Not the time, love,” she whispered to him.
Although, to be honest, it might not be a bad idea. It would take some of the piss out of her sister. Ragna could probably use the humility.
If only.
But there was still something odd going on with all this that didn’t make sense. Ragna didn’t care about her. That was a cold, harsh fact.
Neither did their father. Not really. Her timid mother might. But Tanis couldn’t imagine her mother winning a fight with her family that would cause Ragna to come here with an army to fetch her. Their father would never allow such an encroachment into another king’s territory.
It would breach their treaty.
The only one who would have cared to come after her would have been her brother and maybe Marla, and they would have come alone. Right now, Marla was too concerned about her hatchlings, and was too caught up in her own grief to be worried about her. She didn’t blame Marla for either one of those. Marla should be more concerned about her children.
Which came back to the one mystery.
Why was her sister here? And how did she know this was where Tanis was? Who would have taken word to Ragna?
And why?
The battle gryphons...
One of them could have carried word back home that she was here. That made sense. While they might live and work here, they were still Indarian citizens, and they’d have family at home. Maybe one of the gryphons had thought to curry favor by telling her father of her location.
That made sense.
And it would explain some of Ragna’s hostility. Tanis considered how she might calm Ragna down.
Really, there was only one thing she could think of. But even it was a long shot. “We need to speak alone, Ragna. Meet me outside the gate in the outer bailey.”
Dash turned to face her so that his back was to her sister. He lowered his tone so that it wouldn’t reach up to Ragna’s ears. “Are you sure about this?”
“I need to talk to her. Find out why she’s really here. Trust me.” She ruffled his ears and mane, which didn’t appease him. If anything, he looked even more aggravated.
And it only made her sister all the angrier given how dragons felt about unicorns.
Swallowing hard, Tanis headed for the gate.
Ragna shot skyward then flew over to the open field of the outer bailey.
Grumbling to herself, Tanis really regretted her human body that couldn’t do that in a single bound. She really missed being a dragon right now.
At least that was her thought until she vanished from where she was walking and appeared in the field next to her sister.
Dash... The very thought of him made her smile.
He was wonderfully considerate that way. Even though it cost him powers he couldn’t afford to lose right now, he was more worried about her than himself.
It was why she loved him.
But those warm feelings faded the moment Ragna lowered her snout to glower at her.
Tanis didn’t say a word as she realized there was a large contingency of centaurs and others in the woods surrounding them out here. Had they come with her sister?
This was no escort. It was a good-sized army.
Tanis started back toward the gate to warn them, but Ragna cut off her path. “Why did you leave home? What were you thinking, you idiot?”
Frustrated that she couldn’t get past Ragna, she growled. “That someone needed to avenge our brother and that none of you cared.”
Smoke drifted out of her nostrils. “And how has that worked out for you... human ?”
Better than her sister could ever imagine, but she wasn’t about to let Ragna know anything about her relationship with Dash. “What are you really doing here? I know you don’t care about me. None of you do.”
No one in her family had ever bothered to hunt for her while she’d been held in captivity. It wasn’t in them to do such. If you’re not dragon enough to fight off a human or unicorn, you deserve what happens to you... So why would they be here now? With a dragon platoon and a centaur army?
This didn’t make a bit of sense.
Ragna pulled back. “Are you really traveling with the High King?”
Every alert inside her went off. “Why do you ask?”
“I was sent to find him and swear fealty. Father heard about the bounty, and he doesn’t want the king to think that we’re one of the kingdoms putting money up for his death. Was that the unicorn I saw you with?”
That made her feel better. Given some of the things she’d heard her family say about Dash in the past, and the fact that dragons were known to have a lot of treasure, she had wondered, in spite of her assurances to Dash, if they hadn’t been one of the kingdoms offering to pay that bounty.
It made her feel much better to know they weren’t that treacherous, after all.
But if they weren’t in league with Meara, why were there centaurs in the trees?
“How did you know where I was?” Tanis asked.
“A messenger told me.”
“What messenger?”
“An ally of Father’s, if you must know. Contrary to your puerile stupidity, we do have friends and allies in other kingdoms. Some of the gryphons who live here are still citizens of Indara and loyal to our kingdom.”
So, she’d been right. One of the gryphons was spying on them. Wonderful.
Ragna lifted her head to peer toward the palace. “Who was the unicorn I saw inside? Is he the High King?”
She ignored the question. “Since you’re here, I still need your help to reclaim Davin’s skull.”
Ragna made a sound of extreme disgust. “What is it with you and?—”
“Just do it, Ragna! If not for our family and Davin’s, then do it for your High King.”
“What’s he got to do with it?”
Tanis cringed as she realized what she’d let slip. She shouldn’t have mentioned anything about Dash. What could she say that would shut her sister down and get her mind off him?
Perhaps a partial truth?
Or something to distract her?
Maybe the centaurs with Ragna were the rebels and not some of Meara’s troops. Since her father didn’t follow unicorn politics, it was possible her sister didn’t know that Meara was on Dash’s throne.
So, Tanis went with distraction to get Ragna away from the main reason. “I won’t become a dragon again, until I reclaim his skull. Those are the terms that I accepted in order to become human to find him.”
Ragna made a sound of supreme disgust. “How stupid are you?”
“According to all of you, I’m the dumbest creature ever born. But I wanted to be human to take revenge on the dragon slayer who murdered Davin.”
Ragna shook her head. “Can’t you just kill the one who turned you human and be done with it?”
“No. Those weren’t the terms.”
Ragna growled. “This is ridiculous. Where’s the king?”
Why did she care so much? Her insistence was beginning to wear on her nerves.
More than that, it was beginning to make her suspicious.
“What does it matter?”
Ragna turned as still as stone for several heartbeats. It was if she waited for something.
Finally, she moved. “Very well. We’ll march with you to reclaim Davin’s skull.”
Her sudden reversal caught her off guard. Was this for real? She’d so seldom won an argument with her sister that she wasn’t sure how to handle this or react.
It felt...
Weird. Unnatural.
Scary.
“You’re sure?” Tanis asked.
Ragna flicked her tail in agitation. “I can’t take you home in that body. Have you any idea what they’d do to both of us?”
She knew what they’d do to her, but Ragna had always been spared that part of their father’s wrath. “Okay. Rest your troops, and I’ll let the others know.”
Ragna sent out the resonating dragon call to the others who were still circling above.
Once Tanis was satisfied that they were landing in the field, she headed back toward the palace to let Dash and the rest know. Which turned out to be a good thing as the landing dragons were making all the elves a bit nervous.
Not that she blamed them. They did look like an invading army.
“Are you all right?” Dash asked as soon as she was inside the inner bailey again.
“I don’t know. It’s not just dragons out there. I saw others hidden in the forest. Centaurs and such.” Tanis couldn’t explain the weird feeling she had. “I don’t know if they’re rebels with her, or what. But Ragna swears my father is on your side.”
“You don’t believe her?”
“I don’t don’t believe her.”
He cocked his head. “That makes no sense.”
“I know.” She smiled at him. “Don’t listen to me. I’m an idiot. Everyone thinks so. Ragna particularly.”
“I don’t so.” Dash conjured a saddle for her.
And before she could take a step toward him, armor covered her as well.
Tanis paused. “What’s this?”
“Protecting my partner.”
She closed the small gap between them so that she could bury her face against his neck and hug him.
“Careful, Dragon. You do that and you’ll embarrass us both.”
Laughing, she kissed his neck and stepped back.
“Hey! Make way! Step back. Coming through! Move. Move. Move!”
Tanis frowned at the familiar frenetic voice that was nearing them. It wasn’t until something small slammed into her and ricocheted off to land on Dash’s mane where it became tangled with his hair that she saw it was a small Halla.
“Hello there.” Tanis carefully pulled the hobgoblin free so that she could hover in the air by their sides.
Halla shook herself and then grew to normal size. “Where have you two been? Do you know how hard I’ve had to search? You vanished!”
Dash flicked his unicorn tail. “I knew you’d find us. You always do.”
Halla scoffed. “Have you any idea how many want you dead, Sire?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
“You found your hobgoblin.” Marthen smiled as he joined them. “Good to see you, Halla. And just in time for battle.”
“No. Wait. What?”
Dash nodded. “We’re heading for Licordia.”
She burst out laughing. Then she stopped. “You’re serious? You do know what’s happened, right?”
“Meara took my throne and put a bounty out on my life.”
“You heard about all that. Good. Then you heard about her other allies, too?”
Marthen’s eyes began to glow as Ryper and Dove joined them. At the same time his eyes glowed, Ryper’s staff did the same.
Dash cursed as he understood what that meant. He turned human and pushed Tanis toward Ryper. “Get her out of here.”
“What? Why?” Tanis asked.
Dash met her confused dark eyes. “Your sister isn’t here to help.”
Marthen nodded. “The dragons are siding with Meara. And those centaurs aren’t rebels. They’re Meara’s troops.”