Chapter Three
A groan vibrated inmy chest as consciousness returned. Not again. At least my hands and feet weren’t tied this time, but I was slung across the back of a horse. I tried to raise my head, but a hand pushed the back of my neck, keeping me trapped.
“Stay still or I’ll tie you up.”
I flopped back down to stare at the horse’s flank, my head pounding from being upside down for who knew how long. Night hadn’t yet completely fallen, so it had probably only been around an hour. “Who are you? Where are you taking me?”
“You’re being taken to our stronghold to answer to our leaders for your crimes.” A woman on the horse next to us answered me. She was lithe and blond, reminding me of an elf in the children’s stories I’d read instead of a fierce dragon warrior.
“What crimes?” Why was I a criminal in every country I visited?
“We take attempted espionage very seriously.” The man behind me spoke in a stern voice.
“What? I’m not a spy.”
The woman shrugged. “You can explain all that to the Dragon Assembly.”
Why couldn’t I catch a break? First assassins, then a murderous king, a kidnapping and second assassination attempt, and now dragons.
“This is ridiculous. I’m a musician not a spy.”
“Shut up or I’ll gag you,” the man holding me threatened.
I sucked in my lips to keep from objecting and closed my eyes, letting the motion of the horse rock me, trying to shove the panic tightening my chest away. I breathed deep and let it out slowly, determined to stay calm. I escaped from the king’s soldiers, I’d escape the dragons as well.
Somehow.
But each moment, each step brought me farther and farther away from Whistler, Saber, Sky, Aster. Why did the fates bring them into my path only to rip me away from them? We never should have met. We never would have if not for the king’s madness. If he hadn’t decided my songs were treasonous, I’d still be traveling around Faligrey, barely scraping together enough coin to eat. My assassins wouldn’t have come for me and we wouldn’t have been brought before the prince to find my last kindred.
I’d never believed in fate, but after my simple life turned upside down, I’d been having second thoughts. Fate made more sense than this many coincidences. But why didn’t fate intervene with all the people who never found their kindreds? Why didn’t fate intervene with my parents?
I winced as my captor nudged his horse faster, the trot jarring my bruises and exhausted body. My head pounded from all the blood trapped inside. I struggled to raise the upper half of my body.
My captor tightened his grip in the back of my ruined cloak. “Stop.”
“I can’t feel my face like this.”
He huffed. “Hopefully you’ll pass out soon and it won’t bother you any longer.”
“It’s not like I’m going to escape if you let me sit up.” I still planned to watch for an opportunity, but chances were slim.
“Will you shut up if I allow it?”
“Yes.”
He yanked me up one-handed into position in front of him in the saddle. I squirmed to find a halfway comfortable position and keep my body away from his at the same time.
“Would you be still?” He snarled the question, making my pulse skitter and my shoulders hunch, expecting a strike.
Determined not to show fear, I straightened my spine and shoulders. “I’m trying. It’s not like your saddle is built for two.”
“I would be happy to sling you over his neck again.”
I heaved a loud sigh and rolled my eyes. “Fine.” I held myself stiff and away from him, eying the other dragons riding beside us. There were five, one of them a woman, all of them with mouths set in stern lines.
My lips burned with questions, curiosity over these people overcoming my fear, but I kept my mouth shut, reminding myself I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire, exchanging one set of captors for another. And everything I’d heard about dragons should have made me very, very wary.
It could have been gossip and legends, but it’d be foolish not to take it seriously until they showed me differently. I gripped the saddle horn with my hands, hissing at the reminder of my ripped and ragged fingers.
“Did you fall down a mountain?” The woman asked, peering at me in curiosity.
I blinked. “What? No.”
“Why do you smell like blood beneath the filth?” my captor asked.
“Because I’m injured.”
“Where?”
I shrugged. “Hands, wrists, ankles, ribs, back.”
“You’re bleeding from all of those places?” The woman’s brows shot high on her forehead.
“Not my ribs and back, those are just bruised. Oh, and my head hurts from where you brutes knocked me unconscious.” I scowled over my shoulder.
He ignored my pointed comment. “Are you certain you didn’t fall down a mountain?”
“Yes. I am. I would remember falling down a mountain.” I tried to memorize my surroundings so I could find my way out of there if I escaped. When I escaped.
“Then what happened?” Another one of the dragons nudged his horse closer. He was huge, just what I imagined when I pictured dragons. Dark hair, pale skin, eyes the color of dragon scales, weapons strapped to every available surface of his body.
I ripped my attention away from him and spoke into my lap. “It’s not important.”
“Someone did it to you.”
I snorted as we left the woods behind and entered wide open spaces leading to a looming set of mountains. “Nothing you aren’t doing to me.”
The woman frowned. “You were captured by others?”
“Yes. And escaping from them is how I ended up in your country.”
She grimaced. “You’ll have the chance to tell your story to the Assembly.”
“And will I be let go if they believe me?” I stomped on the hope. It seemed they were taking me to their capital. No one lived to tell tales about it.
“We’ll see.” Based on my captor’s tone, it sounded like I was trapped.
The horses broke through the trees, a massive mountain looming before us made of mostly rocks with the occasional scraggly bush.
“We’re here.”
I tried not to hear my doom in his words.