Chapter 59 Just a Farmgirl
~ brEN ~
Benji was thrilled to fly on Akhane with me, even though we couldn’t give him a true seat. He swung off her mounting strap for most of the flight, whooping and screaming with delight until I made him stop when we were close enough to the hillside to disturb the dragons.
Landing was a shit show. Hanson did fall this time, but the safety strap caught him. Benji had taken a blow to the shoulder, swinging back against Akhane’s leg because the mounting strap gave him too much swing.
By the time I had them both on the ground and safe, I was exhausted. I blew out a breath, pushing a strand of hair off my sweaty forehead—but Hanson reached out and tucked it behind my ear.
I went very still, staring at him, but didn’t stop him.
When I turned away, it was to find Benji glaring, first at Hanson, then at me. I shook my head and gestured to him not to speak, but his brows only pressed down further.
Trying to distract Benji—who didn’t understand the truth of what was happening—I told him about the dragons we’d seen, walking quickly over that rise through the tree line and then snuck to the lip of the hollow…
“They’re still there!” I hissed back to Hanson, who wasn’t trying to avoid disturbing them. He simply walked to the edge and looked down, hands on his hips. “Of course they are. They’re always here, because we instructed them to be.”
“We?”
“My… Furymaster, I suppose you’d call him,” Hanson smiled as if he hadn’t thought of it that way before. “In any case, my young friend,” Hanson said to Benji, who scowled. “You see the herd below? Are you able to speak to any of them?”
Benji’s scowl at me shifted reluctantly to thoughtful consternation. “I’ll have to get closer to find out.”
“Well, then. Off you go.”
“Is it safe?” I asked apprehensively. During the flight, I’d had a hurried conversation with Benji via Akhane, instructing him on what was needed—we had to understand how these dragons came to be here, why they stayed, if they were the missing Fyrehold dragons, or something else.
And how they were connected with Hanson.
But he wasn’t to tell Hanson any of that, only me.
“Perfectly safe. They won’t hurt humans unless instructed to do so.”
As Benji scrambled down the hill towards them, I prayed it was true, but turned my attention to Hanson, who’d sat down on the lip of the hollow next to me. Close enough for his arm to brush mine.
I leaned forward to break the contact, pretending I was nervous to see how the dragons would receive Benji.
“Do not fear, Brennan. The dragons are mine. You can have your choice,” Hanson said, then met my eyes from the side. “I am a man of my word.”
Benji crept towards the dragons, who milled around, most turning to face him. But they showed no fear.
“How long will it take him to speak to them?” Hanson asked, his eyes alight.
“I’m not sure. He said it can depend. If they need to spend time with him to trust him, it could take hours or days. But if they’re willing, it might be quick.”
Hanson frowned—but then Akhane lifted her head suddenly and looked off to our right, over the woods.
‘What is it?’
‘Another dragon,’ she said. It was growing dark now—we’d be late for the ball, but this was important enough. And I’d left a message with Kgosi to tell Donavyn.
“Akhane says another dragon is nearby.’
“Oh, good,” Hanson said. “Let’s go meet him.”
“He won’t land here with the others?”
“No. There’s another group over there.”
“More?!” I gasped.
Hanson chuckled, a surprisingly warm sound. “I told you, Brennan: Many, many plural.”
How did this man collect dragons in a kingdom that had so few? Was he stealing the king’s dragons somehow? I couldn’t ask because Hanson had hurried off, towards the new dragon.
Urging Akhane to join us, I followed him along the hill, under the trees.
As we trotted toward a nearby clearing, Akhane lumbered ahead, her nostrils flaring, I shook my head.
“How can you instruct a herd of dragons you can’t speak to?” I asked him quietly.
Hanson smiled. “Because I collect skillful people. And smart ones. Like you.”
“I’m flattered, but—”
“I’m not being coy, Brennan.”
I looked at him and slowed my pace. He slowed to match me and held my gaze with his strangely intense eyes. When he stepped towards me, lifting a hand, I stepped back and he stopped.
“I told you,” he said softly. “You’re safe.”
I swallowed hard. “I need to know how you do this.”
“And I’ll tell you, if you join me.”
“Join you in what?”
“In building this herd. I’m certain you know by now that our Fyrehold herd has been decimated. It’s true there are dragons out on mission, and Furyknights in other kingdoms, but it is Fyrehold’s best kept secret that our dragon numbers have dwindled every year for a century.”
“And you’re trying to fix that?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “In a way, yes.” He hesitated, then sighed, and turned in the direction we’d been walking. “Come, I’ll show you.”
There were gaps in the trees ahead, and a light which surprised me.
At first, I thought someone had hung a lantern on the opposite side of a building, because something tall and broad was silhouetted by the warm glow.
But then Akhane reached the edge of the trees and drew up short, her head rising high, and ears flickering.
Her nostrils flared. She blew, then drew in another breath. Forgetting Hanson, I hurried to her side.
‘What do you smell?’
‘A dragon.’
‘I know, but—’
Hanson had continued ahead of me, and now jogged down the next rise, calling out—to the dragon, I thought.
Until I heard a man’s voice, and the building ahead suddenly moved, and I topped the rise enough to see that it wasn’t a building at all, but a huge dragon.
“Holy shit.”
‘Bren.’
I tried to make out the dragon’s features, to discern his color in the dark—and hear the men’s words. But they spoke softly enough that the words blended into a low hum.
‘Akhane, can you hear them?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed to me in the bond. ‘Bren, we should go.’
‘What? What’s—’
‘That dragon—’
‘Brennan! Come join us!”
The lantern light flickered behind that huge shape, then poured over us suddenly, hurting my eyes. I threw up an arm to block it, hissing.
And Akhane staggered backwards, back up the hill.
‘Akhane, what—’
‘Bren—’ Akhane gasped. ‘Run!’
“Bren?!”
That voice. That particular curl of a tongue around my name stopped me in my tracks. I froze, blinking into the glaring light, unable to see anything.
It couldn’t be him. There was no way—
But Akhane screamed, and the dragon growled.
‘Bren, run! The dragon—it’s Carnage!’
I sucked in a breath, willing my body to move, but I was frozen as the light turned and wavered, then lowered, as if the hand holding it had dropped.
Yet, a glowing cone rose from the lantern’s top, gilding the broad chest and shoulders, muscular arms, and handsome features of a wide-eyed man I’d prayed was dead.
“Bren?!” he gasped.
‘Bren. Run!’
I stumbled back a step as that face that I’d wished never to see again, dropped from stunned shock, to indignant rage.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Ruin snarled.
“She rides dragons, and she’s come to help me,” Hanson replied.
Ruin turned to look at Hanson, laughing with sick mockery. “She doesn’t ride dragons—no women ride dragons! She’s just looking for me. How the fuck—”
“I assure you, she rides, and can speak to at least one of them.”
“Get the fuck out of here and leave me alone!” Ruin roared, storming towards me. I stumbled back again, but couldn’t turn away, locked in that furious gaze. “I don’t know how you hunted me down, but it ends here, Bren. I’m never taking you back—”
“You’ll stop bellowing at my Lady Brennan or—’
“Lady? Lady? She’s not a lady, Hans—she’s a cock-sucking farmgirl.”
Hanson’s eyes narrowed and his voice grew low and menacing. “A farmgirl, she may be. But she arrived with the General of the Vosgaarde Furyknights, and she rides his mate. She assists and travels as his companion.”
No. No, no no—
“What?!” Ruin spluttered, then he turned and stared at me and he froze.
And in those moments that our eyes locked, I saw his very intelligent, shrewd mind begin to put the pieces together.
Staring straight into those eyes that had once lightened at the sight of me, but then darkened and tried to destroy me, I stumbled back one more step. Then another.
Ruin’s eyes narrowed, but Hanson’s face grew concerned. “Brennan, don’t be afraid. I am unconcerned about your prior experience. My assistant is only tired, and a cocky bastard.”
I turned my head, desperate to run, but everything was slow. Looking for Akhane, stretching for her, I moved as if through water, all the weight of my past dragging at my limbs.
‘Bren. RUN!’
Akhane’s voice in my head shattered the shock and broke the spell. I stumbled once more, then caught my feet, and ran. Straight to Akhane’s side, straight up her mounting strap to her withers and into my seat, screaming at her to fly.
She lumbered up the hill, flapping, the wind beginning to rush. But before it grew too loud, I heard, “Oh no you fucking don’t.”
One glance over my shoulder told me the whole picture.
Hanson, staring in confusion.
Carnage’s screams piercing the night as he lumbered after us.
And Ruin, leaping up his dragon’s mounting strap in preparation to fly.