Chapter 22
Sky
The claw opened and set me down on stone, inside a cave so massive it seemed impossible, and I tumbled and then did a quick kick up, landing on my feet and sprinting away from the dragon. Thank you, wushu, for that fancy move.
I backed against the cave wall, scanning it for an escape as the dragon loomed large, blocking the cave entrance. My heart was trying to exit through my ears as I tried to think of a logical, non-food reason a dragon might want to grab a human.
“Trolls are vegetarians,” I told him, from flat against the wall. “Did you know that? Big, scary, with horns, the whole package, and then you get to know one and it’s all root vegetables and herbed cheese.”
The dragon snorted and opened his wide jaw. I backed closer to the rock face.
Or she. I supposed the dragon could be a girl. I craned my neck, trying to get a peek at the dragon’s crotch, and—oh no, definitely a boy.
“I mean, dragons are basically sky trolls, right? Please be a sky troll. A vegetarian sky troll.”
The dragon made a sound. It came up out of that rippling red-orange chest like a rockslide, and a ring of smoke curled out of one nostril.
“Also, if you were going to eat me, why not do it right away? No need to toy with your victims before consuming them like a cat. Oh god, please do not be a sky cat. Are you hungry? We could fly to the village and get a snack.”
He stared at me.
“Not like, a child or someone’s goat, but a suitable snack? A suitable vegetarian snack, because you’re a vegetarian sky troll.”
That was when I remembered the hand pies.
I had four of them, wrapped in cloth in my jacket pocket. I was in the habit of picking them up at the start of my daily walk, and Moerrven respected that habit, because I had developed an addiction.
Oh god. Moerrven. I hoped like hell he was okay. This would fucking crush him. I definitely couldn’t die, he couldn’t lose two soulmates. Or one soulmate and whatever I was.
I took one out with the slow, no-sudden-moves care of a man feeding a police horse, unwrapped it, and held it out on my flat palm.
“Peace offering. Roasted root vegetables. Soft cheese. The seasoning is so damn good, and I want you to know that giving this away is the single bravest thing I have ever done.”
A tongue the size of a hallway runner took the pie, the cloth, and very nearly the hand. The dragon held it in his mouth for a moment with the stillness of a connoisseur. Then he swallowed, looked at my pocket, and waited.
“Okay,” I said, handing over the second one, mourning it in real time. “Sure. But I only have two. And I’m giving you both of them. Why not?”
He swiped it up quicker than the first, chewing slowly and making a low, pleased sound. Or at least, I was choosing to interpret it as pleased. A lesser man might interpret it as “thank you for the appetizer, now on to the main course.”
The dragon glared at me, and I wondered if he could smell the third and fourth hand pie.
“Fine, I have four! But I need sustenance too,” I said.
“Look, we’re friends. But I’ve got two left, and I’m eating one of them!
” I went to take a bite of my pie, and the dragon growled.
“Oh, come on! I’m hungry. And now that we’ve established you’re a vegetarian.
” I looked at his teeth, and cleared my throat.
“An ethical vegetarian, not because it’s natural to you, which is even harder and more commendable… ”
The dragon narrowed his eyes, his nostrils flared.
“Okay, fine, here are the other two.” I held both open, palms flat, and his tongue swiped out and took only one. My eyes widened as I stared down at the pie left behind. “You’re letting me have it?”
I swear to the gods, the dragon nodded.