Chapter Thirteen
Dipak wheeled his horse around, sick to his stomach with worry and guilt as he saw Euclid in all his beautiful glory. The sheer beauty of that vibrant blue would always speed his heart.
"You can't," he said, near to tears. "Euclid, you can't. Now everyone knows!"
Euclid growled and moved his head in a way that clearly said get out of the way.
Dipak moved, barely in time before the ogre—he still couldn't believe it was Madhav—came charging up. It swung at him, but his fist was met with a lashing tail that knocked him off balance. Bellowing, really angry now, the ogre turned its full attention on Euclid.
Euclid definitely had size, but ogres had strength and sheer mass.
They were nearly impossible to kill because their skin was dense and almost stone-like, impervious to any real damage.
The arrows he'd shot had already fallen out, leaving behind little more than glorified dents in his skin that would be gone in a few hours.
Shooting an ogre with arrows effectively would take a special kind of arrow that Dipak had never even seen, let alone owned.
Even if he made a one-in-a-million shot through the eye, it still might not penetrate far enough to matter. To make that kind of basically impossible shot count, he'd have to be facing the ogre dead on, which meant he'd be dead too before or as it stopped moving.
Fuck, he was so tired of this shit.
He moved well out of the way, as that was all he could really do at this point. Euclid had made his choice, Dipak would support him, and right now that meant not being an additional problem to handle.
In his left hand, he still held the amulet, and it glowed brighter than ever, probably because Madhav was so fucking angry and some small part of him still existed in the ogre that was echoing in the quartz.
What would happen if he shattered it?
He looked up as he heard a roar that sounded strongly of pain, to see the ogre had smashed one of Euclid's front legs. He bit back the urge to call out, because a distraction could far too easily prove fatal.
The ogre screamed, and its body was suddenly bathed in flame, wrapping around it like a second skin. Fuck. What would Euclid—
His thoughts shattered entirely as Euclid opened his mouth and pure white smoke came pouring out on a sound somewhere between a roar and a purr, nothing Dipak could adequately describe.
Not smoke. Frost. It was a cloud of frost that washed over the ogre and killed his flames. Left the ogre completely immobilized for a second in shock. Euclid lunged forward, grabbed the ogre's left arm, and ripped it off like it was made of sticks and paper.
Well, fuck.
Euclid moved out of range as the ogre swung into action again, though he was impeded by his broken leg and caught a blow in his good shoulder, sending him to the ground. The ogre bellowed in triumph as Euclid struggled to regain his feet.
Gripping the quartz tightly in both hands, Dipak drew on every last scrap of magic he possessed, reaching so deep it hurt.
Around his neck, Euclid's pendant glowed blue.
He poured the magic into the quartz, tearing away at the orange, slowly turning it a muddy brown color—and then the quartz shattered in his hands, shredding them badly, cutting his arms and even his face.
The soul burst into a thousand tiny shards of light, like scattering sparks as a burning log collapsed in on itself, and then were dead and gone, as they had no suitable vessel to return to.
The ogre threw its head back and screamed, a sound of unfathomable anguish and pain.
Euclid reared up, sank his teeth into the ogre's throat, and ripped it out. The ogre's noises cut off and it crumpled to the ground landing awkwardly on its back with its legs folded under it.
Mostly falling off his horse, Dipak removed all the broken shards of quartz from his body that he could, ignoring the blood for the moment.
Even if he'd had the skills for healing, he didn't have any magical energy left to use.
He was so depleted he wouldn't be using magic for at least a week, possibly two.
He headed over to Euclid, who had collapsed on the ground again, sending Dipak's terror spiraling. "Are you all right?" he asked, dropping to his knees and resting his hands helplessly on Euclid's long snout. "Damn it, dragon. I don't understand all your stupid rumblings yet, are you okay?"
Lifting his ponderous head, Euclid blinked slowly—then licked him.
"Ah!" Dipak reared back, startled by the roughness but mostly the cold. "You stupid bastard."
That rumble he immediately recognized as laughter, no explanation required.
"Are you all right?" Dipak. "Your poor leg…"
Euclid whimpered slightly, but then gently touched his tongue to Dipak's hands, which were still bleeding, though sluggishly now at least.
"I'll be fine, I just need to wash and bind them, until magic or time can heal them. What about your leg?"
He didn't understand the soft rumble made that time, but then shimmering, gold-silver light encased Euclid.
The light shrank down, slowly and with some rather alarming crunching and squelching noises involved—and then the light was gone, and a pale, trembling Euclid was before him.
"My leg is fine now," Euclid said, voice raspy and laced with pain.
"It will be sore and stiff for a few days, but that's all. Are you all right? Let me—"
"I'll be fine for now," Dipak said, catching his wrists as Euclid reached for him. "You shouldn't have done that. Now there are people here that know for certain a dragon resides here, and even that you can look human. You won't be safe—"
Euclid kissed him gently. "I put everyone in camp to sleep first. There is still a risk, but I think seeing their comrades slaughtered by an ogre that they will soon learn was their king is more than enough for them to want to avoid further trouble.
Any talk of a dragon appearing to save the day will be dismissed.
I'm more worried about all your wounds. Death by a thousand cuts is as fatal as death by one blow, hunter. "
"I'm fine, I promise. You've already over-exerted yourself, and we've got quite the mess to clean up.
The soldiers will have at least one healer amongst them, and basic healing supplies anyway.
I just can't believe breaking that damn thing worked.
I won't have magic for a week or so, though. Thankfully my eyes aren't affected."
"There is something I want to do right now, if you are willing.
It's not my first choice, or even my tenth, but…
as you say, there is much to do, and I would feel better if you had my full power and protection before we do it.
But I will likely also pass out after it is done, and the burden of everything will fall to you, my hunter. "
"Whatever you want," Dipak said. "I'm yours, dragon. For some strange reason you seem to like me, and it feels like I was meant to be here, though I've never been much for things like gods and fate."
"Still, it's a bit much to demand we bond properly now."
Dipak smiled and cupped his face with one hand. "You are the one risking everything. If you feel that confident about it, that you'd do it here and now, when we've known each other only a couple of months, and only recently became lovers, then I'll do it. I trust you implicitly."
Euclid smiled, soft and sweet, despite the exhaustion and pain that must be weighing him down.
Removing Dipak's hands, he said, "Normally I would do this slowly, over many days, give you time to properly adjust, give you one last chance to change your mind before the changes take irreversible hold.
This will probably hurt, and you'll black out briefly, so I am sorry. "
"I can handle pain, especially when I'm getting so much in return."
Euclid kissed him, then held his own wrist to his mouth and bit down. Blood spilled down his arm in lurid trails. Holding it out, he said, "Drink, hunter."
Of all the things he'd expected, drink my blood had been nowhere on the list. But he'd said he trusted Euclid, and he meant it.
So he took hold of Euclid's bleeding wrist and pressed it to his mouth.
His blood was hot, faintly metallic, and oddly sweet.
He closed his eyes and focused on doing, trying not to think about what he was doing.
He drank until the wrist was pulled away, opened his eyes—and then doubled over in pain, biting into his own lip to keep from screaming as tears blurred his vision. He felt like he was boiling, like thorns were wrapped tightly around him, like more were pushing from the inside out.
Then, as promised, he blacked out.
When he stirred, he had barely moved at all. His head was in Euclid's lap. "Euclid?"
He immediately looked down from where he'd been looking up at the sky, face flooding with relief. "You're awake, and sooner than expected."
"How long…?"
"Perhaps an hour or so." Euclid yawned. "Most of the camp is awake. I fetched Abhishek, he took command of the remaining soldiers, says they'll be ready to leave in the morning."
"Does he know about you?"
Euclid shook his head. "He thinks I'm something, maybe part fae like him or similar, but I doubt it would ever occur to him I'm a dragon. There are precious few non-dragon beings in the world who know we can shift into a human form. And not every dragon can. How do you feel?"
Much as he would love to continue napping with his head in Euclid's lap, Dipak dragged himself upright.
"A little dizzy, not terrible. Flushed, like I have a fever.
A bit nauseous. Tingly, like my whole body went numb and now is waking up.
Mild headache." He laughed. "I got sick with goblin flu once as a child.
This feels a lot like that, though without the pain and throwing up every half hour. "