Alice's Dragon (The Challenge Series) (3 page)

Agnes had told him just the day before he should check in with Lord Henry, but advised him not to give the man a cent. Bade planned to pay a reasonable tax for moving to the island, but while walking down the knotty, rough path, he realized if tax was collected, it wasn’t put back into the island. The harbor had been a mess when the boat arrived, the city streets needed new rock and grating. He arrived at what served as government housing and figured the money wasn’t being used there either.

The lord’s manor wasn’t much, but it did boast a sagging and rusted front gate. Bade reached for the short, frayed cord and tugged it, surprised at the bright chime that rang in response. The main door of the stone building opened, and a pale young man in maroon robes emerged. He gazed left and then right. Bade looked, as well, but found nothing of note. Finally the fellow squished his face up and scowled at him.

“What?”

The servants back home possessed impeccable manners and were treated like family during and after their years of service. This fellow…embodied the attitudes he’d met on the island.

“I’m in search of Lord Henry.”

“I really don’t care.” The fellow spun on his heels and headed back for the holding. Bade pulled the ringer again. The servant whipped back, scowling, and snatched the cord.

“Lord Henry is sleeping. If you knew anything about him, you’d leave before you woke him up.”

“Tell him Sir Bade of Bulgaria requests an audience.”

“Sir Who of What?” The young man’s mouth gaped. “That means nothing to me.
You
mean nothing to me. Get out of here before I release the alligators.”

Bade didn’t know what sort of creature he referred to, but didn’t take it as much of a threat from the weakling guarding the door. Bade reached inside the gate and twisted the lock. He needed to speak to the lord of the island, get permission to carry out or at least inform him of his intentions, and then get back to Alice.

“Hey, you can’t do that,” the miniscule man yelled.

Bade strode past him.

Strange animals crept from the surrounding waters, low-lying creatures on four legs with bumps on their backs and wicked teeth. Intriguing, but nothing to distract him from his mission. He slammed the holding door closed, leaving the lackey to play with the alligators. Perhaps he’d study their eating habits after the dragons were born and flourishing. They seemed reptilian in nature—maybe even a relative of the animals he loved.

He stepped into a dank room, much smaller and darker than the outside led him to expect. Nothing shone with any sign of wealth. In fact, it paled in comparison to Alice’s modest home. The walls crumbled in several places with no show of even attempted repair. Perhaps he was wasting his time in the home of the island’s lord.

“Stewart? Who was ringing? It wasn’t that filthy bitch Alice, was it? I owe her nothing. Well, I owe her, but since there’s no dragon for her to charm next month, there’s no need to pay her for services already rendered.”

Bade followed the commentary to a cramped kitchen reeking of bacon fat. A rotund fellow in a night wrapper shoveled up pork from a large plate in front of him, grease dripping from his white beard. He shot to his feet, knife in hand.

“Where’s Stewart?”

“If you mean the sour fellow who wears his wrapper short, he’s currently occupied with the large-toothed creatures outside. You’re lord of this island?”

“I am. Who are you?”

“Sir Bade of Bulgaria. I am here at the behest of my family to increase our flock.”

“Fine.” Lord Henry sat again and picked up a piece of bacon with the tip of his knife. “Taxes are fifteen percent, collected once a year.”

“Used for what? The harbor is a mess and the roads deplorable.”

The obese lordling scowled. “It’s for the dragon charmer. The bitch charges a fee. A fee I’m expected to pay.”

“On an island no longer housing a dragon.” Bade lied, knowing full well it would soon support half a dozen more. But if Lord Henry wasn’t going to ask about his flock, Bade saw no need to tell him.

“Fine, five percent of your yearly earnings,” Lord Henry muttered. “A man has to eat.”

“Fair enough.” Bade pulled out a small bag and shook it. “Will you accept a lump sum in advance instead? Am I now a citizen of this fine place?”

Henry poured the coins into his palm, greed and pleasure in his jowly face. “Yes, sure, whatever. Citizen, welcome.”

Bade turned, satisfied his dragons would have the time they needed to reach maturity. Once they did, the ruler could try whatever he wanted. The old lord wouldn’t see a decade out anyway. Bade pulled out his sword then opened the front door. Stewart held tight to a limb of a tree to the left of the door. The beasts prowled around the trunk.

“What did you call those things?” Bade asked.

“Alligators. They are exotics the island has hosted for years. Toss them some grub from that bucket over there so they’ll let me down.”

Bade wrinkled his nose and drew the bucket of stinking, rotten flesh down from a branch. Fish heads and fat swam together in a horrible mixture. At the creaking of the pulley, the animals turned and stared at him with predatory eyes.

He dipped out some slop and tossed it well away from him. The alligators waddled over and bent to gobble their meal. Similar to dragons, but without the wings for balance and grace, they interested him nonetheless. Stewart shimmied down the tree, glaring at the clumsy beasts.

“Wish me good day,” Bade said, ignoring his scowl and feeling grand in success. “I’m now an Aden Island citizen.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Stewart muttered, brushing past him. “You’re going to need it. Shut the gate before you leave, if you don’t want them following you.” He disappeared into the holding.

Bade hurried out onto the street, but spent another long moment observing the alligators through the gate. If such large beasts did well on land with limited water and space to roam, it meant good things for dragons. He headed back to the cottage. The island’s occupants weren’t exactly welcoming, but he’d found home.

Chapter Six

Scratching and whining roused Alice from her stupor. She frowned toward the fire, wondering if Bade had left a chicken or some other little critter in her home. He seemed a good sort, maybe even the best sort, but she didn’t know what kind of crazy things Bulgarians did. She shifted her weight, careful of her healing stump and put her feet on the floor.

Her head didn’t spin like it had the last few days when she’d stumbled to the outhouse. All the food Bade had shoved down her gob seemed to have increased her strength.

Without her arm, dressing had become a challenge, but she wriggled until she had her wrapper over her night shift. If not for the chill, she might have gone without. Bade had seen her partially clothed often enough to not get all male and grunty. The scuffling from the box near the fire continued. She found her balance, an elusive thing she’d never considered until losing her arm. Her mother said she’d walked early and effortlessly.

Maybe she’d underestimated herself.

She continued toward the sound, grabbing her broom just in case something tried to take another chunk out of her. The handle felt awkward in her hand, and she didn’t know what she’d be able to do with it, but since she wasn’t dead, she needed to at least try to act like she was living.

Soft mewing made her think of a box of kittens, but when she kicked the kitchen towel away, her heart stuttered. Five shiny, green eggs rocked together, but the sixth shell lay in pieces around a tiny monster.

She fell to her knees, holding her arm out to maintain balance when she veered left. This time she wasn’t sure if her injury screwed her up or if finding a baby dragon in her house sent her into shock again. She’d never seen one so small. Her grandmother had told stories of clutches of eggs found in the cliffs of Aden long before Alice’s time. Tales of Rusty as an egg and hatchling had been her favorites.

Alice lifted the tiny, wiggling thing closer. It could be Rusty in miniature form. The wings stretched the length of her hand, the bones and veins outlined in intricate detail. Tiny squeals emerged as it stumbled around, as unbalanced as she sometimes felt. Beady eyes met hers, and the tiniest of puffs of smoke billowed from its mouth.

Alice laughed, enchanted. She stroked the tiny body from head to tail. It shimmied away from her at first, but eventually curled up in her hand.

Behind her, the door opened and heavy footfalls entered.

“Ms. Alice, I hope you are hungry. I caught three squirrels on the way home and—what are you doing?”

She turned and held out her hand. “Look who is here.”

Bade dropped his catch and flew to her, sliding in on his knees to peer into the box. “Only one?”

“The others are still in their shells.”

“Let me see the newborn.”

She held the little one close to her body, but turned for Bade to see better.

“Ah, a male. Very good. The head and tale base are wide—but you probably know that. That means a boy. Give him to me.”

“Nope.” Alice wished for her other hand to stroke the little one’s spiny back. “He’s resting. What does he eat? Is it true they subsist on blood for the first four years of their life?”

Bade nodded. “It is true. Give him here.”

She tucked the dragon closer. “I’m not doing anything if you act like an ass. Walter and I—”

“Walter? Who is this Walter? Did he see the eggs?”

Alice scowled “Walter is what I named him, now that I know he is a boy. I think you have some explaining to do, Bade. Why are you here, and why do you have eggs?”

Bade huffed, a very dragon-like sound and pushed to his feet before going back to his catch. “You won’t drop him?”

She cradled the sleeping baby closer. “Of course not. I might be a one-armed badass, but I don’t drop stuff, let alone living stuff. Are you making dinner for him? I didn’t have time to find anything yet.”

“Yes.” He cut a squirrel’s throat and let the blood drain into a bowl.

She wrinkled her nose.
I’d better get used to it
. “You seem pretty experienced with butchering.”

He scowled. If she hadn’t seen him gaze with such devotion to the dragon and witnessed his care-giving skills, she might have taken the glare at face value. As it was, she smiled at him in return.

He harrumphed again and continued dressing the squirrel. “In my country, I am a dragon shepherd. I work with them and find them food when I can. When their numbers began to diminish, I worked harder, but it wasn’t enough. There’s simply not enough food in the mountains anymore to maintain the diet necessary. At one time, herds of hill goats numbered in the hundreds, now it is too cold for even them to flourish. The bitter years killed off the dragons’ food supply. The poor things would fly for days, come up empty, and go insane—like your Rusty—far before their time.”

She’d heard tales of dragons going mad with hunger and attacking villages. Her family had exploited the rumors for years. The rare behaviors led to a reputation for violence among the winged ones. On Aden, aggressive dragon outbursts were preventable, for the most part.

“So, in an effort to preserve my flock, I read about the places of the world.” Bade drained another squirrel of its pittance of blood. “And found Isle Aden has historically been home to many beasts at one time.”

Alice nodded. “It was long before my time, but there are legends of flocks of dragons once living here. The groups would fight, though, so one by one the flocks took off for other parts of the world. Rusty’s family was the last to remain and died out because of accidents and a shortage of mates—not because of food. The sea in this area is home to the largest whales and dolphins. A dragon can live eight months on a medium-sized whale.”

Desolate hope darkened his eyes. “So the rumors are true.”

“Rusty supplemented his diet with the occasional cow, but it was mostly show on my part,” she confessed. “A little something-something to assure the townsfolk of my contribution to their safety.”

“And what was your real contribution?”

She shook her head. “Oh, no, we’re talking about you, now. Keep going. Why are you and the eggs here?”

“They will not survive anywhere else. Their dame and sire lived only long enough to have these. The mother….”

He turned away. The hitch in his words touched a place deep inside her. She would grieve Rusty’s loss for some time to come, but it was better to have him gone before he’d maimed or killed anyone else. She couldn’t imagine Bade’s journey and the chances he’d taken for creatures he obviously loved.

“Anyway. Their mother survived to have her clutch. I could not in good conscience let them hatch where they would not survive their fifth birthday. I’ve witnessed too many deaths and couldn’t bear to witness it again without at least trying to give them a shot.”

She liked his passion and couldn’t wait to pick his mind for more dragon lore. Bade possessed a lifetime of knowledge. She’d never met anyone else who understood her affinity with the flying wonders. Bade, from so far away, might be the only person who could. Alice knelt by the fire and set Walter on her lap. She stroked his back while she collected her thoughts. He wanted to preserve his way of life. She was a charmer without a job until she had another dragon. Her long line of ancestors would roll in their graves if she didn’t find a way to make a deal.

“So, what I’m hearing is, you need a safe, secluded place with plenty of food to raise these babies.”

He nodded. “Yes. And I have clearance to work my flock here for the next decade. That will see them to their majority.”

“What do you mean by clearance?”

“Your Lord Henry gave me permission to be on the island with my flock.”

“Flock, huh?”

His cheeks tinged pink. “He didn’t ask for specifics before he accepted the fee.”

She bent over Walter and laughed so hard the baby jumped in her hands. Bade approached with the bowl of blood, eyebrow cocked.

“Oh, come on,” Alice said. “If you met the man, you know why I’m laughing. He and Stewart are worthless tools. I love that you got the upper hand and the idiot doesn’t even know.”