Bound (Bound Trilogy) (16 page)

A few seconds passed, and then a rumbling noise began deep in the dragon’s massive chest. It took me a moment to realize that she wasn’t growling, but laughing—or as close as a dragon could come to it. Her tail thumped twice on the floor.

“I almost wish I could like you,” she said, and bared her teeth in a grotesque parody of a grin. “You’re amusing. I think your story would be worth hearing, but what’s a little human’s word worth, eh? Now, a sorcerer’s, perhaps…” Her head swiveled toward me. “What do you say, king’s son? Will you give me your promise that neither of you will tell anyone what you’ve seen here, and that you will come back to tell me how the story ends? Soon, I mean. If you don’t, I will find you, and I promise that the ending of this little story will not be pleasant.”

I tried to erase the look of shock I felt on my face. Was this dragon actually offering to let us go? True, an agreement with a dragon was never to be entered into lightly, and the consequences could be unpredictable. But if the alternative was death…

I nodded. “I promise, you’ll have your story.”

Ruby drummed her clawed fingers on the floor, then stood and stretched, arching her back so that the gray spines scraped the ceiling. Her mouth twisted into a sly smile as she reached into an alcove and pulled out a mass of gold coins, jewelery, ornaments, and unrefined ore, all of it littered through with precious gemstones that would have made any jeweler in Luid weep to see them.

“Very well, with two further conditions. First, you leave the horses. I can smell them on you, and it reminds me that my young are old enough to taste meat. Second, as a symbol of our agreement, I insist that you choose a bit of my treasure to take with you.” It seemed she was going to make sure the story that came back to her was worth the price she was paying for it.

“Oh, I couldn’t,” Rowan stammered. “You’re very kind, but—”

“I insist. Come, child. You must like pretty things. Choose, or stay for supper.” Rowan turned to me, eyes wide and frightened. “No,” Ruby said. “Not him. He’s got his gloves, he needs nothing more from us, and you need no help from him. Choose your prize, and I’ll let you go. Both of you. This is my offer.”

Rowan’s shoulders sank, and she lowered her gaze.
Don’t
, I mouthed, but she didn’t see. I was sweating in the warm air, but my skin felt chilled.
Please
.

She clenched her hands into fists, then forced them to relax. “Any treasure of yours, and we can go? I have your word on that?”

Something like a smirk crossed the dragon’s face. “Any that’s in this cave. Let it not be said that I’m not generous.”

“Then I suppose I’d be a fool not to take your greatest treasure.”

“You would.”

Rowan looked up, straight into the beast’s eyes. “Then kindly bring your children out of the water so I can choose which I like best.”

Ruby’s gasp was nearly drowned out by the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. I didn’t know whether what Rowan had just done was brilliant or insane. Maybe both.

Ruby lay down on top of the pool. “You wouldn’t.”

“I could, according to the terms of our agreement. Perhaps I won’t. And perhaps you’ll remember that before you try to trick us again. No more games. We go, you get your story. That’s all.”

The air warmed as the dragon let out a deep, shuddering breath that made my mind hazy when I breathed it in. “Agreed. But name your prize. You already said you’d take one. What do you want the most?”

Rowan’s gaze passed over the heap of gold, along the great crimson body, toward the far end of the cavern. “There,” she said, and jumped down from her perch. She walked closer to the dragon’s rear claws than I would have dared, and stooped to pick something up off of the floor.
Don’t take anything, please
, I thought.

“This,” Rowan said, and held up what looked like a shallow bowl. “I told you I’ve waited my whole life to meet a dragon. I can’t think of a better prize than one of your scales.”

Ruby’s jaw opened, and she cocked her head slightly to one side. She turned to me. “She’s not even lying, is she?”

“I don’t think so.”

The dragon tapped a foreclaw on the ground and sighed. “Go, then. Take your prize, and let it be a reminder of your promise to return.” Rowan clutched the scale to her chest and ran toward me. Ruby watched her go by, then studied the two of us for a moment. “Well. I think this could be interesting, indeed. Go on.”

“Thank you,” Rowan said, and the dragon nodded.

I pulled Rowan up to the tunnel entrance, holding onto her arm to support her. Her whole body was trembling.

Ruby’s head turned to follow us. “Don’t forget to leave the horses.”

Rowan looked down at her injured ankle, then back at the dragon. She looked like she was going to object.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “It’s a small price, believe me.”

She nodded, and led the way through the tunnel. My gloves fell to the ground as we ran. I didn’t stop to retrieve them.

It seemed strange that the sun still shone through the colored leaves when we emerged, as though nothing in the world had changed.

We left the cave, turning away from the path. Ruby would find the horses soon enough, and we didn’t need to be there when she did. I hoped she’d find the bodies I’d left. It would be better if they disappeared completely.

I handed Rowan her bag and bedroll, and we ran as far as we could before her ankle gave out and she had to stop to treat and re-wrap it.

After she finished tying her boot, she covered her face with her hands. “That was horrible!” she cried.

“Well, what did you think was going to happen?” I tried not to yell, but I spoke more loudly than I’d intended. I was impressed with her quick thinking, but that didn’t do anything to cancel my anger at her. “At what point did you realize it was a bad idea? Obviously not when I said ‘dragon path’. Was it when you discovered that there was a live dragon in there, or only after you started having a friendly conversation with it?” She didn’t look up. I took a few deep breaths, then knelt in the dirt beside her. “Rowan, you could have died in there. You’re lucky that’s not the first thing that happened. If that had been a younger dragon…”

“I know.” Her voice cracked.

“How did you know not to take the treasure?”

“Stories. I didn’t want to risk it.”

“Well, good. But that doesn’t change the fact that under any other circumstances, we both would have been roasted.”

“I’m sorry.” We stood and she wiped her eyes on her sleeve, then slipped the gray traveling cloak around her shoulders and pulled up the hood. “I need to go home.”

“You can’t, we haven’t found help for you yet. Even if you don’t believe me about the magic, we can get help for your pain.”

When she looked up at me, any trace of happiness or excitement that might have been there before was gone. “I thought I wanted an adventure,” she said, “but this isn’t at all what I expected. I don’t have magic, and you can’t fix me. It was stupid of me to let you try. I’m going home, and I’m going to put all of this behind me. Maybe it’s not too late for that.” She picked up her knapsack and bedroll and started down the hill, deeper into the dimly lit woods.

“But you just got us out of a dragon cave,” I called.

She turned back. “Yes. Right after I got us
into
a dragon cave. I’m obviously not ready for any of this. Which way is the border?”

I picked up my own things and followed her. I couldn’t let her go home to be captured by Severn, or to marry a magic hunter who would probably turn her in or kill her when he realized what she was. I still wasn’t entirely sure why it was so important to me, but it was.

If I could arrange it, I might get one more chance to convince her of her gifts, to make her stay and fight to save herself. I didn’t like to think about what I’d have to do, but I had no choice. It was time to try something drastic.

Chapter Sixteen

Rowan

P
ainful as riding had been, walking was worse. Aren took the lead and I limped behind, trying to keep up with his long strides, occasionally catching up when he stopped to look back. My stomach grumbled as supper hour passed, but we’d lost too much time. I doubted there would be any stops before nightfall.

He wasn’t speaking to me now, and that was fine. I didn’t blame him for being angry. I’d been too impulsive, forgetting that the dangers out here were far different from any I’d known at home. Aren wasn’t always nice about giving orders, but he’d been right, and like an idiot I hadn’t listened. I wanted to talk about it, but decided to wait until he was ready. I needed some space to think, anyway.

Staying with Aren had been a terrible idea. I’d been curious about magic and thought, for just a moment, that he might even be right about me. I had acted without thinking of the consequences, and what had my stupid curiosity brought me? I’d almost gotten us eaten.

And those poor horses. Aren had called them a small price to pay, but I kept thinking about them. They should have been back at the docks, getting their supper. They’d done nothing but carry us without complaint for two days, and now they were as good as dead.

I had made a terrible mistake. It was time to go home. Even if Aren couldn’t straighten Severn out on what I really was, Callum would protect me. Not only that, but I’d be able to tell him what I’d learned about Tyrean magic, and how wrong we were about it. They didn’t sell their souls, and those people who used magic in Darmid really were born with it. It would change everything. Maybe useful information like that would make up for not telling him about the eagle.

My head was throbbing with heavy pain again, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other, crunching over dead leaves in a faltering rhythm as the afternoon passed. Aren walked with his head down, jaw clenched, frowning. I felt badly for him. It was clear that he couldn’t go home after what he’d done. Would that have worked out differently if he’d been right about me?

Not your problem
, I told myself.
You never asked him for this.
He took a gamble, and it wasn’t paying off. I tried to tell myself I had bigger problems to think about, but couldn’t help worrying about his. He wasn’t a friend, but we were in this together.

Late in the afternoon we reached a place where the forest ended, cut back in a straight line. Harvested fields sprawled in front of us, and in the distance dark trees crowded up against a cluster of whitewashed farm buildings. In between, placid-looking horses grazed in a large paddock.

Aren stopped and leaned on the fence. “Are you tired of walking yet?”

“Yes.” Most of my injuries were nearly healed, but my ankle and shoulder still ached. “Why? Are we going to try to buy horses?”

“What? No.” I thought the expression on his face was probably the same one I’d worn when he tried to tell me I was a Sorceress. “Can you ride without a saddle?”

“It’s how I learned. But we can’t just take someone’s horses. That’s stealing.”

He gave me that
Are you serious?
look again. I thought I’d see a lot of that one if we spent much more time together. He dropped his backpack and bedroll, and boosted himself over the fence.

“Rowan, we have people hunting us who aren’t going to treat us very nicely if they catch us, so I think moving more quickly might be a really good idea.” He was talking like I was an idiot, and I wanted to slap him for it. “I was lucky earlier today,” he continued in a more normal tone. “The two men who were following us weren’t being careful, and it was easy for me to surprise them. We might not be so fortunate next time. Come on, there’s no one home here. It will be easy.”

I had forgotten about the men who were following us. “Did you kill them?”

“I did what I had to do.”

How many people did you have to kill before you could just say it like that, without showing any more remorse than you would for killing a rat?

“If it makes you feel any better,” he added with a sardonic smile, “I didn’t pay for the other horses, either. You’re already a thief and on the run from parties in two countries. A few more horses won’t hurt.”

“Fine. It’s still not right,” I said, and dropped my own things onto the pile. “Let’s just hurry.”

He held out a hand to help me over the fence. “Sometimes necessary has to come before right,” he said. “And look at it this way. Your new friend Ruby seems to be ready to get out hunting again. We’re saving a few of these horses from her.” He took a few steps, then turned back. “And no, we can’t take all of them.”

“I wasn’t even going to suggest that.”

We didn’t speak as we crossed the back fields. We entered the paddock, which sloped downward at the far side into a wooded area contained within the fence.

From a distance, the herd seemed to be a common enough mix of work and riding horses. As we approached, though, I saw that these horses all had heavy jaws, and thicker legs than the horses I was accustomed to. Their hooves were massive, and their lower legs all covered in long hair that matched their shaggy manes and tails.

“Wait for them to come to us,” Aren said.

“What are these?” I whispered.

Aren reached out to stroke a black mare’s white-blazed face as she approached. She shied at first, but seemed to warm to him quickly. He smiled. “Proper Tyrean horses. This will make things easier.”

Another of the mares approached me, a stocky piebald-coated creature with the largest brown eyes I’d ever seen on a horse. She sniffed at my cloak and snorted. “You don’t like dragons?” I asked her. I reached out, and she allowed me to touch her face. “Aren, we’re still in Darmid, right?”

“We are,” Aren said. “I’d say these are quite illegal because of their magical ancestry, but people are smart to keep them. They’re tougher than the horses you’re accustomed to. If they learn to trust us they’ll forage without wandering off or getting lost, and they can eat almost anything, plant or animal. They’re stronger, faster and more sure-footed than your horses, too. Gods, I miss Tyrea.” He left to search a nearby shed, and came back with a pair of simple leather bridles. “Your people’s stubbornness about this land makes your lives far more difficult than they need to be.”