His jaw clenches. Roiven spins on his heel and strides away from me toward the dragon. I don’t follow. I watch them converse for a moment, Roiven speaking in hushed tones that I can’t overhear.
I don’t waste my time staring at him. I walk across the rocks and get another drink of water.
I straighten, turn, and flinch back, hand going to my sword hilt. Roiven is standing right there, not three feet behind me. I didn’t hear him approach. There’s color high on his angular cheeks, and he won’t meet my eyes.
Is it a sign he’s trying to lie, or is it just because he’s embarrassed that a few minutes ago he was completely nude in front of me?
“Fine,” the witch says. The wind lashes his black hair across his face.
“Fine?” I raise my left eyebrow.
“We have a deal. We ride to the Bluff at sunset.”
“Well. Good,” I sputter. I ignore the voice saying witches don’t keep their bargains, because I have no choicebutto trust him. Anyways, right now, he can’t lie.
If this works, I have a way back, and a way out of this mess with Roiven. I don’t know how I’m going to explain how I returned, or explain how my prisoner escaped me, or even how to sail by myself from the Bluff to the nearest outpost of civilization.
I'll just have to figure it out. But I don’t want to die in the Wild Seas.
Roiven takes another step toward me, until he’s looming over me, glaring down with those gold-fire eyes. My breath catches and warmth floods through my body. His lips are inches from my own.
“A word of warning, knight: try to trick us, and Savasaeirn will not hesitate to remove you from this world.”
15
When the sun sets, the whole sea burns red beneath its glow.
I stand at the base of Sava’s front left leg and stare up at her scaled, hulking body. Am I really about to do this—willingly mount a dragon, not to kill it, but to use it astransportation? The circumstances can’t be helped, but it goes against everything the War-Father raised me to be.
Roiven leans over the edge of the dragon’s body. He’s so far above me I can barely even see the enchantment marks on his skin.
“Knight. Do I need to carry you?” the witch calls down.
I bristle. Gritting my teeth, I grab hold of the spiked plating on Sava’s leg and begin to haul myself up. Hand over hand, I leap as much as climb, moving as quickly as I can.
Did I or did I not mount the beast while she was in flight, run across her body, and nearly kill the very man waiting for me to reach the top of her back? And he thinks I can't dothis?
As I reach her knee, the dragon’s neck curls around to level her giant mouth with my body. I freeze. Nervous sweat dampens myback as her rancid breath washes over me. I can’t even see her eyes. Just a row of jagged teeth, each as long as one of my legs.
This would be the perfect time to kill me, and maybe Sava is thinking it too. Roiven is too far above me to throw himself in front of me if Sava decides to eat me or burn me to char. I can’t stop her, so I draw in a slow, steady breath, and make myself keep climbing.
The dragon doesn’t attack.
“Here,” Roiven calls, as I sidle past the joint where her leathery wing connects to her body. He’s standing, arms crossed, looking unbothered.
My sensible mind wants me to crawl, to keep a grip on the dragon at all times. I nearly died the first time I fell from this dragon, and unlike before, there’s no ocean beneath me right now. Just hard, cold stone. My pride wins out. I stand and pick my way across the uneven jagged scales toward where Roiven waits.
The witch points to his side, to the base of Sava’s neck. A double-row of spikes march down her long neck, shrinking and flattening into ordinary scales just past her shoulders.
“We’ll sit here.”
“We?” I’m a little proud that my voice doesn’t shake. My legs feel weak and I’m having trouble breathing evenly.
I’m going to fall. I’m definitely going to die. There’s no way she doesn’t throw me off.
“Something to hold on to,” he says. “Sit between the rows. Keeps your legs from sliding.”
“And you?”
