Page 170 of The Discount Damsel

The Great Red coughed and said nothing. Bradley was rough in his mounting, shoving off scales and pulling on horns. Dirk winced and whimpered once, but didn’t protest. Millie followed much more gently, and, when she shifted her weight to slide into position behind Bradley, the apprentice caught her arm.

“You’ll sit in front of me, Tula. That way you can’t stab me in the back again.” He pulled her down in front of him.

Millie wrenched free of him and elbowed him in the ribs for good measure. He merely flexed, tightening the muscles there, so her elbow hit only a firm wall and bounced off. He slipped his arm out of his sling so both of them could encircle her, constricting tightly as he gripped the horn in front of them.

She elbowed him again. “You’re crowding me.”

“This isn’t a cushy palanquin like you’re used to, Tula. Get over it.”

Millie considered head-butting him in the nose, maybe jamming her thumb into his shoulder joint. Dirk must’ve sensed her intentions, for he rolled a large sad, pleading yellow eye up at her. She huffed and decided, for herself, that she didn’t want blood on her lovely sun hat. “Tally-ho, Master Dirk.”

The Great Red lifted off, picked up the luggage net, and headed for the sea.

CHAPTER 70

A HOLIDAY BY THE SEA, LET’S TRY THE EEL, AND A MOST UNFORTUNATE DEVELOPMENT

The flight to the sea was exceptionally thrilling and dastardly cold. The former was achieved by the altitude of their flight and the vast views it provided, and the latter was accomplished by the nature of the arid lands that separated the Ashburnum desert from the wetlands. They retained none of the day’s heat, and the wind blowing off the faraway sea was strong.

Whether she wanted to or not, Millie leaned into Bradley’s warmth. It was an incremental process so as not to alert him that she’d given up on her pride for the sake of the basic human need to not freeze to death. Let him think his caging arms and the curve of his chest were finally victorious in oppressing her. He would only tighten around her in arrogant triumph, but she would be the real winner here, stealing away his heat.

She shivered with pleasure that her wicked plan was working. Soon, that plan worked too well, and she slipped into sleep.

The apprentice knew the moment the princess’s eyes closed. One hand left the horn in front of him, and his arm wrapped around her waist to keep her from pitching forward and sliding off the dragon’s back. He couldn’t help it. And he refused to examine it either. His fingers gripped her belt, squeezing hard until his knuckles ached. The physical pain numbed the emotional one.

When the moonlight glided over the twisting rivulets of the marshes, Dirk cleared his throat softly. “Do you, um, need a break?”

“No,” was Bradley’s terse reply. “Do you? That’s the third spell you’ve consumed.”

Dirk ignored that. “What about Millie?”

“She’s asleep. Don’t wake her, or she’ll start running her mouth again.”

“That’s not very nice. You’re not very nice.”

“Yeah? Wonder why that is.”

The dragon tensed underneath him, but the argument brewing beneath his scales stayed there. Dirk released a long exhale and put on a little burst of speed, chafing for this leg of the journey to be over.

Pissed that he hadn’t gotten a rise out of the dragon, Bradley clamped down harder on the princess’s belt.

At dawn, the dragon shivered his scales to rouse his passengers. Bradley jerked awake, the hand that pressed softly against the princess’s stomach snatching the horn and his cheek that smooshed into her soft shoulder lurching away as he straightened his spine. The abrupt change in posture jostled Millie fully awake, and she hugged herself, suddenly cold.

“We’re here,” Dirk announced.

“Oh!” Millie gasped as she caught sight of the morning sun glinting off the sea.

She lurched forward so suddenly in her excitement that Bradley’s arm slammed across her chest, pinning her hard against him.

“I’m not going to fall.” She pinched his hand like she had the first day they met. “Relax!”

“Don’t want my help? Fine.”

His arms vanished, and Millie wobbled. She snagged the horn in front of her and breathed a sigh of relief. Then and there, she decided ignoring the grumpy apprentice was the order of the day, and turned her attention to the wonders of Pierpont. They were here mostly for Dirk, anyway.

The coastline was a strip of powdery gray sand for as far as the eye could see. Slate-blue waves pounded the shore, tossing spray into the air and sloughing yellow foam upon the beach. Millie inhaled deeply and sneezed as the salt crystals tickled her nose.

A boardwalk of weathered planks followed the coast, shops and taverns and inns all lined up along one side like gulls waiting their turn for scraps from a fisherman’s boat. Tall posts positioned every twenty or so feet along the boardwalk were strung with wire, and lanterns dangled from them that promised colorful lights come the evening.