Page 38 of A Matter of Dragons

“Don’t get me wrong,” I continued. “Doshir’s a lying sack of shit. But—”

My throat narrowed, pinching my words. No, I didn’t wish death on Doshir’s wife, if that’s who the red dragon was. It wasn’t her fault I’d fucked her husband in a moment of epically bad, wine-blurred judgment.

“Yeah, I know,” Eadberh said. He stood up slowly and walked to the window. “It just doesn’t feel right, huh? That Doshir guy might have been a dick to you—”

I tensed at the double entendre, but Eadberh didn’t turn around to rub it in. I could almost believe he hadn’t meant to tease me.

“But he was civil to us,” he finished. “And if we go off and murder the only other dragon in this town, well, wouldn’t that make us the assholes?”

I groaned and collapsed back on my bed. He had a point; that did sound a lot less like spreading the glory of Valgros and a lot more like being assholes.

“But what are our options?” I pressed my hands against my eyelids until white spots danced like stars across my obscured vision. “Go back to King Donovan and tell him we failed? This was supposed to be our mission. Our big chance.”

“Well, I’ve got an idea,” Eadberh said slowly.

I pulled my hands away from my eyes. Eadberh’s silhouette wavered and danced in my blurry vision.

“Vil said there was one language dragons understand, right?” Eadberh said.

I frowned, trying to remember the conversation leading up to the moment we walked into the Duck and Goose and discovered that my one-night stand was a fucking dragon.

“Oh, right,” I said. “He paid him off.”

The thought that Doshir could be bought only made me feel even more sick to my stomach. He was married, he was a dragon, and he took bribes. Wow, could I pick romantic partners or what?

“So,” Eadberh said, with an unusual waver in his voice, “what if we just... paid the dragon?”

“What?” I sat up so he could have the benefit of my full-on skeptical face.

“Look, we’ve burned through about half of our money,” Eadberh said. “But we could offer everything we have left as a down payment, then sell the clothes and horses and whatnot we’ve still got here—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I interrupted. “You think this dragon is going to accept a damn payment plan?”

Eadberh shrugged. “The fuck have we got to lose? I mean, best case, she takes it. We tell the Cairncliff Town Council that we’ve cleared up their little dragon problem, we spread the glory of Valgros, we go home.”

“Worst case,” I said, “she gets offended. She attacks. We die. No glory spread.”

Eadberh gave me a cynical little grin. “Let’s be honest, Rayne. The plan was always for us to die.”

I sighed and collapsed back onto the bed. The man had a point.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s do it. Let’s try bribing the dragon.”

The floorboards creaked as Eadberh stood up and moved away from the window. I turned my head to follow his progress as he pulled a clean jacket over his undershirt.

“But let’s do it tonight,” I said. “I want to get the hell out of this stupid town.”

He grinned. “Tonight it is.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Doshir

I stopped just before rounding the corner that led to the Master and Mistress. Not that I thought Rayne would be watching for me from the inn where she was staying, or that she would have posted a guard or anything like that. No, I was just being cautious. Just giving myself a chance to collect my thoughts, to prepare exactly what I’d like to say to her.

I sighed and twisted my hands together. What exactly was it that I’d like to say to her again? By the Mothers, where to begin? Hi, Rayne, I just wanted you to know that, despite what I said last night, I’m not actually married. But I am actually a dragon. Ha, ha, funny how that works out!

Yeah. Disaster. I rocked back on my heels. Damn, this had all seemed so clear a couple of hours ago, when I’d decided it would be reasonable to approach Rayne with my concerns about Vil. And that’s where I’d leave things. Just sharing a reasonable concern.