AllFreeNovel
Share Us
2
Adragon?
I wanted to be skeptical and dismissive. Dragons didn’t come toEarth, not anymore. A thousand years ago, they might have, but they’d left long before the elves and dwarves haddisappeared.
It was hard, however, to be skeptical when I could sense the incredibly powerful aura coming closer and closer. It—he?—was in the tunnel. And shape-shifted into something small? How else could a dragon fit inhere?
We must hide. There’s no way out unless we run past him.Sindari backed farther up the ramp.Which I do not advise. Your weapons will do nothing against him, and my fangs will be like toothpicks if he shifts into his natural form. Even if he is in human form, he’ll be impossible tokill.
I followed Sindari, trusting his assessment. My only experience with dragons came through stories from other magical beings who had encountered them in their nativeworlds.
We scooted back to the deepest corner of the ledge. Below, just visible between two stalactites, the wyvern stirred for the firsttime.
Her head came up, snout opening to reveal long pointed teeth dripping with poisonous saliva. Her wings spread as she rose on her two legs to sniff the air. The wyvern was a distant relative of a dragon but much smaller, much lessdangerous.
She shifted to peer around a tall stalagmite. I found a spot where I could watch her and also see the tunnel. Her talons flexed nervously on the rock floor, and she glanced around the chamber. Looking for anescape?
Her yellow-eyed gaze raked over us, and I held my breath, worried my charm wouldn’t be enough to keep me hidden. Sindari, his kind masters of stealth, had innate magic to camouflage himself.Hewouldn’t be theproblem.
But the wyvern’s gaze didn’t linger. It ratcheted back on the mouth of the tunnel as a human figure in a black robe with silver trim strode intoview.
He had a tall, broad build and olive skin, a tidily trimmed beard and mustache, and short, curly black hair. My senses told me he was the dragon, even if he’d shape-shifted into this form to blend in. Not that he would blend in. That robe looked like something out of aLord of the Ringsmovie, the silver slippers like something from Oz, and the dragon-shaped gold amulet on his chest was bling that Mr. T would have loved. Lastly, the violet eyes that glowed with inner power were nothing contacts could haveachieved.
That violet gaze roamed around the cavern, skimming over us, and I held my breath again. Even if my charm worked on a wyvern, a dragon might not be fooled. I’d scrounged and fought far and wide for my collection of protective magic, and most of the centuries-old trinkets hadn’t come with instructionmanuals.
“Dysnax crayell, loreth.” The dragon’s deep baritone rang through the chamber with resonance that Darth Vader would have envied. “CrayellZavryd’nokquetal.”
The wyvern darted fully behind her stalagmite and hid, her pointed blue tail wrapping around the base as if she feared being tornaway.
I touched another charm and mouthed the command word, hoping I could activate it without actually speaking. There was no way I was going to make a noise. Dragons could probably hear pins dropping on themoon.
“…and furthermore,” the dragon said, the charm translating the words in my mind, “you fled like a coward from your home realm, leaving the slain behind you to be discovered by theirfamilies.”
The wyvern was a criminal on more than one world? Not surprising. I was relieved to hear the dragon hadn’t come forme.
“You will return with me through the portal to be incarcerated until such time that you can be judged by the Dragon Justice Court. They will determine your punishment and your subsequentrehabilitation.”
Wait a minute. This guy wanted to take my target through a portal to another world? Forrehabilitation?
Oh, hell no. The wyvern was going to die for the children she’d killed and the bones of the dead littered across the floor of this very cave. I’d been hired to kill her, not watch someone else cart heraway.
I shifted Fezzik and leaned to the side enough to line my sights up with the wyvern’shead.
You can’t shoot her in front of that dragon,Sindari warned.Don’t be fooled by his human form. He can kill you with alook.
I know. I’m going to need yourhelp.
“I didn’t do it,” the wyvern called from behind herstalagmite.
“I see the lie staining your soul. Come with me now, or I will forcibly remove you from your miserable squalidhole.”
Please say the help you need isn’t for me to fight and slay the dragon, because that isn’t in my repertoire ofabilities.
No, just lead him away. I’ll finish the job and sprint out of here.Sprint was an ambitious word considering the climb back up to the top of the cliff, but I would find a way.If he catches up with you, go back to your realm. I’ll call you back to Earth later when it’ssafe.
You know he can follow me home,right?
I hesitated.Are yousure?
