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“Listen, dragon,”I said as he strode toward me with murder in his eyes. Could he understand English? I almost laughed at the ridiculousness of my plight. “I know you wanted to take that wyvern somewhere, but she was my assignment. She killed a bunch of humans, and my people wanted her dead, not rehabilitated, whatever the hell thatmeans.”
The dragon stopped outside of my sword range, eyeing Chopper briefly—dismissively—before locking his cold gaze on me again. He didn’t have any weapons, but I’d already seen him tear thousand-pound rocks apart and hurl that wyvern across the cave with hismind.
“I don’t know when you got your assignment,” I went on, very slightly encouraged that he’d stopped, even if it was only to glare venomous daggers at me. “But I got mine two weeks ago. She was the last of three wyverns that attacked children here in Oregon, and she was mine to take down. I…” I what? I’d run out of things to say. Did the dragon even understand? “I had dibs,” I finished weakly, as if we were squabbling over a toy on aplayground.
“You are a bounty hunter?” the dragon asked in his resonant voice. His resonant scornfulvoice.
I had a feeling he didn’t often talk to the people he was about toslay.
“No. I work for thearmy.”
“You are asoldier?” He looked me up and down, skepticism joining thescorn.
With my jeans and shirt half torn off, acid burns on my hand and sleeve, and half the forest tangled in my thick blonde braid, I didn’t look my best. It had been more than ten years since I’d been active duty, and if I still had a uniform, I didn’t know where it was, but what did some dragon know about what soldiers on Earth looked like orwore?
“Technically, I’m a government contractor for the army now, not a soldier.” No need to mention that I took the occasional freelance job on the side. “I get a modest base pay and combat bonuses for completed missions. Which means I make in a year about what it would cost to buy a new Jeep.” I thrust my sword toward the mangled vehicle dangling in the trees. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t fallen down. “And my missions are hunting down and killing magical beings that have committed heinous crimes against humanity. Like that wyverndid.”
“You arefemale.”
“So what? I’m six feet tall, can bench more than my bodyweight, and can skin the balls off a ram with mysword.”
His eyes narrowed, and a part of me wanted to skin a dragon’s balls and show him that I wascapable.
“Females do not fight,” he said. “They rule society and commandmalestofight.”
It dawned on me that he hadn’t been calling me weak. “Oh, so dragons are likebees?”
That violet light in his eyes flared. “Dragons are not likeinsects.”
He stepped forward, and I whipped up the point of my sword. A wave of power knocked me twenty feet, the same as it had that wyvern, and only luck kept me from slamming into a tree. A bed of wet ferns broke my fall. Sortof.
Fortunately, the dragon did not rush after me. He stood between two trees, sunlight filtering through the branches and onto his short black hair and hard face, and scrutinized me. Had I confused him? I hoped so. I also hoped that he didn’t eat people he foundconfusing.
“Listen, dragon.” I pushed myself to my feet. “I—”
“Lord Zavryd’nokquetal,” hecorrected.
“What?”
“Myname.”
“Can I call youZav?”
“No.”
I pushed myself to my feet. “If you’d ever heard how badly I manglesuea rong haiwhen I try to order it from Nin’s food truck, you wouldn’t want me to attempt to say yourname.”
His eyes narrowed. “You may call me Lord Zavryd. You have interfered with the will of this representative of the Dragon Justice Court. You have slain a wyvern that would have been punished and rehabilitated. We do not kill dragons or dragon-kin, no matter how weak and degenerate theyare.”
“Sorry, but like I said, I had the assignment first. She was mine to take down, and I did.” I lifted my chin. Maybe he appreciated someone looking him in the eye. And maybe someone who worked for the justice-whatever wouldn’t kill me. But he’d only mentioned dragons and dragon-kin as worthy of keeping alive, nothumans.
His nostrils flared, more like the dragon he’d been than the human he was now, and he looked me up and down again.Disdainfully.
“You are part human, that verminous infestation that blights this world, but…” He sniffed, nose wrinkling. “You also smell like anelf.”
“And here I thought I smelled like ferns anddirt.”
