Dragon Kiss (21 page)

Twenty-two

A
udun wasn’t nearly as confident when he woke the next day. All the previous afternoon and evening he had tried to explain what had happened, but each time he broached the topic Millie had invited someone to join their conversation or remembered a suddenly important errand that she had to see to right then. They hadn’t been alone for a minute, and after a big, formal supper, Millie had slipped off to bed without even saying good night. He’d found it frustrating, but he had no intention of telling her all he wanted to say where anyone else could hear him.

Audun had spent much of the night trying to think of something he could do to get Millie to talk to him in private. He had a few ideas, but nothing he really liked, so he was still pondering the problem when he stepped through the door of the chamber where he’d slept. A page carrying a knight’s sword and helmet almost knocked him over.

“What’s the hurry, child?” Audun asked, as he helped the boy collect the gauntlet that he’d dropped.

“Haven’t you heard?” asked the boy. “An army is advancing on the castle. The knights are preparing to defend it. They’d already lowered the drawbridge this morning, so they had to raise it in a hurry when soldiers appeared out of nowhere.”

A passing serving man carrying a knife and an old-fashioned helmet stopped long enough to say, “The call has gone out for all able-bodied men. We’re to bring whatever weapons and armor we have and meet in the courtyard. With the Green Witch protecting the kingdom they probably won’t need us, but they’re having us get ready just in case.”

“Whose army is it?” asked Audun.

The boy shrugged, but the man smiled wryly and said, “Some fool who thinks he can best the Green Witch with an ordinary fighting force. You’d think everyone would know better, considering our Princess Emma’s reputation.”

Audun nodded as the boy and the man went on their way. Even in far-off Aridia, Audun had heard rumors about the might of Princess Emma and the fire-breathing dragons that defended Greater Greensward. He’d never once mentioned that he’d met her or that she was the mother of his one true love. From everything he’d heard, anyone who would attack Greater Greensward would have to either be crazy or think he had some very special advantage that would allow him to defeat dragons and the magic of the Green Witch. If the latter were true, it was possible that the Green Witch might just need Audun’s help, even if he couldn’t breathe fire. Besides, with the alliance agreement between the Green Witch and King Stormclaw signed and sealed, he felt duty-bound to help her just as he had helped Prince Owen in Aridia.

Audun learned from a passing servant girl that Princess Emma had a tower of her own. He ran up the stairs, hoping Emma hadn’t already left the castle, and didn’t stop until he reached the door at the top. Hearing voices inside, he knocked and was relieved when someone called out for him to come in.

Although the room was fairly large, the end near the door seemed crowded. Millie and Emma were seated on a bench by the window while two men stood only an arm’s reach away. Audun had met the men at supper the night before. The younger one had curly brown hair and a pleasant face. He was Prince Eadric, Millie’s father and the crown prince of Upper Montevista, the northern kingdom where Audun had encountered the witches Klorine and Ratinki. The older man was King Limelyn, Emma’s father and the ruler of Greater Greensward. His hair was graying and his skin was lined from years of worry, but he still had the commanding presence of a king who had seen many battles. Audun had liked both Prince Eadric and King Limelyn right away and had had the feeling that they liked him as well. Right now, however, they scarcely glanced at Audun before turning back to examine a ball made of crystal that Millie’s mother held cupped in her hands.

Audun ducked as a brightly colored bird the size of a chicken with long, trailing feathers and a curved beak swooped past his head to land on the table on the other side of the room. “Lover boy is here!” screeched the bird in a grating voice. “It’s Millie’s next suitor, come to spy on her and learn all her secrets! He wants to know why none of her other suitors have—”

“Be quiet, You-too,” snapped Millie. “I don’t have any secrets from Audun.”

“Really?” said the bird. “Does he know that you—”

“I don’t know why you keep this bird around, Emma,” King Limelyn said, making a grab for You- too, who lurched off the table and fluttered out of reach.

Emma shrugged. “He was a wedding gift to Eadric and me.”

“I’d say he was more of a curse,” said her father.

“Look, that must be the one in charge,” Emma said, pointing at something in the ball that Audun couldn’t see from where he was standing.

Millie bent closer to the crystal ball. “Can you see his face?” she asked, frowning in concentration.

“Give it a moment,” said Emma.

“There, he’s turning this way,” Eadric said, “and it’s . . .”

“Prince Rudolfo!” they all exclaimed in unison.

“He must have had his soldiers waiting for him on the other side of the border,” King Limelyn said. “And went to fetch them when Millie turned him down.”

“I told you I didn’t like him,” muttered You-too. “He had shifty eyes.”

“You never said any such thing!” Millie said.

The bird shuffled sideways on the back of the chair where he had perched. “Yes, I did. You just didn’t hear me!”

Emma shook her head. “I wish I had seen those men sooner. The first thing I do every morning is check our borders with this,” she said, tapping the farseeing ball, “but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary today. I can’t believe so many men made it all the way through the forest before anyone noticed them. If we hadn’t heard their horses we wouldn’t have known they were here until it was too late. Even then I had to cast a spell to make them visible. They must have a magic user of their own, but I can’t seem to find him.”

“My friend Frostybreath froze Olebald, but the wizard was able to use his magic to escape after he’d thawed just a little,” said Audun. “He fled into the desert, where he gathered a group of soldiers and used a spell to hide them right beneath our noses by changing the color of their skin and clothes to match the colors of their surroundings.”

Millie gave him a quizzical look. “How did you see the soldiers to fight them?”

“We didn’t, at least not at first. But I sent a small puff of poison gas their way. Smaller doses of an ice dragon’s poison gas makes humans ill without doing permanent harm. Soldiers who are violently sick to their stomachs aren’t effective fighters.”

“Poison gas?” screeched You-too. “I thought there was something odd about you. There,” he said, turning to Millie. “Did I say it loudly enough for you this time?”

Eadric strode to the window and looked out. “Rudolfo’s men are drawing closer to the moat. I don’t think they’ve spotted your moat monster yet, Emma.”

“Do you see anyone who might be a magic user?” asked Millie.

“Not from here,” her father said, craning his neck.

“I’ll try again,” said Emma, turning back to the ball. Audun noticed for the first time that it was attached to a gold chain that she wore around her neck. He took a step closer, taking the place of Prince Eadric, who was still looking out the window. Audun could just make out a swirling light before the Green Witch touched the ball and the light disappeared. Even with his dragon hearing, he couldn’t make out what she said as she whispered under her breath and tapped the ball again. A faint image appeared. It blurred and shifted and looked like it was about to become a face when it dissolved in a blue fog. Suddenly, the ball went blank.

Emma shook the farseeing ball, but nothing happened. “There must be a magic user out there, but I can’t tell you who it is. Whoever it is has done something to my farseeing ball. It’s not working anymore.”

“I need more information,” said her father.

Emma nodded. “I could turn myself into a bird and go look for the magic user. It would be easy to gather information without anyone noticing.”

“Just as easy as it would be for a magic user to find you, or for an archer to shoot you down,” said her father. “No, there has to be another way.”

“I’ll go through the secret tunnel to look around,” said Eadric. “I’m glad we put it in. I knew it would come in handy someday.”

“What secret tunnel?” squawked You-too.

“You think we’d tell you?” Eadric asked. “You have the biggest beak in the kingdom.”

“I’ll go with you, Eadric,” Emma said. “Just give me a moment while I change.”

Audun glanced at the door. “Perhaps I should leave.”

“Why?” said Millie. “She’s not going to change her clothes.”

“While you see what you can learn outside the wall, I’ll go to the parapet,” King Limelyn said. “Perhaps I’ll be able to find out what Rudolfo wants.”

A pale, green light had begun to shimmer around Emma, but it faded away when her father said he was leaving. “I need to renew your protection spell if you’re going outside,” she said, taking her father’s hand in hers. “I know I put one on you just a few months ago, but they don’t generally last very long. This should do the job.”

Keep him safe from point or blade,
From all that’s magic or man-made.
Deflect their aim, repel their blows,
Let him be well where’er he goes.

Bright green sparkles dusted the air around the king, melting on his head and shoulders as if they were tiny, colored snowflakes. King Limelyn smiled and patted her hand. “You’re a good daughter, Emma.”

Audun watched as she kissed the king on the cheek, something that made them both smile. The young dragon was surprised by the feelings the sight of such a simple sign of affection stirred inside him. Millie had kissed him twice before, once as she was about to enter the Blue Witch’s castle, and again when she was leaving the mountain range. They were the only kisses he’d ever received and they’d given him a warm feeling inside, which was unusual for an ice dragon.

“Emma, perhaps you should change in the dungeon,” Eadric suggested. “You always complain that the stairwell is too small when you’re a dragon.”

“Good thinking,” Emma replied. Something heavy hit an exterior wall, making the castle shake. “We’d better go. It sounds as if someone is trying to get our attention.”

Emma and Eadric were already out the door when Millie started after them saying, “I’m going, too. I’m sure you’ll need my help.”

“Not so fast, Millie,” said King Limelyn. “I want to ask your young man about the poison gas he mentioned.”

“Yeah,” said You-too. “Do you have it in a bottle, or do you make it yourself ? And if you make it, does it come out your mouth or your—”

“That’s enough from you!” declared the king. In two strides he crossed the room, snatched up the bird, tossed him into Emma’s storage room, and slammed the door. Turning to Audun he gave him an apologetic smile and said, “I understand you have the same ability as my daughter and granddaughter.”

“That’s true, sir, although I breathe poison gas instead of fire.”

“Ah,” said the king. “And that’s because you become an ice dragon.”

“Actually, sir, I’m an ice dragon who can become a human. After I last saw Millie, I spent my time earning the right to learn how to make the change.”

Millie inhaled sharply, but Audun kept his eyes on her grandfather.

King Limelyn rubbed his chin and looked at Audun speculatively. “I didn’t know that such a thing was possible. Either way, we can use a man like you in the family.”

“Grandfather!” exclaimed Millie. “He hasn’t even asked me yet!”

“You go with Millie and keep her safe,” the king told Audun. “She’s very dear to me.”

“To me as well,” Audun replied, turning his gaze to Millie.

Twenty-three

M
illie and Audun accompanied King Limelyn down the tower stairs, separating when the king headed for the parapet while they descended the stairs to the dungeon. “Did you tell my grandfather the truth?” Millie asked. “Did you have to earn the right to learn how to become a human?”

“Of course it’s true. Dragons don’t lie!” Audun said.

“And you did it for me?” asked Millie.

Audun nodded. “Your grandmother made it clear that we couldn’t be together as long as I was a dragon. Since you’d become the most important person in my life, I had to find a way to be with you.”

“You really feel that way?” Millie breathed.

“Dragons don’t—”

“Lie. I know. You already told me.”

“When your mother told King Stormclaw that you were pining for me, I knew that you truly did feel the same way about me that I feel about you. I meant to come to you sooner, but I had to perform tasks for the ice dragon king, and then there was the war in Aridia . . .”

“So you came as soon as you could. I believe you, Audun.” Giving him a smile that made his heart miss a beat, Millie took Audun’s hand in hers and led him down the last of the stairs.

They had just reached the dungeon when Audun heard voices up ahead. Two of them sounded like Emma and Eadric, but the others were too faint to make out. As they walked deeper into the gloom broken only by the light of flickering torches, the voices grew louder. Millie smiled. “You’re about to meet my great-grandparents. I can hear my parents talking to them.”

“Why didn’t I meet them last night when I met everyone else?” asked Audun.

“They rarely leave the dungeon. You see,” she said, as they turned a corner and saw two hazy figures facing Emma and Eadric, “they’re ghosts.”

“I didn’t know ghosts were real,” breathed Audun. “I’ve never seen one before.” He peered at the figures, trying to see them better in the dim light, but their wavery forms seemed to fade away at the edges as he and Millie approached. The ghosts were gone altogether by the time the two young people stood before Emma and Eadric.

Sometime after leaving the tower, Eadric had acquired a sword and tarnished armor, which Emma was now helping him put on. “Wasn’t this Great-grandfather’s?” Millie asked, running her finger over the scabbard leaning against the wall.

Emma nodded as she helped her husband pull up one of the jointed metal gloves. “Grandfather insisted that Eadric use it. My grandmother put so many protection spells on it over the years that some of them became permanent and now it’s virtually impenetrable. There, that ought to do it,” she said, setting the helmet on Eadric’s head.

“You forgot one thing,” said Eadric. Lifting the visor, he gently touched her chin with one hand and raised her face so that he could give her a tender kiss on the lips. Emma ignored the hard metal encasing his body and wrapped her arms around him, deepening the kiss. When she stepped back a moment later, Audun saw the way they looked at each other, as if nothing else in the world mattered at that moment. He wondered what it would be like to kiss someone on the lips—something most dragons would find distasteful.

“We need to go,” Emma said softly, as the air began to shimmer around her. A heartbeat later a lovely green female dragon swung her tail out of the way and started down the corridor behind a knight in not-quite-shining armor.

“We should change now, too,” Millie told Audun, as she stepped back to give him room.

It had never occurred to Audun that he would have to change in front of Millie, at least not quite so soon. Not knowing how he looked when he did it, he was reluctant at first, but when she gave him a brilliant smile and started her own change into dragon form, he began his change as well. Although he had changed back and forth many times over the last few months, this time he was left feeling breathless and exhilarated. He was gazing at Millie when she glanced toward the ceiling and he became aware of the sounds coming from above. Fighting had started in earnest.

“The tunnel is this way,” Millie said, hurrying in the direction her parents had gone. The corridor that had seemed wide just moments before now seemed cramped with two dragons in it. He could hear Millie’s scales scraping the wall each time she bumped it and knew that it wasn’t any more comfortable for her than it was for him.

When they reached what appeared to be the end of the corridor, Millie reached out and deftly pulled one of the blocks in the wall out part of the way. Audun heard a groaning sound before he saw that the wall had actually begun to move. Millie backed into him as the wall swung out, revealing a dank, lightless space. Although Audun couldn’t see anything past the opening in the wall, he noticed that Millie ducked and lowered her tail before stepping into the tunnel.

“Hurry,” Millie said, her voice loud in the confined space. “The door doesn’t stay open for long.”

Audun grunted and began to walk faster, but he was only partway through when he heard the door groaning shut. Not wanting to lose his tail, he pulled it as close to his body as he could and scurried forward until he finally bumped into Millie.

“We’re almost there,” Millie said. “See that light up ahead?”

Audun couldn’t see anything with her body blocking the light, but he could smell fresh air and felt a hint of a breeze when he raised his head. With the next step he bumped his crest on a dangling root, and dirt showered around him. Audun jerked his head down, and was still walking hunched over when Millie pushed aside the canopy of leaves that hid the tunnel and they emerged into bright sunlight.

“Where are your parents?” Audun asked, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light.

“Up there.” Millie pointed to where a knight sat astride a flying green dragon as easily as he might a horse.

Stepping out from under the branches of the overhanging tree, Millie and Audun took to the sky. Once above the tops of the trees, Audun could see for miles and easily spotted the soldiers surrounding the castle. He saw King Limelyn as well, standing on the parapet above the drawbridge, looking down at the group of men clustered on the other side of the moat.

“Your demands are unreasonable!” shouted the king. “I’m not giving up my granddaughter or my castle.”

“Be sensible! I’ll let you and your queen depart unharmed if you lower your drawbridge now.”

“Why should we go when we’re perfectly happy where we are?” answered the king.

“Then you leave me no choice!” Prince Rudolfo shouted back.

At a gesture from the prince, the men who had been standing beside the moat opened sacks that they had hauled across the fields and began dumping rocks into the water. “What are they doing?” Audun asked Millie, who was flying only a wing tip away.

“They’re trying to fill in the moat so they can use that,” she said, gesturing to the tall wooden structure that another group of men were hauling out from under a copse of sheltering trees. “It’s called a siege tower. They hope to push it up to the castle wall and climb onto the parapet.”

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” asked Audun. “You or your mother could burn that down with one puff of flame.”

“The magic user has probably made it flameproof. But that won’t make any difference,” Millie replied. “Watch.”

Audun glanced back just as two men shoved an extra-large rock into the moat and water shot up in a geyser. When the geyser failed to die down, the young dragon watched more closely. A tentacle rose from the center of the waterspout. It reached toward the edge of the moat, forcing the soldiers to back away. Two of the men weren’t quick enough: the tentacle slapped the ground beside them and knocked them into the moat where they flailed about, struggling to reach the edge. The rock that they had just dumped in shot out of the water, hitting the siege tower with a thunderous
boom!
Soon the other rocks were hurtling out in a steady stream, demolishing the siege tower and chasing the soldiers across the fields and down the road.

The two soldiers still hadn’t dragged themselves from the water when the last rock hit the ground and bounced across the field. Suddenly, the tentacle plucked the men from the moat and sent them screaming through the air only to land halfway across the field in a stack of freshly baled hay. Whimpering, they scrambled out of the hay and limped as fast as they could across the field.

At first, when Audun saw the prince riding away, he thought that Rudolfo had given up, but then more soldiers came out of the woods carrying bows and full quivers. The archers had assembled only a short distance from the castle when the prince gave a signal and they opened fire, raining arrows down on the parapet where King Limelyn was retreating into the shelter of one of the castle towers. Seeing the approaching cloud of arrows, the soldiers around the king held up their shields to protect him, but Emma’s spell was already working. Although the arrows rushed at them with frightening speed like a cloud of deadly hornets, when they were a dozen yards from the king, they bounced suddenly as if hitting stone and fell to the ground, broken and useless.

“Now what?” Audun asked, as the archers reached for more arrows.

“Since they’re being so persistent, Mother will probably want to chase them off. See, I was right. There she goes now.”

Audun glanced up to see Emma come roaring out of the sky with Eadric bent low across her back, his sword in his hand. With an answering roar, Millie joined them as they plummeted toward the now-scattering soldiers, who were running before even a hint of flame left the dragons’ mouths. Prince Rudolfo had already disappeared into the forest.

Audun was tempted to fly with Millie and her parents, but they didn’t seem to need his help. He was circling overhead, watching the fleeing soldiers, when he noticed one figure heading in a different direction. Instead of running away from the castle, he was moving furtively around the side, stopping every now and then as if to see if he was being watched. The figure was already close to the entrance to the secret tunnel. Audun was about to follow him to see what he was up to when a dark shadow blotted out the sun. Even before he raised his head, Audun knew what was up there. Only one thing could cast a shadow big enough to darken an area that size. A roc had come to Greater Greensward.

Cupping the air with its wings, the great bird screamed as it approached the castle. The soldiers who hadn’t already run away did so now, shedding heavy armor as they tried to outrun their friends. The roc wasn’t after them, however. Bellowing so loudly that it hurt Audun’s ears, the bird landed on the top of Emma’s tower and began to rip at the roof with its massive beak. The tower sagged under the weight of the roc even as chunks of the roof fell into the courtyard below.

A green dragon swooped out of the sky, exhaling long tongues of flame at the roc. Eadric swung his sword and hacked at the bird as Emma flew past. They turned and were heading back for a second run when Millie joined them. As Emma and Eadric flew past the roc once again, Audun dipped his wing and headed back to the castle, arriving in time to breathe his poison gas into Millie’s flame, making the air around the roc explode. Its feathers singed, the bird screamed and raised its head to lash at them with its beak. Millie and Audun dodged the blow and flew safely away.

On her next pass, Emma swung around to the other side of the bird. She had just started to exhale her flame when the bird turned and, with a powerful swipe of its head, knocked Emma and Eadric tumbling through the sky. Millie screamed and flew after them with Audun close behind. He was nearly even with Millie when Eadric fell from Emma’s back. While Emma fought to right herself and Millie struggled to reach her father before he hit the ground, Audun pulled his wings to his sides and dove. Pulling up just below Eadric, he positioned himself so that he could lash out with his tail to catch the falling prince. With his tail securely wrapped around Eadric, he landed on the ground and gently laid the limp man on the grass.

Both Millie and Emma were there an instant later, their concern for Eadric plain on their faces. While Millie crouched by her father’s side, Emma changed back into a human. Kneeling next to her husband, she placed her fingers on his throat. “He’s alive,” she breathed.

“Of course I’m alive,” Eadric groaned, his eyes fluttering open. “I just had the wind knocked out of me, that’s all.”

Audun thought the prince might have protested when his wife fell on him and covered his face with kisses, but instead Eadric reached up with both hands and held her still so that he could kiss her.

“Your father is fine,” Audun said, glancing at the young dragoness.

Millie smiled. “I can see that.” Raising her eyes to the roc, she added, “But that overgrown crow isn’t going to be if I can help it.”

She was stretching her wings, preparing to leap into the sky when Audun barked, “No! You can’t take on a roc all alone. You’ll just get yourself killed if you try. If I thought I could get them here in time, I’d try to get ice dragons to help, but it would take a dozen dragons to challenge a roc and even then they probably wouldn’t win. There must be a reason the roc is here and behaving that way,” he said, gesturing to the bird that was clawing at the stones of the tower walls. Another huge piece broke away, making a tremendous racket as it crashed to the ground below.