Dragon's Oath

Dragon's Oath By

Nicole Ash

DRAGON’S OATH

Nicole Ash

© copyright by Nicole Ash, August 2009 Cover Art by Eliza Black, August 2009 ISBN 978-1-60394-351-2 New Concepts Publishing Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

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Chapter One “Dragon!” Pungent black smoke filled the air, fanned by an easterly wind. Flames were consuming a number of the squat wooden shacks that made up the poor west side of the town of Ishmere. Most of the inhabitants from the east side had emerged from their houses when screams of alarm had sounded. When the first burst of flame from the dragon’s maw had missed the madly running cattle he aimed at and hit Herm’s shack on the outside edge of the village, Herm and many of the other poor folk had scrambled out of town immediately. They huddled now in disheartened groups on the far west edge. The remainder of the inhabitants of that ill-fated side of town either stood around, mouths gaping as they watched their belongings go up in smoke, or wildly dashed around screaming and running into each other. As expected, nothing was being done to slow the blaze, and the houses could not have burned faster had they been doused with fuel. The shrill screams of panicked women and frightened children were almost deafening. The screams rose and fell, occasionally drowning out the cries of the men, who were trying desperately to organize into a fighting force. The dragon, his blood-red scales shining in the mid-afternoon sun, was still out in the field devouring one of the many unfortunate cows that had been too slow to escape his flame. Much of the herd had stampeded, bringing down the fence in their panic and running hard in every direction. There was little chance of recovering more than a few head of cattle, and that only if someone went out immediately to round them up. Unfortunately, everyone was just as panicked as the beasts and not likely to think of their recovery for some time. Isra was almost trampled by a wild-eyed bull as she ran down one of the many side streets that led to the village well. Her old, cracked wooden bucket in hand, she had been too intent on filling another bucket of water, desperate to save her burning home, to notice the charging bull ahead. The huge black beast, pink foam spewing from its mouth with every breath, bellowed its rage as it charged toward her. Isra looked up at the awful sound and gasped. She threw herself to the side hard, flattening her body against a wall and praying to Larmar that it would pass without killing her in its pained rage. Her sigh of relief came out as a choked sob as the bull ran past her, kicking up clods of soil in it’s mad race to escape the danger behind it. She managed to reach the well without further physical hindrance. Trying a slipknot around the handle, she dropped the bucket in. Blisters had already formed on her hands from the last few times she had performed this same chore. Now they ripped open and the muscles along her arms burned a constant complaint as she pulled the brimming bucket up as fast as she could. She bit her lip and ignored the pain, knowing too much was at stake now to worry about a few discomforts. The rope slipped in her hands not far from the top, spilling out much of its

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contents, as she was startled into a sudden awareness of the world around her. Cursing, she released the rope, heaving it up again as soon as she heard the bucket hit the water below. “What are you doing? There’s a dragon! Oh, by the Gods! A dragon! Larkmar save us! A dragon!” Isra ignored the woman, running around her and almost knocking her over in her haste to return to her home. Perel, the wife of one of the village’s most prosperous merchants, grabbed the sleeve of Isra’s dress and yanked, popping stitches and tearing fabric as she did so. “Don’t you dare ignore me! What do you call yourself doing, anyway? There’s a dragon, you fool! Now’s not the time to be putting out fires! We have to do something!” When trying to pry Perel’s fingers loose from the cloth of her sleeve failed, Isra resorted to slapping the woman, hard. She felt badly when Perel fell to the ground, but when she tried to grab the hem of her dress, with the obvious intent of pulling herself up with it, Isra took a long step to the side before her senses came back and she realized how much time she had already wasted on this fool. It’s all easy for her to say! Her house isn’t on fire! Everything I have is in there! She turned down the side street she knew led to her house, coughing as smoke hit her full in the face. She pulled the front of her dress over her face, almost dropping the heavy bucket as she did so. She recovered her grasp and continued her blind run, no longer able to see, but knowing her way by heart. She tripped over something that lay in the middle of the road and fell to her knees, the pain bringing tears to her eyes, but she managed to hold tight to the bucket. She rose as fast as she could and continued down the road. Finally, she could see what was left of her own home smoldering before her, blackened but standing. It’s working. The water’s working! Hope fluttered momentarily in her heart as Isra splashed what little water remained in the cracked bucket on her burning outer wall. It might actually survive this after all. She knew the chances were slim that anything she had inside could possibly come out undamaged, but allowing those thoughts to fully register would only bring down her spirit. She would simply give up the fight if she thought about it. Instead, she turned and ran back down the twisting, smoke hazed road toward the well as fast as her feet would carry her. She breathed heavily as soon as she had reached air clear enough to allow it, coughing, holding on to a pain in her side that grew worse with every running step she took. “You!” Perel was standing in front of the well, hands on wide hips, surrounded by a small group of her cronies. Every one of them glared at Isra as she came loping up, expressions not softening in the least as she stood and swayed, almost falling down from exertion and an ever worsening cough. “Get—get out of—my way! I have to—to get to the well. I do not have time for this!” She gave them all her most evil eye as they all stood their ground, blocking her from access to the well. Her temper flared and she moved toward them, intent on beating down every one of them if need be to get the water she so desperately needed. “How dare you hit me? Just who do you think you are? Put down that bucket! The

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men will need that to put out the fires when they’ve finished running off that dragon.” Isra stopped momentarily, trying hard to ignore the fact that the bitch had just told her to give up a bucket that belonged to her by rights. She looked in the direction Perel was pointing, noting that the men had at last gathered and armed themselves with shovels and pitch-forks, a few of them clutching rusted swords. As though they could possibly fight off a dragon with weapons like that! What did they plan to do? Bore it to death? I do not have time to worry with this! She turned back to the women and glowered at them, hating them more for every moment of her precious time they wasted. Still, being vastly outnumbered, she tried to speak civilly and calmly, doing her best to reason with them. “Get out of my way. My house is smoldering. It could catch fire any second. I have to pour more water on it, or it will burn.” “Apologize to me and I might think about it.” Isra could hardly believe her ears. My house is burning down! Everything I own is in that house, and all that—that bitch can think about is her hurt feelings? Red flooded Isra’s vision and she gritted her teeth, growling audibly at the women in front of her. How dare they block my way? I have every right to that water! Her voice, when she recovered it, was barely recognizable as human. “Get out of my way.” “Apologize.” She was breathing heavily now and it had nothing to do with the smoke or her recent exertions. It was becoming hard to think clearly. Everything. Everything I own is probably going up in smoke even now. The large white bowl and copper vase her mother had so prized, her father’s pipe, the only thing he had ever bought for himself, the handful of necessities she had worked so long and hard to get for herself. All of it was likely burning, irreplaceable objects disappearing forever. She tried to swallow, but her throat was too parched. She choked out the words Perel demanded she say, hoping against hope that the bitch would take them at face value and leave her in peace. “I’m sorry.” Perel smiled coyly, but did not move. “It took you too long. I’ve decided not to move after all.” Something snapped inside her mind and Isra found herself growling, charging toward the smug women, intent on tearing them to pieces with her teeth. In her mind, their screams sounded like laughter. She shoved one back as hard as she could, gleefully watching as she fell into the two that stood behind her and they all three fell into the dirt. Isra stomped on another one’s foot and swung her bucket, hitting the woman square in the face. “Get out of my way, damn you!” She heard the fabric of her skirt tear as someone yanked on it, struggled as someone else grabbed her from behind. She almost gained her feet again but was pulled to the ground, her face shoved into the dirt and the hand holding the bucket hit almost hard enough to break the bones. Someone bent her fingers back hard enough that she almost passed out from the pain, and then her bucket was gone. Isra cried out, in anger as much as in pain and kicked, taking sick pleasure as her left foot connected with flesh and someone cried out in pain. She heard a splash and knew with a sickening certainty that her bucket had been tossed irretrievably down the well.

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Kicked repeatedly in the stomach, Isra had to work hard to hold back bile. She felt a sharp pain every time she breathed and knew that her ribs were severely bruised if not broken. Time seemed to slow down as they beat and kicked her. She hardly even registered Perel’s voice as she called for her ‘lady’ friends to come along. Blood from a cut on her eyebrow, and grime from the ground below, stung her eyes and made sight impossible for a time. It took every once of will-power Isra had to pull herself to her feet. My home.... That—that—There were no words to express the hatred Isra felt at that moment. She stood and stared at the well. It took several moments for her brain to wrap around what she saw. The rope was cut. There was no way to get any water out. Not for her, not for anybody. “You—you fool! You’ve cut the rope! Mine’s not the only house on fire! How are the men supposed to put any of the houses out now?” Her voice, at first nothing but a whisper, apparently still held the power to reach Perel as she walked smugly away. She was more than a little surprised that Perel was even still in hearing range, let alone that the bitch would answer. “None of the houses are on fire. Just the shacks, and no one wants those around anyway.” A disquieting calmness settled over Isra and she sat on the edge of the well, watching as the dragon, its meal consumed, took to the sky on huge leathered wings. It flew a lazy circle around the town, spreading further panic, then continued off the way it had come, to the west and Mt. Calmarian. The brave men of the village marched back, looking proud, and allowed their wives to run up to them and fawn over them for their great accomplishment. Several glared over at Isra as their wives cried on their shoulders, undoubtedly exaggerating the fight they’d had over the well, and claiming she had done far worse than she had. She ignored them all, staring down instead at her filthy, blood covered hands, knowing most if not all of it was hers. Everything I owned is gone. Was it shock that kept her from feeling the emotions she knew she should be having? She had lived her whole life in this town, just as her parents had spent their whole lives here. Since their deaths, she had been alone in the world. With no where else to go, and a home, how ever shabby, here, it had never occurred to her to go out in to the world. Now, she had nothing at all to her name. She had at least had a few possessions, at least had a few meals put away. Now…? Isra stood and walked past the other rapidly disintegrating shacks and their distraught owners and stood in front of her own. The fire had almost burnt itself out. There was little left now. By morning, she knew nothing would remain of the place where she had lived her entire life. As night began to fall around her, she sat, watching the flames leap from the embers as a cool breeze plucked at her hair and raised chill bumps along her arms. It’s going to be a long night. Isra scratched at the caked blood over her eye, wiping feebly at the dirt she knew must be smeared across her face with the edge of her skirt. Nothing for it now. It was difficult to think, so she did not try. She knew she would have to come up with a plan of action the next day. With her home gone, there was nothing to keep her tied to this horrible town she had always hated. On the other hand, she had no food and

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no way of getting any, so travel would be hard if not impossible. Wrapping her tattered skirts around her legs, she lay down and stared at the fire, wondering what tomorrow would bring. **** Isra came-to with a start, a sharp-booted foot swinging back to kick her once more in the stomach. She fought the instinct to simply curl and instead rolled onto her back. Above her stood men, all armed with spears, only the face of one showing anything other than contempt. It took several moments for the scene to sink in, and even then she could not understand how any of it had happened. The last thing she could remember was staring into the embers of her house. “Wha—” “Get up. Now!” The man who spoke, Gardon, glared at her a moment and when she did not immediately respond to his command, jabbed her leg with the tip of his spear, drawing blood. “I said get up!” Isra sat up slowly, afraid that at any moment these men, men she had known all her life, might decide not to let her rise at all and kill her on the spot. Why are they doing this to me? I did not do anything wrong! At least, she could not at the moment imagine anything she could have done to provoke this sudden violence. “What is going on? Why are you doing this to me?” She got onto her knees, and from there her feet, the spears around her dancing wildly in the hands of their wielders as though the men honestly thought she would be foolhardy enough to attempt anything. “Shudup and get movin’ Isra.” Konty, the shortest of the three and a man she had never gotten along with, kicked at her backside. “We’re takin’ you in.” “That’s enough you guys! Hell, we weren’t told ta hurt her or anything! She doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment! She didn’t do anythin’ wrong!” Ja’simov took Isra by the elbow and gave her a pull. “Come on. You won’t fight us about it, will you Isra? See? I told you guys there was nothin’ ta worry about.” The only one of the three that had not glared at her, Ja’simov did not, in fact, seem capable of even meeting her eyes. Looking over at him as she started to follow their lead, Isra could see shame written all across his face. For some reason, that seemed to make the whole horrible experience that much worse, that much more terrifying. “What is the meaning of this, Ja’simov? What’s going on?” The glimpse she caught before he turned away was of a man sickened by what he was participating in. So why is he helping them do this? What are they going to do with me? Isra hoped it would simply be expulsion from the village, but she still did not know what she could have done to deserve even that. She had just opened her mouth to ask again when Gardon spoke up, a sneer plastered across his ugly face. “Don’t worry. You’re about to find out.” His braying laughter seemed particularly cruel today. Isra felt like crying as she looked around at the remnants of the town. Many of her neighbors, like her, had lost their homes to the fire. Most of them were still smoldering. Many of the ones that had not burnt completely down were still burnt beyond repair. She felt a sense of hopelessness setting in that had nothing to do with the men who continually prodded her with their spears, leading her further into the decimated town. There was a crowd gathered at what had been the town square, and many of them

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turned soot covered faces her way. She knew many of them, but there was not a friendly looking face among them. They became silent at her approach and moved to allow her and her captors passage, closing quickly around them. A few moments later, she was standing before the town elder, Perel’s husband, Valdamire. It dawned on her forcefully, although she’d been too upset the night before to think of much besides her losses, that she’d made a powerful enemy. Perel was content to ignore her existence until she’d challenged the woman the night before. Now, it was clear that she wasn’t satisfied with what she’d already done. She wanted more revenge. The fear that had begun to trickle through her despite her confusion became a raging torrent that threw her further into chaos. Perel stalked forward and slapped her so hard the force slung her head sideways on her shoulders, but she was too frightened and too shocked to really feel it at first. Valdamire fixed her with a hard, cold look when she turned her head to look at him again. “Due to the latest attack by the dragon, I called a town meeting first thing this morning to determine what to do about the dragon’s assaults on our village and we have concluded that we need to offer a sacrifice to appease the dragon. Upon due consideration of our options, we’ve taken a vote and chosen you, Isra, to protect the village from further depredations of this vicious beast.” Isra stared at him blankly in disbelief. Vote? When did she cease to be a member of the village, to be excluded from the vote? Who had suggested her name as the sacrifice? She knew who, though. The smirk on Perel’s face was verification—if she’d still had any doubts. She was sorry she hadn’t brained the vindictive bitch with her bucket. Fear and anger churned in her as the men who’d brought her caught her, twisted her hands behind her back and bound them. Fear should have been uppermost in her mind, but she was still too caught up in disbelief to feel it nearly as strongly as the anger and the sense of injustice that gripped her. It shouldn’t have come as any great surprise to discover most of the villagers had gathered to watch as she was escorted out of the town hall again and through the streets, and yet it seemed to add to the nightmare-like feel of her situation. Everywhere she looked, she saw only hard, angry faces—as if she was somehow personally responsible for the attack of the dragon! She supposed at least some of it was relief that they hadn’t been chosen as sacrifice and maybe some of it was shame for having voted for her death. And maybe not. She was well aware that she’d never been particularly liked by any of the other villagers, but being executed purely from dislike was insane! Except that they’d been convinced by the elder and his bitch of a wife that they needed to throw somebody to the dragon to appease him and she supposed it seemed perfectly reasonable to them to use someone they disliked to start with. Some of the numbness had worn off by the time they reached the edge of the village and she discovered that supplies had already been gathered for the trek and the village’s best tracker was awaiting them. There were no horses. Those making the trek would be carrying their bundles—she supposed since they were afraid the horses might attract the dragon.

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She earned a few more disgruntled looks ,which she finally realized was due to the fact that they couldn’t strap a bundle to her when they had her arms tied behind her back. She was actually surprised they didn’t try anyway, but relieved. She’d begun to feel the aches and pains from the battering both the night before and that morning as her shock began to wear off. Between that stiffness and her arms being bound, it was all she could do to keep her feet as they headed higher into the mountains. Anger was still riding her fellow travelers. The village lay in the foothills of the mountains and almost as soon as they left it, the land began to climb steeply. Isra stumbled and tripped and slipped to her knees and each time she did one or another of the guards would jerk her up and give her a shove as if she was being deliberately difficult, which resulted in her falling again as often as not. She was more battered and bruised by the time their group decided to stop for the night and rest, weary to the point of dropping where she stood, and so hungry she felt like her stomach would cave in. The villagers were afraid to light a fire for fear of attracting the dragon’s notice. Instead of trying to cook anything they’d brought with them, they settled with their packs to nibble at crusts of bread and cheese. Ja’simov untied Isra’s wrists and shoved a fist-sized piece of dried bread into one hand, but her hands had lost all sensation. She dropped it in her lap. “If you ask me it’s a waste to give her anything. She’s going to be a meal for the dragon anyway.” Isra felt a wave of cold wash over her despite her misery. Ja’simov glared at the man who’d spoken. “She has to climb the mountain first,” he said tightly. “Unless you want to carry her?” Isra could see from the faces of the others that they felt like the guard who’d spoken—that it was a waste of food and water to give her any—but none of them volunteered to carry her. After staring at her coldly for several moments, they turned their attention to their own meal. The village elder, Valdamire, who had accompanied them, took the pack he’d had carried up for him when he’d finished his own meal and pulled an ancient looking, tattered volume carefully from it. Frowning in concentration, he very carefully and slowly turned each page and studied it in the waning light. Isra felt her stomach tighten as she watched him until it was all she could do to eat her bread even when she’d finally gotten enough feeling back in her hands to grasp it and carry it to her mouth. As unreal as everything had seemed from the time she was dragged before the elder and told what they meant to do, the presence of the holy book of prayers was ominous enough in and of itself to bring home the reality of her situation. If she couldn’t find a way to escape, she realized, they were indeed going to toss her to the dragon in hopes of convincing the dragon to move his hunting grounds elsewhere.

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Chapter Two Isra was more tired when she woke the following day than she had been when she’d been tied to the tree to ‘sleep’. She hadn’t expected that. In spite of everything they’d already done, it had still come as a shock when they tied her to the tree to make sure she didn’t escape. She’d settled to trying to reason with them when she saw her hopes of escaping diminishing, pointing out that she wouldn’t make but one meal for the dragon. How was that supposed to convince him not to attack the village and eat their cattle? Valdamire had pointed out that he’d brought the holy book of spells he’d bought years earlier from a very well respected magician. They weren’t just going to sacrifice her. The sacrifice was part of the spell he would weave to prevent the dragon from attacking the village again. It required a woman, and since she was one, they had all they needed. When she was certain they were all asleep—even the man they’d left to stand guard—she began working to loosen the ropes binding her to the tree. Although she had twisted and pulled until her wrists and hands were sticky with blood, she hadn’t been able to free herself and after a while she’d fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. Despite Ja’simov’s pointed reminder that she was going to have to make the climb up the mountain with them before they could sacrifice her, it was decided not to waste food on her when everyone rose and broke their fast. The dragon had demolished a good portion of the village and they needed to be careful with what food they had. She was at least allowed to drink her fill of water, though, and it refreshed her enough to sustain her much of the morning. As weary and hungry as she was, Isra spent most of the morning trying to convince herself that they wouldn’t find the dragon’s den easily and she would have another chance to escape when they settled that night. To her dismay, they spotted a dark crevice in the side of the mountain before the sun had reached its zenith, however. Most of the group paused to rest while the tracker advanced close enough to investigate. He came back only a little later, grinning from ear to ear and announced that he’d found the dragon’s den. The elder, Valdamire, beamed at the man. “Excellent, Sylvair! Excellent! This is a very good omen indeed that we have traveled directly to the dragon’s den without once loosing our way! Clearly the gods approve and directed our steps!” Sylvair’s smile collapsed. He stared at the elder grumpily for several moments but apparently decided against pointing out that he’d been brought to track the dragon— and had! Summoning the man he’d given the task of lugging the tome of spells up the mountain, Valdamire took the book out with the sort of care one might exhibit toward a precious infant and cradled the book to his chest. Directing the party closer to the dragon’s den, he found a boulder that was a handy height for holding the book of spells

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and settled to searching for the one he’d marked. When he looked up and discovered no one had followed him to the mouth of the dragon’s den, he glared at them and motioned imperiously with his hands for them to approach. The remainder of the party exchanged questioning, uneasy glances and finally moved a little closer, but Isra could see that they divided their attention between where they were heading and the route of escape behind them. Terrified herself, she glanced back the way they’d come, but before she could even consider the possibility of trying to outrun the men with her hands bound, two of them stepped forward and began to yank at the rope around her wrists. When they’d untied her, they each caught a bruising hold on her upper arms and marched her closer to the mouth of the cave. Nodding his approval, Valdamire looked down at the book, frowning, and finally began to read the ancient text. Clearly, the guards didn’t particularly want to stand so close to the opening. After listening to Valdamire for several moments, they gave her a shove toward the entrance than sent her stumbling forward. Loosing her balance, she sprawled painfully on her hands and knees on the rocky ground, but she was too terrified to feel more than the impact. Almost the moment she struck the ground, she bounded up again, whirled, and tried to race back. She was met by a wall of pikes as the guards surrounded her and tried to urge her back, but she was too terrified of the dragon to be overly worried about the pikes. Even the sharp jabs with the points of the spikes barely registered. She grabbed one and gave it a yank, wresting it from the surprised guard with more ease than either of them had expected. Both of them fell backwards. Unfortunately, when Isra stumbled back and sprawled out again, she was virtually in the mouth of the cave. **** Taos frowned, almost tempted to lift his head and see what the hell the humans were up to when he heard the clatter just outside the entrance to his den. He’d been dozing when he first caught their scent and the ungodly noise they made stumbling up the side of the mountain, though, and he didn’t feel particularly inclined to get up. He wasn’t really hungry and had little interest in eating the bony things. Beyond that, he was a large, healthy young male and knew these people posed no real threat to him. Feeling a mixture of annoyance and amusement, he listened idly as he heard the old man reading from the book and snorted. Humans were so stupid! The damn fool obviously didn’t have a clue of what he was reading! Dismissing it after a moment, lulled by the monotone drone of the old man’s voice, he almost fell asleep as the elder went on and on, sometimes repeating the same verse several times. He found himself grinning after a little while, however, as the absurdity of the situation filtered through his determination to go back to sleep. The idiot was reading an ancient dragon marriage scroll. He’d never been married. He wasn’t interest in sharing his riches—even with his own kind and certainly not with a human female!—but this wasn’t the first time some fool human had tried to marry him off to a member of their own race. His amusement didn’t last. He discovered he couldn’t get back to sleep with the

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irritating drone of the old bastard’s voice in his ears no matter how hard he tried to shut the noise out. Deciding he’d had enough, he finally pushed himself to his feet. Clearly, those stupid humans just weren’t going to go away on their own. He was going to have to chase them off if he wanted to get any sleep! **** Too mindless with terror to consider the fact that she had no more chance of fighting off the men than she would have fighting the dragon, Isra scrambled to her feet, grabbed up the pike she’d managed to wrestle from the guard, and advanced on the other men with grim determination to fight her way past them and escape. Unfortunately, they were as determined to drive her inside the cave as she was to escape and she was completely outnumbered. She beat their pikes, but found that she was losing ground, being driven further and further into the cave. Outside, she heard the elder finish his rambling incantation with a flourish. When he did, the men who’d been slowly but surely driving her deeper and deeper into the cave abruptly stopped, whirled and fled back the way they’d come. Blinking in surprise, Isra stared at them, feeling a surge of hope that they all meant to leave since Valdamire had finished. There was just something about the looks on the men’s faces, though, that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Slowly, afraid of what she would see when she did look, Isra turned her head to look behind her. Stark terror washed over her when she discovered the dragon was directly behind her, but instead of freezing her in her tracks, it sent her into a wild frenzy of defense. Screaming, she began to beat at the dragon with the pike, stabbing it several times with the pointed tip. The dragon let out a howl of pain and began to thrash. Screaming again, Isra let go of the pike and whirled to flee. She discovered they men who’d been driving her inside hadn’t gone far, however, or perhaps terror had actually frozen them. Which ever the case was, when she screamed and raced toward them, they reacted by hurling several pikes and stones either at her or the dragon. She wasn’t certain which, but one stone grazed her forehead hard enough it rocked her head back on her shoulders and she felt herself falling backwards as the whole world went black/ **** Taos’ agony was so blinding that he was only peripherally aware of the retreat of the humans down the side of the mountain, but it was a relief for all that because he was certainly in no condition to defend himself. The pain was so tremendous, in fact, that it was some time before he realized why he was in such pain! He was changing! He was becoming human! By the time the pain finally began to ease, he was so weak he could barely stand and, as he stared down at the human body that was now his, mortally pissed off. I’m married, he thought with a mixture of incredulity and fury. He’d never wanted to marry anyone and he certainly didn’t want to marry a human! He looked around his cave, momentarily in a haze, before his eyes finally settled on the form lying so close to the entrance. It took more effort to balance on two legs than he would have thought, but he managed to hobble over. Damn her! Why’d she have to attack him like that? All he wanted was to be left

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alone! He’d never wanted to marry anyone at all, but at least if she’d been a dragon he wouldn’t have been changed into a mortal! He wouldn’t have had to deal with the very real possibility that it could become permanent! He shook that thought—a horrible notion! The only way it could become permanent, he realized, was if he fell in love with her. If she touched his heart, the change would be irreversible, but he was certainly in no danger of that when all he really felt at the moment was the urge to choke the life out of her for her damned interference in his life! As he stood glaring balefully at her still form, though, watching the rise and fall of her soft, white breasts, he discovered he wasn’t as completely immune to her as he’d believed. His body wasn’t, at any rate. The pathetic human phallus he’d been stuck with when he made the change stood up like a predator that had just caught the scent of its prey and stared straight at her. “Gods!” he muttered in disgust. It needed only that! As if he didn’t have problems enough! Willing his cock to lay down, he focused on glaring at her, searching for flaws to redirect his mind. He couldn’t find anything about her hair to complain about, aside from the fact that it was wildly disordered. Actually, it was quite lovely, he decided—thick and wavy and almost precisely the same color as his beautiful scales—which he didn’t fucking have any more! He’d never particularly found humans appealing, but the face wasn’t particularly hard on the eyes. Grimy and covered in soot, but if it were cleaned off— he refused to pursue that thought. She was short and plump, he decided—fine for a meal if he’d had a taste for human meat—which he didn’t—but not much of a match for a man to ride. Lifting her skirts, he peaked beneath them and discovered she had a matching red thatch at the juncture of her plump thighs. Well, half blind as he was now in this damned human form, he shouldn’t have any problem finding his way! His cock agreed. Not that he could afford to let his cock have its way. Releasing a huff of breath, he tossed her skirt down again and focused on her plump bosom—bountiful, he decided. All in all, he was a bit disappointed because he really couldn’t find anything the least bit repellent about her. And those damned breasts were making his hands itch and his cock twitch. Heaving a sustaining breath, he dragged his gaze from her with an effort as the suspicion wafted through him that the damned woman was bouncing her breasts at him like that just to bother him. After glancing around, he finally settled his bare ass on the floor of the cave to think. It wasn’t easy when he discovered that the frail human skin didn’t protect him nearly as well as his own skin would have. The floor was icy and hard, and covered with pebbles that bit into his tender flesh uncomfortably, but at least it distracted him from his fascination with those soft, heaving globes of flesh the woman had spilling out of the neck of that thing she was wearing.

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He could reverse the spell, he realized as soon as he turned his mind to it. As long as he kept his wits about him, he could undo the damned marriage. Unfortunately, now that they were both human they were going to have to travel as humans did and that meant he was going to be stuck as a human far longer than he liked. “Well,” he muttered to himself, “there’s no time like the present to get to it!” Pulling himself to his feet, he left her lying in the entrance of the cave and went to see what he could collect for the trek they would have to make to find someone to reverse the damned spell. He’d need some of his gold, he decided, trying to ignore the irritation it cause him to think of parting with any of it. Humans used it to buy things, though, and he was sure they would need some. He was looking for something to carry a bit of his gold in when it dawned on him that, being human, he was going to need a weapon to protect his gold. After all, he had none of the weapons natural to him in this form. A sword, he decided, mayhap a knife. It occurred to him while he was searching his treasure for the items he’d thought of that the damned humans had been to his den. The bastards are liable to come back while I’m gone and steal my treasure! “Bastards! I bet that was the plan all along!” He would just have to figure out something to do to prevent that. **** Isra felt as if she’d been run over by a cart when she swam toward consciousness. In point of fact, she was in so much pain and so dizzy it took her more than a few moments to collect her wits and realize that she’d been in mortal danger just before she’d blacked out. Even as fear began to pour through her, though, it didn’t lend her the surge of strength and agility she wanted and needed. It was a struggle to push herself upright and she was panting by the time she managed to gain her feet and look around for the dragon. Tentative relief flickered through her when she saw no sign of the dragon. Deciding he’d thought she was dead and left, or maybe flew off because of the men, she limped from the cave as fast as she could and peered around for her tormentors. Just as she decided she might actually have a chance to escape, a man landed in front of her, swearing in pain from the rocks he landed on barefoot. She stared at him blankly for a long moment, her jaw slack with surprise, too shocked by all the naked flesh for her mind to assimilate the newest threat right away, but naked connected fairly swiftly in her mind with rape. Uttering a shriek, she dashed past him while he dancing on one foot examining the other. The wind, her, and her panicked heartbeat were roaring so in her ears that she felt as if she was almost flying across the mountain ridge and yet she’d barely managed a few yards when she was tackled from behind. The collision slammed both of them against the hard, rocky soil, but Isra was too panicked to feel the pain. “No!” she screamed. “Don’t rape me! Let me go!” “It figures,” the man growled, sounding oddly satisfied. “They’ve saddled me with the village idiot! Woman! I’ll have you to know I’ve no interest, at all, in fucking you!” Shock flickered through her and then disbelief, and then anger at the insult—

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insults!—and then more disbelief. It was precisely because she wasn’t the village idiot that she’d leapt to the conclusion that he had ravishment on his mind. If he didn’t, why was he naked? And what was that thick, long thing trying to worm its way into her cleft? “Why are you on top of me then?” she demanded with an indignant grunt, trying to ignore the stiff rod prodding the cleft of her buttocks. He eased off of her enough to roll her onto her back. The moment he did, Isra screamed and began batting at him with her hands, trying to shove him off. He grabbed her wrists and dragged her arms over her head, manacling her hands to the ground. “Be still!” the man growled. “The dragon!” she gasped frantically. “He’ll come back and eat both of us! Let me go! Please! I don’t want to be raped and devoured!” He stared at her with a strange look for a long moment. “You needn’t worry about the dragon eating you,” he said dryly. “I am the dragon. And I’ve no interest in eating you either! That certainly wouldn’t solve my problem!” Isra gaped at him, more horrified to realize the man was quite mad. This could not be happening. First the villagers, then the dragon, and now she was pinned down by a naked madman! “Help!” she cried out desperately, knowing no help would come. “Help! Somebody help me!” “Cease woman!” he bellowed. She began bucking beneath him, trying to throw him off, screaming as loudly as she could manage given the fact that he was crushing her with his weight. Unfortunately, she had her eyes closed. She didn’t see it coming, had no idea what he had in mind until she felt his mouth settle firmly over hers. A jolt of shock traveled through her. She broke off mid-scream, too stunned even to think and while she lay frozen in that state, sensations bombarded her from every direction that were unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Instead of merely being aware of his weight upon her, she became acutely conscious of every point where the pressure was most pronounced and where it wasn’t. She felt the thickness of his cock along her thigh and the weight of his hips and realized it was pleasurable, not uncomfortable as it would have been if she’d felt his full weight. She felt his belly pressed lightly against her own and only light brushes of his broad chest against her breasts with each panting breath she took. Abruptly far more aware of tendrils of pleasure stirring within her than anything else, a strange lethargy fell over her. Thought, even the disjointed efforts of her survival mode ceased altogether, her mind shifting to assess with the most primal part of her mind. The sensation of falling swept over her even though she was firmly anchored to the ground by his body. A wave of disorientation followed as if she’d downed a pint of ale in one draught. On the heels of that, a devouring heat seemed to rise between their two bodies and then she felt as if it poured inside of her and began to race through her veins, making her heart trip over itself, making her feel, suddenly, as if she couldn’t get enough air. A tentative alarm was raised, but she felt no sense of threat. The movement of his mouth and tongue on hers spoke of desire burgeoning just as it was blossoming within her. She sensed, though, right or wrong, that he was almost as surprised at the effect she

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had on him as she was about his effect on her. She didn’t think his objective had been more than a desperation to silence the high pitched screams and yet the moment his mouth had settled firmly over hers it had jolted both of them. She liked the feel of him pressed against her length. She enjoyed the contact of their mouths even more. His taste and scent engulfed her in a pleasurable wave and she found her entire being responding to him with a will of its own. She didn’t merely surrender. She kissed him back, finding more pleasure the moment she stroked her tongue along his in an intimate caress. She was drifting closer and closer to exploding into flames when he stopped kissing her almost as suddenly as he’d begun. Lifting his head, he stared down at her with an expression she found impossible to decipher in her state, but a sense of vast disappointment washed through her. He swallowed convulsively several times, looked as if he was struggling with the urge to kiss her again and finally spoke. “The ceremony the old man performed was magic—an ancient dragon joining ritual. You sealed it with the mingling of our blood.” Isra stared at him blankly, unable to decipher anything he’d said for several moments. Finally, her mind seemed to shift into gear, however. She turned his words over in her mind and still couldn’t sense of them. “I didn’t! How could I have done that?” His lips tightened and his brows descended to form a scowl. “You did! There is no other way this would have happened! The pike you stabbed me with already had your blood on it.” Isra frowned, trying to think what he might be talking about, but it was made difficult by the fact that she’d been so thoroughly terrorized she hardly knew what she was doing at the time. Beyond that, she’d been battling the dragon. “You’re saying when I stabbed the dragon with the pike …?” He ground his teeth together. “I am saying when you stabbed me with the gods damned pike … while I was minding my own damned business I might add … you mingled your blood with mine and sealed our fate, wench! I am doomed to remain human until and unless we can get the spell reversed and we are bound together until that time! We must go together and find someone who can reverse the spell!”

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Chapter Three Isra stared up at her captor. There was no wildness in his eyes, regardless of how mad he sounded. Try though she might, however, she found she simply could not accept that he had been transformed from beast to man merely by the old bastard, Valdamire’s, pathetic efforts to perform an incantation. He was a man, a stranger to her certainly, and she couldn’t presently think of a reasonable explanation for his presence, naked, when there’d been no sign of him when they had arrived and he certainly hadn’t come with them. Nevertheless, she saw nothing about his face or form to suggest he had ever been a dragon before. He was quite possibly the most handsome, well formed man she’d ever seen in her life. Surely, even transformed by magic—and she was no great believer in magic—he would have been as beastly in human form? He would have been ugly and misshapen. If he wasn’t the dragon, though, how would he have gotten the notion he was, she wondered? Why would he not be concerned, at all, about the dragon coming back? And how would he know the things he seemed to know if he hadn’t been there? She didn’t know, but anger descended over her abruptly that he had the gall to demand anything of her when he’d … mauled her! She jutted her chin stubbornly at him. “No! I most certainly am not going anywhere with you! I don’t care if everything you said was true, the answer is still no! If you are the dragon, then you deserve your fate! “I was minding my own business when you burned my cottage down and everything in the world I had was in it! I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you! I would be at home in my little cottage! Instead, after you burned down half the village, the villagers decided to … sacrifice me to appease you and keep you from attacking the village again! “So, if you are expecting any sort of sympathy from me for you plight, you are far off the mark, Mr. Dragon! I hope you suffer! I hope you’re miserable! You deserve it for all the misery you’ve caused me!” Taos stared at her blankly for several moments, disbelief uppermost before his anger rushed back. “Woman! Did you hear nothing I told you?” he growled. “Stop calling me woman in that condescending way, you oaf!” Taos struggled with his anger. “I do not know your name, wench!” “Isra.” He stared at her angrily. “What sort of name is that for a wench?” he demanded indignantly. “Isra? Your parents must not have liked you very much!” Isra glared at him, although, in all honestly, she had always hated the name herself. “It was my father’s mother’s name!” “Well, her parents hated her!” he growled. “It’s better than dragon!” she snapped. “My name is Taos,” he said tightly. “I said I was a dragon, not that I have no gods damned name!”

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“Well, your parents must have hated you, too, because that’s an awful name!” “My mother was slain when I was little more than a hatchling, wench!” Taos said indignantly. “I chose the name for myself and it is the name of a great dragon king, I will have you know! It is a very good name for a dragon!” The comment took some of the wind out of her. Despite every effort not to feel any sympathy for him at all, the idea of a youngster, any child, being deprived of a mother and having to fend for themselves brought a welling of empathy to tighten her chest. His eyes narrowed and she had the feeling that he had preferred her anger to the sympathy that no doubt showed in her expression. “You cannot leave me wench,” he growled. “We are bound together, you and I, whether either of us like it or not. You will never be able to leave me unless we get the spell reversed and I will make your life hell until you agree to go!” “I can’t leave,” Isra growled back at him, “because you are a great, hulking brute and you have me pinned to the ground! I assure you, I can leave and I will leave at the very first opportunity!” “Fine!” he snarled, releasing his hold on her and rolling off of her abruptly. “Go then, you ill tempered wench! You know where to find me when you come to your senses! It is for gods damned certain I cannot fly away!” Isra pushed herself upright and stared at him in disbelief as he got to his feet, stalked toward the cave, and disappeared from her view. She found herself waiting tensely for sounds of the dragon rending the madman. When she heard nothing at all beyond what sounded like someone banging metal pots together, she glanced around uneasily, scanned the sky and finally got to her feet with an effort. Her breasts, she discovered to her dismay, were spilling from a tear in her bodice. Her entire gown was purely tatters and it was all she had between her and nakedness! Sniffing, struggling abruptly with tears, she tucked her breasts back into the bodice the best she could and brushed at her ragged dress. The man, Taos, was indisputably a handsome devil, and undeniably mad, as well. She didn’t believe a word of what he’d said. She wasn’t even certain she believed that he believed his wild tale. He was still mad to go inside the dragon’s den, but she supposed that was to convince her of what he was saying. Well! She wasn’t hanging around to watch the idiot get himself killed when the dragon came back! She was upset enough from everything that had happened that she didn’t notice, at first, that she wasn’t feeling at all well. It became more apparent the further she marched down the mountain, however, and finally she stopped to look for a place to sit down for a few moments. Spying a tall boulder casting a patch of shade beneath it, she moved toward it and found a spot to perch on a smaller rock. Deciding after she’d looked around that she was fairly well hidden from view by the jumble of rocks and scrubby brush around her, she dropped her head in her hands, trying to think. Some of the queasiness that had begun to build inside her subsided once she’d sat down to catch her breath. She searched her mind and finally decided it might be from emptiness. The bastards hadn’t given her a bite to eat the day before except for a crust of bread that was hardly enough for a bird. Aside from that, she’d lost her food along with

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everything else in her cottage. It was no wonder she felt weak and nauseated. She’d hardly had a thing beyond water. Becoming more aware of her aches and pains as the queasiness and fear that had been riding her began to taper off, she settled to examining herself. Her ribs were still bruised from being kicked by the guards—she was bruised all over from being kicked and punched. She didn’t think anything was cracked, though, and she certainly didn’t have any breaks. She wouldn’t have been able to ignore that no matter how terrified she was. She discovered she had a slash across her palm and puzzled over it until she dimly recalled that she’d grabbed one of the pikes when the men had been trying to drive her into the dragon’s den. That must have been when it was cut. And then she’d turned the pike on the dragon when she’d discovered him behind her. Her heart fluttered uncomfortably in her chest, but she dismissed the thought that had caused it. It was just too absurd. She decided the cut couldn’t have been very bad. It had closed—mostly—and stopped bleeding. She found about a dozen other small wounds, all closed, although it was clear they’d bled some from the stains on her gown. That explained, at least in part, why her dress was in tatters. The bastards had poked her with their pikes. She supposed she could put down the fact that they hadn’t actually done much more than prod her with them to their absolute determination to deliver her alive to the dragon. She certainly wasn’t going to try to convince herself it was from any reluctance to harm her. It brought home an unwelcome truth she realized she’d been avoiding. She had no where to go. Even if her cottage had still been standing, she couldn’t return to the village. They would either haul her back, or kill her outright for refusing to protect them by sacrificing herself to the dragon. Her chin wobbled. She couldn’t even try to find shelter with her neighbors. They’d lost their cottages, too, and she couldn’t convince herself that any of them would be willing to shelter her even if they could. “Nobody would. I have no one….” It was hard to swallow, but unavoidable that she only had the choice of returning to the madman at the top of the mountain or going it alone. It wasn’t much of a contest, really. Even if Taos was crazy as a loon, he was big and strong and he could protect her—if he would. He was also healthy, well muscled, and that meant he was very good at feeding himself. She didn’t know how he could be when he was completely naked and certainly had no weapons for defense or hunting, but he’d managed very well indeed. Few of the villagers, even the more prominent ones, weren’t showing signs that hunger was no stranger to them. Aside from Perel. She was most definitely well fed, though she couldn’t say the same for her husband. As far as that went, it was much, much better to consider traveling with Taos, even on a wild goose chase. At least it meant they would leave the mountain where they would almost certainly become a meal for the dragon if they lingered long. Reluctance instantly settled in her. Did she really have more faith that a crazy

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man could take care of her than she would be able to take care of herself? How could she know if he’d taken care of himself, after all? Mayhap he had only just escaped his caretaker? He had the look of a nobleman, she realized. That was why he was so big and strong and well muscled. He was probably a knight. Mayhap even a lord. I suppose even they can be daft. The thought that they may be more prone to it crossed her mind. Well! She had troubles enough of her own! She didn’t need to shoulder his, as well, and if he truly was mad, she would have to take care of him, not the other way around. Getting up decisively, she moved away from the rocks to get her bearings and headed out again. She hadn’t traveled far when she came to an abrupt halt and gaped in dismay at the landscape before her. She’d traveled in a circle! Whirling around, she started down the mountain again. This time, when the queasiness began to waft through her, it was joined by the oddest sense of … longing, a sense of sorrow, as if she’d lost … something. It intensified as she hurried along, until she found herself struggling with the urge to burst into tears. Ignoring it the best she could, she trudged on determinedly, relieved when the odd feelings began to slowly dissipate. Until she discovered she’d traveled in a circle again and once more found herself staring at the rocky peak of the mountain. Swallowing her confusion and dismay, she turned away, studied her surroundings and once more headed down the mountainside, this time with grim determination riding her. She was leaving! She didn’t know where she was going to go, but she was damned well going! Her angry determination began to battle with the same emotions that had beleaguered her before, however, and the weakness, the nausea. The third time she discovered that she had traveled in a circle and come right back to the top of the mountain, she felt like flopping on the ground like a child and wailing, but she knew when she was defeated. Taos had been right. She couldn’t leave. Maybe he wasn’t crazy after all, because she certainly hadn’t intended to return!. She knew she hadn’t been so distracted that she’d merely wandered back. Beyond that, it was hard to argue with the sense of loss and the sickness that had assailed her each time she had walked away, that had seemed to magically vanish as soon as she got back to him—close to him. Truthfully, it wasn’t as if she had any choice in the matter anyway, she thought glumly. She couldn’t go home to Ishmere anyway—not now—and although she had thought, dimly, that she might try the next village, Tuatha Dunann, she knew going there alone would be a mistake. Besides, there were villagers in Ishmere that had friends and relatives in Tuatha Dunann. It wouldn’t take long at all, she knew, before everyone knew what had happened and who she was. “Bastards would probably send me back, too.” Taos, she discovered, was perched on a rock just outside the cave entrance, his dark brow furrowed in thought as he stared into the distance, his long, beautiful black

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hair fluttering about him as the wind teased it. Her belly seemed to perform a freefall as she stared at him, able for the first time to really study him. He was beyond well favored, she realized. He was truly beautiful in every sense of the word—everything about him. The lean, hard, muscles all over his back, chest, arms, belly and legs shouldn’t have appealed to her so strongly, she knew, and yet they did. It was pure pleasure just to watch him move, and his hard, chiseled features were just as pleasing to her eyes. He took her breath and she wasn’t even any where near him. The things he’d made her feel had transcended everything—her fear, her pain and discomfort, her inner turmoil. It almost defied reason. She supposed it did, feeling a little better, if it was true that it was magic. Swallowing with an effort, she approached him. He blinked when she came to a halt beside the rock he was sitting on, as if awakening. His dark, ached brows lifted toward his hairline questioningly. “I’ll go with you,” she said. A cocky smile transformed his handsome face, making it impossibly more appealing. “I knew you’d change your mind! I believe I’ve thought of a way to block off the entrance to my den to protect my treasure while I’m gone, but first I’ll need to get a few things,” he said cheerfully, scooting off the boulder where he’d been perched and landing on his feet in front of her. Frowning, she watched him as he strode into the cave with all the confidence of someone completely at home. The back view, she thought ruefully, was every bit as lovely as the full frontal. In fact it was not nearly as intimidating, which made it far easier to appreciate. It was hard to reconcile her mind to the possibility that this man was the dragon that had so terrified her, but it was becoming equally hard to simply dismiss his behavior as the ravings of a lunatic. In fact, beyond the delusion that he was a dragon changed into the form of a man, he seemed perfectly rational. She had to revise that assessment only moments later, however, when he emerged as naked as before and strode up to her with his hand out. When she lifted hers in response to the gesture, he dropped three gold coins into her palm. “You’ll have to carry these. I’ve nothing to carry them in.” Isra stared down at the coins. It was far more gold than she’d ever seen in her life, and yet if they were to take a long journey, she had her doubts that it was nearly enough to make such a trip. Then, too, the lunatic seemed to think he could make the entire journey without so much as a loincloth to cover himself! When she looked up, she saw he’d begun to climb the mountain. “Taos!” He paused and turned his head to look at her with a mixture of curiosity and irritation. “This won’t do! It simply won’t do!” “What?” he demanded. She sent him a disbelieving look. “I’m not setting foot off this mountain with you as naked as the day you were born and that’s that!”

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He frowned at her, looked as if he would dismiss her qualms and finally climbed down again. “Dragons don’t wear clothing,” he said pointedly. “I suppose now that I have this form, though, that clothing would be necessary. It’s gods damned cold, now that you mention it.” She followed into the cave that time. He glanced back at her several times in a way that made it clear she was not at all welcome, but he didn’t voice whatever it was on his mind. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw the piles of treasure he’d referred to, too stunned even to think for many moments. She hadn’t dreamed when he’d spoken of his treasure that he meant anything like this. By the gods! He must have a king’s ransom in treasure! Mayhap he stole some king’s entire treasury! She frowned as he opened a large chest and began digging through it, picking up first one thing and then another, studying it briefly, and then tossing it down. Three gold coins? Three! By the gods! He had all of this and he expected them to make a journey and back with just three gold coins? Granted, if he was really a dragon she didn’t suppose he had any real concept of the value, but it passed belief that he had so much and he was so … stingy that he didn’t want to part with more than three gold coins when he had made it clear he was desperate to rid himself of her. He was oblivious to her disapproving glare, however, too intent on searching through his treasure for something he considered appropriate. Would that she had more than one article of clothing to her name so that she had so much trouble deciding what to wear, she thought indignantly. She was tempted to march over to him and search for something for herself. One niggling doubt stopped her. She still wasn’t completely convinced that he was a dragon, let alone the dragon that claimed this treasure. She decided she didn’t want to chance the possibility of angering the owner and having him track her down. “Where are we going, anyway?” she asked finally, looking his treasure over more critically as it occurred to her that they would need more for a long journey than a few coins. Taos didn’t even glance at her. He was examining a particularly splendid pair of breeches fashioned from what appeared to be a deep purple velvet which had what also appeared to be gold threading along the outer seam from waist to knee. I can’t believe he steals clothes too! They had to have been among the treasures someone was shipping, but she had no idea where he could have found so many rich people to steal from. They certainly hadn’t come from Ishmere. “We will be set upon by robbers and you will be stripped naked before you can blink if you wear those things! Find something … more humble.” He looked her over sourly. “I do not consider homespun rags ‘treasure’,” he said coldly. “I do not have anything here to match what you are wearing!” Irsa glared at him. “This gown certainly didn’t look as shameful as it does now,” she snapped, “before I spent the night battling the blaze you made of my cottage! On top of that, I was attacked and beaten by the villagers for having the nerve to tell that cow,

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Perel, to get out of my way so that I could get to the village well for water to try to put it out! I slept in the gutter, because you burned down my cottage and everything in it! Then I was beaten and dragged before the council and then up the mountain and thrown down on your doorstep! So do not turn your nose up at what I am wearing when it is entirely your damned fault I have nothing else and this looks fit for nothing except cleaning rags!” He had the grace to at least look uncomfortable. “I thought you didn’t believe I was the dragon,” he muttered. “You believe!” she pointedly. “Whether I do or not, you have claimed responsibility!” He studied her, frowning for a long moment. “Well, it was certainly not done on purpose! I was hungry. It’s easier to catch the cows without humans trying to poke holes in my hide while I am at it if I cook them first! I only blew fire at the people to chase them away! Is it my fault that you stupid humans build your cottages from things that burn so easily?” Isra gaped at him in outrage. “Is that your idea of an apology?” He looked taken aback. “Why would I apologize? I just said it was merely chance, for gods sake! You do not honestly believe, in your wildest dreams, that I would have done anything of the sort if I had thought for one moment that it would bring me to such a disaster! You are not looking at my injury, I notice! I cannot see how you could possibly consider yourself the injured party here, gods damn it! I am the one who has lost my body! I am the one who is stuck with a human as a wife—and a right foul tempered one, I might add—when I didn’t want a wife at all. And it is I who must spend a part of my treasure, which I went to a great deal of trouble to amass, to get both of us out of it!” Isra’s outrage swelled to new heights. “You pass belief! I’ve lost everything and it was all your fault! If you ask me, it is the punishment of the gods for what you’ve done that brought you to this! I certainly didn’t do anything to bring all this upon myself! And, while we are discussing your treasure … it passes belief that you have so much and are too stingy even to part with enough to rescue yourself from your dire situation! Three coins? When you have all this? We will be fortunate indeed if we can make our way to Tuatha Dunann with such a pittance! It will be some very sad highwayman who decides to rob you, for he might not even get supper for his troubles!” “He will get his head caved in for his troubles!” Taos growled. “I may be scrawny and weak now, but I assure you I can guard what belongs to me!” When he finally calmed down, he frowned at her. “How much do you think it will take?” “Where are we going?” He frowned again, but this time more thoughtfully. “I know an ancient who can very likely help us, might even be able to remove the spell himself. We must travel to Rastarius’ lair, which is in the mountains of the Devil’s Back.” “Gracious Mea!” Isra exclaimed. “As far as that?” Taos looked at her uneasily. “It is not so very far … as the dragons fly.” “But we aren’t dragons!” Isra snapped. “I’m certainly not or ever was and you aren’t at the moment, whether you were or not!” “You do not have to remind me that you never were and that I might not be again,

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gods damn it! Can you not see that I am distressed enough over it? You are not a very sympathetic female! Pretty or not, I can certainly see why you have not already been claimed! I cannot believe a spineless human male, as stupid as they are, would consider tying himself to such a … termagant! It is not even worth having cunt so readily available to put up with such as that!” “I am not argumentative!” Isra shouted angrily. “You are an impossible man! And I can’t tell you how relieved I am that I don’t appeal to you, you … pea brained, thick skinned, bully! Exactly why do you think I would sympathize with you, at all, when you haven’t shown me the least consideration?” He sniffed. “I am not pea brained!” he said tightly. “You cannot judge everyone by yourself, you know.” Isra sucked in an indignant breath and looked around for something to hurl at him. Taos narrowed his eyes at her. “I give you fair warning, wench! If you begin to toss my treasure about, I will turn you over my knee and paddle you ass until it bleeds!”

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Chapter Four Isra glared at him, furious in her impotence, but she wasn’t so angry that she actually felt like putting his threat to a test. His temperament wasn’t exactly sunny. And he was certainly big enough and strong enough to carry it through. Stalking over to a chest, she flounced down on it, folded her arms, and glared at the far wall of the cave. Taos studied her for a long moment and returned his attention to the clothing. Finally selecting a pair that was barely embellished at all, he sat down and shoved his legs into the breeches and then stood up to pull them over his hips. As determined as Isra was not to speak to him or look at him, she couldn’t resist sliding a glance in his direction as he stared down at the breeches in puzzlement, trying to figure out why they seemed to fit so oddly. Despite her anger, Isra couldn’t contain a snort of amusement when she saw he had them on backwards. He narrowed a glare in her direction but apparently he realized fairly quickly that it wasn’t logical to have his ass hanging out the back. Peeling them off again, he turned them around and pulled them up. She had only thought he looked indecent striding around naked. He looked far more indecent with his genitals hanging out the front of the breeches. To her relief, he reached down and very carefully began to tuck them into the breeches. Clearly, he couldn’t find a comfortable place to stow them. He shoved his cock and balls down one leg and then quickly removed them again. Next he tried stuffing his balls down one leg and his cock down the other and finally dragged them out the front again and left his genitals swinging in the breeze while he turned his attention to searching for something else. Isra ignored him the best she could, but it was impossible to refrain from casting quick glances at the genitalia swinging from the front of his breeches with every movement. She realized she’d never adequately considered men’s fascination with the bounce and sway of a woman’s breasts. Reluctantly, she admitted that if men went around swinging their testicles and cock it would be just as difficult for her to train her mind elsewhere. He found a plain, unadorned white shirt and pulled that over his head. It was clearly made of very fine linen, but otherwise wasn’t anything that would attract a great deal of attention, she decided. Unless, of course, he intended to leave his cock and balls dangling from the front of his breeches. He couldn’t actually mean to do that. Could he? “Ah ha!” he said jubilantly after a time, pulling out a leather pouch. “I thought I recalled seeing something of this sort!” Isra sniffed, but refrained from comment.

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Digging through the same pile, he picked up a fine boot, turned it upside down and shook out several gold coins before looking around for the boot’s mate. She tried to ignore the swinging motion of his balls as he walked around looking for it. By the gods, I think he does intend to go out like that! He sat down and stuffed his feet in the boots, which looked to her to be at least a size too large. He certainly doesn’t act like he’s used to wearing anything at all. Which of course was absurd. Unless he was who he said he was. He stood again and thrust a dagger into one boot before swinging a sword and scabbard over one shoulder and sending her a speculative look over the other. Uneasiness crept through her as he turned abruptly. Striding toward her, he grasped her around the waist, snatched her off the trunk she was perched on, and set her aside. Isra, discovering her heart was beating unpleasantly fast, glared down at his dark hair as he bent over the trunk and scratched through it, wondering if she could brain him with something while he had his back turned and pretend innocence when he woke up. She looked up at the ceiling of the cave speculatively, but she couldn’t see anything she might claim had fallen on him. When she looked down again, she discovered that he’d turned and was staring up at the ceiling of the cave himself. His eyes narrowed as he met her gaze. “Bats,” Isra said succinctly. “I thought I heard one.” There was a knowing glitter in his eyes, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he unrolled the scroll he held in his hand and settled to studying it. Isra glanced around and finally moved away from him, settling on a rock. At least he wouldn’t feel compelled to snatch her off of it, she thought irritably, shifting until she finally found a fairly comfortable spot to settle on. “Come here and look at this,” he said absently. Isra favored him with a cold stare. He met her gaze, narrowing his eyes. She narrowed her eyes back at him. “Do you mean to sulk all day? If you do, then we are not likely to get started upon our journey.” He had a point. She rather liked the idea of sulking, but she was as anxious to rid herself of him as he was her. She folded her arms over her chest and glared at the wall. Uttering an impatient sound, he straightened and strode toward her, waving the scroll under her nose. “I cannot read human scratching!” he admitted tightly. “What does this say here?” Isra heaved an impatient breath. Taking the scroll from him, she studied it. Dismay quickly squelched her anger. “Gracious goddess Mea! We must go there?” “This is a very long way?” She glared up at him. “Yes, it’s a very long way!” she said testily. “This is Ishmere—the village down the mountain where I live … used to live…. This is Tuatha Dunann. It would take a week or more only to travel that far. And this is the Devil’s back. This is a very, very long journey! It could take months!” Taos stared at her in angry disbelief. “You cannot be serious! Months?” he

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bellowed. “I am to be stuck like this for months?” Isra heaved an angry breath. “Do you think I’m happy about it? Do you think I want to be stuck with you for weeks, mayhap months, and have to put up with your bad humor the whole time?” He narrowed his eyes at her, but instead of remarking on her comment, he focused on the map once more. “Have you ever traveled there?” he asked. She could tell from his tone that he thought she was too stupid, or ignorant, or perhaps both to figure it out. “I have never traveled past Tuatha Dunann and only there once when I was a child,” she said tightly. “But I do recall that it took nigh a week on the trail. I have heard others speak of it, and I am as certain as I can be that it will take nigh a week to get that far. Beyond that, I can only speculate, but you can see the map for yourself! Look at the distance between this point and that one! Beyond the distance, there are other things that have to be considered. It takes far longer to walk than to fly, I can tell you, and then there are hills, there are likely rivers that must be crossed. One must stop to sleep and to eat … and attend nature’s call. There are all sorts of things that have to be taken into consideration. It is dangerous to travel, as well. We could be set upon by brigands.” “We will travel through the mountains,” Taos said decisively. Isra gaped at him. “If you had ever climbed a mountain on two feet you would not be so quick to make that decision!” she snapped. “Besides, if we are to avoid the villages, what will we do for food? I have had nothing but a crust of bread in two days now! I will collapse if I don’t get something to eat!” Taos turned and moved to one of the trucks, sitting down to consider the situation. Isra tried her best not to look at his genitals but it seemed almost to spring into her line of vision each time she looked in his direction. “Will you stop looking at my gods damned cock!” Taos snapped. “I am trying to ignore it!” “I am trying! It would be easier if you would put them in your breeches! I hope you do not think you are going to walk about like that!” “There is no room for them in the gods damned breeches!” Taos snapped. “As pathetic as this shriveled thing is, each time I tried to put it in the breeches, the breeches crushed my balls and strangled my cock! I cannot imagine how human males manage!” Isra sucked her lower lip in, trying not to smile. “They seem to manage just fine, for they don’t go about like that! Mayhap you should try to find a larger pair of breeches?” “I did not see any that looked large enough.” Isra got up. “I will look.” “I do not especially want your hands in my breeches!” Isra sent him a look. “I hope you do not think I have any interest in putting my hands in your breeches! I am sure it is a very fine cock, but I do believe that I can contain myself!” He flushed. “I meant the chest with my breeches. Do you think it is a fine cock? I thought it exceptionally pathetic. A female dragon would laugh at it.” Despite every effort, Isra couldn’t prevent herself from looking once he called her attention to it. “Well, you are not a dragon just now. They would not look at you

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anyway. All the female humans will, though—and they will laugh, not because it is pathetic, for it is a very fine one, I assure you, but because human men do not go about swinging their cocks in the breeze!” “Yes, but if you think it is a fine one, I would like to know why it is that you think you can contain yourself with no trouble!” he said irritably. Isra sent him a look. “I can contain myself,” she said dryly, “because I am not particularly attracted to the dick it is attached to!” He stared at her blankly for several moments while that sank in. “Well! I am not particularly attracted to the cunt your pretty red haired cunt is attached to either!” he snapped. Isra halted and stared at him. “When were you looking at my cunt?” she demanded. He shrugged. “When you fainted.” “I did not faint, you lout! Those bastards knocked me out and how dare you look at me while I was unconscious and couldn’t defend myself!” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You are my mate, wench! Or did you forget that part?” “Only by accident!” Isra retorted once she’d gathered her wits. “Certainly not by my consent!” “Well, it was not by my gods damned consent!” Taos snapped. “I did not want this even more than you did not want this!” “How do you know you were more reluctant than I was?” Isra snapped. “And, if you were reluctant, you certainly shouldn’t have taken advantage and looked!” “I am a man!” Taos growled. “I had to look, gods damn it! It was there!” Isra narrowed her eyes at him, but there didn’t seem to be any point in arguing about it further. It was done. It couldn’t be undone no matter how angry it made her to think of him looking her over while she was unconscious. It wasn’t until she reached the chest that it dawned on her that he’d said she had a pretty red haired cunt. She thought that over and decided it was actually a little flattering and it was also a little flattering that he’d wanted to look. Not that she had any intention of letting him know she thought so, but it made her feel better, regardless. He’d still had an erection when he’d tackled her and she could only conclude that it was specifically because he did find her attractive, whatever else he’d said. Not that it mattered, because he was an evil, foul tempered bastard and the sooner she was rid of him the better! Shaking the thoughts, she focused on the breeches in the trunk and finally found a pair that looked big enough to fit him loosely. Clearly, he wasn’t accustomed to wearing clothing. She rather thought the other breeches looked very good on him. She liked the way they hugged his strong, well muscled thighs, and it couldn’t be denied that he had a very nice ass, as well. On the other hand, it would only make it easy for other women to admire his assets and she didn’t particularly want that. In retrospect, she thought she might have been better off to tell him his cock was pathetic. Then he would be less inclined to use it on the females they ran across. Not that she especially cared except that it was likely to take longer to reach their

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destination if he was inclined to whore around. “I think these might be more comfortable. I could pick the decorative stitching from the pant legs.” “Ruin them, you mean!” Isra released a huff of irritation. “You will have everyone after that gold you are so fond of if you won’t make a push to look more like a poor man!” “You mean I must roll about in filth so that I smell like them?” he asked coldly. Isra hit him in the face with the breeches. “Suit yourself!” she snapped and stalked out of the cave. Taos joined her a few minutes later, dropping the breeches in her lap. “You should move a bit further,” he said coolly, “unless you have a mind to be crushed by the rocks I am about to bring down over the entrance.” Isra was tempted to fling the pants at him again, but as he began to climb up, she got up and moved a good deal further from the entrance. Settling on the ground, she began to pick at the stitching with her fingers, using her teeth to bite the treads. He was right, she thought, studying the pants. It was a great shame to ruin them, but she was right, too. Without the fancy stitching, the breeches were still very fine. They would still be lucky if they made it to Tuatha Dunann without being set upon. She looked up at the thundering crash as boulders rumbled down the side of the mountain, completely obliterating the entrance to Taos’ cave. The thought that he would never be able to even find the place again crossed her mind, but she shoved it aside and continued to work on the stitches. His loss, not mine. It was nearing dusk before they even set out. Despite the fact that it was far easier to travel down the mountain than it had been to climb up it, they were still a very long way from Ishmere when it grew too dark to travel further. This, unfortunately, was when Isra discovered that Taos had no means for building a fire. Accustomed as he was to simply belching fire if he wanted it, it hadn’t occurred to him that he no longer could. Their argument was briefer that time, more because Isra was simply too tired to argue than because she felt no temptation to brain him with something, but they finally settled for a long, miserable night made more miserable by the fact that they had no food and no way to cook it even if they had. Beyond that, Isra was angry enough she would’ve slept a mile from Taos except that she was cold. He balked the moment she lay down beside him, however. “No! This is my sleeping spot. You go over there!” “I’m cold!” “I cannot help that!” “Yes, you can, damn it! I could snuggle next to you and I wouldn’t be as cold.” “That is precisely why I would rather you slept over there, gods damn it! I don’t want to snuggle!” “But … I’m cold!” Isra said plaintively. “You said you were my husband. You’re supposed to protect me and take care of me!” “Fine!” Taos growled. “But do not be wiggling about and keeping me awake!” As hurt and angry as Isra was at his reluctance, she was too cold to worry about her pride. The moment he agreed, she dropped down beside him and moved as close to his warmth as she could get. “I’d be more comfortable if you would put your arm around

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me,” she said tentatively. “And I would be more comfortable if you were sleeping over there!” Taos snapped. “Will you shut up and go to sleep, gods damn it!” Sniffing, Isra turned over and put her back to him, but she very quickly discovered that was even less comfortable than having his warmth against the front of her body. After wiggling a little closer and a little closer, she finally rolled over again and tried to burrow under him. She never actually got warm, but weariness finally overcame her misery and she fell into a fitful sleep. She woke as soon as the first tendrils of dawn lifted the darkness and discovered that Taos was wide awake and glaring at her balefully. There were dark circles beneath his eyes that told its own tale, but she was too miserable to worry overmuch about his lack of sleep. She’d hardly slept herself. She was stiff from the hard ground and stiffer from the cold that had crept into her and turned her muscles to stone and she was so empty she felt lightheaded. She couldn’t summon the energy even to talk as they set out again. She staggered for a while but finally woke enough and walked off her misery enough to put one foot in front of the other without the risk of falling on her face. Thankfully, she saw the signs that meant they were nearing Ishmere well before the sun reached its zenith. “I’ll have to wait here,” she said, stopping and looking around for a place to collapse. Taos turned to look at her. “Why?” “Because they are more likely to kill me on sight than to help and we need horses and food if we are to travel. And blankets if you can find them,” she added, shivering. He studied her curiously for several moments and finally nodded. “Don’t let them see the gold!” she added. “You should just leave the pouch here and take one coin. That would be enough for two horses and whatever food they’re willing to sell … not that they have much since the dragon started raiding the village. You should have at least 20 crowns left over.” He glared at her, but she was too intent on finding a place and sprawling out to care. Sensing a presence over her after a moment, she opened her eyes and discovered Taos was standing over her. “What ails you, wench?” She sighed tiredly. “I am going to die if I don’t have food soon … and I am half frozen from sleeping on the mountain with nothing but this ragged gown to keep body and soul together. I will die of the fever if not starvation!” He frowned. “You are exaggerating,” he said a little doubtfully. “Not by a great deal!” she said tartly. Shrugging, he dropped his pouch beside her, turned, and left. Isra stared at the pouch for several moments and finally got up. Moving to a rock, she scooped enough dirt away to drop the pouch into it, rolled the rock on top, and lay down in the sun. It was warm, seeping into bones, which still felt the cold from the night before. Finally, she dozed off even though she hadn’t actually expected to. **** Despite his weariness from so little sleep and the miserable ache of his balls from having that damned wench rubbing all over him the night before, Taos felt his interest

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perk as he reached the edge of the village and looked it over. It looked entirely different, he realized, than it did from the air—far bigger than he had thought it would be. Ignoring the stares of the villagers, he strolled down the center of the main street, looking the building over with keen interest as well as the villagers themselves. It was dirty, which did not surprise him, but still interesting to watch the humans bustling about. Of course, he hadn’t a clue of what it was that seemed so important to them to be rushing along the street, but he found he enjoying watching them. He’d strode all the way through the village and out the other side before he remembered he’d been sent to gather supplies for their journey. Turning about, he retraced his steps, looking more carefully for some sign of a place that might have the horses Isra had said they needed. Humans rode them and, although he’d said nothing when she suggested it, he thought it a very good notion if it meant they wouldn’t be walking. His legs hurt. He’d had no idea walking could be so damned tiring! He still didn’t see what he thought he must look for and finally stopped a man on the street and asked him how to find a horse for sale. The man looked him over suspiciously but finally pointed to a ramshackle building at the edge of town. “Hawkins has a horse he’s been wantin’ to sell.” Nodding, Taos left the stranger and headed to the building he’d pointed out. A grizzled old man was sitting in a rickety chair in front of the building. “I’m looking for a horse,” Taos informed him. The hard suspicion on the man’s face vanished instantly. “I gotta horse for sale.” Taos frowned. “I need two.” “Cain’t help you there,” the man, which he assumed was Hawkins, said reluctantly. “I ain’t got but one.” Taos wasn’t particularly happy to hear that. With only one, they would have to ride together. Unless he could convince Isra to walk? Well, he would take the one and look for another, he decided. It seemed to him that she shouldn’t be having so much trouble when she ought to be used to walking, but there was no getting around the fact that she now seemed a good deal weaker than she’d seemed before they set out. “I will take it,” Taos said finally. The man gaped at him. “You don’t wanna look at it?” “Do you have more than one horse?” Taos snapped. “No.” “Does anyone else have a horse to sell?” “Uh … not that I know of.” “Then what is the point in looking at the gods damned thing?” The man shrugged and shoved himself up from his chair with an effort. “You gotta point. Better than walkin’, huh? And it’s a pretty good horse,” he added hurriedly. “I need to see your money.” Taos held out the gold coin he’d brought with him. The man stared at it, his eyes growing wider and wider before he seemed to come to himself. “It’s around back.” Nodding, his mind focused immediately on food now that he’d found the horse, Taos followed the old man around the building. There, he discovered a horse and a cow.

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Since he was pretty damned hungry himself, he was far more interested in the cow at the moment that the horse. “I will buy the cow, too.” The man sent him a startled look. “I hadn’t figured on partin’ with the cow.” Taos narrowed his eyes at the man. “This is not enough to buy the cow also?” “I didn’t say that! Fact is, I ain’t got no coin to pay the difference. It’ll work out better for me if you’re willin’ to take the cow. I guess I could get another one … not that there’s a lot of cows to be had around here. The gods damned dragon that’s been plaguin’ us done eat most of ‘em! Guess he won’t be bothin’ us no more, now, though. We took him a sacrifice! Pretty little thing, too! If you ast me it was a damned waste of a fine lookin’ woman, but it don’t do no good to have one if you’re starvin’ to death together! But, sure thing, sir! The cow and the horse for that there coin!” Taos felt a touch of anger at the comment about Isra, but he tamped it. Isra was anxious to get going and there was no sense in making trouble they didn’t need at the moment just because the man was a fucking moron. Tossing the man the coin, he caught the lead on the horse and walked over to the cow and untied it, leading them both away. Despite his irritation at the old man’s comments, he began to feel pleased with himself as he started down the road leading the animals. He’d gotten food and a horse for just that little bit of gold! Feeling his spirits rise, he looked his prizes over with pleasure. He’d actually bought a horse and a cow! He’d never done anything like that before, but he’d done a damned fine job if he did say so himself!

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Chapter Five Fighting the urge to burst into tears, Isra stared at the beasts Taos had led up to where she waited. “Oh Taos!” she exclaimed in dismay. “Merciful Mea! That is what you bought with your coin? You got a cow? Where is the other horse? You were going to get two.” Taos studied her face in confusion and turned to look at his prizes again, feeling anger slowly work its way through him. “Of course I got a cow!” he said testily. “What else are we to eat?” “But … I thought that you would get a loaf of bread and mayhap some cheese! We can’t eat the cow without slaughtering it first. We don’t have any way to do that. And you didn’t even get riding tack!” Taos didn’t have a clue of what tack was, but he sure as hell wasn’t admitting he didn’t. “You did not say bread and cheese, gods damn it! You said food! And I did not get tack because I did not see any I cared for!” “Mr. Hawkins sold you that old broken down nag, didn’t he? You have to take it back. Tell him you’ve changed your mind and you want the money back!” “I will not!” Taos growled. “You are the one who is not satisfied. If this doesn’t please you, by damn, take it back yourself! My legs hurt, damn it. I don’t feel like walking back!” “You know I can’t!” Isra said, anger finally ousting the urge to cry. “They think you ate me! I don’t know how we’re to get to Tuatha Dunann with one old, broken down nag and a damned cow … and no tack! That horse is too old and feeble to carry us both!” Taos was angry enough by that time, he decided he didn’t want to discuss it any further. Clearly, in her opinion, he hadn’t done nearly as well as he’d thought he had, but he couldn’t see what the hell she was complaining about. They had the damned horse! They even had food, and he was willing to bet that it would last them far longer than one cow usually kept him since he was not nearly as big as a human as he was as a dragon. Isra stared at him unhappily as her anger dissipated, realizing that she’d placed far too much faith in Taos’ ability to handle the task. If she’d doubted before that what he’d said about himself was true, she no longer had any doubts. He wasn’t an idiot. He was clearly very intelligent and the only explanation she could find for the fact that he clearly had no idea what was wrong with his purchases was that he simply wasn’t used to being human. She still felt like weeping. She’d been so hopeful he would come back with food and blankets. It was completely out of the question for her to even attempt to return the horse and cow, though. Most of the villagers at least knew her on sight. “I suppose we’ll have to make do,” she said finally, still unhappy about it. It occurred to her, though, that it shouldn’t take much above a week, maybe not even that much, to reach Tuatha Dunann. Once they were there, she could take a coin and buy them what they needed. In the meanwhile, they had the cow, so they would at least have

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milk … if she could convince Taos not to eat the damned cow. She could forage for roots and berries and mayhap Taos could actually capture a few hares. If not, she would take the time to set a few snares herself and see if she could catch one. Taos, not surprisingly, decided to ride the horse. He let her know in no uncertain terms that he didn’t think the cow was a dignified ride for a man. Bossy wasn’t actually crazy about allowing her to ride, but she was almost as old as the horse and not able to put up much of a fuss when Isra climbed onto her back. The horse and the cow seemed determined to out do one another to see which of the beasts could move the slowest. The bright side to their plodding gate was that Isra climbed down once as they were traveling along the narrow road that led to Tuatha Dunann and managed to collect some berries and catch up to Taos and the plodding beasts again without much trouble at all. It was dismaying that they didn’t even make it to the river before the sun set, but they had the cow. When they’d found a place to make camp, Isra scratched around in the dirt until she found a couple of pieces of flint and then gathered up the makings of a fire. Taos, having tied up the cow and the horse, settled to watch her curiously as she crouched beside the kindling she’d gathered and began striking the rock together until she managed to strike a spark hot enough to set the dried grasses she’d gathered to smoldering. Nursing the tiny fire by blowing on it and adding tiny bits of grass until a flame leapt to life, she carefully arranged the sticks she’d gathered over it and went off to see what she could find to eat while she still had enough light to have some hope of it. Although he’d been at pains to hide it, Taos was so impressed when Isra managed make fire with nothing but sticks and rocks, he barely noticed when she disappeared into the woods. He stared at it, mesmerized by the way the flames licked at the sticks and then consumed them. He had thought she was pretty, but it had certainly not occurred to him that she might also be useful! This was impressive indeed! The wench could make fire and she was not even a dragon! Getting up when he discovered that she had disappeared into the woods, he gathered more branches and laid them as carefully over the flames as she had. He was pleased with himself with the blaze he’d built by the time she returned and not terribly happy about the dismay clearly written on her face when she saw his efforts. “There is something wrong with the fire?” he demanded, unable to keep an edge from his voice. She glanced at him sharply. “No! It’s just … well, we’ll certainly be warm tonight, won’t we? I found berries. They’re a little sour, but it’s better than nothing.” “If they are as nasty as the berries you found earlier, I believe I will have nothing.” She glared at him. “Fine! Suit yourself!” He studied her resentfully as she settled to popping the berries in her mouth. “I did bring a cow,” he said pointedly. “Which I’m riding!” Isra said tautly. “Anyway, she’ll be good for milk if you don’t butcher her.” Taos perked up immediately. “She is good for milk? How?” Isra stared at him blankly. “Milk comes from cows,” she said slowly.

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“I know it does!” Taos exclaimed. “I like milk. It’s the best part of the cow! Show me how to make her give me milk!” Shrugging, Isra got up and moved to the cow. Crouching beside Bossy, she motioned for him to follow suit and then grasped the udders, showing him how to massage them to get the milk to flow. She wasn’t especially thrilled to have warm milk straight from the cow, but there was no getting around the fact that she needed more than the berries. Worse, it took some trial and error to direct the stream into her mouth, and Taos’, and from the look on his face he suspected she’d squirted him in the eye and nose on purpose, but there was nothing to hold the milk and drink from. There was no choice, really, except to try to get the knack of squirting it into their mouths. She had to fight Taos for a teat once he discovered he could get milk by squeezing them, but she’d had so little to eat for so long it didn’t take much to fill her stomach and as soon as she began to feel full, she began to feel very sleepy. Leaving Taos to drink what milk he could get from the cow, she cleared a spot as close to the blazing fire he’d built as she dared get, checked to make sure there was nothing near enough to burn and spread the fire and settled down. She was asleep within moments. Taos was so delighted at the discovery that he could get milk from the cow, and hungry if it came to that, that he sat milking the cow and drinking for quite some time. He’d had no idea he could get milk from a cow! To think of all the times he’d simply ate them when he could’ve kept one and had all the milk he wanted instead of merely growing lucky from time to time and managing to find one with milk in it! He wasn’t completely satisfied when the cow refused to give him any more milk, but he felt far better than he had … until he looked around and discovered Isra had curled up next to the fire and gone to sleep. He studied her a little irritably, wondering why he found it annoying that she was content and had no need or wish to curl up next to him for warmth when he’d lain awake most of the night because she’d insisted upon it. It was as well she had, he told himself. He had been miserable most of the night before and all day, if it came to that! And it was bound to get worse, he thought, although he’d been doing his best not to think about the fact that they might have to be together for months. He wasn’t certain he could endure months and being constantly in her company and not touching her when he was already so miserable. I’ll have to. Nothing could possibly be more miserable than having to remain a man! And he didn’t trust that he would not grow accustomed if he indulged himself and mated with her. And if he became too accustomed …. It was not as if he had not suffered from the lack of a female to assuage his needs on before. Settling beside her a little defiantly after a few moments, he studied her sleeping face a little resentfully. It hardly seemed just that she didn’t seem to be suffering the same discomfort as he was. Then again, she had informed him that she disliked him immensely and she did not want his cock for that reason alone. He was damned if he could see why she had taken a dislike of him, though. He had every reason to dislike her! Not only had she ruined his life, but she was constantly

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finding fault with everything he did and snipping at him! If he could overlook her nasty disposition and still want to fuck her, it seemed damned unreasonable for her to hold him in contempt when he had gone to great lengths to please her! He had bought the cow and a horse! Was it his fault there was only one damned horse and she was not pleased with it? He had stuffed his cock and his balls into the damned breeches because she had insisted, and he’d been gods damned miserable because of it! He had even allowed her to ruin a perfectly beautiful pair of breeches because she insisted! Ungrateful wench! There’s just no pleasing her! As if it wasn’t bad enough that he woke up every time she moved and felt like hell the following morning, Isra was so damned cheerful he couldn’t decided whether he was more enchanted to discover she actually had a sunny side to her disposition, or if it made him want to strangle her more. **** Isra slept more soundly and more deeply than she had in what seemed like forever and woke the following morning with a rare sense of anticipation to meet the new day. As well as she’d slept, she was almost reluctant to get up, but finally yawned and stretched and sat up when it occurred to her that they had a very long day of travel ahead of them. Taos, she discovered, was already awake and apparently only waiting for her to stir. He bent a sour look at her when she glanced at him and she quelled the urge to bid him a good morning since he looked distinctly grumpy. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes since there was no water to wake herself with, she got up and headed into the brush to take care of nature and decided to take a few moments to search for something edible while she was about it. She wasn’t particularly hungry, but having gone to sleep with a full belly the night before after several days of painful hunger, she wasn’t anxious to ‘enjoy’ the experience of doing without again any time soon. She was in luck. She not only found a fairly large patch of berries, she found a few edible roots, which she dug up with a stick. Tearing off a piece of fabric along the lower edge of her gown, she made a small bundle to carry what she’d found and headed back to the camp. Taos, she discovered, was pacing impatiently, but she ignored him and settled to milk Bossy. She wasn’t particularly hungry and had decided to save her gathering efforts for later, but she was thirsty. Taos had already climbed on the horse and started off by the time she decided she’d had enough of the milk. Mildly irritated, she untied the cow, lead her to the road and climbed on her back. The cow decided to show her reluctance to be ridden by surging forward into a brisk trot for all of two minutes, which brought Isra and the cow level with Taos even though he’d started without them. Taos slanted an annoyed glance in her direction, his lips tightening, but he seemed reluctant to talk even if it was only to bicker. Feeling far better than she had in quite a while, Isra dismissed his ill humor, putting it down to the early rising. He hadn’t been in a wonderful mood when he’d first awakened the day before, she remembered a little vaguely. He just isn’t much of a morning person, I suppose. She wasn’t either, if it came to that. She rose early and performed her morning chores like everyone else, because it was expected, not because she agreed that it was

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better to start the moment the sun peaked over the horizon. She was relatively free of pain for the first time in days, though, a little stiff from the hard ground, a little queasy over the liquid breakfast, but at least well rested. Since Taos seemed disinclined to talk, she contented herself with looking at her surroundings as they traveled along the road and trying to prod her memory. The area had changed a great deal, she realized, since the last time she’d come that way—no surprise since she’d been a child and that had been years ago. She caught sight of a landmark here and there that seemed familiar or vaguely familiar and it relieved her to feel as if she at least had some knowledge of the area. Taos certainly wouldn’t—if she accepted that he really was the dragon, and she’d begun to realize that she did. He would only have seen it from the air and it must look very different from high up in the sky. She wondered a little idly what it would look like from the sky, but her imagination failed her. The closest she’d ever come to viewing anything from above was when she’d climbed trees as a child and she’d never climbed high enough to see very far. She thought it was probably much prettier from the road, where she could see individual plants. “Were your eyes very good when you were a dragon?” she asked after a few moments. Taos sent her a look of surprise, his gaze flickering over her before it settled on her face. “Far better than they are now,” he said a little sullenly. Still in a foul mood, she noted. “I’ve been thinking,” she began again after a few moments, “we could get on a boat in Tuatha Dunann and it would carry us across the Zed Sea to the Devil’s Back. I’m sure it would be much faster than taking the road through the mountains. They have a harbor and boats there. I remember seeing them when my parents took me there.” Taos turned to study her far longer that time before he spoke. It was impossible not to notice that his gaze lingered for a very long time at the spot between her thighs and then settled even longer on her breasts. With no wish to draw his attention to the fact that she’d noticed his interest, she did a mental inventory of her senses and decided she was as decently covered as she could be given the state of her gown. Her breasts hadn’t fallen out of her bodice and she couldn’t feel a breeze between her legs to suggest the skirt of her gown had flipped up. “You are in fine mood today,” he muttered after a few moments instead of commenting on her suggestion. She smiled at him tentatively, pleased that he seemed to have noticed her enough to note that, even though there was almost a note of accusation in his voice. “I slept wonderfully last night! Thanks to you for the roaring fire you built, I was toasty warm and I had a full belly for a change. I feel so much better!” He scowled at her instead of smiling back. “I kept your back warm with my belly, as well,” he said pointedly. “I don’t suppose you recall that!” Actually, she did, and he’d kept her warm in more ways than one. She hadn’t wanted to bring it up, though, even to thank him, since he’d kept his cock warm by nestling it between her buttocks most of the night and she thought he didn’t especially want to be reminded of that. Whether he did or not, she thought it best to ignore it. Clearly, he was concerned that intimacy might somehow foul his plans to be shed of her, and it certainly wouldn’t be to her benefit to be left with a babe in her belly. “I hadn’t

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realized it, but thank you,” she said. Taos turned to scowl at the point between his horse’s ears. He could not say that he was surprised. It had been pure hell for him to sleep curled around her to protect her, but did she even make note of the sacrifice of his comfort for hers? No! He’d had been right! This was hellish! If it was not bad enough that this human body was pure misery from the standpoint of his pride, it was also a misery to his senses. He was cold, tired, and sore. The clothes did little to protect him from the cool, damp nights and although it warmed him to curl up against Isra, that brought misery of a different sort. As often as he had felt that particular discomfort, it didn’t seem to him that it had ever been quite so bad before. He supposed it might be because he was immediately on the hunt for a likely female to slake his lust upon when he began to feel the urge, and he could not do so now. He thought it was also possible that it was the damned spell that old bastard had woven upon him. He had not actually felt the urge to mate before—to fuck, yes!—but not this sort of need, and he thought that might be what it was since it seemed so much more … desperate than before. Then again, he was heartily sorry that he had decided to examine her cunt. And not because she had been so damned nasty about it, when he had a perfect right to do so! The problem was, he had thought it very pretty and damned intriguing, and his cock was even more intrigued. The bastard would not lay down for any length of time at all before it popped up hopefully again—every time he looked at her! And his balls seemed to be swelling and he had no idea what could be wrong with them. How the hell do human males stand any of it? He supposed he could blame at least part of that discomfort on the damned breeches, which pinched worse while he sat upon the damned nag. He could not blame it on that entirely, though, since they were uncomfortable all the time and had been since he had informed his cock that it would not be burrowing in Isra’s little hole! He had begun to think, in point of fact, that it was nonsensical to deprive himself since he was stuck with her anyway. They were mated. She should not have a problem with doing her duty since she had not minded pointing out his duty as a husband, by the gods! Yes, and also because it was in doing his duty to protect and care for her that he had become so gods damned miserable! He did not think he would be having nearly so much difficulty keeping his mind off of his cock if she did not … wallow all over him during the night. It was one thing to have to look at her all day of every day and entirely a different matter to feel her soft curves rubbing against him all night of every gods damned night! He had begun to suspect she did it only to torment him because he had insulted her by telling her he had no desire to fuck her. Well, he did regret that he had not used more tact, but she had provoked him! If she had not behaved as if the notion was so repugnant to her, he would have simply told her that he found her very appealing but did not think it wise to risk it! He still did not, even though he’d begun to argue with himself over his reasoning. He thought that it was entirely possible that he could enjoy expending his lust upon her as often as he pleased without any concern that she might somehow capture his heart, but he was not as convinced of it as he would’ve liked to have been. There was the spell, after all, and he did not trust the gods damned thing! Look what it had already wrought! And

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if he should lose his heart, he was doomed! And that would have been bad enough in and of itself, but he had begun to have a nagging suspicion that he simply was not cut out to be a human. He had never suffered a moments’ doubt about his intelligence or his abilities when he had been a dragon. He had been a force to reckoned with then! Cunning! Invincible! Handsome! Thus far, Isra had found fault with every gods damned thing he had attempted and beyond that, she had informed him that he was not at all to her liking! He knew it was the gods damned cock, whatever she said to the contrary. And now that he thought about it, it seemed to him that there had been a condescending note to her voice when she had informed him that it was a very nice cock. And it could not be denied that it had not enticed her interest nearly as much as her cunt had enticed his! “I thought you were eager to see the end of the journey?” Isra said, drawing him from his dark thoughts. It caught him off guard and he glanced at her, which was a mistake. His cock popped to attention again and he ground his teeth at the pain that followed since there wasn’t nearly enough room in the gods damned breeches for the thing when it swelled! “What?” he asked absently, trying to drag his gaze from her giggling breasts, wondering if they would feel anything like the cow’s udder in his hands. “The ship?” “What ship?” he asked blankly, distracted enough he managed to drag his gaze from her breasts and look around. “At Tuatha Dunann? I suggested it might be far quicker to take a ship …?” Taos frowned, trying to recall the comment. Reluctance curled in his belly even before he remembered it, though. He wasn’t certain why he felt reluctant, but there was no denying he did. “I do not trust ships,” he grumbled finally. “I am not at all certain I care for the notion.” Isra looked surprised. “I’ve never been on one. I thought it looked like fun.” “I thought you said you had suggested it because it would shorten our journey?” he said suspiciously. “Well, I think it would! It can go across almost like flying—at least that is the way it looks—and it certainly would not have to go up hills and down again or ramble around obstacles as the road does. And I do not think it could possibly be any slower than riding these beasts.” “Aye, but we have the beasts now,” he said pointedly. “And I have spent a gold coin on them!” Isra’s lips tightened at the reminder and he felt a spark of anticipation that she would begin to argue with him again. He readied his own arguments, but to his disappointment, she seemed to wrestle with herself and dismiss the urge. “We could sell them. You might even get enough to pay passage on the ship.” “I like my cow,” he said tightly. “It gives milk.” “You could always by another cow—later. As much as you have, you could buy a whole herd of cows.” He sent her a sullen look. “I will be a dragon again,” he said tightly. “Humans will be more anxious to stab holes in me than to sell me cows!” She frowned and he thought she would allow the subject to drop. “Well, you

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could always steal cows, you know. That was what you did before.” He glared at her. “I was hunting, gods damn it! Humans hunt and they don’t consider that stealing!” “They hunt wild things, not things that belong to others!” she said tartly. “That is splitting hairs, damn it! I do not see the difference!” She studied him for a long moment. “Yes, you do,” she murmured, although her voice was pitched low enough he decided to ignore the comment. He was tempted to take her up. He didn’t realize how much he had wanted to pick a fight with her until he had allowed the opportunity to pass him by, but then again, he reflected, he had not managed, so far, to have an argument with her where he had felt victorious at the end of it. Somehow, and he was not entirely sure of why that was, he always felt as if he had lost the argument regardless of whether he had the last word or not. He supposed his foul temper had at least one advantage. He managed to prod the horse along at a fair pace and he thought they made a good deal better progress than they had the day before. They stopped briefly mid-morning and at noon to stretch their legs, and eat a little of the disgusting things Isra had gathered in the woods, to drink milk, and to take care of nature. It allowed him to discover that his ass and his thighs were hurting from riding the damned nag, instead of his calves and feet aching from walking. It was hard to say which was more uncomfortable, but he finally decided it was a little better to ride. Mid-afternoon, he discovered just how absolutely stupid the humans were. The damned road led right up to a gods damned river and then took up again on the other side!

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Chapter Six “What the fuck is this?” Taos demanded indignantly when he’d pulled the horse to a halt and stopped to stare at the rush of water that lay between them and the other side of the road. “It’s a ford,” Isra responded a little doubtfully. “I don’t remember the water being so high, though.” “This was here before when you came?” Taos asked, incredulous. “You are certain you have not gotten us lost?” Isra’s lips tightened. “We followed the road! How could we be lost?” “It is just so incredibly stupid to have a river across the road that I thought this could not possibly be the right way!” “Well! It isn’t as if we could move the damned river!” Isra snapped. “That is unbecoming language for a female!” Taos said stiffly. Isra gasped in outrage. “You say it all the time!” “But I, if you have not noticed, am not a female,” Taos said arrogantly. “As if I could fail to notice you’re a man,” Isra snapped testily, “when your manroot is always erect!” “Ah!” Taos said, not without a touch of triumph, narrowing his eyes at her. “I knew you were tormenting me on purpose!” Isra gaped at him. “Me? How did you arrive at that?” “You have wiggled your ass against it constantly and you allow your breasts to bounce until I cannot even look in your direction without wondering when they will bound out!” “I have not even been close enough to wiggle my ass against it except when I’m asleep,” Isra retorted indignantly. “You are trying to convince me that you have no notion that you have rubbed against my cock until I am nigh ready to explode?” Taos demanded in disbelief. “Asleep, gods damned it, means asleep! And I don’t believe it for a moment! You needn’t blame that on me when I was only trying to keep warm! And, I might add, I wouldn’t even have been trying to cuddle against you for warmth if you’d gotten the blankets I asked you to get!” “I knew you would come back to that!” Taos bellowed at her. “It is always my damned fault, whatever the problem!” Isra sent him a cool look and sniffed, turning her nose up at him. “Well, at least you’re man enough to admit it!” Kicking the cow, she rode toward the water, leaving him to gape at her in outrage. Left with the sense, again, that he had lost yet another argument, Taos kicked the horse and followed, intent on continuing the argument. The horse decided to balk, however, and he had his hands full trying to make the damned thing step into the water. By the time he’d managed to master the beast, Isra was well into the water and the water

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was making such a rush of sound that he could not continue the argument without bellowing. Not that he would’ve minded that since it seemed like the only thing that quelled her, but a one-sided argument wasn’t nearly as satisfying. In any event, he discovered that Isra and her cow were headed across the river toward the road on the other side. It seemed to him that for every foot the cow gained toward the far bank, it drifted two or three in the other direction. They were barely a third of the way across, and Taos had begun bellowing at Isra that she was going the wrong way, when she let go of the cow altogether and began to pound the water with her arms. He stared at her blankly for several moments before it finally dawned on him that she hadn’t let go and she was having far more trouble swimming than the cow or the horse was. Panic seized him, freezing him for a handful of moments as it sank in that his bride was sinking below the surface. Abruptly, he released his grip on the horse’s lead and dove in after her, searching the murky water frantically for a handful of terrifying moments before his hand finally snagged her and he drew her to him. She clutched at him with fingers curled into claws, coughing and sputtering. “You are all right, dearling?” She coughed instead of answering but finally managed to catch her breath. “No,” she said in a strained voice, clinging to him fearfully. Turning his head to get his bearings, he shifted his hold on her and began to swim toward the far bank. He was gasping for breath himself by the time he felt the ground beneath his feet, but a sense of triumph filled him, as well. He had protected his woman! She didn’t seem inclined to let go and, despite the discomfort he felt, he realized he felt a strange compulsion to cling to her, as well, felt an echo of the fear that had seized him that she would be swept away. He was reluctant to release her even when she finally stirred and began to push at him, but he loosened his hold and glanced around. The horse, he saw, had managed to climb out. It was standing on the road, its head dropped wearily, quivering all over either from fear or weakness. He saw no sign of the cow, but traced the frantic mooing he could hear and discovered the cow was still in the river and still drifting. “Merciful Mea!” Isra exclaimed. “The cow!” Taos jerked away from her at the same moment, slogging toward the rapidly vanishing cow. “Don’t! Taos!” Ignoring her shout, Taos dove into the river once more, allowing the swiftly moving current to speed his own efforts. The cow was so far downstream, he’d had doubts he could reach it at all, but between the current aiding him and the cows efforts to save itself, he managed to catch up to it. The beast was so weary from fighting the current that it was already peddling sluggishly and losing ground against the swift flow. Grasping the lead in one hand, he turned toward the bank and began struggling to pull it with him. His arms began to feel as if they weighed a ton and his legs two tons. His heart and lungs began to burn with effort, but he was grimly determined to hang on to the beast. Relief swamped him when he finally felt the ground beneath his feet, but the cow

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was still firmly caught by the current and nearly yanked him back into the flow. Gritting his teeth, ignoring the burn on his palms, he hauled on the rope until he’d finally managed to drag the cow close enough to plant its feet on the ground. He discovered it was too tired to move and he had to force it toward the bank even then. When he had finally stumbled out of the water, his legs wobbled and gave out. He made no attempt to hold himself upright, collapsing gratefully on the bank and struggling to catch his breath. The cow, uttering a weary complaint, dropped to its knees, as well. A shadow fell over him and Taos opened his eyes to see Isra’s worried face a moment before he felt the touch of her hands. Her chin wobbled and for several horrifying moments he thought she would burst into tears. “Are you all right?” Too tired to answer, he managed a nod. “Thank the gods!” she said in a cracked voice. “I thought you were going to drown!” It was Taos’ opinion that none of the damned gods had had a thing to do with it, unless they’d thrown the heavy current against them and tried to drown him and his damned cow, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. Closing his eyes, he enjoyed the feel of Isra’s hands as she stroked his wet hair from his cheeks. “You’re certain you’re all right?” she asked worriedly. “Tired,” he managed in a slurred voice. “I’ll build us a fire so we can dry our clothes and warm up.” He was tempted to grab her hand and pull her back. The urge was so strong to drag her down and hold on to her tightly that he instantly distrusted it. Still, he was sorry he hadn’t yielded to it when she left him. The entire time he lay fighting to catch his breath, images kept floating through his mind of the terror on Isra’s face when she’d been fighting the water and each time it replayed in his mind he felt the same terror wash through him. It was the fear of being stuck as a human, he told himself, unconvinced but struggling to dismiss any other possibility. He would need her to break the spell, he was sure, but it the thought nagged at the back of his mind that the spell would be broken at her death. It held him only so long as he and his mate lived. He thrust the thought aside as quickly as it occurred to him, unwilling and unable to examine it without feeling a tightness in his chest that caused him far more misery than the breathlessness of exertion. He had no desire to be free of her at that cost! He would far rather remain a human so long as he lived than to even consider that as the cost of his freedom! He discovered, in point of fact, that it distressed him so much that he couldn’t bare to think of it any more and finally pushed himself up and got to his feet, trying to flee his dark thoughts. Isra, he saw, was on her knees before a pile of sticks she’d collected, beating the stones together. He wove a path toward her, his legs feeling strangely unresponsive, stiff and awkward and weak as hell, and finally dropped heavily on the ground near her, clenching and unclenching his fists unconsciously as he struggled with the urge to grab her and cling tightly to her. She sent him a tentative smile when she’d managed to start the fire. “Feeling

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better?” He considered it. “Not much,” he muttered, too disturbed by the emotions churning his belly to feel like talking. She leaned toward him impulsively, put her arms around his shoulders and tightened them, burrowing her face against his neck. “Thank you for saving me!” He swallowed with an effort and gave up the battle to keep his hands to himself, but settled them lightly on her waist instead of yielding to the desire to drag her closer still. “You are my mate,” he said gruffly. “It is my duty and responsibility to protect you.” She pulled away and studied his face for a long moment. “Then I’m glad of that. I don’t think I would’ve made it without you.” There was a quaver of fear in her voice that he did not like. He did not especially like the way she had said what she had or the way that she looked at him, for that matter. It seemed … different than before, cooler, and he had a very bad feeling that he had said the wrong thing. He was certain of it when she removed her arms and moved away from him. “I lost the food,” she said in a small voice. “I think I’ll see if I can find anything to eat.” The sense of disappointment he felt, he thought, was disproportionate to the situation. He wasn’t entirely certain, in fact, why he was disappointed. Shivering, trying to dismiss the strange mood that had settled over him, he stared at the fire, struggling to empty his mind. After a little bit, still feeling weak and washed out, he forced himself to his feet and went to urge the cow up. When he’d led it to a spot where there was a little grass, he tied it to a tree and went to fetch the horse. Isra still hadn’t returned and after looking around for her a little hopefully, he began to wander around, picking up dried branches for the fire. He’d deduced from the sarcasm in her voice the night before that she didn’t think there was a need for such a large fire as he’d built, so he merely dropped the wood he’d gathered beside it to feed it as needed. Isra emerged from the woods a few minutes later and he looked up hopefully at the sound of her return. Her garment, he discovered, was still clinging to her wetly and he could see tight little points at the tips of her breasts that instantly riveted his attention, driving all other thoughts completely from his mind. “No berries, no roots,” Isra announced glumly. “Nothing much seems to grow so close to the Doman, I suppose because of the salt. I used a piece of my gown to fashion a couple of snares, though. Mayhap we’ll get lucky and catch a rabbit for dinner.” Taos didn’t actually catch much of what she said beyond the comment about her gown, which drew his attention to the garment. He saw then that the gown had parted when she sat down. He could see bare leg all the way to her hip. His cock, already hard, grew harder. He was mildly surprised it didn’t manage to break free or he would’ve been if it had not caused him a great deal of pain. He certainly was later … when he could think. His discomfort was sufficient, though, to redirect his mind. Well, it didn’t redirect it, precisely, but it certainly occurred to him that he would not be the only one staring at Isra’s leg once they reached the next village and he didn’t care for that at all! “You will have nothing left to cover your nakedness if you are going to tear pieces off of it!” he said irritably. Isra stared at him in surprise for a moment before anger erupted. “Well! I

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wouldn’t have to if you had gotten supplies like I asked you to!” she snapped. Taos’ anger exploded as quickly. “You have the damned memory of a dragoness if nothing else! Do you mean to harp on that forever?” She stared at him warily for a moment and finally sniffed disdainfully, a habit of hers, he’d discovered, that never failed to give him the urge to throttle her! “You brought it up.” “I did no such thing!” he roared. “You are the one who continues to fling it in my face!” “You did, too!” she snapped angrily. “I said I’d set a snare with it to try to catch something to eat and you criticized me as if I’d only done it to torment you!” “And that is exactly why you did it!” Taos growled. “To taut me because you know I am miserable, gods damn it! And to flaunt yourself in front of the gods damned bastards in Tuatha Dunann!” Isra gaped at him. “We are miles from Tuatha Dunann!” “You are going to grow a new garment between here and there?” he said nastily. She glared at him. “I wasn’t thinking about the men in Tuatha Dunann! I was thinking that I was hungry, gods damn it! And I am already sick of milk!” “There you go again!” Taos snapped surging to his feet. “Cursing! And throwing my failings in my face! If you are hungry, we will kill the gods damned cow, because I bought it for food! I did not fail to get food. I got the damned cow! It is my fault nothing pleases you?” “Walking all the way to the Devil’s Back certainly doesn’t!” Taos scowled at her, but to save his life he could not think of a suitable retort to that comment. Finally, he turned and stalked off since he discovered his inability to express his anger verbally gave him a stronger urge to choke her. He discovered when he finally stopped that his hands were shaking. Lifting them, he studied them in disgust for a moment and finally looked around to get his bearings. It wasn’t difficult even though he hadn’t paid any attention to where he was going. The rush of water was loud. He followed the sound and stood on the bank staring a little blankly at the great hole that he’d discovered and the water falling over the edge and spattering on the rocks, creating a fine mist. Feeling abruptly weak as he realized how closely both he and Isra had come to being washed over and smashed on those rocks, he dropped heavily to the ground, struggling with the sickness that churned in his belly. He did not want to harm Isra, he thought miserably. He could not fathom why it continued to cross his mind to throttle her. Except that her barbs cut deeply and hurt and it made him angry. It made him feel impotent and useless. And he was! He could not make fire. He could not hunt and bring food! He could even barter as the humans did! His mate was hungry, and weary, barely covered for either decency, his peace of mind, or protection from the elements, and he could do nothing about it! If he was a dragon …. But there was no use in that train of thought! He would be useless to her then, or at least useless as a mate.

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After staring morosely at the waterfall for a time, he realized that the sun was setting and got up, following the river back to where he had abandoned Isra. He stopped abruptly when he caught his first glimpse of her. Her shoulders were drooped, her head down, her face covered by her hands. As he watched, she lifted her head and wiped at her face with the hem of her skirt. He had bellowed at her until she had cried, he realized, feeling guilt swamp him. It hadn’t occurred to him before that, mayhap, she yelled at him because he had said something that had wounded her. He hesitated, considering whether to turn around and leave again but before he’d decided, she got up and left the camp herself. Releasing an irritated breath, he moved into the camping area and settled to stare at the fire. If he had needed proof that theirs was a match made in hell, he thought disgustedly, he certainly had it! They could not be in one another’s company without snarling and biting at each other! Some mating, he thought angrily. He could not even fuck! There would’ve been some benefit to it if he dared relieve his needs, at least! He considered it again, turning it over in his mind as it occurred to him that their acute dislike of one another certainly seemed a shield of sorts. How likely was it that she could touch his heart, he wondered, if he felt like choking her almost as often as he wanted to fuck her? Somehow, it didn’t seem nearly as convincing as an argument in favor of doing what he wanted when he considered it had made him sick to his stomach that the thought had even occurred to him. The sheer panic he had felt when he thought she would be swept away gave him no comfort either. No amount of trying to reason that away served to convince him that he’d been worried about the spell … because it had not even occurred to him. No, he decided. No matter how desperate his little man worm was to burrow into her, he could not let the little bastard have his way! He was as convinced as he needed to be that he would thoroughly enjoy it, and that meant he would want to do it more and that way led to utter disaster. She was gone so long, he began to feel anxiety that something had happened before she finally came back. He was so irritated to discover that she was perfectly fine that he scowled at her and lay down. He hadn’t eaten, he realized, but his stomach was still churning with his thoughts and he decided he didn’t feel like getting up. It seemed to him that he lay for hours, pretending to sleep when Isra finally approached him. He kept his eyes resolutely closed, but he felt an odd mixture of emotions when she settled beside him—gladness, relief, anger and … last and strongest, desire. Ignoring his throbbing cock, pretending he was merely rolling over in his sleep, he turned to her. She wiggled a closer when he did and he dropped an arm across her waist, pulling her closer still. Except for making his cock throb worse, he thought wryly, it was a great deal more comfortable to sleep with her softness nestled against him. Everything on him was stiff when he woke—including his clothing and his hair. He felt his hair with fingers, repelled by the texture.

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“What the hell?” “It’s the salt water from the Doman,” Isra said, glancing his way from where she stood by the coals of the previous night’s fire. “We should reach Lake Solitary tomorrow, though. That’ll be fresh water, thank the gods! We can bathe and have something besides milk to drink!” I like drinking milk, he sniffed to himself, but kept the thought private. He was in no mood to lose another argument and he was sure she would somehow find fault with that as well. They reached a second ford before noon. Taos felt his belly tighten with uneasiness, but he could clearly see the bottom of the stream-bed and, to his great relief, the beasts forded it without a problem. Isra found more berries when they’d left the Doman behind and got down eagerly to gather them. Taos watched her for a few moments, but finally climbed off his horse and joined her. He still didn’t like the damned berries, but hadn’t eaten anything the night before and he’d had nothing but milk since he woke. A little surprised but pleased, he discovered the milk and berries together were actually not too bad. **** It was hard to ignore the fact that Taos’ mood darkened the longer they were together. The gods knew Isra did her best to talk civilly, but any attempt at a conversation almost always led to an argument. Men! She supposed after studying over it for a while that it wasn’t just his anger about his situation, although she didn’t doubt that was a good bit of it. She knew that wasn’t all of it, though. She couldn’t claim a great deal of experience with men, but she certainly knew enough to realize the poor man was suffering for his determined abstinence. She didn’t entirely understand his reasoning, if it came to that, but she supposed he knew more about the spell than she did. Regardless, she knew a good bit of his moodiness could be put down to neediness and she found herself wishing he would simply demand relief. They were mated, after all! Not that she’d been mated with the other men she’d been with, but that hadn’t actually been by choice either. Unfortunately, no one in the village except her had considered it rape and she supposed she could see their point—at least with the first. She’d been taken with him. In her innocence, she’d flirted with him, intrigued by the idea of intimacy. She couldn’t even honestly say she hadn’t been willing when he had coaxed her off and tossed her skirts up. She had been eager right up until the moment when she’d discovered it hurt! At that moment, she’d had a complete reversal of opinion, but Larimy had informed her that she wasn’t going to tease him and then push him away. He’d held her down and finished in spite of her efforts to fight him off, ignoring her screams—which had drawn others who had stood around and watched and laughed and told her it was good enough for the likes of her! She had avoided all men for a very long while after that, successfully, but she’d been vulnerable right after her parents had died, unwary, and Duceman, drunk as a coot, had managed to push his way into her cottage while she was asleep. She’d beat him over

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the head with her broom when he’d finally rolled off of her and chased him out of her cottage, but the damage had already been done by then. There after, she made damned sure she had a stout bolt of wood across her door to keep any others with a similar idea of ‘romance’ out. When she thought about it, she was actually damned lucky she had never been sick with baby. There was no way she would have been able to take care of a child, as hard as it had been to find enough food for herself. For all that she was disgusted and felt violated, though, she had discovered it didn’t hurt once the maiden-head was gone and she began, after a while, to realize that some women actually seemed to enjoy it. She might have been willing to experiment after that, except that she’d become the village pariah. Everyone had decided the sickness that had killed her parents had been brought to the village by her parents and since it had killed nearly a quarter of the villagers and her parents were dead, they’d hated her by default of having no one else to blame. Regardless of what had gone before or even their frequent, heated arguments, she certainly wasn’t against the idea of being intimate with Taos. On the other hand, she also didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of suggesting it or encouraging it when he seemed so dead set against it. She thought, since he was so determined to rid himself of her, that it was probably for the best. It bothered her a great deal, though, to see him so miserable. Whatever he thought to the contrary, it gave her no pleasure at all. It made her … unhappy to see him so miserable, made her wish for things she knew she shouldn’t. No doubt, she thought glumly, he would find some woman to accommodate him once they reached Tuatha Dunann.

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Chapter Seven Taos decided after a great deal of thought that his odd mood swings had to be something that he could put down to merely being human, a state he still hadn’t come to terms with. He could see no reason at all, though, to simply accept defeat only because he was merely human now! He was a far better dragon than most dragons, by the gods! He could be a better man than most men if he set his mind to it! When they stopped to make camp, he watched Isra closely as she gathered the makings for a campfire and began to work at building it up. He gathered his own wood together in a pile and sat cross-legged in front of it. Taking the two stones he’d found, he very carefully mimicked her actions with grim determination. Despite his tenacity however, Isra had her fire started and had disappeared into the woods in search of food and he still hadn’t managed to get a spark to light the grasses he’d gathered. Snorting with disgust, he tossed the stones down and glared the fire Isra had built, deciding it wasn’t worth the trouble. Why bother, after all, when Isra could build a fire? He would be a dragon again before long and he would have no trouble at all making fire! He could make fire with his breath, by the gods! He did not need stones! He didn’t need to crawl about in the dirt and blow on grass! It bothered the hell out of him, though, and when Isra had curled up to sleep, he discovered he couldn’t—no great surprise when his fucking cock kept him up most nights anyway! Finally, he got up and found the stones he’d discarded. Summoning images of his observations, he began pounding the rocks together again as hard as he could, gritting his teeth to contain his impatience. There’s no way she could possibly be hitting them together harder than I can! Why isn’t that shit working? He finally decided it was the rocks themselves that were to blame, but he couldn’t tell any real difference between the ones he had and the ones Isra had used. Deciding there must be some detail he had missed, he collected her discarded rocks and began hitting them together, with no more success. He was so irritated by the time he finally managed to strike a spark that he almost missed it. It was a tiny whiff of smoke that alerted him to his success. Eager now, he bent low and blew on it carefully to keep from blowing it out. In a few moments, he had a tiny little flame. Bit by bit, he fed it until it was flickering merrily and consuming the small twigs he placed on it almost as quickly as he placed them there. A sense of pride filled him. He’d done it! He’d known all along he could do it! I am a dragon after all! Fire comes naturally to me. He felt his chest grow with pride as he watched his fire dance. He glanced toward Isra and frowned when it dawned on him that she was asleep and couldn’t see what he’d done. Damn. There was really no point in the accomplishment if she didn’t see it! Rising, he moved to her and settled a hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake. She opened her eyes and stared at him blankly.

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“I built a fire,” he said happily, grinning at her and pointing to it. She frowned, uncomprehending. He nudged her chin until she finally turned her head to look. She stared at it for a long moment and finally turned to frown at him again. “A fire,” he said, excitement threading his voice, although annoyance had begun to creep through his excitement. “Oh! That’s good!” she said, her voice slurred. And then she lay down again and closed her eyes. Taos stared at her in outraged disbelief. “That’s good?” he muttered angrily. “That is all you can say? That’s good?” “Very good,” she mumbled obligingly. “Now go to sleep.” After glaring at her sleeping face for several moments, Taos straightened abruptly, kicked his kindling into the fire she’d built and then lay down beside her, giving her his back. He was still as mad as hell the following morning when he woke. Hours! He’d spent fucking hours trying to build one damned fire! And she couldn’t even be bothered to look at what he’d done! No appreciation! I don’t get any appreciation, he thought angrily, for anything! He didn’t know why he even bothered trying! The woman was impossible to please no matter what he did!

**** Despite the fact that Taos was generally in a foul mood when he woke up, Isra couldn’t help but notice that he was sulking more than usual. For a little while, she struggled to figure it out but finally gave up with the reflection that he just seemed to have a sour disposition. Maybe he hadn’t always been like that. Maybe he’d been happy when he was a dragon and she was reading too much into it when she tried to find some explanation other than the obvious one. He just didn’t want to be human and he hated her for being the instrument of his fall from grace! It depressed her, but she discovered she couldn’t remain depressed. They would reach Lake Solitary, she knew, and she could bathe the itchy stickiness left from her dunk in the Doman river off … finally! And drink fresh water until it sloshed in her belly! It was mid-afternoon when they reached the lake. Isra instantly forgot that Taos hadn’t said two words to her all day and whipped her head around to grin at him excitedly. “We’re here! Yeah! A bath!” Deciding she couldn’t wait for the cow to amble up to the lake, she threw one leg over its back and slid to the ground, racing toward the water. She was out of breath when she skidded to halt on the bank and stared out at its deep blue, placid water. She’d already pulled her slippers off when it suddenly occurred to her that she needed to wash her clothes as badly as she needed a bath. On the heels of that, she realized Taos was with her. She couldn’t just strip naked and leap in! Glancing around, she discovered he had nearly reached her. “I’m going to find a private spot to bathe and wash my clothes. You stay here.”

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Taos frowned at her and lifted his head to check the sun. “It is early to make camp,” he said disapprovingly. Isra stared at him in dismay for a moment before anger surged through her. “Suit yourself! I’m stopping to bathe and wash my clothes. You go on if you don’t want to stop. I’ll catch up when I can.” Turning away without waiting for the argument she knew was coming, she stomped off. If he could stalk off whenever he was angry, she damned well could too. She was going to stop to bathe and wash her damned clothes even if he did leave her! She was still angry as she stomped along the bank, but it began to evaporate as she walked, staring at the cool, inviting water. When she’d found a spot that had a small clearing near the bank, she stopped and began to pull her clothes off. She’d already loosened the ties of her gown before it occurred to her that she needed to build a fire to dry her clothes. Otherwise, she was going to have to put them back on soaking wet. Not that they were likely to dry in the little time Taos seemed inclined to allow! But she could make a fire and they would drier than if she didn’t. She began to wonder if it was even necessary to leave at all to hide to bathe. Taos hadn’t agreed to wait and she hadn’t stayed long enough to find out if he meant to go on without her or not. Shaking off the thoughts that were putting a severe damper on her enthusiasm, she collected the makings of a fire, studied the clearing and finally built a sizeable fire as close as she dared to a tree that had a low limb that protruded almost horizontally to the ground. When she was sure it was safe to leave the fire, she moved to the bank and stripped, crouching down in the edge of the water and using a rounded stone to beat the fabric and help her clean it. Unfortunately, the dress was so stained from her trials that it was hard to tell when she’d gotten it clean. Instead, she focused on working on each stain until she could see it was either gone or wouldn’t be going anywhere, and then she tested the fabric with her nose. Deciding it was as clean as she could get it, she wrung it out the best she could and took it to hang it over the limb she’d chosen, carefully spreading it as flat as she could manage to help it dry faster. Her pantalets were far quicker to clean and the moment she’d hung them to dry, she charged to the edge of the bank and leapt as far out into the water as she could. She sank far further than she’d expected to and her heart was beating unpleasantly fast when she finally managed to surface again. Deciding a little more circumspect behavior was in order, she moved closer to the bank until the water was shallow enough she could sit down and bathe herself. It was a shame she had no soap, nor even a kowi plant! She supposed there might be some around and the sap in the stalks were the best natural soap to be had, but she didn’t feel like getting out to search. Instead, she lay back until she feel the water lapping around her ears and simply soaked, enjoying the way the water lapped at her aching body. The sky, she saw, was a beautiful shade of blue with only a smattering of white, fluffy clouds drifting lazily along. She wondered what it must be like to soar up there, to mayhap feel the clouds as Taos had. Could one stand on them, she wondered? Mayhap find a perch and drift along the sky as a boat would drift on the sea, carried along by the

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wind? Was it very hard to fly? Was it tiring? Or was it like walking was to her, only tiring if she walked a great deal and quickly, or if she had to climb any great height? What had Taos’ life been like before? It must have been very nice, being so grand a beast. He seemed to miss it an awful lot, but then maybe it was only that he missed the things he was used to, like flying? Mayhap he was angry mostly because he was frustrated and didn’t understand her world? I bet that’s probably it. I know how I would feel in his situation. If I had to go away from everything familiar to me, I would probably be very unhappy for a long time. At least, until I got used to it. That was the main reason she hadn’t left Ishmere before, when she knew most everyone either hated her outright or simply didn’t care to know her. Of course, the cottage her parents had left her was a good part of it, too, but she didn’t have that any more and for the first time since she’d survived the ordeal of the sacrifice, she wondered what she was going to do. Taos didn’t want her. He didn’t even want her around. It would have been a lie to say that didn’t hurt her feelings in a way, but she supposed it would’ve hurt more if she wasn’t used to not being wanted, because she realized she liked Taos. He was cranky, true, but he was always trying to do things she asked and nobody else ever had. And he’d saved her. Of course, that was only because he’d felt the obligation, but still… he had risked his own life to rescue her. She couldn’t imagine anybody else she’d ever known doing anything like that. She hadn’t expected it. She’d thought she was going to drown if she couldn’t manage to get out on her own. If he hadn’t been there I never would have made it. Hell… if anyone other than he had been there, I would be dead now. She sighed, sitting up. The truth was he was the first man in her life that she had really, really wanted to couple with. She supposed it could be the spell, but she wasn’t inclined to think so. It had made her feel ill when she had tried to leave him, and it had made her turn and walk right back to him, but she didn’t think it made her feel the things she did when she curled up next to him at night. She didn’t think it had had anything at all to do with the way she’d felt when he’d kissed her. She dismissed the thoughts with an effort. It was beyond useless to think about such things when he didn’t want her. She needed to try not to think about them! She needed to try to think what she was going to do when he broke the spell and left her stranded in the middle of nowhere. An odd sort of fear shot through her at the thought. Doubts formed in her mind and swarmed like buzzards over a dead thing as she struggled to think of how she was going to take care of herself now that she had nothing and no one. She’d managed well enough with what her parents had left for her, but what could she possibly do now? She had no place to lay her head, no shelter. She had no little garden to grow her food, the food she ate and the food she traded for the other things she needed. She supposed she might apply to some wealthy family to work in the kitchens. She had no real skills for such things, but she had a strong back. She could clean. It seemed unlikely, though, that she could get any sort of respectable work with her tattered dress. There was no way she’d ever be able to get another one if she didn’t get some sort of work.

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It sank into her mind in a cold wave that there was really nothing she could do except sell herself on the streets. Shuddering, she pushed the thought away and scooped sand up from the lake bed to scrub it over her skin. She’d washed her upper body and stood up to scrub her lower body when a movement in the water caught her attention. Flicking a glance at it almost idly, she froze for a split second and then uttered a shriek of terror as it sank in that it really was a snake and not merely a stick she’d mistaken for a snake. **** As disinclined as Taos was to stop when they had a good two or three hours of light left to travel, once Isra had stalked off he realized that, short of dragging her back kicking and screaming, there was no hope for it. It thoroughly pissed him off, but then he’d been angry since she’d snubbed his efforts at building a campfire the night before. It hardly created a fresh ripple. She’d no more than disappeared down the river bank, however, when it abruptly dawned on him that she’d said she would wash her clothes and bathe. Visions of Isra standing completely naked in the water instantly sent his heart to racing and flushed his skin with a fever that he couldn’t shake. Almost like a sleepwalker, he slid off the horse, dropped the lead and started after her. Fortunately, the sounds of activity pierced his absorption enough that it hit him that she’d forbidden him to watch. He frowned, feeling resentment seep through him, and outrage as it dawned on him that his woman, his mate, had had the audacity to forbid him to watch her bathe! It didn’t matter whether she’d by god consented or not! He hadn’t consented, gods damn it! And it was still done! He was tempted to stalk forward and inform her that it was his right as a husband, and his duty, if it came to that, to watch over her! It occurred to him, though, that she would no doubt get angry and stalk off again, mayhap even decide she wouldn’t bathe after all. He decided in the end to simply sneak a quick peek through the bushes. When he crouched down behind something he was fairly sure hid him from her, but which only partially obscured his own view, he discovered that while he’d been debating the matter, she’d finished building her fire and had moved on to the lake. His cock, already swollen from the images that had been floating tantalizingly through his head, reared up abruptly and strained to break free of his breeches as she pulled her garment off. Massaging it absently, he shifted to get a better look as she crouched, dropping the dress into the water and began pounding it with a rock. His position didn’t give him the best of views, but he could see one breast in profile and that was enough to put him in a state of frozen enthrallment again. Freed of her garment, it bounced and jiggled until he almost felt like his eyeballs were rattling in his head in his effort to track the movement. A wave of dizziness washed over him. Putting a hand out blindly in search of support, he missed the tree he thought was directly next to him and nearly ruined the entire show by sprawling in the brush. Fortunately, he managed to catch himself, but it was enough to bring him back to his senses. He needed a better vantage point, he decided, when he discovered she’d hung her

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garment up on a tree in his line of vision and almost completely blocked his view. Moving now like a predator stalking his prey, he eased carefully through the brush until he was standing on the bank and could peer around a bush. Unfortunately, just as he leaned over to look, she sailed into the water and vanished completely. He stared at the spot where she’d disappeared irritably, waiting for her surface, and wondered if he would be able to see anything at all. Just as he was beginning to worry that she wouldn’t come back up, she did, and immediately moved back to the edge of the lake and sat down in the shallow water. He still had more of a profile view, which annoyed him. He wanted to see everything, gods damn it! Not merely the side of her breast, her back, an arm and a leg! In fact, he couldn’t even see her legs once she had settled, or her buttocks! He finally decided he might see more if he crouched instead of straining to see around the bush and discovered to his delight that he could … because just as he crouched down, she stood up and turned so that he had a full view of the front of her body. He swallowed convulsively several times, trying to rid himself of the knot that seemed to have formed in his throat to strangle him. She took his breath … literally. It wasn’t until a wave of dizziness washed over him that he realized he was holding his breath. He wasn’t certain himself what he would’ve done next, because the urge struck him instantly to rush toward her, but then she uttered a scream that clawed its way through every nerve ending in his body, as painfully immobilizing as a bolt of lightning. The second scream thawed him, sent a wave of sheer terror through him that shot him from the bank before he even consciously decided to move. He saw the snake even as he descended. Throwing a hand out as his feet hit the water, he caught it by its tail. The serpent instantly turned on him and he popped it like a whip. Slogging out of the water with it before it could recover enough to try to strike him again, he slung it onto the bank, grabbed the stone Isra had been using to pound on her dress, and smashed its head flat. Panic was still thrumming through him as he whirled around and stared at Isra. “Did it bite you?” he gasped hoarsely, surging toward her and grabbing her shoulders to search her frantically for some sign of a bite. She shook her head, but she was shaking all over. He wasn’t certain if that meant no or not. She flung herself at him, clutching at him so frantically that he felt another spurt of fear. “Are you hurt? Tell me!” She shook her head. “It didn’t bite me.” Relief poured through him that was so profound it seemed to drain him of his strength. He sank to his knees, carrying her with him. “You’re certain?” She nodded her head against his chest, uttering a choked sob. He wasn’t convinced, but he couldn’t peel her loose to check her like he wanted to. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around her and held her until she finally stopped shaking and pulled away. He examined her worriedly with his gaze then, pushing her a little further away and running his hands along her arms and sides. He discovered she was frowning at him when he finally met her gaze again. Suspicion flickered in her eyes. Turning her face away, she studied the bank where the snake lay, still twitching and then glanced back toward where she’d left him.

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He realized the moment she met his gaze again that she’d realized he’d been watching her. She confirmed it the moment she opened her mouth. “How did you get here so quickly?” “What? What do you mean, how did I get here so quickly?” he hedged, struggling to change gears and think of a reasonable explanation for his nearness. “I screamed twice and you nearly landed on top of me. No way could you have gotten here so fast if you’d been where I left you.” He frowned, deciding the best defense was offense. “I am you mate,” he said pointedly, his voice stiff with anger that he even felt as if he had to explain. “I was guarding you. And it was a very good thing, too!” “You were watching me?” she demanded indignantly. “I was watching over you,” he lied, gesturing toward the snake. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have been close enough to protect you.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You were not! You came to watch! After I told you I wanted privacy, you sneaked down to watch me bathe! You asshole!” Anger swept over him. She’d frightened him half to death with her screaming, nearly gotten killed because she was so hard headed, and he was in the wrong? “You didn’t have the right to order me not to watch to start with, gods damn it! You are my woman!” “That’s only because of a damned spell neither of us agreed to and you know it! You just spout it when it’s convenient to you! You watched because you wanted to watch, not because you wanted to protect me!” “I did protect you,” he growled. “I slew the serpent!” “And you wouldn’t have been here to slay it if you hadn’t sneaked down here to watch me bathe!” she snapped angrily. He scowled at her furiously for a moment and finally dumped her out of his lap. He stood and stalked up the bank, not even casting a glance behind as he left. He was still fuming when he reached the point where he’d left the beasts. Fortunately, neither of them seemed to have much in the way of ambition. They’d drank their fill at the lake and then wandered no further than the first patch of grass. After glaring at the beasts for several moments, Taos finally sat down on the bank and wrestled with his sodden boots until he managed to get them off. He glared at the water he poured out of them, and at the dagger that fell out and almost got lost in the silt, and then tossed them all over his shoulder as he stood up to strip. The cool water, fortunately, doused the flame inside of him. After he’d swam back and forth for a time, the ache left his balls. He was dismayed, however, when he stood up and looked down at it. “Gods! It is withering!” Deciding he’d stayed in the water entirely too long if it was going to make his fucking cock shrink, he waded out, pulling at it as he went to see if he could stretch it back out again. As if the fucking thing wasn’t already pathetic enough, now he discovered water made it shrink! No wonder human males stank so badly! They knew if they got in the water their balls would draw up to the size of fucking acorns and their cocks would shrink and disappear! This was a hell of a thing!

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Chapter Eight Isra was ashamed of herself almost the moment Taos stalked off. He was right. If he hadn’t ignored her warning to stay away, the snake might well have killed her, and instead of thanking him as she should have, she’d yelled at him. She shuddered, glancing toward it, and finally waded out of the water. Her clothes were still damp, but then, she was also wet and she was suddenly anxious to find Taos and try to make amends. Ignoring the dampness, she struggled into her clothes and headed back to the spot where she’d originally left him. It wasn’t until she’d started off that it occurred to her that she might well have completely run him off with her foul temper, and it was with a great deal of relief that she discovered he hadn’t left after all. He was sitting on the bank, naked, his knees drawn up. She knew he had to have heard her approach, but he didn’t look at her or speak to her. She paused beside him. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I shouldn’t have said any of that. You were right. The only thing that was important, or really mattered, was that you were there for me.” Some of the stiffness seemed to leave him, but he continued to sulk, glaring into the distance. Isra hesitated, wondering if she should retreat and leave him to his thoughts or try harder to get through to him. She finally decided she needed to at least make a push to make things right—not that she could, not really. She’d behaved badly. She’d been mean. He wasn’t likely to forget it, but mayhap he would forgive her if she groveled a little. Instead of leaving, she settled beside him on the rock. “Did you wash your clothes?” He slid a hard glance at her. “Oh! I guess they were wet from jumping in to save me. Would you like for me to wash them?” “I will have to put them on wet if we are to go any further,” he said coolly. She sighed. “I know, but I could at least rinse the dirt off of them.” He shook his head. Reaching for his breeches, he pushed his feet into the legs and turned his back to her as he stood up and pulled them over his hips. “I could wash them for you after we make camp. They’d probably be dry by the time we bedded down for the night.” Shaking his head, he pulled his shirt on and left the ties dangling. Instead of pulling his boots back on, though, he merely picked them up, dropped his dagger into one, slung his sword over his shoulder and carried the boots with him as he went to collect the horse. Isra stared after him in dismay but finally followed him and climbed on the cow and they set out once more. She struggled for a while to think of something else to say, something she could

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ask him to draw him out. When nothing occurred to her, she finally decided to talk to him even if he wouldn’t speak to her. “I know a great place where we could camp for the night! We should be able to reach it before dark. I stayed there when my parents took me to Tuatha Dunann.” He slid a frowning glance at her. “Your parents live at Ishmere now?” he asked curiously. Sadness descended and Isra shook her head. “They died … years ago, now. Papa used to travel to Tuatha Dunann fairly often. One time, when he came back, he was sick and then Mama got sick. Before long half the village of Ishmere had the fever. A lot of them died, not just my parents. It’s why they hate me.” Taos frowned, feeling a surge of anger. “They hate you because your parents were sick?” Isra sighed. “Papa brought the sickness. He died. It doesn’t do any good to hate someone that’s dead, so they hated me because he was responsible and I suppose I was guilty just for being his daughter.” “That does not make sense!” Taos said tightly. Isra grimaced. “I’m not sure that hate ever does, certainly not when it’s something like that. People need someone or something to blame their troubles on, though.” Taos felt his chest tighten. It angered him that the villagers had targeted her when she hadn’t done anything to deserve it and yet he realized if they hadn’t they probably wouldn’t have dragged her up the mountain to feed her to him and he would never have met her at all. And he would not be in the mess he was in, he reminded himself grimly. He would’ve liked to have thought the fact that Isra hated him for the fire that had burned her house down was just as unreasonable. Unfortunately, even though he’d never intended her harm specifically, or anyone, really, he was responsible. He didn’t think she would hate him any less, in any case, if he told her that it hadn’t even occurred to him that he was destroying the homes of the humans or to think what they would do if they had no home. He had only been intent on his own survival. He supposed it didn’t matter if she hated him when he was not going to be with her long at all, but it mattered at the moment. It made a miserable situation even more miserable. “You said your mother died when you were just … a hatchling,” Isra said tentatively, drawing him from his dark thoughts. “What happened?” He frowned, feeling his belly twist at the memory. Finally, he merely shrugged, however. “She went for food and she didn’t come back.” Isra felt her throat close. “I’m so sorry!” she said. He glanced at her in surprise. “Why? You did not do it.” “I’m sorry you were left motherless. I know how it feels not to have anyone. What happened to your father?” He shrugged again. “He was a rogue. They did not form a bond. They merely mated for the season. My mother had lost her mate. She didn’t want another.” Isra smiled. “She only wanted you.” Taos lifted his brows in surprise. “I had not thought of it that way.”

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“Did your mother have others? Do you have any brothers? Sisters?” “We do not have many like humans. My mother had a daughter long before me, but I have only met her once.” He studied her. “You said you had no one? You had no brothers or sisters? That is strange. Most humans have many.” “They died, mostly at birth, or before they were born, some when they were infants. I was the only one that survived. I don’t remember any except the one that came after me, but she died when she was little and I hardly remember her.” Taos frowned. He had never even wondered what it might be like to be human before. It seemed to him that death was far more familiar to them even than it was to the dragons they hunted. Isra, he discovered, was excited when they finally came the place where she had camped with her parents, not as excited as she’d been when they’d first reached the lake, but still in far greater spirits than he was accustomed to. She looked a little doubtful when he said he would make the fire, which annoyed him, but she didn’t argue. She insisted on taking his shirt down to the lake to wash it while he built the campfire. He had a fine blaze by the time she returned, and he felt a good deal of satisfaction in proving to her that he could, but he had the uncomfortable suspicion that she was not nearly as impressed as she pretended she was. It occurred to him, though, that he had one skill that might not have abandoned him when he’d changed. Striding down to the lake, he waded out until the water was lapping at his knees and bent over to wait for a fish. Isra followed him, settling on the bank and studying him curiously. “What are you doing?” she asked after a few moments. He flicked a glance at her. “Quiet!” She lifted her brows at him, but she didn’t argue, thankfully. Ignoring her, he focused on the water, holding himself and his hands perfectly still. The fish that had darted off when she’d spoken swam back after a few moments. He had to wait several minutes more before it swam through his hands. When it did, he clamped his hands on it and tossed it toward the bank. Isra let out a shriek and leapt to her feet and then clapped with excitement when she saw the huge fish flopping on the bank. Racing toward it before it could wiggle its way back into the lake, she grabbed it by a fin and dragged it further back from the bank. He caught two more before he finally decided they had enough for the night and waded out again. “Do you know how to clean them?” “Of course I can clean them!” He decided he definitely didn’t like the doubtful look that came over her face at his claim. I can clean them. How hard can it be! “Well, I’ll leave you to it then.” Isra dashed off to find something to go with their fish. Meanwhile, Taos puzzled over what she could possibly expect of him this time. They just came out of the river! How much more clean does she expect them to come? Well! I’m not about to wash them again and risk losing any! He used his knife to scrape the scales off instead, hoping she wouldn’t notice the difference. No skin, no need to wash! Fortunately, she came back before he could toss the fish on the coals. He tried hard to snuff out his disappointment when she took them away from him, instead glaring after her as she carried them back over to the bank. He watched her gut and clean them

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with a derisive sniff. There went all the good parts! When she returned, she laid some flat rocks beside the fire, opened the fish up and lay them flat on the stones. Taos discovered he felt far more enthusiasm than he’d felt in a while as they settled to watch the food cook. Isra prodded at the fish with a sharp stick and finally announced that they were done and very carefully transferred the fish from the stones to fronds she’d collected to use as plates. Rolling the roots she’d found out of the fire, she checked them by spearing them with the sharp stick and then added them to their ‘plates’. Taos wasn’t terribly impressed with the roots, but he kept his opinion to himself. The fish was excellent and plentiful enough they were hard put to eat all of it. Sighing with satisfaction when they’d finished, they lay down beside the fire, staring up at the stars in the sky. “This was nice,” Isra murmured. “I think this is the best day since we left Ishmere.” “That would not be hard,” Taos said wryly. Isra fell silent and Taos regretted the comment, but she seemed to dismiss it. Lifting her arm after a few moments, she pointed at the sky. “Look! A shooting star!” Taos missed it, but he was far more interested in studying Isra’s face. He had thought she was pretty the first time that he had seen her, but she was more than just pretty when her face was lit with delight, when she smiled. He swallowed with an effort, struggling with the urge to kiss her and finally gave up the battle. Scooping her into his arms, he dragged her against his length and lowered his mouth to hers. She tensed but almost the instant his mouth settled over hers, she relaxed again, clutching at him as she parted her lips in invitation. A heady rush of desire flooded him. For a handful of moments, he allowed himself to ignore the warnings clamoring at the back of his mind. Thrusting his tongue into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth, he filled his senses with her, savoring the taste and scent of her, the wet heat of her mouth around his tongue, the smoothness of the tender skin of her lips. It felt every bit as good as he remembered … better. A sense of recklessness filled him, a wildness to devour her. He ran a hand lightly along her back, pressing her more tightly against himself and then that wasn’t enough and he rolled to press her against the ground beneath him, curling his hips to ease the throbbing ache of his cock. A sort of madness seemed to envelop him. He kissed her with more desperation, trying to fulfill his need, but even as he began to think of drawing her skirts up, of ridding himself of the breeches and plowing into her, a flicker of doubt rose in him. He wanted her … far worse than he could recall wanting any female in all his years, but that was the danger of yielding to his needs. It had always been the danger of taking what he wanted so desperately to take. If he took her, he had to accept that there was a chance that he could never go back to the life he’d had. He was afraid to let go of it, afraid he could never fit into her world, never be what she wanted and needed. If he let go, if he gave up his only chance and found that he couldn’t live that way… what then? Reluctantly, he lifted his head to stare down at her for a long moment, still struggling with his doubts and his desires. Finally, he released her and rolled off of her, dropping one arm over his eyes while he tried to sort the conflicting emotions churning

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through him. **** The disappointment Isra felt when Taos moved away from her kept her awake much of the night and even when she finally dropped to sleep, she had dreams that weren’t at all pleasant. She couldn’t remember them once she woke, but she remembered the distress she had felt, still felt it long after she’d awakened. Taos, she discovered when she roused and sat up, had gone down to the lake to fish again. Trying to feel pleased about it, she left the camp to attend her needs and then wandered the woods for a little while in the hope of collecting a little food to supplement their journey. She came back empty handed, but saw Taos had had better luck and had cooked more fish while she was away. This time, they were actually prepared right. She felt a little tingle when she realized just how hard he had to have been studying her last night to have picked up so much, but she decided against commenting. They settled to eat in silence. It wasn’t a particularly comfortable silence. Isra could see that Taos was wrestling with his own thoughts just as she was, but at least he seemed to be in a more mellow mood. She wasn’t in a particularly good mood herself. She still didn’t understand why Taos had kissed her. Or why, having gone that far, after displaying so much passion, he’d pulled away. Had he just been desperately needy and then, having kissed her, discovered that he wasn’t needy enough to want her? Or make do with her? It made her feel like crying to think it, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation that would’ve made her feel any better. It was hard to argue with the fact that he’d stopped when there was no reason for him to except he just wanted to. Maybe her eagerness had soured him to her? Mayhap he thought she was a loose woman and that had repelled him? What was I supposed to do? Should I have protested? What would be the point of that? She was no maiden! If they coupled, he was bound to realize it and then he would think she had deliberately deceived him! Mayhap it was only that she didn’t understand how his people behaved, what they considered acceptable and unacceptable? The villagers certainly didn’t behave as the higher class folk did. It stood to reason his people would have their own code of behavior. At least, she supposed they did. He’d said that his mother had chosen a rogue to mate with. It had seemed to her that that was much like the people of her class. They were not against coupling outside of marriage, certainly! It was not as if they had a great lineage to protect, or wealth and land that must be passed down. They also disapproved of women who gave themselves too freely or shared themselves with too many partners, but they were inclined to be indulgent if a woman was discreet about her lovers. She worried it over back and forth as they made their way around the lake the following day and camped again that night along the shore. Taos was polite, but distant. She almost thought she preferred it when he bellowed at her, although that scared her … or at least it had until it had become obvious that he had no intention of doing anything except bellowing at her when he was angry. He always left when he felt his control slipping and went off to cool down.

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It was one of the things she admired about him, she realized, his self-control. It was almost strange to think that he had shown far more self-control when he was actually a beast than any man she’d ever known. Even her father had beaten her mother several times in her memory, although he was mild mannered by most people’s reckoning. After following the lake two days more, Isra told Taos it was time to head east. He looked at her questioningly and asked her why. “I don’t want to get any closer to the forest of Per. There are … monsters there.” He stared at her blankly and finally smiled. “Monsters?” “Yes, monsters!” she said crossly. “Take my word for it! We don’t want to go anywhere near the forest. We should reach Tuatha Dunann in a few more days. Unfortunately, there won’t be much food for the duration, but we’ve eaten our fill of fish. We should be fine for a few days even if we don’t find much.” He shook his head at her. “Why not hunt in Per if you think there will be nothing between here and Tuatha Dunann?” “I just said why! I’m not a hunter and I’ve nothing to hunt with if I was! And I won’t go in there. There’s nothing to be had besides small game anyway. The monsters eat everything.” He shrugged. “We have the cow. We will have the milk.” Isra curled her lips in distaste. “Yes, we’ll have milk.” Taos studied her curiously, but let it go. She’d seemed … distressed and unhappy since the night he’d kissed her. He wasn’t certain he understood why, unless she hadn’t wanted him to kiss her at all. Which he supposed, wryly, was entirely possible… in fact likely. She hadn’t tried to push him away, though, and he couldn’t think of any reason that would make her unhappy anyway. Angry, yes, but certainly not unhappy. He was sure, though, that something had distressed her and not angered her. He hadn’t managed to pick a single argument with her since, although he’d tried several times because he’d discovered he preferred her anger to her distance. He preferred anything to that! And yet he couldn’t think of how to coax her out of her strange mood and that bothered him, frustrated him far more than the desire that made him so miserable. It made him want to hold her, but she wouldn’t even allow that anymore. She still slept beside him, but stiffly, and whenever he tried to put his arm around her and pull her close, she would move away. “You aren’t becoming ill?” he asked tentatively after a few moments. She sent him a startled look but shook her head. “I’m fine.” He frowned. She was not ‘fine’! “I have done something I shouldn’t have?” Her face turned pink. “Why would you think that?” she countered. “I have not done something I should have?” he pursued. Her face darkened from pink to red. “Not that I know of,” she muttered. Sighing, he gave up. They reached the Danu Cliffs near noon and paused to stare at them for several moments before continuing on their way. Despite his own moodiness, Taos couldn’t help but admire the sheer beauty of the cliffs. “When I was a youngling I would sit on the top of a mountain much like this one for hours on end and dream of flying. And yet, I was afraid to try. I had not learned before I lost my mother. After that, I had no one to teach

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me. I spent hours stretching my wings and simply trying to fly up from the ground since I was afraid to leap from the cliff. And then one day I did it. I stood on the edge and looked down and I told myself that I was born to fly. I could fly. I didn’t need to be taught, and then I jumped … and I flew. Somehow, the cliffs never lost their magic to me. To this day, each time I face one I feel the same sense of … glory.” At least he had when he had still been a dragon. “What cliffs?” Isra asked quietly. He glanced at her, studying her face for a very long moment. It occurred to him forcefully that he felt that same sense of breathless anticipation. He had that same sense of certainty that he would find glory if he had the courage to try each time he looked at her and thought about taking her as his mate in truth. “I don’t know,” he said a little absently. “Dragons don’t have names for such things.” He chuckled as another memory surfaced. “The first time I tried to fly, I learned to swim instead.” Isra smiled tentatively and he felt his chest tighten, felt a heady sense of victory that he’d managed to coax a smile from her. “What happened?” He snorted. “I leapt from a cliff overlooking a lake … a very short cliff. Fortunately, the water broke my fall. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to swim either, but I discovered fear was a marvelous teacher.” **** They reached the Burnt Wood the following day. Taos studied it with frowning intensity and she knew he was wondering about it. “This was not burned by a dragon. Someone was careless?” he murmured. Isra shook her head. “The merchants from Ishmere always set fire to the woods when they travel this way …. Because of the monsters of Per. Five years ago, the villagers saved up money and paid the soldiers from Tuatha Dunann to burn the area to drive the monsters further into the woods, hoping to entice more trade. Unfortunately, although it succeeded in driving the monsters away, it opened the area to bandits and there’s still very little trade between Tuatha Dunnan and Ishmere. We’ll need to be careful of bandits from here on out.” Taos snorted. “I’m a dragon. It there’s one thing I can do, and do well, it’s protect my treasure!”

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Chapter Nine As little as Isra liked the idea, they had no choice but to make camp for the night. Uneasiness had dogged her from the time they’d reached the Burnt Woods. She’d relaxed fractionally when they’d passed through without incident, but she still wasn’t easy in her mind when they stopped near dusk to make camp. “Maybe we shouldn’t make a fire tonight?” she said hesitantly as Taos set about the nightly search for the makings of one. He paused and looked at her in surprise. “There’s little comfort as it is,” he said dryly. “We need a fire to warm ourselves.” “We didn’t have one the first night we were together and we were still on the mountain. It isn’t as cool here.” “We both nearly froze that night!” Taos said testily. “Besides, it will discourage the beasts.” “It’s the two legged beasts I’m worried about,” Isra said. They had milk and ate the last of the berries Isra had found and brought with them. It wasn’t much but Isra wasn’t inclined to wander into the woods as she usually did. They discussed their plans, briefly, after they’d eaten. Taos still wasn’t happy about the idea of going by sea. He could swim, but that didn’t mean he cared for the possibility of having to. Beyond that, he found that he wasn’t nearly as anxious to reach Rastarius’ lair as he’d thought he was. Well, he was anxious, he told himself. He wanted to reach Rastarius’ lair as soon as he could, the sooner the better. He just wasn’t so anxious that he felt like taking unnecessary risks. The problem was it had been borne in upon him that the risk was necessary. They hadn’t even been upon their trek for a full week and already Isra had begun to look worn to the bone. She had lost the glow of health and dropped enough weight to alarm him because he could see that she had. She had lost the plumpness from her cheeks so that they had begun to look hollowed. If going by sea would be less of a strain upon her, provide more comfort, then he decided it was best regardless of his reservations. To his surprise, when they lay down beside the fire, Isra moved closer to him than she had the past several nights. She didn’t move away, either, when he settled one arm lightly, tentatively, across her. Pleasure wafted through him both at her nearness and at the realization that she had decided to forgive him for whatever it was that he’d done or not done that had upset her. The pleasure dipped when it dawned on him that it was uneasiness not forgiveness that had brought her close, but even though that realization didn’t make him happy, it still pleased him that she felt safer in his arms. Resolving to prove her faith in him wasn’t misplaced, he lay listening intently to the sounds in the woods around them long after she’d finally dozed off.

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He didn’t have to wait long to put his prowess to a test. Almost as soon as Isra had dozed off and he’d grown still to keep from waking her, he heard stealthy footsteps moving toward them through the underbrush. He focused on trying to separate them into individuals and finally decided that there were four—he was almost positive—and that they were approaching the campsite from two directions—in front and behind. He’d lain his weapons close to hand before he settled, but his sword lay on the other side of Isra in plain sight. He hadn’t wanted it between them and it had seemed best to have it within reach of his right hand. His dagger was still in his boot, but he couldn’t easily reach that either since it was in his left boot and he was lying on his left side. While he lay listening to their approach, he tried to work out a scenario in his mind for defense. He couldn’t simply wait for them to pounce, he decided. He would not have time to leap to his feet and get his weapons in his hands, and with them approaching from the front and the rear, he couldn’t think of a position he might take that would protect Isra and still leave her far enough to avoid the risk of tripping over her or of accidentally striking her. There was no hope for it, he decided grimly, when he heard the men pause just beyond the line of trees to gather their nerve. He would have to stand over Isra and fight. Tensing, he gripped his sword and bolted to his feet with the next rustle of foliage. Even as he did so, the men leapt from the woods, bellowing threats or simply growling ferociously, charging directly toward them. Jolted from sleep, Isra sucked in a sharp breath to scream. “Stay down!” Taos bellowed. “And stay close!” The clang of metal against metal punctuated his order as the first of the bandits slung his blade at Taos. Taos’ lips tightened as he parried one blade after another and half turned to meet the men behind him and deflect their blows. He hadn’t had time to retrieve the knife from his boot. He was relieved to discover, though, that he had lost none of his dexterity with the change and he thought he was quite possibly even faster than before. It was a hard call, for it was clear the men who’d attacked weren’t particularly skilled with swords. Beyond that, they’d expected him to be asleep, not on his feet to thwart their attack and the very fact that they’d decided to attack in concert weighed against them. They bumped into one another, deflecting each others strikes as often as they managed to connect their swords with Taos’. He managed to block and parry, but he discovered within a very few moments that the bandits had recovered from their surprise and rallied instead of fleeing and their greater number made it impossible for him to press forward and attack. He was at a disadvantage, fighting on two sides and watching four blades and, at the same time, trying to watch his feet to keep from stumbling over Isra. There seemed no way to remedy the problem unless he could manage a lucky strike. Frustration and anger began to build inside him. He struggled with it, knowing he couldn’t afford to lose what little advantage he had, but using it to strengthen his blows and increase his speed until he managed to beat two off and slide his sword beneath one’s guard. Unfortunately, he only managed to nick him and there was no time to press the slight advantage it gave him when the man he’d struck fell back.

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“I have your woman!” someone bellowed abruptly. “Throw down the sword or I will cut her pretty throat!” Coldness washed over Taos instantly. He glanced quickly around to see if it was true and was nearly skewered by one of his assailants. He leapt out of the way just in time to the tune of Isra’s scream of terror and held up a hand. Huffing for breath, the bandits, seeming relieved, broke off their attack warily. “Throw it down!” “Let her go!” Taos growled. “When you put the god damned sword down!” Stalemate! “If I drop my weapon I will have no way to stop you from killing her and me!” The five men exchanged a glance. Finally, the man holding Isra spoke again. “All we want is the gold you have. We’re thieves, not murders. Put the sword down and give us your gold and I’ll release the woman.” Taos still didn’t like it. It infuriated him that the bastard was threatening his woman, but it took little thought to realize he had no choice. The man had a blade to her throat. The chances of reaching him and removing her from danger before he could use it were almost nonexistent. If the man hadn’t been holding Isra in front of him like a shield, he would’ve been tempted to try to gut the man with the knife in his boot. As it was, he realized he could do nothing but comply and prepare to launch another attack if it transpired that they were lying—which he fully believed. Slowly, he leaned down and laid the sword on the ground. “Now the bag at your waist! Throw it to me.” Taos’ lips tightened. He flicked a glance at Isra’s frightened face. It galled him to give them his gold when they were threatening Isra—to pay them when they had hurt and frightened her. It frightened him that he had no guarantee that they wouldn’t hurt her even if he did. Reaching for the bag, he removed it from his belt and tossed it to the nearest man. The man caught it against his chest and quickly opened it, emptying the contents into his palm. “Three pieces of gold!” he exclaimed excitedly. Something flickered in Isra’s eyes, but even without Taos’ warning glance, she gave nothing of her thoughts away. “Good!” the man holding Isra crowed, jerking his head at his followers and beginning to back toward the woods, dragging Isra with him. “You said you’d let her go!” Taos bellowed furiously, balling his hands into fists. “And I mean to … though she’s a lovely piece!” the man said with a snicker. “But I can get as many lovely pieces as I like with your gold!” As he finished speaking, he removed his knife from Isra’s throat and gave her a shove. She staggered forward several steps, trying to regain her balance and lost the battle, sprawling on the ground so hard that she skidded several feet. Taos reached her as she was beginning to push herself up, jerking her up and searching her a little frantically for injury, struggling with his rage and the urge to race after the men. The fear that they might circle around and grab her again was all that kept him from doing so. Instead, once he’d assured himself that she wasn’t hurt, he clutched her tightly.

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He discovered that he was shaking all over as if the cold fear inside him was ice and not emotion. It angered him more to realize Isra was shaking, as well. For a few moments, she clung to him, but she began to struggle and, reluctantly, he loosened his frantic grip on her. She sighed, almost as if with relief. “You were wonderful, Taos! Amazing!” she gasped, her voice quavering either with fear or insipient tears. “I was amazingly inept,” Taos growled in disgust. “It is only by the grace of the gods that you were not killed.” “That isn’t true!” Isra gasped. “You saved me!” “I paid for your release!” Taos snarled, pulling away from her abruptly. “Because I could not protect you, I had to pay!” Isra stared at him unhappily. “You’re angry because of the gold?” she asked in a quavering voice. Taos had been staring furiously at the woods where the men had disappeared, as if he could pierce the darkness if only he tried hard enough. At the question, he flicked a look at her. “I am angry because I had to buy your life!” he said tightly. “It is my duty to protect you … and I could not!” For several moments Isra looked like she would cry. “You fought four men, Taos! You can’t blame yourself that you couldn’t hold off four men and still prevent me from being captured. And you used your wits! I’m so proud of you! It isn’t your fault. It’s my fault! I was afraid that you would trip over me and fall upon one of their swords. If I’d done what you told me to do, the man never would’ve gotten the chance to grab me.” “If I had been a dragon I could’ve slain all five! I would have known that there were five instead of thinking there were only four! My senses are virtually useless to me! I am nigh blind in the darkness! I cannot hear or smell as I ought! “When I am a dragon again, I will hunt them down and I will kill them all … slowly, for daring to touch my woman! For threatening you!” Isra swallowed convulsively, but she didn’t say anything. What was there to say? “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?” Taos glared at her a little blankly for several moments and then seemed to come to himself. Moving a little further from her, he examined himself. “I have some nicks, but they are nothing of any consequence. Even this pathetic human form is not likely to collapse from a few small cuts.” Isra tried to coax him back to the fire to lie down. He refused. Instead, he sat up watchfully the remainder of the night. She got little sleep herself. She missed having him lying next to her and she desperately wanted to be held, to feel the reassurance of his strength surrounding her, but she kept that to herself. Thankfully, the following day pasted relatively uneventful and they came within view of the city walls of Tuatha Dunnan before dusk. Unhappily, the gates had been closed and locked for the night by the time they managed to reach them and they were forced to camp outside the village. They were not alone, however. There were at least a dozen camps set up by other travelers. A group of traders from the northern city of Kallus invited them to share a meal and their company.

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Taos eyed them suspiciously, his expression patently unfriendly, but Isra was delighted with the invitation and did her best to gloss over Taos’ cool reception to the notion. The food, after several days of little besides milk, was welcome, but Isra was more interested in the company. It made her feel safer to be among other people, even strangers, though she thought Taos was probably far more capable of protecting the two of them than all of the others put together. They were a friendly lot and between the food and wine they shared and the good natured talk and news, Isra found herself relaxing and even laughing at some of their stories from time to time. It warmed her that Taos seemed so determined to remain virtually plastered to her side, laying his arm across her shoulder possessively. She thought they must look like a very loving couple, for some of the men commented on it and asked if they were newly wed. She blushed at the question and sent Taos an uncomfortable look. “Yes,” he responded immediately, almost a challenge in his voice. “We were wed little more than a week ago.” “Then we must help to celebrate!” one of the traders announced jovially after an uncomfortable pause. Getting up decisively, he headed into the tent that he and the others had erected and emerged only a few moments later with a fiddle and a mouth harp, which he tossed to another man. Isra was delighted when they settled and struck up a lively tune, clapping her hands to the rhythm and chuckling as several of the men got up to dance. Within a few minutes, most everyone that had gathered outside the city gates had crowded close to listen and clap or stomp their feet or dance. Isra found that she could hardly sit still as they began another tune after the first and then a third. A yearning filled her to get up as the others had and dance. She finally glanced at Taos hopefully, knowing it was doubtful that he would know how to dance himself even if he was so inclined. “Will you be angry if I dance?” He looked angry, and vastly reluctant, but he eased his hold on her and nodded. Impulsively, she leaned toward him and kissed his cheek and then bounded up and joined the other dancers. Taos was torn as he watched her… between desire, pleasure, resentment and a nearly overwhelming sense of being an outsider looking on. Her face was more alive than he had ever seen it before, joyful, radiant. She moved with the music with a natural grace that was sheer beauty and made his heart swell with pride even while it made an entirely different part of his anatomy swell and throb. He didn’t especially care for the looks on the other men’s faces as they watched her. In fact, he didn’t like it at all. The urge to leap up and try to shield her from their avid glances was so powerful that it took all he could do to remain seated, smoldering with anger and desire. He was vastly relieved when the music finally stopped and Isra returned to him. Jolting to his feet even before she reached him, he pulled her close possessively, glared over her head at the other men and led her away. He spent another near sleepless night coiled around her, watching alertly for any suspicious moves by any of the strangers surrounding them.

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**** As weary as Taos was from nigh a week of little sleep and two nights with even less, he was so impressed when they entered the city the following day that he found excitement threading his veins and buoying him. The stench of the place aside, he was amazed at the structures crowded together along cobbled streets and the throngs of humanity moving along the sidewalks and the streets, the crush of carts, and wagons, and other conveyances he could put no name to, of horses, of men and women driving small herds of children—or goats and pigs. Wagons filled with stacked cages filled with squawking birds rumbled past them. The cacophony of sounds was almost as deafening and disorienting as the crowded buildings and throng of people. They split off from the other travelers almost as soon as they entered the gates of the city and Isra stopped long enough to thank them for their hospitality the night before and bid them farewell. Taos merely nodded, giving the men a hard, suspicious glare. He was ready enough to bid them go, if not farewell, and glad to see the last of them. He discovered that, as he’d feared, there were many men that eyed his woman as if she was a tasty bit of food as they passed along the streets. Thankfully, Isra seemed oblivious and, once they met his gaze, they hurried on their way. They’d been walking for what seemed like hours when Isra caught his arm and pulled him off the main thoroughfare and into a narrow alley. “Where did you hide the rest of your gold?” she asked in a hushed voice. Taos eyed her uneasily. “Why?” She released a slightly irritated huff of breath. “I know how badly you hate to part with it, but we need it. We’ll have to buy some supplies here and pay for passage on the ship. We’ll need a place to stay until we sail.” He studied her for a long moment and finally shoved a hand down the front of his pants. Isra watched him with a mixture of horror and fascination … and disappointment when he withdrew his hand after a moment and produced a couple of gold coins. She’d thought that hard thing was his cock! It was disconcerting to discover he’d hidden a small pouch of gold there! She bit her lip, trying to keep from smiling when he dropped the coins in her palm. “I wouldn’t have thought to hide them there,” she murmured, amused. Laughter gleamed in his eyes for a moment. “I did not think anyone would want to search that particular area.” “Well, you are wrong! I have been fighting the temptation to explore that particular area for a long time!” she responded tartly. Taos caught her arm and dragged her back when she turned to go, his gaze intent as he stared down at her. He seemed satisfied with the blush that rose in her cheeks, though, and turned after only a moment to usher her from the alley. Isra was keenly aware of him as they moved along the street, though, felt the tension in him that she thought had nothing to do with an alertness for trouble but might possibly be put down to the same tension churning within her. Trying her best to ignore it and focus on the task at hand, she studied the Inns they passed and finally chose one she thought looked respectable. Taos, she saw, was bright-eyed with interest as they made their way inside. Indulgent amusement flickered through her and yet a strange sense of protectiveness, as

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well. As poor as her own understanding and experience was with such things, she was vastly more experienced than Taos, she knew, and it was an unexpected pleasure to discover he needed her, that there was something she could do that was helpful that he couldn’t do for himself. After wrangling with the innkeeper for a little bit, they finally arrived at a cost for services they found mutually acceptable and Isra handed him one of the gold coins to cover their room for three nights, including meals and hot baths. Taos, she saw, didn’t look particularly happy with her efforts. “There is a lake. We did not need to pay for baths,” he said pointed. Isra contained her impatience with an effort. “But this is for hot baths. You’ll see! It’s much better than a cold bath. Shall we eat first?” Taos was at least in agreement with that, and they found a place to settle at a table with two high backed benches that gave them a little privacy. The serving wench eyed Taos with far more interest than Isra liked, but she bustled off after encountering a glare from Isra and returned shortly with two heaping platters of food. To do him justice, Taos didn’t seem to notice. He seemed far more intent on staring down the men in the room before the food arrived and in his plate afterward. As hungry as Isra was, and good as the food was, she was so stunned at the amount of food Taos managed to put away that it was hard to focus on her own. He’d cleaned his plate and emptied his mug before she’d eaten more than few bites and sat watching her until she finally pushed her plate back. “That is all you want?” he asked, obviously not pleased. “I will pop if I try to eat more, but it was very good!” “You are certain you cannot eat more?” he said with a mixture of disapproval and hopefulness that Isra had no trouble interpreting. “Why don’t you have the rest?” “I have eaten,” he hedged. “You have not had nearly enough, I’m certain.” Isra smiled at him. “I really can’t eat more, though I’d like to. Why don’t you have it?” Shrugging, he polished off what was left on her plate and then leaned back and patted his stomach in satisfaction. “The milk was good, but it was not nearly enough to fill me up.” Isra smiled at him in amusement. “So I see. Shall we make a try for some supplies? I think we may have trouble getting in to any of the more respectable establishments … or I will, but we must start there, I think. We will need at least a change of clothing,” she finished a little hesitantly. “I think you need only wave a gold coin before their noses,” Taos said sardonically, “and they will let us in. I don’t see a need for a change of clothing myself. Soon I won’t need clothing at all, but we should find something for you.” Pleased that he’d willingly agreed to buy her a new gown, Isra decided to argue with him later about a change of clothing for himself. It depressed her that he’d brought up the end of their journey, but it wasn’t over yet! Even if the ship was swifter than traveling as they had been, she was certain they would have at least another week and Taos’ clothing was showing nearly as much wear as her own since his battle with the bandits.

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Despite his comment about the gold, she led him along the city streets until she found a shop offering second hand clothing and went in. Since it catered to the poor and middle classes, the proprietor merely looked at them suspiciously and watched them as they wandered through the store. He didn’t approach them and try to evict them. She thought that might have been unpleasant indeed, because she was as certain as she could be that Taos wouldn’t stand for that sort of treatment and it might’ve led to some unpleasantness even if it didn’t land them both in jail. She found a gown that looked serviceable but modest, deciding that it might well be her salvation once she parted company with Taos. It looked entirely respectable enough, she thought, to get her a job as a higher servant in some household. The thought depressed her, but she was able to shake it fairly easily with the joy of having something new to wear, particularly since Taos insisted that she buy three dresses and under garments, as well. In fact, it was hard not to hold back her excitement and be practical. She was fairly dancing with it by the time they’d finished selecting the things and carried them up to the counter and almost forgot she’d meant to talk Taos into buying himself a change of clothing. He still appeared reluctant, but the moment her face fell, he changed his mind and followed her while she chose two changes of clothing for him, grinning at her when she exclaimed over how handsome he was going to be in his new finery. The proprietor eyed them skeptically when they’d piled their choices on the counter but his attitude underwent a complete reversal when she held up one of the gold coins. His eyes narrowed with avarice and Isra found herself haggling furiously with him. Taos finally settled it, but Isra wasn’t particularly happy when the proprietor had counted the change into her palm and rushed away to fold and wrap their purchases. “I could’ve gotten him down at least two more shillings,” Isra said a little irritably. Taos caught her chin and tipped her face up. “But I liked the smiles on your face before much better than the frown.” Isra felt her face heating but pleasure flooded her. “Really? You’re not upset about the money? It was far more than I’d intended to spend,” she added worriedly. She saw him swallow. “It is not worth much, is it, if it cannot buy a little happiness?”

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Chapter Ten Isra found that she was still buzzing with excitement when they returned to the inn, a mixture of pleasure over her new clothes and Taos’ and, threading it, carnal anticipation. There had seemed so much promise in Taos’ eyes she couldn’t help but think he might actually want to make love to her and she was torn by the desire to find out at once by dragging him to their room, sudden and acute case of shyness, and her sense of practicality. Practicality won out. They needed to make arrangements to sail to their final destination before they wasted any more time, she knew. They’d only paid for three days at the inn and she expected it would take much of what Taos had left to pay their passage, although she’d never done such a thing before. The traders had complained of the cost, after all, and they had come to Tuatha Dunnan themselves to take a voyage to Roann. From the map they’d shown them, she could see the Devil’s Back was further. Dismissing that worry for the moment, she ordered baths for the two of them and, clutching her own package possessively, left Taos a little reluctantly in the hands of a couple of serving women who were to make his bath and went to the other bathing chamber for her own. The bath, she discovered, was everything she’d dreamed of. She hadn’t owned a tub herself and although she’d been in the habit of warming water to bathe herself regularly, it simply wasn’t the same dipping from a bucket as it was to soak in a tub large enough to accommodate her whole body. Beyond that, they had sweet smelling soap. Despite the urge to linger and savor the experience, Isra was too worried about what might be going on in the other chamber with Taos and the maids to indulge herself. Instead, she scrubbed her hair and then her body as thoroughly and quickly as she could, waited impatiently while the maids poured water over her to rinse and then climbed out. The gown she chose didn’t fit quite as well as she’d hoped, but it was so lovely she felt beautiful anyway and could hardly contain herself to see Taos’ reaction. While the maid carefully combed the snarls from her hair, she smoothed her hands over the fabric, enjoying the feel of it. “Do I look alright?” she asked the maid anxiously when she’d finished. The maid looked her over critically. “You look right smart, you do,” she said finally. “You could pass for a swell, you could!” Blushing at the compliment, although she was doubtful of the sincerity of it given the excessiveness of it—she knew very well she didn’t look like a ‘swell’ or aristocrat!— she thanked the woman, gathered up her other new clothing and asked the woman if she could have the gown she’d discarded laundered. The woman looked doubtful. “If’n I was you, I think I’d drop that one in the rag basket. It ain’t like you need it no more.” Briefly, Isra was tempted. It occurred to her, though, that she’d worn it throughout her journey thus far with Taos and a lump formed in her throat. “I think I’ll

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keep it just the same,” she said firmly. She was startled by the stranger she found waiting in the hallway outside the bath. He seemed equally stunned by her and then embarrassment flooded her when she realized it was Taos and that he was staring at her as if she was a stranger. He swallowed convulsively several times. “You are so beautiful!” Isra chuckled with delight at the compliment, but she felt her face turn fiery red. “I doubt I’m half as beautiful as you are! You are so handsome!” Taos turned nearly as red as she had and Isra was so charmed and delighted it took all she could do to refrain from throwing herself at him right there. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, looking down at himself doubtfully. “You think so?” Isra sighed. “Every female in the city will think so! I’m not certain it will be safe to take you out!” He chuckled. “I will have you to guard me. I’m more worried about the men I will have to beat off of you.” His last remark wasn’t teasing at all, but filled with a grim determination that thrilled Isra even more. She felt awkward suddenly. “We should take our things to our room and go the docks,” she said briskly. “We’ll want to arrange passage as soon as we can.” “We will get your cloak,” Taos said on inspiration, catching her arm and escorting her upstairs. Isra threw him a questioning look as they entered their room. “It seemed warm enough,” she said hesitantly. “But it will cover you,” Taos said firmly, sorting through the package he’d taken from her until he found it and then draping it around her shoulders. Pleased, if a little doubtful at his display of possessiveness, Isra smiled at him tentatively when he’d finished adjusting the cloak. His gaze moved to her lips as Isra abruptly remembered they’d need money to pay their passage. “Oh! I almost forgot! You should move your money pouch while there’s no one around to see. I’ve no idea how much we’ll have to pay for passage, but I’m sure the coin I have left won’t be enough.” Taos frowned, but bent over and fished the small pouch from his boot, displaying it. Isra reddened. “Well, it might not be a bad idea to keep it there, then! There are purse snatchers and thugs that roam the streets even in the day time … especially near the wharves.” Either there weren’t as many about as rumors had convinced Isra there were, or they decided they didn’t like Taos’ looks as a mark. They made their way through town without incident. It wasn’t until they actually reached the wharves that they had any trouble at all. Three drunken sailors staggered out of a dockside tavern just before they reached it and looked her over as if she were standing alone. Taos made short work of the lot of them, though. Slamming the first man he grabbed into the second, he knocked both of them from the wharf and then grabbed the third by the front of his shirt and pitched him into the water behind the first two.

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Isra was too stunned even to scream and it was over before she’d recovered enough to react at all. Fear instantly washed over her and she glanced around quickly to see if there was any sign of the city guard. To her relief, she discovered the incident seemed to have gone largely unnoticed even by the people nearest them. They had to ask around to find a ship sailing their way, but managed to find one in less than an hour. The price the captain demanded dismayed Isra. She’d expected it would be a lot, but not nearly as much as he was asking! And he made it clear that the price wasn’t open to negotiation. Glaring at him, Taos brought his pouch out and dropped the coins in the thief’s hand. They would sailing, the captain informed them, on the morning tide the day after next and the ship would clear port whether they were on board or not. Subdued both by the exorbitant price and the sobering realization that she wouldn’t have the week she’d counted on having with Taos, Isra was quiet as they made their way back to the inn. The captain had told them the nearest port was Eire and they’d have to beg or pay for passage from there to the place Taos had pointed out on the map. He’d studied both of them speculatively and pointed out that they were bound to have trouble finding anyone willing to go there since it was rumored that there was a dragon’s den somewhere in the Devil’s Back. It was depressing to know they’d still have to arrange some way to reach the mountains, but not nearly as much as the discovery that the voyage to Eire would only take a couple of days. It seemed almost impossible to her that the boat could go so far so fast, but clearly it was possible. She was so deep in thought that she barely noticed when Taos pulled her to a stop to stare at a shop window. Confused when she finally emerged to see that it was a silversmith’s shop, she glanced at Taos curiously as he guided her inside. “How much for the necklace you have there?” Taos asked as soon as the proprietor appeared. “Twelve crowns!” the man said promptly without even glancing at the window. Isra gasped. “Twelve crowns!” she echoed. “Thief! That is not worth half that much!” He glared at her angrily. “Ten crowns!” Isra sucked in her breath to protest again. To her stunned surprise, Taos clamped a hand over her mouth—or rather her face! She hadn’t realized just how large his hands were until he planted one over her face and she found herself trying to peer over his fingers. “I will take it for my lady,” he said firmly. As stunned as she’d been when he clamped his hand over her mouth, that announcement floored her. Speechless, she watched in something of a daze as the two men concluded their business and then Taos very carefully fastened the necklace around her throat. He used the edge of his hand to tap her chin up when he was finished to study the effect. “A smile would go very nicely with this,” he murmured. Isra flushed, lifting a hand in wonder to touch the beautiful piece of jewelry. His own smile faded. “But that will do.” Isra smiled at him then. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed, gazing at herself in the reflective surface of a silver vase. In truth, in spite of her protest at the price, it was the nicest thing she had ever owned and worth more than everything she had ever had before

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put together. “You are beautiful,” he said firmly. “It must be nearly noon. Let us return to the inn and see what they cooked.” Isra couldn’t help but chuckle. “You can’t possibly be hungry again already!” “My stomach says it is ready to make up for the meager week it’s had,” he retorted. “Besides, they have the most wonderful food I’ve ever eaten.” Isra couldn’t decide whether he really was starving or if he was simply determined to get his money’s worth out of the deal with the innkeeper, but he managed to down an amazing quantity of food considering what he’d broken his fast with. They spent the afternoon wandering around the city and gawking at the sights and then returned to the inn before dusk for the evening meal he had insisted they could not possibly miss. Isra found she could barely eat a bite for thinking about joining Taos in the big bed awaiting them upstairs. It was odd, she supposed, that it seemed … almost forbidden and very naughty when she’d traveled with him so far and slept curled in his arms most of that time. Somehow, though, the thought of closing themselves off from the rest of the world and curling up together in a bed seemed more intimate. She couldn’t tell if Taos was anticipating their night together as much as she was, but then she was so tense and nervous she could barely glance at him for fear she might give something away that she preferred not to. She supposed, if she hadn’t allowed herself to spend the entire day in anticipation, her disappointment might not have been so profound. She had, though, and when they’d finally gone up to bed and she discovered that Taos meant to go out again and leave her alone, she thought for several moments that she would burst into tears. He stared at her forlorn expression uneasily. “You will be safe. You must bolt the door when I leave and I will knock three times when I return. You aren’t to open the door to anyone else, mind you.” Swallowing her disappointment with an effort, she nodded. Since it had instantly leapt into her mind, though, that he was going out to find a woman, she couldn’t prevent herself from asking him what he meant to do. He shrugged. “I thought that I might try my hand at gambling.” That was almost worse! “Oh.” She bit her lip. She was on the point of cautioning him that there was very little coin left and they’d need it to get from Eire to the dragon’s lair when it abruptly occurred to her that it would take them much longer to get there if he lost everything he had left. Instead, she merely swallowed her uneasiness and disappointment and followed him to the door. When he’d stepped outside, Taos waited by the door until he heard her bolt it and then made his way down to the tavern. Finding a spot in one corner, he settled and lifted his booted feet to the chair opposite him. When the serving maid arrived to take his order, he asked for a tankard of ale and stared broodingly at the men around him while he waited. The maid was back very quickly, leaning low to display an amazing amount of cleavage. “I’ll be off in an hour if you’ve any interest in having a go,” she purred, smiling at him suggestively. Brought back abruptly from his dark thoughts, Taos stared at her blankly. “A

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go?” She chuckled. “A bit of cuddling, coupling … and anything else you’d like.” It took several moments for it to sink in that she was offering herself because his mind had leapt instantly to Isra and his cock had tried to burst the seams of his new breeches. “Thank you, but my ma … my wife is upstairs.” “So I noticed,” she purred. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Where I will be when I have finished my ale,” he said coolly. She reddened, glared at him, and stalked off. Taos released an irritated breath. He’d thought he might find peace to enjoy his misery but it was clear it was not to be found in the tavern. The woman’s offer aside, the boisterous atmosphere only served to make him feel more alone and miserable than he’d felt before. Since it seemed unlikely that he would find any place in the city where it was quiet, he stayed only long enough to finish his ale and got up. Deciding that Isra had had time to fall asleep, he headed up the stairs. He would have to rouse her to unlock the door, of course, but he’d had plenty of time to realize that Isra wasn’t very clear headed when she first woke. No doubt, he would have to help her find the bed again once she’d let him in and then she would go right back to sleep. It startled him when Isra answered the door after his third knock not only completely away but completely naked. Despite the jolt of shock that went through him, he whipped his head back and forth to glance up and down the corridor to make certain no one else had seen her and then grasped her shoulder, waltzing her back into the room quickly. He frowned at her. “I had thought you’d be asleep,” he said testily. “I was waiting for you.” His lips tightened. “Well, I did not want you to wait, damn it! I wanted you to go to sleep!” Anger glittered in her eyes, but he saw hurt, too. “I don’t understand,” she said plaintively. “Don’t you want me at all?” Taos swallowed convulsively, dismayed that she’d challenged him outright. “It is not a matter of wanting,” he hedged. She studied him suspiciously. “You cannot say it is not a matter of need!” “I did not say that!” She swallowed convulsively. “How can you say it isn’t either?” “Because it isn’t!” Taos growled. “It is the spell, gods damn it!” She frowned. “You’re saying it can’t be broken if we couple?” Taos stared at her blankly before it dawned on him that it was the escape he’d been looking for. “That’s it!” She set her jaw mulishly. “I don’t believe that!” He glared at her. “Then why did you bring it up, gods damn it!” She stamped her foot. “Because I don’t understand and I want to! I need to! How could you … kiss me like that if you don’t want me?” Taos knew when he was defeated. He had wrestled with his own needs until he was sick of the fight. He could not bear to hurt her by letting her believe he didn’t want

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her at all. Grasping her shoulders, he yanked her against his length and tangled one hand in her long, beautiful hair, pulling her head back and fastening his mouth hungrily over hers. Desire washed through him in a deluge that swept all rational thought from his mind. He couldn’t even recall moving from the middle of the room to the bed and sprawling on it with Isra, had no idea when or how he’d managed to shed his shirt and breeches. He discovered, though, that the breeches were tangled around his knees and impossible to rid himself of completely once they snagged on his boots. Not that he cared except that he felt as if he’d been bound at the ankles. He was far too busy exploring her mouth and then her bountiful breasts. They felt and tasted just as he’d thought they would—soft and pliant, they overflowed his hands. He rubbed his face against her, soaking in her scent, sucked at little patches of soft flesh to feel her on his tongue, to taste her. He had no idea what his goal was until he felt the tickle of the curling red hairs between her thighs, but he was instantly diverted by it to explore that secret place as he had longed to from the moment he’d first seen it. Catching her legs behind the knees, he pushed them out of his way absently and burrowed his face ecstatically against her mound. She grabbed two fistfuls of his hair, but he ignored the tug, licking at her cleft hungrily, sucking at the bud at the apex of her thighs until her high pitched screams finally penetrated the madness enough he lifted his head to stare at her blankly. She was gasping for breath and shuddering. He wasn’t certain of what the twitching was about, but his cock throbbed painfully enough as he stared at her that he was reminded that he’d meant to bury it as deeply inside of her as he could get and he surged over her, grasped it and began stabbing at her cleft blindly in an effort to find her sheathe. He wasn’t certain if she was trying to help or hinder when she began bobbing her hips up and down but whatever the case, he finally rung the hole he’d been searching frantically for and heaved upward to drive home. Her flesh encased his so reluctantly he thought for a few panicked moments that he hadn’t found the hole after all. Before he could withdraw and search again, however, Isra lifted her legs and locked them around his hips, digging her heels into his ass in encouragement. He bucked as her legs locked around his backside, felt his cock slip a little deeper and lost his mind. Grabbing her hips, he curled his pelvis, held his breath, and shoved. Her flesh seemed to squeeze the air out of his lungs as it engulfed his cock. He had no idea how she’d managed it, but he collapsed weakly against her, huffing for breath when he’d burrowed inside of her, struggling to get enough air in his lungs to begin pumping. She galvanized him by arching her own hips. His body seized in a threatening spasm. Sucking in a breath, he withdrew and drove into her again. The pleasure was so intense it bordered on pain. The allure was impossible to resist, however. His hips began to move as if they had a mind of their own. Isra gasped, moaned, called his name. He was too mindless to figure out why, or if she was trying to urge him to continue or stop, but there was no stopping once he’d begun. He had no command over his body anymore. He drove in and out of her until she arched against him and began to utter choked cries. The moment she did, his body

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answered the call of hers. He nearly blacked out as the first convulsion hit him and he felt his body expel his seed into her. It was the most excruciatingly wonderful thing he’d ever felt in his life. He groaned with a mixture of dread and rapture as his body gathered itself and convulsed again and then again until it could pump no more of the scalding seed from him. Gasping hoarsely, he leaned weakly on his arms, struggling to maintain consciousness when it seemed he wavered in and out of darkness. When he’d caught his breath a little and his heart had ceased to feel as if it would beat its way out of his chest, he became aware that Isra seemed unnervingly still beneath him. “Dearling?” he gasped hoarsely, trying to fight the uneasiness creeping through him. “Mmm?” “I did not hurt you?” “Uhuh.” He swallowed a little convulsively and lifted his head high enough to study her face. “Was that a yes or a no?” “I’m fine,” she said in a slurred voice. “Better than fine.” Relieved to discover he hadn’t killed her, Taos levered himself up high enough to survey the situation and rolled off of her, landing on the knee and thigh she’d bracketed his hips with. She pulled it out from under him and he fell back against the pillow, still struggling for breath. Two urges began to take hold of him as his breathing finally returned to normal, the urge to sleep and the fervent desire to start all over again. He lay with his eyes closed, trying to decide which he wanted most. Discomfort finally distracted him from both, however, and he pushed himself up on his elbows and stared down at his ankles a little blankly, trying to decide whether it would be easier to remove the boots and then the breeches, or the breeches and then the boots. He nearly rolled off the side of the bed wrestling with them and discovered belatedly there was no getting the damned breeches off over the boots. Catching the bottom of one boot, he levered it off and then the other and that solved his dilemma. The breeches went with them. Deciding by the time he’d finished that he was roused enough and aroused enough for another round, he rolled over and planted his face between Isra’s breasts.

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Chapter Eleven Isra paused on the beach and looked back at the boat that had brought them to the beach where the Devil’s Back bordered the sea. The fisherman had said he would wait for her to come back, but he’d been so unnerved about being near the dragon’s lair that she wondered just how much she could count on him. She was depressed enough it was hard to care. Realizing Taos had stopped and looked back at her questioningly, she turned, flicked a glance at him, and then studied her feet as she followed him along the beach. When she was sure he wasn’t looking, she lifted her gaze to study his back and finally looked up at the tall cliffs they were approaching. In a way, she regretted that she’d pushed until Taos had broken down and coupled with her. He’d been even more distant with her than ever before, so withdrawn she felt like she’d done something terrible when she certainly hadn’t meant to! She’d been so certain that it was something he needed, though, and that it would relieve some of the tension that had dogged him since they’d met. Beyond that, she’d felt she would regret it forever if she didn’t at least seize the chance to take what she could while she could. She didn’t regret that! It had been everything she’d always dreamed of. The memories, she knew, would be bittersweet, but at least she would have them. If she hadn’t pushed, she wouldn’t have nearly as many special things to remember. She was just sorry that their time together seemed to be ending so coolly. It would’ve made her cry, she knew, if they’d been lovers to the very end and then she’d had to tell him good-bye. But this was worse! One wonderful night! He’d made love to her until they’d both dropped to sleep from sheer exhaustion! And then, when they’d awakened, he’d been as distant as he’d been before—more distant, it seemed to her. She just didn’t understand that! He hadn’t said that it would ruin his chances of breaking the spell and returning to his old life. It seemed to her that he would have if that had been the case. Beyond that, what would be the point of the voyage they’d taken to get here? And if she hadn’t ruined anything for him, why was he so cool toward her now? Mayhap he didn’t realize it and he was just anxious to return to normal and have done with it? It helped her feelings a little bit to think that. She could understand that, being so focused on something you wanted that you were hardly aware of anything else. That wasn’t the same as not caring, or even dislike. It just meant that he was distracted and he didn’t realize how much it broke her heart that he had turned away from her. He wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t do something like that just to hurt her. She knew he wouldn’t. She hardly noticed that Taos had come to a halt until she was nearly upon him.

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Realizing finally that he’d paused to look up at the cliff, Isra stopped and tilted her head to look up, as well. Her heart nearly failed her when she did. “Merciful Mea!” she exclaimed without thinking. “We have to climb that?” She discovered when she glanced at Taos that he was looking at her. She couldn’t tell anything about his expression, though. He stared at her for a long moment and finally looked around. Moving toward a boulder, he climbed up on it and sat down, glaring at the sand beneath him. Disconcerted, Isra studied him for several moments and finally approached him. “This isn’t the place?” she asked a little uneasily when he simply continued to glare balefully at the sand. “No,” he said finally. Isra didn’t know whether to be relieved or glad. “Oh.” She frowned. “It doesn’t look the same from down here, does it?” His face twisted, as if with pain. “That’s because it isn’t the same down here.” She frowned at him in confusion. “I don’t understand.” He heaved a ragged breath. “I was a great dragon in my time. I am not very good as a man.” Anger flickered through Isra. “That isn’t true!” she said angrily. “You are the most wonderful man I’ve ever known!” “It is true! I cannot take care of you. I can’t protect you! If I was a dragon ….” Isra moved a little closer, drawn by his pain even though she couldn’t completely understand it. “You know that isn’t true, Taos! You saved my life. You kept me from drowning. You killed the serpent and you fought off four bandits to protect me! I don’t know another man who could do any of what you’ve done.” “I could not build a fire to keep you warm.” “But you learned how.” “I could not hunt—cannot hunt as a man! You fed us while we traveled here.” “We shared the tasks, Taos. That’s what humans do—what wedded couples do. They share the burdens of life and help each other. I would’ve felt useless if you’d done everything and I don’t want to feel useless either.” He looked unconvinced, but she couldn’t think of any way to convince him. She supposed she understood. It bothered him that he couldn’t do the things he once had and he couldn’t see that he could do things now that he couldn’t before. “I’ve ruined everything for you, haven’t I?” she asked unhappily. He shot her a sharp glance and slid off the rock, striding toward her. “You haven’t ruined anything, dearling,” he said, catching her and drawing her into his arms. “It’s my fault. Rastarius always said that I was the most hardheaded drake he’d ever known.” Isra pulled away far enough to look up at him questioningly. “The spell cannot be broken, dearling. I thought that I could guard my heart if I could only keep you at arms’ length, but I never had any hope of it. I was just too hardheaded to accept that you had already stolen my heart.” Isra felt her breath catch in her throat. “You love me?” He dipped his head to kiss her. Heat surged through Isra instantly and she lifted onto her toes to move closer to him, savoring the wonderful feel of his mouth on hers,

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glorying in the drugging desire that swept through her. She didn’t hesitate when he pulled her down onto the sand and covered her with his body, surging against her feverishly. His hunger was contagious, firing her blood. He wove a path to her breasts when he’d broken the kiss, scooping them from the neck of her gown and teasing the aching tips with the pull of his mouth until she was gasping his name in a litany of need. It was nigh as frantic a coupling as their first. Within moments they were both so desperate to connect with another that they’d begun to pull at their clothes, discarding what they could easily rid themselves of, pushing the rest out of their way impatiently. She groaned when he entered her as if mortally wounded, feeling the same joy that had filled her the first time he’d joined his body with hers, the joy of belonging, of feeling herself as a part of him and feeling him as a part of herself. Too quickly, the pleasure built until she found herself struggling at the peak, fighting the temptation to leap when she wanted to savor the pleasure a little longer. It wasn’t to be denied long, however. She had dreamed of this since the last night they’d spent together and she was as needy as he was. She cried out as the rapture seized her and her body seemed almost to fly apart with the glory of it. He shuddered when she began to buck against him, uttered a low growl and joined her in bliss, sinking weakly against her in aftermath and nuzzling his face lazily along her neck. “I think I liked the bed better, dearling. The shells are grinding into my knees,” he muttered against her neck. “At least you don’t have sand burn on your ass!” Isra said tartly. He lifted his head and grinned at her, but sobered after a few moments. “You will not mind having a man like me as your husband?” “I won’t mind having you as my husband,” Isra said, tenderly brushing his hair from his face. “I love you, Taos. I was afraid you were going to leave me.” “You don’t still hate me because I burned your cottage down?” he asked tentatively. Unhappiness flickered through her pleasure. “I forgive you, Taos. A long time ago.” She frowned as a thought struck her. “Taos… when did you realize you loved me?” He studied her thoughtfully. “I’m not certain. I think it might have been when you stabbed me with the spear.” “That would be the spell,” Isra said, feeling deflated. “The spell only bound us, the blood tied us together. The spell didn’t create love, only a bond.” Isra thought that over and relaxed fractionally, until another thought occurred to her. “You didn’t mean it seriously? Then?” “It may have been when I was examining you after you fainted,” he hedged. “That’s lust!” she said tartly. “To me it was love at first sight!” “Of my cunt!” Isra snapped indignantly. “Well, it is a beautiful cunt,” Taos said. Isra didn’t know whether to clobber him or kiss him. “You’re sure you aren’t just

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in lust with me?” she asked a little doubtfully. “I am certain as I can be that I am in lust with you and in love with you! I would never have put up with any female berating me the way you have if I had not been foolish for you, dearling!” Isra considered that and decided it was pretty enough, but a thought occurred to her abruptly and she shoved at his shoulders and sat up, looking around the beach. Horror washed over her when she discovered an enormous dragon perched on the rock where Taos had sat before. She curled her fingers into claws and clutched at Taos frantically, unable to find her tongue even to scream. Taos lifted his head and looked at the dragon. “Hello Rastarius.” “Good day, Taos. I see you brought your woman.” Taos grinned at him. “Yes. This is Isra … my woman.” Rastarius grinned toothily back at him. “I see. The fool humans finally caught you with one of their ‘sacrificial rituals’, eh?” Taos shrugged. “I suppose it was fate.”

The End