Hidden Dragons (5 page)

When it came down to it, she was too important.
He didn’t want to screw this up. He wanted forever with her—but
only if she could handle all that was expected of a woman sharing
her life with two knights and their dragon partners.

It was nice to have company again, Isabelle
thought. After sharing breakfast with her, Robert had stayed near
the house, working on the barn and insisting on going with her when
she went down to the river to fetch water. Growloranth went with
them too, and much to her surprise, he took a swim downstream in
the river while she and Robert filled the water vessels they had
brought with them.

Robert had insisted on bringing more jugs and
buckets than she usually used to carry water, noting that his group
had used up most of her reserves—even the buckets and barrels she
had set out to catch rainwater last night. Apparently dragons were
thirsty creatures.

But Growloranth more than made up for it by
hauling all the filled water jugs back to her house. She enjoyed
watching the dragon. He was so perfectly suited to this
environment, his coloration making him hard to see against the dark
forest. In fact, until he’d moved, she’d had a hard time spotting
him as he lay on the bank of the river, drying off after his
swim.

Between Growloranth’s ability to hide in plain
sight in the forest, and his mate’s undeniable resemblance to the
sky, she began to suspect this pair of dragons was a little out of
the ordinary. The few times she had seen other dragons fly over the
village and forest on their routine patrols of the border, they had
stood out against the sky in vibrant colors, their scales sparkling
in the sun. By contrast, she noted that Growloranth didn’t seem
especially interested in polishing his scales, though he had that
same metallic sheen to his hide that all dragons seemed to share.
He just kept the surface of his scales somewhat duller than she
expected—possibly to blend in even better with his
surroundings.

And Robert moved very quietly for
such a big man. She barely even heard him walk when he was right
beside her. It made her think he was a bit more than just a regular
knight—if there was such a thing as a
regular
knight. She had never met a
knight before Robert and Bernard, but they both seemed rather
special to her.

Robert worked near the house all day. While she
tended to the normal chores of washing up and sweeping out the
house, he seemed to be perpetually busy working on the barn. She
had known the place was in bad shape, but beyond basic repairs, she
couldn’t do much about the sagging walls of the old structure.
Luckily for her, Robert and even his dragon, seemed to think fixing
up her barn was a good use of their time.

Not that she really needed the barn anymore.
While her mother had been alive, they had kept a few animals, but
the stock was all gone after last year’s especially tough winter.
She missed caring for her own animals, but occasionally her skills
as a healer were called for by those in the village. She was known
for bandaging sore legs, mending broken wings and the
like.

The folk in the village might not like her, but
they used her skills when they needed them. Which was a good thing
for her as well. The villagers often paid for her work with food
items she couldn’t forage or grow for herself, supplementing her
meager supplies.

Robert and she shared the midday meal in her
newly swept home. He insisted on providing the food from his own
rations, and she dined on a hard cheese the likes of which she had
never tasted before. He also had sweetened nuts and smoked jerky,
which made a strange but filling meal.

Afterward, Growloranth announced he
was going hunting.
“After all…”
the dragon said into her mind,
“…we like to pay our way, and my knight has a
proposition to put to you, mistress.”
Growloranth gave Robert a very significant look with those
giant, jeweled eyes of his before walking into the forest and just
disappearing.

“
For such a big creature, he walks
like a shadow in the forest. You can’t even see a leaf move when he
passes,” Isabelle observed, watching after the dragon.
“Amazing.”

“
He has many skills,” Robert agreed
as he stood next to her near the barn. “As for the proposition he
mentioned…” The knight seemed to hesitate before turning to meet
her gaze. “We all talked this over last night and we would like to
ask if we could remain here, in your barn, for a few days. It would
make a good base of operations for us while we pursue our mission,
and we would pay you for putting us up, of course, but there is one
catch.”

She was very interested to hear the catch, but
she’d had some inkling that they wanted to stay by the way Robert
hung around and fixed the place up. If they were moving on, they
likely wouldn’t have spent any time on her dilapidated barn, and
Robert and Growloranth would have been long gone, following in the
path of their two companions.

“
So what’s the catch?” she asked,
gazing up into his charming brown eyes.

He really was a handsome devil. If she wasn’t
careful, she could spend quite a bit of her time fantasizing about
what it would be like to have a man like him in her life. What
would it be like, she wondered idly, to be the wife of a knight? To
be a true lady? With all that entailed…

She dismissed the thought with a little pang of
regret. She was no lady. She might have been taught the manners of
a more gently-bred girl, but in truth, Isabelle was nothing and no
one. She lived on the edge of survival in a hut on the edge of the
forest, near a village full of people who wouldn’t spit on her if
she were on fire. Her existence was tenuous, at best. Right now,
she could only live day to day, never certain of how she would get
through the next day, the next week, the next month. She had no
business dreaming of being this knight’s lady.

“
You may have noticed that we’ve
been trying to keep our presence here unnoticed,” Robert went on,
oblivious to her inner conjecture. “We would like you to keep it to
yourself, should any of the villagers come here, or you go there.
We don’t want anyone to know we’re in the area. Your barn provides
a good vantage point and base for our work on the border, but we
need to keep it secret.”

“
I have little contact with the
villagers at this time of year. And I see no reason why I would
tell anyone of your presence here. No matter my mother’s origins, I
am a loyal citizen of Draconia, and I know the dragons and knights
that protect the border are to be trusted. I have trust in you and
your dragon partners—that you’re doing good work here, and I won’t
interfere. I will not tell anyone you’re here. I swear it.” She
spoke the last words like a vow and he seemed to take her at her
word.

“
Thank you, milady,” Robert said
formally. “We will only be here for a few days at most, but we will
try not to be a burden. And we can perhaps make your life a bit
easier by doing as I have done today—fixing things and providing
supplies. We will also leave you with a purse of coins and whatever
else we can spare from our supplies when we go. And you will have
the thanks of ourselves and our Lair. If you ever need anything,
you can always go to the Border Lair for help. Anyone who can
commune with dragons is welcome there.”

This was more than she expected and his words
touched her deeply. She felt a little choked up but strove for calm
as she thanked him again and turned back to her home. If
Growloranth was bringing meat for dinner, she was going to be ready
to cook it into something delectable, if at all
possible.

Chapter Three

Growloranth provided a side of venison later
that afternoon that he had already butchered and dressed. The
dragon’s sharp claws made short work of such things, and were even
delicate enough to skin the beast so the hide could be
cured.

The dragon and his knight must have been busy
retrieving the previous day’s skin from the forest as well, because
when she looked in the back of the barn, there were two deer hides
stretched on newly constructed frames, drying. Those hides, if she
worked them a bit more, could be fashioned into winter clothing or
even a blanket to keep her warm this winter. She might also be able
to trade them in the village for food or other supplies.

The thoughtfulness of the knight and his dragon
was beyond measure. Not only were they making sure the roof of her
barn wouldn’t fall in this winter, they were also providing a means
for her survival beyond their departure from her home. Tears filled
her eyes when she saw the evidence of their kindness.

“
I can smoke this for you, so it
will stay good for quite a while,”
Growloranth offered, holding up a large cut of the
meat.

“
Are you sure? Doesn’t that take a
long time?” Isabelle asked, concerned that the dragon not put
himself out too much on her behalf.

“
Since Robert tells me we’re
staying overnight, it actually is a simple process,”
Growloranth told her.
“We tie the meat to the rafters of the barn directly over my
head, with a wrap to catch the juices so I don’t end up wearing
them.”
He paused to send up a smoky,
dragonish chuckle.
“In the night as I
breath, the smoke will cook and cure the meat over several hours.
By morning, you should have a number of well-smoked cuts that will
last a long time, if you take care with them.”

“
That’s ingenious,” she marveled at
the dragon’s ingenuity. “I would love that, if you truly don’t
mind.”

“
It would be my pleasure,”
Growloranth stated.
“We
will do this every night we’re here so that when we go, you will be
well-stocked with meat for the coming cold. It is the least we can
do to help repay your generosity.”

Moved to tears again, Isabelle could only try
to smile her thanks as she took the bits of meat she was going to
use tonight, and made a run for the house. She hoped the dragon
understood and realized she could send him her thoughts without the
risk of tears.

“
I cannot thank you enough, Sir
Growloranth,”
she told him
mind-to-mind.
“It has been so long since
anyone thought of my welfare, I’m afraid my emotions are getting
the better of me. Please excuse my flight. It’s silly to weep over
such kindness.”

“
I weep for the thoughtlessness of
your neighbors that has brought you to such a crossroads, my
dear,”
Growloranth answered in a kindly
rumble in her mind.
“You should not live
in such a place with such mean people. If Robert has not made it
clear, you will always be welcome at the Lair. I would take you
there myself, if you but say the word. We would love to have you
become part of our little community.”

“
Thank you, truly, Sir Growloranth,
but I’m afraid I cannot bring myself to leave here just yet. You
see, my mother is buried here. And this house reminds me of all the
good times she and I shared. All of her belongings are still here,
and I sense her presence in every room. In every whisper of the
wind against these walls. It’s too soon for me to give her
up.”

“
I do understand, milady,”
Growloranth said quietly.
“Losing someone you love is not an easy thing. When I lost my
first knight, Kinneth, I went into mourning for two decades. He was
such a good man. So decent and strong of mind and limb. He was the
companion of my youth and I will always miss his presence in my
life. It was a long time before I could even think about joining my
life to another knight. Finally, it was Tildeth who talked me
around to trying again.”
He paused,
seeming to consider his words.
“You see,
we dragons live much longer than our knights and it is a serious
matter to put ourselves into a situation where we will, in all
likelihood, outlive the man we choose to bond with—over and over
again. But in the end, there is much to be gained from the risk. We
protect our land and peoples, and we have the chance to live a life
that’s full of love and laughter, pain, yes, and triumph at times.
We share in our knights’ lives and are better for it. Without the
risk, there is no reward. And without the pain of loss, we would
never have loved. It is a double-edged sword, but one we all must
take up at some point, to truly live.”

Isabelle thought about his words
for a long moment as she sat at her kitchen table, wiping her teary
eyes.
“You are a wise being, Sir
Growloranth.”

Isabelle cooked a savory stew that night, using
a few of the onions she had grown in her garden that year and
stored in the cold storage bin dug into the floor of the house. She
also used some of the herbs and tubers she had gathered from the
forest earlier in the year.

Sir Bernard and Tildeth came back as the sun
went down, walking in from the forest instead of landing in full
sight of the village. Isabelle understood how easily the dragon
would be seen if they had chosen to land out in the open. She was
too light in color, too sparkly. To avoid being seen, they had
landed in the forest and walked to Isabelle’s place under cover of
the trees.