“I think we’re going to be pretty safe,” Skye said.
All mounted their horses and a great cheer went up in the capital as the Queen of the Ha’kan set off.
The celebratory mood remained for some time as the horses loped along. All of the Ha’kan were expert on horseback: it was a required skill learned at the Academy. And because they had given themselves ample time to make the trip, it was an easy pace, allowing for much conversation and general enjoyment.
“She rides like she is a centaur,” Senta said, watching Skye. The Ha’kan might have been expert equestrians, but Skye rode as if the horse were a part of her. She thought nothing of standing up on the back of her mount to pluck low-hanging fruit from the boughs above them, which she shared with the Royal Guard around her.
“Yes,” Gimle said, “I saw her speaking to the horse for some time before mounting it.”
“She did that even at the Academy, and was laughed at, right up until the horse did exactly what she wanted,” Senta replied. “Many of the Royal Guard now speak to their horses before riding.”
“Would anyone like an apple?” Skye said, riding up with fruit in both hands and guiding the horse with her knees.
Senta, Gimle, and Astrid all declined, but the Queen reached out and accepted the gift.
“Thank you, Skye,” Halla said warmly, causing Skye to blush profusely and nearly fall off her horse. She wheeled around and hurriedly returned to the Royal Guard.
“A little bit of forbidden fruit?” Astrid observed.
“Hardly forbidden,” Halla said, taking a bite of the apple and eliciting a chuckle from Senta.
“Raine also looks natural on a horse,” Gimle commented, examining the pair that led their troop. Talan and Raine rode out ahead side-by-side, talking quietly and enjoying one another’s company. The lithe, muscular Scinterian looked fabulous on the horse.
“What do you expect?” Halla said, “She’s used to riding a dragon.”
The double-meaning entertained the four, right up until both Raine and Talan turned around to look back at them. The dragon merely raised an eyebrow while Raine clearly found the comment funny. They returned to their conversation.
“And I forgot how acute both their hearing is,” Halla said, not the least bit embarrassed. She was in a wonderful mood.
“Skye,” Senta said, calling out to her. Skye trotted her horse back over and came up alongside Senta.
“Are your people around us?”
“Yes, of course. There’s one right there.”
Skye pointed to a tree in the nearby forest, but none of the Ha’kan saw anything. She held up her hand in that general direction and made a series of signs. What looked like a patch of moss on the side of the tree turned and signed back to Skye.
“I will never get used to that,” Senta said as the Queen and Astrid gasped in appreciation.
Skye signed again and the patch of moss faded away.
“And Raine’s wolves are following us, too. Look, there’s one right there.”
A huge, barrel-chested black wolf, probably an alpha male, trotted from the edge of the forest and began loping alongside Raine. She leaned down to have a conversation with him. When finished, she ruffled the fur on the back of his neck and sat upright. The wolf disappeared back into the forest.
“Now the wolves obey Raine because of Fenrir, correct?” Gimle asked. It felt odd to speak so casually of the gods, but with Raine the extraordinary was commonplace.
“They don’t really obey her,” Skye said, “it’s more like they love her and treat her like one of the pack. Really, like the head of their pack. I wonder if we will meet Fenrir on this journey,” she mused.
“What?” Gimle exclaimed, echoed by the other three.
“I met Fenrir once, or at least I think it was him, when I was with Raine. He came to Raine as a gigantic wolf. From what I can see, they are close friends.”
“Imagine that,” the Queen murmured.
“And that bird up there, that is another sentinel that travels with Raine. I think she said it was one of Freyja’s children.”
All four women glanced up at the enormous hawk that before had gone unnoticed. It did indeed seem to be following their progress, flying ahead and then looping back on the air currents.
“How extraordinary,” Gimle said.
“For someone who is immune to magic,” Astrid observed, “Raine is certainly surrounded by it.”
And for whatever reason, this observation made Skye very happy.
Despite their leisurely pace, the troop made very good time and arrived at the locale Raine and the Tavinter had scouted for their camp long before the sun set. It was a clearing that bordered a small lake, and the tents went up rapidly, erected by the Royal Guard. Senta watched their progress with a critical eye, but was pleased with the skilled construction. There was no hurry now, but a battlefield situation could require such speed, and no opportunity for training was ever passed up.
The Ha’kan carried provisions, but now Senta wondered if that was necessary, for Skye’s people came out of the forest bearing all sorts of game, nuts, and berries. Skye herself wasted no time, but trotted down to the lake and was soon reeling in fish. Gimle joined her and Senta looked on with a trace of envy.
“Why don’t you go join them?” Halla suggested.
Senta opened her mouth to articulate all the reasons why she couldn’t, then snapped her jaw shut. The camp was set up; the perimeter was secure. They had enough food for twice their number on a journey twice as long. The Tavinter had scouted the surrounding area for miles. There was a dragon and a Scinterian leaning casually against a tree at the edge of the clearing.
“Perhaps I will,” Senta said, then headed down to the shore.
The Queen watched her stern General jog to the lake with a youthful enthusiasm she had not seen Senta display in years.
“And why is it we don’t do this more often?” Halla asked Astrid.
Astrid was seated in a comfortable lounge chair before the makeshift fire pit the Royal Guard had constructed out of stones.
“I have no idea,” Astrid said as Halla sat down beside her. “The fresh air is invigorating.”
Halla’s eyes drifted across the campsite to settle on Raine and Talan. “Those two are amazing.”
Astrid turned to the pair, who sat apart from the general assembly. Although the Ha’kan had often seen them together, it was rare to see them in such an intimate and unaffected manner. The silver-haired woman ran her fingers through Raine’s hair, and the adoration that Raine felt for the dragon was unmistakable. The violet in her eyes was apparent even from a distance. And the fact that the Scinterian treated the dragon so playfully was extraordinary since Talan was a creature that inspired nothing but terror in most.
“They are indeed.”
One of the Royal Guard approached Raine and stopped a respectful distance away. Raine acknowledged her with a tilt of her head.
“Do you wish us to set up a tent for you?”
“No thank you,” Raine said, “we prefer to sleep in the open.”
“As you wish,” the Guard said, and bowed as she stepped away. The First Ranger had expressed the same desire.
“Speaking of which,” Talan said, “I should go hunt before it gets any darker.”
“Are you sure you’re not going on patrol?” Raine asked teasingly.
“I will keep my eyes open for Hyr’rok’kin, but I trust the Tavinter scouts. No, I could consume the entire trip’s provisions in a single sitting, and I doubt there are enough fish in that lake to fill me.”
“Ah, that is true,” Raine said, getting to her feet. She gallantly extended her hand to help the woman who needed none, and pulled Talan upright. The two walked to the far side of the lake. Talan leaned down to kiss Raine, then the two separated. The woman in the fiery red armor disappeared in a flash of yellow light, and an enormous fiery red dragon appeared in her place. The dragon took two great steps and was airborne. Talan had purposely moved some distance away as the great wind generated by those mighty wings would have knocked the tents to the ground and undone all of the Royal Guard’s hard work in an instant.
The entire encampment had stopped as one to take in the sight of the dragon, but things returned to normal as Raine strolled back to the camp. She brushed the dust and grass from her breeches, then joined the Queen and High Priestess at the fire pit.
“Is Talan going somewhere?” Halla asked.
“She’s just going to get a bite to eat,” Raine said.
“But we have so much food here.”
“She eats, um, a lot.”
“Oh,” Halla said delicately, “of course.”
“You don’t like to be away from her,” Astrid said, observing the subtle change in Raine’s demeanor.
“I would stay by her side constantly if I could,” Raine said, “but in truth, we are never apart.”
The words caused Halla to look closer at the Scinterian. It was a superbly romantic declaration, but also something more, as if it held some deeper truth about their relationship.
“Look what I caught!”
Skye came up with a string of large fish, which she proudly displayed. Senta and Gimle followed, each also bearing a string of fish.
“Skye’s fish seem to be much larger than yours, First General,” Astrid said.
Senta took the good-natured teasing as intended. “I will defer to my First Ranger in just about any wilderness skill. Besides,” Senta said with a wicked glance at the High Priestess, “size isn’t everything.”
“A lesson I had some difficulty teaching her years ago,” Astrid said to Halla.
“Perhaps I was deliberately slow because I was enjoying the lessons,” Senta said.
Raine enjoyed the conversation of the Ha’kan. There was a constant, sensual undertone that could flare into overt sexuality at any moment. It was playful but unobtrusive, sensuous, but not excessive. And even Talan had found the Queen’s earlier comment about “riding the dragon” humorous, although she had been quick to point out that it was generally the dragon who rode her.
The evening meal was consumed with relish, and the campsite settled into quiet contentment. Muted conversations mixed with the buzz of insects, the hoot of owls, the howl of wolves, and the various stirrings of night creatures. All went to bed early with full stomachs and a delicious tiredness. Halla was drifting off to sleep, her head on Astrid’s shoulder, when Senta came through the flap of the tent. She put her hand gently on the Queen’s arm.
“Is something wrong?
“No,” Senta said quietly, “we are very safe. There’s just something I want you to see.”
Halla and Astrid stepped gingerly from the tent, barefoot. The Tavinter were sleeping on bedrolls about the campfire. Skye’s bedroll was empty because she stood staring at something in the clearing, her slender form outlined in the moonlight. Gimle stood next to her, and Astrid and Halla joined them.
“By the gods,” Halla murmured.
Talan’alaith’illaria, Queen of all Dragons, lie in the clearing at the edge of lake, taking up a vast amount of space and blocking out half the night sky. She was peacefully sleeping, wings tucked, her long tail stretched out and her massive head curled about so it rested next to her stomach. The great body rose with every slow breath, then fell with every exhalation.
And tucked between her head and her stomach was a beautiful woman, a woman who slept soundly despite rising and falling with every prodigious breath, despite being surrounded with sharp, jagged spikes, despite the potential of being crushed by that colossal weight. She had an arm draped over the bony, plated ridge of the dragon’s brow, unconcerned for the world around her. The woman slept the deep sleep of someone completely safe, completely comfortable, and completely loved.
The Ha’kan were deeply moved by the sight, and it stayed with them, even in their dreams, the rest of the night.
Chapter 9
T
he troop continued to make good time and travel without incident to the imperial border. The Ha’kan had notified the imperials of their intent to travel through their land and been granted ingress, but Raine had not expected to be greeted by anyone. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she examined the cloud of dust approaching them. The Tavinter had not sounded the alarm, so she was not particularly worried.
It was an imperial troop, all heavily armored and impressively armed. At the head of the troop was a large woman with fair hair and ruddy features, attractive in a rough-hewn sort of way. Her expression was normally stern and had worn lines into her face, but when she smiled, those lines disappeared and she was surprisingly good-looking. She was smiling now.
“Knight Commander,” Raine said in greeting.
“Raine,” Nerthus said. She nodded to Talan. “Your Majesty,” she said with deference.
Nerthus was rarely polite to anyone, so the courtesy and respect of this greeting was significant. Talan was petrifying in her natural form, but to Nerthus her human form was even more intimidating. The silver-haired woman could deliver a look of such disdain that it shriveled all in her path. Nerthus had more than once been the target of such a stare.
Idonea rode up beside Nerthus. “We were going to meet you further on, but this was the Emperor’s idea.”
“How so?” Senta asked, leading her horse next to Raine’s. The Queen had also come forward, and Nerthus bowed from the waist, still on her mount. The men behind her were surreptitiously trying to get a look at the Ha’kan.
“Your Majesty,” Nerthus said again.
“Knight Commander,” Halla responded.
“The Emperor has traveled ahead,” Idonea continued, “he may already be in elven territory. It’s so rare that anyone is granted access to their land, I think he’s taking advantage of the opportunity.”
“But he wanted to honor you with an escort,” Nerthus said. “And the Baroness as well.”
Talan snorted.
“Don’t believe I deserve the honor?” Idonea said, feigning insult.
“I don’t believe you need the protection,” Talan said.
“Thank you, mother.” She examined the stallion that Talan was sitting on, then leaned over and slapped it on the flank. “Nice horse.”
“We are grateful to you,” Queen Halla said to Nerthus, “and if we don’t require your protection, we will certainly enjoy your company.”