Страница 13 из 15
Allonan warships and their ca
The ships and their crew had never seen him coming. It wasn’t until half of the fleet had been destroyed that they even recognized what they were dealing with. Some fired ca
Sevrrn managed to dodge most of the ca
As he flew towards the capital, leaving a fiery sea in his wake, Sevrrn thought that perhaps for the first time in his life, he might know what it’s like to feel mortal. He did not like it, not at all, and it only served to make him question Madja’s sanity. Human mortality was like having a ca
He would save that discussion for after they mated, as he was sure it would make her angry again.
Madja’s scent grew stronger as Sevrrn neared the center of the city. Then, it disappeared.
He lifted his wings, spreading them wide to catch the wind and slow his forward momentum. Then, he began to circle the area. There was a large gathering of humans below, their attention all drawn to an empty circle of ground where only a few men stood.
One by one, the humans began to look up at the sky, as though realizing the shadow cast over them was more than just a passing cloud. Many screamed, a few ran in terror, but the vast majority of them fell to their knees in prayer. He could make out scattered exaltations, and one of the men in the center raised his arms to the sky.
“He has heard us!” he cried out. “Our god has accepted our sacrifice.”
Sevrrn paid little attention to them. He circled the area again, his eyes narrowing in on a shallow pit. When he’d arrived, two men had been shoveling dirt into it. After noticing him, one of the men had abandoned his shovel and run, seeking refuge in the crowd. As if to compensate, the second man began to shovel with increased fervor, working quickly to fill the hole.
As it had done in ancient times, before there were any languages to muddle his mind, Sevrrn’s body reacted on instinct. He folded his wings and speared downward, diving straight for the center of the crowd. Even as he landed, crushing a few ignorant humans in the process, his mind was still processing what his body already knew.
They buried her. Her scent ends here because she is buried beneath the ground.
The shoveling man had fallen to his knees, hands clasped together as if to offer Sevrrn some sort of benediction. Sevrrn’s tail whipped out to send him flying into the crowd. He heard more screams from the humans as they began to flee, but he ignored them all as he began to dig at the fresh dirt.
He tried not to think anymore, but images of Madja assaulted him. Images of her corpse, blue, bloated, and cold, glassy eyes staring up at nothing.
No.
No.
I have to find her. I have to—
His claw struck something and he recoiled, afraid that he’d pierced her body in his haste. But as he pulled his claw up from the ground, he found that he had somehow managed to hook it under her robe. She came up from the dirt, body sagging, but not completely lifeless. He heard her take in a deep, gasping breath, and then she became limp again.
Gently, he placed her on the ground. To his horror, he saw that she had been bound and gagged. He tried to work at the bindings with his claws, but knew it would be easy to accidentally scratch her. A scratch from him could be a mortal wound for a human.
He shifted, feeling his scales shrink down and rearrange themselves into his opulent robe of gold. Exposing his scales while in human form was a great risk, but he could not leave Madja bound as such for another moment.
Falling to his knees, he pulled Madja into his lap and tore away the bindings on her feet, then her arms. As he carefully untied the gag, her gaze held his, shimmering with an emotion that made his chest tight.
Sevrrn had had a speech prepared for her. He had not heard many speeches in his lifetime, but it was a very good speech, full of logic and sound reason. He had thought of it as he’d lifted off from his mountain, determined to bring Madja home, whether she liked it or not, and he’d refined it while he’d battled the Allonan armada. The speech contained all of the reasons why Madja absolutely could not leave him, least of all being that, technically, she belonged to him.
“I love you.”
She spoke the words the instant her mouth was free.
“I’m so sorry for leaving. Forgive me?”
Sevrrn stared down at her, utterly vexed.
“I had a speech,” he told her, still feeling a bit dazed. “It was a very good speech. You were supposed to apologize after I gave my speech.”
She reached up and stroked his cheek. She said, “I’d love to hear your speech. But I’ve had one hell of a day. Can it wait until we get home?”
10
Chapter Ten
Madja had never been so happy to be back at the lair. In fact, she didn’t think that she’d want to leave again anytime soon.
Sevrrn had told her about Bern. Apparently, the i
Secretly, she was nearly as happy about the army’s defeat as she was about Jerl Kavesh’s death. When Sevrrn had swooped down from the sky, Jerl, along with the high priest, had lacked the good sense to clear the way. The dragon had landed right on top of them. She could only hope that Jerl had lived a few seconds after being crushed, so that he could see how wrong he had been.
As much as she wanted to remain sequestered in the lair, she knew that her peace would be temporary. They would eventually have to return to the capital. The people had to know that Sevrrn wasn’t a god, at least, not in the way they believed him to be. He was powerful, and when necessary, she had faith that he would protect the island, but they needed to learn to prepare for war themselves, and to stop making their stupid ritualistic sacrifices.
That could come later though. For now, she just wanted to spend time with the man—the dragon— that she loved.
They were on their bed silks, Madja sitting while Sevrrn lay propped up on one arm, eyeing her hand warily. His wounds from the ca
“I will heal perfectly well on my own,” he said, shying away from her touch.
“Yeah, but this will help you heal faster.” Then, she gri
Sevrrn scowled. “I am not afraid of anything. But…it is u
She smirked. “Now you know how I feel every night.”
“There is nothing u
In one motion, Sevrrn maneuvered his large body so that he was on top of her, pi