Exiles From The Sacred Land (Book 2) (41 page)

From somewhere behind him, near the cave, he heard what sounded like an intense gust of wind. Again and again, the sound came. Vandrick peered up at the bandit, who was poised to kill him, and saw the terror in the Scarovian’s eyes. Lethargically he looked to the sky to where the bandits’ gaze was fixed. Amadyre burst out of the cave in full fight, her red scales all a blur. Smoke poured out of her maw in a black stream trailing behind her. She rounded in the sky and turned back to the bandits, who were now scrambling. She spit great bellows of fire, encasing several of the unlucky bandits in a fiery death. The bandit in front of Vandrick dropped his sword and bolted. Amadyre pounced on him, snapping her maw shut around his torso. She cocked her head back and devoured him in two crushing bites.

Vandrick smiled at the fact that justice had been served for the men he had lost, and then he collapsed from the pain and the intensity of his wounds.

He awoke in the cavern. Amadyre was in the far corner behind a raging fire that he could see the remnants of the lost wagons burning in. He moved to his feet, ignoring the pain in his limbs. He crossed the rough cavern floor to where Amadyre was hunched over sobbing.

“Lady Amadyre? Is something the matter?” he inquired.

The dragon shifted, and Vandrick saw the outline of a drake wrapped in one of the blankets from the supply wagons. It was not moving.

“Is it . . . ?” he said, not knowing what to ask.

“He is dead. Stillborn.”

“My lady, I am sorry.” He bowed his head.

“You had died, Knight. I could not heal you, but I tried anyway. I prayed to Loracia to give me strength to do the impossible, and she granted my request. You lived, but the strain for me was too great to bear. One life is traded for another.”

Vandrick dropped to his knees. “Why would you do such a thing? I am but a stranger to you.”

Amadyre let a teardrop fall. “Because it had to be done. Even if I had known the cost beforehand, I would have prayed for it. You sacrificed yourself to protect me; I could not let you die.”

Vandrick was dumbfounded. He did not know much about the ways of dragons, but he knew they only had young once every one hundred seasons or so. He had been saved by Amadyre twice now, and once at a terrible cost. He stood to his feet and put his hand on Amadyre’s massive head. “I owe you a life, and a life I shall pay you. From this day forward, I shall be yours as my honor as a knight dictates. My heart, my soul, my body, everything I am belongs to Amadyre. This I swear, and what I swear is bound by honor and cannot be undone.”

“No, Knight, you have king and country to swear allegiance to.”

“I have failed king and country, and I shall never return, my lady dragon. Do not insult my honor as a knight. I bind my allegiance where my heart requires. I am yours. A life for a life.”

Amadyre raised her head level to Vandrick’s. “So be it, Dragon Knight.”