The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Three (5 page)

The Prince remained silent.

I
don’t care
if I die
.

Who would have thought that she’d regret those words so soon?

It wasn’t her impending death that made her realize how inane the statement was. It was the fact that she had said it without any consideration for her child. When she died, so would he. Would Sevrrn ever even know that he would have been a father?

She sat on the floor of a dirty cell, perhaps the same cell her father had been in the night before he’d been executed. There was no window, which gave her no means to gauge the time, but she suspected that it would not be long before morning.

Her stomach growled loudly. They hadn’t bothered to feed her, or give her water, for that matter. She put her head in her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. There was no light anyway.

“I screwed up so badly,” she said, talking both to herself and her child. “I just wanted to…” What had she wanted? To save everyone? To be a hero? Perhaps that was part of it.

“I wanted to be in control for once,” she admitted. “I wanted to feel powerful for once in my life.”

Her struggle for power had not begun with Sevrrn. She realized that now. Her entire life, she’d been at the mercy of others. Her mother had died, and then her father had been executed. After that, she was a ward of her aunts: women who had never appreciated Madja’s mind or talents. All they had wanted was to turn her into a proper lady and marry her to someone from a noble family. If her aunts had had their way, they’d have married her to the Prince himself.

Truth be told, she’d had more freedom with Sevrrn than she’d ever had before. Even though he played the part of a slave driver, making her appraise things and demanding her attention, she had loved appraising for him, almost as much as she loved him. Sure, he’d been overbearing, but it was only because he’d been fascinated with her—not just her body, but her mind as well. He had cast aside however many thousands of years of dragon etiquette to take her as his lover and place her life above everything he owned.

“And I couldn’t appreciate any of it, just because he wouldn’t say that he loved me,” Madja said, the words acrid in her mouth.

What was that old saying? A wise man could see more from the bottom of a hole than a fool could see from a mountaintop? That was ironic. Two nights ago, she had been on a mountain, and when the sun rose tomorrow, she’d take her wisdom to the grave. She was sentenced to die the same way all traitors in Erda did: buried alive.

S
evrrn had several promising leads
. An eagle spirit told him of a spring in a Mandurian desert that was said to grant its drinker immortality. A fox goddess informed him of a chalice, possessed by his brother Kael, that was said to be able to transfer immortality from one being to another. Most promising of all, however, was the initial lead.

Various sources had expanded upon his knowledge of the Dvorian king. He had actually lived for nearly six hundred years and was indeed a human. Sources said that during his reign, he never aged, never fell ill, and had never suffered any injury. The secret to his longevity was closely guarded, but Sevrrn knew that it would not take long to uncover it. Even the more powerful beings of the other realm had a way of talking when confronted by a dragon.

He planned on pursuing this lead further, but after less than two days, he found himself drawn back to the lake. Mist rolled over its surface, and Sevrrn’s keen eyes could see the glittering jewels at its depths. The jewels were not in this lake, which was surrounded by a primordial wood. The layers of reality were thin enough that he could make out the depths of the human realm and the bottom of the lake within his lair.

Any being possessing even a basic amount of magic could traverse the lake portal that led into his lair. Of course, they would also have to possess a profound ignorance and a desire for death, as every magical creature in both realms knew that Sevrrn would be waiting on the other side. But during the times when he ventured into the other realm, particularly now, when Madja was on the other side and blissfully unaware of the danger that could befall her at any second, Sevrrn focused his considerable power on erecting a barrier. Only an incredibly strong being would be able to force their way past the barrier, and if they somehow did, he would know in an instant.

Even knowing this, he had spent the past day and half…
worrying
.

Not just about powerful beings breeching his domain and slaughtering Madja—though it was mostly that. He also worried about her getting sick again. After all, she had not gotten sick right away the last time. Over a week had passed in the human realm, and if she had picked up another sickness in the town, it could already be ravaging her body. Knowing her, she would probably be making that useless chicken soup for herself.

He had also considered how clumsy she was. What if she tripped and fell on a sword and it punctured her chest and she bled to death? What if she tripped and twisted her legs and was unable to get to the storeroom and she starved to death? What if a stalactite fell from the ceiling as she bathed and pinned her under the water and she drowned?

Standing at the water’s edge, he was confident that he did not see any sign of a drowned corpse, but that did little to assuage his anxiety. He would have to check up on her and make sure she was not dying. Then, no matter what ‘mood’ she was in, he was going to mate with her. Then, he would mate with her again. Then, perhaps, he would return to the other realm and finish what he started. Unless, of course, she wanted to mate again.

With these thoughts, Sevrrn spread his wings and launched himself into the sky. For a moment, he savored the aether-rich air of the other realm, deeply inhaling its potent power. Then, he flipped and dove downward, headfirst into the lake. The barrier gave way to its master, though the transition from one realm to another was never what he would call
easy
.

Then the human realm crashed into him, making his bones and muscles feel dense and heavy. As he emerged from the lake, he reluctantly breathed in the thin, insubstantial air, his lungs having to expand to their full capacity. He landed on the floor, shaking off the water while simultaneously shaking the fog from his mind. Traveling between realms always gave him a headache.

Before his vision had even cleared, Sevrrn was aware that something was out of place. He blinked several times, looking around his lair. It was nighttime, but that posed no problem for him. He could see everything—everything except Madja.

Convinced his mind must still be muddled from the transition, he put his nose to the ground and began to sniff. He could smell her, but the scent was faint, slightly old. He padded around the room, sniffing the various places she frequented. As he tracked her, his heart began to beat faster and with a strange, erratic tempo.

There was an unusual pile of coins on the floor, and it was there that her scent was the strongest. Startled, he began digging through the coins, half-expecting to find her fresh corpse beneath them. He was momentarily relieved to not find her at the bottom of the pile, until he remembered that he still did not know where she was.

Abandoning any pretense of calm, his search took on a more frenzied pace. He caught the remnants of her scent at the mouth of a passageway and quickly set out to follow it. He followed it all the way to the mountainside.

Perching on the bluff, he looked out over the land. His gaze immediately went to the crude pasture. He had made it from uprooted trees, which he’d placed around a field, which contained a small pond. It had taken him over an hour to make that pasture, all so that Madja’s smelly horses would not run off into the wilderness. It would not have surprised him to see that they’d escaped the pasture; after all, he was a dragon, not a carpenter. But he could see that one horse remained, while the other—Madja’s mare— was suspiciously absent.

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Sevrrn’s first thought was that she had been abducted. He was so prideful, that it took several moments for him to realize the obvious truth:

Madja had left him.

She hesitated
, he thought. The day at the inn, when he had told her to choose, either immortality with him or a mortal life amongst her own kind, Madja had hesitated. It was no wonder that he had felt no victory in her defeat. A part of him must have known that she would change her mind.

Why?

Why was she not satisfied with his lair? Why was she not satisfied with their life together? Why was she not satisfied with him?

Because he did not
love
her?

Why did I not just say the words?
he wondered. His initial response had been instinctive, but after he realized how much it meant to her, he could have corrected himself, could have lied for her benefit.

No, Sevrrn did not want to die for her, but the knowledge that she was gone, that she had left him, it made him feel…

Empty.

Hollow.

Dead.

T
he night
that Madja had been dragged from her home and put on a litter bound for Sevrrn’s lair, she had mostly just cried. The girl she had been had hoped that the soldiers would take pity on her, forsake their orders, and release her, as though she were some helpless maiden in a fairy tale.

Madja was no longer that girl, and this time, she was not simply fighting for her own life, but also the life of her child. She started with trying to reason with the guards that took her from her cell, telling them of the terrible mistake they were making. When that didn’t work, she threatened them, telling them that their city and their families would all die if they killed her. When that didn’t work, she kicked and scratched, clawed and cursed; trying to fight them off like a cornered beast.

In the end, they dragged her to her execution site. The nobility had managed to stop huddling in their houses to show up for the event, and she could hear the high priest proclaiming her to be the sacrifice necessary to summon their god.

The wave of people parted to let her captors pass. No one tried to help her, not that she thought they would. She could see the Prince, along with several members of the royal family, seated on a raised dais. She tried desperately to catch his gaze, but he kept his eyes averted.

Jerl stood in front of the freshly dug pit, looking smug. Next to him was the high priest, who had taken up a low chant meant to invoke the god. There had been a time when his chanting, when this entire grisly affair, may have seemed necessary to her. After all, what was one person’s death for the greater good?

But now she knew the truth. Perhaps there was some divine being listening to the prayers of man, but it was not Sevrrn. He was a dragon, a powerful and ethereal creature—but nothing more. He was not listening to their chants or their prayers, and her sacrifice would not summon him.

Though it would doom them.

Even as she was led to her death, she felt no joy at this. She didn’t want anyone to die—well, not
everyone
to die, she thought, as she eyed Jerl. She only wanted her and her baby to live. She couldn’t blame the people for their fear or their ignorance.

By the time she was brought to stand before the high priest, her strength had nearly failed her. He murmured a long prayer, making meaningless religious gestures as he did so. Madja tried to reason with him.

“You’re making a mistake.”

“Sevrrn values me. He won’t want this.”

“Please, you can’t do this.”

Madja stopped just short of begging when she realized that the priest wasn’t listening. He looked at her, but at the same time, seemed to look right through her. It was just as the guards had done. If they listened to her, treated her as if she were a human being and not just a means to an end, they would have to face their own shame.

She knew one person who wouldn’t ignore her. Looking at Jerl, she said, “He offered to kill you, you know? Offered to kill you and your whole family. I told him not to. One of the many mistakes I made.”

“Cease your lies, girl,” Jerl said, though he had paled considerably. “You’re a deceptive wretch, just like your father.”

“Sevrrn will kill you now. I’d say that he’ll kill you first, but when he finds out what you did—” she raised her voice, “—what you all did, he’ll probably go into a rage and burn the city. But rest assured, Jerl, he knows your name and one way or another, Sevrrn will find you and he will kill you.”

There was fear and uncertainty in Jerl’s eyes and, for a moment, Madja felt a thrill of victory. Then, she was gagged. Her arms had already been bound behind her back, and they bound her feet as well. With a final prayer, she was unceremoniously pushed into the hole.

She hit the soft earth with a hard thud. Her body instinctively curled up and by the time she reoriented herself, they were already shoveling dirt into the hole. She managed to push herself into a sitting position. The hole was deep, perhaps the length of two grown men. Even if she could somehow stand, she knew from her father’s execution that if she tried to, they would pelt her with rocks until she fell unconscious.

I’m going to die
.

She had known that from the moment she’d been thrown in the dungeon, but now it was all too real. They were hefting dirt into the hole and it filled at both a terrifyingly fast and agonizingly slow rate. Within minutes, it would be up to her neck, then, it would cover her head. She would no longer be able to breathe, and she would die.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, both to her unborn child, and to Sevrrn.

It was all she had left to say. She turned her head up to the sky and gazed at it for one, final time.

T
racing Madja’s
scent in the city was infinitely easier than in his lair. Although the territory was significantly larger and there were millions of different scents, there was only one Madja. In his lair, her scent was everywhere. Here, it was not at all difficult to hone in on her. Not only was her scent wholly unique to him, but no matter how much she washed, or how dirty she became, she always carried the faintest hint of his own scent. No other human could claim that.

He did not bend the light around himself as he flew over the city, he did not have the energy to do so. Maintaining his dragon form so far from his lair was troublesome enough, but there was also the fact that he had depleted most of his energy in battle.

If one could call it that.

Sevrrn had tracked Madja’s scent all the way back to Bern. When he arrived, the small town had been abandoned and there had been an entire fleet of Allonan ships bearing down on it. Once he realized that Madja was not in the town and that her scent led eastward, he almost ignored the ships.

Then, he thought of the fish auction, which resided at the docks. He might want to go back to that auction one day, he’d decided. Then there was the inn, where the old man and his daughter resided. If he ever decided to go to the auction again, he would need a place for Madja to sleep for the night. And if the old man’s inn was destroyed, he would have to spend all of his money on a new home. His daughter would not find a good husband then, and the old man would have no one to help him negotiate good prices at the marketplace.

And above all, if he destroyed those warships, it would make Madja happy. At the time, he did not care about her happiness at all.

He was
furious
.

And
empty
.

And
hollow
.

And
dead inside
.

But mostly
furious
.

Still, he knew that once Madja apologized for leaving him, once she begged for his forgiveness, and then let him mate with her, he would forgive her. And if he destroyed this fleet of warships and protected the island, it would likely facilitate that entire process.

Allonan warships and their cannons had done the seemingly impossible. They had killed his sister. But, while his sister had been more powerful than him, Sevrrn had one advantage that she had not. He knew how to bend light.

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 cannons into the air blindly, while others simply abandoned their ships.

Sevrrn managed to dodge most of the cannons, but a few did catch him off guard. One tore through the scales on his side, and another grazed his leg. His scales protected him from most of the damage, but he had no doubt that if they could see him, the human warships would have been a force to reckoned with.

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 cannon aimed at you for your entire life, poised to go off at any moment. How could any creature choose to live like that?

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?”