Dragon Quest Page 8

  After she finished eating and drinking, she looked around her for the thousandth time. There was nothing more to do. Should she leave? If Robbie wasn’t here, she should get along to the Phoenix Throne and find out what Carmen and the others were up to. Robbie would have to take care of himself.

  She didn’t want to leave. Something compelled her to stay here. The same desire to trick Ushne into revealing himself induced her to stay. She made all these plans around him, and now she didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to crack the puzzle of what he was and how he managed to survive up here.

  She was alone. He was the nearest thing to a person she had in her life. He was company, and he showed some sign of caring about her. That alone made her stay. He could have eaten her while she slept last night, but he didn’t.

  “Tell me about yourself,” she told him. “Can you really not remember where you came from? Do you really believe you’re the only one of your kind? I find that hard to believe.”

  He crooked his neck around to stare at her. “You tell me about yourself. Where did you come from, and where are the rest of your people?”

  She regarded him for a moment before she answered. She couldn’t unburden herself to him the way she did to Robbie. Robbie alone knew her secret. She couldn’t expose herself to this animal. Still, she wanted to talk to him. Maybe if she told him something about herself, he would reciprocate.

  “I come from another world. A friend of mine cast a magic spell, and she and I and three other of our friends came through some kind of time warp to this world. She tried to send us to King Arthur’s court, but I guess she made a mistake. I was traveling with a young man, but he disappeared. That wizard told me I could find him here. That’s all I can really tell you.”

  He chuckled deep in his throat. “So it’s a man you want.”

  “It’s not a man I want,” she shot back. “It was just that one particular man I wanted to get back. He was on his way somewhere he thought I could find my way back to my own world. His brothers and one of my friends were fighting a witch to break a curse on their family. They thought if they broke the curse my friends and I would get sent back. That’s why we were traveling together.”

  His eyes flashed fire. “He means a lot more to you than that, or you wouldn’t have come up here looking for him. Tell the truth.”

  “Okay, I don’t mind telling you. He means more to me than that, but he’s not here, so I guess I’ll have to go there alone.”

  “You won’t go there alone,” he replied. “That’s why you stayed. You don’t want to be alone.”

  She cocked her head. “Do you have some ability to tell when someone is telling the truth? Do you have some inborn sense that shows you what’s going on inside a person’s heart? Is that how you know so much about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it?”

  “I have no inborn sense of anything. I can see it in your face when you talk about him. You don’t want to travel without him.”

  She looked away. “I never said I did.”

  “Now that you know he’s not here, you want to stay with me. Isn’t that so?”

  “Well, you’re the only person I’ve got to talk to at the moment, even if you won’t tell me anything about yourself.”

  “I told you,” he replied. “I cannot tell you anything about myself because I don’t know anything about myself. I would tell you if I did.”

  “I find it amazing that you don’t remember how you got here. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “I don’t remember anything. Living in this caldera is the only thing I do remember.”

  “You don’t remember anything at all?” she asked. “You just appeared here?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you have no idea how long you were here before I came?”

  “No,” he replied. “I was here, and then you came.”

  She cocked her head the other way. When had she heard that before? Something weird was going on here. He couldn’t have just appeared here right before she showed up. That was impossible—or what is?

  What if something zapped him here? What if something put him here the same way the fire demons put Robbie in that column? What could have the power to do that?

  There seemed to be a lot of zapping going on. She got zapped to this crazy world. Robbie got zapped into that column, and Ushne got zapped here.

  She got up and paced around the caldera. “What do you do up here all day? Don’t you get bored for something to do?”

  He eyed her. “What would you like to do?”

  “Maybe you could fly me to the castle where I was going. Maybe you could practice your flying. Would you like to do that?”

  “I have never practiced my flying. I never had anywhere to go.”

  “Now you do,” she told him. “Would you like to try it? It would save me a long walk getting there.”

  He turned away and didn’t answer. What was wrong with him?

  “Don’t you know how to fly? Are you unsure if you can?”

  “I can fly. I am sure I can.”

  “Why don’t you want to try it, then? Do you want to live in this caldera for the rest of your life?”

  “I can think of worse places to live,” he replied. “It’s warm here.”

  She gave up. He made no sense to her. Maybe his brain didn’t work the same. It couldn’t. He was a reptile. All he really cared about in the world was staying warm and staying fed. If he didn’t need to hunt for his food for whatever reason, he wouldn’t care about anything but staying warm. This caldera must be his idea of heaven.

  Chapter 13

  The most boring day of Elle’s life followed. There was nothing in the world to do in that caldera but sit around and watch Ushne. She made a few half-hearted attempts to talk to him, but their conversations always ended in the same stalemate. He couldn’t tell her anything about his past, and the present didn’t exactly hold many interesting topics.

  The day ended, and they stretched out on the rock together the way they did the night before. Elle closed her eyes and fell asleep. She no longer worried about the dreams. They must be some artifact of Ushne’s presence. They would disappear when she left here.

  Just before she fell asleep, she made up her mind to leave here. Ushne would never leave. He would stay here and stay warm. She would hike down the mountains. She would take a supply of the crystalline food to keep her going until she could hunt another deer.

  She would follow the line of peaks and ridges until she found the castle where Carmen and the other Cameron brothers fought the witch. She would find a way back to modern America, and she would forget this bizarre world ever existed. She drifted off looking forward to that.

  Sometime in the night, she rolled over on the warm rock. Her arm flapped to one side, and her palm flattened against something slippery and hard. Electric energy fizzled up her arm and squirreled through her guts.

  Her eyes snapped open. She stared up into the dark, but she already knew the truth. Her hand rested against Ushne’s side. His powerful presence flooded into her and set her insides on fire.

  She should have pulled her hand back, but she couldn’t move. Some force beyond her control kept her in contact with him. Her whole being throbbed with desire. Her breath quickened, and her heart fluttered against her sternum.

  She dared not move her hand, but she already crossed some invisible boundary and she couldn’t go back. She touched him, and she wanted to keep touching him. She wanted to release all these pent-up desires and feel what it would feel like to give herself to him.

  She couldn’t. Crossing that line would be forbidden. By what law was it forbidden? How could she want him if it wasn’t meant to be somehow?

  She lay frozen on the rock with her hand resting against his scaly hide, but that touch woke him from his slumber, too. His head came up, and he bent his neck around to look at her. His eyes gleamed with inner fire. His breath deepened, and his nostrils flared.

  Elle slid one leg up. He
r thighs dragged against each other, and inner steam bubbled out between her legs. Images of him touching her and caressing her and fulfilling her flooded into her mind. She ached for him, but she couldn’t act.

  His head hovered above her face. His body pulsed its intoxicating energy into her skin. He knew, and he responded to the desire coming off her. He curved his body around until his massive bulk surrounded her on all sides. His tail whipped sideways to curl around her. He slithered closer so his scales touched her all over.

  Her eyes drifted half-closed. This was it. It was happening, just the way it happened in her dreams. Could she stand the tension? Could she really lie here and let him touch her like this?

  She writhed against the rock and rubbed her body over his skin. She moaned her deepest desires for him, and he growled low to vibrate her bones. He stroked his tail along her side and hip where it curved down to her leg.

  Why did she fight it? Why couldn’t she give herself over to this moment? She rolled on her side and faced his skin. She laid her cheek against his scales and pressed her breasts and belly against him. She opened her mouth and breathed on him.

  He sighed all down his length, and his head drooped just a little lower toward her. His forked tongue darted between his lips. The sight of him so close and so dangerous exploded through her with a thousand desires. She wanted that tongue. She wanted his whole body.

  All at once, he dropped his head and dove under her crooked leg. He hooked his neck under her knee and slid all the way back to his shoulder. His muscled neck stroked between her legs to stimulate her to quickening ecstasy. She moaned out loud.

  That sudden move and the intensity of her reaction snapped her alert. She was touching a monster. She couldn’t go through with this. She had to get out of here before she went insane. She ripped herself out of his grip and launched herself to her feet.

  Her mind whirled in every direction at once. She took a quick bearing and headed for the spot high on the peak where she hid her bundle of tools and her club. She ran for her life to get away from this horror. She had to put as much distance between herself and this dragon as she could.

  She didn’t count on his speed, though. He rocketed into motion so fast the human eye couldn’t follow him. He slithered forward and swam around in front of her to block her path. In a fraction of a second, he surrounded her on all sides with his mighty bulk.

  “Stop, Elle,” he rumbled. “Don’t run away.”

  “I have to get out of here,” she panted. “I have to…”

  “Don’t go,” he boomed. “Don’t turn away from me over a simple misunderstanding.”

  She whirled this way and that, but she couldn’t run anywhere with him blocking her every move. “That was no misunderstanding! We understood each other perfectly. We were going to…. Oh, I can’t even think about it. Let me go. I have to get out of here. I have to find my friends and the…”

  “What could be wrong with it if we both wanted it? Why not enjoy our time together if it could be so pleasant?”

  “I can’t!” she cried. “It’s not right. I should be with a human man, not a ….”

  He waited for her to finish. “A what?”

  She shook her head, but she couldn’t get her brain to function. None of this made sense. She wanted it. She wanted it bad, so why didn’t she let herself do it? She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t go through with it. She couldn’t stay another instant in this caldera, or he would convince her.

  Already his magnetic presence and his silken voice worked on her mind. Her resolved wavered.

  “I never realized I was alone until you came,” he murmured. “I thought I had everything I needed. Now I know I can’t let you go. I need you and you need me. We belong together. Come. Come back to the caldera and lie down. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do. If you tell me to stop, I will. Just trust me. I would never hurt you. If we want to be together, we should be.”

  Her brain screamed No! but the rest of her gave in. He curled his neck around her. His head rubbed against her sides and around along her belly. She swooned against him. This was all too much for her.

  He didn’t wait for her to come back. He looped his long neck around her waist and picked her up. He carried her back to the caldera and set her down in the same place. He had her where he wanted her. Nothing would stop him from doing what he wanted with her. She certainly wouldn’t stop him.

  Her whole self screamed. Was she screaming for him or against him? She couldn’t tell. She wanted to run and she wanted to melt into a puddle at his feet. She wanted him to touch her and complete her and fulfill her aching desires.

  He ran his neck and body against her all over. He massaged her to soft compliance with his coils. She couldn’t resist him. Was this how dragons used to mate with human females? Did their power and their beauty hypnotize the women to submit? Was Ushne doing that to her right now?

  She couldn’t run away. She knew that now. He could move faster than she could think. He could take flight and bring her back. What choice did she have but to give in?

  He brought his head around in front of her. His tongue flicked in and out, and his glowing eyes bored into her soul. She belonged to him, now and forever.

  He lowered his head and nuzzled his forehead into her crotch. The spikes along his forehead tickled her swollen tissues. She wanted this more than anything, but her mind revolted against the abomination. She couldn’t do this. She just couldn’t.

  She closed her eyes. Desire and flaming need coursed through her to the tips of her limbs. Her head fell back, and her mouth fell open in an agonized moan. She had to get out of here. She had to free herself from his power once and for all. In her last act of desperation, she plucked the amulet from her pocket and dropped it over the spikes on his head.

  The reaction occurred instantly. He whipped his head back with a deafening shriek. He lashed back and forth against the sky. The amulet swayed on its thong, but it didn’t fall off. Ushne reared on his hind legs and spread his wings to black out the sky.

  The moment he assumed his biggest form, his whole body imploded on itself. His neck shrank into his body. His mighty sides collapsed, and his tail sucked into his hind quarters. He wilted onto the ground, and the gleaming green of his scales faded to plain soft pink. He took the form of a man lying on his back on the rock.

  Elle stared at him in stupefied surprise. She would recognize that brown hair and the dark green kilt anywhere. It was Robbie.

  Chapter 14

  Elle ran to Robbie’s side and helped him sit up. “Rob! Rob! Are you all right?”

  He panted for breath, and his limbs hung limp at his sides. “I’m awricht, lass. What in the name o’ heaven was that?”

  She propped him against a rock and looked him over. Yes, he really was the same man. He wore the amulet on the string around his neck. Now that he asked, she couldn’t get her mind to comprehend what happened. “You…. you were that dragon.”

  He blinked once and craned his neck around to look at her. “I remember it now.”

  “What do you remember?”

  “I remember everything that happened.”

  “What happened?” she asked. “How did you get up here?”

  “I was asleep. I was asleep by the fire wi’ ye. The next thing I kenned, I spread me wings and flew ‘ere. I dinnae ken how I did it. I just did it. I flew ‘ere, and once’t I got ‘ere, I couldnae think naught but that I were that dragon. It’ll naught make sense tae ye, lass. It just happened.”

  Elle sat back on her heels. “Well, I guess we just have to take it the way we find it. You changed, and you flew here. That’s all there is to it. What I don’t understand is why you lost your accent. You called yourself Ushne.”

  “I didnae ken who or what I was,” he replied. “I couldnae think. You asked me name, and that’s the first thing I could think on, so I said it.”

  “Obus said the dragon took you. I guess that’s what he meant.”

  He leaned his hea
d back against the rock, closed his eyes, and let out a shaky breath. “I’m all glad tae see ye, lass. It’s good tae be me again.”

  She had to smile. “It’s good to see you, too. I thought I’d lost you.”

  He cracked his eyes open and peeked at her. He squeezed her hand. “Let’s get out o’ ‘ere.”

  He tried to get up, but he fell back against the rock. “We should stay here tonight,” Elle suggested. “It’s warm here and there’s food and water. We’ve got a long way to walk over rough country to get back to anywhere we could find food and build a fire, and it looks like you need to rest.”

  “I’m awricht,” he said. “I’m just startled by this whole thing, is all. I can mak’ it.”

  “At least wait until morning. Have something to eat. You must be starving after living up here all this time without anything to eat.”

  She brought him some of the crystalline food and some water. She fetched her bundle while he ate and packed enough to last a while on the trail. By the time they finished, the sky lightened and Robbie wanted to move.

  Elle led him out of the caldera. She pointed down line of peaks. “Obus said the castle is that way. He said if we followed that line, we couldn’t miss it.”

  Robbie nodded. “Seems he was richt aboot a few things, so we’ll tak’ him at his word. Are ye ready tae travel, lass?”

  She grinned. “I’m ready. I was never more ready.”

  They set off with good will, only this time, Elle led the way. She headed down the mountain and found the deer trail where she hunted her first deer. She chose a camp site far enough away from it that she wouldn’t scare the deer away. She lowered her pack to the ground.

  “What’re ye doin’?” he asked.

  “I’m hunting a deer so we have something to eat. I did it before, and we won’t get far without something to eat.”

  “How’re ye gonna hunt a deer?” he asked.

  “The same way I did before. I ambushed them from a tree over the path, and I dropped down on one of them and killed it with a spear I made. What’s wrong with that?”