There is a problem, Zav spoke into my mind, the words apparently for me alone this time. The elves didn’t glance at him.
They don’t like me?
I am monitoring the weaker-minded ones whose thoughts I can read. King Eireth is not here. His mate the queen is here, and they believe it will cause trouble if they admit to her—or anyone who is loyal to her—that a child spawned from his loins is here.
I curled my lip at the talk of loins spawning things. So, let’s leave a message with someone loyal to him and leave. Maybe I can get back to my job before I’m fired.
The elves must have been communicating with each other telepathically, for one looked back and gave me a dismissive perusal, as if they were having a chat about how homely Eireth’s half-human child was. Even though I had no reason to care what these people thought about me, my cheeks heated with indignation.
No, Zav replied. I have come to ensure you are properly trained. If Eireth will not see to it, another elf will, an elf who values his life and does not want to be slain by a dragon.
I rubbed my face. Zav, nobody is going to be a good teacher if you’re threatening to kill them. They’ll probably get back at you—at me—by teaching me how to strangle myself with magic.
You will not fall for something like that. You are not unwise, even if your tongue often says unwise things.
Thanks, I think. But you must get my point.
The female elf returned but did not speak aloud as she appeared to confer with the others. It was the snotty male elf who turned back to us.
“Lord Zavryd’nokquetal,” he said, having no trouble pronouncing the unwieldy name, “you are welcome to stay among us for as long as you wish, but the mongrel is not.” His gaze flicked toward me for only the briefest acknowledgment. “Humans, even mixed-blood humans, are not welcome among our kind.”
I told myself not to be stung, that these people had no reason to care about me, but the dismissal hurt more than it should have. Maybe it was the disappointment of knowing I wouldn’t even get a chance to meet my father. If he’d been here, would he have rejected me as quickly as these other elves? He must have felt something for my mother once. Wouldn’t he at least be curious to meet me? Or did he consider his dalliance with her to have been a mistake, one he’d prefer to forget?
We do not wish to stay here, Zav boomed into my mind, and theirs too, judging by the winces. We seek to acquire a teacher.
“Humans can’t learn elven magic, my lord. Please understand. We mean no disrespect to you, but this is simply how it is. Their lives are not long enough for mastery, nor does enough magic flow through their veins.”
“Are you sure it’s not arrogant haughtiness that my veins are lacking?” I demanded, giving up on diplomacy. “Because that seems to be a requirement for being an elf.”
He frowned at me. “You do not know your proper place, mongrel. You will never be welcome among our kind.”
“That’s a shame because this is such a warm and friendly place. You guys are oozing generosity and goodwill.”
He didn’t seem to know what to say to that, though I took some satisfaction from the flustered look on his face as he did the bow-curtsy again to Zav, then hustled into the tree. All except one of his pointy-eared buddies hurried after him, a female elf in a thin dress that stirred in the breeze.
She smiled shyly at Zav. “My lord, please let me renew my brother’s invitation. You are more than welcome to stay with us tonight. I will happily share my bed with you.”
I stared at her, wondering if my translation charm had taken some liberties there. For whatever reason, I’d never imagined elves as being forward and promiscuous, but she beamed a flirtatious smile at Zav and touched her chest.
“I know how to please a dragon,” she added.
I have a mate, Zav stated before I could recover from my surprise and decide if I wanted to punch her in the nose or something equally mature. The tip of his tail swept over and curled around my waist. She is a great warrior. We battle together.
I was touched by the great warrior comment, even if having him get possessive of me was a little weird when he was in his dragon form.
“But does she know how to honor and respect a dragon?” She looked dismissively at me. “Her tongue seems sharp.”
I trust her tongue. I will not stay with you tonight.
“As you wish, my lord.” She did the bow-curtsy and walked inside, managing an impressive hip sway for someone so slender.
Cool rain fell as Zav and I were left alone on the platform. His gaze was toward the door all the elves had disappeared into, and I wondered if he was having second thoughts about rejecting the invitation.
More likely, he was deciding who to kidnap to instruct me, but a small part of me dwelled on the woman’s offer to take him to bed. Not because I truly thought he would go sleep with an elf, not after what he’d been through with one of their kind, but because it hadn’t occurred to me before that he’d been telling the truth about most females being eager to have sex with a dragon. Oh, I knew he wasn’t a liar, but I’d assumed he had an inflated opinion of himself in that regard and didn’t truly get propositioned left and right.
“Shows what I know,” I muttered.
The rain picked up, puddles rapidly forming on the platform. The day had grown darker, either due to the rain clouds or the approach of night, and I found myself noticing that some of the surrounding trees had hollows from which pairs of glowing red dots peered out. Eyes? Some sort of magical creatures seemed to live inside, but I couldn’t tell if they were birds or bats or something more dangerous. Maybe they were sentries of a kind, here to protect the elves from those who weren’t welcome.
Standing at Zav’s side, I doubted I had to worry about being overcome by the elven equivalent of a pit bull, but all those eyes seeming to stare at me made me uneasy. The magic emanating from all around us also made me feel vulnerable.
I will take you to a place to spend the night, Zav told me. Climb on my back again.
He levitated me atop him before I had to climb anywhere, and before I knew it, we were flying back the way we’d come.
A place to spend the night by myself? Are you planning to take the elves up on the offer of a cozy bed while I get rained on? I would much rather go home than spend the night in an alien forest.
I am planning to find someone to teach you.
The painful buzz ripped across my skin again as we flew through the barrier protecting the elven city, and I grimaced. That grimace deepened when Zav dropped me off under some trees and told me to stay put.
As he flew away into the rain and the deepening night, I shivered, feeling alone and vulnerable, even though there were no magical eyes staring at me out here. Though it seemed unlikely that something would happen to him on the elven world, I couldn’t help but think that if something did… I could be stuck here. Forever.
16
The temperature dropped, and I shivered in the rain as I sat hunkered against the base of a tree. The branches did not provide that much protection from the weather. What droplets didn’t fall straight from the sky to me instead dripped from the leaves onto my head and ran in rivulets down the trunk to drench my clothing.
“Note to self: don’t let anyone kidnap you, even for your own good.”
Frogs or something similar were croaking in a pond nearby, but they fell silent when another creature roared in the distance. I dropped a hand to Fezzik. I was doing my best to keep the gun under my duster so the ammunition wouldn’t get wet. Ditto for the scones, my only source of food. I didn’t even have a bottle of water, though with the rivers dripping onto me from above, that was less of a concern.
I sensed a powerful aura in the sky, that of a dragon. It wasn’t Zav.
My head thunked back against the tree as I groaned. What were the odds that lots of dragons lived on the elven world and only chance was bringing this one by?
He didn’t seem familiar—at least that meant it wasn’t Zav’s sister or Dob’s father or some other dragon that I’d pissed off. Somehow, that didn’t make me less uneasy about his presence.
Interesting, a male voice spoke into my mind. It had to belong to the dragon.
No, I’m really not, I thought. Run along.
You have been marked by a dragon.
Yes, I have. And he’s not far away.
Lord Zavryd’nokquetal of the Stormforge Clan. Interesting. What is special about you that he chose you as a mate? Are you a supportive tail holder?
I vex his enemies. I didn’t appreciate this strange dragon’s questions and wondered what the repercussions would be if I ignored everything else he said.
He has many of those.
The dragon had been on a path to fly straight over me, but he banked to circle the area. Wonderful. It didn’t matter where I went; I was catnip to dragons.
You carry weapons, he observed. Do you go into battle with him?
I drew Chopper and considered bragging about how I’d stuck the blade into a few dragons, but that might get me in trouble. He might want to come down and challenge me to teach me a lesson. I settled for holding the sword and glaring defiantly up at the forest canopy. The foliage was dense enough that I couldn’t see him, but I had no trouble sensing where he was as he flew in lazy circles.
I have seen that weapon before. You must be a great warrior if you were deemed worthy enough to carry it. Fascinating.
Where did you see it? My plan to ignore him vanished. Was it possible this random dragon could be a source of information?
In battle long ago. An elf warrior queen carried it and used it to slay a dragon. I do not know its dwarven name, but my clan dubbed it Dragon Doom.
And what clan are you from? I squeezed Chopper’s hilt, half-expecting him to be a relative of the Silverclaw Clan—Dob’s and Shaygor’s family—all of whom doubtless had the dragon equivalent of a bounty out on my head.
Starsinger Clan.
I hadn’t heard of them. Maybe that was a good thing.
Are you an ally to the Stormforge Clan? I asked.
No. They’re pompous and pretentious.