In her elven form, Velilah had silver eyes, a beautiful face, and pointed ears, but she oozed dragon arrogance as she looked me slowly up and down with a sneer on her pouty lips.
I did not fully examine you before. She spoke telepathically even though she had a human—or elven—tongue now.
“I imagine it’s hard to examine things when you’re being squished by another dragon.”
Her eyes flared with silver light, and I reminded myself that irritating a dragon was not a good idea. She wouldn’t be like Zav and tolerate my lip.
You are not as eager to please as the females of most lesser species who seek to seduce dragons. The way her head tilted was more reptilian than elven or human. Maybe she didn’t spend a lot of time shape-shifting into lesser species. Or are you different with him?
“With Zav? No, I’m flippant to him too. He says I’m not properly respectful of dragons, but he likes it when I vex his enemies.”
Her eyes closed to slits. He told you to vex me?
“No, I think we were both hoping you and I would never meet.”
I wished to see what mongrel trash he was letting hold his tail. Judging by that disdainful expression, Velilah couldn’t see my sex appeal.
“Here I am.” I spread my arms. “I look better when I haven’t been rolling around in the mud fighting elven guard creatures. You should see me in the green dress with the leg slit.”
If you wish to survive to see the next moon, you will tell Lord Zavryd’nokquetal to go back to his own kind, that you have no wish to be his mate. And I suggest you use his proper name when you address him.
“I can’t pronounce it. Mongrels are inferior.”
Obviously.
“If you want him, you’ll have to win him yourself. I’m not telling him anything.”
“Val?” came Freysha’s soft whisper from the side. She’d come out of another dwelling and stood in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
“Vexing a dragon.”
“That’s unwise.”
“I know.”
Power flowed from Velilah and gripped me. I drew Chopper and willed the blade and my own power to keep her from holding me immobile—or squishing me like a grape—again.
You will tell him you no longer wish to be his mate, Velilah spoke into my mind, magical compulsion urging me to obey, to drop to my knees in front of her and do whatever her lofty greatness asked.
My legs threatened to buckle as my muscles turned as limp as cooked pasta.
Though her power was as great as, or maybe greater than, that of any of the male dragons I’d faced, I hurried to bring Freysha’s exercises to bear. I formed the fern fronds in my thoughts, willing them to wrap around my mind and block her while protecting me from the compulsion. Would such puny mongrel magic work against her? I had to believe it would. It had worked to push away Xilneth’s compulsion.
If you get involved with dragons, you will die, she told me. Send him away, and dragons will not have a reason to come to this world any longer.
After the egg theft, I doubted that was true, but it was hard not to believe her, to think that never seeing Zav again would be a good thing…
Growling deep in my throat, I redoubled my efforts to form the protective magic in my mind. I wished I’d grabbed a handful of dirt before coming up here. Either it would have helped me focus, or I could have thrown it in her eyes.
Tell him to leave you, she tried again, that you no longer want to be his mate. It would be better for him and for you if he left. You know this to be true.
Damn her for playing to my own doubts.
Another’s power joined mine, reinforcing my barriers, and the power of the compulsion lessened. Freysha was lending her magic to mine.
If you don’t tell him to dissolve your bond, Velilah said, you will die. Painfully.
More than a compulsion wrapped around me now. The same power that held me in place started squeezing. A magical vise wrapped around my heart, and painful pressure built in my chest.
“You would kill someone of another species?” Freysha asked angrily. “That is not the way of the Dragon Justice Court.”
Stay out of this, elfling. This is not your affair.
As they spoke, I managed to use the mental tricks Freysha had taught me to lessen the pain in my chest. Maybe it was just that Velilah was distracted, but I also managed to inch my foot forward. Toward the dragon. I still gripped Chopper, my hand tight around the blade. Taking a swing at her would get me in trouble, I had no doubt, but I wanted her to know I could protect myself and to leave me the hell alone.
More of Freysha’s power flowed into me, and I strode forward at full speed.
“Leave me alone, and leave Earth,” I said. “If you want Zav, you’ll have to convince him yourself. I’m not telling him to take a hike.”
Before I was close enough to truly threaten her with my sword, Velilah flung up a hand and a tsunami of power struck me. As I flew backward and smashed against the wall of the nearest dwelling, I saw Freysha fly backward too. Since she was in the doorway, she tumbled inside, all the way to the far wall and struck it. A gasp of pain escaped her lips.
I scrambled to my feet, Chopper still in hand.
Velilah sprang off the deck and shifted in the air to her dragon form. She flapped her great wings and opened her maw, showing sword-like fangs that could chomp me in half.
But they didn’t come in to bite me. Smoke roiled out of her throat and nostrils.
“Dragon attack!” I shouted for Gondo’s sake, wherever he was. “Get out of here!”
I didn’t heed my own advice. I ran into the dwelling Freysha was in, afraid she was too injured to escape on her own.
Velilah spewed fire, the flames bursting through the doorway after me. My fire-resisting charm activated and kept me from being charred to ash instantly, but the extreme heat still struck with an inferno’s intensity. The wooden walls of the dwelling burst into flame, and the light turned reddish orange all around me.
Where had Freysha gone? If she didn’t have a similar charm, she wouldn’t survive this.
Velilah paused to draw in a breath of air before spewing a second gout of flame at the dwelling. I spotted a weird green lump of giant leaves hunkered in the far corner.
Outside, the platform burst into flame. Snaps and cracks hammered my ears as the air threatened to broil me alive. Worse, smoke filled the dwelling, tendrils curling down my throat and assailing my sensitive lungs. I broke into coughs as I ran to the leaf pile. Hot air scorched my windpipe and nostrils, and tears ran down my face.
“Freysha!” I grabbed the foliage—it was surprisingly damp, as soaked as seaweed freshly plucked from the ocean. “We have to get out of here.”
The lump of leaves parted, and Freysha reached up toward me. I tried to pull her out, intending to leap down from the platform and sprint somewhere safe—wherever that would be—but she grabbed me.
She pulled me down beside her inside the cocoon of wet leaves. That cocoon expanded, making room for two, and then sealed over us.
In the dark, tight space, claustrophobic fear gripped me. I barely resisted the urge to cut open the leaves and run out. It was wet inside and surprisingly cool. I could imagine us being steamed like wontons, but that wasn’t happening. At least so far.
I gripped Freysha’s arm in case my fire charm could spread its influence to her and hoped Gondo was all right wherever he was. Inside the cocoon, the snaps and cracks were muted, but I still heard them. The tree was burning all around us.
“This is against the rules put forth by the Dragon Justice Court,” Freysha said, surprisingly tart and irritated. “As soon as I get home, I intend to report her through the proper ambassadorial channels.”
“I was thinking of—” coughs broke through my words, and tears ran down my hot cheeks, “—sticking my sword in her.”
“Unfortunately, that would also be against the rules. But she deserves it.” Freysha paused. “She’s flying away.” She lowered her voice, sadness creeping into her tone. “The trees are burning. It’s difficult to put out dragon fire. This whole village might be destroyed.”
“We—” The platform shuddered underneath us, then collapsed, and I didn’t get to finish the thought.
We plunged twenty feet through heat and smoke and flames to the ground below. I managed to twist in the air, land on my feet, and turn it into a roll. Freysha did something similar, and we rolled into each other. Painfully. At least I didn’t hear any bones crunch.
The flames were mostly up in the trees, but fallen branches burned and sputtered on the ground. We sprinted for the pebble path as I continued to cough, my lungs trying to turn themselves inside out and escape my tortured body. I flashed back to the miasma of hot gaseous air in Mt. Rainier’s volcanic ice caves, but as we ran into clear air, the imagery faded.
Freysha slowed and turned around. I ran farther before realizing she was doing more than glancing back. I stopped to wait, though all I wanted was to get in the Jeep and drive back to my hopefully enemy-free home. I couldn’t sense Velilah and hoped she’d flown off, but I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t sensed her approach up on the platform either.
“I’ll just be a moment,” Freysha called.
She lifted her hands with fingers splayed as she faced the fire. It burned heartily in dozens of trees. I hoped the goblin village was far enough away that it wouldn’t be in danger, but I couldn’t be certain. This late in the summer, the foliage was dry by Pacific Northwest standards.
I couldn’t see what Freysha was doing, but magic flowed from her fingers. A long moment passed before I noticed anything, but gradually the flames burned less fiercely. Water dripped from the needles and leaves on the branches, and the scent of damp foliage mingled with that of burning wood.
Gondo crept out of the bushes to the side of the path, bits of ash and charred twigs in his shock of white hair. “A dragon tried to incinerate me.”
“If it helps, she was trying to incinerate me, and you just happened to be nearby.”
“That doesn’t help. Goblins aren’t fire-proof. I’ve been attacked by a crazy elven creature today and now a dragon. I do not believe my association with you is good for my health.”