Chapter 6
Reyna went over to the window. The red dragon ruffled its wings and turned around on the mountain. It glanced toward Harkniss Keep, but it showed no sign of seeing her. Reyna saw nothing of the golden dragon.
In that moment, she saw the red dragon head on for the first time. It opened its jaws and twisted its head around on its long, thin neck. It let out a screech that echoed across the landscape.
An eerie sensation of Deja vu crept over her. Except for the dragon’s red skin, it looked exactly like the creature she saw in her vision when she looked back over her shoulder at Damen behind her. It couldn’t be the same creature. Damen was a man, not a dragon. Still, she couldn’t deny the resemblance.
She pulled on her pants. The rough canvas touched her swollen tissues. She had to be careful how she moved and sat down. She could almost envy Fay and Haya their full gowns with puffed skirts. They never had to worry about this.
She chuckled to herself. With these men around, they probably developed the best clothes for hard sex. Men among the Allies didn’t develop such large genitals. They never caused women pain, not even the good kind of pain Reyna just experienced. If she never met Damen, she never would have believed pain during sex could feel good at all.
She took a deep breath. Damen would be long gone by now. She walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. She just made up her mind to head down to the hall for the meal when a strange sound caught her attention. It came from the far end of the passage, some several yards farther down.
Bright sunshine streaked through a window at the far end. Reyna peered out of it at the landscape spread out before her. Other than that, she could see nothing out of the ordinary. She must have imagined the noise, or maybe the wind made it. It made all kinds of strange noises humming through the mountain crags.
She started to turn away when she heard the noise again, most distinctly, coming from somewhere down the mountain. She definitely didn’t imagine that. She took another look around. The dragon was nowhere in sight. That gave her the courage to climb up onto the windowsill and peer down.
What she saw made her heart stop. A young girl, not more than eighteen, caught her eye. Her golden hair reflected the sun and sent prisms of light glinting across the mountain. It was the same golden-haired young woman Reyna saw up on the mountain just a short time before. The girl made a sort of moaning, sing-song noise in her throat. That’s what attracted Reyna’s attention.
The girl picked her way between the rocks on the mountainside. At the exact moment when Reyna looked down, the girl twisted her ankle off a round rock and crashed on her back among several jagged boulders. Her eyes rolled up to heaven and she lay still.
Reyna launched herself onto the windowsill with a shout. She bellowed back down the passage with all her might, “Help! Help!” She vaulted through the window and scrambled down the rocks, still screaming, “Help! Somebody help!”
She climbed over and down and around the sharp stones to where the girl lay still. Blood stained her golden hair, and her skin turned ashen white. No color patterns rose and fell under the surface like the other Krataks. In the short time since Reyna arrived on the planet, she already recognized what was normal for these people. The girl must be seriously hurt.
Reyna bent over the still form and laid her hand on the girl’s forehead when a deafening screech rent the air. Reyna glanced up with her hand still touching the fallen maiden, when the red dragon from the mountain swooped low and made a snatch at Reyna with its claws.
Reyna swatted it with her hand, but she couldn’t shoo that massive thing away like a pesky blackbird. It screeched again, banked, and came back at her with its claws outstretched. She had to find some way to fend it off.
She looked around, but couldn’t see so much as a sharp stick to jab at it. It must be coming to steal the girl away. It must feed on carrion and injured animals, and it wanted to scare Reyna away so it could carry off the girl.
The dragon made another pass and slapped at Reyna with its wings. It missed, but the air washing off its wings knocked Reyna backwards. She put out her hands to break her fall and gashed her palm on a rock.
Her mind never registered the pain. Her fingers closed around the rock. She brought it up in a quick motion and hurled it at the dragon. The stone whistled through the air and glanced off the creature’s foreleg.
The dragon roared to the heavens. It tilted its wings and dove at her with its mouth gaping. Its skin glowed fiery red, and its eyes flashed. It opened its mouth, and a sulfur stench stung Reyna’s nostrils.
She didn’t hesitate. She picked up a handful of palm-sized stones from the ground at her feet and winged them one after the other at the dragon. They rocketed through the air, straight toward its head, but before they could make contact, the monster opened his mouth and let out a jet of flame that burned the stones to ash before her eyes.
Faster and faster the dragon dove. It would incinerate her next. She picked up one last stone. She better make this count before it obliterated her from the face of the planet. She pulled back her arm to let the stone fly when something grabbed her by the wrist and held.
The dragon banked just in the nick of time. It swooped low over her head and sailed skyward, back toward its mountain. Reyna spun around in a rage and found herself face to face with Callan Assan. “What are you doing? I almost had him.”
He let go of her arm. “Had him? You almost had yourself killed, you mean. What do you think you’re doing, coming out here and throwing stones at him?”
“Him? You’re defending him? He’s ten times my size, and he was going after the girl. I came out here to help her, and he came after her.”
“Of course, he came after her. You shouted for help, didn’t you? I heard you all the way down in the hall.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. That thing is a menace. He would have killed her if I hadn’t scared him away.”
“He would have killed you, and I saw the whole thing. You attacked him first.”
“I had to.” Reyna turned back to the girl. “We have to get her inside. Rose can help her.” She dropped to her knee at the girl’s side.
Callan shoved her away. “Don’t touch her. You’ll only make it worse.”
Reyna rounded on him with her hackles raised. “What’s the matter with you? You don’t care anything about this poor girl. All you care about is that dragon What is he, some kind of family pet? I know all about you. You’re a cruel brute. Now get out of my way while I get her inside.”
Callan laid hold of both her wrists and wrestled her back. “I don’t care about her, do I? I don’t know what you heard, but that’s my own daughter Asya lying there, and I say you’ll leave her alone if you know what’s good for you. I don’t care what anybody says. I won’t stand by and let you hurt her any more than she’s already been hurt. For all I know, you’re the one who hurt her in the first place.”
“I didn’t hurt her. I was standing at that window up there and I saw her fall against the rocks.”
“How could she fall against the rocks? She’s been all over these rocks since she first learned how to walk. Maybe you pushed her.”
“How dare you accuse me of that? I challenge you to say those words in front of your father-in-law.”
“You challenge me? That’s a joke.”
“That’s right—I challenge you. You think because you’re bigger than me, you can beat me? You’ll soon find out your mistake. I took the Allies-wide championship in martial arts. I’ll crack your head in if you lay a hand on me again.”
He puffed himself up to twice his size. “I’ll destroy you, and my father-in-law won’t be able to stop me.”
She balled her hands up into fists. “You’ll destroy me and I’ll destroy you, and in the meantime your own precious daughter will lie there bleeding from her head. If you expect me to believe you care for her at all or any other living thing on this planet, you’ll get out of my way and let me take her inside.”
“You aren’t taking her anywhere. If anyone takes her inside, it will be me.”
“Fine. Go ahead and do it and stop arguing with me.”
He shoved her out of the way, and Reyna controlled her temper enough to let him do it. These men drove her mad. She didn’t understand them. That was the real problem. Half the words they said made no sense at all. Haya’s words about the Assans came back to her. She made up her mind to keep an eye on Callan to make sure he didn’t mistreat his wife or Asya.
She didn’t have to worry now, though. He squatted down next to the girl and lifted her up in his arms. He cradled her as gently as Reyna could have wished. He found his way with surprising speed through the rocks to the window where Reyna came out.
He swung his leg over the windowsill and carried Asya into a room at the end of the passage. Rowan Harkniss appeared at Reyna’s side and watched Callan lay Asya on the bed. The old patriarch laid his hand on Reyna’s arm. “Come away now. Leave her alone.”
“Will she be all right? We have to go get Rose. She can fix this.”
Rowan shook his head and drew her away from the door. “Leave her alone with Callan. That’s the best thing for her now.”
Callan gazed down at his unconscious daughter. He paid no attention to Reyna or his father-in-law.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Rowan tugged at her arm harder. “Come with me now.”
He extended his arm in front of her and pulled the door closed. The door cut off her view of Asya lying on the bed and Callan standing over her. She found herself staring at a solid wall of heavy wood.
She turned away with a sigh. “I don’t understand any of this. Don’t you want her to see a doctor?”
“We have other ways of treating injuries. Don’t try to understand everything on your very first day. Come with me and leave them alone.”
She hung back. “I think I’d rather stay. I might not understand, but I don’t feel right leaving her alone.”
He turned his sharp eyes on her. “Can I trust you not to interfere?”
“Are you absolutely sure Callan isn’t dangerous? He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, would he?”
“I can assure you Callan is perfectly stable. He would never do anything to hurt Asya. He wants only what’s best of her. He’s a very good father.”
Reyna sighed. “All right. I’ll take your word for it and I won’t interfere.”
At that moment, the door opened again. Callan came out. He frowned at Reyna and walked away without a word. Asya came out right behind him. She smiled at her grandfather and at Reyna.
Reyna stared at her. Her hair hung perfectly clean and straight from her head with no sign of blood or injury. Her skin shimmered with the usual patterns under its surface. Beautiful ripples of green fronds and golden spirals rose to the metallic surface and fell back out of sight. Reyna hardly recognized her from the ashen waif she found lying on the rocks. “Are you all right, Asya?”
Asya touched her hand. “I’m fine. Thank you for raising the alarm, but I’m fine now. Now I think that boy is waiting for me.”
“What boy?”
Asya was already halfway down the passage and didn’t hear her. Rowan answered. “I think she means your commander’s young son. She offered to show him around and take him for a walk outside.”
“Do you mean Ben?”
“That’s the one.”
“How can she be so much better so fast? What did Callan do to her in that room to heal her?”
Rowan shook his head. “I told you. Don’t try to understand everything in one day. We have our own ways of doing things.”
“So, explain it to me. We’re here to learn your ways.”
Rowan turned away with a slight smile on his face. “I couldn’t explain it to you. It wouldn’t make any sense to you. Leave a few mysteries for your people to solve later on. Now come down to the hall with me. I want to talk to you about something.”
Reyna tried again to disentangle herself from him. “Maybe later. I want to go back to my room and take some notes.”
“Come later, then. I really would like to talk to you when you’re ready.”
“Thank you. I will.”