Astrid

 

woke shivering with wind pushing at her furiously. It was as if she were standing in a wind tunnel. Only she knew she wasn’t standing.  Instead, when her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she found to her horror that great, gray dragon claws were holding her.

Hold on, Astrid. She recognized the voice in her as Calvin’s.

Where are we going?

But he didn’t answer her question. Instead he asked another.

Do you remember Tem’s instructions when you rode him to the palace?

Yes.

Then get ready and when I say ‘now’ hold your breath and don’t move.

Calvin rose and then flew in a great circle.

Now!

He dove and Astrid gripped his claws with all her might as the air around them grew deathly cold and quiet. But she held her breath so long that her lungs wanted to burst. Astrid didn’t remember it taking this long the first time Tem took her here, wherever “here” was.

Then air rushed around her again, buffeting her body painfully and filling her ears. Calvin rode the air currents in great circles.

Where are we?

But as before, Calvin said nothing. He rose suddenly, the swoop in great spirals toward the Earth. Astrid felt lightheaded, as if she wasn’t getting enough air as the ground rushed toward them.

Calvin transferred her to one claw, back stroked his wings, and landed on his back legs, then fell forward with a thud on his free forepaw. He let go of her close to the ground and she rolled onto soft grass.

She got to her feet and brushed her hands off as she surveyed the broad field they stood in.

“Where are we?”

“Devonshire.”

“England? You brought me back to England? I’m a fugitive here.”

“That is what Rhea instructed me to do. And it was smart of her. You are less likely to try to escape if you know the law will take you in.” Calvin pulled a sack off his back and fished through it. He drew out her shoes and a black cape.

“Here,” he said. “To ward off the chill and to cover that matron’s uniform. That’s a dead giveaway.”

Astrid, thoroughly annoyed, jerked the items out of Calvin’s hand. “So, I save you from prison, and you are all willing to do Rhea Gentrix’s bidding,” she said sharply.

“She is my Queen, Astrid, and has been for thousands of years. She’s been a good Queen for us, mostly, and has her reasons for fearing and hating humans. If it wasn’t for Rhea, dragons would have died out on the Earth many generations ago.”

“You’re just making excuses for her,” snapped Astrid.

Calvin didn’t answer. Instead he turned where he stood, and then stopped and nodded his head then walked in the direction he faced. 

“Wait!” she called.

“Come,” he said. “I have place for us.”

Astrid looked at her surroundings. She had no idea where she was, or where she could find help. But Calvin was correct. She was more likely to get turned into the authorities than not. And the dragon could fly faster than she could run. Astrid put aside her misgivings and followed the elder dragon through the soggy field. But she didn’t like it, not one bit, especially when she remembered how Calvin had put the bracers on Tem while the soldiers held him down.

It upset her to think about that and the pain in Tem’s face as Rhea dragged her away.

She marched up to Calvin.

“Is Tem okay?” she demanded.

“Yes.”

The one word answer maddened Astrid.

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“Nothing. Rhea doesn’t want him harmed.”

“And what’s going to happen to me? What are we doing here, Calvin?”

They came on a little rundown looking garden shed.

“Here,” said Calvin simply.

“Here? This place?” said Astrid incredulously.

“Yes,” said Calvin firmly. He opened the door and it shrieked on rusty hinges.

She entered the shed, which barely had room for both of them. But Calvin pulled up a section of flooring, revealing a tunnel.

“Down you go,” he said.

“If you think I’m going down into that hole, you are insane.”

Calvin sighed. “Look, Astrid. I know you don’t like this and you have every reason to hate me right now. But I’m not going to hurt you and I’d like a space where we can sit and explain some things to you. So please, climb down that ladder.”

Astrid huffed, but descended the ladder, and Calvin followed her.

“It’s dark,” she complained.

“Just keep going.”

When she came to the bottom lights flashed on around her revealing concrete walls.

“A bunker?” she said.

“A little more than a bunker,” said Calvin. He walked ahead of her to a door set in the far wall and keyed numbers into a touch pad. The door opened with hiss.

“Come,” he said as he entered and Astrid followed.

Lights flicked on and Astrid gazed on the scene amazed. Spread on the floor going to the back of the room was a huge mound of glittery gold. It was a mass of jewelry, plates, coins, cups and statues.

“What?”

“Tem’s hoard. Or rather one of them.”

“One?”

“A smart dragon doesn’t leave his gold in one place.”

“But this, this—I mean how did he get all of it?”

“The usual,” said Calvin unhelpfully.

“That’s illustrative.”

He shrugged. “Inheritance. War. Finding old hoards. Tem is especially good at the last.”

“I see,” said Astrid sinking to the floor. “Why did you bring me here?”

“It’s our meeting place should things go bad. Should Tem escape he’ll come here.”

“So you aren’t on Rhea’s side.”

Calvin’s eyes blazed. “I’m on the side of my people, Astrid! And we are at a critical point. Should we mess this up, we might cease to exist.”

“Mess up what?”

Calvin sighed and sunk to his heels.

“There is a reason that Rhea is against dragon-human pairings and it’s not racial purity. Well, not entirely. She does believe that humans pollute the gene pool of dragons. But mainly, it is because a prophecy was made on the day she took the throne: that she wouldn’t keep it. A male dragon would take the throne from her and install his mate, a human, on it. This is why she was so infuriated when one of the dragon Lords, one of her own council, took a human mate, a seneschal. Rhea demanded he set aside the mate, but he refused, and the Council of Lords were divided on the matter.”

“Wait, I’ve never heard about this Council of Lords,” said Astrid.

“I know. It was broken. There was war between us then and many good dragons, many dragon Lords died.”

“And then the seneschals.”

“Yes,” sighed Calvin. “Rhea was just as glad to rule without the oversight of the Council. One of the things she decided was that we couldn’t associate that closely with humans again. And for many centuries she felt safe, until Tem brought you to the palace and her old fears were inflamed again.”

“And then she came to my room and found—”

“Yes. A dragon had taken a human mate. But not just any dragon, but the one she counts on to lead the dragons into battle against the humans.”

“Oh, dear Lord.”

“She means to kill you, Astrid.”

“How do you know?”

“She ordered me to do it.”

“What?” Astrid skittered back, and looked around wildly for something to use as a weapon.

“Astrid, relax. I’m not going to kill you. I’ve killed too many humans and that never should have happened.”

There was such regret in his voice, that Astrid understood something new about Calvin.

“In Hawthorne, you stopped eating not to protest your captivity.”

“No. Out of the all the dragons, I deserved it. They just didn’t schedule my death fast enough.”

“Oh, Calvin. No. You can’t think like that.”

“I can’t now. Tem needs all the help he can get to avert disaster for our kind. We can’t win in a war against your kind. There are too many of you. Your weaponry has grown with your technology. We must find a way to coexist.

“Astrid, I don’t know why things happened like they have. I don’t understand why Tem felt compelled to take you as a mate. But all that has happened was foretold many centuries ago. And dragon prophecies usually—” He stopped speaking and cocked his head toward the door. “I hear something. Get behind me, quick.”

Astrid didn’t hear any noise, but she trusted the super sharp hearing of dragons. She scuttled to position behind Calvin, who stood and drew a long knife from inside his robe.

Finally, Astrid heard scrapping noises at the door.

“Intruders?” she asked.

“I smell, along with the blood of Englishmen, the telltale scent of their weapons.”

“Government?’

“Yes, military.”

“Is that door locked?” asked Astrid.

“Yes.”

“And I don’t suppose there is a back door to this place,” she said.

“A dragon doesn’t need back doors,” said Calvin scornfully.

“Right, because they never come in handy,” said Astrid.

“Get down!” said Calvin.

Astrid barely had time to hit the floor before a horrendous blast shook the walls and tore the door off its hinges.

One word tore from her throat.

Tem!