“There,” he said. “That must be better.”
Izzy looked around. “Where are we?”
“You’re safe.”
“Safe from what?”
“Sandstorm. They happen out here all the time.” He rested his massive dragon head in the middle of his claw. “Gods, you’re beautiful for a human.”
“At least you didn’t say delicious.”
He laughed. “No. You’re safe with me.”
“Safe with the dragon who kidnapped me?”
“Rescued. There is a difference.”
Izzy shook her head. As her mother always liked to say, Dragons and their bloody centaur-shit semantics.
“Such a huge difference, too, between rescued and kidnapped.”
“You’re safe, are you not?”
“I don’t know you, and you definitely don’t know me. I don’t even know why you felt the need to ‘rescue’ me.”
“I was sent to fetch you. To keep you safe from those nasty traitors.”
“Traitors?”
“To the great King Heru. He rules over these beautiful lands with an even and steady claw. But like your Southland queens, he does not brook traitors to his dominion.”
“But why would he send anyone for me? How did he even know I was here?”
“Our magi are powerful. They see much. Especially when the human granddaughter of Rhiannon the White is heading toward territorial lines.”
Izzy sat up, resting her back against . . . well, against this dragon’s shell. “What does being the granddaughter of Rhiannon have to do with anything?”
“You don’t know?”
“I know I’m a general in Annwyl the Bloody’s army. My grandmother hasn’t had to babysit me in quite some time.”
The dragon chuckled. “The Dragon Queen often seems as if she lets her offspring run wild and free, uncaring if they return to her alive or dead. But we, the other dragon kingdoms, understand quite well what her offspring do not.”
“And what’s that?”
“That the bitch is cruel and unforgiving. And if you really want to piss her off, allow one of her offspring to be harmed. So although you are merely a granddaughter and not blood, as you are clearly a child of this land, the other kingdoms are well aware of her affection for you.”
“That’s quite sweet, but if it’s true, what about her son?”
“Which one?”
“The one who traveled with me. Did your powerful magi not tell you about him?”
“Oh. The youngest male,” he sneered. “Yes. They were well aware.”
“And?”
“And what? He’s a Mì-runach. Not only would King Heru never let such a despicable beast into his court, we assume Éibhear the Contemptible can take care of himself. With that in mind, the only instruction I received was to retrieve you.” He smiled, bright white fangs gleaming in the dark space. “And I am so happy that I have.”
“You won’t be for long, though,” she softly told him.
“And why is that?”
“Because I know my family.”
“What does that—aaaaaahhhhh!”
Izzy ducked her head, watching as the Sand dragon and his shell-like wings were flung away from her.
“Comfortable?” Éibhear demanded, glaring down at her through all that sand in his hair.
“You’re blaming me? I was kidnapped!”
“Aye. You clearly look terrified!”
He couldn’t believe this! He’d come all this way, saved that damn dog, and what did he find Lady Love-A-Dragon doing? Flirting! With a Sand Eater! Oh, the hypocrisy!
Izzy got to her feet and proceeded to wipe sand off her tight ass. “Éibhear—”
“Stay here,” he ordered her. “First I kill him and then we’ll discuss this.”
“Discuss this? Discuss what?”
Annoyed she was playing this game with him, Éibhear faced the Sand Eater and got a sword handle to the snout for his trouble.
“Dammit!”
Izzy laughed, hands on her hips.
“Where’s the loyalty?” Éibhear demanded.
“I don’t have any for such a whiny baby! And speaking of which . . . where’s me dog?”
“Again with that bloody mongrel? You didn’t even ask about me!”
“Well you’re standing here, aren’t you? You’re alive. Breathing, apparently. Whereas I don’t see my wonderful, loyal, non-whiny dog!”
“Ungrateful female!”
Izzy frowned and Éibhear immediately calmed down.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She suddenly looked down at the ground.
“Izzy?”
A dragon’s claw came up through the sand and wrapped around Izzy’s legs. With one pull, she was dragged down, disappearing under the sand.
“Izzy!” Éibhear charged over to where she’d been standing. Her dog stood on the other side, accusing Éibhear with his eyes.
“It’s not my fault!” Éibhear argued. “It’s not!”
That damn dog didn’t seem to believe him and Éibhear wasn’t sure he did either.
Snarling, he faced the Sand Eater who’d taken Izzy. He stalked over to him, ready to wring the truth out of the dragon, but with a little wave, the bastard suddenly disappeared under the sand, too.
Éibhear roared. Even if he had to dig up the entire desert, he wouldn’t stop until—
That damn dog barked and ran past Éibhear. Following him, Éibhear watched Macsen head straight to a sand dune. As soon as he got to it, he began to dig. Éibhear walked around once, curled his claw into a fist and rammed it into the dune. Instead of finding more sand, he found nothing. An open space.
Using his tail, Éibhear picked up Macsen and held him tight before he pushed his way inside the dune and dove head-first into blackness.
Desert Land Sand dragons, or Sand Eaters, as they were called among other dragon breeds, were unique among their kind. Not because their natural weapon was, actually, sand. But because of their scales. Or, really, scale. Unlike most dragon breeds, Sand dragons didn’t have multiple scales covering their vulnerable flesh. Not really surprising when one realized they spent most of their life in a sand-covered land. One of the most brutal tortures endured by other dragons was to have their scales lifted and something sharp and painful placed beneath. So to be around sand all day, every day, would make life miserable for the Sand dragons if they had to keep ripping open their own scales to clean sand out from under them. Instead, their bodies had one smooth scale—like a shell. A shell that could split to create wings or encircle the dragon to protect him or her during a sandstorm.
It was all quite fascinating and intriguing, but it was also why three of the Mì-runach—the mightiest and most feared of the Dragon Queen’s warriors—were currently huddled together like frightened hatchlings. Because what else could they do?
Branwen the Awful stepped out of the cavern, her body covered in blood, and tossed the empty shell to the floor. The shell she’d systematically ripped off the back of one of the few Sand Eaters they’d bothered to capture rather than kill.
“He told me nothing,” she said.
Of course he hadn’t. The bastard had been too busy screaming.
Aidan glanced at his friends, but both Caswyn and Uther shook their heads. Aidan, however, was made of stronger stuff than that. He cleared his throat and asked, “Anything else that could help us? The queen will want to know—”
“I know. I know.” She snapped her talons. “Oh! There was something. I totally forgot with all that damn screaming.” She went back into the cavern. As one, the three mighty dragons leaned over and peeked inside, terrified at what they might witness but unable to help themselves.
They shouldn’t have looked.
Branwen slammed her claw into the back of the Sand Eater trying to crawl across the floor. Like any dragon without his shell, this one looked strange, all that blood unable to hide the fact that at the moment he was no better than a weak, defenseless human.
“Give us your claw,” she ordered.
“Kill me,” the Sand Eater begged. “Kill. Me.”
“Stop whining.” She pulled her claw from his back and stomped on his forearm. She raised her axe and brought it down, smoothly hacking off his front claw. Picking that up, she came back out of the cavern.
Without even saying a word, all three of them backed up. She didn’t seem to notice. Aidan had heard over the years that General Iseabail and Captain Branwen had spent more time than was good for them with the human queen, Annwyl, but it wasn’t until this moment that he realized the truth to that.
She held up the claw, the palm toward them.
“What is that?” Caswyn asked.
“Tattoo. A rune of some kind.”
“A rune?”
“Runes mean Magick,” Aidan explained. “And Magick means gods.”
Branwen nodded. “Exactly. We need to get this back to the queen.”
“You’ll take it?”
“No need. Rhiannon allows me to communicate directly with her like I do with me mum. And once we finish here, I’m going after Izzy. I don’t know what’s going on but . . .” Her words faded off and Aidan would at least admit to himself that he was afraid to ask her what she was thinking. He didn’t want to know what she was thinking. Ever.
“I understand,” he said quickly before his comrades could argue the point. “We’ll go with you.”
Branwen shrugged, headed back into the cavern. “Whatever.”
Once she disappeared inside, Uther grabbed Aidan around the throat.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“I’m not going anywhere with her,” Caswyn said in a desperate whisper.
“We’re Mì-runach,” Aidan choked out.
“That doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”
“No.” Aidan knocked Uther’s claw off. “But we are loyal to each other. And we’re not about to leave Éibhear alone with Izzy and her.”
“She’s his cousin. I’m sure he’ll be safe.”
“Loyalty,” Aidan reminded them. “Until death. Remember the commitment we made to the goddess of war and death, Eirianwen?”
“Weren’t we drunk at the time?”
“That’s not the point!”
A Sand Eater’s head bounced out of the cavern and across the tunnel floor.
“Sorry,” Branwen called out. “Lost me grip!”
“But that big blue bastard will owe us for this,” Aidan vowed. “He’ll owe us big.”
Chapter 28
Coughing and shaking her head, Izzy tried to get all the damn sand off her.
“Sorry about that.”
Izzy dragged her fingers through her hair, still trying to get all the sand out. “Where the hells am I?”
“Safe.”
“Would you stop saying that. It’s bloody annoying!” She lifted her head and was finally able to open her eyes.