As he’d half expected, Lady Vi tasked Luc with teaching Lilly control exercises all youngsters are taught as they made their way toward the human King’s city. There was little time to train her under the Veil, but the healer promised to do some preliminary work with her before they left. Luc looked forward to working with Lilly. The exercises required physical touch in many instances and were easily accomplished with children who were used to being handled, but when the recipient of the lessons was an adult, the touching of skin on skin took on a more intimate appeal. Luc looked forward to being close to Lilly—all in the course of his duty—very much, indeed.
He’d already learned the slightest contact sparked desire between them. He wasn’t foolish enough to believe the feelings were all on his side. He’d been with enough women to know the flush of her cheeks and the rapid speed of her breath meant Lilly was as interested as he was, but for some reason, she fought it. She fought him.
She used the silly excuse that he thought her an oddity because she was human, but it was a weak argument at best. True, she was a delectable morsel of humanity, but he’d been around lots of village wenches in his duties as a scout. Few tempted him. Even fewer made him succumb to his desire to chase and capture. Lilly, though, stirred all his hunter’s instincts. She practically begged him to stalk, to pounce, to pleasure.
And he would. All in good time.
He’d give her a little room, for now, but she would be his. Of that, he had no doubt.
* * *
The enemy in King Alric’s court could not know for certain, but he thought perhaps something had changed. His ally among the Alchemists had devised a way to block the seers of the fair folk enclave a long time ago, but reports from the wasteland between Valdis and the Snowlands where the fair folk lived, reported increased dragon activity in numbers that had not been seen in decades, if not centuries. The alchemical block had definitely worked, but he recalled the warning from his Alchemist ally that it might not work forever.
The Alchemist had claimed that even if the block was broken, it would affect the range of seers in different ways. The block would break down for the strongest among the seers, and also, the most untrained of them, first. So, the elders and the apprentices would be able to foresee once more, while the masters—by far the largest number—remained in the dark for some time to come. It could drive them mad, and instill disorder among their ranks.
As more reports came in, it looked very much like the alchemy had, indeed, failed.
No matter. He still had time to try to stop the emissary from returning home. He had schemed to stop Lilly—the King’s accursed pet—at every turn. Somehow, she was still alive and on her mission, which was a grave disappointment.
He had asked his Alchemist ally to do something about that, though he did not know for certain what the Alchemist had planned. The traitor had other cards to play in this game, however. He had more agents on the ground who would try to intercept Lilly, and any foreigners who might be with her. Even if the traitor failed to stop her, the time was quickly drawing near when it wouldn’t much matter. He would finally be ready to unleash his clandestine army on the Blind King, and seize the throne for himself.
* * *
After all that had come before, their leave taking was a simple affair. Luc showed Lilly how to mount and position herself on Shilayla’s back, and after that initial leap into the air, she settled in nicely against him. He laughed at her surprise as Shilayla jolted upward, sending Lilly crashing back against Luc’s chest until she grabbed at the ropes they had tied like a harness around Shilayla’s broad chest.
As Lilly got used to the rhythm of the dragon’s wingbeats, she gradually began to relax. Oddly enough, she was what they called a natural rider—one who adapted easily to riding a-dragonback. Not all fey were so blessed, and it was one of Luc’s duties to help teach the younger scouts how to make both their and their dragon’s lives easier by learning how to properly ride.
But Lilly required no real instruction. She quickly adapted to Shi’s stride in the air, moving her body to match the dragon’s movements, as Luc did riding behind her. It was a close fit, but Luc liked the feel of her warm body against him. His chest touched her back, and when jostled, the aching part of him nestled into the soft flesh of her buttocks, his thighs molding to the backs of her lithely muscled legs.
It wasn’t easy to talk with the cold wind flashing their faces. As they flew south, the temperature would rise, but it was always cold at altitude, and they would remain wrapped up against the wind. Luc could have wished for less fabric and more skin touching, but he wouldn’t trade these moments in the air for anything. Being near Lilly was fast becoming an addiction, one that he’d hate to give up at the end of this trip.
After about two hours of sustained flight, Shilayla began to descend. They’d passed far above several border towns, keeping as well out of sight as they could by flying high against the early morning sky. But even a snow dragon had to pace herself on a long trip like this. They’d decided to take more frequent breaks—both for Shilayla to rest so that she’d be fresh in case of trouble, and for her riders to stretch their legs and warm up as best they could. The Snowlands weren’t exactly welcoming for those who required warmth to thrive.
Of course, Shilayla generated a great deal of warmth all by herself. She was better than a furnace, Luc had always thought. He noted the way Lilly stood near the dragon as Shilayla drank from a puddle of snow she had melted with a little puff of flame. Dragons were very handy creatures to have around. They could warm you just by standing near, they could melt snow into water and heat food with the merest puff of flame, and their scales were nearly impenetrable in a fight.
There were ways to bring them down, though. Luc had been taught that only diamond blades could slice through dragon scale, though he had never seen one himself. Such things were rare and costly, and the diamond mines were said to be in the far south, in lands that were scorched by the sun year-round. They were exotic, and as dangerous as they were said to be against dragons, Luc was glad they were not more readily available. He would be utterly devastated if anything were to happen to Shilayla.
As Shilayla drank and rested her weary wings, Luc shared a snack with Lilly. They sat on an outcropping of rock that Shilayla had thoughtfully cleared of snow for them. She had also warmed the rock with her fiery breath, making it a pleasant place to sit. As they ate, he began to teach her the control exercises that Lady Vi had demanded he show Lilly. He had to take her hands at one point, and the warmth of her skin against his left him feeling oddly disturbed.
She was beautiful for a human. Exotic in his experience with her dark hair and eyes. Luc had already entertained the idea of bedding her, but what he felt when he touched her and looked deep into those mysterious eyes of hers was something different. Something pure and…frightening.
He let go and looked away. “We’d better get back in the air. As we fly farther south, there are going to be more people around, I think. We have to be vigilant.”
Lilly rose and looked around the barren spot they’d chosen to land. “If you keep picking places like this to land, we should be all right.”
“Places like this will give way to farmland soon enough,” Luc cautioned. “We can land in a field, but there is likely to be a farmhouse nearby with curious folks in it.”