hair was made of green
vines.
“They are brave.” The wasp queen’s
stinger thrust at the air, a glistening bead oozing from its tip. “I shall
sting some guards and give the slaves their weapons. Brave people deserve the
chance to fight.”
The seven of them ran off down the
corridor. As they turned the corner and vanished from sight, white light flared
from the door to the dungeon, and a huge explosion shook the palace.
“Come!” Rhodar shouted from below.
Everyone ran down the stairs. At
the bottom, Kara blinked in the sunlight. Rhodar and Telnar had blown out the
entire wall of the dungeon, leaving it open to the desert.
“Prisoners!” Telnar shouted. “Don’t
leave the slaves unprotected. Every group of slaves needs at least one prisoner
to fight off any attacks. Choose your destinations, and run!”
Everyone began calling out the
names of places, then breaking into groups. Kara had never heard of most of the
places they mentioned.
“What about you?” she asked Telnar.
“Where will you go?”
He shrugged. “With any slaves who
have no protector. And then... anywhere. Look what your mate has taught me.”
With a flash and a shockwave,
Telnar transformed into a beautiful green dragon.
Suli and Aralan ran up to him and
stood looking hopefully into his storm-gray eyes.
“We have no protector,” said
Aralan.
“You do now,” said Telnar. “Would
you like to ride a dragon?”
With squeals of joy, they climbed
on to his back.
“Good-bye,” called the girls.
“Thank you!”
Telnar bowed his huge head to her.
“If you ever need me, your mate can call me. I will never forget you.”
He launched himself into the air,
winging up and up until he and the girls vanished into the clouds.
The slaves and prisoners had all
departed, and the sounds of battle began to echo from the remains of the
palace.
Kara nudged Rhodar. “ I’d like to ride a dragon.”
“You may ride me as I am.”
Rhodar lifted her into his arms and
sprang aloft, his powerful wings beating furiously. The wind whipped Kara’s
hair about her face as they flew out over the desert.
“Little one,” said Rhodar. “I am
curious. Everyone in the dungeons insisted that Telnar would refuse to release
us. It seems many of them had tried to convince him before, and all had failed.
However did you persuade him?”
Kara’s stomach clenched. What if
she was wrong about Rhodar? What if he was furious? But she couldn’t bring
herself to lie to her mate.
“Well... The reason he would never
help anyone escape is that he thought there was no life worth living as a free
person. He thought he was a monster whom no woman would touch. So... I touched
him. I mean, I had sex with him. I needed to prove to him that women would want
him. He’d had such a sad life, and I wanted to give him some hope. Oh, and also
I had sex with those slave girls who rode off with him.”
Rhodar’s arms tightened around her.
His voice quivered strangely as he asked, “Because you felt sorry for them,
too?”
“I did feel sorry for them, but
that was more to persuade them to help us.”
“Was it terrible for you?” Rhodar
asked.
Kara shook her head. He might hate
her forever, but she wasn’t going to lie to him. “No, I liked it. Both of them.
I mean, all three of them.”
Rhodar’s chest vibrated as he burst
into a hissing laugh. “Little one, little one! You had a far more enjoyable
stay at the palace than I.”
Kara let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re not angry?”
His forked tongue flicked out and
left a burning caress along her lips and throat. “You saved yourself, and me,
and many others. You helped a brother dragon-shifter. You satisfied your
desires. I could wish that I had been there as well, but I was locked in a
dungeon; you did not leave me out deliberately. Why would I be angry?”
Kara shrugged. “A human might be.”
“Humans are strange,” said Rhodar.
“But you love strange things, don’t
you? So do I.”
Rhodar