A Shade of Dragon 2(10)

Einhen paused midstride. “Did anyone else hear that?”

In unison, we each went still.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Someone was approaching in the snowy street.

I tried three doors and let myself in through the first to give way. Michelle, Einhen, and Khem followed in after me, and the door closed behind them.

Warped wooden floors. A long bar along one wall. Instruments dangling.

“Gordon’s Instruments,” Einhen informed us, nudging a storefront sign which had been dragged inside and left askew near the empty fireplace. “That sign would make excellent kindling.”

“Yes, yes,” I said. “Tonight—when it is too dark to see smoke against the sky—we will light a fire to get us through the coldest hours. But leave the sign to bar the door. There is other kindling we can use.”

“Woohoo!” Michelle sprang up from behind the bar along the far wall. Clasped in her hands was a bottle of dark drink, labeled with a skull.

“Shhh,” I hissed at her. Khem and I set to quickly hoisting the sign along the slats next to the door, where the lock would conventionally go.

“Does anyone want a drink?” Michelle set to work on the cork.

“Um… gods, yes, I’ll have some,” Khem said, smiling for the first time since this journey had begun. He ambled toward the bar while I glared out the window, searching for the source of the footfalls. It was getting too dark, however, and the layer of frost on the window made it impossible to see in or out.

Wandering toward the ashes of the fireplace, I supposed it was good. We would be vulnerable to, but also protected by, the lack of visibility. I filled the pit with the small store of kindling alongside the hearth. We would be safe throughout the night, save for a random raid. No. The fire people overwhelmed in numbers those of ice—at least, we had in years past—and even occupying the city, the ice dragons would be unable to fill every house. After preparing the fire, I would check the entire shop and determine any unsecured points, potential exits, or hidden entrances.

“I’ll have a drink as well,” Einhen muttered, lifting a hand and stepping forward. “And then let us build the fire.”

“It is already done,” I informed him, exhaling a spray of orange sparks into the pit. In a matter of seconds, a fire sprang up before me. “Now…” I stood and sighed, peering overhead, at all the dangling instruments. I plucked a lute from one panel of the wall. “I will be securing the perimeter, and then taking first shift at the window, if anyone needs me.”



At first, I played the lute softly and gazed out at the street, while forcing the others to maintain silence. But, as the night deepened around us and none roamed the street, the reins were loosened, and I allowed the other three to carry on as if nothing was at stake. Even Einhen, carried away on the tide of drink, fell victim to fits of giggles and embarrassing revelations. Naturally, I’d never witnessed Michelle more in her element than while in the company of adoring, drunken men.

Meanwhile, I continued to play the lute, and I wondered where Penelope was. I had removed the magical mirror from my satchel just in case she might contact me, but it was a fool’s hope. The mirror rested against the bar, dark and void of all its former power, just like The Hearthlands. I wondered if my brother, Altair, was alive. I wondered if they were torturing my father, Erisard. Was everyone all right out there?

I was pulled from my own thoughts as the lute was slid from my hands. Michelle simpered down at me, the lute now dangling at her side. “Come sit with me. The other two are passed out, and I’m bored.”

“I’m not your entertainment for the evening.” I took the lute back from her before turning away. I wouldn’t engage in her pettiness.

“Theon.” Michelle looked down at her shoes. “I’m… lonely.”

I was being rude to her. It was not Michelle’s fault that the Oracle had prophesied what she had—that Michelle, not Nell, was my intended mate—nor that the Oracle had insisted I test my denial of her prophecy by bringing Michelle to my home country as a companion.

“And they told me how much the cold bothers you guys,” she added softly.

I grimaced. It was true. My bones were aching and creaking as if I were an ancient skeleton. “All right,” I muttered, standing. Michelle beamed and moved toward the fire, where Einhen and Khem were strewn together, asleep in the glow of the flames.

“Will you share a drink with me?” Michelle asked. I shook my head. She surprised me by accepting this rejection, and we took our places by the fire. “So, Theon,” she addressed me, curling her body toward mine. “Tell me something, will you? Because I just can’t figure it out. Why the hell did you bring me here?”