“Loren, we’re alive! And it’s because of you, we’re alive, we made it out of there.” Kae said, out of breath. “Everyone made it out alive.”
Underneath the two girls, the dragon rumbled again with a laugh. The wall of golden dragonfire still raged high and strong, the barrier of dragon magic keeping the wrath of the mountain from continuing any farther. Yet again Haedria’s magic was bested by the dragon she wanted so badly.
Lind flapped his powerful wings and descended towards the fields surrounding Sagna. Large fields of corn, wheat, and barely were dotted around the sides of Mount Volknar, relying on the volcano’s rich and fertile soil. The magic of the Dagan line, rulers of Sagna, was said to appease the volcano’s wrath so that it would not erupt and destroy the city and its surrounding territories. Having the queen herself use Mount Volknar as a weapon — the source of so much life and livelihood in the area for so long — was not even considered a possibility by many Sagnians.
The dragon landed in a clearing between gently swaying stalks of corn and wheat. The wind from the dragon’s wings blew the crops, bowing their heads as he landed. Lind seemed to crouch, pressing his body low to the ground then angled one of his wings downward to help the girls dismount his back. Loren leapt off the dragon’s back first, then reached up to help the huntress off.
The princess held out her hand, and Kae took it. Their hands touched, and Kae looked into Loren’s eyes. The princess was busy watching Lind’s scales for possible stable areas on the dragon’s hide for Kae to set her feet as she climbed down, and didn’t notice the fierce blush spreading across the huntress’s cheeks. Kae coughed awkwardly, and dropped her gaze, hopping from the dragon and dropping the last few feet to the ground.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Once Kae’s feet touched the ground, she was swept off them again.
The huntress landed hard on her back, pressed into the dark soil of the Sagnian fields with a wolf’s paws on her chest. Ma’trii whined and licked her face, nudging her with his head and clawing at her. “Ma’trii!” Kae laughed, pinned down. She tried to get up, but the feral wolf Beastman kept her down, howling and whining. “Ma’trii, I missed you too! I’m so glad you’re okay! Are you hurt? I’m fine, I’m fine! Hah, you smelly wolf, get off!”
Loren watched the two roll about on the ground. Her eyes faded to their normal color, no longer shining with the dragon magic she did not understand. She looked up to the dragon, her childhood friend and confidante, and felt his rumbling laughter in her chest. The princess smiled up at Lind, relieved and thankful.
“Loren! You foolhardy thing, come here!” A booming laugh sounded near the princess’s ear and she was quickly swept up by sweaty, furred arms. Kaiten held Loren in a bear hug, laughing. His patchy mane was a mess, plastered to his face from mixed sweat and blood. His jerkin was badly damaged and cleaved right through in some parts, showing deep cuts into his skin. “I thought you were dead! Loren, I swear by my father’s name, if you ever run off and get yourself captured like that again—“
The princess broke into a laugh as the Beastman prince picked her up in a hug as if she was as light as a tiny rabbit. He swung her around and held her so tightly to him that she couldn’t help but giggle. “I’m sorry Kaiten! I didn’t mean to get captured, you know that! But what about you, how did you find us?”
“Instead of heading to Rhodia to reclaim my throne, I went straight for your castle.” Kaiten said, still keeping the princess pinned to his chest. The mage-scholar Cassendir came up behind them, having followed along much more slowly. He meekly smiled and waved at the princess, his eyes very drawn and tired. Loren waved back at him as best as she could with her arms pinned to her sides, and Cassendir sat heavily on the ground. “I told the king and queen everything!”
“Everything?” Loren gulped.
“Everything.” The lion prince huffed. “I told them what you told me, of how you crossed the Plaguelands all on your own with your motley crew of friends you’ve picked up along the way.”
From the ground, Kae yelled. “I heard that!”
“And how you found me and the princess Seraphis at the northern outpost. Then our trek through the northern lands with Gershwin, coming down the other side of the Kilrough Mountains, then us having to part ways on the road once the bandits came. The queen is still alive, but she’s growing weaker every day. The king could not leave the kingdom, or his wife’s side, you understand. So he sent the Warmaster and Spymaster. We traveled day and night just to get here.” Kaiten sighed sadly. “We may have lost a few men and more horses from exhaustion.”
“Oh.” Loren’s face fell. “I’m so sorry. But what about Lind? Did he join you when you left Markholme?”
Kaiten shook his head. “The dragon didn’t leave his roost the entire time. I didn’t see him till he was above us, tearing the sky apart with his roar and slamming into the Firestone Keep. I don’t think anyone in the castle told him. I’m not sure anyone can make a dragon do anything. Except you, of course.”
Loren stared up at
