Caught By the Dragon: Maiden to the Dragon, Book 1, - [ebook reader with internet browser txt] 📗

short woman who followed behind us. Her stooped servile posture and primitive attire didn’t bespeak of a person from my world. Still, that did explain her talk to we girls in the stable and about what we were leaving behind.

“So how long ago did she stumble into this place?” I asked him.

“Nearly sixty years ago.”

I winced. That was a long time without electricity.

Xander stared ahead and pursed his lips. “I have long wished to see this magic of your world, and that is why I asked if you have knowledge enough to create this electricity.”

I shook my head. “Nope, not a thing. I doubt I could create an electric shock by dragging my feet, much less enough that could power a light bulb or something simple like that.”

Xander looked ahead of us and a small smile played across his lips. “Then I still must continue my dream.”

I felt a little guilty at having dashed his hopes. “Maybe you can go there some day,” I suggested.

He shook his head. “That is not possible. You yourself witnessed what would happen were I to even touch the Portal’s surface.”

“But I got through,” I reminded him.

Xander returned his gaze to me and studied me. “Yes, but you are the first. I should not consider myself an exception to a rule that has stood a thousand years.”

I wrinkled my nose. “So how come I’m an exception?”

He shook his head. “That is a mystery the priests could not solve and our books could not answer for us. However-” A teasing smile played across his lips, “-I would not have you make the attempt again.”

I raised my head and saluted him. The raindrops nearly drowned me. “I promise I’ll be a good little Maiden.”

He chuckled. “I expect you to be something other than that, but I would ask nothing else of you.”

I smiled, but the smile soon faded. Thinking about what I left behind reminded me of the rain. I huddled inside my wet cloak and shivered as the damp sank into my bones. The forest around us seemed so vast, and I felt like just a tiny, wet little speck in it.

Xander pulled his horse closer to mine and reached behind himself for his travel blanket. He let go of his reigns to drape the blanket across my shivering shoulders. The weight of the thick woolen blanket was preceded by the heat it trapped inside me.

I grabbed the front-top edges to keep the blanket on my slick shoulders and smiled at him. “Thanks.” I glanced around us at the tall forest with its thick-trunked trees and undergrowth. “It feels like we’ve been in this place forever. How much farther do we have to go before we get out of this place?”

“The Viridi Silva is one of the largest forests in our world. We won’t reach its southern boundary for another two days,” he told me.

Xander looked at the guards ahead of us. Their heads were topped with rounded metal helmets and their hands were hidden by thick leather gloves with holes at the ends. They wore silver armor covered in cloaks, but I could see the armor had slits in the back near their shoulder blades. The look was similar to what the priest of the Portal had, and I knew what that meant.

“Are there any humans in this world besides the ones from mine?” I asked him.

Xander nodded. “Yes, but their settlements are few and far between. Many mated with dragons long ago and the dragon blood overrode their human line. Others have simply faded into history.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Darda and Stephanie. “So we’re kind of an endangered species here.”

“I am afraid that is very close to the truth,” he agreed. He straightened in his saddle and cleared his throat. “Spiros!”

The helmet of one of the guards was more elaborate than the others. Rather than a smooth top, his had a crest like the spine on a dragon’s tail. He pulled his reigns back and turned toward us. The man was about thirty with a scar across his left cheek. His face was marred with care, but the corners of his lips had a hint of a smile. There was also a twinkle in his eyes that reminded me of Xander.

“You called, My Lord?” he shouted back.

Xander nodded. “Yes. I wish for your presence at my side for a moment.” Spiros gave a few brief instructions to a young man of twenty who traveled at his side before he galloped over and joined us. Xander gestured to me. “I haven’t properly introduced you to my Maiden. Miriam, this is my captain, Spiros.”

His barely-concealed smile appeared as he bowed his head to me. “It is an honor to meet you, My Lady.”

I nodded. “Ditto.”

“Spiros and I grew up together, so do not be alarmed if he appears too impertinent,” Xander warned me.

“If I am impertinent it is because I feel my advice will do you some good, My Lord,” Spiros countered.

Xander chuckled. “Do me good? As when you coaxed me into riding my father’s finest bull to see if its name of ‘Devil’ befitted it?”

“You rode him very well, My Lord, and no one doubted your bravery afterward,” his captain argued.

“But some doubted very much I would survive my injuries,” Xander pointed out.

I raised an eyebrow, all my discomfort forgotten. “Did the bull gore you?”

Spiro leaned forward so I could see him as he shook his head. “No, My Lady. The old king, My Lord’s father, beat him quite profusely.”

Xander winced at the memory and rubbed his arm. “I am ashamed to say I deserved as much. In riding the bull I had broken his strict order to stay away from the beast.”

“So you see, My Lady, My Lord is in great need of my counsel to save him from his rash decisions,” Spiros commented.

I snorted. “With friends like you who needs enemies?”

Spiros chuckled. “A very interesting saying, My Lady. I shall have to remember it.”

“And where it as a badge of honor, no doubt,” Xander teased him. He leaned toward his friend and studied him with a sharp eye. “Though on the subject of good advice, I do recall your attempt to fly over the Grand Canal before your wings were softened.”

“Softened?” I asked him.

“The wings of a dragon child are at first very hard and brittle,” he explained to me. “The exposure of the wings to air and exercise softens the muscles and allows them to spread to their full length.”

“If you will recall, My Lord, my father would not allow me to enter knight training until my wings were softened,” Spiros spoke up. “I sought to show him that they had softened, at least far enough to support me.”

Xander chuckled. “They had softened enough for you to fall into the Canal and nearly drowned yourself. If my guard escort had not found to where we had eluded them we would not be having this discussion.”

I looked from Xander to Spiros. “You guys got away from the guards?”

Spiros’s mischievous eyes flickered to his lord. “My Lord was very adept at eluding his keepers.”

Any more conversation was cut off by a sudden worsening of the already-worse weather. The torrential rains fell faster and drowned out more than just the primitive road. I could barely hear myself think much less overhear the conversation between the two old friends. What I did catch, however, was a change in their expressions. They gazed out on the rains with pursed lips and furrowed brows before they glanced at each other with knowing looks. Spiros bowed his head and trotted off to retake his position at the head of the guards.

Cayden filled the empty spot vacated by Spiros, and Stephanie came up on his left side. “What do you make of this weather?” he shouted above the pounding rains.