Chapter Fifty-Eight – The Dragon’s Favorite Strays
Chapter Fifty-Eight
DAKOTA
“I can’t believe we’re meeting another dragon,” my daughter says, squeezing my arm. “I’m freaking out.”
“Me too,” I whisper, but probably for different reasons.
Thess sits by the fire, wrapping a blanket modestly around her long, beautiful limbs. She takes the cup of tea handed to her and smiles sweetly at Dottie and Aggie, asking about Stella. She can scent her (and the blood from the birthing) from afar and wants to make sure she’s not in pain. They chat as Murr approaches our fire and I automatically hand him his loin wrap. He pauses, giving it a thoughtful look before putting it on.
“Tell me more about how you arrived here,” Thess says to us as we gather around. “I am very curious.”
“We don’t have solar panels, if that’s what you’re asking,” Dottie says, a hint of aggressiveness in her tone.
Thess isn’t bothered. Her smile remains friendly. “I figured. No one does, and if they do, they have a lot more of a protective set-up than what you have here.”
Aggie waves a hand at the female dragon. “So now you can go back and tell the fort that they don’t need to come rob us. We’re just a bunch of old ladies and a kid.”
“Hey,” I protest. I’m not an old lady.
“And a dragon,” Aggie amends. “And a dog.”
My confidence withers a bit more. Bad enough that Thess is besties with Murr and knows him from before, but now I’m just another old lady?
“The fort checks out every report of ‘marauding’ nomads in the area, but that doesn’t mean it’s a problem. I’m going to report to them that you’re all healthy and harmless, and you have nothing of interest. Fort Dallas is very nice, even if it’s run by a Salorian.”
Murr makes a choked sound at that.
“What’s a Salorian?” Rabbit asks.
“Bad,” Murr says immediately, his eyes flashing so dark that it makes me hold my breath. I’ve learned that his moods follow his eyes and so when they turn jet black, I panic.
Thess holds up a hand before Murr goes any further. “They are, yes. Salorians were our enemies on the other side. There is one in Fort Dallas that lives with a human woman and she makes him behave. I was skeptical until I found out he was the one that managed to close the Rift. It’s what freed us all from insanity.”
“Wait, that had to do with the Rift?” I ask, surprised. “It was what made the dragons crazy?”
“We call ourselves ‘drakoni’ and yes, it’s a long story.” Thess takes a sip of her tea and launches into a convoluted tale of drakoni warriors enslaved by evil Salorians on the other side of the Rift, and when they were pulled through to this side, their psychic abilities were corrupted. It made them wild and insane, with only a few drakoni taking human mates and reclaiming their sanity. The Salorian in Fort Dallas feared something worse was going to come through the Rift, so he closed it, trapping the drakoni here on this side. Once he did, it also destroyed their ability to speak to one another. “We have all learned human words,” Thess says. “It has been a very interesting year.”
I look over at Murr, feeling all kinds of sympathy for him. He must have been so lonely to wake up on this side, alone and confused, and without anyone’s mind connected to his. No wonder he’s gathered every cat in the vicinity. He needs a family. My heart squeezes and I want to fling my arms around him.
“No…mind talk?” Murr asks slowly, his gaze locked on Thess. “No one?”
She shakes her head. “No one at all. It’s because the Rift closed with us on this side.”
His shoulders sag and he buries his face in his hands. All is quiet. I can’t stand to see him struggle. I reach out and touch his arm, rubbing it gently to remind him that I’m here, that he’s not alone.
He sits up after a moment, features composed but eyes whirling a wild kaleidescope of shades. “Murr not…broken?”
“Oh, no, it’s not just you,” Thess says. “It’s all of us. After I ‘woke up’ from the madness, I didn’t know who or where I was, so I went looking. I found Fort Dallas and a few other drakoni are there. We’ve had a few humans working with us to help us learn language in exchange for hunting, and while we’re alone up here,” she taps her brow, “we were still together.”
Murr exhales slowly, then nods.
“You can join us, if you like. They’d be happy to see another drakoni,” Thess says, then waves her mug of tea at all of us. “You all can. I promise the fort is very safe.”
“What about the cats?” Rabbit asks immediately. She reaches behind me, locking a finger into my jeans belt loop as if she needs to hold on to something. “We couldn’t just leave them. This is their home. This is where they expect to be fed. If Murr left, they’d go hungry. Could they come with us?”
“I…don’t know.” Thess glances at Murr. “There aren’t many pets in the fort, but things change all the time. We can always ask.”
My heart sinks because I know the answer to that. Pets are a luxury, another mouth that needs to be fed specific food in a time when resources are incredibly scarce. I knew the cats would break Rabbit’s heart. Even so, it’s not up to us. “It’s Murr’s decision, sweetheart. If he wants to join his people at the fort, he can.”
Murr looks over at me, and I realize I’m still stroking his bare arm. We’re like a chain — Rabbit holding on to me, and me holding on to Murr.
“Murr home here,” he says. “No fort.”
