chapter Nine
As it turned out, Prince Wil had been kidnapped several hours from the capital city, well south and east from where they started. The dragons pushed ahead, stopping only once to drink from a lake and hunt from among the small herd kept nearby and clearly marked for dragon consumption. They would need their strength on this long journey.
The sun was still strong in the sky when the dragons dropped down to do a quick skim over the site. Mace and Nellin took the lead now. They’d been trained in aerial reconnaissance, and Drake knew when to let an expert do their work. They made several low sweeps over the site, where it was obvious a serious scuffle had taken place. There was blood, and lots of it, dried now, into the pale dirt. Dragons and knights alike had bled here—Drake’s family.
Fire burned in his veins as he took in the evidence of what had happened here. He recognized the deep red of dragon blood, mixed with the sandy soil. Lilla’s and Arlis’s blood. And Ren’s and Declan’s blood.
Drake worried for Ren and Lil. As he’d left that morning, word still hadn’t come from the Border Lair of their arrival or condition. For all he knew, they were still gravely injured and in danger. He didn’t actually think they were dead. Drake thought he would know somehow if either Ren or Lilla left this realm. Undoubtedly Jenet would know too, in that magical way of dragons, if her mother passed on.
So there was hope. But worry as well.
Mace signaled with an upraised fist and both dragons descended to the ground. There were a lot of hand signals used between knights that Drake remembered seeing in his youth, and they came back to him as they flew. The dragons relayed messages between themselves and their knights, but the complex system of hand signals was faster in many cases than waiting for the dragons to speak back and forth and then pass on information.
Unfortunately, while Mace and Nellin had been training for the past decade, Drake and Jenet had not. Drake knew only the things he’d seen his fathers do in his youth, but he hadn’t studied the ways of knights and dragons with any real seriousness. As a result, he had to rely on Jenet’s communications with Nellin more than he thought most knights would, but then, he wasn’t a knight, and that fact was driven home at every turn.
Drake slid down from Jenet’s back, careful not to disturb the ground a few feet distant where clear marks had been left by men, horses and injured dragons. Those marks held a story and Drake could read it well, now that he was on the ground, where he was more used to tracking.
Mace walked over to him, stretching the kinks in his muscles as he moved. “They went off in a straight line to the south, but Krysta wanted a look around before we press on and I thought we could all probably use a little break.”
Krysta stepped up beside Mace and headed straight for the outskirts of the tracks, moving carefully, Drake was interested to note. She knew something of tracking.
“Five men waited here, under the soil,” Krysta said, walking with short, sure steps as she studied the ground.
Drake moved up beside her. “And another four right over there, past the scrubweed line.”
Krysta looked up at him with agreement in her expression. Agreement and respect. “Small pockets lay in wait all over this area. It was an ambush, but one of the most elaborate I’ve ever seen.”
“I agree.” Drake studied one of the larger bloodstains. He looked over his shoulder, knowing Jenet would crane her neck to him if he beckoned. “Are you up to this, little one?”
“Anything to find William.” Jenet lifted her head clear over Drake’s tall form and sniffed at the ground near the soaked-in blood. “This is where they hurt Papa.”
Drake padded around the site, skirting the perimeter as he walked with Jenet to the next large stain. His hand continually caressed her neck as she shivered with emotion. He hated to subject her to this trauma, but she knew her parents better than any other dragon and could help them decipher what had happened here on the ground better than anyone.
They reached the next stain and she stopped, using her long, sinuous neck to sniff at the spot. “This is Mama’s blood.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” Drake consoled her as best he could, feeling her pain as if it were his own. “Just one more thing. We need to know if you scent Prince Wil’s blood anywhere here. We need to know if they hurt him.”
Jenet walked the perimeter of the site, craning her neck over to the various bloodstains. Krysta stood next to Drake as they watched the brave young dragoness do her work.
“This is where they took Lilla down, and that first area is where Arlis was attacked.” Drake clarified the scene for Krysta as they watched Jenet go about her scent study of the area. “So far, Jenet hasn’t detected any of Wil’s blood, though she definitely scents his presence.”
“That’s good news,” Krysta agreed.
“How so? They could still have hurt him after they took him.” Mace had come up to join them while Nellin cooled off in the nearby lake.
Drake raised one eyebrow at Krysta, suspecting she understood his thinking better, it appeared, than Mace did. She turned to the knight and explained, “If they weren’t willing to hurt him during the capture, it means they want him as close to unharmed as possible. It’s a good indicator that they won’t kill him or seriously injure him elsewhere on the journey.”
“And when he tries to escape, they probably won’t hurt him too badly if he doesn’t manage to get free,” Drake added. If Wil is anything like his older brothers, he will attempt escape at the earliest opportunity.
“Wil was in human form when he left,” Jenet reported as she finished her circuit of the site, “and not bleeding. They left on horseback.”
Drake patted her neck and sent her off to drink and cool off with Nellin.
“They were on horseback,” Drake said shortly, turning to Krysta and Mace to confer. “We should be able to catch them, even with the head start.”
“We’re already making good time.” Mace scanned the sky, probably noting the position of the sun. “We could reach the southern mountains by nightfall at least.”
“But we’ll need to fly lower now. We should follow the trail as closely as possible,” Krysta said, while Drake nodded in agreement.
“Shouldn’t be too hard with their horses kicking up the ground.”
“We’ll follow your lead in the air, Mace.” Drake felt he needed to be clear on that point. Mace had always been a very deliberate young man, and it looked like he’d become a steady, if a bit sedate, knight. “You and Nellin can recognize and follow the trail better than either me or Jenet.”
“We’ve trained for aerial recognition, but it’s easy to see you and Krysta have the advantage on the ground. If the trail forks at any point we’ll land and you two can use your tracking skills. I remember how good you were at tracking game, even when we were children, Drake.”
Mace’s smile was complimentaryeven friendlyand Drake suddenly recalled all those adventures the young boys of the Lair had gone on when out of their parents’ sight. Mace and Drake had always been part of a larger group, but often the two of them were paired off on one escapade or another. For one thing, Mace and he were of a size when they were younger and very close in age. The other boys had been either older or younger and most didn’t care to follow fanciful Drake on one or another of his imaginary quests. But Mace had been a good sport. He’d played sidekick to Drake on many a boyhood adventure.
It was nice to see that camaraderie translate into adulthood. Even over the many years, that early knowledge and respect for each other remained, and it pleased Drake to know he had the good opinion of this knight who had once been his childhood friend.
They set out not long after. The dragons had found wild game and taken a moment to cool down and drink from the nearby lake. Nellin even shared a few fish with Jenet in a kind gesture that Mace found somewhat telling. If he weren’t much mistaken, his dragon partner was attracted to the spectacularly colored female. Too bad Jenet didn’t have a knight yet. Nellin couldn’t mate her until she had a knight of her own and the two knights had found their mate.
It was the way of dragons and knights, but Mace still felt a pang for his dragon partner. It seemed unfair that Nellin had to wait to claim his lady love, yet Mace was glad for the dragon’s control. If Nellin ever mated, bonded as he was to Mace, the dragon’s lust would drive Mace crazy with a need that could only be fulfilled by his true mate. It was the main reason fighting dragons did not mate unless their knights had already found their own females to share their lives and their lusts.
When the dragon’s passion rose, Mace would be swept along in the fury that only a love partner could assuage. No mere casual sex partner would do. Only a mate, bonded by love, could slake the carnal thirst that would otherwise drive Mace insane.
He wasn’t completely sure, but Mace had a very strong feeling Krysta was it. She was the woman he wanted to share his life, but he had a long row to hoe to convince her to become his wife. And she’d have to be prepared to accept the knight who partnered the dragoness Nellin eventually mated with as well. It wasn’t an easy thing to find a woman who could accept such an arrangement, but Krysta already seemed comfortable around Nellin and the dragon liked her as well.
She felt really good in his arms too. This trip was all very serious business, but Mace couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of glee at the fact that Krysta was snuggled up against him for hours on end. Sure, he had the hard-on from hell to prove her nearness, but it was a sweet sort of torture.
“Can you follow the trail from up here?” Krysta leaned back to speak near his ear, shocking him to an even fuller awareness of the soft woman in his arms.
He pressed forward, tightening his hold around her waist as he leaned close to her neck. “Easily. Nellin’s eyesight is much better than mine, but even I can see the telltale marks of the company’s passage from this height.”
She nodded, but Mace couldn’t move away from the tempting softness of her skin. Giving into temptation, he licked just under her ear, nuzzling in closer as he tasted the salt of her skin and breathed in the essence of her. She was delicious on so many levels.
“Mace?”
One hand rose over her breast, squeezing gently as he tested her response. He could feel the increase in her breathing as she leaned into him, pressing herself into his palm. He tucked his other hand downward, insinuating it between the dragon’s hide and her hot core, clothed in her soft, well-worn uniform trousers.
“Mace, stop. We can’t.”
“Just let me hold you like this, Krysta.” He nuzzled her neck from behind. “I’ve dreamed of you since our time together. Every single night.”
Dragons were exhibitionists and that proclivity tended to rub off on their knights, so Mace didn’t particularly care if Drake and Jenet could see what he was doing. In fact, he felt a primitive urge to publicly stake his claim on this woman. If Krysta was meant to share his life, she’d have to get used to the idea of another man watching—and even joining—in her rapture, but he didn’t want to push her too far yet.
Mace hadn’t planned to touch her like this, but for once in his life, he decided to go with the moment. He was taking a page out of Drake’s book, being spontaneous and impulsive.
Drake definitely had the right idea if this pleasure was the reward for breaking with Mace’s carefully laid plans. Krysta shifted, rubbing her taut ass against his straining erection, and he bit back a groan. She was fire in his arms, and he never wanted to let go.
“Do you dream of me, Krysta? Did you enjoy our time together as much as I did?”
“You know I liked it, Mace, but we can’t do this now. Drake might see, and I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”
Krysta couldn’t get over the feel of Mace’s strong hands on her body. She’d been in turmoil since almost the first moment she’d climbed on Nellin’s back, and she’d been seated for hours now in front of the strong knight as they flew in pursuit of the lost prince.
Mace was a special man. Already, he’d claimed a piece of her heart she would never get back, though she hadn’t told him yet. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever tell him. Things were so unclear to her about the future—as they’d never been before.
There was Mace. And there was Drake. How could she reconcile the growing feelings she had for both men? Unless things changed in a drastic way, the scenario could only lead to heartache and personal disaster. But she felt powerless to stop it all.
And now this. This slap-dash flight across the land after a stolen prince. And both men working together, with her, to save the boy that meant so much to their land.
Mace pressed her farther, his fingers igniting little fires of need through her body. She grabbed his wrist, stilling his motion, though the flame in her core sparked higher. She couldn’t do this. She didn’t want to hurt either of these brave men.
“No. Mace, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too. I lose my head when I’m around you, Krysta.” He removed the hand from between her legs, returning it to her waist, but his other hand remained just under her breast, cupping her. He kissed her neck, nuzzling close as he spoke into her ear. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known—inside and out.”
“Flatterer.”
“You’re easy to flatter, Krysta. You truly are the most amazing woman.” He squeezed her around the middle, and Krysta felt the affection in his words. He was such a good man.
But then, Drake had been charming her for days now, and she felt torn. How in the world could she choose between them? Something in her heart would be ripped apart if she hurt Mace, but she didn’t want to hurt Drake either. There was a depth to the bard she hadn’t expected. He was an honorable man too, with skill and bravery he kept hidden most of the time. He loved his family too, especially the dragon who so obviously adored him. That spoke well for him. Dragons were judges of men. Only very special men were befriended by dragons, and that Drake and Mace both had gained the trust and respect of two such noble dragons argued well for them both.
So the problem remained and only grew more complex the more she learned of both men. How was she to choose?