Being a true shifter isn’t the blessing it may seem. But through pain and darkness Perdita seeks to find her own life despite the ambition of others…
Chapter Three – Mandrake (part three)
This was all happening too fast for me and I felt as if my head would burst but my tongue spoke anyway. “I am Perdita. I have no knowledge of my mother. The True Shifter whose flame I bear found me exposed on a barren hillside. He thought me no more than a day old.” I couldn’t say any more and Moth soothed me before carrying on with the explanation.
“He never look for female who birthed my sister. Instead taking her to his place of safety and rearing her as his own.”
“How did he feed her?”
Moth laughed. “Didn’t Shift a pair of titties. Bought a goat.”
Mandrake, whom I could not think of as Mylo, laughed too. But he also wrapped his warm arms tighter around me.
I dropped my head onto his bare chest and breathed in his spicy dragonish smell. After a minute or two I lifted my head.
“Do I have to call you Mylo?”
I felt him laugh. “Not if you prefer Mandrake.”
“I think it suits you better.”
He smiled down at me, but my stomach suddenly revolted again. I felt my cheeks pale and clamped my mouth tight shut. It seemed to me that I had nothing left to be sick on, but that didn’t matter. Mandrake saw my distress and lifted me in his strong arms. In the relative privacy of the trees I brought up yellow bile as my stomach heaved and cramped. When I had stopped trying to bring up my toenails he found another clean rag and wiped my mouth. Moth came to my shoulder.
“What can be the matter with you my dearest?” Her voice was strained and she looked to Mandrake as if seeking reassurance. “Our beloved is never sick.”
“We will find out.” He reassured her while carrying me back to the warmth of the fire.
The same dragon as before offered water and I thanked him.
I rinsed my mouth and leaned gratefully on the dragonish strength that was Mandrake. I felt weak and shaky, and while I struggled to find some measure of composure I looked to the sky, which meant I was the first to see the gleam of dragon hide in the sunlight.
“Incoming dragon,” I said.
Mandrake looked up. “Queen’s Messenger.” Then almost to himself. “I wonder what that portends.”
The messenger spiralled down out of the sky. There was nothing snowy about the descent, all was efficiency and the husbanding of effort. As his feet hit the ground, he made the change, with the same economy. His human form was slight and brown-skinned and he had one of those ageless faces that seem to defy both youth and cruel eld. He brought a package to Mandrake and they clasped forearms in the manner of warriors. Then the messenger turned his attention to me. He bowed respectfully.
“I’m glad to find you still here, my lady. The message I bear most nearly concerns you.”
Mandrake broke the seal, read briefly, then swore profusely.
“Will you let me in on the secret of what it is that concerns me nearly?”
He held out the letter, but I felt too weary to bend my mind to reading the dragonish hieroglyphs. Being already more attuned to my moods than any male had ever been, Mandrake understood.
“I’ll read it to you. ‘Close questioning of the prisoners discovered the source of the drug used to incapacitate a roomful of lycanthropes. We have spoken at some length to the creator of the drug which is lycanthrope specific and dangerous to any creature not carrying the gene. The human bartender who was bribed to release the vapours into the air died for his greed as did a young female who was innocently doing her job as a waitress. The lady tutor may find herself unwell: sick to her stomach and weary. The vial herewith contains an antidote to the poison that remains in her system. It has been tested and found safe by the chemist who made it.’ Which explains why you are sick, amata. Will you essay the antidote?”
Moth shook her head. “Until I smelled it.”
Mandrake unstoppered the tiny bottle and Moth stuck first her nose then a finger in it. “Is well,” she said, “nothing but healing herbs.”
I took the vial from Mandrake and the smell was like a summer meadow. I drunk it down and for a moment I was afraid I was going to boot again, but it passed and I felt the medicine coating my stomach.
“Will you be better now?” Moth wanted to know.
“I hope so. My stomach seems soothed.”
Mandrake put his big warm hand against my belly and I felt him pouring his warmth and vitality into me. On impulse I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips.
“Thank you.”
He lifted a forefinger to my cheek and stroked the skin.
“Will you sit and wait while my dragons flame this place? Then we can go.”
I nodded, but then I gripped his finger. “Mandrake, are you coming home with us?”
“If you want me.”
“We do. But do you fully understand what it means? What you will have to do? What you will have to give up?”
He smiled and something warmed in the back of his eyes. “Of course I do. I think I have known from the minute I set my eyes on you in the palace many years since. It is only that today it crystallised. It’s the profoundest thing I have ever felt. And, honestly, part of me just wants to run.”
I touched his fascinating mouth with the very tip of one finger. “Me too, but I know that I will never be complete without you. Or, rather, we will never be complete.”
Moth, whose emotional intelligence is as cramped as that of all fae, looked from my face to his and I felt her not understanding.
“Neither can run. Bond has you. Nothing to be done. I never want to be bonded. But is my life now.”
I soothed her. “And you are my beloved.” She smiled and I felt her love.
“Dear heart,” she said in an awed voice, “how did we bond battle dragon?”
“I don’t know. But do I know the bond cuts both ways.”
Mandrake appeared to understand us because he rubbed a big hand over my head.
“Don’t try to pick it apart, amata. We are who we are. And now who we are is a bonded three.”
Shimmering into dragon form he whistled his orders, and the wing took flight, formed an obviously prearranged pattern, and drew in a collective breath.
The flaming when it came was as controlled, precise and effective as Mandrake himself. One moment there was a whole slew of ugly concrete buildings and about a mile of chain link fence. The next minute there was nothing but very hot ash. Moth was impressed.
“In all my born days I never seen…”
“You have seen dragons flame before.”
“One or two. And only angry. This not like that. It like housekeeping with blowtorch.”
I laughed at the analogy. But when I thought about it, I decided it was pretty accurate.
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