B00CGOH3US EBOK (33 page)

He ran across the inn yard to the barn. There was no time to hitch oxen to the wagon. He grabbed the shaft and pulled with all his strength, his arms and back straining with the effort. At first, it barely moved, the wheels mired in deep, muddy furrows. Then others who'd already made it out joined him and they started rocking it, back and forth. Finally, the wheels edged out of the ruts. They pulled and shoved the wagon beneath the window. He prayed it hadn't taken too long.

Kendale dropped a young girl out of the window first. Squealing and flailing, she landed with a plop in the hay. Baelin grabbed the child by her tiny waist and practically tossed her to the man behind him. There was no time to be gentle. They had to get the people out as quickly as possible or they would all die.

Like ants tumbling out of a disturbed mound, one person after another emerged from the dark hole, hesitating only briefly before they jumped or Kendale shoved them out to land in the hay wagon. Baelin kept an eye on the fire as it consumed the dry thatch of the roof, edging closer and closer to the room.

Where was Lady Jill? Why was she not coming out?

But he knew. She was putting herself in danger, staying behind to help the others out. Fear for her safety ate at his belly, chilling his skin despite the heat of the flames. If she didn't die in the fire, he was going to strangle her for not coming out first as he'd told her to.

One after another jumped from the window, forming a rhythm. As each dropped in the wagon, Baelin pulled them out, and another would take their place.

Finally, Lady Jill's head appeared in the window as dark smoke billowed around her. She hesitated only briefly before falling to the wagon below. Baelin pulled her from the hay and crushed her to him.

Kendale was the last to jump, but Baelin refused to let Lady Jill go to help him out of the wagon. The knight could manage on his own. At this moment, as he held her alive and safe in his arms, Baelin did not think he would ever let her go.

"Ow."

Baelin pulled back, alarmed she might be injured after all. "Are you hurt?"

"No, but you're squeezing me to death."

He eased his grip, but did not completely let her go. "Apologies, my lady."

She smiled, her teeth a brilliant white in her blackened face. "I'm glad to see you, too."

Reluctantly, he eased his arms from around her and they joined the others gathering in the inn yard.

"Did they all get out?" Baelin asked Kendale.

"There were no more in the room. The smoke was too thick to go back into the hall to look for more. I pray there were none left behind."

"I pray you are right."

Behind them, others who'd made good their escape from other ways rushed about the yard, carrying buckets of water to throw on the flames. It was a futile effort to save the inn now. The flames raged, eating at the dried thatch with alarming speed. The roof was almost gone, parts of it already collapsing in on itself.

Through the roar of the flames and the frantic shouts of the people rushing around him, a scream ripped through the night. It was a cry of anguish and despair like no other.

Baelin charged around the side of the inn and found a woman, collapsed on the ground, wailing and clawing at her hair and clothes. As ciders rained down on them, he picked her up and carried her away from the burning wall threatening to collapse on top of them.

Tears streaked ragged trails down the soot covering her face. She coughed and sputtered. She tried to speak. When she was finally able to draw air, she uttered words that chilled Baelin to his bones.

"My children! My children are still in there. Help them!"

Baelin looked at the burning inn, now almost completely engulfed in flames, the fire reaching high up in the air as if to snatch the stars from the sky.

And then he saw them. Two small faces leaning out of a high window the fire had yet to reach, their tiny bodies wedged in the small opening to escape the smoke and heat of the flames. Baelin's gut clenched and he stopped breathing, terrified they would either fall to their deaths or be burned alive before his eyes.

People surrounded him, adding their gasps and wails to those from the distraught mother at his feet. Lady Jill stood at his side, her eyes wide, her hand covering a silent scream.

"Dear God." She clutched at his arm blindly, unable to tear her eyes away from the children. "Baelin, we have to do something."

He could save them. He knew he could. But there was only one way to do it.

As he felt Lady Jill tremble next to him and heard the children's screams on the air, he knew there wasn't any choice. His life for theirs was a small price to pay.

He set Lady Jill away from him and ripped off his cloak, spread his dragon wings and took to the air.

The cries and wails below turned into shrieks and screams, drowned out by the roar of the fire as he rose nearer to the children. Their frightened faces froze when they saw him hovering before them, his wings whipping hot air and cinders about in a frenzied storm. In their terror, they moved back into the room, the smoke swallowing them like a hungry monster.

"Nay!" Baelin shouted. "Do not fear me. I mean you no harm."

He clawed and dug at the window, widening the opening until he could fit his body through. The bright glow of the raging fire at the doorway nearly blinded him, leaving the rest of the smoke-filled room in a choking darkness. More terrified of the beast than the fire, he prayed he hadn't chased the children into the waiting arms of the flames and certain death.

He dropped to his knees, searching with his hands where his eyes could not see. The floorboards snapped and groaned, hot to the touch from the fire burning below. His shoulder hit something large and it shifted along the floor. It was the bed, turned on its side, the straw-filled tick lying nearby. He reached over the frame and touched part of a small body, an arm or leg he could not tell. The child shifted and he grabbed the tiny limb before they could scoot out of reach.

The girl screamed and tried to pull away but he held on tight, not willing to risk her rushing into the hallway. He found the second child near the first. This one did not try to get away, but lay limp and still under his hand. Baelin's heart stopped.

Dear God, let me not be too late.

He gathered them up, ignoring the weak struggles of the girl, and tucked their tiny bodies under each arm. He dove through the window opening, shielding the children from the jagged plaster edges with his body. As soon as he was in the air, he spread his wings. He circled the inn yard once before landing away from the crowd, laying both children gently on the ground.

The people stood frozen, staring at him with wide, terror-filled eyes.

The sobbing mother broke free of the huddled crowd and crawled on her hands and knees, the need to get to her children greater than her fear of him.

The little girl lay on her back, coughing and gagging, drawing in ragged gasps of air. The other child, a boy, lay still. No rise and fall moved within his tiny chest.

The mother cradled the small, lifeless body in her arms. "My son. My son." She glared at Baelin, wild fury replacing the sorrow on her face. "The winged devil killed my son."

"No, he didn't." Lady Jill rushed to the mother and knelt beside her. "He was trying to save them. It still may not be too late. Let me see if I can help."

She reached for the boy and the mother shoved her away, clutching the child's body tightly to her chest. "Begone from me! I saw you, in
his
company." She sneered at Baelin, before turning her tormented gaze back to Lady Jill. "Whore. Devil's maiden. You are consort of the beast. Do not lay your foul hands upon my child."

Lady Jill reared back as if the woman had struck her. "No, you've got it all wrong."

A man stepped out from the crowd and, without taking his eyes off Baelin, shouted to the people around him. "The beast hides behind the face of a man. A beast that breathes fire."

"Dra…dragon!" one old woman wailed.

The mob turned accusing eyes to Baelin.

"He started the fire," someone in the crowd shouted. "He tried to burn us all!"

"No!" Lady Jill stood and faced them. "He won't hurt you. He was only trying to help."

But they weren't listening to her.

Hushed murmurs among the crowd grew louder and louder until the entire mob was chanting, "Dragon. Dragon."

Then one of the men shouted, "Kill the dragon!"

Some of the men rushed Baelin, surrounding him with pitchforks and sickles, any weapon they could find.

"Nooo!"

He heard Lady Jill's scream, but could no longer see her through the crowd.

His hands twitched, the trained knight ready to draw his sword and fight to defend his lady. Inside, the dragon raged, every instinct screaming to kill.

But he couldn't. These were not highway bandits or an enemy army. These were peaceful, innocent people, frightened of what they did not understand.

But maybe he could use their fear, long enough to get Lady Jill safely away. As the crowd closed in, he spread his wings wide.

"Be still and come no closer, or risk the dragon's wrath!" he roared. Then he opened his mouth and shot a fireball into the air over their heads.

The people fell back and he spotted Kendale pulling Lady Jill away from the fray. He knew a moment of relief, thankful she was out of harm's way. But as the knight tossed her onto his horse and mounted behind her, the look Kendale gave him chilled him to his bones. The truth, when it hit, sliced deep.

Kendale was not saving Lady Jill from the frenzied mob.

He was saving her from Baelin.

In rescuing the children, he'd shown his dragon side to the one man who should have never seen it.

A dragonslayer.

Kendale's cold gaze locked with Baelin's across the inn yard, piercing him with white-hot hatred.

"Until we meet again, dragon."

Then he spurred the horse and galloped off into the night, taking Lady Jill with him.

"But I don't want to be rescued!"

Roderick didn't even look at her as Owen helped him strap the chausses to his legs. "'Tis too late, my lady. You have already been rescued."

"You didn't exactly give me much of a choice, did you?"

Jill fumed, pacing around the grassy hill where he'd finally decided to stop after hours of riding. She eyed Owen, the young page working with the efficiency and dedication of duty of someone far beyond his years. While Roderick was kidnapping her last night—which is exactly what he'd done—the boy had been busy in the stable, piling all of their weapons and supplies on his sturdy little pony's back, then catching up with them later in the forest.

Jill hadn't been so lucky. All she had now were the clothes on her back, and that was stretching it since she was technically wearing what amounted to a medieval slip. She hadn't even had time to put shoes on.

She watched as Roderick continued to don full battle armor, as calm as a businessman putting a suit on for work. The thing that worried her was he felt the need to put it on now, as if he anticipated a fierce battle soon to come.

"Why didn't you help him? Baelin was outnumbered back there and you knew it. But no, at the first sign of trouble, you turned tail and ran. What kind of knight are you?"

Roderick's head snapped up and he stalked over to her, a half-strapped shoulder plate dangling down his arm. For a second, she thought he might hit her. He stood so close, she was forced to crook her neck to look at him. It wasn't a pleasant sight, with his nostrils flaring like an angry bull and veins bulging at his temples.

"
Do. Not. Ever.
Question my honor," he bit out through clenched teeth. "Did you not notice, my lady, the crowd was about to turn on you, too? Or have you not a care for your life?"

"Of course I do." She took a step back, tired of arching her neck and needing a bit more personal space. "But you left him there, to face that angry mob alone. How could you do that? Where was your precious honor then?"

"There is no honor in saving a dragon. Had I the chance, I would have slain him myself."

The breath rushed from Jill's lungs. He might as well have gone ahead and punched her in the stomach, for that was the impact his words left on her.

"Until a few hours ago, you called him friend."

"That
thing
is no friend of mine. I have spent my whole life destroying creatures such as he."

"How can you talk about him as if he were some monster? You've hunted with him, sparred with him, laughed with him, and never once did he try to hurt you. Or have you forgotten all that?"

"I have not forgotten." His voice sounded distant, tinged with anger and betrayal. "The beast deceived me. 'Tis not unheard of for dragons to be able to bend the minds of men. He bewitched me, as he has bewitched you all along."

"He did no such thing. He has no magical powers. He's a person. A living, breathing, flesh and blood human being, just like you and me. How can you think to kill him?"