Dragon Wizard (20 page)

“What is he doing here?”
Lucille repeated.

Rabbit stared up at Lucille goggle-eyed until Krys ran up and told her who she was. Elhared shook his head as he watched the two girls. He didn't need to say anything. The expression he wore, one halfway between arrogant contempt and the sour disgust of a man who had just found half a worm in his apple, told me that the man in this skin was the same ass who had tried to kill Lucille a year ago.

Robin stood and dusted off his legs with some idle swipes from the backs of his hands. Unlike Rabbit, he didn't show any surprise at Lucille's transformation. I would have expected a little more concern facing an annoyed dragon's query. In his place I would have at least taken a step back at Lucille's tone, and I was married to her.

Though, with all the body swapping, I wondered if that was still the case. Technically, under Lendowyn law, whoever was in the body of the princess was married to whoever was in the skin of the dragon—the
other
dragon. What happened when the princess's body was gone?

Robin, verbose as usual, had been talking while my mind vanished down its own tangent. “I came to render
what aid I could to the opponents of my less than beloved uncle.”

“You escaped from the inn.”

Robin shrugged. “Forgive my wandering soul. The young lady is a fine listener, but for conversation she has her faults. Boredom and I have never been boon companions. I decided to visit my uncle's realm, to see how sooth was your tale of imminent doom. Perhaps learn something of interest to my new companions.”

“Really? You expect me to believe that?”

“Why should you not? Here I sit with all of you, unbound and of my own free will. And after assisting your squire and handmaid to rescue this grumpy sot.”

“Watch your tongue, half-breed.” Elhared snapped.

“Is this true?”
Lucille asked Krys.

“Yes,” Krys said. “We got to the cage, but there was no way to open it. Couldn't bend the bars or find a door. We drank two or three rounds of the tea—and it felt like we struggled for an hour before Robin showed up. I still don't know how he opened it.”

“The doors to such a prison cannot be opened by mortal blood,” Robin explained.

“But you weren't slowed down like the elves?”

“One advantage of my heritage. With one foot in the mortal realm, and one foot under the hill, I can traipse the edge between those worlds as I will. I could walk back there now with a single step. I stay simply because I hope you see me as an ally.”

“Why?”

“To inconvenience my uncle, of course.”

Lucille settled back on all fours and stretched to fill
nearly two-thirds of the clearing. She twisted her long neck so that her head was more or less level with Robin's body. Her new skull may have been smaller than the last dragon's, but her teeth were no less sharp, and I sensed her jaws still had the strength to bite a man in half.
“Then answer me this, Robin Longfellow. How did you know to address me as ‘Your Highness'?”

Everything fell silent. I think the half-elf would have suffered some unfortunate violence had he hesitated even a moment in answering Lucille's question. He didn't. He prattled on as if there wasn't any potential threat in giving a wrong answer. “Well, of course you're the Dragon Prince of Lendowyn, you're known far and wide, aren't you? Princess Frank told me some of what evil befell you, I assume that she found some magics in that musty wizard town to free you from what evil ensorcelment caused the death of Prince Daemonlas. Where is the princess? Back at the inn, I suppose?”

That actually made sense.

We had never let on to Robin that we'd been anything other than Princess Frank. Of course that meant he'd assume the Dragon Prince was still at large. If Krys led a dragon to meet him, who else would it be? It wasn't as if he had ever met Lucille in the other dragon's skin. He'd have no idea how different she looked now.

Elhared had made some comment about it, but Robin had probably missed it.

“Frank will be along later.”

“Come on,” Elhared snapped. “Can we dispense with the games?”

Lucille whipped her head around to look at Elhared.

“Trust me, my princess, you are not nearly as accomplished a liar as that black-clad fop.”

“Are you accusing me of—”

“Forgive me, Your Highness. Being dead for over a year has frayed my diplomatic skills.”

“You never had any,”
Lucille said.

“Perhaps. But it is very clear to me what has happened here.”

“Care to enlighten us?”

“Care to release my bonds?” Elhared raised his wrists.

“We could give you back to the elves,” Krys said.

Elhared tilted his head in Krys's direction and said, “The children are new. Is that what the Lendowyn treasury can afford now?”

“It's in your interest to talk to us.”

He leaned back and said, “I know. And I know that it is not in
your
interest to return me to the elves, whatever ultimatum Timoras has given you.”

Oh crap. He knows.

Shh. Let me deal with it.

“Elhared, I am losing patience with you.”
Lucille growled deep in her throat, and steam rolled from her nostrils. I felt a burning pressure building deep in her throat. Robin and Rabbit edged away from Elhared.

“You'd go to all this trouble to retrieve me, just to roast me in a fit of pique? That's not very good management of your limited resources. And what would you present the elf-king with?”

“
Why would I free you?”

“You need my cooperation.”

“We do?”

“If all you want is to appease Timoras, you can just hand me over now and worry about the other half of his demands yourself.”

Sounds good to me.

“But who else is going to free Frank Blackthorne from that pretty skull of yours?”

Everyone was silent for the space of a half-dozen heartbeats. To my chagrin, Lucille seemed to actually consider it.

“Why would you help us?”

Lucille, this is not a good idea.

“I need you as well. The Summer Queen has cast me as the penultimate villain in her son's demise, despite the fact I was otherwise occupied at the time.”

“That was apparent,” Krys said.

“If we cooperate, and you deliver the dragon to Timoras, you can testify who is truly responsible for the prince's bad actions.”

“Who?”

Elhared raised his bound wrists again.

“What will keep you from trying to escape?”

Elhared snorted. “The same thing keeping me from doing so now. The fae's misplaced desire for my blood.”

I felt Lucille swallow a ball of fire.
“Fine.”

Don't trust this guy.

I know, Frank.

“Rabbit, free his wrists. Krys, ready your sword.
”

Elhared snorted and rubbed his wrists once Rabbit cut free his bonds. “You think a squire's blade is more intimidating than a motivated dragon?”

“Now, tell us what you know about what is happening.”

Elhared nodded and looked up at the Dragon Lucille. “First, shall we consider the scales balanced at this point?”

“Are you kidding?”

“You and Frank killed me. I would think that was adequate payment for my political machinations. Given my rescue from elvish executioners, whatever your motive,
I'm
willing to forgive the dagger through the throat.”

“Do you have any idea of the chaos you've caused?
”

“How much of that can you lay at my feet? You certainly managed to survive the price on your head, and retain a peerage. Given your current state—one I imagine was an effort to attain—I can't imagine you find your status as a dragon that unpleasant.”

“That's beside the point.”

“Call the slate clean, and I'll be more than willing to reprise my role as Lendowyn court wizard, Your Highness.”

I can't believe he—

“You think the elves can be convinced you aren't the one responsible for the prince's demise?”

“No question, once they understand the circumstances.”

Wait? What? You're going along with— After what he did to us?

The man is a loathsome opportunist. But he's right.

What?

We need his cooperation.

That badly?

I want your body back, Frank.

I grumbled mentally as Lucille whipped out a taloned
hand so that the point of one finger stopped just touching Elhared's chest below the Adam's apple. I couldn't help but be gratified to see him wince.

“Wizard Elhared, the Crown of Lendowyn accepts your renewed pledge of service.”
Lucille snaked her neck so that her face was less than a foot away from Elhared's. Close enough that his wispy white hair fluttered in the brimstone breeze of her words.
“Do not disappoint us.”

•   •   •

If one knew only about the catastrophic results of the last master plan of Elhared the Unwise, it would be excusable to believe that the man was a fool and an idiot. That would be unfair, as the man was not an idiot. He had figured out most of the existing situation before anyone had talked to him. He had known that his year-old spell had been reversed the moment he was no longer dead. He had written that spell based on the one he had studied to do the initial damage. It had been an emergency measure, in case the spell went wrong. He knew the touch of his own magic instantly.

He also knew what that would have done to the surviving people affected. The original dragon would return to his own body, and Lucille would return to hers, and Frank wouldn't go anywhere, since his body had died along with Elhared.

“I'm impressed at the solution,” Elhared said. “You obviously found life as a dragon gratifying. At some point you must give me the details on how you managed—”

“Never mind that. Who could have recovered that scroll?”

Elhared shook his head and chuckled. He gave Lucille a pitying look. “You don't know? Isn't it obvious?”

Something in his face made me sick to my stomach. I suddenly knew what was coming.

“Who?”

“Sebastian of course.”

“Who in the Seven Hells is Sebastian?”

Elhared looked at her, and I swear his expression showed shock. I couldn't bear to hear the reproach in his voice. Not from an evil, scheming bastard like him. Especially since, in some sense, it was justified.

“After all you took from him, you don't even know his name?”

“Whose name?” Krys said.

Elhared waited for Lucille to make the connection herself. After a moment she started to say,
“Who . . .”

She trailed off as it sank in. I knew when she understood, because I felt her stomach lurch, her heart accelerate, and her muscles clench.

Elhared's plan had been fairly simple. He hired a dragon to kidnap the princess of Lendowyn. Once the king offered said princess's hand in marriage, Elhared had hired a patsy from a dockside bar—yours truly—to suit up in armor to go “save” the princess. Once everyone had assembled in the same spot, he showed up to play round robin with everyone's souls. I had ended up as the princess, he had ended up as me, and the princess had ended up as the dragon. The plan had been to slay the dragon, now containing an inconvenient princess, so the newly minted hero Elhared would return with a newly compliant princess, and the head of a dragon. Instant peerage.

The dragon himself had always seemed the odd lizard out in that scenario.

The dragon had said that Elhared had bought his service with a promise to cover his marker for a gambling debt to the elves. Elves took those debts seriously. That promise seemed as fraudulent as everything else, given the state of the Lendowyn treasury. Even with the funds Elhared had been skimming from the crown, it seemed obvious in retrospect that he couldn't have possibly covered a gambling debt that had already consumed the whole of a dragon's hoard.

After Elhared's spell the dragon was no richer and he was stuck in Elhared's body. No prize that.

Lucille and I had always assumed that he'd been double-crossed as well as everyone else.

But what if he hadn't been?

What if that had been part of the plan? Had Elhared's plot gone as intended, the dragon who was in debt to the elves would be dead.