End of the Line (8 page)

Still, she was glad Tony had
acknowledged Rocky once more before he died. Tony had given her
careful instructions. He wanted her to go to Rocky. And after eight
months of running, she finally had.

To find out what happens
to Maggie, her babies and their Rock, get your copy of
Tales of the Were
:
Rocky
today. And don’t miss the other book in the series:
Lords of the Were
,
Inferno
and
The Purrfect
Stranger
. Or the related
Brotherhood of Blood
series:
One &
Only
,
Rare
Vintage
,
Phantom
Desires
,
Sweeter
Than Wine
,
Forever Valentine
,
Wolf Hills
and
Wolf Quest
.

We hope you’ll enjoy this
excerpt from Bianca D’Arc’s first book in the critically acclaimed,
EPPIE and CAPA award winning
Dragon
Knights
series…

Maiden Flight

by

Bianca
D’Arc
Copyright
2006 Bianca D'Arc. All Rights Reserved.

Chatper One

Belora tracked the stag through the
forest. Carefully chosen for this hunt, the stag was older, past
the prime of his life, and would feed her small family of two for
more than a month if she and her mother used it wisely. On silent
feet, she followed him down to the water, a small trickle of stream
that fed into the huge lake beyond.

Taking careful aim with her bow,
Belora offered up a silent prayer of hope and thanks to the Mother
of All and to the spirit of the stag that would give its life so
that she and her mother could live. She loosed the arrow, watching
it sail home to her target, embedding itself deep in the stag’s
heart. Her aim was true.

As expected, the stag ran off, pumping
away the last of its life in a desperate attempt to escape. She
followed, saddened by the poor creature’s flight but knowing it
must be so. The old stag ran into a clearing, flailing wildly. He
was nearing his end, she knew, and again she prayed to the Mother
of All that it would be swift.

The stag faltered in its running
stride, a shadow seeming to pass over from above. A moment later,
the stag was gone, clasped tightly in the talons of a magnificent
dragon winging away toward the far end of the small
clearing.

Belora took off as fast as her tired
feet would carry her, following the dragon who had stolen her
prize.

Coming out of his swooping dive, the
dragon pinned the stag's quivering body between the long talons of
his right foreleg. He’d made a clean kill, stabbing the beast
through the heart with his sharp-edged digit even before lifting it
into the air. It struggled for a few moments more, then lay dead in
his grasp. The dragon rejoiced in the skillful kill, chortling
smoke into the air above him.

He came to a neat landing at the far
end of the small clearing and dropped the dead stag to the ground
with satisfaction. That was when he noticed the little stick
protruding from the other side of the beast. It was an arrow.
Drat.

"Oh no, you don't!"

The irate, high pitched human voice
made the dragon shift his gaze upward to look quizzically at the
small female now facing him with her hands perched in tight fists
on her hips. A longbow was slung over her shoulder.

"I shot that stag well before you
swooped down and picked him up. He's my kill. What's more, he will
feed me and my mother for a month or more. For you, he's just a
snack! You leave him be. He’s mine."

She shook with indignant anger and it
was truly a sight to behold. Luminous green eyes sparkled in her
pretty, flushed face. She seemed to have no fear of him, mighty
dragon that he was, with blood on his talons and fire in his belly.
She clearly had courage, and it impressed him. Few humans, much
less small females, dared to deal with dragons directly.

He could feel her anger, and a
rudimentary channel of thought opened between her mind and his. She
was one of the rare humans then, who could communicate with his
kind. This intrigued him even more, and one thought kept running
through his mind—Gareth had to see this.

“
What's your name, pretty
one?”
The dragon spoke directly into
Belora’s mind, surprising her a bit, but her mother had told her
stories about the dragon she’d known as a child. Belora knew
dragons communicated with humans mind to mind. It was part of their
ancient magic.

"I’m Belora." She renewed her forceful
stance. She could not let this dragon sense any fear. She needed
that stag. "Will you yield the stag to me?"

“
Why are you not afraid of
my kind? Do you know dragons?”

That wasn’t an answer, but she
supposed she should at least be polite. Her mother had taught her
the etiquette required when dealing with dragons.

"Not I, sir. My mother knew a dragon
once though. She told me about your kind." Belora knew she had to
convince him soon. The longer this dragged on, the more likely he
was to haul her before some tribunal for poaching. "So what about
the stag?"

“
From where I stand, it
was my talon that made the kill. Not your puny arrow.
But you have a good argument. I'll give you
that.”

The dragon moved closer to her as she
fumed in response, but she didn’t realize she was being set up
until it was much too late. While she argued with him, the dragon
moved closer still, until he had the stag wrapped in the talons on
one huge foreleg and she was much too close to the other. As she
realized her mistake, he swooped in and made his move.

He reached out quicker than thought
and snapped the padded digits of his left foreleg around her waist,
trapping her arms inside the cage his wickedly sharp talons made
around her. She screamed in frustration and more than a bit of
fear. The dragon only chuckled.

“
Don't worry, little
one.”
His voice was gentle in her mind, as
if trying to calm her.

The dragon beat his huge wings two or
three times and then they were airborne. She couldn’t help the
little yelp of fright that escaped as her feet left the ground. He
could easily open his claw and drop her to the ground far below.
That would solve his problem quite easily, she thought with growing
horror.

But dragons were supposed to be noble
creatures! In all the tales she’d heard about them, she’d never
heard of one going to such lengths to toy with a human before. They
were mankind’s friends, not enemies, and they weren’t supposed to
go around snatching up maidens only to hurtle them to their
deaths.

As they gained altitude and he did not
release her to die a nasty and painful death, she began to calm.
She was held in one front claw, the slain deer in the other. She
looked around and realized she had never seen such a beautiful
sight. The view from above was breathtaking. She could see the huge
mountain lake as they approached it, and if she craned her neck to
look behind, she could see the forest canopy, green and fertile,
hiding the secrets of the creatures that lived within.

She and her mother lived there, under
the thick cover of trees, and had for many years. It was their
haven, their home. Nothing as magical as this had ever happened to
Belora, living isolated in the forest, and she decided to enjoy
this moment out of time, flying high above the world. She would
likely never have the chance again, for it was rare that a dragon
transported a human that was not their knight partner. She knew
that from the stories and legends the old ones told of knights and
dragons. Even her mother—who had been friends with a dragon in her
youth—had never flown with one. It was a rare and magical
experience.

“
Do you like the view,
little one?”

“
It’s beautiful!” Belora
had to shout to be heard over the racing wind.

The dragon chuckled, thoughtfully
directing the stream of smoke out behind him and away from her. She
realized from the gesture that he was well used to being around
humans and carrying them as he flew, but she guessed he didn’t
carry too many in his claws. The legends all said knights rode on
the backs of their dragon partners.

“
Where are you taking me?”
She pulled her attention from the gorgeous vista long enough to
question her predicament. If he was taking her to a tribunal, she
was in big trouble. She’d rather know now if she would be facing
arrest when they landed.

“
Fear not, little one. I
said you had a good case for the stag.
We
will let the knight decide.”

They cruised over the edge of the
large mountain lake. The water sparkled below as the dragon dropped
lower. A moist breeze off the water teased her senses.

"What knight?" That didn’t sound
good.

Rather than calming her fears, the
news that there was a knight in the area only made things worse.
She’d been poaching, plain and simple. Mere peasants weren't
allowed to kill the deer to feed their families, but the dragons
were welcome to them as a snack at any time.

“
That knight,”
the dragon thought back at her. It took her a
moment to understand his meaning, but when she looked down and just
ahead of their path, she saw a sleek male body cutting through the
waters of the lake. He swam like a fish or like one of the great
sea creatures she had heard stories about. She found herself
distracted by the sun gleaming off the powerful muscles of his arms
as he sliced through the water, heading for shore. Something about
the man’s hard body pulled at her most feminine core, though she
was inexperienced with men, in general.

“
I am Kelvan and that’s
Gareth, my knight.”

Please note:
All the books in the
Dragon Knights
series were
re-released at the end of 2012, building up to the release of the
newest book,
Keeper of the
Flame
, in February 2013. Join the
adventure today!