Knights of Desire [Flights of Fancy 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (13 page)

And despite the gore and dirt that covered her, Shane was still lovely, a beautiful damsel held by horrendous dragons and waiting for her knight to rescue her.

The dragons noticed him and turned as one to face Clemmons. The smaller one grinned, teeth glistening wetly with trails of blood trickling down their length.

Clemmons shifted his sword in his hand and smiled. "Come on. I believe it's time for you to meet your maker, and I believe I'm just the one to do the introductions."

The small dragon roared and charged. His training and experience kicking in, Clemmons knew the beast was tired from its fight with the other lizard, so he stood his ground, sword at the ready.

At the last moment, Clemmons stepped sidewise and spun, whipping his blade up and out then pulling it firmly back towards his body. As the razor-sharp edge bit into dragon flesh, Clemmons felt the sudden absence of resistance as the lizard's head fell from its body. Clemmons whirled to face the larger dragon, avoiding the death throes of the first. A fighting smile came to his face.

"Now, I avenge the atrocities you have done to Shane and the death of Landis." Clemmons pointed at the large dragon with the tip of his sword. "You're next."

* * * *

At first Shane hadn't even seen Clemmons come into the room. She'd been too busy trying to stay out from under the feet of Cedric and Handley and trying to avoid being under them when they hit the floor. She stared at Handley's body on the floor, marveling at how easily Clemmons had dispatched the king.

Then Shane heard Clemmons say Landis was dead.

The room swam around her, and she didn't think it was because of her injuries. Clemmons had to be wrong or, perhaps, he spoke only metaphorically.

She had to snap out of that chain of thought, though, because in the same breath as announcing Landis was dead, Clemmons threatened Cedric. No matter if Landis lived or not, too much blood had been spilled already.

As Handley and Cedric had fought, Shane saw Cedric defended himself but never went on the offensive. He didn't want to hurt Handley, whether it be because Handley was his king or because he didn't want to wasn't clear to her. The only time Cedric pushed an advantage in the struggle was to keep himself between her and Handley. Cedric had tried to protect her.

Shane tried to get to her feet, but the pain in her side ripped though her like a bullet, and she sat down hard on the floor. She held out her hand to Clemmons.

"No, Clemmons! Don't harm him."

"Rest, Shane. I'll deal with this beast." Clemmons traced little figure-eight shapes with the tip of his sword as he pointed it at Cedric.

"No! He tried to help me."

Cedric leaned back on his haunches. "Sir knight, I may be your enemy, but I mean you and the lady no harm now."

Clemmons glanced from her to Cedric and back again. "I don't understand."

Shane managed to gain her feet. "I don't either, but I believe this dragon is honorable and wants peace with men."

Cedric nodded. "I can speak only of peace. I want to stop the killing before men and dragons are both all gone."

She stumbled to stand beside Clemmons, and he slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her close to his side as he turned to put his body between her and Cedric. His sword never wavered from pointing at the dragon.

Shane almost laughed out loud when the image they must present hit her. She felt a little like Deja Thoris on the arm of John Carter as he protected her from the ferocious Tharks on the surface of Barsoom. The three probably looked like the cover of a two-credit romance novel for teenage girls.

She stifled the giggle welling up inside of her. "Clemmons, I can't say how I know it, but Cedric isn't an enemy." He turned to face her, and Shane felt safe for the first time since leaving Landis's arms. "Trust me."

Clemmons stared at her for a long time, but the tip of his sword slowly dropped to point more at the floor than at Cedric. "I do trust you."

Cedric remained on his haunches. "We must move the guard's body. The other will return soon."

Clemmons nodded. "Shane, you rest." He pointed briefly at Cedric with his sword. "You help me."

Just Wave Goodbye

He didn't know why, but Clemmons found himself trusting the dragon purely on Shane's word he could be trusted. The idea would have seemed ludicrous just a few hours ago, and it was still ridiculous now. But the fact was that Clemmons felt comfortable sheathing his sword while Cedric helped him move Handley's body to the wall and drag the guard's body inside to close the door.

Clemmons went to Shane's side and righted the chair before helping her sit down. "You're hurt."

"Nothing too bad."

Cedric stood near the door, his pointed ears aimed at the portal, listening for the returning guard. "I have sent for Alicia. She will be able to care for Shane."

Shane touched his arm. "Clemmons, you said something has happened to Landis."

The sadness rose up in him again, but Clemmons knew he had no time to deal with the distraction now. He also had to answer Shane, to give her some explanation. "Yes, he's dead, killed while distracting the dragons so I could get into the cave." He didn't want to cry, not because of Shane's presence, but because of the dragon. Shane would accept his tears and see them only as the expression of grief they were, but Clemmons feared Cedric would see them as weakness.

She tried to stand, but pain washed across her face. Shane tugged his arm, pulling his face to her level. "I am so sorry." She kissed his cheek softly, and a wave of chills run through his body.

"He died to save you, and it's now up to me to finish that task so he will not have died in vain."

Cedric's ears twitched. "The guard returns with Alicia. Be ready, knight, but I'll try to cover things."

"We can trust Cedric." Shane's beautiful eyes told Clemmons all he needed to know, and he moved off to stand behind the door, out of sight of the guard.

A knock came on the door, and Cedric opened it. The guard hesitated a moment. "Where is Chaucer?"

Cedric blocked the door with his body. "King Handley sent him for something. You may leave Alicia and take your post."

There was a long silence, and Clemmons wondered if the guard might insist on entering. "Very well."

A young woman entered the room, and Cedric quickly closed the door. When she saw Clemmons hiding behind the door with two dead dragons, her eyes went wide, but Cedric gripped her arm and spoke softly. "There is no need for alarm. Stay quiet, Alicia."

She stared at the bodies. "What is happening?"

"This is Sir Clemmons, and he is here to rescue Shane."

"But..." She stared at Handley's corpse. "The king is dead."

"Yes, that couldn't be helped." Cedric used his hand, the talons touching the woman's face with a fascinating tenderness, to turn her to face him. "We need you to treat Shane's wounds. Can you do that?"

Softness played over Alicia's expression, and she reached up to stroke the side of Cedric's face, tracing a line down his jaw. "Yes, of course."

The girl attended to Shane, and Cedric turned to face him. "When Alicia has done what she can, she and I will try to lure the guard away from the room so you can get Shane out of here."

Clemmons shook his head. "No, we stay together. What would stop you from going for more guards?"

"Just my word of honor I won't do that. You have no chance to escape without my help, and I want you to escape."

Clemmons doubted the dragon's motivations. "Tell me why."

"While Handley was paranoid, I did agree with him on one thing—Shane's people are powerful, and they could destroy us. We may have already brought their wrath down on us, but we can hope they will understand Handley was mad."

Alicia placed a fluffy wad of gauze in her ear and Shane winced. "Cedric is right. We need his help, and my people will surely react poorly to my capture. We have to stop them by showing them I'm alive."

"I don't like this, but I see no options." Clemmons turned to Alicia. "Will she be able to travel?"

Alicia frowned. "She is badly injured, and I lack the skill to heal her."

Shane waved her hand in dismissal. "I can move when we need to. I won't slow us down."

"Then it is settled. Alicia and I will lead the guard away, and you and Shane wait here. One of us will return to lead you out of the cave as quickly as possible." Cedric gestured to Alicia. "Come, we go now."

Alicia went to his side, her fingers brushing over the green-gold scales of the dragon's arm.

When Clemmons had taken up his position behind the door, Cedric pulled the plank aside. "King Handley wants us to go check on Chaucer. Come."

"What is this on the floor?" The guard hesitated, and Clemmons shifted his sword to get a better grip. "It looks like blood."

"It is. The woman tried to crawl away from our king's anger." Cedric laughed. "Handley pulled her back inside with his claws in her body."

The guard chuckled. "As he should have done."

Cedric and Alicia left the room, closing the door behind them.

* * * *

"We haven't found Rawls's body yet, but we found her weapon." Ells ran his hand through his sweaty hair. "We've covered an area more than ten meters in every direction from the weapon, and I can't imagine her having been able to get even that far with all the rock that fell from the cliff."

Elsa had no idea how Rawls could have gotten so far from her weapon, but clearly she had. "You're there, and I'm not. What do you think?"

"I think she's in the cave, Captain. I'd like to go in after her."

"That's very admirable, but also very dangerous. We can't get through the ore to give you any directions with the sensors. We wouldn't even have communications."

"Understood, Ma'am, but we need to go after her."

The Communications Officer caught Elsa's attention. "Captain, we may be able to rig a series of relay transmitters inside the cave that would give us communications."

"Explain, please."

The officer used the main screen to draw a crude cave. "The team would simply drop a relay station every so often as they go in. Those will pass the link from station to station until it gets to a station on the surface that relays to us."

Ells smiled. "That would work. How far apart do the stations need to be?"

"Unknown. We'd have to experiment a little, but that's just details. We could have the relay stations and all the rest ready in maybe forty-five minutes."

She was violating just about every rule in the book and probably a good number of regulations, too, but Elsa trusted her gut and this was the right thing to do. She nodded. "Make it so."

* * * *

Clemmons paced the room, but Shane wasn't sure why he was so restless. They had made the choices—they would trust Cedric and Alicia to get them out, and she didn't think that was the cause of Clemmons's nervousness.

He moved from the door, walking to first one corner of the room and then back to the door before heading for another corner. His big hand flexed on his sword, the muscles of his arm bunching and twisting as he paced. She could have carved a face from the cave wall to match the flat expression he wore.

Shane knew she was in bad shape. Her chest still felt like a steel band tightened around her, and her head swam every time she moved too quickly. She wondered about internal injuries and how much blood she'd lost. She worried more about anemia and brain damage from lack of oxygen.

She struggled to her feet, trying to keep the ripping pain from her face. "Thank you for coming after me."

Clemmons stopped his pacing. "You should sit and rest. We'll have to get moving soon, and you'll need your strength."

"I'll be fine." She lied, and she knew it. Shane had heard the stories about soldiers knowing, somehow, when their number was up. She could almost hear the bingo caller announcing hers now.

"No thanks are needed." He brushed at his eyes with the back of his free hand.

"Thank you anyway." She hesitated, not sure if she really wanted to know or not. "Was this your idea or Landis's?"

"Both, actually." Clemmons wiped at his eyes again, but he smiled. "He was always smarter than me, and most of the plan was his idea."

"I think you're pretty smart, too." She laughed with him. "Clemmons, I can't honestly say I wish I hadn't made love with Landis, but I am sorry it hurt you. Even more so now."

He nodded. "Please don't be sorry. You can't help the feelings of love you shared with him."

Shane thought about that for a minute. "I also can't say I'm in love with him. Yes, I am—or was—attracted to him, but how could I love someone in the short time we've known each other?"

"That's true. All I can say is we were both attracted to you."

"You find me attractive?" She wanted to slap herself. This surely wasn't the place or time to let her ego get the better of her just because a man found her attractive.