I am Dragon (Dragon Fires Rising Book 2) by Marc Secchia (famous ebook reader TXT) 📕

tigers, but you are a much greater prize by far, Princess.”

Politely, she said, “I should warn you that ransoms are only useful to men who remain alive to spend them.”

Several men sniggered; the nearest must be standing just beyond a screen of broadleaf trees ahead of him. There. He spied a glint of armour. Dragon bared his fangs. Hello, little victim. Shall we measure your entrails, together?

“So, in the code of chivalry, good knight,” the Princess continued to string him along, “where does the kidnapping of foreign Princesses fit in? Again I must warn you, I am no damsel in distress, and I do know exactly where I am and what I am doing here. You clearly do not. I’d desist and go after the tigers, if I were you. They are much easier prey than me.”

“You’re threatening me?”

Not the sharpest talon in the paw, this one. Dragon spied him between the trees now. A big man clad in plenty of plate armour, he had removed his helm and was scratching his blonde head, clearly nonplussed at the idea of any girl talking back to him. Sassing him, even. The brain clearly balked at handling such conundrums.

He said, “We are ten men –”

“Then I have you outnumbered, one to ten. I like these odds.”

“What? Are you quite mad?”

“Now you’re being downright insulting,” she observed mildly. Need? This royal was holding court! “Gentlemen, I’ll give you one last chance. Turn and flee right now, or I cannot be held responsible for the consequences.”

“I’ll squash you like a bug, little girl!”

“Oh, no! My Dragon’s right behind you!”

The knight shouted, “What kind of an idiot do you take me for – get back here!”

Dragon snuck his paw around the tree. Squish. One down.

Arrows whirred through the trees and bushes, but Azania had dived and rolled, wriggling beneath a spray of brambles. Two men tangled themselves up and fell back, cursing, as she used her tiny size to best advantage and sprinted with great agility between the trees. The knight and his men blundered after, shouting and brandishing their swords. She ran right up to his paws.

She grinned. He grinned back.

The knight charged around a tree, and ran straight into Dragon’s fist. Blam.

On his backside, the man looked up and saw his doom smiling down at him. His stomach made a horrid gurgling noise. One second later, the full whiff hit Dragon’s nostrils. Blergh!

“That kind of idiot,” Azania said.

Two of his men tripped over him. The knight shook, and lay still. Dragon herded another four wailing men-at-arms aside with his tail, and smashed them to the ground. “Shut up, you yapping fools!”

He turned. One of his own men had accidentally run his sword through the knight’s neck. Oh well. One less fool to use up Solixambria’s good oxygen.

The Princess clashed swords with another man, then knelt and cut his leg smoothly out from beneath him. The blade smacked audibly against his thigh bone, a terrible cut. Tigers were definitely easier prey. They did not stalk that last man with a Dragoness-inspired wriggle of their hips; paralysed by indecision, the last of the knight’s men stood stock-still as Azania smashed the fist holding the hilt of her sword up beneath his chin. Inch-perfect uppercut.

She wrung her fingers. “Ouch. He won’t be eating for a few weeks. Broke his jaw, I think.”

“I hope so. Juggernaut would be proud.”

“And this other Dragon I know?”

“Oh, he thinks you’re turning out to be as dangerous as a wrathful Dragoness. So cool under pressure.”

A smile touched her lips. “You are kind. I should not have let them sneak up on me in the first instance. I just thought it would be a great deal quieter here. Maybe we should give Fara’ane the skip? Yardi did warn us they were unlikely to be cooperative.”

“We are behind schedule.”

“Aye, I know. Want to finish off any more of these fools?”

“Not so much. Gratuitous slayings are not my style, unless your honour demands it? Nay, even then I would –”

“We’ve done enough.”

With that, they left the scene of the battle behind and walked on.

Chapter 20: Until Mornine

IT TOOK A FEW hours of hiking before the one with paws worked out what had been bothering him.

He said, “We’re flying at the wrong time of the day.”

Azania replied, “I was just enjoying the walk, and now you’re talking about flying again? What does it take to make a Dragon happy?”

“Aye. Not right now. We’re behind schedule, because the coastal wind always rises in the afternoons. We need to fly in the evening, or early morning and rest in the afternoons. No point in killing ourselves; just wait for the wind to die down and carry on.”

She clapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh!”

“Exactly. Except that we need something this size –” he held up his paw “– because that’s how silly we’ve been. Secondly –”

The Princess groaned. “Who woke you up? And, when?”

“Here’s the deal, my feisty four-foot friend.”

“Alright, I’m listening, my fiery four-footed fiend. I mean, friend.”

“Ha!” he snorted. “Good one. Having applied some actual brain matter to the issue of our onward journey, I have concluded that we either need to move our schedule forward twelve hours, or back twelve hours. Reason being, we do not want to be searching for a tiny reef – our second stop – in the middle of a great big ocean in the middle of the night.”

“Oh … rude words.”

“In copious quantities, I have to agree.”

“This must be the Kingdom of Infectious Stupidity.”

He nudged her shoulder playfully. “Makes me the King of the realm.”

“Dragon, I regret to inform you that you really do not fit in around here. I vote for a power nap, a nice snack and