A Dragon's World 3 (DragonWorld) Read online

  And yet here I was. Standing in a room that wasn’t possible with babies that were possible and filled to the brim with undiluted happiness.

  Then, just as before, the world clapped out of existence and I was swirling back to the edge of the pool with the great dragon.

  “What was that?” I gasped.

  Listen.

  I wanted to tell him I was. I wanted to tell him that all I was doing was listening and seeing and I just wanted to know what it was I was envisioning. Was this the future? Was it like the scenes that Perin would play from me? Were these of what could be or what actually would be? Was this if I did everything right?

  As usual, there was no answer, and I whirled right back into that same room. Only this time, it wasn’t daytime, with the curtains gently wafting in the breeze. Instead it was night, stars twinkling just beyond the open portals.

  A hot and rough tongue laved up my neck, drawing my attention away from the open portals. I realized I was pressed against a warm, bare chest.

  “Myrik?” I questioned breathlessly, his hands sliding the straps of my airy dress from my shoulders.

  “Yes?” He purred, his voice vibrating through my neck as he continued to nip at me.

  “I…”

  “What is it, my love?”

  My eyes went wide. That was definitely not Myrik’s voice.

  Strong, broad hands came from behind me to wrap around my middle, kneading at the skin they found there. Unless the advisor had suddenly grown a second set of limbs, we were not alone.

  I craned my neck backwards to see Gael, face flushed and eyes hooded with absolute want.

  “Oh…” I murmured, understanding finally dawning on me.

  For the briefest of moments, I felt embarrassed. After all, it was a strange dragon spirit on holy ground that was showing me this. Were they watching? Did they think I was disgusting?

  Those worries quickly faded from my mind as Gael pulled me back against his form, arching my back so that my breasts were thrust into Myrik’s adept fingers.

  My body was almost instantly alight with raw pleasure, burning synapses in my brain in the most wonderful way possible.

  Was this what I had always wanted? To be pinned between two perfect specimens of masculinity and at the utter mercy of their desire for me? It was hard not to feel like a goddess, pressed against their sweat-slicked torsos.

  I was pulled back further, and I could feel Gael’s straining need against the curve of my bottom while Myrik’s fingers dug into my thighs, parting them so he could move closer.

  Razor sharp, his teeth scratched at me while his tongue laved over the wounds later in a coy move at forgiveness. I let my head loll back only to have my golden Prince capture my lips against his own.

  My breath was hitching and I could feel sweat beginning to trickle down my forehead, but I didn’t care. Myrik was continuing on his path downward until he found my center once more.

  Now I was really breathless, and my hips lifted upwards to meet his expert ministrations. Gael did not sit idle either, his hand coming up to cup my breasts, rolling the nipples between his deliciously calloused fingers.

  The counterpoints of pleasure were staggering, and I could hardly see over the ecstasy drenching all my senses. There was an entire world out there, but none of it seemed to matter beyond the two men pressing so ardently into me.

  My own hands scraped down Myrik’s back, biting into his skin before I buried my fingers in his hair. To his credit, he rode out my bucking and mewling with ease, never missing a beat. I felt that delirium inducing wave rolling towards me and it consumed me with a furor like none other.

  “Myrik!” I cried, clenching my thighs about his head as my body lost itself to the spasms of pure euphoria.

  He let my ride out the rest of my climax with the patient of a saint. When I finally came down from the full-body high, I was panting and wanton more than ever.

  And he seemed happy to comply. I felt his hands wrap under my thighs and shift my hips upwards, allowing Gael the access he needed. Smooth and hard, the golden prince slid into me with no resistance.

  I gasped, and Myrik claimed my lips to swallow the sound. I could feel his own need against my stomach as his mouth moved against mine, and it excited me to the bone.

  Hands were everywhere, kneading, pinching, searching. I felt as if every part of my body was being lavished with a type of worship that most only dreamed about. What made these men so completely enraptured with my being? And how did I get them to never stop.

  Gael shifted his hips, allowing him to hit an angle within me that made stars rush across my eyes. I let out a cry of passion and Myrik happily swallowed that as well.

  And then the Advisor was moving, aligning himself so that he could slide his obvious want against that sensitive bundle of nerves that was so adept at making me come undone. Once more, I felt sensation and pleasure swallowing me between the two men’s work, and I didn’t fight it for even a moment.

  That brilliant wall of perfection was rushing towards me again, and I barely had time to enjoy the buildup before it was crashing over my head in a mind-numbing torrent of release. This time, as I cried out, Myrik let my keening go unchecked, instead burying his teeth into my neck.

  I was still in the throes of my climax as I felt and heard my lovers find their own end. Heat and contentment filled me before we all sank into a happy pile on the luxurious bed.

  “Happy day of birth,” Gael whispered reverently, pulling me into a hug.

  “Happy day indeed,” I agreed as Myrik pressed into my back.

  I couldn’t imagine a better moment than just lying there in the after-bliss, but then the world snapped away again and I found myself back in the same holy place, with the same dragon.

  “Uh, did you see that?” I murmured, cheeks blazing red.

  We see all. And many times, not enough.

  “Ah, right. We’re back to this again.” I sighed and pinched my fingers to the bridge of my nose. My thoughts were churning and I was suffering some serious mood yo-yoing, so I needed to get my mind straight. That was difficult, however, considering I could still feel the warm chest of Myrik as it pressed against me, and the heated puffs of Gael’s breath against the back of my neck.

  I took several deep, calming breaths, and forced myself to focus. Trying to avoid the end of this world. I just had to think about that and then I could rehash that illicit scene at my own leisure. “Let me see if I have this straight. You’re not one particular being, but rather an amalgamation of all the spirits that remain that have bonded together in the hopes that it will keep you here longer. Am I on the right path here?”

  The worlds you speak are true.

  “Okay, good. Good to know I’ve still got a knack for deciphering unnecessarily cryptic speech.” Too much time reading fantasy mystery novels when I was younger and not enough caring about the ‘real’ world. “So, you all need your children, the dragons, to believe and interact with you to give you energy, and right now there’s not enough of them to keep your existence going for much longer.

  You showed me that vision because you know what Dwyllverys -- that’s the healer, I don’t know if you know names or not -- gave me and it would be in your best interest if I kept what’s inside of me. Two more dragons increase the entire population by two percent. And I assume that last scene was the prequel to me being set up with another baby, which would be three percent. Who knows how many might or might not come after that.

  You’re showing me how I can save your people long term, and while it’s manipulative as hell, I understand that. But what you’re not understanding is that there is something that is threatening us right now and unless you help me deal with it, that pretty little scene in that pretty little bedroom is just not going to happen!”

  Can you blame us for protecting the new age within you?

  “Yes,” I snapped. “It is my choice, no matter what kind of great destiny you see. What I need for you to do is stop this nonsen
se you’re pawing at and tell me something about the humans, or Perin, or my Grandmother that will help me stop the human royals and get this world back on the timeline it’s supposed to be on!”

  And what would you have us do if such a thing were not to exist? A puff of smoke, a gasp of surprise, how can we present what cannot be seen?

  “First of all, smoke can be seen. That’s why it’s called smoke. Secondly, there’s gotta be something! Come on! Your children are depending on this, so what are you so afraid of showing me?”

  It is not fear. The dragon sat up straight from its previously relaxed position, and if I didn’t know better, I would say it was agitated. You ask questions for paths that we do not tread. Gazing upon these possible paths takes energy, and there is so little of that left. What use is there in losing ourselves to branches coated in sickly darkness?

  “That’s it? That’s the big reason? You guys don’t know because you don’t want to spend your energy looking at depressing options? Really?”

  …yes.

  I gripped its paw more tightly as my temper flared, and I willed all of my bubbling irritation into it. “Then take mine. I’m not from here, right? If you need someone to believe in you to exist, or offer their prayers, then consider yourself worshipped.”

  It is not so easy…

  “It is that easy! So, show me what I need to see or you’re going to live just long enough to see all your precious descendants, congregation or whatever the hell you want to call them get wiped out!”

  I didn’t know where I got the cajones to yell at spirits that were potentially older than the earth I came from, but I didn’t back down. I stared at that glittering, turquoise dragon with a look in my eyes that said there was no plan B. They were going to help me, or we all died.

  Unsurprisingly, the spirit’s resolve crumbled and they lowered themselves to the ground with a sigh. There, slowly, they shrank and shrank until they were a bioluminescent version of a young human girl.

  She couldn’t have been more than a couple of years my junior, and was just nondescript enough to not be of any obvious race, but familiar enough not to wander into the uncanny valley. Minus the whole glowing part, of course.

  “What’s with the sudden costume change?”

  The path which you seek is narrow and winding. We will travel easier in a form more like your own.

  “I’m getting confused on how much this whole vision thing is affected by real world physics. Does your size actually effect how well you can show me what may or may not happen?”

  It is… complicated.

  “Of course, it is.” I looked down to see our hands were still wrapped in each other, her fingers much more like my own now. “Well, let’s go. Take me down the rabbit hole.”

  We do not understand.

  “Never mind. Just show me the thing.”

  A moment. It takes time to clear the brambles and find the road we seek. It is not well traveled, and buckles on the wind.

  “Naturally.” I was trying not to be saucy, really, I was, but there was something about the high-concept vagary that drove me nuts. Also, I was still a bit pissy that they hadn’t let me enjoy my afterglow for at least a few minutes before ripping it away.

  But then the grass was whisking away and I was yanked down into the nothingness. For a moment, it was as if I didn’t exist, then the rubber band of reality snapped and I was hurtled into a new scene.

  Like usual, my vision took a few seconds to clear and solidify. The first thing I could make out was cubic, crudely hewn stone with some sort of gray mortar between the large bricks. Then sconces. Then thick, velvet curtains that absorbed almost all of the sunlight that was trying to fight through the large window at the other end of the room.

  I heard voices. Slightly familiar but layered with both rage and irritation. They were frustrated. There were… three of them? Maybe four?

  And then finally my body finished aligning with the vision and I could see and hear clearly. I almost wish they hadn’t, however, as I realized I was back in the human palace once again.

  My breath hitched and my stomach gave a distinctive roll as my eyes landed on none other than Prince Julian. He had grown a beard since I had last seen him, but that only seemed to exaggerate the insanity I now saw so readily in his eyes.

  “That’s not enough! None of this is enough!” He snapped at the men surrounding him, eyes wild with his anger. “They humiliated us! Somehow a simple woman was able to escape us twice and took our greatest prize with her. We cannot let this stand! She is a seer, and it is only a matter of time before her dangerous visions reveal something about us that will either save their disgusting hides again, or reveal some weakness of ours that we have not yet anticipated!

  “I want her head on a pike- No. I want her alive! I want her to see me destroy and violate everything she loves before breaking her apart piece by piece.”

  That was less than encouraging. I couldn’t help but fear that an any moment his head was going to snap in my direction and I was going to be dragged away by guards, but I had to remember that this wasn’t real. This was a shadow of things that could potentially happen. My glimpse into the enemy’s stronghold without risking the instability of my dreams. Besides, I was still figuring how much of my own visions were just a side effect of Perin’s influence, and how much were my own searching for answers.

  “What would you have us do, your Majesty? We have narrowed their possible new hiding hole to two mountain ranges, but our preliminary scouts can find no entrances like the other. Even with the most potent scrying crystals, they have all returned empty handed and information less.”

  “Then do more! That is why I pay you more than enough in titles, gold and land. You do realize that should this kingdom crumble, your wealth will disappear just as quickly, right? Or are you all even more moronic than I took you for?!”

  “None of us are morons.” A cooler voice countered. My head turned to the corner of the room where a young lord sat with his legs up on a table. He had bright, copper hair, and a beard that was just as glorious. I had never seen him before and yet instantly my skin crawled with recognition.

  Perin.

  I could see his face this time, and make out his features clear as day. Perhaps that was because it was the dragon showing me this possible future rather than the two of us meeting in that strange in-between worlds place, or maybe because I could tell that his visage was faker than the breasts on a plastic surgeon advert. He was glamored somehow, or wearing a brilliant disguise, because every part of my brain was telling me that this was not how he looked.

  Also, I assumed Prince Julian knew what his supposedly treacherous tailor/cook looked like and wouldn’t have invited him to give input on what obviously was a heads of war meeting.

  “Come again, Brelryk?” Julian’s voice was low and dangerous, more of a growl than actual human worlds.

  “We’re not morons. I mean, individually, perhaps, but not collectively. Otherwise we would be useless, and we all know how much you don’t tolerate anyone who’s useless.” The man stood and I flinched back automatically. “If we can’t find the dragons in one mountain, then we raze them both. We’ll destroy every single range we have to until they are piles of rubble and dragons are no more.”

  “And how do you suppose we accomplish such a feat?”

  “That is outside of my purview. I’m here to be a siege expert, not an excavator.”

  “Remind me again of why you haven’t died in a tragic hunting accident?”

  “Because you’ve been pleasantly distracted by all your failures.” I watched as the Prince’s face grew red with barely checked anger. “But although I may not be the demolitions expert which you need, I might have an idea of where you could find one. That is, if you’re willing to meet someone so below you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “What I’m talking about is a sorcerer. A couple, actually. Old and hidden, cowering in some cave after your father wiped out their
brethren. Offer them safety, perhaps even some solace, and they might be willing to help you.

  “Of course, I can guarantee nothing. I’m simply a moron, right?”

  “Are you suggesting I align myself with the inferior, corrupted flesh of willing magic users?”

  “You were willing to align yourself with a seer. I see little difference. And if it brings about victory, doesn’t that justify the means it took to get there?”

  Julian sat back, his anger seeming to fade as he considered the other man’s words. “You think they might have a spell or powder that could aid us in our goals?”

  Perin nodded slowly, a sinister smirk spreading across his face. “I’ve seen them toy with a powder that carried fire on its own and obliterates objects from existence. I have no doubt that they have more than enough power to bring your enemy to their knees.

  And then, when the dragons are decimated and their scales line your shields and halls, you can kill the sorcerers. Then the last of magic and old spirits will drain from this world, leaving us as the clear rulers of all. And after you’re able to celebrate your true victory, we can send feelers out to the new land our scouts have discovered across the eastern ocean.

  You, Julian, could be the true king of all if you play your cards right. But first, you must eliminate these winged beasts, or they will bring about your downfall.”

  There was silence for a very long moment before Julian finally leaned forward, his tone careful and refined once more. “Tell me more of this powder.”

  The scene snapped apart and I was dropped down into darkness before landing right back in the grass next to the girl. She didn’t stay in that form for long, instead growing once more back into her dragon form.

  Did you see what you needed? It asked, voice both resigned and weary.

  “Yes, actually. I did.” My heart was still pounding fairly insistently, telling me that I should be running and not sitting here in a peaceful glen. “Perin is going to use these sorcerers, if they even are sorcerers, to introduce gunpowder to the royals. I’m sure their version is going to be a lot more refined than the jimmy-rigged concoction I made, and I don’t think we’ll be alive much longer after that.”