The Dragon's Price (Transference #1)(20)

I clap my hands and squeal. I, Princess Sorrowlynn, have walked through a dark cave, passed through a stone wall that isn’t really there, and found the water needed to save my life and the horse lord’s, and I have done it all on my own. Tears sting my eyes as I stand a little higher, and then I stumble to the water’s edge and thrust my burning feet into it.

The water is as cold as fresh-melted snow, and seems to wrap around my wounded skin. The burning is sucked away, and my entire body sags with relief. I plop down onto my bottom and scoot into the lake until the water is up to my neck, then lean my head back. The icy water suctions around my braided hair and onto my scalp, and my skin absorbs the chill. It penetrates my body and starts to make my bones ache. I stand, and a slew of water pours from me, making giant ripples that spread from my shins all the way to the edge of the light as I back out of the water.

Bending, I cup my hands and scoop water to my parched lips, swallowing it down with loud, needy gulps. When I have filled my belly to bursting, and am shivering with cold, I go back the way I have come.

The rock wall I entered through does not look like a rock wall from this side. It is a massive, jagged rent in the stone leading from the lake room to the passage. I can see the bright, burning well of light, and beyond it, Golmarr.

I hurry back into the passage and kneel beside him. He doesn’t appear to be breathing. Pressing my hand to his cheek, I lean my face so close to his that our noses bump. “Golmarr,” I whisper. “I found water.” He doesn’t move a muscle. “Golmarr.” I shake his shoulder. “Golmarr.” I pat his cheek. “Golmarr!” I yell, and slap him hard across the face. His head rolls to the side and stops, and tears fill my eyes. “Golmarr?” I plead, and my voice catches on a sob. “Please wake up.” I put both my hands on his face and turn it toward mine again. A drop of water trickles out of my soaked hair, down my forehead, along the bridge of my nose, and plops right onto his lips. He sucks his bottom lip in, and I laugh with relief, pressing my cheek to his. His skin is like fire against mine. Reluctant to give up his body heat, I stand over him and wring my skirt out onto his face.

The skin between his eyebrows creases and he flinches as the water rains down on him. His dark lashes flutter, and then he blinks his hazel eyes and peers at me, and they are the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, even if they are a bit bleary.

“I found water,” I say, and smile.

Without a word, his lips part. I kneel at his side and wring my shirt out into his mouth. His tongue darts out and licks his lips as the water drips onto them, and then he swallows. “That’s good,” he whispers. “How far is it? My arm…” He lifts his injured arm an inch off the floor, and then it falls back down.

“It’s not far. It’s just through that wall.” I point.

He moves his eyes in the direction I am pointing and blinks. “Am I dreaming? What is that light?”

“There’s a hole in the ground. Something at the bottom is shining up through it.” I take his healthy arm in my hands and tug. “Come on. The water helps with the Mayanchi blood. It might help your arm.”

His eyes meet mine. “I can barely move, Sorrowlynn. You’re going to have to help me.”

“I know.” I put his arm down and crouch behind him, pushing his broad, muscular shoulders up until he is sitting. Next, I loop his good arm over my shoulders. “Ready?” I take his silence to mean yes. “Get up!” He grunts with effort, and I wobble and sway beneath his weight. After a minute, he is on his feet, his head is on my shoulder, and we are stumbling and weaving like a couple of drunks. The effort chases the chill from my bones, and after a minute, Golmarr is damp with sweat.

When we get to the wall, he stops and squints at it. “There’s a stone wall there,” he mumbles.

“I know it looks like there is, but there really isn’t. We are going to walk through it. The lake is just on the other side.”

“Whatever you say,” he whispers, and sags a little heavier against me.

We step through what looks like solid rock and emerge in the columned room. Golmarr stops walking, and his eyes grow round. “I have dreamed of this place,” he whispers, and then he falls to his knees and his eyes roll back in his head. His body seems to go boneless and teeters forward and back before tipping headlong onto the cave floor. I sigh and remove the bow and quiver from his back before using his ankle to drag him the last few steps to the lake. Trembling with exertion, I flip him from his belly onto his back and submerge his injured arm in the icy water, all the way to his shoulder.

Using the hunting knife, I cut off another layer of my skirt and soak it, then drip the water onto his parched lips and into his mouth. Next, I wash his face. All the fierceness has vanished from his expression. My heart swells with gratitude for this man who risked his life to follow me into a dragon’s cave, and I trail my fingers over his stubbly jawline. “Thank you, Prince Golmarr,” I whisper.

By the time I have tended to him, my damp clothes are clinging to my skin and I am shivering with cold again, so I curl my body up against his, lay my head on his shoulder, and fall asleep.





I am cocooned in warmth. I sigh and scoot closer to the heat, pressing my forehead against it. Air stirs the skin behind my ear, and I open my eyes. Before me is soft brown leather. I try to move my legs and find them entangled with…another pair of legs. Arms are secured around my back, cradling me to the warmth, and my head is resting on a bicep. “Are you awake?” a deep, accented voice asks. My heart starts pounding and I look up into a pair of pale hazel eyes framed by black lashes.