The Dragon Who Loved Me (Dragon Kin #5)(60)

Tal y, as always, moved first. Without a sound, she charged forward. The men didn’t see her coming. They didn’t expect her. She was too little, they’d say. Just a little girl. But Tal y landed on the back of one of the sleeping dogs that they played with every day, and launched herself up, spun, and rammed her sword into the chest of the first bad man. Tal y released her grip on her sword and dropped to the ground, and the man fel back into his friend. That’s when Talan threw his own sword, hitting the second man in his open mouth with it. Good thing, too, he was about to wake everyone up. Then Mommy would be upset. She’d cry and they’d have to go far away.

The men weren’t moving now. None of them were. Not the bad men or the nice soldiers who made her smile and let Tal y hit their shields with her sword.

She didn’t want to see this anymore. She didn’t want Mommy upset. When Mommy was upset, it made her sad. So she opened what Pretty-Ren cal ed a “doorway” and sent the bad men back to their friends outside the castle gates and the nice men back to the nice soldiers who would take care of them. It wasn’t a hard thing to do. Opening two doorways at the same time and making them al go away so no one would be sad. She wasn’t sure why it wasn’t hard for her because Pretty-Ren always acted like it was so hard.

But then her cousins turned and glared at her.

Our swords? Tal y snapped inside her head.

Even though she wanted to cry, she knew Tal y hated criers. So she did what Mommy always did when she passed some of the witches. Raised two fingers and flipped them up in the air.

“Are you three up?” Ebba asked. She’d also been asleep in the room. She could sleep while standing. Just like real horses!

Rhian wished she had four legs and hooves, too. Then she could run with the big horses and play in the sun al day.

“Back to sleep, little ones, before Talaith has my head.” Ebba smiled at them and put them back to bed. Ebba was always so nice, even when she was angry.

Once she had them down, Ebba went back to the other side of the room and al her books. Ebba loved to read. Once she was gone, Tal y snapped, Now what are we going to do without our swords? What if we’re attacked again? You’re hopeless!

That made Rhian mad so she punched her cousin right in the arm, which only made Tal y rol her eyes and turn over, pul ing the blanket over her head. And Talan was already asleep. He could sleep through pretty much anything.

But now that no one was speaking to her anymore, Rhian was able to get some sleep too.

The commander of the mighty Horsemen of the Western Mountains discussed with his men their next plan of attack. He wanted this place pul ed down stone by stone in the name of their horse god. If the Southland queen ever came back here—and that was doubtful—he wanted to make sure she found nothing but rubble and the bodies of her friends and family.

He was debating with his men about a possible weakness on the south wal when a bright flash lit up behind him. He and his men lifted their heads and, slowly, turned.

The two assassins—two of his best—whom he’d sent in to find and kil Annwyl’s demon children only a few hours before, were now lying in a heap behind them.

His next in command walked over to the bodies and pul ed the smal -sized weapons out of the assassins’ bodies. He held them up. They were clearly swords rather than daggers, which led his next in command to ask, “They’ve got centaurs and dwarves in there?” Chapter 21

Rhona was impressed when Vigholf ended up eating the fruit rather than chucking it back at the horse.

Those two would never be friends, but what was the point of wasting food?

And, as she’d feared, Vigholf was one of those who was always hungry after f**king. Like feeding an empty pit.

He handed her a piece of bread, and Rhona was at least grateful he was good about sharing.

“We need to do something about our hair,” Vigholf suddenly announced. It seemed an odd thing to say with the pair of them sitting on the bedrol , naked.

“What?”

“We’ve got warrior braids in. Sovereign soldiers’ hair may be too short for that, but they’l notice it on others.” He had a point.

Rhona shoved the last bit of bread into her mouth and wiped one hand against the other. “I’l do yours first,” she said while she crawled around behind him. Resting on her knees, she grabbed a plait in her hand and began to unbraid it. As she finished more and more of them, she ran her hands through his hair, enjoying the way Vigholf relaxed against her each time she did.

It took some time, but it was a smarter way to go if they hoped to be even remotely ignored as they moved farther along the road and neared the Provinces.

“Your turn,” Vigholf said, pul ing her around and placing her in front of him.

To her surprise, he managed to unbraid her hair without any help. To be honest, she wasn’t sure his fingers were nimble enough, but she was learning his fingers were quite . . . adept.

She laughed a little, and Vigholf asked, “What?”

“Nothing.” Rhona rested her arms on Vigholf’s knees, but his legs were so long that when he bent them her arms were too high, so she stretched them out wide and placed them on either side of his hips. It felt kind of decadent, lounging around like this while in the lap of her once sworn enemy.

She liked it. She liked being a bit decadent.

Rhona patiently waited for the Northlander to finish with her hair, noticing how what he was doing felt more intimate than what he’d done to and with her body.