ever … I do respect you. Admire you, even. I’ll tell you a secret, and may Fra’anior himself have mercy upon my soul–I don’t just dream about Dragons. I dream about flying with them. I dream of falling over the Islands in love with a Dragon!”
She sought to shock the young monk, yet all she saw in the deep blue pools of his eyes was acceptance, and it shivered the foundations of her Island. How dare he understand? How dare he be so cursed noble, standing immovable upon the peak of his religion, yet be exquisitely attuned to her feelings and needs?
Molten fury, mingled with shame, spat out of her. “Go on, say it! I’m depraved. I’m a wicked, wicked … aberration. I deserve to burn in the nearest volcano!”
“Shh.”
“So help me, I will bite those fingers!” Lia snarled around his hand, spitting with rage at being hushed like a child.
“Listen. Listen to me! Mercy, you and your passions, you’re such a little Dragoness!” Only Ja’al’s wry smile kept her from blowing her top again. “Tell me, where’s the sin in great love?”
Hualiama wrinkled her nose at him. “Must I teach you the tenets of your faith, monk?”
“Lia, my faith isn’t unshakable.”
The words he left unspoken, hurt more than he could possibly know. Ja’al meant it kindly and without rancour, but the vulnerability in his manner trumpeted his true, conflicted feelings. She was the nexus. The cause and the pain. How could she drag him away from the very faith that defined his life? She should rather leap off Ha’athior’s cliffs!
Suddenly, a decision crystallised in her mind. Should Amaryllion allow it, she would take Ja’al to meet the Ancient Dragon. He deserved no less.
Unsteadily, desperate to conceal her distress, Hualiama said, “As you are so committed to your vows, Ja’al, perhaps I might help you to develop your faith.”
“Oh? How is that?”
“I shall wake you in the mornings with sweet flirtation, make shameless moon-eyes at you every hour of every day, and attempt in every possible way–”
“I surrender already!” His exaggerated shout of horror drew a hoot of genuine laughter from her. “Oh, thou shameless Princess, what faith shall I learn by my inevitable capitulation to your charms? Nay, not the pout! I can’t stand the pout.”
“Then I must depart the monastery.”
“I forbid that.”
“Really?” Lia waggled an eyebrow at him. “Your name is Master Jo’el?”
Ja’al folded his arms, his eyes dancing. “Any other options?”
“I shall issue a royal decree that you are to wear your shirt at all times, for no chaste and incorruptible monk should have a right to flaunt such a magnificent set of pectorals.”
She had thought Ja’al could not be embarrassed. Flaming of cheek, he toppled her with a playful shove. “You are impossible–great Islands!”
A Dragon shot by overhead. He was so close, the down-stroke of the Dragon’s wingtip struck Ja’al atop his shaven head. Barely had the young monk tumbled across Lia’s body–protecting her–when another two Dragons raced by in hot pursuit, the shockwave of their passage punching her eardrums.
The first Dragon, a sixty-five foot juvenile, flared his wings as he dodged the aggressors’ fireballs. Recognition struck Hualiama like an Island-avalanche loosed by an earthquake; her pulse pounded inside her ears with deafening hammer blows. That young Dragon was a vibrant gemstone colour, the very Tourmaline Dragon she had dreamed about!
Horror piqued her gorge. She knew what was to come.
The foremost pursuer wheeled with breathtaking agility to strike the youngster with his talons. Lia choked. Oh mercy, her soul should perish … it was the huge Orange Dragon who had attacked her, the one whose scarred muzzle reminded her so lucidly of Ra’aba! She would never forget him. The second aggressor, raking the Tourmaline Dragon’s wings with his talons, was an even more massive Brown. The battling reptiles clashed with monstrous power, snarling and biting each other, fangs agape. Fireballs seared the evening sky. Ja’al and Lia ducked involuntarily as the ferocious melee abruptly swept back toward their position. Despite lying beside a boulder, their exposed location was perilous. Molten fire splashed the ground not ten feet away, so close that the heat sucked their lungs dry. Bushes crisped instantly.
Dragon thunder rolled over the chasm between the Islands. Battling two Dragons half again his size and weight–hundred-foot monsters–the Tourmaline Dragon was being chewed up, despite his most valiant efforts. Lia found herself unable to tear her eyes from the aerial combatants. So powerful! So majestic! How could a smaller Dragon even hold those two at bay?