Lord Dragon's Conquest by Sharon Ashwood Read Free Book Online

the shadows from the space. Like all dragon nests, this one was large, the walls and high ceiling following the natural contours of the cave. There were a few pieces of furniture pushed against the wall—a low table, a few chests, a stand where he hung his most prized weapons. The rest was covered in furs and tapestries with intricate designs. His people were warriors and metalsmiths, skilled with making the tools of war, but they were also gifted weavers. He wondered for the first time how the den appeared to a stranger. Did Keltie find it pleasing?
    “How do you know we’re safe here?” she asked. “Won’t someone walk in and find me?”
    “No one would dare enter my territory uninvited,” Larkan answered at once. It was an easy question, after all.
    “You’re the man, huh?”
    The remark sounded like a jest, but he wasn’t sure he understood it. The human’s language wasn’t always easy to grasp. “I am first among the Flameborn.”
    Keltie opened her eyes, giving him the dark beauty of her gaze. “Now will you give me some answers?” She still looked white with shock, and it wrenched his soul.
    Larkan sighed, but drew closer. “Ask, and if I can answer, I will.”
    Keltie nodded, licking her lips. “Well, let’s start with the most obvious question. I thought dragons were legendary, and now I’ve been smuggled into the cave of a secret society of—what are you? Dragonherders?”
    “We do not require herders,” Larkan replied, doing his best not to sound annoyed. Humans really did have the strangest notions. He’d been as far as the nearest large settlement and crept into the place where they showed their moving pictures. Almost always in these pictures the dragon sat on a pile of gold, which seemed like an inefficient way to protect it, and ate dwarves, which sounded hairy and revolting.
    “You?” Keltie said, her voice suddenly toneless. “You’re a dragon?”
    “We are all dragons,” he said patiently.
    She shot a look at the door of his nest, her eyes widening at his words. He’d brought her in when he knew the fewest guards would be on watch. The two had escaped the guards’ notice then, but now the corridors were busy, a muffled stream of voices passing Larkan’s thick wooden door.
    “All dragons,” she murmured.
    “We change to dragon form to hunt,” he said, anticipating her next question. “Not always to fight. The tunnels beneath the mountain do not always accommodate a dragon’s size.”
    Keltie frowned. He could see her thoughts racing as clearly as if they were birds flitting across a bright sky. He had hoped to keep her there without revealing any more than he had to, but vague warnings seemed to only land them both in danger. Better she know what waited beyond the door.
    Besides, he suddenly didn’t want to hide any part of himself. He wanted Keltie to know him—just as he wanted to know every inch of her.
    “Why aren’t you out there?” she waved a hand toward the ceiling. “Why hide under this mountain? Are there more places like this, or are you the only dragons around?”
    “You have a lot of questions.”
    “I’m only...” she started, but then broke off. “I was going to say I’m only human, but all at once that’s taken on a different meaning.”
    Larkan sat on the floor beside Keltie, then reclined on the cushion of soft furs so that he looked up into her face. She remained sitting with her knees drawn up to her chin, but she didn’t draw away. He took a chance, grasping her hand in his. Her slender fingers returned his grip. She might be shaken, but she was no breakable, delicate creature. Her strength spoke to his, drawing him in.
    “Long ago there were many of us,” he said. “Like the village you were uncovering from the mountainside, we have passed beyond the living memory of humans.”
    She closed her fingers around his, and he could feel the fine tremor of nerves inside her. She was putting on a brave face. “You’re not forgotten. There