Traveler by Ashley Bourgeois Read Free Book Online Page A

chambers, laying her down with him in his bed, cuddling her innocently.  “Is that better, bird?” he asked.  
    The tiny child snuggled close to him, tucking her head in the crook of his neck.  Small fingers clutched tightly to his shirt as a soft yawn escaped her.  “Uh huh...sleepy time, dragon...”
    Rahim closed his eyes, holding her close to him, drifting off to sleep with her.  When he woke, he’d be having dinner with his parents, and he’d have to return her...but at least for now, she was all his.  Soon after he fell asleep, Bri did as well, feeling utterly content and safe in her dragon’s arms.
***
                    Rahim had slept well, better than he had in a long time, in just the space of a few hours.  There was a scraping, a banging going on outside his door that threatened to jar him from his sleep.  A frown crossed his features and he shifted a little more in his bed, trying to return to blessed unconsciousness.
                    The noise outside roused the sleeping child, tousled curls falling in her face when she lifted her head in confusion.  She looked around before lightly touching Rahim’s face with her small hands, a frightened whisper escaping her.  “Dragon...”
                    Rahim’s eyes fluttered open, focusing on the little girl in his arms.  “Bird...?” he asked softly.  “What’s wrong?”  Then he heard the noise outside his bedroom.  Cursing softly under his breath, Rahim let the child down softly onto his bed.  “Stay here, Bird,” he whispered.  Taking a small dagger from his bedside table, he crouched towards the door, opening it just a crack.  As it opened, he saw a pair of bright green eyes and a triumphant smile, a dagger slicing out to catch him on the right side of his face, cutting him from his right eye to his mouth.  With a pain-filled curse, Rahim took his dagger and drove it into what felt like bone, slamming the door behind him.  “Bri, we need to go!  Now.”  He scooped the tiny girl up in his arms and threw open the door again, jumping over the prone body on the floor, the dagger in his hip.  Good.  The bastard would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.  
                    The frightened child wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching tightly to the older boy.  She whimpered softly, not really sure why there were green-eyed monsters trying to hurt her dragon.  But they were really scary!
                    Rah ran through the halls, carrying her close to him.  He ran to his parent’s bedroom, first, trying to figure out what was going on.  Their door was halfway open.  That wasn’t normal.  Ensuring that Bri was safely against his shoulder so she couldn’t see, he leaned into the room and let out a curse.  His parents were both dead, blood everywhere.  They both lay in their bed, together.  Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he turned away from it and ran.  He needed to get Bri to her parents.  Fast.
                    Bri whimpered again, trembling in her dragon’s arms.  She kept her face buried in his throat, almost as if sensing his need to keep her from seeing the worst of it.
                    Rahim ran faster, sprinting to her parents’ room, unable to stop the tears now.  His parents....  If her parents were gone too, Gods...he’d have to take her with him, make his escape with her.  He pushed open her parents’ door, finding them in their rooms.  Thank the Gods.  He shoved Bri at her mother, his face bloody and filled with pain.  “Take her.  She never left your side, understand me?  You don’t know anything.  You didn’t see me.  My parents have been murdered.  I need to get out of here...I need to escape.”
                    Baneor and Dorain had been quietly talking when the prince ran into their chambers, carrying their only daughter in his arms.  Startled,