Akkan by Alisa Woods

Author:Alisa Woods [Woods, Alisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alisa Woods

Chapter Three

I can feel Sasa shivering against me.

In my dragon form, I can’t comfort her. And it’s been a brutal two nights of travel, but we’re almost done. The pre-dawn is lighting the sky, which means it’s no longer safe to soar the heavens, but the city of Athens still sleeps as I glide above it. I bundled Sasa in triple coats and hats and scarves and fashioned a harness of sorts to keep her safely tethered, not relying on her grip, which would fatigue in the many hours of the trip, but she doesn’t have a dragon’s scales or internal fire to keep her warm.

We broke the trip into two segments. The first one was nearly a full night of flying, but we made several stops between Constantinople and the small village on the western coast of the Anatolian peninsula which was our resting point for the day. Sasa claimed the heat of my dragon body kept her warm during the flight, but I heard the chatter of her teeth and felt the shiver of her body against me. The second leg of the trip, the following night, still took advantage of the moonless skies. It was shorter, but nearly without rest—a straight shot across the Aegean sea. It’s the fastest way to travel, but it’s exhausting even for a dragon. I could land in Athens and take our rest for the day, traveling either on foot to the lair to the north or waiting until the following night to fly, but I’m too impatient. It’s impossible to be this close and not continue on.

I dip lower once we clear the city, gliding in the slightly warmer air to help ease Sasa’s shivering. Mount Parnitha beckons in the distance to the north, its forested hills home to a scattering of villages and several fortresses from ancient times. My home lair masquerades as a monastery, to keep out the curious and yet still have the possibility of interaction with the outside world. My heart pounds as I fly us up the slopes, not from exertion, although the toll of the night’s flying is upon me, but from anticipation. And tremulous excitement. I haven’t seen my family in a decade. My mother and father should still be in fine health—dragons live long lives, and when I left, they had just started their second batch of children. My two older brothers and I were the first. Aleko and Valawyr had mated before I left. My younger brothers must be nearing the pairing time. A surge of homesickness has me setting down before the final rise of forest-covered rock that obscures the monastery’s walls.

I bend down so Sasa can dismount. She does so awkwardly—she must be more frozen than I realized. I immediately shift and begin to unwrap all her layers. I’m naked, my clothes packed in a small sack also bundled to the harness, but the cool mountain air doesn’t bother me. I’m concerned for Sasa, shaking before me. I release her

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