Silver Dragon by Zoe Chant

Author:Zoe Chant [Chant, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

BIRD

Bird retained just enough sense to use her free hand to grab her purse hanging on its hook by the door. Her left hand was still in his right. She sensed the strength in his fingers, held in a steady grip. A secure grip, light and firm, but in no way constraining, much less impatient, or angry. She knew instinctively that if she twitched or tugged, he would instantly let her free.

Tears burned her eyes, but they were tears of happiness, wonder, and an upwelling of joy. As they paced not to the street, but around the house to the garden, she glanced at the sky overhead and sent the thought to the universe, If this is a delusion, let me stay in it forever.

He stopped at the back of the house, away from the street. Mikhail bent and kissed her again, a quick, reassuring kiss that sent flowers of bright desire through her, impossibly bright. Nothing had ever felt like this.

He stepped away, and then he began to glow. Light shimmered over him, then brightened to a silvery-white beam, as if the moon had sent a part of itself into the rose garden. A heartbeat later the beam flashed into a long shape, shimmered again, and she found herself staring up at an enormous silver . . .

Dragon.

Impossible, her old self insisted. But the new self, the one who had kissed Mikhail and been kissed back, breathed out the word, “Ohhh.”

Because he was beautiful. The great head was framed by gently waving whiskers that glowed with their own light. Above the dragon teeth, huge eyes gazed down with the patient wisdom and benevolence that she knew as Mikhail’s own. The enormous silver-scaled dragon floated in the air, gracefully undulating in the breeze. It—he—must be two hundred feet long, she thought, awe-struck. She had never seen anything so beautiful, so noble and awe-inspiring!

He drifted closer, and a mellow voice that reminded her of wind instruments or a great organ spoke directly into her mind: Climb on, my love.

Bird laughed, looking ruefully down her fancy dress, then up again as she eyed the dragon’s great head. He lowered himself to the ground, and somehow shrank so that he wasn’t quite as large or long. Doris’s dress was watered silk in a soft powder blue, loose and floaty so it didn’t impede her limbs. Bird held the skirt away from her with one hand, and found it easy to clamber onto the dragon behind his head. The silver scales were cool, and smooth to the touch. She gave a rueful thought to her hair, which she had washed and curled so carefully after getting back from Doris’s. Well, she supposed she’d get that fashionable “wind-blown” look!

Mikhail’s great reed-organ dragon-voice entered her mind. I will not let you fall.

He rose gently into the air, as the back row of floating whiskers formed a softly glowing shelter around her. The entire world scintillated. Though she felt no sense of motion or wind whipping through her hair, the ground fell away and the world spun behind her.

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