Page 64 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

“And this is saying something,” continued Iahir, “because you have already killed my companion, so I have no reason to trust you.”

“It was not my intention to kill anyone,” said the dragon, and its blue snout appeared as it came out of the cavern. It darted forward, quicker than Gathren would have expected, and it snatched up Iahir’s belt and all of his weapons. It drew itself up, spreading its wings and peered down at Iahir.

Who looked up, drinking in the sight of the dragon with an expression of awe. Iahir smiled up at the dragon, the smile of a delighted little boy. “You are so large,” said Iahir. “I used to wish I could see a dragon up close, truly wish it, and I never thought it would ever happen.”

The dragon lowered itself. “Thou art a strange elf.”

Gathren had to take the chance now. The dragon was no longer looking, so she had to go. She moved slowly, deliberately, easing her way through the shadows, as the dragon and Iahir continued to speak.

“I am, I suppose,” said Iahir. “I didn’t think you meant to kill anyone, you know. I think, probably, you dragons are as afraid of us as we are of you. I think you just want to be left alone. Is that it?”

Gathren darted inside the cavern.

It was very dark inside, and she could only make out the outline of the mound of gold and treasure.

She moved as quickly as she could while still being quiet to skirt around it. From outside the cavern came the sounds of the dragon and Iahir, still talking. The dragon was still commenting on how odd and bewildering he found Iahir, who had seemingly abandoned his ruse about trying to get the dragon to challenge him to a game of riddles for the treasure, or whatever it was he had said he would do during the plan.

Gathren had to assume that was going to go badly very soon. She needed to move fast.

On the other side of the treasure, the rest of the cavern stretched out dark and bare. She wasn’t sure what she had been hoping for. A little cage with her mother in it, handily right there and ready to rescue?

But she knew there had to be another way into the cavern, because the dragon had been in there when they had come in, and they had been watching the entrance all along. The dragon had not entered through that entrance. It must have come in another way.

She kept moving then, blinking hard to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness and thinking that she wished she wasn’t sneaking around because then she could have had a torch.

And then she saw a door. It was round, perfectly round, with a little gleaming doorknob in the middle, and she hurried over to it and tried the doorknob. But it was locked.

She didn’t know what to do.

She rattled the doorknob. She shook the door. She strained, and she could hear the sounds of Iahir and the dragon speaking to each other beyond the cave. How long until the dragon hurt Iahir and came for her?

Well, she supposed she couldn’t let that happen. She would have to go back there and stop the dragon from doing any damage to Iahir. Because, after all, it was one thing if he was sacrificing himself so that she could get to her mother, but it was entirely another thing if he was sacrificing himself so that she could get to a locked door. It was pointless for him to do that.

She started back towards the mound of gold.

The dragon was saying, “Why art thou so convinced I wish to ask thee riddles?”

And then, from behind her, she heard the door open.

17

“OH, GATHREN, IT is you,” said the voice of her mother.

Gathren could not see her mother, because it was entirely dark on the other side of the door, and she’d walked halfway across the cavern already. “Mam?” she said, in a tiny voice. She rushed back across the cavern.

When she got closer, she could see her mother there. Her mother seemed to be wearing some kind of long dress, and she had something on her head, which could have been a tiara of some kind.

“Gathren,” said her mother again.

“Come, now,” said Gathren, reaching for her. “There’s no time to lose. I have no idea how long Iahir is going to be able to keep the dragon occupied. We need to go now.”

“Oh, you see, I can’t,” said her mother, holding up one arm. She had a small, thin chain attached to it. It was an elvish chain. Gathren had ones like it before, the kinds made by the silvan elves, thin and gleaming but woven and sturdy all the same. She could not cut that sort of a chain with a sword. She did not know what to do.

“So, you are a prisoner,” said Gathren. “But you opened the door yourself.”

“It’s a very long chain,” said her mother. “I can go all sorts of places within his lair, even outside into the courtyard on the other side. Most of the time, I sort of forget it’s there.”

“That’s… that’s…” Gathren was not sure how to react to the way her mother was talking. “Are you wearing a tiara, Mam?”