Page 19 of Her Silent Knight

“I smell dragon here, witch,” the creature yelled.

Sin remained silent. She’d seen him before. This wasn’t his first time coming to her home and simply standing. One time he stood for hours. Even walked around her whole house. She assumed he’d been looking for a weak spot in her spell.

He found none. Still, the next morning, she got up and reinforced the spell, just in case. You could never be too cautious around here. When she didn’t respond to him, he repeated himself.

“I smell dragon, witch.”

She’d come out here to get away from one creature only to encounter another. She just couldn’t catch a break.

“You don’t eat dragons,” the cannibal reminded her.

No shit. I don’t eat people like you, you jerk.

The creature lifted a bag. “Trade you this for the dragon.”

Hell no.

“This is fur from the woolly mammoths that live deep within the mountains.”

Woolly mammoth fur? She could use some woolly mammoth fur. She’d been shocked as hell when she’d seen her first woolly mammoth here. The creature was extinct on her plane. Here, their numbers were great.

But they lived deep within the mountains. You had to cross the Ice Lake and the Dark Forest to reach them. Even Rhen had never ventured into that part of the Frostlands and he’d warned her against it.

The fur of a woolly mammoth would go for a great trade down at the black market. She could probably trade it in for enough fresh meat to last her a few months. Along with some clothes, boots and hair oils.

“What say you, witch?”

She was tempted. What should she do? Roars arose from inside her cabin. Oh, shut up, dragon and let me think.

“Dragon dangerous,” the creature yelled. “Can’t be trusted.”

Yeah, and like you can.She trusted no one here. Except for Winter. The rest would turn on her if things went south for them. Though she wanted to teach the dragon a lesson, she wasn’t evil enough to turn him over to a cannibal.

No one deserved that fate. The dragon was just confused. So, were all the agents sent by The Deciders. When they first started coming after her, she’d tried to tell them what Winter told her.

The Deciders would never grant them freedom. They were just using them. The agents never believed her and they kept coming. She gave up trying to force them to see the truth. Hell, if working for The Deciders was truly a way to freedom, she’d take jobs for them too.

It shamed her to admit it. But she was desperate to go home. Desperate people made poor choices. Her dragon had made a poor choice. That didn’t mean he needed to be fed to the creatures who lived in the mountains.

“This is my last offer, witch. Take the fur.”

A loud roar sounded from inside her cabin. Sin rolled her eyes, but she didn’t miss the look of fear that crossed over the cannibal’s face. Oh right. He didn’t know that her dragon was chained up. He was probably afraid the dragon would come out and kill him.

“Who is that beast to you?” The creature asked.

That was a weird question. The creature stared from her to her house.

“Give me the dragon, before you’re not able to give him up. Do it now?”

Again, with the weird talking.

“This is truly my final offer, witch.”

She wanted to say screw your offer but she didn’t want to talk to the creature. It stepped closer to her gate causing the green light to glow brighter. If he stepped any closer the warded gate would...

His scream rent the air. That’s what happens when you touch my gate, Sin thought, smiling as she watched him leap away from the gate. She’d come outside for a moment of respite. That wasn’t going to be had tonight.

Rolling her eyes, she turned her back to the creature, opened her door and entered her house. She closed the door, shutting out the sounds of his anger as he called for her to come back. She entered her home to angry roars from the dragon strapped to the wall.

Sin sighed. She just wanted a second of peace and quiet.

Who knew kidnapping a dragon could cause this much ruckus?