Finding the Wolf(The Dragon's Hoard #1) (7 page)

Toel, who was considerably faster because he did not have a human-sized Leon walking with him, was waiting at the entrance to Nyle's caves. Gail peeked her head over Toel's shoulder and grinned. Ten more adult dragons were gathered into the passageway behind her.

"We want to talk about what needs to happen to fix this," Gail chirped. "And we decided that your caves would also be the best place to meet, since you know more about what's going on than we do."

Nyle sighed. His hatch-mother probably wanted to mess up his pile of rubies again.

"Fine," Nyle said. "But you are all not going to fit at that size, elders. I kindly request that you find a more economical size before entering my caves."

Nyle shifted down to human size and led Leon into his caves by the hand.

"They will be a few minutes," Nyle said with a small chuckle. "Most of the elders have never bothered to learn how to access their smaller shape."

"That's enough time for you to find cushions for everyone to sit on," Leon said with a grin at Nyle's discomfort.

"Fine," Nyle grumbled, knowing Leon was right. Just because he didn't want other dragons touching his things didn't mean he couldn't be courteous.

Gail and Toel were the first through the doors, just behind Nyle. They helped locate cushions, Gail a bit too gleefully as she knocked over Nyle's collection of jade figurines during her search.

Leon pulled Nyle into a hug when he winced. "After this is over, you and I will go through everything in your hoard and make it shine again."

Nyle sighed and nuzzled Leon's shoulder. "I will make you glow," he agreed.

One by one the elders trickled into Nyle's cave and took a seat on a cushion. Once everyone was there, Toel turned to Nyle.

"Tell us everything thou hast learned," Toel said.

Nyle nodded politely to his elders from the cushion he was sharing with Leon and began speaking. He kept what had been happening to the base facts, only adding in his view and the Eldest's opinions when it was warranted.

The dragons sat in contemplation for a few moments before An'mameil, a brown dragon whose color was denoted by the chocolate colored hair in his current human shape, sat forward.

"We need legitimacy," Meil said.

"We're dragons! We have legitimacy just by being what we are," An'dadean, a grass green dragon, yelled.

"Of course," Meil continued. "What we need is human legitimacy. The king has gone mad, but he is still their leader. We need someone the humans see as having the right to fight for the throne or we will be seen as conquerors rather than liberators." He was looking at Leon as he spoke.

Leon shook his head. "I'm the third son and I'm not human. I'm not the son you need. We need to find my brothers in exile. Felix is the heir and he has the legitimacy you're looking for. Bast was Captain of the Royal Forces and the Guard so if we find him we'll have a good part of the human military behind us as well."

Toel nodded. "I will bring up this need to the Eldest. We also must think on where to find their focus."

An'babev, an amethyst colored dragon, spoke next. "They used a building to house their focus while in the Wilds. Perhaps the barracks that house this special unit is their replacement?"

"But then why could they not leave the building in the Wilds but can leave the barracks. No, it must be something else," Gail murmured. "What about inside the castle itself? In a building that large, rooms must be big enough to house their focus."

"Destroy the human castle?" Dean gasped. "We are trying to rescue them, not destroy their hoard."

"First, An'dadean," Gail said, "humans do not hoard as we do. If we burn down the castle they will rebuild. Second, if we set fire to the building, the magi will escape with the focus and we can swoop down and take it for ourselves," she giggled.

"The thought has merit," Toel said. "If no one has any further suggestions," he paused to give the dragons a chance to speak, "then I shall bring the results of our discussion to the Eldest."

One by one the dragons stood and walked out of Nyle's cave. Gail ruffled his hair and winked at Leon as she walked out.

"You have created a good hoard for yourself, young An'nanyle," Meil said as he surveyed Nyle's piles of jewels.

"Thank you, Elder An'mameil," Nyle replied. "I have worked hard."

Meil nodded and looked at Leon. "I think I shall bring you something to complement your newest stunning piece to your hoard. It has been sitting on a shelf for decades and needs someone to take care of it. I will stop by later, An'nanyle."

Nyle's eyes were wide with surprise, but he still managed to bow politely as Meil left the cave.

After their long day of flying back to the dragon caves and holding the meeting, all Nyle and Leon wanted was to curl up in bed for sleep. With Leon warm against his back and Leon's arms wrapped securely around him, Nyle fell into a happy sleep.

A dragon scream woke them a few hours later. The pained call echoed through the halls of the dragon mountain and Nyle dove out of bed and into his hoard room where he could take dragon form the second he heard it.

Nyle was busy lighting the torches and chandeliers around his hoard when Leon entered the room.

"What's going on?" Leon asked.

Nyle lit the last candle with a bit of breath and began prowling around his cave. "That was a hoard scream," Nyle growled. "Someone has been stolen from."

Nyle was watching the shadows, looking for one that didn't belong. No one was going to steal from his hoard! He kept half an eye on the entrance to his caves, another eye on Leon as his pretty backed into the human-sized rooms, and the rest of his attention on his hoard.

A pained grunt from his human rooms made Nyle spin around in alarm, so he nearly missed the shadow that detached from the wall and dove straight for him, something shiny flashing through the air in front of the shadow.

Nyle screamed in pain as something stabbed deep into his front paw and scrambled back on three legs, trying to get away from the human glaring at him and reaching for a knife in his belt.

A black blur flew across the room, landed on the strange human, and sent them both flying with a crash. The wolf growled down at the human under him, but there was no movement.

Leon turned from the unconscious human and rushed over to Nyle. Nyle stood on three paws; his fourth held in the air so the sword sticking out of it wouldn't get jostled as he cried. It hurt!

Leon whined so Nyle carefully bent down so his pretty wolf could see.

"Nyle!" Gail gasped as she rushed into his caves. "Don't move, we'll get that fixed. Right Toel?" she called behind her.

Toel changed into his human form as he entered and nodded. "Aye. Nyle, let me see."

Leon braced his paws down on Nyle's hurt one, careful to avoid the claws as he held Nyle still. Toel reached for the hilt.

"Change to human form when Toel takes it out," Gail said gently, turning human herself and ripping off long strips of cloth from her dress.

With a grunt, Toel pulled the sword free. Nyle screamed again; his paw hurt!

Leon's whining reminded Nyle that if he wanted to hug his pretty to feel better, he needed human shape. It took a while because it was difficult to concentrate with a gaping hole in his hand, but Nyle finally found his human form. He immediately wrapped his good arm around Leon and buried his face and his tears into the wolf's shaggy shoulder.

Gail was gentle as she wrapped Nyle's hand. "It's not so bad," she said soothingly. "If you're careful it should be fully healed by this time tomorrow."

Nyle whimpered and took his injured hand back so he could carefully wrap it in Leon's fur. Three of his fingers wouldn't bend, and his hand hurt!

Gail sighed and moved away. "Well?" she asked.

"Tis naught save a bump on his skull," Toel rumbled as he stood after checking on the human lying on the floor.

"It looks like his shirt was shredded by claws," Gail said with a speculative giggle. "I guess that's why Leon's fuzzy instead of human."

Leon snorted and nuzzled Nyle's hair gently.

"You saved our Nyle," Gail agreed.

The man on the floor groaned and his eyes fluttered as he slowly regained consciousness. He had black hair carefully cropped tight to his skull and his eyes were blue. Nyle thought he looked familiar, but his hand was more important than the human who attacked him, so Nyle didn't worry much about it.  Toel and Gail moved to hover menacingly over the man.

"Thou hast broken hoard law, human," Toel snarled, his face human but his voice very clearly not.

The man blinked in surprise and struggled to sit up properly.

"If you are the dragons, then you have committed the first crime," the man snapped back groggily as he dropped his head into his hands.

Leon whined suddenly and pulled away from Nyle with a gentle lick along Nyle's cheek. Nyle curled himself around his hand and glared at the human. Leon began to shift into his human form at Nyle's side.

"You hurt me!" Nyle whimpered, his voice punctuated by the snaps and moans caused by Leon shifting. "Why did you stab me with the sword you stole?"

"You kidnapped my brother and have to ask why I have done these things?" the man asked incredulously as he glared through the fingers holding his head up.

"No one has kidnapped me, Bast," Leon said as he struggled to his feet. "I have a feeling you've been lied to."

Bast lifted his head slowly to look at where Leon had just appeared in the place of the wolf.

"That's not possible," Bast said slowly. "My source would not lie to me. I was told my brother Leon had been captured by marauding dragons and forced to become a werewolf. If I could free him, Felix and I would have a powerful ally against our father."

"Which brother are you?" Gail asked.

Leon sighed. "This is Prince Bast, Captain of the Guard and the Royal Forces, and the king's second son. Prince Felix is the heir, but I don't know where he is.  And I have not been kidnapped by marauding dragons, Bast. I think the magi found your source."

"They are subjugating the human populace now that their presence has been exposed?" the Eldest asked as he strode into Nyle's caves. "I expected something of the sort to happen, but not to be attacked by one of the men for whom we were searching."

"Eldest!" Toel and Gail gasped.

The Eldest nodded politely to the dragons before turning to Nyle.

"Young An'nanyle, I heard your pain. Are you all right?"

Nyle lifted his tearstained face to look at the Eldest. "I will heal, Eldest," Nyle said sadly. "I was stabbed with An'saset's sword," he added as he showed the dragon his bandaged hand.

"You will be able to fight tomorrow?" the Eldest asked.

Nyle nodded firmly. "Yes, Eldest."

"Good." The Eldest turned to look at the rest of the room. "The envoy from the werewolves has arrived. Meet in my caves as soon as this issue is cleared up. Prince Bast," he added, turning to look at the human, "you have broken hoard law and must face those consequences. Mitigating circumstances mean we must postpone your sentencing. You will join us in my caves to strategize and after this battle has ended you will return for punishment or you will be dragged here."

"I understand, Eldest," Prince Bast said. Once the golden dragon had left, Bast looked at Leon. "I would like an explanation," he said to his brother.

"Father's gone mad," Leon said as he took Nyle's uninjured hand in his. Toel nodded to them and left the room to return Set's sword and gather the dragons.

"I know that," Bast said sharply. "Felix and I were both exiled from the human city for sham reasons and have been gathering our allies in the northern Royal Forest since. I want to know how you became a werewolf and why you're in the company of dragons, Leon."

"Is that where Felix is?" Leon asked, sounding relieved.  He shook his head before Bast could answer.  Just knowing that both his brothers were okay was enough for the moment.  Instead, Leon tried to answer Bast's question.  "I was sent on a mission two years ago," Leon began. At the end of his story, Bast was shaking his head.

"We never knew," Bast said softly. "No one knew what had happened to you, but because father didn't seem worried we ignored it. Then I heard you had been captured by dragons, and since father has clearly lost his senses I wondered if you had been with the dragons all this time, suffering."

Nyle growled. "He is my pretty! I do not hurt my hoard."

Bast sighed. "I knew that then and I know that now. But my source was so sure that Leon needed help that I forgot all my senses and came here to kill as many dragons as I could so I could rescue my brother."

"Could it be a coercion spell?" Gail murmured. She tilted her head to look closer at Bast. "They made you irrationally believe something that under normal circumstances you know would be untrue."

Bast shook his head. "I don't know, but it's my job to do the fighting while Felix does his best to keep the country running while in exile, so it made sense to me at the time to come running here to save Leon."

"Well," Gail said with a giggle as she reached out and captured Bast's chin in her fingers, "I like you. You look like our Leon, so you've got to be okay!" She tilted his head to see his military cut black hair and angled cheekbones. "It's too bad I can't keep you, human," she added as she let go. "Well, we can't keep the Eldest waiting."

She shifted back into dragon form, ignored Bast's gasp at her size, and left Nyle's caves.

"Let me get clothes first," Leon said before Nyle could follow Gail. Leon ran to the human-sized caves.

Nyle pouted at Bast and held his hand safely close while they waited.

"Is Leon a prisoner here?" Bast asked suddenly.

Nyle stiffened. "No," he snapped. But he saw the genuine curiosity and fear in Bast's blue eyes so he continued. "There is a precedent for hoarding live and sentient creatures. I must care for the creature and allow it freedom to live happily. If Leon is happiest in the human world, then we will live there. I will do everything to keep Leon happy."

"That's good to hear," Leon said as he rejoined them. Nyle blushed. "Bast, I'm happy with Nyle. I enjoy being part of his hoard. And because I am a very long-lived creature, being with someone who I will not outlive is a very good thing."