The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two (2 page)

T
hey left
the lair several hours before sunrise. Initially, Madja was relieved that they were travelling by foot. The night before, she’d had a horrifying dream of riding on Sevrrn’s back in his dragon form. It had involved a very long fall, followed by many broken bones. She could still hear Sevrrn mocking her from above:
Good, now we do not have to go to the marketplace
.

But after several hours of walking on rough terrain, she couldn’t have cared less about falling and would have been perfectly fine landing in the town square on a dragon. When she expressed this to Sevrrn, he explained that he couldn’t shift without his scales. He had left the robe back in the lair, presumably so that he didn’t stick out among the humans.

It was sunset when they arrived in Bern, a bustling town that had been built around a small cove. As a child, Madja had visited the town several times with her father, but it was far enough away from the capital that no one was likely to recognize her.

At the town gates, Madja identified herself and Sevrrn as foreign dignitaries, quickly elaborating that she was his translator when he refused to speak. Sevrrn may have forsaken his majestic golden scales, but in the regal silk robes he had chosen to wear, along with his vast array of gemstone-encrusted jewelry, he looked every bit the part of an affluent noble. They were granted entry without further inspection.

After a brief walk through a modest residential area, the familiar aromas of roasting meat and spices lured Madja in the direction of the marketplace.

The market was situated in the center of town, with hundreds of stalls crammed side by side on long, winding streets. The ground was only partially paved and a thin layer of dust clung to everything.

Flocks of people crammed in tightly around stalls where vendors peddled various goods. Just at a glance, she saw stalls for foreign textiles, love charms, painted pottery, seasonal flowers, steamed buns, and live chickens.

Madja was accustomed to stopping and pushing her way past the crowds to get a close look at the goods each stall sheltered. With Sevrrn by her side, the people were keen to clear a path. Even those who didn’t turn to see him in all his stately glory seemed to possess an instinctive awareness of him, unconsciously milling out of the way as he walked by.

Although she was excited to be out on the town and eager to browse the shops, Madja was oddly self-conscious. Each time she felt like stopping to look at something, she found herself furtively glancing over at Sevrrn, trying to gauge his expression.

Given that he spoke her language, she had ascertained that she was not the first human he had met. But as far as she knew, this was his first exposure to the human world.
Her
world. She knew that if she had any hope of visiting town on a regular basis, he would have to come away with a good impression.

For once, Sevrrn wasn’t giving anything away. His eyes remained fixed on the path ahead, his face displaying nothing more than cool indifference. Given that he lacked either the ability or inclination to feign emotions, she couldn’t help but feel discouraged.

“When I was little, my father and I stayed at a really nice inn down by the cove,” Madja said. “We can head to the pier and trade in our currency, then drop our things off at the inn.”

After their discussion about her spoon, Sevrrn had oh-so-graciously offered up two gemstones and a golden flask for trading. Between the three items, they’d certainly get enough silvers for a few nights at an inn, as well as some light shopping.

Sevrrn gave a small nod of acknowledgement, but otherwise remained silent.

Growing increasingly uncomfortable, Madja looked around for something that might engage the dragon’s interest. Both her eyes and nose were drawn to a wooden stall. It was painted blue with a roof made of a faded cotton fabric. Within the stall was a man with messy brown hair and two young girls who appeared thoroughly bored. On the table were two trays, a large one with elaborately stacked fish cakes and a much smaller tray with a sign that read:
free samples
.

Madja tugged on Sevrrn’s sleeve, gently guiding him over to the stall. There was a ragged looking man in line ahead of them who was stuffing one of the flakey cakes into his mouth. As Madja drew closer, her nose wrinkled at the smell of stale beer.

“Are you planning on buying something, sir?” the vendor asked in a flat tone.

The surly man picked up another cake from the sample try. “Sign says ‘free’. It don’t say how many.”

While the owner tried to explain the meaning of the word ‘sample,’ Madja waited patiently. After a moment of standing in line, Sevrrn looked between her and the stall, frowning.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

Sheepishly, she said, “I thought maybe you’d like to try a fish cake. They’re pretty good.”

He looked even more perplexed. “Then why are we standing here?”

“We have to wait our turn,” she said, lowering her voice.

“Why?”

Now, Madja was the one confused. How was she supposed to explain basic human etiquette to a dragon god?

Apparently, Sevrrn didn’t care to wait for her answer. He placed a single index finger on the surly man’s shoulder and pushed him to the side. The man stumbled, coughing up flakes of fish. Face red and fists clenched, he looked prepared for a fight. But when he craned his neck up to look at Sevrrn, he blanched.

Even without knowing who or what Sevrrn was, the dragon god’s tall, muscular human form was as intimidating as it was handsome. Muttering something under his breath, the man skulked away.

“Thank you for that,” the shop owner said. His green eyes were alight with gratitude. “That drunkard comes by every afternoon to clear out my sample tray.”

Rather than respond, Sevrrn looked to Madja and asked, “If that man is such an inconvenience to him, why does he not do something himself?”

Madja felt her face heat. She cast the now-flustered shop owner an apologetic look.

Sevrrn picked up a fish cake, held it under his nose for a few seconds, and then handed it to Madja. Then, he took one for himself.

“They’re made from mackerels,” the shop owner said, having regained his composure. “I caught them just this morning.”

Madja took a small bite, while Sevrrn swallowed the cake whole.

“It’s delicious,” Madja said, doing her best to maintain eye contact with the shop owner as Sevrrn helped himself to another cake. “I’m afraid we haven’t yet picked up any local currency, but I’ll be sure to stop buy later and purchase several.”

The man smiled, his eyes brightening. “It would be a pleasure to see you again, ma’am.”

After giving him a polite goodbye, Madja took Sevrrn by the arm and pulled him away. To her mortification, he had eaten the entire sample tray.

Although her feet ached, her steps were lighter as they headed down to the pier. Now that he had eaten, Sevrrn seemed to be in better spirits and even became a bit inquisitive. He asked questions about different objects that he saw and was quite intrigued by the foreign languages he overheard.

Once at the pier, they stopped into the merchant’s guild. There, they were able to sell the flask and gemstones. Though Sevrrn was the one who had chosen the items he was willing to part with, Madja could practically feel the displeasure radiating off him as the broker took his former possessions and handed them a sack of coins.

“We got a great price for them,” she assured him later as they walked along the pier.

Sevrrn pressed his lips together, before saying, “There is one thing I do not understand.”

“Hm?”

“Why did we give that small man my gems and trinket at all? It is not as if he could have stopped me from taking his silver.”

For the first time, Madja realized that bringing him here might have been a mistake. She hadn’t known just how unfamiliar he was with human society and she regretted not taking the time to teach him.

“Well, for starters, stealing is against the law. If we took something that didn’t belong to us, we’d go to jail.”

He arched a brow. “And who will put us in this jail? More humans?”

“I know what you’re thinking, but you have to remember that these laws are made by humans and for humans. If we didn’t follow them and everyone took what they wanted, it would be anarchy. Society would collapse.”

“Humans laws seem to only serve the weak.”

“Maybe you’re right,” she told him. “But if there weren’t laws to protect the weak, people like me would always be used and taken advantage of.”

Even as she said the words, Madja recognized the irony in them. Laws had been what had condemned her father and had torn her from her home in the middle of the night, leaving her for dead in a dragon’s lair.

“No one will ever take advantage of you,” Sevrrn informed her. “I would not allow it.”

A smile spread over her face. “So, I guess what you’re saying is that you would make it a
law
that no one could take advantage of me?”

“I would not need to make any laws,” he said matter-of-factly. “I would merely kill any who attempted to do you harm.”

“You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.”

Madja realized that she must have been spending too much time with Sevrrn, because that almost sounded romantic to her.

They walked along the pier for a little while longer, discussing human laws and standards of behavior. Madja was surprised to find that he did know a few things about human conventions, though most of what he knew was rather archaic.

The inn was just as Madja remembered it, though time and ocean breezes had worn away at its veneer. They received a warm welcome from the innkeeper and his daughter, a young woman whom Madja had vague memories of building sandcastles with as a child. Neither of them recognized her and she didn’t feel inclined to remind them of who she was, or rather, who she had been.

Y
ou can’t keep
me safe from everything, silly.

Sevrrn decided that there must have been something significant about those words, because they kept playing over and over in his head throughout the evening.

It was twilight when they made their way back to the marketplace, this time with the coins. While Madja had unpacked their belongings at the inn, Sevrrn had examined each of the coins. There were forty-eight pieces of silver and thirty-two pieces of copper. He had never seen either coin before and reluctantly decided that they were a fair trade for his flask and gems after all. He pocketed two of the silvers and one of the coppers before turning the bag over to Madja. She had not seemed to notice.

Dull flames danced within the paper lanterns that hung above the stalls. He had no difficulty seeing in the dim light, but the humans seemed to be constantly stumbling and bumping into one another as they traversed the streets. While they walked, he kept an arm around Madja’s shoulder, shielding her from the clumsy mortals.

He liked the marketplace well enough. It had many things that his lair did not and he particularly enjoyed observing the painted tapestries and sand art.

You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.

Sevrrn leaned back against a wall of cobbled stone. Across the street, Madja was hunched over a tray of gilded rings. The finest of them was of poorer quality than the simplest ring in his hoard and so they held no interest to him. He would have stayed by her side, but the shop owner smelled of sweat and so he kept his distance.

You can’t keep me safe from everything, silly.

With nothing else to do, he allowed himself to consider her words, while also contemplating their odd significance to him.

Why would she assume that he was incapable of protecting her? There were stars in the sky that were younger than him and since the death of his sister, he was undoubtedly the most powerful being to walk the land. Who was
she
to tell him that he could not protect her? And why did it irritate him so much?

Perhaps it was her mortality that was concerning her. Was she disappointed that he had not yet found a way to make her immortal?

It was not as though he were procrastinating. Not really.

Sevrrn had never concerned himself with magical artifacts, and that went double for those that were fabled to grant immortality, as he had no use for such a thing. But he knew for certain that they existed and it would be no difficult task to find out their locations. It would, however, require a fair bit of investigation, which could mean several weeks spent in the other realm, a place where he could not bring Madja. While he knew it was necessary, he was not yet ready to leave her unattended for any length of time.

He would explain all of this to her later. Then, she would cast aside this nonsensical notion about his inability to protect her.

“I have never seen such fine attire on this end of town.”

Sevrrn tilted his head to regard the speaker. It was a tall female with a long neck and pale skin. On some level, he had been aware of her watching him for several minutes, though it was not unusual for the humans to stare at him. She was, however, one of the few who had been bold enough to speak to him.

“Where are you from?” she asked, taking a step closer.

His eyes swept over her body. The woman appeared a few years older than Madja and much thinner. He could make out the small bones in her hands and wrists. Her lips were painted red and a heavy floral fragrance masked an underlying smell he did not recognize and did not care for.

One thing about her that he did find intriguing was her chest, specifically, her breasts. They were slightly larger than Madja’s and curiously rounded. Even more intriguing was the way her garment seemed designed to expose them for his viewing. Madja never wore garments like that. He decided that he would like to see her wear such a garment.

But not around other males.

He would not like that.

The female now stood directly in front of him. Though he had been picturing Madja’s breasts, he had not been fully unaware of the woman’s approach. It was not until her hand reached out for his chest that he actually considered her to be anything more than a piece of the scenery.

He narrowed his eyes—a warning that he did not want her to touch him. Either he preformed the gesture incorrectly, or it did not mean the same thing to this female as it did to him, because she placed her hand on him anyway.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” she purred. “I like that.”

Under normal circumstances, he would bite anything that touched him. In his dragon form, such an action was typically fatal. Given that he was not able to shift and Madja would likely disapprove of him killing her anyway, Sevrrn was unsure how to react.

He tried to look at the situation objectively. The human woman, although annoying, was not any threat to him. Her proximity also gave him a unique view of her curiously rounded breasts, which was not wholly unwelcome. But what was it that she sought to gain from touching him, he wondered.

“
Excuse me
.”

Were he not so acutely familiar with her by now, Sevrrn would not have recognized Madja’s voice. Her tone was very different than what he had grown accustomed to and when he looked over at her, he saw that she was very angry.

It did not take him long to realize why.

For nearly a full minute, this bizarre woman had
distracted
him from watching Madja.

Now, Sevrrn was angry as well.

Placing her hand none-too-gently on the woman’s shoulder, Madja gave her a small, but deliberate push. “Your
services
are not needed here.”

The woman’s red lips twisted. She looked Madja up and down before making a small noise and walking away in the direction of another male.

Momentarily, Sevrrn forgot his anger as curiosity rose to the surface. “She did not offer any services.”

“Did you see what she was wearing?” Madja hissed. She folded her arms under her breasts. “She was a
whore
.”

He had heard that word before. When was it? Ah, yes.

I don’t give away sex, I’m not a whore.

Madja had once said that to him.

“She wanted to give me sex?”

“She wanted to have sex with you for money,” Madja corrected.

That
was intriguing. “She would pay to mate with me?”

This appeared to irritate Madja. “No, bonehead.
You
pay
her
.”

“That is absurd,” Sevrrn said, ignoring the insult.

Madja visibly relaxed.

Sevrrn went on to say, “Why would I ever pay a female for what you give me for free?”

Her face turning a rather unnatural shade of red, Madja jabbed a finger at his chest. “I don’t
give
you anything. I
share
my body with you because I love you.”

In an instant, all of the blood appeared to drain from her face. Sevrrn found himself feeling…
concerned
.

“Are you ill?” he asked.

“W-what?” she stammered, taking a step back.

“Your face. It keeps changing colors. And your pulse has rapidly accelerated.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, looking away from him. “It’s getting late. Can we go back to the inn?”

M
adja was mortified
.

She wasn’t sure what was worse, that she had told Sevrrn
that she loved him
or that Sevrrn hadn’t even noticed that she had told him
that she loved him
.

When she had seen the prostitute cozying up to Sevrrn, it had felt as though someone had dropped a pail of freezing water on her head. In that moment, two terrible things had occurred to her:

Madja wasn’t the only woman who found Sevrrn wildly appealing and she might not be the only woman that Sevrrn found wildly appealing.

Sevrrn’s lair was pretty much his universe. A universe in which she was the only female and he was the only male. Looking back, it was almost inevitable that they experienced some sort of sexual attraction to one another.

But now that they were out of their bubble and out in the real world, there were some pretty harsh realities for Madja to face. While his personality was borderline insufferable, he was physically the epitome of male perfection.

And she was, well…average.

Okay, she had a few redeeming qualities. There had been a lot of men who had wanted to marry her, mostly for what was left of her mother’s estate, but they had to like something about her, right?

Madja felt an awful ache in her chest. She knew that there were times when Sevrrn looked at her as though she were more beautiful than any of his treasures. But now that he was walking amongst other women, would he reconsider that assessment?

“
Frustrated
,” she heard him mutter.

Madja looked up in surprise. They had been walking in silence for some time. She had been so fixated on her disastrous confession that she hadn’t even noticed they’d already made it to the pier.

“What?” she asked.

He glanced down at her, eyes wary. “I was trying to recall a word. To want something you cannot have, it is to be
frustrated
.”

“I suppose so. Why do you mention it?”

“You,” he replied. “You frustrate me often.”

Insecurity made her voice small. “How so?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Usually when you sleep. You sleep all night. Lately, you’ve been sleeping during the day as well.”

“My sleeping frustrates you?” she asked, unsure where he was going with this.

“I often want to mate with you, but when I try to wake you, you get angry and refuse me,” he said with a sour face. “Other times, I want to talk to you, but I cannot. I have grown to greatly dislike nights. But that is beside the point. Right now, you are frustrating me.”

She placed a hand on his sleeve. “I’m wide awake.”

“But you are not talking to me and I do not know what you are thinking. I always tell you what I am thinking, but you do not do the same. It is frustrating.”

Feeling slightly relieved, she leaned against him. “One of the many differences between you and me is that my thoughts are the only thing that are my own.”

Even you’re not really mine
, she thought.