Kachka began to close door and she heard the dragon sigh in relief, so she pushed the door back open. “One more thing—”
“I will kill you!”
“What?” Elina asked.
“Zoya Kolesova invited self on trip.”
“Gods, why?”
“Because she is annoying. I wanted to warn you before she got you in hug. But we may not have to worry long.”
“I am going to tear the walls of this castle down!”
Elina covered her dragon’s face with her hand. “Why no worry?” she asked.
“We came back with Annwyl’s boy. The pretty one.”
“He is pretty.”
“That’s my cousin,” the dragon complained behind Elina’s hand.
“Well, Zoya has set her sights.”
“She cannot be foolish enough to—”
“She is foolish enough. Even now she goes down to lake to tell queen to give the boy to Zoya for one of her precious, oversized daughters.”
“And you let her?”
“I do not really like her.”
“Kachka!” her sister chastised, pulling herself off the dragon’s cock, to his great anger.
“Where the battle-fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Zoya Kolesova is favored among her tribe, Kachka. If Annwyl takes Zoya’s head, the Kolesovas of the Mountain Movers of the Lands of Pain in the Far Reaches of the Steppes of the Outerplains will start war.”
“We have alliance with the Anne Atli,” Kachka reminded her sister, and the look that Elina gave her was pointed and rude.
Grabbing clothes off the floor, Elina said, “You are not stupid, sister. Who will stop the Mountain Movers? You? Me? Even the Anne Atli will not stop them. She will allow them to rain giant stones upon this ridiculous house!”
“Then perhaps you will learn to live like you were meant to. Instead of whiling away hours in soft bed with this lizard.”
“Hey!”
“I was not whiling. I was fucking. I had needs!”
“Och! You and your needs! Were you going to take a bath after?” Kachka taunted. “In your tub?”
“Again with the tub!”
“You look like decadent Southlander when you use it!”
“I like it!”
“Your weakness sickens me!”
“Hey!” the dragon bellowed. “One of you needs to fix this!” he ordered, pointing at his hard cock, which was directed straight at the ceiling.
Since Elina was just pulling on her boots, Kachka shrugged and began to walk toward him, but the dragon quickly held up a hand. “Not you! Her!”
“But you said—”
“Shut up!”
Kachka studied the dragon’s human cock for a moment. “It is quite large, sister.”
“I know.” She grinned. “It is almost too much for me. Almost.”
The sisters laughed and now headed toward the door.
“Are you really leaving?” the dragon demanded.
“I must save Zoya Kolesova of the Mountain Movers of the Lands of the—”
“Do not bore me with that ridiculous name, woman!”
“Then why do you insist on asking me questions!” she shot back before walking out the door.
Kachka winked at the incensed dragon and followed her sister into the hall.
As they walked down the stairs, Kachka noted, “You torture that dragon greatly.”
Her sister sniffed and glanced at Kachka. “I do?”
Chapter Eight
“Aren’t you freezing?”
Annwyl glanced back at Morfyd, standing on the lake edge, her human form wrapped from head to toe in a white fur. Her human body always had a hard time adjusting to cold weather, even though spring was coming and the ice on the lake had already melted.
But Annwyl was trying something new. She needed a bolt of fresh ideas. She thought sitting naked in this cold water would help her. That’s what Elina said the Riders believed.
She was beginning to think the Riders were very, very wrong.
“I’m fine,” Annwyl lied, wondering how much longer she should keep up this charade.
Think of something new? She could barely think about anything but stopping her teeth from chattering together until they broke into little pieces.
“Annwyl, get your big ass out of that water this instant!” Talaith ordered. The fur around her shoulders was brown to match her fur boots and thick leggings.
“But I’m—”
“No! This instant!”
With a sigh that was meant to sound put-upon but really was deep gratitude, she stood. She wanted to run back to shore, but she was going to walk. Like a proper royal who put herself in freezing water like an idiot. Especially with Dagmar also standing there watching. While the other two were bundled up, Dagmar didn’t have a fur on. “You call this cold?” the Northlander had asked. “Seriously?”
Dagmar watched her with a smirk. She knew how miserable Annwyl was, but she was doing this thing lately. This thing where she just let Annwyl do whatever she wanted and then, when it blew up in her face, Dagmar smirked and, without saying a word, clearly stated with the expression on her face, Told you so, my queen.
The cow.
Annwyl was near the shore when she heard a voice call out, “You are Annwyl the Bloody?”