Page 9 of Firebird
I paused, letting my words sink in as I turned my gaze back to Silvanus.
“We are not barbarians. We do not spoil and mar the property of Emperor Igniculus. Every prisoner you beat, every woman you rape and damage, brings less coin at the slave market. Less coin in the emperor’s coffer. And less coin in reward that you will receive as victors of the battlefield.”
Silvanus flexed his muscles and stretched his wings, readying for his punishment. I’d considered killing him in front of his lackeys and my men. But decided a good beating in half-skin should do the trick. Bearing him back to Rome in chains in one of his soldier brother’s nets would be the perfect humiliation before putting him on trial. Public execution or lashing would be best to prove my point and send the message that my orders were to be obeyed to the letter.
“Trajan.”
“Yes, Legatus.”
“Shackle Silvanus.”
The woman, who’d remained in a crouch the entire time, finally stood from behind Silvanus and stepped away. Her chin lifted, she swiped a lock of bedraggled hair away from her face with the hand not holding her dagger. Then her gaze caught mine.
Jade-green eyes as clear as glass struck me straight to the heart with a piercing sting.
“Firebird,” I whispered in utter shock, remembering the young girl I’d spoken to in a meadow under the moonlight, long ago. The one Fortuna had singled out as special. But not only Fortuna. My dragon as well.
Suddenly, my dragon recognized her androaredto the surface. Pain lanced through my flesh and seared through my veins, pushing me out with savage force. His fury that she was nearly another victim of Silvanus’s blazed through my blood.
“Son of Dis,”I growled, knowing I couldn’t fight him.
With earth-shattering violence and terrible swiftness, my bones broke and realigned, wings sprouted beneath my skin, fire burnedin my belly. The beast rose out of me so fast my thoughts splintered and…
Treasure.
Slicing into the world, I roar. The gray half man shakes with fear. As he should. He is no dragon. Nor man. He is a vile creature who planned to defile my treasure. He must bleed. He must die.
I open my jaws and snap him in two where he stands, then fling his carcass into the trees. His blood wets my tongue. So sweet. So just.
My female. Her skin is splattered with the blood of the enemy. Pleasure throbs up my throat as I gaze upon her. She stands. A fierce treasure, I have. She wants me to take her away.
Opening my wings, I wrap her in my talons, lift into the sky, and carry her toward my lair. Where she belongs.
II
MALINA
My scream died in my throat as the monstrous red dragon, the general, carried me away. I lost my breath from his claw pressing on my chest and stomach.
He’d snapped my attacker in half with his giant jaws.
The general.
I had stood there in awe, recognizing the centurion of long ago. He’d changed, grown even bigger, his hair short and militant, his golden eyes cold. But it was him.
Then his dragon ripped out of his body, changing into the beastin less than three seconds. A man behind him screamed when he was thrown by his thrashing tail. A red-scaled dragon with black-rimmed eyes and black-edged wings towered above me, his head even with the top of the tree line. But his height and girth didn’t make him slow. He killed that disgusting monster who attacked me with gruesome speed.
Then I found my voice, screaming as he loomed over me with blood dripping from his finger-long teeth, seemingly proud of his kill. He lowered his gargantuan head, his serpentine, gold eyes narrowing. I had no breath to scream once he gripped me around the waist and carried me into the sky.
My stomach fluttered and twisted into a knot as the ground fell farther and farther away, my legs dangling in midair.
Bendis, save me.
I was going to die. He was going to take me high into the air and drop me, letting me fall to my death. I was, after all, the witch who’d kept them at bay three times before.
All for naught. My clan was dead and enslaved anyway. I saw Enid being herded toward the carrying nets. The kind older woman who’d become my savior, who’d convinced her clan to take me in, who’d cared for me as any mother would. Because of my failure, she was going back to Rome and to the slave market, her people dead and scattered. Just like my own.
Bunica was wrong.
