Merlin's Kiss Read online

  "Did I not answer you, youthling?"

  Kerian now examined his sword's special blade. Serrated for a foot near the hilt, it was double-edged and heavy. The sword was more frightening than the man who deftly returned it to its special sheath.

  Kerian knew that the curious drack would soon mature into a full-blown drackoon, capable of breathing ice and eating a whole herd of chum. He also knew that all of the drackoons in the area knew him—the one human who was capable of picking up and understanding the almost silent language of the drackoons.

  You are Kerian! it gasped, fear making its eyes widen. Everyone knew of this mighty warrior and…

  "I am, youthling. You voided my agreement with Gren when you violated the treaty. This act will not go unpunished." Turning his back to the suddenly mute drack, he ran both hands along the rock wall to feel for crevices and handholds. At his action, the whole of the mountain began to tremble and shake.

  I meant no offense! the drack cried out as it skittered back in fright.

  Kerian too jumped back from the wall as it made an unusual rumbling sound and began to drop pieces of stone upon him. He frantically searched for the cause.

  With a flash of blinding light, the wall seemed to splinter into pieces as a booming voice cried out, "At last!"

  The stone in front of him exploded into a thousand more pieces, spewing out dust and gravel, and a body tumbled from the cold embrace of the wall. Automatically, Kerian reached out and caught the body before it tumbled to the hard, rock-strewn ground.

  Amazed, he stared into the still face of a woman, and not just any woman. This woman was beautiful beyond compare and completely naked! Her dark hair was the only thing that protected her modesty and hid certain parts of her body from his sight. Around her long, delicate looking neck lay a curious band of gold and jewels. He noted that the jewels sparkled as if recently polished. Amazingly, her body was warm and clean smelling after being imprisoned inside her stone coffin, but this woman wasn't dead. The gentle rise and fall of her barely covered breasts gave mute testimony that she was still alive, if not conscious.

  Being the logical creature that it was, the drack decided it would be in its best interest to leave the scene before something else happened. But before it could take to the air, a commanding voice stopped him.

  "And where do you think you are going, youthling?" Kerian demanded. He did not know what to make of strange women popping out of stone, but he decided the best thing for him was to get her to some type of safety and fast, then he would have his answers. The quickest way was, unfortunately, on the back of that purple pile of untanned leather that had tricked him into falling into this pit in the first place.

  I was…uh…returning to my coven to…uh…warn them that the new herd of chum in the valley…belongs to you?

  Kerian adjusted his hold on the naked female and slowly shook his head.

  I'm not? the drack silently questioned.

  "You're not," he confirmed.

  Then I guess I am…uh…getting you out of the…uh…mantrap?

  "You are."

  How do I get myself into these fixes? With a resigned sigh, the drack spread its pastel colored wings and slowly descended into the pit where the two humans were…temporarily delayed.

  "By what name are you called, youthling?" Kerian asked.

  Zorn, replied the drack as it carefully settled beside the famed warrior. Why do you ask?

  "I like to get the names of all my next meals," Kerian growled as he glared at the rather tall beast.

  The drack seemed to pale under its leathery purple hide.

  Kerian shook his head at the young beast then again turned his attention to the woman. It was getting cold as the evening winds began to blow, and in her unclothed state, the woman would suffer from exposure to the elements. There was no hope for it. He placed her carefully on the ground and began to strip off his war vest. It would not offer much protection, but it was better than nothing.

  As he pulled the vest from his back, the drack let out a gasp when his bare skin was exposed. Kerian stiffened at the sound, but then shook off the feelings of shame that accompanied the scars. He peered over his shoulder at Zorn and raised one platinum eyebrow.

  "Something disturbs you, youthling?"

  No, nothing, the drack quickly assured. Your back by surprise took me. Then it stopped as it thought about what it had said. Oh dear.

  Kerian said nothing, but turned back to the woman and began to dress her in the meager vest.

  Glad, I will be, my services to offer up to you, Great Kerian, Warlord of Mirage.

  "Will you be silent?" His low tone evoked instant quiet as he guided the woman's limp hands into the armholes of the vest and tried not to notice how very soft her skin was. His main priority was to get her back to the castle and find out who she was and where she had come from, not to pay attention to those rosebud lips, the same delicate shade as her pink nipples. Or to ogle the soft thatch of hair that shielded her womanhood. So soft, he thought, like the softest of silks. His fingers itched with the urge to touch it, to run his fingers through it. To discover what womanly secrets she hid behind that soft bush.

  To offend, I did not mean. Instantly contrite, the drack inched forward to get a better view of the woman.

  She was like no other woman he had ever seen. The color of her hair alone, dark as the midnight sky, marked her as an outsider, foreign to these shores.

  Who is she? it tentatively questioned.

  "I know not," Kerian replied as he lifted her limp body into his arms. "But I know that we must get her to the shelter of Mirage before she becomes chilled."

  Taking the subtle hint, Zorn positioned himself in front of the warrior so that he could place the body of the woman across its back, no easy task because the drack stood almost as tall as Kerian.

  Once she was positioned to his liking, Kerian climbed onto the back of the drack, carefully avoiding any placement of his legs that would impede its wing movements, and motioned it to rise.

  The flapping of its delicate looking wings caused the dust to rise and pebbles to fall in the small pit as they began to rise out of the hole that had trapped the man.

  As soon as they cleared the gaping maw of the pit, the drack carefully flapped its wings until they cleared the small tunnel that led to the mantrap. Free of the confining womb of stone, the drack gracefully climbed higher in the sky, before folding its wings close to its body and diving down the mountain path.

  The feel of the wind whipping across his face brought back the freedom Kerian had experienced as a child, before the days of Shala. His hair flew wildly behind him as he raised his face to the cool kiss of the night winds. It had been years since he had experienced the exhilaration of a night flight. And despite the troublesome youthling that carried him, Kerian found that he was beginning to enjoy the ride.

  The cool night wind was having an altogether different effect on the other passenger that rode draped over the back of the drack. Brieana's eyes began to flutter as she felt an unaccustomed coldness wrap around her body. Her small awakening groan was lost to the wind, so it came as a complete shock to Kerian when her eyes popped open and a yell of a never before heard magnitude pierced the night sky. Brieana had opened her eyes to find herself face down on some kind of beast and a mountain range passing, flying beneath her very eyes.

  "Eiiikkkk!" she yelled as she tried to jerk to an upright position. She let out another scream as her upward movement was impeded by…hands? She almost missed the muffled curse as she tried to turn and fight against the restraining hands that held her on such an unnatural and unusual ride.

  "Woman, be still!" a low voice commanded. The quiet intensity of the words caused her to still all movements as her brain struggled to assimilate what was happening to her. Eyes still drawn to the passing landscape, she let out a low whimper of fear, all the while hating herself for her cowardice. What had happened to her? Where was she? Her whole body shaking, she sucked in a deep breath as str
ong hands gently turned and lifted her so that she sat across a very hard set of masculine thighs. A battle-scarred finger lifted her trembling chin and she beheld the face of her captor.

  Kerian had been surprised by the woman's reaction but quickly saw the danger of having her struggle on the back of the flying drack whose complaints now filled his head. He quickly understood the source of her panicked outcry. Few people ever have the privilege to take to wing with a drack. He brought her upright and across his lap so that the land passing at a dizzying pace would not frighten her. It was utter fascination that made him tilt her face upwards so that he might view a woman who seemed to be birthed right out of a mountain.

  "Your eyes are amber!" was the first thing that rasped from her parched throat. Her voice was all but unrecognizable after her long sleep, and that bothered her. How long had she been under Merlin's spell? Bits and pieces of memory came to her.

  "Yes. A common color for a common soldier."

  Yet there was nothing common about the man who held her within his steely grasp. His forehead was high and wide, set off by a peak of soft silver/white hair. That same hair cascaded behind him, the wind whipping it into a frenzy of motion, and exposed his high cheekbones, strong jaw and a stubborn chin with a deep dimple in the center. This man was better looking than Arthur, that rat, but he was a stranger to her.

  "I have never seen eyes of that color!" Kerian softly exclaimed as he took in the woman he held. Her eyes were the green of the Forbidden Forests that surrounded and protected Mirage from invaders. They were beautiful eyes, surrounded by long black lashes and slanted just so to give her the look of a claw beast, the feline creatures that inhabited those very forests. Her face was heart-shaped, with a pointed stubborn chin, yet there was an air of strength that seemed to surround her. But who exactly was she?

  Faring how is the Lady? Zorn's voice intruded upon his thoughts. Has she recovered from her fright? There was a hint of amusement in its voice and it chuckled at the female's predictable reaction.

  "She is fine, youthling. Best you concentrate on how you will escape my skinning knife instead of the reactions of a scared woman."

  "I'm not scared!" her gravely voice replied. "Just a little startled. And who are you talking to?"

  "The drack," he answered, long used to people giving him funny looks because of his strange abilities.

  The drack in question tilted in a small acknowledgment causing Brieana to throw her arms around the man's neck while muffling a small shriek of fear.

  "Do you mean to do me harm?" she asked, deciding that a direct approach would get her answers from this man. He did not seem the type to mince words. "And who are you?"

  "I am Kerian, Lord of Castle Mirage and you are on my lands, therefore under my protection unless you prove to be injurious to mine."

  Again he spoke without rancor and with brutal honesty. He readjusted her hold upon his neck and she became aware of her dress, or rather, lack of dress.

  Just as calm as this Kerian, she asked, "So then, what happened to my clothing?" Getting hysterical at this point would only prove too wearing. She was already practically naked and flying in the night on some purple-winged beast—at least it looked purple in the waning light. What more could happen to her?

  "This I know not. Maybe you can explain why you were expelled from the belly of a mountain after you tell me your name?"

  "It is Brieana. Brieana of Belfore."

  Whatever else she was going to say was lost in a deep gasp as she first caught view of the castle they were approaching.

  All lit up from huge cauldrons of burning pitch, the place looked massive. Its outer wall seemed to stretch for miles around and it was back-dropped by dark mysterious- looking woods. It had to possess at least five large towers and was surrounded by a smoking moat. This place was nothing like she had ever seen before.

  "I don't think that I'm in the Britons any longer," she managed after taking in the fast-approaching castle.

  "I have never heard of such a place. We are on my lands and that is my home, Mirage."

  "Mirage? This is beginning to feel like a nightmare," she choked out before a great blackness surrounded her and she tumbled into oblivion.

  Chapter Two

  Brieana woke to the feel of the softest of silks caressing her back, and something hovering around her. She cracked one eye open only to jump straight up in the bed she was lying on and scramble to what passed as a headboard around this strange place.

  A purple dragon was staring straight at her, quaking in what had to be anticipation of an easy meal. Before she could open her mouth to scream, a voice invaded the quiet of the dimly lit room.

  "I can hear you, youthling. And hiding behind the skirts of this Brieana will not save you. Now come and let me start on my new leggings."

  It was Kerian! And he was about to walk in on this vicious creature just waiting to attack!

  Pure instinct took over. Just as the door opened, she grasped the end of the silken blanket that covered her and with a rolling dive, aimed her body right at the purple menace. The fleeting thought, Why do I have to always protect the men around here? flashed through her mind before she effectively knocked the purple monster off all four of its feet.

  "Dragon!" she roared, as Kerian stood in the room in open-mouthed astonishment.

  Never before had he seen a woman perform such a feat! Even as he watched, she tossed the coverlet over the confused drack's head and ran for the door, long hair flowing behind her.

  "Quickly," she cried as she skidded to a halt before him. "Before it uses its breath of fire to char us both to cinders."

  Such was her excitement that she never even noticed that she was slaying a savage beast and saving their lives wearing little more than her skin. But at his refusal to move, and his close examination of her softly swaying breasts, realization came crashing down upon her.

  "Oh!" Suddenly the raging monster thrashing around on the floor, tangled in the blanket was forgotten as she hunched over and tried to use her hands and a few hanks of strategically placed hair to shield her nakedness.

  "There is no need to run from the drack. Zorn is a young one and has not yet attained the age where he can spew forth elements from his mouth." Kerian tried to be polite and turn away from her nakedness but found himself transfixed by the sway and movement of her naked body.

  "Besides, dracks spit ice, and this one will not attain the age necessary to perform such a task for some time. He has more important things to do, anyway. Like becoming my new leggings."

  Oh, please, My Lord Kerian! Zorn wailed at hearing his words. It was bad enough that this…foreign woman had entangled him in such a simple trap, but for Kerian to finally make good on his threats was too much for the young drack to bear. Is there not some way that, the loss of one chum, I may make up to you?

  "You will cease this begging, Zorn. It is unbecoming of one of Gren's kin. And it was more than one, youthling."

  "To whom are you talking?" Brieana nearly screamed. Seeing that the warrior made no move to attack the beast, she could only assume that it presented no danger. But whom was the man speaking with?

  She backed up to the bowl-shaped bed and reached one arm behind her to grope for the remaining sheet. It would serve as a cover until she could find some clothing of her own.

  "Yon drack," he muttered as he watched her yank the sheet from the crumpled bedding and struggle to wrap it around her trembling body without exposing more of it to his view.

  Her limbs were long and finely muscled and gave explanation for her ease of movement when she attacked the drack. Even hunched over as she was now, he could see that she was not as tall as the women that occupied his keep, but was of a pleasing height. Odd, but she awakened protective feelings in him that he had never thought to feel again.

  "But I hear nothing!" She turned to look at the hapless creature as it finally untangled itself from the blanket. It was roughly the size of a large horse, with its wings tucked closely to its
body, but moved with an almost liquid grace. It mournfully stuck its head out of the blanket and an almost pleading expression crossed its face.

  "Why, the poor thing is terrified! What is wrong with it?"

  She lost a little of her fear at the beast in such a vulnerable position. He looked as though he needed her help. Again Kerian's low velvet voice flowed over her, causing her nipples to tighten in reaction and her to wrap both arms around herself to hide the telling reaction. She frowned at the strange occurrence because only once before had that happened—when Merlin had kissed her. That bit of memory was clear. She would contemplate it later, she thought. Better to pay attention to what the man was saying.

  "He fears rightful retribution for crimes that he has committed."

  The drack whimpered and again attempted to bury its face in the blanket, as if it would hide from the quiet wrath of the man. Kerian took a few steps into the room, smiling at the picture that the woman, Brieana, made swathed in the sheet and trying to appear unconcerned about her present predicament.

  "What are you going to do to it?" Always champion of the underdog—look at Arthur—she was ready to defend this unknown creature. Besides, now that her initial fright was over with, she thought it looked kind of cute, in a fierce, livestock-eating kind of way.

  "Since I cannot recover what was stolen," he glared at the drack until it whimpered softy, "I will use its hide to keep me warm this cold season, in place of the eaten chum's wool that I would have used. It is a fair trade, is it not?"

  Sensing an ally in the foreign woman, Zorn scuttled over to her, dropped low to the ground and rested his massive head against her thighs, forcing her to collapse onto the bed and almost lose her sheet to gravity. He looked up at her with pleading eyes that seemed to scream, Help me! From this madman, save me.

  Before she could reply, the door opened again and in walked the most beautiful woman Brieana had ever seen. Her eyes were a light brown and so at odds with her nearly white curly hair flowing down her back, that her appearance proved to be most shocking. Her bronze skin glowed in the candlelit room and her steps were sure and confident as she approached the bed and the woman who lay sprawled across it.