“We’re indoors, you know!”
In his dragon form, Ray could barely navigate between the bookshelves. He spread his wings up to make sure they wouldn’t snag on anything, then lunged forward on legs the size of tree trunks.
The distance between them wasn’t that big to start with, and so Kirion had no time to run or dodge, much less recite an incantation.
“Guh!”
In a blink, Kirion’s torso disappeared inside Ray’s maw, leaving his head and limbs exposed. Then I heard the low crunching of bone. Ooof.
At this point, Ray attempted to back out from between the bookcases...but naturally, since he was so large, he couldn’t help but bump into everything...and before long, he had knocked a series of items and an entire shelf to the floor.
Fortunately I was completely out of harm’s way, but still, I couldn’t help but shriek in surprise. The impact had kicked up a cloud of dust, and I covered my mouth to keep myself from inhaling any of it.
Once the bookcase was out of the way, Ray dashed over to the newly unblocked window—the only one in the room, and a rather large one at that. Then, with Kirion still clutched in his teeth, Ray jumped and smashed himself through the window, curtains and all.
“Ray!”
I staggered my way over the messy floor to the window. I couldn’t risk getting close enough to peer outside, but from what I could see, this room was pretty far off the ground. Perhaps it was located atop one of Vaxwald Castle’s many tall towers.
“Ray!” I screamed again. He’d gone through the window at full speed—surely that had to hurt.
But then I heard a voice in the distance: “Up here! I heard some sort of crash. Let’s move!”
“I’m in here!” I shouted back. “Ray and Kirion... They’ve fallen from the window!”
As the knights stormed into the room, I pointed them in Ray’s direction. One by one, each of them leapt through the shattered window, then morphed into a dragon in midair and flew down to the ground.
“Is he okay...?” I murmured to myself.
But just then, almost as though he had intentionally waited for the last knight to leave the room, Ray flew back up to the window again.
“Ray!” I exclaimed.
He perched on the window frame, then morphed back to his humanoid form and hopped down into the room. “Hi, Mayna.”
“Are you okay?!”
His expression hardened. “I’m fine.” Then he unpinned his cape and slung it around my shoulders instead. “What did he do to you?” he asked, his voice teeming with barely suppressed rage.
He must’ve known something had happened after seeing the tear in my dress...and I got the distinct sense that depending on my answer, he might just fly back out to give Kirion another chomp.
“Nothing. He just ripped my clothes, that’s all. I’m fine, I promise,” I answered quickly. “Where’s Kirion?”
“Do you swear it?”
“What? Yes, I swear it! Now where’s Kirion?”
“My fellow knights have him tied up. Originally I wanted to break every bone in his body and spit out the pieces, but supposedly they need him alive for interrogation purposes, so I left half intact. At one point he tried to run, but I guess the pain made it too difficult to cast his magic.”
“I see...” I was relieved to hear he was safely captured.
“We’re going to put him in one of our special anti-magic prison cells down in the dungeon. As I understand it, we had to bring in a Treeborn expert to test them, since they’re on par with Shadowkin as magic users.”
Whereas Shadowkin were descended from demons, Treeborn were descended from spirits. And like Shadowkin, they hadn’t mated with humans much, and so their mana capacity was on the higher side. But the Treeborn tribe was a respectable one; they preferred to live in harmony with nature, and as such, they rarely saw fit to leave their forests or wage wars.
After a moment, Ray gently pulled me into his arms. “Let’s get you to the infirmary. We should have the doctor look at your wound.”
“We can worry about my wound later. I need to get back to the Princess. After losing so much of her hair, she’s got to be completely devastated... Oh, but maybe it’d be smart to tell you everything I know about Kirion first. He told me he’s working with Kazarth.”
“You can tell me all about it later on. As for Her Highness, Prince Dario is with her at the moment. Right now, your wound takes top priority.”
And so Ray carried me from the room without hearing another word. He had a stern look on his face the entire time, mind you, but perhaps that was proof of how worried he was for my well-being. And I couldn’t exactly protest, being in his arms and all.
On our way to the infirmary, I had nothing better to do, so I decided to ask him a question: “Kirion was saying that Dragonkin can sense where their Bondmate is at any given time. Is that true?”
Ray must’ve been distracted with other things, because he responded without hesitation: “If you’re nearby, it’s pretty easy to tell. But after a certain point, I can only really tell what general direction you’re in. As long as you’re close, though, I can use your scent to track you pretty reliably. Dragonkin naturally have a keen sense of smell, but it seems the scent of one’s Bondmate is especially strong for some reason. Makes it easy to locate your personal possessions, for example.”
“What are you, a dog?” I teased.
He smiled slightly. “I know, right? That said, there’s no scent trail to follow if you’re teleported away by magic.”
Wait... Did Ray use my scent to track the missing hair ornaments...?
“I really am your Bondmate after all, aren’t I?” I asked casually.
At this, Ray stopped short and looked at me in surprise. He quickly recovered, however, and glanced away as he set off once again.
“No... I was just using ‘you’ in the figurative sense,” he muttered. But he was too late—I was already convinced.
Rather than ask him a dozen more questions, however, I decided to focus on the Princess and the big wedding tomorrow. Surely it could wait until afterward.