The Dragon's Queen (Dragon Lords) Read Free

’t really care for politics. In fact, they bored him. Wars were tedious and long. He had a palace. What did he want with more land? Then, again, if he was living in the stinking waters of the marshes near the Var-Draig border he might think differently.
    “ I know what you need,” Myrddin said, dropping his voice to a whisper. He reached into his tunic shirt and pulled out a tiny bottle. “I acquired some nef off a couple of marsh farmers.”
    “ You know they’re called that because they make their liquor stock out of marsh water, right?” Attor gave a small shiver of disgust.
    “ But not the nef,” Myrddin said. “And the marsh water is purified during the process. Some of it’s not bad if you need a quick drunk. But I didn’t bring it up to debate alcohol quality. Did you see that Syog beauty I was talking to? A couple of drops of this in her wine, and she’d be game for meeting us in the forest for a chase later. My universal translator is rough when it comes to Syog, but I’m pretty sure she wants light and dark meat.”
    Myrddin reached to muss up Attor’s short blond hair. His friend’s eyes shifted with liquid gold. All Var liked the hunt.
    Attor ’s breathing deepened. Nef was illegal and very hard to get. It tamed the cat within them and created restraint in Var men. However, that wasn’t why the drug was forbidden. Restraint was fine. Natural restraint without the aid of drugs was better. But, give nef to a humanoid female and it had the opposite effect, making them wild with uncontrolled, indiscriminate passion. When taken together, it would make men’s pleasure last longer and women insatiable.
    His nostrils flared as if he could already feel the ground beneath his paws. Syogs were not the brightest species, but they were athletic and strong. Unless they were scarred, which many of them were due to their brawling culture, as a whole they happened to be one of the most symmetrically appealing races in the known universes.
    The woman Myrddin indicated was phenomenal to look at. Her hair was knotted to the top of her head, but would look marvelously long if she unbound it. She wore the short coat and pleated skirt of her people, and by the look of her naked legs, would be able to run hard and fast. Her dark eyes boldly met his in challenge and, as was the Syog way, she would not look away until he did first.
    “ What’s her name?” Attor asked.
    “ Does it matter?” Myrddin countered.
    “ She agrees to take the nef?” Attor swallowed in excitement. A run would do him good, especially if it ended in a hard coupling on the forest floor. “She wants us both?”
    “ It’s settled,” Myrddin said by way of an answer. “I’ll set it up. Meet me by the flaccid tree in the forest.”
     
    * * *
     
    Draig Territory, Var-Draig Borderlands
    “ Mede, I always wanted to ask you. Can you fly?”
    Mede grimaced. Saben was clearly well into his cups even though the Order of the Dead Dragons’ celebration had only just started. Members of the order had gathered to witness her initiation. Well, that was only half true. They really came for the revelry that would ensue while she ran her trial.
    “ Well?” Saben insisted.
    “ No. That’s just an old story,” she said.
    “ But you’re female,” Saben insisted. “If you are captured tonight, I might not get the chance to ask you again.”
    “ I’m a woman?” Mede gasped in fake shock. She pretended to look down at her body. “That would explain why you proposed to me when we were children.”
    “ Ah, come on, now.” Saben leaned forward to whisper, which wasn’t really all that quiet—especially considering they were in an encampment of dragonshifters with incredibly sensitive hearing. “You can tell me the truth. You shift into the dragon of legend, don’t you? You can fly.” He leaned back, pointing a finger from his goblet-laden hand. “I see it on your face. You can fly.”
    Mede had been asked this question almost as much as