Free Damsel Knight by Sam Austin Page B

she was with them. "My lady - I mean, my princess. Do you know a way we can get to your father's city?"
    "I'm afraid I wasn't told what happens after my true love rescues me," princess Alice says, her wide eyes darting between the shore that led out to sea, and the giant trees that form a wall to their left. Blushing again, she seems to remember her courtesies and returns her full attention to Neven. "My father just said it would be the end of my waiting."
    "Seems like this is the start of it," Bonnie says, sighing. She lowers herself to the ground, laying her sword across her lap. The day had taken its toll, and her limbs ache for rest. "The castle is gone. We can't go back."
    "No. But maybe we can go forward." Neven looks up at the dragon with a glint in his eyes she doesn't like. It's the same expression he wears just before coming up with some insane idea that usually ends with something exploding or catching on fire. "The city is over the forest right?"
    "Sure," Bonnie says. "The forest, a few villages including our own, Porthdon, then a few miles along King’s road. But you're forgetting one thing Neven. We don't fly."
    "And we can't go in that forest," princess Alice says, her pretty face pale with horror. "We can't. I've read stories about what lives in there. It teems with dark magic. All my nursemaids said so."
    Neven catches one of her hands in his with more confidence than he'd shown since he'd met her. She stills under his touch, but her green eyes are still wide and fearful. "It's fine. We won't go through the forest. Bon - Boone had the better idea."
    Bonnie narrows her eye. She just knows she won’t like where this is going. “I did?”
    “Yes,” Neven says, his eyes still on the dragon. “We fly.”

Chapter 8
     
    Perched on the dragon’s back, where his head meets his neck, she feels like a flea on a giant. The dragon hadn’t protested their climbing up here, but it had rumbled questioningly at the rope Neven had wrapped around its neck so they could hold on better. An extra hour had been spent using pieces from the bone pile to create the scabbard that straps diagonally across her back from shoulder to hip. The sword sits in it perfectly. For all his faults, Neven’s brain is something to be admired.
    Still, she’s not so sure about this latest idea.
    “Come on dragon, fly!” Neven calls out from behind her, the princess clinging to his back. For all his wariness of the beast, he’s caught in an idea. And she knows from experience that ideas can make him fearless, something that doesn’t always end well.
    The dragon twists his massive neck around to look at them, then exhales a puff of smoke into their faces. They choke, Bonnie leaning forward to try and find fresh air to clear the burning from her throat. The ridge of tough bone and tougher scale runs from base of skull to tip of tail, a darker red than the rest of him. It provides them with a seat of sorts, and the thicker scales covering the ridge hold none of the smoothness on other parts of his body. The roughness under her fingers gives her something to grip.
    “Maybe a different command?” Bonnie says between coughs. She turns around to catch the princess’s eyes. The girl’s commands had worked well enough before.
    The princess ducks her head behind Neven’s shoulder, but eventually she speaks. “Please Sir Dragon, we have need of your wings. Will you please fly us over the forest and to my father’s palace?”
    The dragon lowers his giant head, making that grumbling noise again. He exhales a stream of dark smoke over the ground.
    “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Neven says grudgingly. “This is never going to woooooooorkkkkkkkkk.”
    The dragon launches himself into the air like a stone flung from a catapult. Bonnie grips the rope and flattens herself onto the dragon’s body in order to stay on. Her stomach seems to fling itself right down to her toes, searching for the ground. She glances down and wishes she hadn’t. The