Chasing Wings - Hanna Dare Page 0,2

her — so he was the only person who knew the source of her good fortune was a gift from a dragon.

Lily’s friend, Philip, had been the dragon’s… Well, when Tris was younger, Lily described them as ‘good friends,’ but then he got older and saw a bit more of the world and realized that they were a lot more than that. The dragon could change into a man named Ejoler, one who had sat in the inn and walked around the village without anyone knowing what he truly was. Tris supposed that as a man, Ejoler had got up to the things with Philip that men did together. Tris had tried it once himself — with a man, not a dragon who looked like a man — and found it all very enjoyable, just as good as the couple times he’d been with girls.

In any case, Philip and Ejoler had rescued young Tris when he’d gotten stuck high up in the mountains overnight and, before they’d left the valley for good, they’d given Lily the gold she’d used to buy the inn and change her life. That’s how Tris knew that dragons weren’t the monsters they’d been made out to be. All the stories were about horrible beasts that tore men limb from limb, swallowed children whole, and burned up homes. Maybe some of the stories were true — he was pretty sure Ejoler had eaten a few of their sheep during his time in the valley — but Tris supposed that dragons were like people, some good and some bad, and that, like with regular folk, you should start with assuming good until proven otherwise. That’s what he hoped to explain if he ever saw Ejoler again or found another dragon to talk to.

Tris came back from his thoughts to realize that his parents had moved past being glad to see him to expressing their disappointment with him once again. It happened faster after every trip.

“How old are you now?” his mother was asking.

“You know how old I am; you were there when I was born.”

“Twenty-four!” she supplied. “Twenty-four and what do you have to show for it? No wife. No family. Leaving your father and me to tend the sheep—”

“There are hired hands to look after the sheep—”

“But there shouldn’t be. It’s supposed to be your responsibility. A responsibility you’re shirking.”

Tris looked at his father, but there was no help there, just a slow puffing of his pipe.

“I’m just trying to see a bit of the world before I settle down,” Tris offered weakly. “What’s wrong with that?”

His mother began explaining in detail exactly what was wrong with it, his father interjecting every so often to say, “There’s nothing out in the world that you can’t find right here in the valley.” Something that even leaving aside dragons Tris knew to be completely untrue.

Finally he stood up, smiling as best he could. “I think I will be going to see Lily now.”

She’d understand.

“I don’t understand.”

Lily had been bustling around the inn while Tris followed, giving her an unvarnished version of his latest trip. She listened but never stopped moving, checking the linens in the rooms upstairs, sampling the new batch of ale with the thimble-sized cup she carried on a long chain with all her keys, and watching the progress of the cooks in the large kitchen. Finally, she bustled Tris into the main dining room and sat him down at his usual table. She ruffled his too-long hair and said that he looked half-starved. Even though he’d had bread and jam at home he happily accepted the bowl of stew and board of bread and sharp cheese that Lily set before him. Tris had always been sturdily built, though not tall, but the last few weeks it had felt like his skin was stretched too tight over his bones as he made his way home, very aware of his dwindling purse.

He happily dug into the food as Lily finally stopped moving and dropped down on a chair opposite him, her plump cheeks flushed pink and her big brown eyes filled with worry as she looked at him.

“So,” she said tucking the white spring flower Tris had brought her into her braided crown of brown hair, “I don’t see why you stayed at that place for so long if it was useless.”

“It wasn’t useless,” Tris insisted around a mouthful of stew. “I learned lots about dragon history and geography and, well, horses.” Lily gave him a look