Dragon’s Quest

“Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons…”

The elf Remo and the spy Quenton are former lovers on opposing missions. Remo must protect the new prince, and Quenton is there to assassinate any human who bonds with the Dragon’s Stone as Prince Jack has done. In politics all is deception, and when ugly truths are revealed, who will end up quick-fried to a crackly crunch?

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Dragon’s Quest
Lena Austin
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2007 Lena Austin
An Authorized Excerpt

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The morning sun, barely risen above the mountaintops outside their school, awakened the Elf Remo after a night of bedsport with the human and the dragon.

Humans. What a delightful race they were, but dragons were definitely better. Remo’s ass felt delightfully sore from the attentions of the dragon, Aneurin. He assumed the snores assaulting his pointed ears came from that same dragon, though they could have easily come from the human prince, Jack. The bonded pair of wizard prince and his dragon had been most kind to accept an Elf into their bed, but it was time for Remo to rise as his bladder demanded.

Remo rolled off the bed and stopped short with a smothered groan when he realized his hair was caught beneath the shoulder of Aneurin’s slumbering human form. Remo bit his lip and eased it out from beneath the dragon, praying he would awaken neither of his temporary bed partners. His bladder pained him insistently, and though the idea of using the human privy sickened him, Remo stepped into the alcove and pretended he was watering a tree. Elves just didn’t belong in huge, damp, musty castles.

Much relieved, Remo dressed and fished the book on humans from his pack to study more of this race he was to envoy to. What he read did not match in the slightest his observations. Where were the greed and discourtesy, the brutishness? Last night had been a delight, full of the courtesies and pleasures one normally only found among Elf-kin. Had Remo missed something in his studies of non-Elven races?

Prince Jack awakened and sat up, groaning at the sunlight streaming in from his window seat. He slid carefully from the bed, his stiff cock pointed at the ceiling, plainly betraying the same need that had awakened Remo. He looked about in confusion, clearly unaware of the privy.

Remo pointed to the alcove and grinned when Jack fled. There would be no further study in his book today, so the Elf laid a tooled leather ribbon to mark his place and waited with curiosity. His studies of non-Elven races had been his downfall, but Remo could not help being fascinated by the clever, lumbering humans.

The human wizard currently under his observation returned from the alcove with a grateful but slightly embarrassed look upon his mobile face. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so, the air shimmered.

The servant who tended their room manifested into view as a simulacrum. The vague form wavered and bowed. “Good morning, my lords. Early morning classes have been cancelled. You and your fellow students are free to socialize. The headmistress has been called to the capital, and will give her welcoming speech at tonight’s meal in the dining hall. You will find your afternoon classes listed upon the column at the end of the corridor.”

“Thanks, Casper.” Prince Jack seemed at ease with the ghostly image, more than many humans might be according to the book, causing Remo additional puzzlement. “Where are the bathrooms, pal? I need a shower.”

Casper turned to mist and then solidified. “You make me laugh, Master Jack. The bathhouse resides just before the stables and after the kitchen.” He faded from view.

“So that’s what it looks like when a simulacrum laughs, huh? Pretty cool.” Jack wandered to the bed and slapped Aneurin’s ass. “Come on, scaly butt. Let’s get clean.”

Remo jerked, fully expecting to see the royal heir singed at minimum. He would never have dared awaken his love in such a fashion. Embarrassed, Remo turned to braid his hair to keep it neat.

Aneurin flipped over and upright, with his black hair falling over one sleepy eye. He rubbed his buttocks. “You take unfair advantage of me, Jack. What has made you so cheerful, considering I smell none of that vile coffee you and my mother enjoy so much?”

Jack paused in the middle of pulling on his odd blue trews. “Hmm. I don’t know. I feel great, like I downed a whole pot of espresso, with a hearty breakfast on the side. That’s odd. I should be starving. We skipped dinner last night in lieu of our horizontal tango.”

The Elf snorted. “Foolish wizard. Your body is full of magic, not food. You have glowed with power since you chose the rock at the Trial.” Remo stopped to find his thong to tie the end of his braid. “You must eat, and soon, or you will grow as thin as your dragon and die.”

Aneurin sucked in his breath and hastened to rise and dress.

Jack blinked in astonishment and knelt on the ground to rummage beneath the chair for one of his odd white boots. “Hmph. I didn’t know I could die from wizardry. That’s odd. In the dark under this chair, I do glow. Weird. Why aren’t you glowing, Remo?”

Remo politely handed Aneurin his jerkin from the floor. The Elf dared not reveal all, but the prince’s innocent honesty compelled Remo to answer as truthfully as possible. “I chose an object of lesser power, a small dagger. Your stone radiated much more, like the sun. I’m surprised the others missed it.” Remo strangled on his next words, fearful to say the name. “Especially Quenton.”

Aneurin snorted and pulled on his boot. “He smelled of garlic, as if he’d bathed in it.”

Remo bit his lip. As much as he wished to defend Quenton, the Elf knew he must not. Quenton had been foolish to try to send Remo home, and then revealed Remo’s nature as if it were a crime. The Elf sighed and hid his private pain. Quenton could not know Remo was an exile and could never go home again. The Elf also knew why he’d bathed in garlic, but it was not his place to say why.

Remo changed the subject. “I saw your dragon form, Jack. After the Trial, I needed to spend but one last bit of time in the open air before shutting myself in this — forgive me — dark place. I lingered in a tree, and saw Aneurin in the sky with a black dragon. I knew it had to be you, transformed. Congratulations.”

Jack’s jaw fell open and he held the white boot poised over his foot. “Uh, well, I’m not sure… well, I think I did it by accident.”

Aneurin nodded his agreement.

Remo was so disappointed his ears drooped. “What a shame. I was hoping you’d impart a little wisdom so I might learn to transform more easily. I’d prefer a winged form myself, but I will be content with what I can manage, even if it is little more than a sparrow.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “By the way, nice subject change. Why do I get the impression both of you want to make me into a mushroom, keep me in the dark, and feed me nothing but bullshit?”

Aneurin jumped up and announced, “I’m starved. Let’s eat before you start grilling us.”

Thoroughly confused, Remo’s glance darted between the human and the dragon. “Mushrooms? Grilling?”

Jack opened the door and waited for them to leave. He bent and muttered in Remo’s ear. “I know you and Aneurin are hiding information from me. I want you to tell me the truth.”

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