Dragon Mates

The Sea Captain's Daughter Trilogy, Book 3

The pirate Fisk is on the loose with a dangerous artifact and Seth, Livia, Gowan and their dragon friends must get it back. The very future of not just their land, but all people everywhere, is at stake. They’ll dodge pirates, bar fights, and undue interest from unsavory characters to fulfill their mission. And the dragons will risk everything to help.

But at the end of the day, will the blind dragon be able to come to terms with his disability enough to embrace the future—and the love—that is waiting for him? Can he take Seth as his knight partner and Genlitha as his mate, solidifying the union between humans and dragons?

Or will it all fall apart, and evil prevail? Only the dragon knows…

Livia O’Dare laughed as she raced down the beach, playing a game with Flurrthith, the young gryphon. Flurrthith had become a good friend since they’d traveled together from the mainland to Gryphon Isle. He’d been such a brave messenger for his people, who had been under attack. He’d been the only one they could send, who could make it out, running the blockade of ships and pirates armed with deadly diamond-tipped weapons.
Small and agile, Flurrthith had not only made it past the pirate fleet, but he’d flown all the way to Dragonscove to summon help for his people. The leadership of the Dragon Knights, the men who had run the Lair until very recently, had turned him down, but Livia and her friends had answered the call. Since then, she and the two men—the apprentice healer from the Lair named Seth, and a knight named Gowan—and the dragoness, Genlitha, along with another knight-and-dragon pair, young Leo and Xanderanth, but most of all, the blind dragon, Hrardorr, had been on the island, helping out.
Hrardorr was part sea dragon, and despite his disability, he’d been instrumental in taking down the pirate fleet. He’d also befriended a group of pure-blooded sea dragons who had helped considerably, attacking the ships from below. They couldn’t breathe fire like Hrardorr and the other land dragons, but they definitely did their part as the unseen enemy attacking from below.
“Flurrthith! Give it back!” Livia cried out, laughing as she ran after the young gryphon who had teasingly made off with her scarf. It blew in the wind, clasped carefully in his beak as he pranced away from her over the sand.
Flurrthith passed her scarf off to a young sea dragon child, and Livia had to chase the other youngster who was using her little wings to help propel her along. She was almost a baby, but Flurrthith let her play with him. He had a kind heart, did Flurrthith, and the baby sea dragon was utterly adorable. Her name was Zeranelia, Zera for short, and she was the baby sister of Xanderanth’s new mate, Shara.
That Xander was a land dragon and Shara a sea dragon had been quite the talk of the island there for a while, but once Gryffid had given his blessing to the mating, and young Leo, who was Xander’s knight partner, was also granted permission to marry Lizbet, a fey healer soul-bonded to Shara, it all worked out. Shara’s parents had come ashore to bless the union as well, and they’d brought Shara’s little sister, Zera, who had quickly captured everyone’s hearts, two-legged and four-footed alike.
Little Zera stopped and faced Livia, waiting for her. Zera’s kind heart wouldn’t allow her to play keep-away for a long period of time. She turned and presented the scarf back to Livia, who accepted it with due ceremony.
“Here’s your scarf, Livy. It’s okay if you keep it.” Zera’s little voice came to Livia in her mind. She was one of the rare human females who could hear dragons’ silent speech, which came in handy, seeing as how she was friendly with so many dragons.
“You are very sweet to give it back to me, Zera. But what if I want to give it to you? Would you like that?”
In truth, Livia had brought the colorful length of fabric for the toddler. Her tender little feet weren’t quite used to sand and rocks yet, since she hadn’t spent much time ashore in her young life. She’d received an injury to her right foot the day before, and Livia thought it would help to cover the foot with something soft. And being that Zera was female, it should be pretty too, Livia thought.
She’d presented her needs to the fey weaver in the marketplace, and that venerable woman had come up with the perfect length of fabric, which Zera held now. Livia could see the way the young dragon was stroking the cloth with the pads of her fingers—the soft parts on the inside, under her small talons. She liked the cloth, Livia could tell.
“Truly?” Zera’s big eyes blinked. Oh, yes, she definitely liked it.
“Yes. Well and truly. I bought it for you, for your booboo. I thought maybe if we put this over the bandage Lizbet put on for you, it would make it prettier and feel softer against your scales. And when your booboo is healed, you can use it in other ways, like to sleep on or throw over your shoulders if you feel a chill. There are many uses a girl can think of for a length of pretty cloth, and I want this one to be yours. What do you say?” Livia tilted her head in question, smiling softly at the child.
Flurrthith had come over and was watching over Livia’s shoulder.
“How doess your foot feel today, Zera?” Flurrthith asked, his beak interfering with the letter S as it did for most gryphons when they spoke aloud.
“It still hurts,” Zera admitted. “Lizbet looked at it and replaced the bandage just a little while ago. She said it’s healing, but I have to be careful.”
Livia wanted to smile. Zera’s tone made being careful sound akin to being in prison. Livia remembered feeling that way as a child too. Perhaps all children had that in common.
“Why don’t you sit down and I can wrap this around your leg. It will cushion your injury a little more, and in case you forget to be careful, you won’t hurt yourself again, all right?”
Zera plopped down onto her little dragon butt, her tail stretched out behind her in the sand, her little feet sticking up. Livia could see the bandage and the waterproof wrap Lizbet had put over it. Livia intended to reuse the waterproof layer at the very bottom so Zera could still walk on her foot without ruining the fabric, but the wrap would cushion everything a bit more, and the colors and texture would please the patient.
Livia had asked Seth’s advice before buying the fabric, and he’d told her they often did such things in the Lair, especially for the younger patients. Seth had invaluable experience treating dragons, and he was teaching Lizbet as much as he could, but she hadn’t consulted him on this yet, and Livia wanted to do something nice for Zera, anyway.
Livia unwrapped the waterproof layer and brushed it free of sand, setting it aside for use after she added the new soft and colorful wrap. She worked through the wrapping process the way Seth had told her to do it, and was pleased with the results. The two ends of the long swath of fabric tied off in a showy bow, much to Zera’s delight. Livia quickly replaced the waterproof layer, folding it into a sort of walking sole or bootie just on the lower part of Zera’s foot, talking all the while to the youngsters.
Flurrthith was watching everything with his hawk-like eyes. He was a curious child with a keen mind.
“Will that make it heal fasster?” he asked Livia, nodding to the colorful wrapping.
“Not faster, but more comfortably. And it’s pretty too. Isn’t it, Zera?”
Zera looked down at her leg, examining the fabric and the big bow. “Oh, yes. I like it very much. Thank you, Livy! You’re the best human female I know.”
Livia had to laugh. “I’m the only human female you know, sweetheart, but I’m flattered.”
“What about when I go in the water? Will this get ruined?” Zera asked, the thought apparently just having occurred to her.
“No, that’s the best part,” Livia told the dragonet. “The weaver assured me that the colors are fast and will not be ruined by water. Also, the weave is particularly tight, and the fabric itself has been treated to repel water. The weaver believed that it would not become waterlogged and weigh you down. But you’re supposed to keep your foot dry for another day or two, right? Isn’t that was Lizbet told you?”
Zera nodded solemnly. “She said she didn’t want my booboo to get ‘fected.”
“Infected,” Livia corrected the child, nodding kindly. “When something gets infected, it hurts even worse and doesn’t heal for a long time, so you don’t want that. And it’s not so bad up here on land, is it?” Livia caressed the dragonet’s cheek affectionately, rubbing up behind her ears the way Livia had come to learn Zera liked.
“No, it’s nice. I like the sand pit. And I like playing with Flurrthith, and you, Livy.” Some of Zera’s enthusiasm was returning. “And I really like learning to fly.”
Under her parents’ watchful eye, Xanderanth was showing Zera how to catch the wind under her little wings. She’d accomplished short hops over the dunes that made her trumpet in childish delight. She probably wouldn’t fly any real distance for months yet, Seth had told Livia when she’d asked, but these little hops were important on the way to learning. He’d seen it in the Lair, with the few dragon children they’d had there during his lifetime.
The sea dragons, surprisingly, were good fliers once they got the hang of air. Most of them stayed beneath the waves as a general rule, but they knew how to fly in air, if need be. It was a skill they learned as children, but didn’t use very often.
Once they started flying with the gryphons, they proved to be strong and fast, if not very accurate. Xanderanth was as strong, if not stronger than they were, even though their wing muscles had been built up against the resistance of water, which was much greater than air. Still, Xander had dexterity and control over fine movements that they lacked, and he was looked to as a teacher for those sea dragons who wanted to learn better control in the air.
It was quite a juxtaposition since Xander had originally been sent to the Southern Lair to learn flying from those dragons older and more experienced than he was. Still, he had the basics down better than the sea dragons did at this point, so he was as good a teacher as any, for the moment. More experienced teachers could be brought in from the Lair if the sea dragons wanted—or they could go there and seek out lessons from the mainland.
Now that was something Livia realized nobody had expected. That they’d even made contact with the legendarily elusive sea dragons was something surprising in itself. That they’d made friends and forged an alliance of sorts with them through a mating was simply astounding.
Zera had toddled off with Flurrthith beside her to show her big sister her new scarf, and Livia watched the four-footed creatures with a happy smile. Gryphons, land and sea dragons working together and being friends. Who would have ever predicted it would happen, much less that Livia would be present to witness it all?
“Penny for your thoughts.” Seth’s arms came around her waist from behind.
He’d snuck up on her, but she was delighted by the surprise of his presence. She’d thought he’d be holed up with the healers at the keep all day. She’d left them discussing the merits of different herbs hours ago and figured the debate would keep them occupied until she got back from her trip to the beach.
She turned in his embrace to kiss him hello, glad of the freedom to do so, here on the wizard’s island, far from home. If her father had been around, she’d never have been so forward. Even without her father’s disapproving presence, Livia would’ve had to be much more discreet in Dragonscove, since the people there loved to gossip, and somehow, everything she did always seemed to make its way back to her father if she wasn’t careful.