Dragon Bride. Natalie Yacobson

were admitted, for some reason needed by the local ruler. The roads were only visible at night or in fog, when everything else is covered by a veil of invisibility. Some daredevils who had studied magic looked for these trails, but Clement’s uncle warned not to venture into them.

      «Would you like a prediction of the future?» The creature on the pole grinned. Dirty and shabby it looked like a shabby owl.

      «Thank you, but I have no money to pay for it,» said Clement diplomatically. Fortune-tellers usually back off after that answer, but this creature, on the other hand, clung harder.

      «I most willingly accept payment in blood.»

      «Is it in human blood?» Clement got a bit agitated.

      «It is not in dragon blood. It makes everything burn like a match. I don’t want to burn. But you’re not a dragon.»

      «No, I’m not.»

      «But your friend’s a dragon.»

      «No, she’s elf.»

      Elves are respected everywhere, but the creature was wary.

      «She seems to have roots in both.»

      «You’re not just lying to attract a client, are you?»

      «It’s nothing. I can give you a prediction for free. It’s not good to charge someone who’s in trouble.»

      «I’m not in trouble,» Clement looked back.

      «You are not in trouble yet, but you will be soon. It is because of the woman. You shouldn’t be getting married anytime soon.»

      «My only living relative doesn’t think so. He can’t wait for me to settle down.»

      «He can’t wait for you to burn! I know this family! They’re all supposedly well-intentioned, but it’s all selfishness. Sometimes family gains are too expensive for one of the family members. But marrying a fire monster is too much!»

      «What are you talking about? Are all the predictions so vague? Or are they just guesses?»

      Clement wanted to tease the crook, but the man wouldn’t listen, eagerly making one prophecy after another.

      «Here’s some advice for the future!» He finally uttered. «There’s one truth that you should not forget: the wife is not guilty if the husband is a monster. But remember that the husband is responsible for the black deeds of his wife. Especially it is if he cannot control her. Don’t marry a beauty who will fly off at night to scorch cities. You will be responsible for what she does if you become her husband. The ashes and blood she turns her victims into will also be on your hands.»

      How ominous that sounds! Clement shuddered. The creature reminded him of a goose, so disgusting it was. Geeks tend to eat dead things, and thus settle near places of execution and mass graves. Hence such grim prophecies can come from. What can a ghoul say other than death and terror? The ugly creature suddenly rolled its eyes. Its whites glowed red.

      «It is danger!» It foretold.

      It took Clement a moment to realize that the time to escape was now, not in the distant future. A party of black knights drove through the city gates. Their leader sniffed the air suspiciously, as if it smelled something. Somewhere the roof was smoking, like from a fire. He probably smelled something burning. Clement thought he’d missed it, but the red eyes from beneath his black helmet stared up at him, unerringly searching for him in the crowd. A finger in the black armor of a gauntlet pointed in his direction. The bandleader didn’t say anything out loud, but the heads of all the guards in the city suddenly turned toward Clement.

      What a mess, it was all because of Raymonda! Where is she, by the way? Wherever she is, there is nothing she can do. She should be protected, not the other way around.

      The black knights began to disperse the people from the fairgrounds in order to reach Clement, who was lost in the thick of the crowd. The motley tents fell under the onslaught of the guards. It was urgent to load the crossbow. The weapon was habitually concealed beneath his clothing. You can’t shoot them all, but you can at least try. Some knight in a helmet with a black cockade was getting close to Clement.

      «Leave him alone!» A girl’s high-pitched voice cut through the noise. Raymonda was walking across the square. Sparks flew from beneath the hem of her dress as though she were treading on burning coals.

      «He’s mine alone! You mustn’t touch him!» She declared as if her words carried weight here.

      The Shai knights were only momentarily deterred by her impertinence. Clement, on the other hand, was so taken aback that several pairs of hands in black armor grabbed him. There was no need to open his mouth to the beauty. But it shocked him too much that the girl had stood up for him. Usually it was the other way around.

      She was either cursing or incanting, and suddenly there was a blaze of flame around her feet. In the next instant, Raymonda was gone. In her place, the orange dragon’s enormous, scaly body surged toward the heavens. Its wings had such an enormous sweep that they blew the roofs off the nearby houses. The claws on its hind legs clawed so hard at Shai’s regiment that they fell like toy soldiers.

      The most incredible thing was that the dragon had picked up its prey as it flew away. And that prey was Clement himself.

      What a way to get out of a fire and into a fire. He felt like a toy in a dragon’s clutch. The city’s spires and turrets were nowhere to be seen. The dragon opened its mouth to let out one last blast of hot flame.

      Even a volcanic eruption would not have made such an impression on Clement. The fire spread like an avalanche over the square and the ramparts. The great city turned into a raging sea of fire. Would the black knights burn in it? Or were they immortal?

      Clement had no time to think about his enemies, for flying in the dragon’s claws proved far more dangerous than their attack.

      Beauty’s claws

      The dragon was taking him farther and farther away from the flaming city. Forests, fields, rivers, even entire villages were glimpsed below. And among the usual settlements Clement discerned several fantastical towns with elaborate turrets and the silhouettes of marble fairies on parapets. From above the sculptures seemed alive and moving. The dragon was now descending in flight, now soaring upward as if making zigzags from pursuit and arrows. But there was no chase, no one fired from the towers.

      Clement was amazed that the clouds were suddenly close by. He could reach out and touch them, but the dragon held him tightly in its claws and would not let him move.

      The mountains loomed up ahead. The dragon would fly over them, but he risked crashing. Was it worth dodging pursuers with swords and spears to be killed by a dragon’s claws?

      At the decisive moment, the dragon managed to fly around the mountain ledges. He began to descend in flight. Beyond the mountains stretched a green valley, and beyond was a mottled heath. The dragon suddenly loosened its claws and tossed its prisoner into a lush thicket of purple flowers.

      Clement was almost unscathed, save for a few scrapes and a few bruises. The flowers smelled wonderful, and the guards of the Shai were gone, but there was a danger of burning to death. For a dragon had landed nearby and suddenly begun to shrink in size. It felt as if it had been bewitched and forced to change to insignificant size. His uncle was probably wandering around somewhere. Only he could have cast such a spell. He could do nothing to make a mouse the size of a fighting elephant, or make a weed grow into a century-old tree in a few minutes. Clement looked around, but his uncle was nowhere to be found.

      The dragon was gone, too. In his place, Raymonda was standing in the middle of the thicket of heather, carelessly shaking off the flowers that had stuck to her dress. It was an idyllic picture! It was except for one «but.» Why were there so many scales on Raymonda’s fingers that hadn’t been there before? And why she has orange claws instead of nails? They look like miniature dragon claws! Clement