Dante nodded toward the window. “It is morning, can’t you tell?”
I tilted my head, confused. “Are… are the dancing lights the sun here?”
He laughed and shook his head. “No, that’s called the aurora. You see them more often now that it’s the dark season here in Volsog.”
“So when does the sun come out?”
“In about three months.”
I stared up at the dancing lights. Beautiful as they were, they didn’t cast much light on the land below. Anything below the tips of the mountains was still rather dim and hard to make out. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “The dark season is one of the many reasons I’m inclined to leave this place. Shall we start packing? I’d hate to keep you away from your dazzling horses with horns.” The sarcasm in his voice was so thick you could slice it with a knife.
I chose to ignore it, instead letting him lead me out of the music room. Turns out when Dante said packing, what he actually meant was having his weasel brigade stuff a few necessities like the map, rations and extra clothes into a travel pack. I stuffedThe Big Book of BeastsandMagicinto the pack as well.
My old clothes were returned to me, freshly pressed. The rips and tears of the years had been mended. Even the worn-out soles of my boots had been patched up as best they could. They still ran a little tight around the heel, but I was used to it. I gave my thanks to the weasels and followed Dante further into the lower floors of the castle. “What are those things, anyway?”
Dante glanced back at the retreating weasels. “Kobolds.” He continued when the confusion was plain on my face. “They’re shape-shifting sprites. To put it simply, there’s nothing they love more than gold and riches. Dragons tend to have a lot of gold and riches. So they often work for us in exchange for access to our hoards.”
“You have a hoard?” I asked. That made me feel a bit better. At least the little guys were getting paid.
He stopped at a room at the end of the stairs and swung open the wide double doors. My jaw fell open. All the books I’ve read about brave adventurers risking life and limb to steal from a dragon’s hoard suddenly made sense. Piles of gold stretched as far as the eye could see. Treasure chests lined with jewels, pearls, and other shiny things were scattered about the room. I tucked my hands in front of me to avoid instinctively reaching out and snatching something he might not want me to touch.
“Does that answer your question?” he replied with a smirk. I turned back to see that he was watching my face intently, judging my reaction. Apparently, he liked what he saw. If the satisfied grin on his face was any sign.
Embarrassed, I crossed my arms and looked away from him. “I mean, it’s nice.”
It’s fucking amazing. I wanna bathe in gold.
Dante chuckled, then pulled out two small drawstring pouches and handed one to me. He made his way further into the room and picked up a handful of gold coins and put them in the pouch. “Humans still barter with gold, right? I’ll take a few silver, just in case, but I don’t know what the exchange rate is these days. It’ll take us a few days to reach Songwood if I fly. So we’ll need to stop for a rest in a few towns along the way.”
“Um… yeah,” I said dumbly. Even if the economy had gone down the drain during the time I’d been gone, I was pretty sure the small handful he just picked up was enough to buy whatever small town we stopped in. That being said, if his goal was to simply stop at an inn for a few nights, it was unlikely that they were going to have enough money on hand to change for even a single gold coin.
I looked at the pouch in my hands. Wondering if he expected me to fill that too. I mean I would, no need to ask me twice, but talk about overkill. If I decided to escape him after all, I’d leave a very rich woman. I reached out to grab a few coins, then glanced back at Dante to make sure the dragon wasn’t about to set me on fire for touching his hoard. When he nodded that I should continue, I gingerly took a few gold and silver pieces and placed them in the bag. “So do you have any copper? That’s usually what we used back at home.”
His lips curled in distaste. “No, I’ve never been fond of the color.”
I paused from my pilfering and raised an eyebrow at him. “You… don’t like the color of copper?”
“No, it’s terribly bland.”
My eyes narrowed. There was no way things could be so expensive that he had to use silver or gold for everything. “How do you buy food and stuff? There’s no way Volsog is that expensive.”
He shrugged. “I don’t. The kobolds have always handled that. Well, I’ve been traveling with a pirate crew for the past year, and they had a team of kitchen orcs that did most of the shopping.” Dante bent down to grab a handful of diamonds and stuffed them into the bag. When he couldn’t fill it anymore, he tied it up and held it out to me. “Do you think this is enough?”
It was enough to bitch slap the king of Kinnamo.
“You know, lemme grab a few more. Just in case,” I said, quickly stuffing a few rubies and more coins into my little pouch. If he wanted to blow his money on a road trip, who was I to say no? He said he’d buy me new things after all. “Are you sure it’s OK for me to take this much?”
He rolled his eyes and gestured to the room. “Take whatever you want, you’re my wife. My hoard is yours.”
Be still, my greedy little heart.
I looked around the room full of treasure, wide-eyed. An excited squeal escaped my throat as I stuffed an emerald in my skirt pocket, then raced over to a treasure chest sticking out of one of the piles of gold. A pair of glittering ruby earrings caught my eye. The style matched the tiara Dante had given me, and I immediately snatched them up, then made my way over to a mirror to inspect them.
With the tiara sitting proud on my head, and the matching earrings glittering right along, I felt just like a princess. Fitting, since I had been trapped in a dragon-guarded tower for so long. Though I couldn’t say I’d ever read a story where the knight in shining armor was another dragon.
Speaking of…
