The Dragon's Dream (Book 0.5 in the Amber Aerie Series)- A novella

Chapter 2

Some cursed fool was chopping a tree right next to her head. Actually, if she didn't know better she would have thought he was chopping inside her head. Each whack echoed around her skull, slicing with a sharp blow and then leaving a dull ache in its place.

She squished her eyes closed tighter. They hurt, too; almost like something heavy had been sitting on top of them for too long.

Dizziness and then nausea joined her symptoms.

"I'm dying," she muttered. The words stumbled over her tongue, which felt swollen and clumsy.

"She's coming to," the genius doing the chopping announced.

"Thank the dark goddess. You'd better hope she lives."

"It's not my fault she couldn't handle the Thifram," ax man spoke again. She recognized that rasp from somewhere.

"It is your fault you drugged her like a Shifter. Human females are fragile, practically useless."

Leaves rustled and something cracked...a branch? Was she in the orchard behind the house? The sound shot a new layer of pain into the space behind her eyeballs. Thifram huh?

"Either shut your muzzles or give me more of that stuff and let me die in peace."

A long breath of silence met her demand.

"You sure we didn't grab the maid? This one is too lippy to be a lady," Raspy asked.

"It's her. They've already called council to discuss action. A few more days and we'll be back in our beds."

What she wouldn't give for them to stop talking. Her stomach had stopped flip-flopping, but she lay still, praying to the Six it wouldn't start again. While she lay, she assessed her situation.

She was outside, she could feel the breeze against her bare arms.

The realization sent a jangle of alarm along her skin. How much of her was bare? She couldn't tell, a horrible and vulnerable thought.

She could hear the rain, pattering against the ground and against something louder, too, proving she was no longer in the mansion. Yet she was dry, as far as she could tell, and warm...mostly. Her backside was freezing, but since her important bits were mostly attached to her front, she didn't pay her rear too much mind.

The popping and cracking fell into place and she recognized the sounds of a fire, which explained her dual temperature problem. Even from behind her eyelids, she could tell the world was bright, too bright to be anything but midday. She had lost hours to whatever they had done to her. Plenty of time for her captors to do nefarious things. She didn't feel used, yet a dark memory of fear encouraged her to be sure. At any rate, anyone who would steal a lady from her home could not be trusted to keep their hands...or other parts to themselves.

She held back the lurch of bile that threatened and cracked an eye open slightly.

Hot white light seared what was left of her vision, pain burst through her temple, and she immediately squeezed her eyes closed again, groaning.

"What are we supposed to be doing with her?"

Gods his voice was torture.

"We wait for instructions, we get paid when he comes for her."

"What then? What happens to her?"

"Why do you care, so long as he pays? He'll kill her, most likely."

That stilled her complaints. Even the pain and the feeling that the world was twisting around her faded into the background. Certain death did that.