Chapter 3 Our Separate Ways

Caspian’s POV

"Two silver coins! It's a steal!"

I left the Trinker the task of buying a roof over our heads, a poor decision on my part because she wiggled back with a full bag of gold and silver coins.

"I got a place," she said, the amusement falling flat on her face when she saw me.

Her open disdain nearly failed to hit me like a whip. I can't remember the last time someone other than the King looked at me eyeball to eyeball.

She trembled and yet didn't hide her scorn. What a strange woman.

And she proved she was stranger than I thought because she led me to the fringes of the town to a cottage that was all about falling apart.

A steal, she said!

Heat flared in my belly as each inch of the decrepit place was begging for my flames to end its misery.

"I can't dwell in this place," I say to the Trinker, but she's already moving, iron key in hand.

"Then you can sleep under the stars, I'd prefer that," she muttered, then inserted the key.

"I gave you my pouch so you'd find somewhere . . .. Presentable at least,"

"We're going to be here for a year," she says, struggling with the door. "In that time we'll need the coin in case we run into any emergencies. Also, the dragon wouldn't spend too much money pulling attention . . .ugh . . . Why won't this open?"

I grunt, storm up to the door and hold her to the side with one arm and my other fingers on the keyhole after ripping out the key and melting the keyhole through.

The door swung open, and I nearly gagged. She was human, so her senses weren't as sharp as mine, but the build-up of dust and neglect was nauseating.

She steps in first and sighs, "We'll have to fix that later,"

"We?" I cock up an eyebrow, "Won't we hire someone to do it?"

She spins around so fast I'm surprised she doesn't snap her neck in the process.

"Dragon, what are you ...have you forgotten what my job is? I'm a trinker, I fix things."

I nod, and take one step, dodging handing cobwebs.

"Fine, but we'll need servants."

Her eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets, and she shakes her head, moving around and opening windows before she calls out; "No servants," I follow after her, on the floorboard crying while carrying something other than dust.

"No servants?!" I yelled aghast," . . . Then how are we going to get anything done around here?"

"Simple," she holds out a broom to me, "We will,"

I stare at the broom like it might transform into a viper at any given moment.

"This has to be a joke. Do you not understand that I'm the Grand Duke? This is the closest I've been to one of these things?"

"My deepest apologies, Grand Duke,"she said, without sounding remotely apologetic. "I'm sure our neighbors will have plenty of good things to say when they see me, not only fixing the house but doing all the chores. I suppose we have nothing to worry about, our sizzling chemistry will dissipate any doubt they might have about us."

The coiling burn in my chest eases.

I'm not here on a simple outing to the countryside, I'm here on a mission bigger than myself.

And if I insisted on servants, it would eventually draw attention to us.

I was trapped.

Between this broom and leaving the future to ruin.

"Ugh, fine," I grabbed the broom, "how hard can this be?"

I was wrong.

"No, no . . .you're just throwing dust in the air!"

"That's not how you hold it you're going to break it!"

"That's better . . .not really . . ."

I was this close to unlocking my flames and setting the place ablaze.

This was I, the Grand Duke.

A man second only to the King.

At the flick of my finger, the sky would be covered in roaring flames and dragons willing to lay their lives for me.

And now here I was, entertaining a commoner who hated me and was clearly mocking me as well.

"Why don't you . . ."

Before she could release yet another unhelpful comment, I grabbed the stick and burnt it to nothing with the heat emanating from my palm alone.

She tossed the rag in her hand, dropping it from a chair she had sat on to boost her height.

"Oh woe is you!" She complained with her ever-present spite.

"Did I ask you to come to my workshop and turn my life upside down? I didn't ask to be dragged into any of this, and now you're asking like you're the only one with problems. I'm sorry that your privileged self never had to do anything that you always had servants to wait in your hand and foot! But some of us don't have that and guess what? We survived. Get out of your ivory tower for 1 second. Will you?"

She was all red in the face when she caught her breath, her internal heat spiking, and I swept my palm over my face to calm myself so that we weren't just two angry people yelling at each other.

"Maybe this isn't going to work, you hate my kind too much to understand that I'm on your side,"

"A dragon royal blood on my side? You kid!"

"Why do you think I was being chased by the royal guard?"

Doubt flushed through her face for a millisecond, then it was gone in the next.

"Then tell me... Why are you here? You have a reason for returning to the past, don't you?"

"I can't tell you . . . For your own safety, the less you know, the more likely you'll keep your head trinker."

She sighed long and loudly, "We don't even call each other by our names, why did I think?.." She looked at me,"This isn't going to work," she turned around, hands digging into her hair, "By the gods, this cannot work, you're right . . . I hate you . . . I hate all of you."

The air thickened so much you could thrust a knife through it.

I knew there was no convincing her, nothing I would do to swear her mind.

Decades of dragons drenching the land in blood and ashes couldn't be dismissed with a few words.

I set my pouch of gold and silver in her hand. Before she could argue, I said, "Keep it, you're right. I dragged you into this. This should be enough for the year. We should part ways here."

Her lips quivered, then they set into a rigid line, and she said, "Yes, we should.”