Adelaide and the Dragon Castle: The Adelaide Series, #1

By Mustang Rabbit

Forced to marry a wife-killing lord, Adelaide knows only one escape. But disguising herself as her brother comes at a price.

 

When the unskilled Adelaide is summoned to court to serve as a page, the weapon's master's fury soon finds her. Wanting her to fail, he sends her on a quest to slay the dragon that's taunted the court for far too long.

 

Afraid of being found out, Adelaide rides for the dragon's castle. But what lies beyond the gates is so much more than fire and scales. It could mean her ultimate freedom…

 

…if only she faces her demons.

 

Is Adelaide ready to become her own person? Or will the journey within completely destroy her?

 

Find out in this first book in an exciting new YA fantasy series by Mustang Rabbit. Grab your copy today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mustang Rabbit
• Release date: Mar 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393746874

Book preview

Copyright Notice

Copyright © 2020 by Mustang Rabbit. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or part of this work without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

This is a work of fiction, as can be seen by the presence of dragons, though the author dearly wishes dragons were real. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products author’s imagination and years of human mythological traditions. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is coincidental.

Cover Art Photography and Design:

BZN Studio Designs

Mental Health and Gender Consult:

Eric L. Mills, M.A., (National Certified Counselor), CCTP (Certified Clinical Trauma Professional)

Title Page

Chapter One

IT WAS A GORGEOUS DAY. Bright. Sunny. Hot. In a nutshell, perfectly miserable. Sweat ran into Adelaide’s eye. She knocked her knuckles against the visor of her helm. Metal clanged against metal. The sound vibrated through her face shield and down into her breastplate.

How do knights get around in these rust buckets, anyway?

Sweat slipped into her eyes. Burned. Tears formed. Her vision fogged.

She cursed. Something long, tired, and would have earned her a broom licking by the old priest.

If he had still been alive.

Which would have solved all of her problems.

At least for another year or two.

She scowled, for nobody, because absolutely nobody could have seen a lick of her behind all the metal plate and amour. The old nag of a horse, struggling under the weight of her and the metal suit, plodded over the rise of the dirt track and paused, thoroughly winded. Adelaide pushed her vizor up with the palm of her gauntlet and squinted through her clogged eyelashes at the view.

The castle was real, at least, though more of a simple hold than a full castle. It had five watchtowers and a single great hall in the center, surrounded by walls, which were in mild disrepair. The entire thing was blue black with age and there was a giblet with a skeleton hanging to the left of the gate. A bit of cloth fluttered from a hip bone, bleached beyond recognition.

Yuck.

At least the castle was here, for real. She’d started to wonder if it had all been a fool’s errand. But the directions had been clear. South at the Riddle Fork Junction, onward for three villages, east at the mill until the road curved south and then east again, at the bridge of the river. It had been easy enough to follow, if longer than she’d expected. It had taken her four days of riding and asking directions. And most hadn’t wanted to give directions. Who wanted to tell a single knight where to find the one dragon about. Of course, when the knight got spit roasted for reptilian dinner, whoever told said knight where to find the dragon would sleep real well.

Adelaide shook her head, flinging perspiration out of the front of her vizor. She opened her water skin and poured water directly through the front of the visor and into her armor. It felt amazing, cool streams of relief coursing over her skin. A second later, the liquid warmed, leaving behind only the memory of momentary refreshment. She growled and clapped her lips around the mouth of the skin, sucking down the last of the water inside. It hung flat and empty from her grasp when she was finished.

Well, that was the last drink she was going to get for a while. Maybe ever, if the looks of the people who had given her directions were anything to go by. Pity. That’s what she had seen from every last one of them.  Lots and lots of pity. It usually went something like this:

Which way to the dragon castle? 

You mean the one with the lady in the tower?

Yes.

One short stop away from hell, but if you insist, head on down this way. And then they’d point and look at her sadly, or with open derision.

So she wasn’t the first one who’d come looking to face the dragon.

At least it was a good cause.

Adelaide put her hand on her sword. It was a little too long to use on foot. And using it while mounted on her horse was pointless. She’d kill the horse before she managed to cut the dragon. Master Lothar hadn’t let her have a shorter sword. He’d told her to stay on the horse. She hefted it. Maybe if I take the horse in sideways? It would give her height.

She looked down at the wheat color horse between her knees. Spavined and bow-backed, it had barely made it this far. In fact, she was afraid it might breathe its last, right there, between her knees on the road.

But it had slugged on, through the last week, without complaining once. It didn’t deserve to turn into dragon toast. She might be destined for reptilian dinner, but she didn’t need to take the poor beast with her.

She swung down and clattered, the plates of the armor rattled together. Her shoulder pads slipped a little. She caught it and grabbed the strap. If there had been a worse suit of armor in Master Lothar’s collection, Adelaide wanted to see it. Because this rust bucket of martial protection was trying to kill her before the fight. She pulled on the strap with her teeth, trying to knot it back into place.

The horse waited, head nearly between its knees.

Guess this is the end, Saggy. Adelaide pulled the straps on the saddle. The horse’s ears barely flickered as the entire contraptions crashed into the dust on the side of the dirt track. She went to its head and pulled off the halter.

There’s water, back that way. Adelaide slapped its haunches, urging it away. Saggy took a step, stumbled, caught itself, and kept going.

Adelaide squinted. The horse didn’t look good. That’s if you can get down the hill.

The horse didn’t seem to hear her. But after a dozen limping trots, it seemed to figure out that Adelaide wasn’t following and perked up, just enough to stumble out of sight at least.

Adelaide drew the sword. If she tried to pull it quickly, she’d get stuck halfway through the draw. Her arm was too short for the length. If she got it ready now, then she might not get stuck trying to pull it out when facing the dragon. Not that she knew anything about dragon fighting from first or even second hand experience. It wasn’t like anyone had taught her about dragon fighting. She shook out her rucksack and dropped it beside a large rock. There was no point bringing it to a fight. If things went well, she’d come back for it.

Or not.

Adelaide scowled, blotted her face with the side of her bedroll, and threw it over with the rucksack. She checked her javelin and adjusted her knife strapped to the waist of her armor. Her fingers slipped inside her gauntlets trying to handle the smaller weapon.

She was going to be more sweat than person before she made it to the castle. Maybe she could flood the dragon with human fluids. Or perhaps her stench would drive the beast away. Hopefully the noble lady trapped inside the castle would be too grateful for her freedom to care that her savior reeked.

Adelaide tried to cross her fingers. The heavy metal encasing her fingers stymied the attempt. So much for that. The noble lady inside, if she wasn’t dead by now, was certainly going to be offended.

How does a noble lady survive with nothing but an evil dragon around anyway? Where does she get her food? Does the dragon share? Perhaps he leaves bits of meat and she has to try to cook it for herself.

Rotting bones probably smelled. Perhaps Adelaide would smell better than the dragon’s lair. Then at least she’d be a step up.

Did dragons smell, or maybe they were like other animals, and had habits to keep their dens clean. In which case, Adelaide was going to be a major disappointment. 

Adelaide chewed on the idea as she stumped her way up the hill to the hold, perched on a rolling bluff above. Perhaps the dragon smelled better than she did. After all, dragons were related to lizards. And lizards didn’t perspire, not like people. But perhaps it had bad table manners. Perhaps it spit up things it couldn’t digest, like an owl. That would smell worse than Adelaide.

Maybe.

She sniffed. At least her nose hairs hadn’t spontaneously curled... yet.

THE HOLD WAS SMALL, so the dragon couldn’t be too big, hopefully. The wall was only about twenty feet high at the highest point. If the dragon was inside, like the stories said, it couldn’t be too large then. The roof of the main hall, where she could see over the walls, looked like it was thatched. Whoever had built this castle had been at it some century previous. Nobles didn’t make castles like this anymore. King Croban’s court was housed in something much grander, full of masonry and glazed tiles that wouldn’t burn when flaming arrows rained down on them.

There was only one gate, and it stood at the apex of the small dirt track Adelaide was following. The gate itself stood wide open. There was no one in sight, except the skeleton. He wasn’t talking. Thank goodness.

Adelaide glared at the skeleton, then banged on the gate with her fist.

Hello?

Silence.

Anyone home?

Again, nothing. Perhaps there was no dragon?

I’m here to challenge the dread dragon, for crimes against nobility and passion, and to free the lady of this land.

Adelaide cringed. That hadn’t sounded very knightly. Or noble. But it was exactly what Master Lothar had sworn her to say. Gulp.

There was a flurry of movement and the sky darkened overhead. She screamed and swung around with her sword. Her javelin fell from her hand. A massive creature crouched on the top of the gate. It was green. And glassy. No, it was shiny.

And it had claws. As big as her arms.

Dragon. Definitely dragon.

She grasped her sword in both hands.

The dragon grinned, teeth the size of her feet on full display. And leapt.

She ducked. And swung. Blind. Her blade hissed through thin air. Metal edge sank into old wood.

Her swing came to a shuddering stop. The vibrations thundered up her arms into her shoulders. Great green wings blotted out the sky, surrounding her.

She yanked on the sword. No give. She howled through her teeth. Tried again. Nothing. The sword was well and truly stuck in the gate.

She looked back.

The dragon was on the ground now, behind her, crouched and slithering towards her. Its lips were parted, displaying those fangs. Pure ivory. No rot. Very clean. The better to eat her with.

She dove for her javelin. The dragon slammed its forefoot on the far end. She grabbed the other end. Yanked.

The dragon shook its wings and growled. Gray smoke shot through its teeth. The smell of sulfur permeated the air.

Her stomach lurched. She jerked with both hands on the javelin. Lunch. She was about to be lunch. All nicely marinated and stewed and then flame broiled. It didn’t seem like he cared that she smelled worse than a rotting pig.

She looked up at the dragon, right in its eye. It wasn’t just green. There were highlights of orange, black and lots of yellow.

Stupid thing to notice right before you die.

It wrapped its claws around the javelin and pulled. Adelaide let go and fell back, rolling away. This was it. She gritted her teeth and bent her arm, even as she rolled. It was hard, but she brought her wrist to her mouth. She tore at the straps of her gauntlet with her teeth. Her left hand, not her right, since that was the one with the broken strap. It came loose.

The gauntlet fell away. She rolled to her feet. Stumbled. Pulled her knife.

The dragon was waiting.

Adelaide bent her knees. Her heart thudded behind her breastplate.

The dragon snorted. Puffs of flame shot out of its nostrils.

It was now or never. If she didn’t do something, she was going to run, and then she’d still be charbroiled.

Better to just get this over with.

She charged.

THE WORLD MOVED VERY fast. Her limbs spiraled, clawing for traction. The dragon was very close. Brimstone and hell close. There were flames. Burning hair. Her armor was hot. Her skin screamed. Down was up and up was down.

Her head hit the stone pavement. The world went abruptly quiet.

AND STAYED QUIET. FOR a while. The sound of her heartbeat came back first. And then sensations of pain. First