Mustang Rabbit - Adelaide and the Dragon Castle

Dear Reader,

I want my work to be available for everyone, even those who cant afford a Kindle Unlimited subscription or who live in other countries. This is very important to me.

Growing up, my parents pocket book could not keep up with the number of books that I wanted to read. Libraries and gifts were my salvation.

Because I have chosen not to be exclusive with Kindle Unlimited, I have the ability make my books available to patrons of public libraries, through services such as Overdrive, a library ebook loan service.

But I need your help. As a local library patron or even local tax paying citizen, you have the ability to make these books available to those who cant afford to buy, by requesting that your local library adds them to their ebook offerings.

Simply submit a request to your local library to make them available via Overdrive or a similar ebook library app. For instructions on how to make such a request, visit this link.

Thank you. Youre my awesome shiny dragon of the day!

Mustang Rabbit

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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 authors imagination and years of human mythological traditions. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is coincidental.

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Cover Art Photography and Design:

BZN Studio Designs

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Mental Health and Gender Consult:

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

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Chapter One

I T WAS A GORGEOUS DAY . Bright. Sunny. Hot. In a nutshell, perfectly miserable. Sweat ran into Adelaides 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. Shed started to wonder if it had all been a fools 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 shed expected. It had taken her four days of riding and asking directions. And most hadnt 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. Thats 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 theyd point and look at her sadly, or with open derision.

So she wasnt the first one whod 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. Shed kill the horse before she managed to cut the dragon. Master Lothar hadnt let her have a shorter sword. Hed 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 didnt deserve to turn into dragon toast. She might be destined for reptilian dinner, but she didnt 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 Lothars 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.