The results of the lottery were no surprise. That's what happens when you irk a duke or an earl or a prince. He wanted marriage; she refused for the sake of her seven siblings and dying mother. So, when the next lottery happened, her name went into the bowl every time another virgin's did. Four hundred and sixty-three slips of paper that said "Anna Weaver" and four hundred and sixty-three slips of paper that didn't.

They said she had even odds but the truth was she never had a chance.

That was how Jack found himself marching the most beautiful maid from the town up into the mountain crags where he had gone at least thirty times. That was how he found himself staring at her eyes, bluer than the spring sky, and her golden hair, loosed and blowing a little. That was how he ended up tracing her shape through the white, gossamer robes as she walked ahead of him on the uneven trail. Usually, the sacrifices were too young to be enticing. Not Anna.

They reached the dragon's cave about an hour before sunset. The shackles hung from above and there was a rotting wooden box for the smallest to stand on. Jack had insisted on it. They may be able to make him do the climb twice a year; they may be able to make him listen to the weeping and begging; they could rip his soul out a little every time to satisfy themselves that he still suffered for the crime of his dead father. But, they couldn't make him hang someone like braided garlic on the dragon's wall.

Anna didn't need the box. She was fully grown at nineteen, lithe and tall. She didn't even have to stretch. Jack unlocked the irons with the key he wore around his neck and closed them around her wrists as he had to so many others before.

She spoke for the first time since they left the town. "Will you look in on my family?" she asked.

"I will."

"Do you know if it's fast or...?"

Jack had stayed the first time to hear the screams. Never again after that. "I think it's fast," he lied.

She took a long, shuddering breath. Her face was bathed in the late evening glow coming straight through the west-facing cave opening, making her look almost angelic. There weren't any tears in her eyes, just an awful paleness around her lips.

Jack gathered dragon scales from those littering the cave floor. They would keep the night predators at bay for his trip back to town. He could be home by sunrise. He wouldn't have to think of Anna until he came back to the cave at the harvest. Not until he saw the new patterns of dried blood on the cave wall or the widening smear that led deeper into the yawning, black hole. He took far more scales than he needed to and each one smelled like rot.

"Jack?" she asked.

He hadn't known that she knew his name. "Yes?"

"Would you kiss me? Not a good-bye kiss, but like a lover. I'd like to know what it feels like."

The request was another part of his torturous penance. He put down the scales, measuring with his eyes just how perfectly smaller than him she was. He brushed her hair out of her face, so fine, like nothing else he had ever touched. It caught on his roughened fingers.

He kissed her gently because he was afraid he might harm her. She seemed so fragile in his farmer's hands. The hands with dirt under the fingernails. The hands that the fortune-teller had said were cursed. The hands that under any other circumstances wouldn't dare touch a woman like this. When he broke the kiss, she sighed.

"Thank you," she said.

Even her sweat smelled fresh, like a sunbaked meadow. It hurt his conscience that he hadn't felt this sympathy for the other sacrifices. Some of them fought him and he resented how it made his job harder. None of them had been graceful about their situation and he had blamed them for it.

"This is wrong," he said.

"This is survival," she replied.

That's exactly what it was. It's all it had been for Jack since the day his father let one of the sacrifices go. A child that was found later mauled by a bear, her death not just tragic but meaningless. Jack promised himself that he wouldn't be so foolish. For the first time, he actually wanted to break that promise.

He kissed Anna again and she wasn't shy about kissing him back. In fact, there was desperation about her, as if she was wringing every last drop of experience out of the minutes she had left. He pulled her against him, mindful that she was bound, mindful that he was probably getting her white robes dirty, mindful that the sun was sinking in the west. But, when she broke the kiss and nuzzled his cheek, he forgot everything else.

Jack put a tentative hand on her breast, brushing a thumb over her nipple, feeling the exquisite detail of her hardening through the soft, sheer fabric. Her lips parted and her breath sped, so he grew nervier, palming her, catching his nipple in the V of his fingers and squeezing. She gasped and the sound reverberated against the cave walls, encouraging him as it repeated in decrescendo.

He hitched up those ceremonial robes, feeling himself straining against his pants, not even sure when he started to swell. He freed himself rather than freeing her arms. She didn't look anywhere but his eyes.

Jack lifted her and held her up against the stone wall.

It wasn't what he wanted for her but it was the best he could give. He positioned himself and thrust, feeling the resistance and pushing past it. She yelped before he was halfway inside her. He froze.

"No, Jack," she urged. "Don't stop."

He protected her back with his hands and drove himself into her again. The rock dug into him but the warm, enveloping flesh made it sweet.

"God," she gasped. It echoed back.

He was inside her, splitting the accommodating flesh. Buried. That was the feeling. It was new to him. He hadn't wanted a wife; he hadn't wanted a child to add to the lottery. The thought of the dragon usually took away any need for sex. Today, though, it was different.

Anna's eyes shone; her color was haphazard. For the first few seconds, when he thrust, she winced. He stilled, holding himself inside her, and kissed her. Her response was so fierce, it was almost a bite.

"I can stop if it hurts," he said, wondering if it was true.

"No, Jack. Please."

Only her protest could have deterred him. Her plea had the opposite effect. He lifted her with his thrust. She spread and stretched until she sheathed him perfectly. He moaned as he took her, wishing for her pleasure but distracted by his own.

After a few minutes, her body relaxed. Her tense whimpers turned to throaty groans. His sounds mixed with her sounds and both mixed with the cave's echoes in a musical round. She clutched at him with her knees; his entry grew slippery and easy.

But then, the cave shuddered, like something big was moving very far beneath them. Dust rose and rock hunks fell.

They both glanced at the cave entrance. The sun was low in the sky. Anna kissed him and whispered, "Hurry."

Her urging stoked him. He felt the roiling, the tightening. His movements became jerky and needy. She whispered, "Yes," and it propelled him the rest of the way to his conclusion.

When the sun touched the horizon, he finished inside her, working his pleasure in jerking, little thrusts. She rested her forehead against his shoulder. They both were as out of breath as if they had been running.

Another rumble shook everything: the ground, the walls, and the loose rocks. Anna glanced fearfully at the cave entrance. The sun was more than halfway below the horizon.

"You have to go," she said.

"No."

"You have to. Please."

"We'll leave together. We'll go somewhere else. In the east, the dragons are gone."

"No, Jack. I can't do that."

Those blue eyes begged him to do his duty and to let her do hers. He wanted to argue but he knew he couldn't win. So, he gathered the dragon scales that he had dropped. He put a hand on her cheek before he left and she leaned into it. Then, he left the cave as he had dozens of times before, never feeling heavier. He only made it a short distance down the trail when the earth shook in earnest. In rhythm, like footsteps. Percussive. Jack stopped and turned back. The light was low and the shadows were deep.

He couldn't make himself go back but he couldn't leave. He sat on a log, feeling the Earth's vibrations and wondering why the cave didn't just collapse. He heard the bellow of the beast, but no screams from Anna. Still, he couldn't bring himself to go to her.

Jack sat there all night. He couldn't sleep, even when the tremors stopped and the bugs resumed their sounds. Only when the sun cracked the horizon did he stand. But the sun was behind the cave and he couldn't see anything inside. He stood, his legs stiff and dread in his throat, and headed back down the trail to the cave.

When he stepped inside, he couldn't see anything right away. But he heard the gasp and he heard his name.

"Jack? You stayed?"

He blinked. She was still there, unharmed. He hurried across the cave to her and unlocked the shackles.

As soon as Anna's hands were free, her arms went around him. "When the dragon didn't take me, I was sure I'd die in this cave of thirst and hunger," she said.

"I couldn't leave," Jack said.

"Thank you." She kissed him. "Thank you so much."

They stepped out of the cave together and into the morning sunlight. Jack looked at the trail leading back to the town. It continued the other direction, too, past the cave and into the mountains. He hadn't ever gone that way before.

He handed Anna two dragon scales. She wrinkled her nose at the smell but took them.

"I'm not going back," he told her. "But nothing in these woods will harm you. Everything fears the stench."

"You're not going back?"

He shook his head. "They've used me long enough. Tell them that I was the sacrifice. That I gave myself to the dragon."

"I want to go with you," she said. "But, I can't. I have family. My brothers and sisters--"

"I know." They looked at each other a moment. "If the creature attacks, go underground," he added. "It might. It's never rejected an offering."

She didn't answer. But, she did kiss him one more time before she started down the uneven trail. He watched her go, seeing the sun pale in comparison to the gold of her hair. Then, he turned the other direction and, without looking back, started walking.