A Tale Of Two Dragons

“What is it?” he pushed.

“My aunts,” she decided to tell him, “want me to come back with them. For a little while. Get to know them and the cousins a bit.”

“Good,” he said. He smiled, his hand briefly squeezing hers. “It’s become painfully obvious to me what you’ve been missing all these years is being with your Penarddun kin. You belong with them.”

“I do.” They reached the stairs, and Braith took the opportunity to pull her hand away. “And what about you?”

“Probably with Bercelak to fight the Lightnings. The three of us—me, Bercelak, and Ghleanna—fight well together.”

“Excellent.” She patted his shoulder before turning and walking up the stairs. As Braith entered the Main Hall, a cheer went up from her kin. Most likely because someone had broken out the ale.

“There she is!” Crystin announced, now comfortably situated on her mate’s lap. “Ailean, you should have seen our girl. Fights just like her mum. Full of ruthless rage and uncontrollable brutality.”

“Would have brought a tear to my eye . . . if I hadn’t been bleeding from it at the time,” Aledwen tossed in.

“Oh, look,” Owena stated, waving toward the door. “It’s The Mountain!”

Addolgar let out a sigh and, cringing, Braith looked up at him and mouthed, Sorry.

“He’ll be coming with us tomorrow, too, Shalin,” Crystin said to Addolgar’s mother. “But don’t worry. We’ll take care of him like he’s one of our own.”

“Hopefully not like one of your own sons,” Shalin muttered.

“It’s not like we kill the males at hatching, so I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Owena snapped.

“And we know they’re around somewhere,” Crystin explained. “I’m sure our sons are fine . . . wherever they are.”

“Don’t worry,” Crystin’s mate explained, his big hand around a pint of ale. “There’s always a male around to train them since the females have no interest.”

Braith stepped up to the table and explained to her kin, “Actually, Addolgar’s not coming with us. He’s going with Bercelak into the Northlands.”

Addolgar pulled out a chair and sat down. Braith began to do the same, but Addolgar’s arm went around her waist and he pulled her onto his lap.

“It’ll take a few weeks for Bercelak to get all the troops and supplies he’ll need together,” he told her. “Until then, I’ll be with you.”

“Oh. All right then.”

This wasn’t what Braith had expected. She’d wanted a clean ending. Not this lingering thing where she would only manage to get more and more attached until she wouldn’t ever be able to let him go.

Unsure what to do, Braith did what she always did. She sort of folded in on herself. It was how she’d always handled her father when . . . well, whenever he was around. Pretending nothing bothered her was something Braith had always been good at, and she put those years of practice to excellent use now. But as she looked around the table of amiably chatting dragons, she noticed that Addolgar’s mother was staring at her.

When she saw that Braith was looking her way, the She-dragon raised her brows. Braith frowned, confused. Shalin raised her brows again and then gestured to Addolgar with a tilt of her head. Still unclear what she was trying to tell her, Braith gave a small shake of her head.

That’s when Shalin the Innocent, Tamer of Ailean the Slag, slammed her hands down on the table and barked, “Gods-dammit, Braith, say what you’re actually thinking!”

The only time Addolgar could remember hearing his mother yell was when she’d discovered Ghleanna and Addolgar holding a screaming and crying Bercelak over a small but active volcano they’d discovered deep in her cave.

“What the bloody hells is wrong with you two?” she’d bellowed at them while holding a sobbing and recently hatched Bercelak to her chest.

This time, however, she didn’t sound mad as much as frustrated.

“Mum,” he lightly chastised.

“She’s not saying what she’s thinking, Addolgar.” Shalin wagged a finger at Braith. “Your father’s gone now, so there’s absolutely no reason to keep what you’re feeling to yourself. I can assure you from what I remember of your aunts . . . they won’t.”

Crystin nodded. “She’s right.”

“So you might as well start with my Addolgar,” Shalin pushed.

Addolgar studied the She-dragon in his lap. “Braith?”

Braith turned on his lap so she could more easily look at him and announced, “I don’t know what the hells we’re doing!” Okay, that was much more a bellow, wasn’t it?

“Well,” Addolgar explained calmly, “um, I thought we’d stay here for the night. Go back with your aunts and I’d stay there until Bercelak calls me to battle. And before I go, I’d Claim you as my own and then your aunts would train you in weapons combat. Which, when you think about it, is the perfect time, because there will be Lightnings trying to make their way over the Outer Plains’ border into the Southlands, thinking those borders are undefended. You’ll get some excellent training slaughtering that lot.”

“He’s right,” Crystin agreed while reaching over and taking one of the ribs from the platter a servant had just placed on the table. “Nothing better than those fools swarming the border only to face the Daughters of the House of Penarddun. Bloody good training for my girls. Bloody good.” Then she cleaned that rib of meat and marrow in seconds.

“So that’s the plan,” Addolgar told Braith. “Unless you want to do something else.”

Braith stared at him, her mouth open. “What?” he asked her. “What’s that look for?”

She looked over at his mother, and all Shalin could do was shake her head and say, “I know, dear. But you learn to love them despite it all.”

Confused, Addolgar began, “I don’t under—”

But before he could get his sentence out, Braith jumped off his lap, placed her travel bag over her shoulder, grabbed the neck of his chain-mail shirt, and yanked him out of the chair. Then, with a strength everyone in the universe should fear, she dragged him out of the dining hall, up the stairs, and to his room. She pushed him inside and slammed the door shut.

“Sit,” she ordered, tossing her travel bag near the bed.

“Yeah, but—”

“Sit!”

Addolgar sat on the bed.

Braith walked up to him and asked, “You want to Claim me?”

“Of course I do.” Addolgar thought a moment and then, his heart dropping, he asked, “You don’t want me to? You don’t love me?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So you do love me?”

“I didn’t say that either.”

“Well, which is it, female?”

“Don’t bark at me!”

“Well, don’t play with my heart!”

“I’m not—”

Braith stopped, closed her eyes, took a breath.

After a few seconds, she said, her voice low, “I love you, Addolgar. And I can’t imagine anything I want more than being Claimed by you.”

Addolgar grinned. “See?”

“See?” Braith barked, glowering. “What should I see?”

“That we’re perfect together. How can you not see that?”

“You’re trying to drive me insane, aren’t you, Addolgar?”