The Dragon Who Loved Me. G.A. Aiken

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      Chapter 6

      They ended up risking the skies when the first set of wild horses they came upon stampeded at the first scent of the Lightning. A moment that he could only shrug at and mutter, “Sorry.”

      And although they made good time with only short breaks along the way, they were still forced to get some real sleep that night.

      Rhona, though, feeling more awake than tired, took first watch. In her human form, she went up high in a tree, using its leaves for cover. She briefly thought about letting the triplets know what was going on, what had changed, but decided against it. She trusted them, but if they worried for Fearghus and Briec’s offspring, they would most certainly alert the rest of the siblings and the rest of the siblings would tell Mum and Mum would make a straight line to Fearghus and Briec to complain about Keita using one of her soldiers—no, not her daughter, but one of her soldiers—for her “nonsense,” which was what Bradana called almost anything that Keita did. So it was best to say nothing.

      After a few hours, Rhona felt a tap and looked down at Vigholf. And with a lightness belied by his great human size, he pulled himself up until he sat across from her. The old tree groaned, but the limbs did not break under his weight as he settled in.

      “All clear?” he asked, his voice low.

      “ Aye.”

      “Good.” He handed over a cloth with meat and bread wrapped in it before turning his gaze to the land around them, grey eyes watchful. “Can you explain to me why the Tribesmen hate Annwyl so much?”

      “Who says they do?”

      “I doubt that just because a Quintilian monarch offers them payment they’ll jump at the chance to take on Garbhán Isle.”

      “Well . . .” Rhona let out a little sigh, toying with the cloth holding her food. “Annwyl does not like slavery or slave traders, which is the Tribesmen’s top means of income. She struck first a few years back, hoping to convince them, in her own way, to give up slavery in exchange for her not wiping them from the planet. They never took her up on her offer, and then this thing with the Irons and Sovereigns happened and she stopped worrying about the Tribesmen. Especially when she found out that most of the Tribesmen’s patrons were Quintilians.”

      “And in Annwyl’s mind, kill the ones demanding the product and the suppliers will go out of business?”

      “Pretty much. For Annwyl it’s not about power but about everything being what she thinks is . . . right. She thinks slavery is wrong, so she tries to stop it. She thinks the Sovereigns ruling everything is wrong, so she tries to stop them.”

      “You’ve fought by her side before?”

      “More than once. As human. When the Cadwaladrs have no dragons to fight, we’ll join human armies.”

      “Your royal cousins do the same?”

      Rhona had to laugh at that. “My cousins? Direct bloodline from the House of Gwalchmai fab Gwyar? Hardly. Even my Uncle Bercelak, their father, a true Cadwaladr, never had much use for humans except as a quick-moving snack. Then Annwyl came along . . .” Rhona shook her head. “Nothing’s been the same since Fearghus found that female dying outside his cave about twelve or so years ago. Then there was Talaith and Dagmar. . . . Then the offspring were born and all bets were off.”

      Vigholf nodded slowly. “I see, but your cousin, Keita . . .”

      “What about her?”

      “She hides something.”

      “Keita hides much,” Rhona admitted. “She is a Protector of the Throne. She will do all in her power to safeguard the throne of our kind, even to her death.”

      “She’d go that far? Even to risk her young nieces and nephew?”

      “I doubt Keita thinks she’s risking them. And she has and will risk her own life. I know now that’s never a question.” For tiny Keita had faced the wrath of their bitch cousin Elestren, who was anything but tiny. Elestren had believed Keita a traitor and, without orders, set about sending Keita to the salt mines on the Desert Land borders. All because Keita had embarrassed the Dragonwarrior by taking her eye during fair combat training. Unfortunate, perhaps, but Rhona’s own mother had lost the tip of her wing while training with her sister Ghleanna. Something that affected her flying, but over the centuries she’d learned to manage it. And she’d never held it against her sister.

      Yet Keita had faced Elestren bravely, proving what Rhona had always suspected about her cousin—Keita was nothing like she seemed.

      Taking Rhona’s word for it, he motioned to her food. “Eat.”

      “Thanks for this.”

      The Lightning grunted before asking, “And Keita’s grand scheme—you all right with it?”

      Around the dried beef she chewed, Rhona replied, “It is what it is.”

      “So you just accept it then?”

      She shrugged, biting off a piece of bread. “Why wouldn’t I accept it?”

      “But you didn’t ask anything. Push for more answers from Keita. What if this isn’t what it seems at all? What if it’s worse?”

      “Then I’ll adjust. Because that’s what a good soldier does. I follow orders. I adjust. That’s what I’ll do now.”

      Vigholf didn’t understand this female. She never asked questions, she never disobeyed, and she never did more than follow the orders given. Yet she was in no way lazy or stupid or incapable. Although female, she fought extremely well and deserved her title of sergeant. But Vigholf couldn’t help but see more for her. Just like the rest of her siblings, who, to be honest, he didn’t find nearly as capable.

      So then what was it? Why did she seem happy to simply settle for being an order taker?

      “Do you even like being a soldier?” he asked. “Because it never sounds like you do.”

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