“She told you to?” Bercelak barked. “What are you? A well-trained dog?”
“Last night you were ready to cut her down in Da’s hall.”
“That was last night. Today is different! And we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you, you idiot!”
“Big-headed Bercelak is right!” one of their cousins called out, earning a glower from Bercelak. “We should follow those Queen’s Guards and slaughter them all!”
Addolgar’s kin cheered in agreement, but a calmly spoken, “No,” stopped them from doing just that.
Ailean still stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at them all. “We will not slaughter anyone.”“So we just let them take her?” Ghleanna asked.
Ailean grinned. “I didn’t say that either.”
Braith would admit, she’d expected rougher treatment from the Queen’s Guard as
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But, honestly, none of that mattered. Not with Braith’s life on the line.“Come on,” Ghleanna said, tugging at Addolgar’s forearm. She headed inside the chamber, Addolgar and Bercelak following. The guards let them by, but watched closely.Brigida was still making her very slow way across the chamber toward the Queen.Addolgar was about to storm around her one way while Bercelak went the other, but Ghleanna caught them both by the hair and yanked them back.“But—” Addolgar began.“We follow,” Ghleanna whispered.“She’s moving like a snail,” Bercelak grumbled.“We follow,” Ghleanna insisted.So they did . . . very slowly. Painfully slowly. Addolgar hadn’t known anything could move that slowly and still be moving.Even stranger, though, was the fact that everyone waited for Brigida. They watched. They waited. They moved out of her way
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“Wait!” the Queen called out. “You can’t leave us alone with two battling Cadwaladrs!”“Don’t worry, Your Majesty,” Addolgar explained while gripping Braith’s forearm and dragging her toward the exit. “Once they knock each other out, you’ll have hours of quiet before they start again.”“Before they . . . what?”Addolgar pulled Braith out of the chamber and around a corner. Even from there, he could still hear his siblings fighting in the throne room. He didn’t know why they bothered. Everyone knew that Ghleanna would beat Bercelak within an inch of his life.... She never bothered to fight fair when it came to her siblings.
A Tale of Dragons Chapter 17
“What about them?”“We should probably bring them in, too, or Addiena will just send us out again.”“Don’t worry. Where my father goes, my brothers will go. They’ve never been able to think on their own.”“That’s sad.”“My mum tried to help them, but since hatching they’ve been loyal to my father. Plus they’re rather stupid.”“And you’ve been loyal to your mum.”“From the beginning to the end of time, I’ll be loyal to my mum.”“I don’t blame you. She did a good job teaching you to fight.”“She did?”“Braith, you may not be ready to ride into battle”—yet—“but you’ve got basic hand-to-hand combat techniques down pretty well from what I’ve seen. You took out Bercelak.” He leaned down until their noses nearly touched. &ldquo
A Tale of Dragons Chapter 18
“And you?” she asked, before Addolgar could list the reasons all of his kin would be involved in this.“Why are you doing this?”“That’s easy. Because I like you.” He grinned. “I like you a lot.”“Why?”“Because you make me smile.”“You’re Addolgar the Cheerful. Everything makes you smile.”“Not everything. And if I want to like you, Braith of the Darkness, I get to like you. Whether you want me to or not.”“Why wouldn’t I want you to?”“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m not a royal?”“Is there anything about me, Addolgar, that says I embrace being a royal? That I live my life as a royal? Anything?”Addolgar thought on that a moment before replying, “Not really.”“The Penardduns may be royals, but you don’t find any of them li
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“You’ve been kind to me.”“I like you.”“Me? I thought royals like Lady Katarina were more to your taste, Addolgar.”They usually were. But there was just something about Braith. . . .Addolgar took a risk and reached his hand over again, gently pushing stray blue hairs out of her eyes.“The more time I spend with you, Braith, the more I like you.”“I’m not really likeable.”“Who told you that?”She shrugged. “Everyone. But I don’t need anyone to feel sorry for me about that.”“Braith, no one as strong as you gets anyone’s pity. And you certainly don’t have mine.”“Then what is it?”“I’m drawn to you, Braith of the Darkness. You make my scales itch.”Her eyes grew wide. She no longer had that hard-to-read expression; instead she just looked overwh
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“You should smile.”“Why?”“It makes you look happy. I enjoy seeing you happy.”Braith could say in all honestly that no one had ever said that to her. Her father could not have cared less if she were happy and had told her as much. Which, coming soon after her mother’s death, had most likely been when she’d stopped smiling.“What are you missing, Braith?”She really had no idea where this conversation was going. “Miss
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“I have to. I refuse to die with this stupid spear sticking out of my leg.”She nuzzled his cheek and stood, releasing his claws. He watched her walk off down a passage. And, a few seconds later, he watched several dragons covered in fur from head to claw silently follow right behind her.Addolgar opened his snout to warn her, but one of the dragons stopped, focused on him, and waved a single talon at him.At that point, all Addolgar could do was wait. As far as he was concerned, it was the strangers’ funeral pyre because he knew what they would be facing.Braith hadn’t gotten far from where she’d left Addolgar when she knew that someo
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“But why?” Braith asked. “He has no use for me. No love. Why would he care if I was here with you or alone in my cave?”“The Penardduns are matriarchal, child. His first threat didn’t work with us because anything and everything your mother had, including title, was passed down to you. I honestly think that at first, he was just being his usual, vindictive self when he kept you from us.”“We used to openly mock his weak arms and that tiny little neck of his,” Aledwen said, grinning. “He hated that.”“But once he understood the true power of our line, he understood that without you, Emyr and his idiot sons risked losing all of their standing among those court royals who actually give an ox’s shit about all that as well as your mother’s fortune—and that he would not stand for.”“But he wouldn’t have lost his Elder status.”“Do you r