A Tale of Dragons

Chapter 22

“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