“That would have been bloody stupid.”
“The fact is that now we’ll have to travel deep into Northland territory to retrieve your father.”
“You said he wouldn’t go there.”
“I said he wouldn’t stay there. I didn’t say he wouldn’t go there. But we can’t wait for him to return here with a bloody Lightning Horde at his back.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting angry at me. When we discussed this last night—”
“Last night I was drunk on that demon wine your aunts make! This morning I see everything quite clearly!”
“Well, you know what else you can see clearly?” she snarled. “My ass! As I walk away!”
Then she was off the bed and gone from the chamber, leaving him alone, in pain, and still cranky.
Surprisingly, yelling at her had not made him feel any better.
Braith walked until she’d found her way outside. Once she stood under the early morning suns, she took in a deep breath of the cool Outer Plains air and tried to stop herself from going back inside and pummeling Addolgar the Brainless. Because he deserved a right good pummeling!
“Good morn, cousin.”
Braith turned and saw three of her cousins sunning themselves on boulders. Like lizards. Lizards in human form.
“What are you doing?” Braith asked.
“Enjoying the suns,” replied one.
“It gives our scales a lovely bright hue,” said another.
Braith blinked. “Except you’re all in your human form. So how does that help your scales?”
They stared at her for several seconds before one stated, “You’re a bit of a know-it-all, aren’t you?”
“How is that . . .” Braith shook her head. She wouldn’t go from arguing with one idiot to arguing with three.
When Braith didn’t say anything, one of her cousins asked, “Do you think your father would have really killed you if our mums tried to contact you?”
“Yes,” Braith said plainly. She’d accepted the truth of that late in the evening as Addolgar had slept beside her.
“That’s so sad.”
Braith shrugged. “Eh.” She could no longer dig up the energy to care about what her father did, would do, or would like to do. If he’d had his chance, he probably would have strangled her as soon as she’d hatched, but he’d always been a bit terrified of her mum. With good reason. Her mother would have twisted his head around until it popped off his shoulders if he’d ever touched Braith.
“Well, uh . . .”
“Braith,” Braith filled in for them.
“We remember. I think I remember playing with you when we were hatchlings. You’re Braith, and I’m Caron, Crystin’s eldest. This is Ffraid, Owena’s middle daughter. And this is Delyth, Aledwen’s eldest.”
“We’re glad you’re here, cousin,” Ffraid told Braith. “Our mums worried over you constantly. So now maybe they’ll shut up about you.”
For some reason, the muttered words made Braith chuckle.
“And now that you’re safe with us,” Ffraid went on, “we can show your father what it really means to fuck with the House of Penarddun.”
“Aye,” Caron agreed. “Once we get your father back here, we’ll deal with him.”
“Get him back here?” Braith asked.
“Aye. Mum sent out Heledd—that’s Aledwen’s younger daughter you chatted with last night—and two of Ffraid’s sisters. They’re good trackers. They’ll track him. And once we know where the bastard is, together we’ll hunt him down and show him that Queen Addiena should be the least of his fears.”
Braith stepped closer to her cousins. “Hunt him down . . . together?”
“Oh, luv,” Caron said sadly, “do you still care about what happens to your father?”
“No,” Braith said flatly. “I guess I’m just trying to understand. All of you will be coming with me and Addolgar . . . into Horde territory to help me bring in my father?”
The three She-dragons sat up and gazed at Braith.
“Of course that’s what we mean,” Delyth replied. “You’re no longer in this alone, Braith of the Darkness. You’re one of us.”
“And that bastard father of yours no longer holds your safety over our heads,” Ffraid added.
“But I wouldn’t worry, cousin,” Caron said, lifting her face up toward the sunlight and closing her eyes. “He’ll be out of your life soon enough and then you can decide what you’ll do next.”
“Do next?”
“Like move here with us for training,” Delyth said.
“Or spend your time with that hunk of Cadwaladr meat.”
“Oh. Uh . . . yeah, uh . . .”
“Look!” Ffraid crowed. “She’s blushing!”
“I am not!” Braith shot back.
“You are! It’s so cute!”
“I am not cute!”
“Of course you’re not, luv,” Caron told her. “You’re a Penarddun. No one will call us beautiful or heart-stopping—”
“Oh, no,” Ffraid cut in. “They do call Penardduns heart stoppers.”
When her cousins said nothing, “Get it?”
That’s when they started laughing at a confused Ffraid. “What?” she asked. “Wait. Are you laughing at me or at my joke? Because my joke is quite witty.”
Fed up with sitting around, feeling miserable and still cranky, Addolgar threw his legs over the side of the bed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Owena asked as she walked into the chamber with another jug of that cursed ale.
“I’m getting up. I can’t sit around, doing nothing—”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do until that leg heals.”
Addolgar stood up, felt pain shoot through his leg and right into his back, making his head hurt even more. He ignored it. “My leg’s healed enough,” he lied.
Owena sighed and stepped back. “Oy!” she called out. “The Mountain is trying to walk on that leg.”
Addolgar stopped, focused on Owena. “The Mountain?”
“What do you want us to call you?”
“By my name?”
“Eh,” Owena said, sounding just like her niece.
Three more of Braith’s aunts walked into the chamber.
“What’s going on?” Crystin asked.
“I think he’s trying to leave,” Owena answered.
“Where are you trying to go, Mountain?”
“Stop calling me Mountain. We have to find Emyr. If you hadn’t realized, your niece’s life depends on returning him to the Queen.”
“Oh, for the sake of the gods,” Crystin sighed out. “This is already being handled.”
Addolgar, now hopping around on one leg trying to reach his travel bags and the human clothes within, asked, “Handled?”
“We have our best trackers hunting down that ponce as we speak. If they can’t bring the idiot back themselves, we’ll do it, kick him around a bit, and then pass him off to your precious Queen to finish him.”
Resting his hands on a wooden chair, Addolgar looked over at the four She-dragons. Like Braith, they were all tall with strong shoulders and necks, powerful legs, and bright eyes, but, he sensed, there was an inherent lack of understanding among them that he hadn’t had to worry about with Braith. She understood things quite clearly. But the She-dragons of the House of Penarddun as a whole . . .
Addolgar just didn’t know. He knew little of royals, but the ones he’d had any dealings with were nothing like these females. The Penardduns had no servants, wore mostly trousers when they were human, and liked to brawl. With each other. True, he really liked that about them, but it still had him very worried.
“The trackers you sent,” he said, “they weren’t your daughters, were they?”
“Of course they were. Our daughters are the best trackers you’ll ever find.”