G.A. Aiken Dragon Bundle: The Dragon Who Loved Me, What a Dragon Should Know, Last Dragon Standing & How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (137 page)

Read G.A. Aiken Dragon Bundle: The Dragon Who Loved Me, What a Dragon Should Know, Last Dragon Standing & How to Drive a Dragon Crazy Online

Authors: G. A. Aiken

Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Romance, #dragons

Gods. The arguing.
She slowly faced her cousin. “Aye?”
“What’s this about the Pombray brat?”
“This has nothing to do with you, Talwyn. Stay out of it.”
“I won’t stay out of it.” Talwyn looked to her uncle. “And you’re all right with this?”
“I’ve given my permission.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I have to admit,” Briec said, “I liked it better when you didn’t speak.”
“Back off, Talwyn.” And that came from Talan. Brother and sister looked at each other and Dagmar instinctively leaned back in her chair. Of course Frederik, oblivious as always, leaned closer to the table so that he could study the plate of food one of the servants had placed in front of him.
What exactly did he expect to see? Besides eggs and slabs of meat?
“Stay out of it, Talan.”
“Leave her alone, sister.”
“You don’t tell me what to do,
brother
.”
“If she wants to spend time with Pombray—”
“You may think it’s quite all right to stick your cock in anything that moves—”
“What does my cock have to do with anything?”
“—but I don’t trust Pombray or his son and I won’t have her spending time with any of them.”
“It’s none of your bloody business, sister. Lay off.”
“Make me.”
Rhi stamped her foot, her frustration evident and clearly growing. Once again, her cousins’ bickering was getting between her and her enjoyment. Something she’d grown less and less tolerant of the last couple of years or so. “Both of you, stop it!”
But it was too late. Brother and sister had locked on each other, both of them getting to their feet, hands moving toward the weapons they kept on them at all times.
“I mean it,” Rhi tried again. “Stop it!”
Dagmar quickly got out of her chair, her papers held against her chest. But as she started to move away, she realized Frederik was still sitting there, toying with some bacon. Completely oblivious. She was reaching for him when a large hand she knew so well reached past her, grabbed the boy by the back of his cotton shirt and yanked him from the chair.
Dagmar stumbled into the wall, nodding her appreciation up at her mate, who still held the boy in his arms.
“I leave you alone for five minutes,” he quietly joked.
She pressed into Gwenvael the Handsome’s side. “I know. I simply can’t be trusted on my own.”
“Tragically weak female.”
He winked at her, but then the twins were up on the table and charging each other, short swords unsheathed.
Rhi slammed her foot against the ground again and screamed out, “
Stop it!
”
And, her mouth open in shock, Dagmar watched as Talan was flung into the wall and Talwyn flung right across the Great Hall and out the doors.
“Huh,” Gwenvael said. “That’s new.”
Dagmar shook off her surprise and quickly said to Frederik, “You didn’t see any of that. Understand me?”
“Didn’t see what?” the boy asked.
Dagmar wanted to believe Frederik had caught on quickly, but she actually knew he was just painfully clueless.
After they stabled their horses, Brannie had headed off to one of the nearby lakes where many of her dragon kin camped whenever they came to visit or protect Garbhán Isle. According to Éibhear, the three other Mì-runach had stayed in town to spend time at one of the pubs while Izzy and Éibhear walked to the castle.
They were cutting through the courtyard, nearing the steps that would take them to the Great Hall, when Éibhear abruptly stopped, his head tipping to the side. Izzy stopped as well. The dragon had the best hearing she’d ever known and if he thought he heard something—
His arm slipped around her waist and he yanked her out of the way just as a loud bang echoed out from the Great Hall and something exploded through the doorway.
They watched that something shoot past them and slam into one of the nearby buildings. When it landed, Izzy sighed. “Talwyn.”
“Good gods!” Éibhear exclaimed. Then he added, “She’s gotten tall.”
“That she has.”
“Do you think Talan did this?”
“I don’t know. I usually find them entangled in a pit fight, not throwing each other around.”
They became quiet and that’s when Izzy realized that Éibhear’s arm was still around her waist. She looked down at his arm and then up at him. He smiled at her until she murmured, “Someone’s a naughty uncle.” Then he couldn’t release her fast enough.
Izzy was just about to head over to her cousin to check on her when Rhi stumbled down the first few steps of the Great Hall. She took one look at Talwyn and Rhi’s hand covered her mouth, her eyes wide in shock. That’s when Izzy knew who’d done this.
Grateful, for the first time, that she’d come home when she did, she quickly turned and headed toward the Great Hall.
“Rhi,” she called out and her sister looked down at her with their father’s eyes. Bright violet and beautiful, long silver hair framing her gorgeous face, brown skin perfect, soft, and completely unscarred.
“Izzy?” Rhi burst into tears. “Izzy!” She charged down the steps and Izzy met her at the bottom. Her sister dove into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably as Izzy held her.
“It’s all right. It’s all right,” she soothed, patting her back.
“I’ve killed her!”
“You have not.” Izzy glanced back and saw that Éibhear had gone over and scooped up his niece, carrying her back to the stairs. “See? She’s fine.”
Rhi lifted her head and Talwyn waved a little, smiled. “I’m fine. I promise.”
But Rhi only sobbed louder, resting against her sister.
With a shrug, Éibhear carried Talwyn back inside. Once they were alone, Izzy asked her sister, “What is it, Rhi? She’s fine.”
“She’s not fine.” Rhi looked up at her sister with all that painful earnestness she couldn’t hide. “She smiled. Izzy . . . Talwyn smiled!”
Inconsolable, she gripped Izzy harder, sobbed louder, and all Izzy could do was pat her sister’s back and sigh.
Éibhear walked into the Great Hall but stopped when he saw Briec sending a wounded male off with one of the servants. And if that wounded male was Talan . . . well, like his sister, the boy had matured into quite the human specimen.
The girl in his arms suddenly tensed, green eyes looked up at him and narrowed . . . dangerously. Just like her mother.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Don’t you know?”
“If I knew, I’d not have asked.” She sniffed. “Dragon.”
Impressed, he answered, “I’m—”
“Éibhear?”
He looked up, smiled at Dagmar Reinholdt. “Hello, Dagmar.”
“Éibhear!” She dropped papers onto the table and ran to his side, throwing her arms around his waist.
“You can put me down,” Talwyn muttered.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” He could hear that sneer in her words. He wondered if she sneered at everything. Something told him that yes, she did.
So Éibhear released her. She landed on her feet, but then she stumbled back and dropped butt first to the floor. Instead of helping her, he hugged Dagmar.
“I’m so glad to see you.” She stepped back and looked him over. “Although I’m not sure about this look you’ve got going here.”
“I’ve been in the Ice Lands for ten years. What did you expect me to look like?”
“Not like this. But we all work with what we have access to, I guess.”
“What are you doing here?” another voice barked.
Éibhear looked to Briec, who stood glowering at him. “And I missed you, too, brother.”
“I didn’t miss you.”
Éibhear crossed his eyes. “Of course you didn’t.”
“Where’s Rhi?”
“With Izzy. We came here together.”
Briec glanced over at Gwenvael, stared, then looked back at Éibhear. “Oh,” Briec said. “Great. She’ll be fine with Izzy.” Then he walked off, heading farther into the castle.
Dagmar reached for Talwyn. “Why don’t I get her to Morfyd?”
“Thanks, Dagmar.”
“Of course. I’ll let her know you’re here. She’ll be so happy to see you.” She smiled up at him. “I’m so glad you’re home, Éibhear.” And he knew she meant it. Meaningful, since she rarely meant anything she said when speaking to royals.
“So am I.”
Éibhear watched Dagmar take Talwyn up the stairs to the bedrooms before he moved to Gwenvael’s side. “Hello, brother.”
“Éibhear.” Gwenvael looked him over. “Nice hair.”
“Thank you. I do try.” Éibhear motioned to the human boy who was walking back to the table and picking up his plate.
“Who’s that?”
“Dagmar’s nephew from the north.” They silently watched the boy head off . . . somewhere. Éibhear had no idea where.
“Not the brightest thing, I’m afraid,” Gwenvael muttered when the boy was gone. “But I guess he’s family.”
“True. True.”
The brothers faced each other, smiled; then Éibhear caught hold of Gwenvael’s hair and rammed him head-first into the wall.
“Let’s go find the rest of the bastards, shall we?” Éibhear asked, as he dragged his unconscious brother down the hallway by what the idiot insisted on referring to as his “long, luxurious golden locks.”
Chapter 11
Izzy knew that walking would calm her sister down, so she took her to one of her favorite places. A stream surrounded by trees and large boulders.
She sat Rhi down on one of the smaller boulders and took out a clean cloth from her travel bag. She wiped the tears from her sister’s face, then held the cloth to the girl’s nose.
“Blow,” she ordered.
After a few hiccups, the girl did as she was told.
“Now what happened?” Izzy asked her.
“They just wouldn’t stop bickering. Either they’re bickering out loud or in my head, but it’s constant. And Daddy just told me I could go shopping with Albrecht and—”
“Who’s Albrecht?”
“Lord Pombray’s son. He gave me flowers the other day and Daddy nearly burned his hand off.”
Izzy’s laugh was out before she could stop it and violet eyes flashed in anger.
“It’s not funny, Iseabail! He was terrified!”
“I’m sure he was,” she said around the laughter, unable to stop.
Rhi stood and began to pace. “You’re as bad as Daddy! The two of you!”
“You know how Daddy is.”
“He won’t let any man near me if they’re not family.”
“Man? Human, dragon, god, or centaur, if it’s male and not blood, Daddy will burn the poor bloke to the ground.”
“I’ll be a virgin forever,” Rhi sobbed.
“Good.”
The sobbing abruptly stopped and her sister stared at her. “What do you mean ‘good’?”
“I mean good. I mean fucking complicates everything.”
Rhi’s lips twitched, a smile fighting its way forth while her cheeks and forehead turned bright red. “
Iseabail
.”
“And
good
fucking can ruin your life. So stay a virgin forever. You’ll be much happier that way. Besides, do you really want to be the one to cause all those deaths?”
Rhi’s smile faded. “What do you mean?”
“When Daddy gets his claws on whatever poor male sets his sights on you . . . there will be death. Death after death after death. All at the talons of one wonderful but terribly arrogant silver dragon who adores both his perfect,
perfect
daughters.”
Her sister’s smile returned, but Izzy couldn’t help but think there was also some relief there. As if she’d thought Izzy had meant something else.
“Gods, I wish he would stop saying that. It sounds awful.”
“I like that he thinks of me as perfect. Despite my hysterical mother’s questionable bloodline.”
Rhi sighed, shook her head. “I truly don’t know how she hasn’t killed him yet.” She blinked, her hand covering her mouth. “I can’t believe I said that. That was a horrible thing to say about Mum and Dad!”
Izzy gazed at her sister. “Whose family do you think you belong to?”
Éibhear tracked Fearghus and Briec down in the war room. Using Gwenvael’s head, he pushed the door open and walked in, tossing Gwenvael next to the big wood table they sat at.
Fearghus and Briec glanced down at a groaning Gwenvael, then immediately went back to their conversation as if they were still alone.
“We have to figure out a course of action,” Briec said. “It can’t go on like this. I feel things building.”
“Mum suggested—”
“
No
.” Briec looked pointedly at Fearghus. “Absolutely not. Rhi adores Mum and I won’t have her turned into a tiny Rhiannon.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have named her after her.”
Briec snarled. “I did
not
name my daughter after Mum!”
Éibhear stepped close to the table. “Oy!”
The two males stopped snapping at each other and slowly looked over at Éibhear.
“Is there something you want?” Briec asked.
“Do you have bones in your
hair
?” Fearghus asked.
Ignoring Fearghus’s question, Éibhear asked, “Don’t you have something to say to me?”
Briec thought a moment then answered, “No.”
“Why are you here?” Fearghus asked.
“My commander thought it was time I came home to visit my loving kin.”
Fearghus frowned. “Which is who exactly?”
Briec laughed and Fearghus shook his head. “No. I mean, who’s your commander?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because I want to know if I can trust his decision to send you back here.”
“His decision to . . . what?” Éibhear took a moment before asking, “You lot had me sent away?”
“It was in your best interest.”
“But mostly our best interest,” Briec clarified. “You were becoming a right prat.”
“And Mum would have been mad if we’d beaten you to death.”
“So you lot had me sent to the Mì-runach?”
“That was Dad’s idea.”
“We suggested the salt mines,” Briec explained. “But Dad was afraid the rest of the troops would turn on you because of your incessant whining and inability to follow orders.”
“Sending you to the Mì-runach was,” Fearghus reiterated, “in your best interest.”
Éibhear pulled off his fur cape and tossed it onto a nearby chair.
“Gods,” Briec gasped. “The bastard’s gotten bigger.”
“I stopped growing five years ago.”
“Not soon enough.”
“Let me ask you,” Éibhear went on, determined to understand all this. “Sending me away . . . that didn’t have anything to do with Izzy, did it?”
Gwenvael looked up from where he still lay on the floor. “It took you
ten
bloody years to figure that out?”
His brothers burst out laughing and Éibhear walked close to the table Fearghus and Briec sat at. He raised his fists and slammed them against the hundred-year-old, thick wood table. It broke into three distinct pieces and crumpled to the floor.
His brothers looked over the mess until Fearghus said, “I’m making you tell Annwyl you broke the war room table.”
Izzy put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong?”
“Everything!”
Izzy closed her eyes so that her sister didn’t see her cross them in exasperation. Gods, had she been this
dramatic
when she was sixteen? Izzy doubted it. Her life had been so serious up to that point, how could she be dramatic?
Taken from her mother right after her birth, Izzy hadn’t met Talaith again until she was sixteen. In the years before that meeting Izzy had traveled the countryside with three soldiers she called her Protectors. Men who’d left their lives and families behind just to protect Izzy from the goddess Arzhela and her followers.
For years those followers had hidden the fact that they’d lost Izzy so that they could keep control of Talaith. It had worked too, until Briec the Mighty came along and changed everything for mother and daughter. He’d fallen in love with Talaith, making her his mate. Or, as the dragons called it, Briec had Claimed Talaith. And from the very beginning, Briec had treated Izzy as his own daughter, without question, without doubt. To a girl who’d never known her birth father, Briec’s unconditional love had meant so very much.
“Can we narrow ‘everything’ down to something manageable?” Izzy asked.
Rhi dropped her head, the back of her hands wiping her cheeks and eyes. “What if I’d killed her?” she whispered.
“Killed who?”
“Talwyn.”
“With that hard head she has?”
Rhi pushed Izzy’s arm off and stalked a few feet away before facing her. “I’m not joking, Izzy.”
She really wasn’t. Rhi was truly distraught, fingers twisted into knots, her entire body shaking.
“But you didn’t kill Talwyn. I saw her, luv. She’s fine.”
“But I could have.”
“And I could have killed many over the years, but I haven’t. Mostly.”
“It’s not the same, Iz.”
“What’s different?”
“I have no control.” Her hands fluttered around. “Over any of . . . of . . .
this.
”
“Your Magicks?” Izzy moved closer. “What did you mean to do to Talwyn and Talan?”
“I didn’t want them to start fighting. Again. For once Daddy was being reasonable and they were ruining it. So I only wanted to push them away from each other. Just a few feet.”
“And they went flying.”
“Talwyn got the worst because she pissed me off the most . . . and she was closer to an open door.” She covered her face with her hands, but Izzy could still hear her words clear enough. “And if it had been anyone but Talan and Talwyn, they probably would be dead. Their brains dashed—”
The sobbing started again and Izzy went to her sister, pulled her into her arms. “It’s all right, luv. I’m here. I’m home. We’ll figure this out together.”
And her sister gripped her so tight that Izzy knew she owed that big blue bastard for insisting she come back.
Dammit.
Talaith had gone to a nearby village to see a woman who would be giving birth soon. All was going well, but it was the woman’s first child and she was, not surprisingly, nervous. Besides, Talaith wanted father and daughter to work these little issues out on their own. Briec had to learn to listen to Rhi, and Rhi had to learn to stand up for herself without tears and foot stamping. Although Talaith was no royal, her daughter very much was. And, truth be told, if she could learn to manage her father, gods knew she could manage
anyone
.
Dismounting her mare, Talaith nodded at her armed guards. “We’ll return to the village tomorrow. Sometime after first meal. I’ll see you then.”
“As you wish, my lady,” said the older guard. He took the reins from Talaith and headed to the stables with his companions.
Briec had insisted on Talaith having guards if she was going to be “gallivanting all over the land helping others birth more future running snacks for my kin.” Not exactly how Talaith would put it, but she had laughed.
She headed up the stairs to the Great Hall, hoping not to find father and daughter in yet another screaming-crying match. That did nothing but give her such a headache. But when Talaith walked through the big doors, she stopped and gazed at her twin nephew and niece. Morfyd was busy sewing up a gash on Talan’s arm and Talwyn had a block of ice from the kitchens pressed to the side of her head.
“What the hells happened?”
The twins looked at each other and then away. “Nothing,” they both muttered, which meant it had been something. If it was nothing, Talan would gleefully make up some lie to start trouble while Talwyn would wander away, bored.
Talaith took a quick look around. No Rhi. No Briec. Not liking that at all, she stalked back toward the war room, where Briec and Fearghus had been spending much of their time lately. And not even thirty feet away from the door, she could already hear the bloody fighting!
Éibhear had finally gotten Briec in a nice chokehold after knocking Gwenvael out completely and possibly breaking a couple of Fearghus’s ribs. He was about to twist Briec like a piece of rope when he heard footsteps approaching. He knew from the lightness of the steps that it was definitely not Annwyl. And the quickness told him it wasn’t Dagmar. That left Talaith and Morfyd.
He scented the air. A human female. Talaith.
Lifting Briec up, he tossed him across the room, trying not to smile when his brother hit the wall, then the floor, gasping out, “
Bastard!
”
Then he smeared some of the blood from a cut on his head farther down his face and quickly sat on the floor. He’d just rested his back against the wall when the war room door flew open.
Talaith took one look around, her dark gaze finally resting on Éibhear. She frowned, probably confused by his Ice Lander look.
“Éibhear?” she finally asked.
“Talaith,” he said softly.

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