Dragon On Top (Dragon Kin #0.4)(14)

“Weak!” Ailean bellowed. “The whole lot of you.” He suddenly pointed at Ghleanna. “Except her. Except my beautiful daughter who saw me all the way over there.”

“You saw him?” Addolgar snarled, dragging himself to his feet. “And you didn’t warn me?”

“I was talking to—”

“Bram!” Ailean held his arm out and Bram gripped it.

“Ailean. How are you?”

“Fine, boy. Fine. Notice you didn’t jump either.” He glared at Hew. “Unlike some others.”

“Weak,” the older dragon with the shield said. “All your sons, brother. Weak as newborn babies.”

“Uncle Arranz!” Ghleanna ran over to the older dragon and threw herself into his open arms. “It’s been ages.”

“It has.” He put her down, looked her over. “You look good. Solid. Like your mother.”

“Why are you here?” Ailean asked Bram. “I thought you were on your way to Alsandair.”

“I thought Ghleanna should see Mum before we left,” Addolgar explained, while he brushed dirt and leaves off his clothes. “I heard from her last night.” Being able to talk to each other with their minds was the way immediate kin kept in touch. Very important when having to communicate with parents or siblings when a long distance off, but also a way for some kin to nag. Something that Bram was sure annoyed Ghleanna—at least at the moment.

“I’m glad she did.” Ailean looked at his daughter. “She was worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

“Tell her that then, so she’ll stop pacing the floors.”

Ghleanna’s mother wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her tight. Ghleanna closed her eyes and buried her nose against her mum’s neck. She loved her mother’s scent. It always made her think of home, made her feel safe—and very loved.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Mum. Really.” Ghleanna pulled away and saw the tears in her mother’s eyes. “Oh, Mum. Please don’t cry. I’m fine.”

“I know. I know.” Her mother wiped at her eyes, smiled. “You know how worried I get, though. About all of you. I’m just glad you stopped by.”

“Can’t stay long, though. Just an hour or two.”

“You can eat, though, can’t you?”

“Food!” her brothers cheered, pushing past her and going into the castle they’d been raised in.

“How long are you going to be on the road with that lot?”

“Too long,” Ghleanna told her mum and they laughed.

“Lady Shalin.”

Her mother’s smile was warm. “Bram!” He leaned down and hugged Shalin the Innocent, Tamer of Ailean. “Oh, Bram. I’m so happy to see you. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, my Lady.”

“Well come in, come in. There’s enough food for all of you.” She took their hands and pulled them into the hall. Like a pack of ravenous beasts, her brothers had already descended on the food that had been put out.

“Like wild dogs,” Ghleanna murmured.

“Not really,” Bram murmured back. “Wild dogs have more manners.”

He smiled and, out of politeness only, Ghleanna smiled in return. Unfortunately, though, her mother caught her smiling and Ghleanna saw those gold eyes widen, her nostrils flare.

“Talk to me about your plans, Bram,” Ailean said as he walked into the hall. “Come back to the war room.”

“You have a war room?”

“Don’t you?”

Ghleanna waited until Bram and her father had walked off—while she tried not to notice her father taking the time to pinch her mother’s hip . . . weren’t they too old for this sort of thing?—before she turned to her mother and said, “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“You know exactly what I mean, Mum. And you’re going to stop right now.”

Ghleanna started to head to the table, ready to fight her way through her brothers for a scrap of bread, but her mother yanked her back.

“Why not?”

“You must be joking.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing. He’s just . . . just . . .”

“Just what?”

“A peacemaker.” And she’d dropped her voice to a whisper. “What would I do with a peacemaker?”

“The same thing I did with a whore.” And Shalin the Innocent sounded highly superior at the moment. “Made him mine.”

“I have no intention of making Bram the Merciful anything. Mine, yours, or ours.”

“Foolish girl! Right in your face. Right there. And has been . . . for years! Yet you continue to ignore what’s right before you, then you whine—”

“I do no such thing.”

“—about worthless scum like Feoras.”

“Mum . . . ”

“Fine. Fine. Don’t listen to your mother who is never wrong. See how far you get.” Then she lifted the hem of her skirt and flounced away. Her mother was an excellent flouncer. A skill Ghleanna had thankfully never learned. Instead she stomped like a proper warrior and threw Hew and Cai away from the table and head-butted Adain so she could get some food.