by Zoey Ellis
As she was making her way to the exit, an aide approached her tentatively. “Excuse me, Guardian Oshali,” she said, wringing her hands nervously. “But there’s someone for you at the dragorai meeting spot.”
Oshali was surprised he’d found her already. “Tell him—”
“My apologies, Guardian, but I do not feel comfortable telling him anything.”
Oshali sighed. It was only fitting that they would have their last talk on the ledge. “I will see him, thank you,” she said to the aide, before making her way back up to the ledge.
Walking into the old area of sanctum, she was surprised how much it was like Tyomar’s lair.
Exploring Tyomar’s lair had been interesting.
It was cozier than she thought it would be, furnished in a simple, elegant, and masculine style. The tunnels and caves were similar to the old part of the sanctum, except Tyomar’s lair seemed to have his feel and personality imbued into everything. She’d enjoyed it. The paintings on the walls suited him, as did the color of his chambers and the general decor around the room. It was somewhat orderly but also relaxed. When he’d let her explore, she’d lost herself in everything new he’d shown her, the rooms, the staff… anything so that she wouldn’t have to think.
Tyomar had observed her, sometimes himself, sometimes he’d had his staff doing it. She knew he was trying to make sure she was all right, but there wasn’t anything he could do about her utter disappointment in him.
She’d tried to explain her point of view as reasonably as she could, but he hadn’t listened. He expected her to simply trust whatever he said, but why should she? He still hadn’t given her a reason for leaving that night, and her heat had long ended, but the problems between them were more than just that night. She could see the potential of a home in his lair, but he had spoiled everything by beginning the bonding process after she’d just told them they couldn’t be together.
And all this nonsense about her being his mate… How could that be possible? If they were mates, surely they would know it. They’d know each other for seven years.
Anyway, this would be the last time she’d speak to him. She planned to tell him she had no intention of going back to his lair and the bonding process would never be finished. If he fought her, she would fight back, and this time she’d do it with everything she could muster. Granted, she would probably never bond with anyone else now, but there was nothing she could do about it
However, when Oshali stormed out onto the ledge, Tyomar wasn’t there. She came to a stop near the center of the ledge, looking around for him, but saw no one.
An ear-shattering screech shook the entire ledge and a dragon flew past, so close, she could see every scale on his body.
Oshali gasped, stretching her arms out to steady herself. The dragon twisted in the air and flew out over the realm, streaking again.
Oshali caught her breath as she watched it, soaring over the land and heading back toward her. Was it Tyomar’s dragon? Had he sent his dragon here for her?
As the creature came closer, he slowed this time to hover a few feet from the ledge, its enormous wings flapping. Oshali stepped forward, trying to see if it was the same dragon, and it looked like it was. He was dark as midnight, with a golden sheen that hit his body when certain areas were lit. There was something else about him too. He had ridges on his head; it looked as if this was Tyomar’s dragon.
“Where is Tyomar?” she said out loud.
The dragon let out another noise, and a small puff of smoke. Oshali eyed him. The dragorai-dragons were smarter than their non-bonded counterparts, and in the records there was evidence that dragorai-dragons had the capability to be quite intelligent. But she couldn’t guess what Tyomar’s dragon wanted if Tyomar wasn’t with him. It looked like he was waiting for her to do something, though she couldn’t imagine what.
The dragon came forward again, and this time landed his back claws onto the ledge before pushing away and twisting, shooting out into the air, screeching at the top of his lungs.
That reminded her of the last time she was on this ledge with Tyomar. She stepped forward, peering at the dragon. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid of him. Every single meeting she had with Tyomar, this dragon had been there. He was familiar. To know that he also was the one to take her at birth, and also to catch her in midair when she escaped the queen, he almost felt as familiar as Tyomar.
Taking a moment to cast and draw magic around her, she ran and jumped off the ledge, magic swirling around her as it soared her over the range. She closed her eyes, holding her arms out as she soared. The animalistic rumble that surrounded her made her look for the dragon, and he was flying underneath her just like he did before. Oshali laughed, and changed the trajectory, curving over the range and heading toward a different part of it, and the dragon followed. She changed direction again, and the dragon stayed in line with her. This was really strange! Tyomar’s dragon may have been attached to her from what happened with the heat. They never should have done that on his back and expected him not to form an attachment. Still, what Guardian Vy had said rolled over in her mind.
Oshali sighed and headed away from the mountain range, back to the border where her journey had started. She may as well choose a route that she was familiar with and start making her way across the realm to find somewhere to settle, for a while at least.
Unfortunately, Tyomar’s dragon followed.
As she soared, Tyomar's dragon matched her pace and speed, and flew underneath her, his large body like a swerving shadow. Whether she changed direction, pace, or speed, the dragon matched consistently, and she soon realize that he was not planning on leaving her be.
Oshali decided to ignore him and headed to the border of Tyomar's mountain range, but as she flew toward it, the dragon matched her speed and then slowly inched upward. He inched higher and higher until his back was just nearly touching hers.
"What are you doing?" she called, alarmed and frustrated.
The dragon inched up higher again and Oshali fell onto his back!
Oshali sat up stunned, as the dragon soared around away from the border and headed back across the range.
Bewildered she began casting again and jumped off the dragon in the opposite direction. Within moments, the dragon was underneath her again, inching upward until she was lying on his back wondering how she got there.
After the third time, she couldn't help but laugh. This dragon had to be as stubborn as Tyomar himself.
She leaned forward and patted his back. "You cannot do this forever, my friend," she said. "I need to leave this range, and I’ll travel on foot if I have to do."
The dragon let out a strange sound, almost like a snort at the back of his throat. And Oshali had to laugh again at how insolent it sounded.
"Why don't you go home, boy?" she murmured to him. She was sure Tyomar called him Ryn. "If you are here, that means Tyomar can't come after me." As she said it, she realized that how true it was. If Tyomar had realized she was gone by now, he wouldn't be able to come after her so easily without his dragon. He couldn’t possibly be happy about that; although, she was somewhat glad it gave her a chance to get away.
"He must be calling you," she said, stroking the dragon's back.
She took a moment to look at him properly. Usually he was too far away for her to see, and the last time she was on his back, she’d been in her heat. He was a beautiful creature. On the back of his neck, in between his neck and his back, was soft satin patch of scales, which was where his rider should sit. Based on what she'd read, not all dragorai-dragons had the change in scales, but the ones that did tended to have a deep connection with their alpha counterparts and evolved to accommodate them, providing an area of their body where their rider could sit.
But the more she thought about it the more she wondered whether that had been in any record other than those pertaining to the Vattoro clan. The Vattoro were one of the oldest dragorai lines, if not the oldest, which might be why they maintained such fero
city in their nature, although, Tyomar and his dragon were not exactly a typical example of that. Tyomar had always been pretty easygoing when dealing with her in their visits over the years. The only time she’d ever seen his temper or any strong emotion from him was the day he made his displeasure known about her attending his brothers’ interviews and not his. Oshali smiled. Obviously he hadn't liked it because he'd been jealous, and it didn't occur to her at the time that he’d felt that way about her.
She glanced down at his dragon, also remembering that riding on the back of a dragorai-dragon was almost unheard of unless you were the dragorai or someone close to the dragorai. Why was Tyomar's dragon forcing her to ride him? Granted, she wasn’t exactly a stranger to him, but what was the purpose of this? He couldn’t know she was leaving.
Oshali looked around, trying to figure out where he was heading to but he seemed to simply be taking his time flying over his range, casual and relaxed. This was most unusual.
She decided to stay on the dragon to catch her breath after casting for so long, and she kept an eye on his flight and trajectory. Taking the scroll out of her bag, she unrolled it, and looked again at all the different couples and how they connected. She searched for the queen. Her name on the tree was Oashana but underneath in brackets there were four other names; Orelle, Odessa, Osyth, and Ofiyah. Oshali frowned. She hadn’t noticed that before, but why would the queen need so many names?
She shook her head, deciding to did not want to care. The queen was a riddle all on her own, and Oshali was glad to be rid of her. She wasn't sure that she would be rid of her completely, simply because the woman could hold a significant grudge, but Oshali would take all precautions to stay out of her way, and that meant covering her face constantly.
She continued examining the scroll, looking for any indication that there was magic attached to it. Magical items were usually flagged and highlighted by the guardians if they were sending somebody on an assignment to collect one, so she didn't think to try magically unraveling the scroll, but this assignment was clearly different from the norm. Vy probably expected her to be curious enough to examine the scroll, but she’d been too distracted by the queen to even think of it. She only wished she’d known about it all in advance so she could have done things differently. But there was no use dwelling on that now.
Holding up the scroll, she peered at it carefully, and as she floated on Tyomar’s dragon over his range, she began to cast incantations to reveal any magical properties attached to it.
The scroll flared in a mix of brilliant greens and blues, a burst of sparks releasing from it as the magic it contained was revealed. It seemed the family tree had been layered over another piece of parchment, so it was two parchments fused into one.
Oshali closed her eyes and thought back carefully about which incantation to cast to reveal a hidden parchment. Magical concealments were not her area of interest, but dealing with potential magical items was one of the main focuses of her guardian training.
Finally she began to cast, ensuring once again her precision in her pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. The scroll glowed for a moment, and when Oshali unrolled it, a piece of parchment fell out.
It was a hand-written letter.
Dear Mheyu guardians of the dragorai,
By the grace of the Seven, I thank you for taking in my daughter, Oshali. You cannot possibly understand the relief I feel that she is safe with you and on a dragorai range that is difficult to access. I worried for her safety many times, but never more so than soon after she was born. Allow me to explain.
My beautiful wife, Oshali's mother, is a descendant from an ancient, royal bloodline. The pressure to reproduce has always been placed firmly on her shoulders. Queen Odessa applies an incredible amount of unrelenting pressure and has done so since I met my wife, interfering in our relationship and even using potions to induce our breeding states. The queen is deathly afraid of her line dying out and no longer having a legacy to claim that she is special to the Goddesses and therefore has the right to continue the current war with the north. She has cast some kind of incantation that has stopped her aging, and she believes she will rule the south forever. However, she wishes to still have heirs to prove to others the strength of her blood and to distract her people from her continued lack of care of their needs and the Dominion.
Oshali is not meant for this. My wife, Orsha, was frequented by a dragon twice during her pregnancy while we lived in one of the provinces. Of course, the dragon could only be a dragorai-dragon since there are no others that I am aware of. This particular one had no rider and was unexpectedly playful, which I know sounds terribly strange for me to say, considering the dragorai-dragons are the most vicious of them all. But that is what my wife and I experienced. He or she enjoyed flying and huffing out smoky air, sitting with us, and would even respond when we called and waved.
We were under no illusion that this dragon was here for the child. At first we thought it meant that we were having a male child, which would not have pleased the queen, since dragorai-alphas are selected by their dragons at birth. Imagine our surprise when it was a girl! We can only guess that our child has been touched by the Goddesses to get her own dragon, especially since this one had no rider. And what a blessing that is. There is no bigger compliment. However, if the queen finds out she would be utterly furious! There is no doubt that my child would be in imminent danger.
Once the baby was born, this dragon visited twice more and since we were then living at the palace people noticed. The queen insisted on moving the baby out of our room and into her nursery, for her own safety. (I believed not a word of it.) Thankfully, as soon as the baby was moved, the dragon attacked the nursery and took her. This was not a surprise to my wife and I, but the queen was furious. She assumed that the dragon had eaten her, and so she spread this as fact to garner sympathy from her people. We allowed this lie to stand, as we could not have the queen suspicious about the true nature of our daughter's relationship with her dragon. The ultimate gift is that she would be the first of many new female dragorai and return the Twin Realms back to the Dragorai Age when lesser-mortals were not the ones controlling everyone’s fates and living circumstances.
After the baby was taken, my wife died under suspicious circumstances. I did not stay, knowing the queen would poison me. I will be spending the rest of my life in the Mheyu sanctum in the south. I hope the queen will never discover me, but I am prepared to move on if she does.
Please take care of my Oshali. Let her know she belongs with her dragon. And that her parents love her deeply.
Sincerest of thanks,
Duke Haldron Waldemare
13
Oshali was numb.
Her father believed she was a dragorai simply based on the repeated visits of a dragon, which had to have been this one—Tyomar's dragon. Her father had never known Ryn had a rider… and what would have he thought if he had? Would he have been thrilled that she was, instead, the mate of the dragorai-male? It seemed as though he would have been. He and her mother were supportive of the dragorai, a fact that warmed her insides. She wondered if he was still alive. The disgust the queen had for the Mheyu could mean she might have left them and him alone—or she could have obliterated them.
This was what the guardians had been trying to make sure she read, and she hadn't examined it thoroughly enough to know any of this before the queen captured her, before the queen had ultimately lied to her about her parents. Her father seemed to think that the queen poisoned her mother, but that didn’t make sense. Especially when her mother could have had another child, and the queen could have induced another heat.
Oshali read the letter again and shook her head in disgust. So much made sense now. It was unlikely that the queen would ever stop coming after Oshali now that she knew that she was out there. It seemed as though she would prefer Oshali dead rather than living.
She took a breath and exhaled slowly as her thoughts returned to the dragorai.
Bot
h Guardian Vy and Tyomar both said she was his mate, and her father even assumed she would be a female dragorai. She hadn’t sat in on the interview with the omega who mated Tyomar's brother. Was she similar to Oshali? She struggled to believe how that could be true. After everything she’d read and studied, it didn't seem possible. But maybe she was being blinded by her disappointment with Tyomar’s behavior. Maybe she should think whether or not she really wanted to be with Tyomar, not disputing whether or not she was his mate. His dragon had certainly taken to her.
Oshali eyed him as he flew over the range, tilting and swooping. Her father had said that the dragon was playful… She thought back to how he acting as though he was playing catch with her earlier. Maybe he was.
Oshali patted his satin scales and stood up, replacing the scroll back in her bag. Turning around, she began to cast, lifted off the dragon's back, and shot in the other direction.
A rumbling roar sounded behind her, and when she glanced back, the dragon was looping around, twisting and spiraling before shooting after her.
Oshali laughed and pushing herself faster, but it was only a few moments before the dragon caught up with her again, flying underneath her and inching higher and higher until she was once again on his back.
Oshali couldn't help but grin.
She spent the rest of the day with the dragon in contemplation. She reread the scroll, re-examining her father's words and thinking about what both Tyomar and the guardians had said.
The dragon flew to an area of the range that had a beautiful roaring waterfall, and Oshali barely had time to notice before he flew under it. Yelling in surprise, she jumped from his back. Turning to look at him, she saw him dive again under the waterfall, flicking his wings and tail and sending water everywhere. She laughed and silently bid him farewell, before heading back to the border. The dragon seemed too consumed by his bath to notice, and she was sure she would escape the range this time.