Curse of the Dragon Shadow by Selina A. Fenech

Author:Selina A. Fenech [Fenech, Selina A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairies and Fantasy
Published: 2024-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The ground was hard and cold and Riony’s restless mind swirled with worry.

She worried that Dracuni was fading from starvation before her eyes.

She worried that a lack of sleep would make her falter tomorrow and fail to save Lyrrin.

She worried that the revenant who continued to growl and pace too close for comfort would suddenly burst through into the shrine and devour them all.

How could anyone sleep through that?

She hoped Lyrrin was able to get some rest. That she and the other children were at least being kept safe and alive by their captors. She figured they would be, for the most part. The children were a valuable commodity for the slavers.

But Riony also had enough experience with people who treated other humans as a commodity to know that they didn’t mind a little wastage.

Keep your head down, Lyrrin. Don’t let them see you marking the trail. And try to sleep. You get super cranky when you don’t sleep.

Riony sent her thoughts out into the dark night, as though she could connect with Lyrrin’s mind the way Dracuni seemed to connect with her own.

That was unlikely. Riony had to console herself in the knowledge that Lyrrin was a tough kid. Lyrrin’s mother had been strong, too. Riony knew that from being at the birth.

Riony had been Riony Uf’Heithorn, slave and whipping-girl to Kess, for years when Lyrrin’s mother came to the Heithorn estate.

She and Kess had watched through a high window as the elegant, determined young woman arrived by dragon, along with her mother and a dragonguard big enough that he could have been a dragon himself.

The woman had the whitest hair she’d ever seen, a slight bulge to her stomach, and a steely look of defiance that glared down on every command she was given by her mother even as she followed them. Riony had never crushed so hard and fast on anyone before the way she did on that bold young woman.

She projected an instant kinship with her from that feeling, that rebellion in the face of obedience. She tried out mimicking the young woman’s insolent expression that afternoon and got an extra-long whipping in return.

That evening, Riony had returned to the servants’ quarters, to the small room her family shared, as she did each day after her duties with Kess. And she begged her parents to take her and run away from that place, as she did each day after her time with Kess.

And just like each day, her amma and pabba said no. The Heithorns weren’t kind masters, but the world outside their protection would be even crueler.

“It couldn’t be worse than this,” Riony moaned as her mother applied an herbal ointment to the fresh wounds on her back.

Pabba had only just returned from his work in the fields and kicked his dirty boots off at the door. “You only say that because you’ve only ever lived under the protection of dragonlords.”

Amma tsked. “I’m so sorry that spoiled child treats you this way. I know she has troubles of her own, but she’s a right monster.

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