Lora Leigh by Broken Wings

Author:Broken Wings
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Dearn glanced down at the young captive. He had been shocked to realize when he’d first snatched her that the humps on her back weren’t some terrible deformity. The unbound protrusions were actually the beginnings of wings. Unfortunately, it appeared they had been bound for the greater part of her life and never given the chance to grow properly.

It appeared the deaths among the Winged Clans had been going on far longer than he had thought.

There was no way a child could have been stolen from one of the Clans and news of it not travel to every aerie within the mountains. Her parents must have been killed and the child stolen. Yet even that explanation made little sense. Someone within the Clans would have noticed at the yearly meeting had any family gone unaccounted for.

As he carried her across the sky he felt her relax as instinct took over and she became an extension of him. Her body moved with his, her legs stiffening and extending out along his, her arms outstretched as though they would somehow make up for her lack of wings. There was a smile of utter joy on her face, and he could feel the small shudders of her tiny wings against his breast, fighting to mimic the actions of flight and freedom.

Holding her carefully, Dearn shifted until those crippled wings were free. They struggled to do as Ashrad had commanded them and carry their owner into independence and grace.

Pity filled Dearn’s heart. He could not imagine what it would be like to be denied flight. To know you had been meant to be one with the sky and the wind and yet forbidden that simple privilege. There could be no pain greater than that of lack of flight, he thought.

The binding of her wings, forever stealing from her the right to soar, was another crime to charge against the human king. That man would pay dearly for what he had done to the Clans—and to this child, as well. Such a creature should have been killed long ago, to save the innocent from the cruelties he could inflict upon them.

Still, Dearn now understood why Alfred had kept her locked away. She was Princess Allora—of this, he had no doubt. Her mother must have been of the Clans, and her father had carefully hidden it during her lifetime. He would have had to hide it, or else all the Clans would have sought retribution before now.

The only question left in his mind was the identity of her mother. There had been no women missing from the Clans that he knew of, no children stolen. And Dearn knew no woman would willingly give her child to a human. It was a crime punishable by death, but also a crime unheard of except within those long-ago Vulture Clans.

This discovery changed his plans, and those the Clan leaders had agreed to before he left. This woman could not be used against the king, nor could she be allowed to stand with her father and share his death.

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