Rebel Bride_A Reverse Harem Dragon Fantasy by Ava Sinclair

Author:Ava Sinclair [Sinclair, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

THERA

“It’s come to eat us up.” The little girl’s voice is flat as her finger traces the image of a dragon with her finger. “But first it will roast us with its fire.”

Hers was one of the cottages set alight by the small dragons that attacked here days ago. Her mother sent for me. She’s hoping I can make a tonic to soothe the seven-year-old’s nerves. She says the child has not been the same since the incident. The happy child who used to help her mother cook now sits in a corner etching images of death into the dirt.

“He’s not so scary.” I settle beside her and reach into my basket for a slice of dried fig. She looks at it, looks away. I try something else. “That’s a very pretty cat you’ve drawn.”

“It’s not a cat. It’s a monster.”

I cock my head. “Are you sure, Lia?” I put my finger to her drawing and begin to transform it. Horns become ears. Jowls become whiskered cheeks. Wings become the arched back of a kitten at play. The cottage underneath its now-padded feet becomes a ball of yarn. Lia is giggling. She draws another dragon. I quickly change it into another kitten. I make it a game. As fast as Lia can draw dragons, I make them kittens until she is making kittens, too. Her mother gives me a grateful look as she moves around the room, careful not to step on what Lia now calls “my kittens.”

Once the child is smiling and drawing them on her own, I stand and walk over to her mother, who gives me a hug.

“You’re a treasure, Thera. You’d be such a good mother.” She falls quiet. “Is it true what they are saying? That the lords who guard this village plan to take you to wife in their way?”

I search her face for judgement. “Would it change how you see me?” I ask.

She shakes her head. Alma is a kind woman, but honest. “No,” she says. “But not everyone feels the same. They believe Ceril deserved death. Your father and husband were well-loved. Some are bound to be jealous to think of you living apart from us in the castle one day while we scratch out a living in the valley below.”

I turn to her. “Much of this is out of my hands,” I say. “Understand that I will continue to serve my people.” I pause then, thinking of the resentment I felt when the Drakoryan Brides brought food to the village. Will others feel the same towards me? I feel guilty now for encouraging rejection of the brides, who did not make the choice to leave their people and only sought to return with help. Perhaps, I think, this is the price I pay for my misguided hatred.

Alma’s daughter needs no tonic. She’s happily playing when I leave, and I am pleased to be given leave to serve my people, even if I am to be married to the rulers. As I walk through the village, I think of them.

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