Singe My Nights: Dragons of Blood and Bone #2: A Viking Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance by Ava Ward

Author:Ava Ward [Ward, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonlight Publishing, LLC
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

16

FURY

My drakes and I make it back to the lodge just in time for Maryse’s send-off. As we dress in ceremonial clothing, eat a hasty bite, then assemble outside the house for the dawn procession, I see Maryse’s woven cane stretcher already waiting on the front porch of the lodge.

Maryse’s drakes surround her body on the stretcher, finishing up her send-off preparations. Dressed in her finest, a richly embroidered silver silk gown with a snow leopard pelt around her shoulders, Maryse’s body has been preserved by magic since her death.

Her long silver-white hair has been ornately braided, and her cheeks have a hint of color as she lays with her hands crossed over her chest. She doesn’t look dead, but like a warrior queen, ready to rise up and slay her foes the moment she reaches some far-off shore. But Maryse will never rise again, nor slay the foes that plagued her.

It’s our job to do it for her now.

As Trublut beckons and I come forward, Maryse’s drakes and I lay her ornately woven send-off net over her, covering her entire body except her face. Trublut nods us all to the four corners of the stretcher and, at his cue, we each take one pole of the stretcher and heft her up.

All of us are dressed in red, white, and black today, the traditional Blood Dragon colors of death, the Ancestors, and their endless Void, as we walk her body down to the wharf. My mates and her close friends follow, at the head of a long procession that moves down towards the wharf now, gathering more people as we meander through the village.

Trublut, Vjen, Khosh, and I hold a deep silence as we carry Maryse’s body down to the sea, and the procession maintains our silence. As we head down the last of the stone steps to the wharf where Maryse’s ship waits, Trublut rumbles a warning from the front of the stretcher, letting us know we’ve hit uneven footing.

We all watch where we place our feet now as we move down the last set of winding stairs to Jurggadden’s send-off pier. It seems like the entire village has turned out to watch Maryse’s send-off; they trail us in a long mass now, as we finally arrive at the elegant white oak Viking boat with a dragon’s head prow where she will take her final rest. As I balance carefully inside the boat with Maryse’s drakes, we maneuver the stretcher onto the send-off pyre inside the boat that Trublut built.

So Maryse can be buried at sea—and make her way to the Ancestors at last.

Torches light all up and down the strand now as we get Maryse settled inside the boat. Blood Dragons can’t breathe fire to bless the dead; instead, Trublut, Vjen, Khosh, and I all exhale as one now, as a whirl of multi-colored Bloodmist surges from us to Maryse’s body.

Where the net was once white lambswool, decorated with colorful beads, silk ribbons, and black and white feathers, our Bloodmist now saturates into the fibers.

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