We’d grown complacent in the preceding centuries of peace with the dragons who resided within our kingdom’s territory. There was no cause to have a well-trained army at our disposal, be it men or women, but ever since a curse had supposedly plagued the drackya in our lands twenty-seven years ago, the way of life our kingdom had known crumbled to the ground.
We weren’t able to withstand the year-round frigid temperatures of the most northern reaches of Andrathya. The majority of our food supply came from the oceans bordering the dragon’s tip of the mountain range. With being cut off from that, besides the few rivers that ran from the ocean and into our land at the southern tip, we’d been forced to overhunt the forest.Soon, rations would need to be established to prevent in-fighting amongst our citizens.
I wished that was our only problem…
In recent years, there had been an increasing public outcry for us to deploy our army to find all of our missing citizens who had been taken by the beasts, driving my father into the position of a possible mutiny if he didn’t soon acquiesce.
Although I wasn’t sure how he expected to win a war against the dragons, if that was the route we were heading in, considering none of our men had ever seen war and our numbers were nowhere near enough for that scale of an attack. They’d wipe us out with ease. We were mere humans against dragons, after all. Even if the undine dragons left the war to the drackya to handle, we couldn’t win.
Dirt and small stones scratched underneath Brenson’s boot as he tried to shift his weight, and I pressed my sword in harder. “Don’t try it,” I hissed out in warning.
His feet stilled and he shrugged, a small, deceptive smile gracing his face. “I think you have me for the day.”
Still, he didn’t say the exact words needed to call the duel to an end. Did he think he could trick me with a mere switch of words?
I shook my head and let out an exaggerated yawn that likely appeared fake for the dramatics of the moment but was mostly real. I was running myself ragged having spent every hour in our royal library since receiving that letter. That voice within me spurred me to search for any information I could find that had to do with our northern enemies. I wanted to be able to participate in discussions, and offer my own thoughts, but quickly realized I’d never looked too deeply into the history of our lives before the curse.
I was well-versed on the ley lines that provided the magical affinities of dragons and drackya, while also maintaining theclimates needed to support their specific element. But if it were about the bonds and relations between humans and the beasts, my knowledge was severely lacking.
It wasn’t like I had anyone around to ask about it, considering those who were old enough to remember those times, that still lived within our lands, were very hush about the subject. It was as if they feared the curse could transfer to them if they even spoke about it. It was said that the drackya were cursed while in their human forms, to not be able to fully shift back, leaving glimpses of their inner beasts on display. How that could be transferred to us, considering we didn’t have the ability to shift, was beyond me, but I digressed. Fear was a palpable force.
“Oh yeah?” I retorted, refusing to move a muscle. If he wanted to fake being conversational, I could play that game. “I was up all night in the library trying to prepare for a council meeting I’ve been summoned to today. How does it feel to know that I’m still kicking your ass after getting no sleep?”
His jaw dropped, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the admission of being included in a council meeting, or that I was truly running on no sleep and still handling our fight with ease.
I thought back to my night as he pondered my words.
What I learned about the drackya from my tutor growing up was that they were the voice for the full-blooded dragons, who vehemently refused to mindspeak with humans, unless said human was a rare rider.
It was openly discussed in our history books that the drackya were the male offspring of the elemental gods, and witches were the female offspring. What wasn’t discussed in the books were the whispered bonds that humans and drackya supposedly shared before the curse.
I’d not been born until that symbiotic relationship between the undine drackya and the humans of our kingdom ceasedto exist, so having a soulmate that was half dragon at heart sounded like the thing of tales. It was almost as unbelievable to me as the thought of a curse being placed in our lifetime. Witches were rumored to have been eradicated centuries ago when the dragons and drackya teamed up, coveting the magic of the ley lines.
Brenson let out a throaty growl seconds before he used his height to his advantage, boldly shoving his shoulder up into the blade as his head pulled away from the deadly-sharp blade.
“About time you make a move. I was growing bored,” I murmured, flashing a toothy grin as I gave in to the heady rush of dopamine that flooded my system at his refusal to concede.
He did exactly what I expected, and I side-stepped quickly, noticing all his weight shifting into his left foot that had crept back, showcasing his intent to surge forward and knock me back onto my ass with brute strength alone. Brenson was the only person I’d ever fought, but from observing our guards for countless hours, it seemed the majority of men relied far too much on their weight, rather than their nimbleness.
Pulling the pommel of my sword up behind his head as he staggered by me, I wasted no time in bringing it down hard into the back of his skull. He crumpled to the ground, like I imagined the stone walls of our castle would if the weight of a dragon was to bear down upon them. There was no recourse as he lifted his hand to the area I’d struck.
“When did you become so fast?” he groaned with his face still firmly planted against the dirty ground. “This is getting embarrassing. Truly, I need to be sober for these fights now.”
I bent down to pat his leather-padded shoulder. “Whatever excuse makes you feel better about yourself, Commander. Take pride in knowing it was at least you that’s trained me all these years.”
He’d proven to be the only swordsman in this damned kingdom that cared about my desire to learn the blade and stick up for me.
Before he could respond, a roar echoed from the edge of our territory, sending a shiver of excitement and dread down my spine as my eyes snapped in that direction. A dark shadow flew high through the morning mist that still coated the mountains. The dragon was far enough out that I couldn’t make out its color or true size to know its abilities, but it didn’t matter, as long as it wasn’t silver. Only the royal line of drackya shifters were silver, the full-blooded undine dragons remaining shades of blue, so if we saw a silver beast, I feared their own army would be only moments behind them, following their king into battle.
I held my breath as I waited to see what direction it flew in, but quickly released it as the dragon faded into the higher clouds. Likely scouting. They were becoming emboldened by the month, coming closer and closer without retribution from us,yet. I hoped today’s meeting would give me insight on what my father planned to do about it. For far too long women had lived in fear of a taloned foot plucking them into the air as we went about our day to day lives. If they didn’t want to wage a war for that sake alone, they needed to do it before we began to starve to death.
My head jerked toward the sounds of scurrying of feet, light enough in their steps that I knew it wasn’t one of Brenson’s men on patrol. None of them were that graceful. Only the tail end of a gray dress caught my eye before it disappeared, the person ducking into one of the small doors near the foot of the storehouse that I knew opened into a small servant’s corridor leading in the direction of the kitchen.
Shit.We’d been seen.
Chapter Two
SIYANA
