Page 94 of Dragon’s Ending

Mortimer settled back into his chair once more.

“Rhodri,” he said pleasantly, “would you and Ben give Dominic and me a few minutes?”

Absolutely not. Every instinct I possessed objected violently to leaving Dominic alone with this man. Dominic’s dragon stirred visibly behind his eyes.

Mortimer noticed that too. “You may trust me not to eat him,” he said dryly.

“I’m not entirely convinced,” I muttered.

To my horror, Rhodri made a sudden choking sound that might conceivably have begun life as laughter. He rose to his feet and attempted to usher me towards the door. I refused to move until Dominic gave me a tiny nod.

I closed the door behind us and leaned against it, determined not to move so much as an inch.

“Well,” Rhodri said beside me. “Well.”

That about covered it. I looked at him and found he appeared more human than at any time since I’d given him that letter. A little confused, a lot concerned, and something else too. Proud, perhaps?

“Do you have any idea what’s going on in there?” I asked. I hoped he was unsettled enough to break the habit of a lifetime and actually share information.

He looked at me, and I saw the moment when he decided not to squash my impertinence.

“Not a clue,” he admitted, and settled against the wall, waiting.

Chapter Thirty-five

DOMINIC

Mortimer didn’t offer me a seat, and I didn’t take one. Too much adrenaline, but more than that—too much mistrust. He wanted to take Ben away.

“You know, it’s a fallacy to assume that because someone comes from a particular bloodline, they must have certain characteristics,” Mortimer said. Calmly, as if he were discussing the weather. “Yet dismissing the possibility entirely is as basic an error.”

I propped myself against the mantelpiece and watched him. As before, he wouldn’t be hurried, so I simply waited for him to get to whatever he was going to say.

“I had hoped that something of Bedivere might still be present in his descendants,” he said.

It was the kind of nonsense Ben and I had tossed back and forth, but neither of us believed it for a second. From Mortimer, for some strange reason, it didn’t feel like a joke.

“If he ever existed, it was centuries ago,” I pointed out. “Any bloodline would be completely watered down by now.”

“You’d think,” he agreed. “That’s certainly what I took from my initial meetings with your father.”

I moistened suddenly dry lips. Was he trying to get me to criticise Rhodri? Did he want our family to fight one another? To weaken us, make us easy pickings for the Mortimers?

“You know, Arthur trusted Bedivere with the symbol of his power, at the end of everything. And Bedivere proved himself worthy of that trust.”

I laughed. Couldn’t help it. “If you’re looking for a model of virtue in me, you’re going to be hilariously disappointed.”

“Perhaps,” Mortimer allowed. “Perhaps not. I make it my business, Dominic, to acquaint myself with the strengths and weaknesses of every head of family and their heirs. I admit, what I heard about you was not reassuring.”

Well fuck you very much. “What you heard? From who? Nothing leaves this family unless Rhodri allows it.”

“From whom,” Mortimer corrected. “Educational standards these days are shocking.” He tilted his head slightly in invitation. “Do come and sit down. It’s like having a conversation with the leaning tower of Pisa.”

There was no point in disagreeing for the sake of it, so I straightened up from the mantelpiece and sat in what had been Rhodri’s seat.

“People know more than they realise, and they tell others more than they think they have,” Mortimer said. “I had heard you were volatile, immature, and reckless.”

I was glad I was sitting down, because it was easier to hide just how deeply that damning summary had cut. It was like being hauled in front of Rhodri all over again.