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Female or male child.
The sex does not matter, no matter what the current tradition is. We could leave if our youngling was not acceptable.
Kymri’s insides turn upside down. She couldn’t even think about leaving. She couldn’t abandon her queen and her people.
Our queen would understand.
Would she?
My duty is to protect her, with my life. Nothing else matters except the continuation of my queen’s life and safety, she told her dragon.
She could practically feel her dragon roll her eyes at her. I know that. The Council are the ones who decided that male children should leave. The queen had male children and had to sacrifice her relationship with them to protect her people. She can’t leave. You can if they pressure you.
You are not royalty; we are not tied to this island.
I don’t want to leave. It’s my home.
What is more important? Your home, or your child?
Kymri looked down at her flat stomach. She could still feel the hard weight inside her womb.
She couldn’t decide that so quickly.
Until she’d only just discovered the pregnancy, she had not wanted children at all. And now she was being faced with a decision to keep the child, or not, to leave her home, or not. How could she decide so quickly?
Was it like this for all dragonesses?
She wondered.
Her mother had told her she hadn’t wanted a child either.
Kymri had figured that out long ago.
She saw how other dragonesses had been so close and bonded to their young. Marli’s mother was very close to her; they were nearly inseparable.
Her throat suddenly thickened. Each time she’d witnessed Marli and her mother’s relationship, she’d always found an excuse to leave them alone and find other things to do.
Kymri strove to ignore how this made her feel.
She’d had her mother there. She was present in her way. There was just no emotional bond between them. Their relationship was a thin thread of genetics and proximity.
Resentment clawed up her chest. It was familiar, she’d felt it many times, but it didn’t serve her, so she swallowed it back down. She didn’t want to be bitter and resentful.
She just wanted to fulfill her duty to her people and her queen. This was her identity.
Emotions complicated things.
She was just the best guardian she could be.
Simple. Uncomplicated. Straightforward, that was all.
This was her life mission.
Everything else was a distraction.
And yet she was now facing the fact that she could no longer keep life as simple and straightforward as she wanted to.
Biology and instinct muddied her path.
