Page 57 of First Light
Carys blinked. “Why not?”
Because you cannot trust anyone here.
Lachlan sat across from her,his back to the same rock where Duncan had been sitting before he stomped down the hill, muttering something about getting back to work now that Cadell was around.
The dragon was stretched along the top of the ridge, his tail wrapped around his body and his eyes closed. He wasn’t sleeping. He was fully focused on her but trying to afford her and Lachlan a level of privacy.
“Cadell likes this place.” Lachlan looked at the dragon. “It’s good to see him.”
“Was he always with Seren?”
“Not as a child.” Lachlan cleared his throat. “Aisling told you that she was raised here. And Seren was too. The three of us and my cousin Harold from the Anglian court.”
“You told me you grew up together.”
Lachlan nodded. “We all played together as children. I have two siblings, you know.”
Carys shook her head. “How would I know that? You only ever mentioned Duncan.”
“Because I know him better than my brother and my sister.” He pulled at the grass beside him. “Nora is in Éire and Rory is in Cymru.”
“Because of this pact thing.”
He nodded. “So I had Duncan and Seren. Aisling and Harold. But when Cadell found Seren?—”
“What do you mean, when he found her?”
“Dragons know when a human is their nêr. It usually happens around… eleven or twelve, I think?”
Cadell spoke softly in her mind.Seren was the sixth nêr I served. You are the seventh.
“Seren was ten,” Lachlan continued. “Cadell sensed her and flew here.” He nodded at the round tower. “Right here in fact. All of us were playing and we heard thunder in the distance. Harold knew exactly what it was, and he ran screaming.” Lachlan’s eye twitched. “They see more dragons in Anglia; he was afraid.”
“But not Seren?”
“No.” Lachlan smiled. “She was a Cymric princess. Her father is a nêr ddraig. She’d been raised with dragons from birth. For Seren, dragons were her protectors. Her nannies even.”
“So she wasn’t afraid.”
He shook his head. “She climbed to the top of the tower and stretched out her arms.” His eyes drifted to the rocky ruin, lost in the memory. “She held out her arms like she was waiting for him. I’d never seen her more excited. She knew. As soon as he appeared, she knew he was for her.”
“And he stayed here?”
“No, he took her.” Lachlan looked at Cadell. “He wrapped his giant claw around Seren’s little body and snatched her up like an eagle hunting a fish. Aisling was screaming and Harold had already run, but I tried to climb up and save her. I didn’t know what was happening.” He blinked and looked back at Carys. “My father explained when I ran home. I was crying. I thought the dragon would kill her.” He shook his head. “I didn’t understand why she had to leave.”
“Where did she go?”
“Back to Cymru. To Caernarfon. Another Cymric lord’s child was sent to fulfill the Queens’ Pact.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” He picked up a rock and tossed it down the hill. “Dragon takes your friend away. No worries, have another.”
She saw the loss written over his face. “You missed her.”
“She wrote us letters. Aisling and I. She trained in Cymru with Cadell. All nêr ddraig have to be trained as warriors, not diplomats like her training with my mother had been. She’d been learning languages and fae lore and history, but after Cadell came, she had to learn how to fight and shoot. How to attack from a coracle in battle.”
So her dead sister wasn’t just a princess but a badass too. Carys felt proud and jealous all at once. “The guard in the courtyard this morning said she was a good fighter.”