Last Dragon Standing
“Bull’s-eye! Ten points!” the dragon cheered.
Izzy flailed wildly, trying to find a way to land that wouldn’t shatter a shoulder or knee. But before Izzy could fly out the other end of the tent, where she was often grabbed by another tail and tossed somewhere else, big hands plucked her out of midair.
Panting, relieved, she looked up into a face she knew well because it looked so much like her grandfather’s.
“Honestly, Izzy,” her Great Uncle Addolgar chastised. “What are you playing at?”
“Me? ” Why did they think it was always her? True, she’d been known to throw herself from one dragon back to another while hundreds of miles above the earth, but that was her choice, wasn’t it? This particular game was not her choice, but it had turned out that those dragons she thought of as cousins and kin, didn’t care. They insisted on treating her like a human shot, and no one seemed to care! Least of all her great aunt and great uncle.
“Don’t start all that caterwauling,” her uncle warned.
“I do not cater—”
“Why are you here?”
“My commander sent me back. He wanted you to see this.” She held out the strip of leather, and her uncle took it, then dropped her. Izzy’s ass hit the ground hard, but she kept in her grunt of pain. It wasn’t easy.
“Where’d you get this?”
“From that little town you sent us to check out. The barbarians had already been and gone. I found that in the dirt by a house.”
“Oy. Ghleanna. Look at this.”
Izzy’s Great Aunt Ghleanna got up from the chair she’d been sitting in, drinking her afternoon ale. With her hand still around the battered mug, she took the leather from Addolgar and studied it. “Shit and piss,” she finally said.
“What is it?” Izzy asked, trying to get another look.
“Mind your own,” Addolgar told her, pushing her back by planting his excessively large hand against her forehead and doing just that—pushing her back.
She hated when he did that.
The siblings walked over to a corner and talked in hushed whispers while Izzy tried to listen without appearing to. Eventually, as they sometimes did, the pair began to argue, but for some reason Izzy got the feeling they were arguing about her. That was strange. It seemed as if they barely noticed her these days.
“It’s a mistake,” Addolgar said to his sister’s back as she walked up to Izzy. But, like most days, Ghleanna ignored him.
“You were coming back with us to Garbhán Isle, yeah? When we leave in four days?”
Izzy nodded and held her breath. She’d feared this would happen.
That something would come up and she’d be unable to return home. She wanted to go home so badly. Not to stay, of course—she had too much to do—but she hadn’t seen her family in two years. She missed them all, but especially her mum. She wanted to see her mum.
“Looks like you’ll be going back earlier.”
Izzy bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t smile. “Oh?”
“Yeah. But before you go, I think there’s something you should know first.”
“And I think you should stay out of it,” Addolgar snapped.
“Shut up, brother.”
Izzy began to panic. “Is everyone all right? Is Mum—”
“She’s fine, Izzy. She’s fine.” Ghleanna handed the leather to her.
“When you get back, give this to Annwyl. Tell her it’s the fourth bit like this that we’ve found. She’ll understand.”
“All right.”
Ghleanna placed her hand on Izzy’s shoulder. “But about your mum…”
“Is she coming back for the celebration?” Keita asked, slowly pacing around the room with her niece still in her arms. The entire time the babe’s gaze never left Keita’s face.
“They all are. Ghleanna, Addolgar, all their offspring. Some of your father’s cousins who work the desert borders will hold the line in the west until after the celebration.” Talaith watched her for a moment, then asked,
“I’m glad you came back, luv. If nothing else, I know Izzy will be overjoyed to see you. She writes about you often.”
Keita couldn’t help but smile. “Does she?”
Talaith snorted, rolled her eyes. “You are joking? She’s adored you since the first time you two met and you said in that cultured lilting voice of yours, which none of your other siblings have, ‘Well, by the gods, isn’t Briec’s daughter absolutely beautiful.’” Talaith sneered and added, “Suck up.”
“I wasn’t lying, your daughter is beautiful. Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”
They both laughed until Talaith’s youngest daughter suddenly focused her intense gaze on the door.
“Should I be flying her to safety?” Keita asked when all on the other side of the door remained quiet.
“No. It’s merely this incredible sense she’s had since birth to know when her cousins are nearby.”
As if on cue, the nursery door opened, and Fearghus walked in.
“You came to see Briec’s offspring before mine?”
“Her mother led the way. You, however, were too busy laughing at Gwenvael.”
He snorted. “Well, that was funny.”
“Where are they?” Keita asked, trying to see over and under his excessively wide shoulders by moving about. “With the nanny?” Her brother snorted again. “They lost her hours ago. They tracked me down themselves.”