Last Dragon Standing

“Unlike those two.”

In response, Fearghus’s little girl pulled back her arm to toss her wooden blade at her uncle’s head, but Fearghus yanked it away from her before she could carry through.

The baby clung to Briec, small arms wrapped around his neck. But, for the first time, Keita noticed that she didn’t smile.

“Does she not smile?” Keita asked, and she knew it was the wrong question when both Talaith and Fearghus winced and Briec snapped, “She’ll smile when she’s gods-damn ready!”

“Don’t bark at me!” Keita snapped back. “It was a simple question.”

“Well, if you’d been here, you wouldn’t have to ask those bloody questions!”

“Bring that up one more time, Briec, and I’m—”

“Flouncing back to your cave?” Fearghus asked.

“Oh, shut up!”

“You know what we haven’t told her?” Talaith suddenly asked, a big grin on her face as she jumped to her feet. “The children’s names.” Talaith stroked her hand down Fearghus’s girl’s black hair. “This is Talwyn.” Then she tickled the boy’s cheek. “This is Talan.” She held up her hands and, as if she were offering something for sale, she announced, “And this…this is Rhianwen.”

Keita’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped away from her safe window, barely noticing Fearghus’s twins were crawling away from her until they again hid behind their father’s shoulders. “Rhianwen?” Keita all but roared.

“You named her Rhianwen?”

Briec raised a silver brow. “Is there a problem with that, sister?”

“Why not just curse her with the name Despair? Or Bringer of Misery?”

“I happen to like the name Rhianwen. And before you say it, Rhianwen is not that similar to Mother’s name.”

“You’re pathetic!” Keita accused her brother. “Always sucking up to that she-cow! At least Fearghus had some backbone with his naming!” Briec turned on her. “Well, when you breed some hatchlings of your own, Mistress Whine, you can name them what you’d like! But as far as I’m concerned, any perfect offspring that are sprung from my loins deserves a majestic name— and that majestic name is Rhianwen! ” Disgusted beyond all reckoning, Keita stormed out of the room and down the hallway to the stairs. She was cutting through the Great Hall when Ren caught up to her.

“You look ready to roast an entire town. What’s wrong?”

“Rhianwen!” she exclaimed. “That suck-up named his daughter Rhianwen!”

“Rhianwen?” Ren exclaimed back. “Why not just call her Misery or She Who Despairs?”

Keita stopped, turned, and threw her arms around Ren, hugging him tight. “This is why I’ll always love you, my friend.” Laughing, he patted her back. “I know, old friend. I know.” Talaith shook her head. “That went well.”

“She started it,” Briec stated before holding his “perfect” daughter out to Talaith and announcing, “She looks to need nourishment. Unleash your br**sts for her.”

“Would you stop saying that!” she yelped over Fearghus’s laugh. “I hate when you say that!”

“Do you? I hadn’t noticed.”

Talaith snatched her child from her mate. “You do realize that when I’m finally forced to kill you, no one will blame me for it?”

“I know I won’t,” Fearghus tossed in, busy holding his children upside down by one leg each, grinning when they laughed and squealed.

Although neither of his children spoke. They never spoke. Except to each other and only in whispers…and in a language no one understood. The family had finally admitted it to each other when the twins were about one and the truth could no longer be avoided. But again, there were worse things that could happen with them, but it was still strange. The twins were strange.

Talaith walked across the room and sat in a rocking chair Briec had made for her right before Rhianwen had been born.

“Whatever you two do, please don’t scare off your sister before Izzy arrives in a few days. You know she’ll want to see Keita.” And, Talaith hoped, Keita might be the one being who could defuse Izzy’s rage when she found out the truth about Rhianwen.

Talaith hadn’t been lying to Keita when she’d told her no moment seemed to be right to tell Izzy about her sister. There was so much going on in the west, and the last thing Talaith wanted was for Izzy’s mind not being on her task. She didn’t want to send a letter with all the information, only to find out her daughter was ambushed a day later by barbarians because she wasn’t paying attention. Because she was worrying about her mum. That was how it felt in the beginning; then after the baby was born, it just seemed wrong to tell her in a letter. But Talaith had thought Izzy would have been home by now. That she would have told her by now.

But when Izzy got home in the next few days, it would be the first thing Talaith did. She’d make sure of that.

“We’re not going to scare her off,” Briec informed Talaith. “We’re simply making it clear that what she did was unacceptable and will not be tolerated again.”

“And how well that has worked for you in the past, eh?”

“Don’t try to tell me how to raise my baby sister.”

“Raise her? She’s nearly two hundred years old.”