Oshali landed at the main entrance of the Mheyu sanctum and took a moment to catch her breath.
The flight from Tyomar’s lair had been longer than she’d imagined. Thankfully, magic was so abundant here, it didn’t take too much thinking like it had in the realm. She scanned the skies to see if Tyomar was following her. She didn’t know how he could be in pursuit so quickly, but she was sure she saw a glimpse of a dragon as she sped to the sanctum.
Once her breathing had calmed, she tightened the bedsheets around her that she’d grabbed from Tyomar’s chambers, and gripped her travel pouch before making her way up to the sanctum entrance, stones digging into her bare feet from the path.
She wasn’t planning on staying long, but she had to speak to the guardians and get the answers she needed. And some clothes. She was sure they would be expecting her. There was no way they could send her on that kind of assignment and not realize she would return with questions.
As she entered, the familiar sights and sounds of the sanctum relaxed her. She exhaled, relieved about the familiarity—it almost brought tears to her eyes. But it wasn’t home. It wasn’t that deep-seated satisfaction that burrowed into her bones when she was with Tyomar. She pushed the thought out of her head and continued on, heading for the guardians’ sector.
The fosters she passed slowed down to watch her, their eyes wide, but she ignored them. No doubt they knew that she’d left, and no one was ever supposed to return. She wasn’t even wearing her Mheyu Gowns—there was no indication that she was a guardian at all.
She found Guardian Vy in her office.
“Oshali.” The elderly woman’s eyes widened before she broke into a huge grin when she saw her. “Welcome back! It’s so good to see you.”
Oshali didn’t smile with her. “Is it? Or were you hoping that I would be captured, bred, and killed?”
Vy’s smile faded. She leaned back in her chair. “I wasn’t sure how badly it would go.”
“Why didn’t you warn me! There is no excuse for sending me to the south and not telling me the truth! You told me that there was no information about my heritage or my upbringing or my background and family. You told me that for years! And now I find out that you not only knew something so crucial to who I am, but you sent me into such a dangerous situation.”
“Oshali,” Vy began. “Let me explain.” She gestured to the chair opposite her.
Oshali held still for a moment, breathing heavily as her anger waned. She wondered if she should even relax in the presence of this woman. She’d lied so easily, so effortlessly, repeatedly. And she was a Mheyu! “Did Guardian Persilda know?”
“No,” Vy said. “But I’m sure she suspected it.”
Oshali pressed her lips in annoyance but slowly sat down, watching Vy closely.
The guardian took a deep breath and leaned forward on her desk. “We didn’t make this something that was heavily important in front of you, but when you were brought here by the dragorai, it was very significant. No Mheyu sanctum has ever had a child bought to them by a dragorai-alpha before. We have certainly accepted children from the ranges over the years. Usually the stewards from each of the lairs will bring children to us, but for a dragorai to bring a baby—and not one born in his lair—is highly unusual. As you know from reading our records, there was no incident of that ever happening before.
“Now, that in itself would not have been the utmost of importance, except for the fact you showed proficiency in Thrakondarian at the age of five. Again, that is almost near impossible for any child to do. Those languages are extraordinarily hard for us to speak. It is not something that is casually learned, and you were able to cast in it from the age of seven by simply singing. You also took to being able to read Thrakondarian and then, when we started to teach you to cast properly, you excelled. All of these things combined indicated to us that you are special and different. We weren’t sure how, but we always felt that it was right to continue your training for long as possible, which is why we encouraged you to take your guardian training.”
“If Persilda didn’t know, who is ‘we’?” Oshali asked.
“Each sanctum has an elder counsel of seven. We are the ones who make the main decisions and who make the Gowns. It is not something we make known to anyone who is not a guardian. I am part of it. Persilda isn’t.”
Oshali nodded, and the guardian shifted in her seat a little.
“Around the time you were brought to us,” Guardian Vy continued, “one of the guardians in one of the southern sanctums spoke about a baby going missing and possibly being eaten by a dragon in the south. Of course, any such accusation is of interest to us. Through our communication with her we realized that you were that baby, and when we saw portraits of the queen, we were convinced you were related to her.”
“Why didn’t you take me back to her?” Oshali asked.
“You were brought here by the dragorai,” Guardian Vy said pointedly. “He had brought you here for safety, while the woman who you belonged with was engaged in decades-long warfare. When we discussed it, we had to decide if we should put you back in that situation with her, or trust that the dragorai brought you here for a reason. So we continued to train you here, we kept you hidden, we ensured that you wore your veil every time you ventured anywhere where you could be seen, especially with the dragorai. And we made sure you had access to the dragorai in case they needed you for any reason.”
“But it was his dragon that took me. Did you know that? The dragorai didn’t have a reason for bringing me here—he didn’t need me for anything.”
“That’s what we thought at first, especially as you approached your twenty-fifth and nothing had happened. When the dragorai told us that one of them mated, everything began to make sense.”
“What do you mean?”
Vy smiled. “Do remember what determines an alpha and omega pairing within the dragorai?”
“Yes,” Oshali said. “The dragon chooses.”
“Exactly. The dragon always chooses. His dragon chose you.”
“No,” Oshali said firmly. “That’s not the way it goes. The female dragon chooses the omega. His dragon could have snatched me because he wanted to keep me in his lair or harm me or any other reason.”
“But it didn’t,” Vy said simply. “Unless the Anointed One Tyomar has said otherwise, his dragon didn’t try to harm you at all, did it? There were no marks or burns on you when you arrived. You weren’t harmed.”
“I just don’t think that is enough,” Oshali said.
“You think the dragon is mistaken?” Vy asked, her wariness clear. “How often has that happened?”
Oshali couldn’t answer. There was no record that any dragon selected their bonded sibling accidentally, and especially not their mate. It had never happened in the history of the Twin Realms.
Oshali exhaled a harsh breath.
“What is worrying you? You think that there is an error? Do you not feel anything for the alpha?”
“It’s not that,” Oshali said irritably. “I just don’t think that he will make me happy in the long-term, the way that I need him to.”
Vy nodded slowly. “I see.” She sighed. “That is disappointing. All the signs suggest that the two of you would be extremely happy together, and that you are compatible.”
“We are, in a way,” Oshali said. Why was this so hard to explain? “But not to be mates.”
Vie eyed her carefully. “Then you are free. Go and live the life you want to live.”
Oshali blinked. “What?”
“If you believe that you will be happier living the life you want, go and live it. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there are many out there who are living lives they hate, and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. If you feel that Tyomar is not for you, it is not for anyone to force that mating upon you.”
Oshali was silent. The idea of not seeing Tyomar at all suddenly clutched at her chest in a painful pang, but she had to ignore it. Wasn’t this what she’d been saying all along? “Thank you, Guardian Vy,” she said. “I think I will.” She hesitated. “One thing I don’t understand. Why did you risk my life to get that scroll? You could have told me.”
Vy gave her a strange look. “Did you examine the scroll?”
Oshali nodded.
“Properly?” Vy stressed. “Not just the standard methods to test for authenticity but to test for magic?”
“Oh. No, I didn’t. It looked like a normal family tree.”
Vy tensed. “Do you still have it?”
Oshali nodded and patted her travel pouch.
“Good,” the guardian said, relaxing. “You know what you need to do.”
Oshali nodded. She glanced down at herself. “Can I get some clothes?”
After dressing back in her usual grey tunic and robes, Oshali took some time to look around the sanctum. Now that she had been out of it for a while, it looked… small and dreary. Of course, it was familiar to her, and she had memories of very exciting experiences there, but it was different now. She felt different.
She revisited some of the rooms and areas where she, Joren, and Silette had made so many memories. She wondered how they were doing and if they had managed to find somewhere to settle safely, knowing that the chance of them having a good, comfortable, safe life was unlikely. They would probably struggle until they found their footing, if they ever did. Tyomar was sure that they would not have been able to make it to the other side of the Twin Realms, but Oshali wasn’t even hoping for that anymore. She was just hoping they found somewhere to live safely and be happy. That was all that she wanted for anyone she cared about.
She walked past the library and stood staring at the enormous shelves. Tears blurred her vision. This was where some of her happiest memories were, and of course, they were tied to Tyomar and the dragorai.
She still wanted her freedom, not for adventure, but rather to explore and learn and satisfy the curiosity she had for the world. After spending some time in the sanctum, some of the orphans who’d heard she returned were seeking to hear about her experiences. She had nothing good to tell them, so she found Guardian Persilda to bid her farewell. Persilda was distraught about everything that had happened and insisted she loved Oshali and that she should stay. Oshali made it clear she did not blame her or any of the guardians for trying to do what was best. But her place was not with them anymore. They had been right to be cautious about the queen. And regardless of what she found out about the scrolls, their cautious nature had protected her in a lot of ways. She couldn’t be angry about that.
As she was making her way to the exit, an aide approached her tentatively. “Excuse me, Guardian Oshali,” she said, wringing her hands nervously. “But there’s someone for you at the dragorai meeting spot.”
Oshali was surprised he’d found her already. “Tell him—”
“My apologies, Guardian, but I do not feel comfortable telling him anything.”
Oshali sighed. It was only fitting that they would have their last talk on the ledge. “I will see him, thank you,” she said to the aide before making her way back up to the ledge.
Walking into the old area of sanctum, she was surprised how much it was like Tyomar’s lair.
Exploring Tyomar’s lair had been interesting.
It was cozier than she thought it would be, furnished in a simple, elegant, and masculine style. The tunnels and caves were similar to the old part of the sanctum, except Tyomar’s lair seemed to have his feel and personality imbued into everything. She’d enjoyed it. The paintings on the walls suited him, as did the color of his chambers and the general decor around the room. It was somewhat orderly but also relaxed. When he’d let her explore, she’d lost herself in everything new he’d shown her, the rooms, the staff… anything so that she wouldn’t have to think.
Tyomar had observed her, sometimes himself, sometimes he’d had his staff doing it. She knew he was trying to make sure she was all right, but there wasn’t anything he could do about her utter disappointment in him.
She’d tried to explain her point of view as reasonably as she could, but he hadn’t listened. He expected her to simply trust whatever he said, but why should she? He still hadn’t given her a reason for leaving that night, and her heat had long ended, but the problems between them were more than just that night. She could see the potential of a home in his lair, but he had spoiled everything by beginning the bonding process after she’d just told them they couldn’t be together.
And all this nonsense about her being his mate… How could that be possible? If they were mates, surely they would know it. They’d know each other for seven years.
Anyway, this would be the last time she’d speak to him. She planned to tell him she had no intention of going back to his lair and the bonding process would never be finished. If he fought her, she would fight back, and this time she’d do it with everything she could muster. Granted, she would probably never bond with anyone else, not now that he had made his claiming bite, but there was nothing she could do about it.
However, when Oshali stormed out onto the ledge, Tyomar wasn’t there. She came to a stop near the center of the ledge, looking around for him, but saw no one.
An ear-shattering screech shook the entire ledge and a dragon flew past, so close she could see every scale on his body.
Oshali gasped, stretching her arms out to steady herself. The dragon twisted in the air and flew out over the realm, streaking again.
Oshali caught her breath as she watched it, soaring over the land and heading back toward her. Was it Tyomar’s dragon? Had he sent his dragon here for her?
As the creature came closer, he slowed, this time to hover a few feet from the ledge, its enormous wings flapping. Oshali stepped forward, trying to see if it was the same dragon and it looked like it was. He was dark as midnight, with a golden sheen that hit his body when certain areas were lit. There was something else about him too. He had ridges on his head; it was Tyomar’s dragon.
“Where is Tyomar?” she said out loud.
The dragon let out another noise, and a small puff of smoke. Oshali eyed him. The dragorai-dragons were smarter than their non-bonded counterparts, and in the records there was evidence that dragorai-dragons had the capability to be quite intelligent. But she couldn’t guess what Tyomar’s dragon wanted if Tyomar wasn’t with him. It looked like he was waiting for her to do something, though she couldn’t imagine what.
The dragon came forward again, and this time landed his back claws onto the ledge before pushing away and twisting, shooting out into the air, screeching at the top of his lungs.
That reminded her of the last time she was on this ledge with Tyomar. She stepped forward, peering at the dragon. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid of him. Every single meeting she had with Tyomar, this dragon had been there. He was familiar. To know that he also was the one to take her at birth, and also to catch her in midair when she escaped the queen, he almost felt as familiar as Tyomar.
Taking a moment to cast and draw magic around her, she ran and jumped off the ledge, magic swirling around her as it soared her over the range. She closed her eyes, holding her arms out as she soared. The animalistic rumble that surrounded her made her look for the dragon, and he was flying underneath her just like he did before. Oshali laughed, and changed the trajectory, curving over the range and heading toward a different part of it, and the dragon followed. She changed direction again, and the dragon stayed in line with her. This was really strange! Tyomar’s dragon may have been attached to her from what happened with the heat. They never should have done that on his back and expected him not to form an attachment. Still, what Guardian Vy had said rolled over in her mind.
Oshali sighed and headed away from the mountain range, back to the border where her journey had started. She may as well choose a route that she was familiar with and start making her way across the realm to find somewhere to settle, for a while at least.
Unfortunately, Tyomar’s dragon followed.
As she soared, he matched her pace and speed, and flew underneath her, his large body like a swerving shadow. Whether she changed direction, pace, or speed, the dragon matched consistently, and she soon realize that he was not planning on leaving her be.
Oshali decided to ignore him and headed to the border of Tyomar’s mountain range, but as she flew toward it, the dragon positioned himself underneath her and then slowly inched upward. He inched higher and higher until his back was just nearly touching her feet.
“What are you doing?” she called, alarmed and frustrated.
The dragon inched up higher again and Oshali fell onto his back!
Oshali sat up stunned, as the dragon soared around away from the border and headed back across the range.
Bewildered, she began casting again and jumped off the dragon in the opposite direction. Within moments, the dragon was underneath her again, inching upward until she fell onto his back again.
After the third time, she couldn’t help but laugh. This dragon had to be as stubborn as Tyomar himself.
She leaned forward and patted his back. “You cannot do this forever, my friend,” she said. “I need to leave this range, and I’ll travel on foot if I have to do.”
The dragon let out a strange sound, almost like a snort at the back of his throat. And Oshali had to laugh again at how insolent it sounded.
“Why don’t you go home, boy?” she murmured to him. She was sure Tyomar called him Ryn. “If you are here, that means Tyomar can’t come after me.” As she said it, she realized that how true it was. If Tyomar had realized she was gone by now, he wouldn’t be able to come after her so easily without his dragon. He couldn’t possibly be happy about that; although, she was somewhat glad it gave her a chance to get away.
“He must be calling you,” she said, stroking the dragon’s back.
She took a moment to look at him properly. Usually he was too far away for her to see, and the last time she was on his back, she’d been in her heat. He was a beautiful creature. On the back of his neck, in between his neck and his back, was a patch of soft satin scales, which was where his rider should sit. Based on what she’d read, not all dragorai-dragons had the change in scales, but the ones that did tended to have a deep connection with their alpha counterparts and evolved to accommodate them, providing an area of their body more comfortable for them to sit.
But the more she thought about it the more she wondered whether that had been in any record other than those pertaining to the Vattoro clan. The Vattoro were one of the oldest dragorai lines, if not the oldest, which might be why they maintained such ferocity in their nature, although, Tyomar and his dragon were not exactly a typical example of that. Tyomar had always been pretty easygoing when dealing with her in their visits over the years. The only time she’d ever seen his temper or any strong emotion from him was the day he made his displeasure known about her attending his brothers’ interviews and not his. Oshali smiled. Obviously he hadn’t liked it because he’d been jealous, and it didn’t occur to her at the time that he’d felt that way about her.
She glanced down at his dragon, also remembering that riding on the back of a dragorai-dragon was almost unheard of unless you were the dragorai or someone close to the dragorai. Why was Tyomar’s dragon forcing her to ride him? Granted, she wasn’t exactly a stranger to him, but what was the purpose of this? He couldn’t know she was leaving.
Oshali looked around, trying to figure out where he was heading to, but he seemed to simply be taking his time flying over his range, casual and relaxed. This was most unusual.
She decided to stay on the dragon to catch her breath after casting for so long, and she kept an eye on his flight and trajectory. Taking the scroll out of her bag, she unrolled it and looked again at all the different couples and how they connected. She searched for the queen. Her name on the tree was Oashana but underneath in brackets there were four other names; Orelle, Odessa, Osyth, and Ofiyah. Oshali frowned. She hadn’t noticed that before, but why would the queen need so many names?
She shook her head, deciding not to care. The queen was a riddle all on her own, and Oshali was glad to have escaped her. She wasn’t sure that she would be rid of her completely, simply because the woman could hold a significant grudge, but Oshali would take all precautions to stay out of her way, even if that meant covering her face constantly.
She continued examining the scroll, looking for any indication that there was magic attached to it. Magical items were usually flagged and highlighted by the guardians if they were sending somebody on an assignment to collect one, so she didn’t think to try magically unraveling the scroll, but this assignment was clearly different from the norm. Vy probably expected her to be curious enough to examine the scroll, but she’d been too distracted by the queen to even think of it. She only wished she’d known about it all in advance so she could have done things differently. But there was no use dwelling on that now.
Holding up the scroll, she peered at it carefully, and as she floated on Tyomar’s dragon over his range, she began to cast incantations to reveal any magical properties attached to it.
The scroll flared in a mix of brilliant greens and blues, a burst of sparks releasing from it as the magic it contained was revealed. It seemed the family tree had been layered over another piece of parchment, so it was two parchments fused into one.
Oshali closed her eyes and thought back carefully about which incantation to cast to reveal a hidden parchment. Magical concealments were not her area of interest, but dealing with potential magical items was one of the main focuses of her guardian training.
Finally she began to cast, ensuring once again her precision in her pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. The scroll glowed for a moment, and when Oshali unrolled it, a piece of parchment fell out.
It was a hand-written letter.
Dear Mheyu guardians of the dragorai,
By the grace of the Seven, I thank you for taking in my daughter, Oshali. You cannot possibly understand the relief I feel that she is safe with you and on a dragorai range that is difficult to access. I worried for her safety many times, but never more so than soon after she was born. Allow me to explain.
My beautiful wife, Oshali’s mother, is a descendant from an ancient, royal bloodline. The pressure to reproduce has always been placed firmly on her shoulders. Queen Odessa applies an incredible amount of unrelenting pressure and has done so since I met my wife, interfering in our relationship and even using potions to induce our breeding states. The queen is deathly afraid of her line dying out and no longer having a legacy to claim that she is special to the Goddesses and therefore has the right to continue the current war with the north. She has cast some kind of incantation that has stopped her aging, and she believes she will rule the south forever. However, she wishes to still have heirs to prove to others the strength of her blood and to distract her people from her continued lack of care of their needs and the Dominion.
Oshali is not meant for this. My wife, Orsha, was frequented by a dragon twice during her pregnancy while we lived in one of the provinces. Of course, the dragon could only be a dragorai-dragon since there are no others that I am aware of. This particular one had no rider and was unexpectedly playful, which I know sounds terribly strange for me to say, considering the dragorai-dragons are the most vicious of them all. But that is what my wife and I experienced. He or she enjoyed flying and huffing out smoky air, sitting with us, and would even respond when we called and waved.
We were under no illusion that this dragon was here for the child. At first we thought it meant that we were having a male child since dragorai-alphas are selected by their dragons at birth—this would not have pleased the queen. Imagine our surprise when it was a girl! We can only guess that our child has been touched by the Goddesses to get her own dragon, especially since this one had no rider. And what a blessing that is. There is no bigger compliment. However, if the queen finds out she would be utterly furious! There is no doubt that my child would be in imminent danger.
Once the baby was born, this dragon visited twice more and since we were living at the palace by then, people noticed. The queen insisted on moving the baby out of our room and into her nursery, for her own safety. (I believed not a word of it.) Thankfully, as soon as the baby was moved, the dragon attacked the nursery and took her. This was not a surprise to my wife and I, but the queen was furious. She assumed that the dragon had eaten her, and so she spread this as fact to garner sympathy from her people. We allowed this lie to stand, as we could not have the queen suspicious about the true nature of our daughter’s relationship with her dragon. The ultimate gift is that she would be the first of many new female dragorai and return the Twin Realms back to the Dragorai Age when lesser-mortals were not the ones controlling everyone’s fates and living circumstances through the terror of war.
After the baby was taken, my wife died under suspicious circumstances. I did not stay, knowing the queen would poison me. I will be spending the rest of my life in the Mheyu sanctum in the south. I hope the queen will never discover me, but I am prepared to move on if she does.
Please take care of my Oshali. Let her know she belongs with her dragon. And that her parents love her deeply.
Sincerest of thanks,
Duke Haldron Waldemare