Page 38 of The Wrath of Ashes
“I thought that jacket you were embroidering was my gift. I cannot get you anything, I apologize. I don’t have money…” Asha squirmed again; his shame palpable.
“The jacket is a gesture. A gift. And I need nothing from you but your dragon, your affection. You’ve given up your life for me already.” Rath stared down at a guest list he’d studied a thousand times before. His parents wouldn’t be awake to see him wed, and the thought made him sad, but it was how things were done. In fact, his parents had prepared for the eventuality. They’d written letters before their sleep. The thought had only occurred to him just then. “My father gifted my mother a wyvern egg for their nuptials. Though, she was hatching Ghreid and Pippin at the same time… Was a bit of a stretch wrangling her first childandher wyvern.”
“There’s nothing I really want. You stole me away from a personal hell. After the shame you put Earl Tippen through, I think I can wait on a wyvern if eggs are a potential…” Asha pursed his lips and curled his tail self-consciously. “Does it hurt?”
“Hatching a wyvern?” Rath blinked a few times.
“Birthing an egg.” Asha bit his lower lip and Rath studied his body, imagining the low swell of his belly laden with their egg. “I cannot imagine where it has to come from…”
“Has Jeron not discussed that with you as of yet?” Rath frowned in surprise. “Or Slath?”
“Slath tried to, I think. He kept wanting to use euphemisms, and I didn’t understand at all.” Asha squirmed in place.
Rath sighed. “Many things hurt. Birth is complicated and is painful, but we heal. Most bearers forget the pain in minutes.”
Asha pursed his lips, eyes wide. “And how do I know…”
“I’ll have Slath and Jeron be less kind to you.” Rath leaned down to kiss his head. “But it is not my place to educate a bearer on their laying.”
Asha nodded. “I will listen better, but it all confuses me.”
“Nadi. Asha and I are going for a walk.” Rath stood and stowed his work, offering Asha an arm as they strolled out.
“I thought we shouldn’t be together alone…” Asha took the proffered limb and lined his step up.
“I would ordinarily agree but consider this bonding time. We’ll avoid any beds.” Rath had something on his mind and Asha would learn a valuable lesson. He was a dragon, marrying into a dragon family, and the reality of what would eventually happen to them—and the parents who had ruled before them, needed to be witnessed.
Chapter Sixteen
Asha
Arm in arm, Asha and Rath made their way through the castle. Despite having been there a few weeks, he was growing quickly at home in the expansive estate. It was nowhere near as green as Tippin Valley, but Monsmount was an agricultural area. He was a dragon, and as such, was at home in the sky in the great castle of Ramolia atop the mountain. The thin air, cool breeze, and network of caverns spiraling down into the carbonated rocks. Limestone wept along the smooth pathways; every surface coated in intricate carvings.
As they descended the halls, beautiful limestone transitioning to softer granite, veins of gold pocked the surface, not the inset purposeful gold wire hammered into channels but veins of rich, sinfully soft metal that glowed so brightly it could have lit the caverns themselves. Asha ran a finger along a short vein that rose to the surface for a short span and gasped at the power within it. It made his horns tingle. “Oh, my.”
“The magic is so raw in the gold here.” Rath diverted his hands from the stone. “As long as it never leaves the earth, it’ll stay this way. Once we remove it to use it, slowly it drains, and becomes as useless to us as dirt. Humans fight over our trash.”
Asha drew his hand back and frowned. “Why does that make me so sad?”
“The death of magic is a sad thing, which is why you’re so important to me.” Rath brought Asha’s hand to his mouth and kissed his fingers.
“Because I have magic?”
“Because youaremagic. In your body, magic flourishes. In your mind, your power thrives. And every egg we bear will birth that much more magic into the world. Every dragon alivecontributes to the song of power that hums through stone. From their first heartbeat until their last, a child born of true love between perfect mates restores the balance.” Rath dropped their hands to his side, lacing fingers ever so gently. A brush of his nails against soft skin that had only just become scales made Asha shiver.
“So, our children will make gold?” Asha frowned, and Rath laughed, no patronization in his soft tones. The question brought him genuine joy.
“No. In our lands, gold is brought back to the burning mount. It seeps into the soil, travels through veins in the land and lives again. The birth of a child draws the flow of magic into an area to reinvigorate gold into their birthplace. This is why royalty have so many children. The world needs them.” Rath drew Asha in for the most chaste, innocent kiss he’d ever dreamed of. The pureness of it brought tears to his eyes.
“Then why give gold to humans? Why send it away once it’s spoiled rather than sending it back?” Asha stared at the floor of the cavern as they walked. The lack of light didn’t seem to bother him, the gold and his new eyesight being enough.
“Because it comes back to us, anyway. Humans take our gold and spend it, throwing it away so much more frivolously than we do.”
“Ah. Why would you want it back if it looks so horrid? What you gave Earl Tippin and his wife.” Even after learning the truth, he didn’t want to refer to her as his mother. It stung so badly to know the woman who watched him beat, who gave him trivial coppers and an odd sock, was his mother, who knew he’d had the bloodline of royals.
“For the reason I said. We give it back to the earth once a year in a ceremony. Gold comes back to us.” Rath laughed and reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind his horn, trailing his nails along the ivory surface with a satisfying vibration.
“It’s all very poetic, in a way.” Asha leaned into Rath’s touch, relishing the contact. He needed Rath, and he’d take what he could get.
