Page 195 of Upon Buried Embers
I remember Rohan mentioning that Calian had loved and lost someone.
“I’m sorry, Tofa, that must be hard.”
She turns her head and gives me a watery smile. “Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.” She wipes her face then stands. “Ah, no more wallowing. I need to tend to the horses.”
“Tofa…”
“I’m okay, promise. I’ll see you in a little while, okay?”
I watch her go as others arrive, a frown on my face.
Tofa’s been so kind to me since I arrived, and she’s become a friend to me. I hate seeing her hurt.
I look back to where Calian is, wondering if I can help somehow, but his eyes are already on Tofa’s retreating form.
A sudden horn sounds in the distance, and all heads snap to the west.
“A few days,” a clan member whispers.
“It’s coming around so soon.” That’s from a man.
“Shouldn’t we be concentrating on protecting The Glade instead of catering to the king’s whims?”
“Do you want to die? You know we have no choice.”
The Games.
I curl in on myself more. I have a few days to prepare to die.
I’m not strong enough to survive them. I’ve known this since Rohan told me I was attending them, and I was okay with that. Dying. But now, after Rohan and I have gotten so close, I don’t want to die.
I want to try and be brave—learn how to live with the freedom he’s given me.
A body drops to sit next to me suddenly, taking me out of my thoughts followed by the smell of burning wood.
“You heard the horn?” Rohan asks, face tight. “Just days now,” he says, fists clenching, body tense. He must be worried. “I’ll keep you safe.” I nod, knowing he can’t promise that but I appease him anyway. He shakes his head, body relaxing slightly. “Are you ready for The Glade’s Blessing?”
“I think so.”
Rohan tightens the blanket around me, glaring when he sees Sparks in my lap before he leans back on his hands, gazing into the forest.
“Is there a reason why your other dragons don’t come to The Glade?”
“Though they would be welcomed in The Glade, their way of life is far different here than clan life. Best not to integrate the two, it can cause friction.” I nod because that makes sense.
“How do you choose which dragons belong with you?”
“I don’t. No one does, that’s why every Dragonbond has a different number of dragons in their clan. We don’t choose, they do,” he explains softly, eyes on the trees. “When I became Dragonbond, some dragons followed Drogonah to the camp, while others naturally came, sensing the presence of dragons as they sought safety and family. Others choose to stay, like the dragon who was caught in the net.”
“Do you know if that dragon came from The Glade? I remember you saying that.”
“I can’t confirm it, but it wasn’t a wild dragon. They act differently in a way that I would have recognized if they came from The Glade rather than the wild.”
“How?” A whine come from Sparks, he must be dreaming. We both look down at him for a moment.
“He would have attacked us even after we removed the net,” Rohan eventually explains.
“Really?” I ask surprised, thinking back to how the dragon acted. He just… stopped. “What if that’s just his nature?”
