LITMIR.BIZ

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better?”

      Bram glanced at the bodies that surrounded them before answering, “Not really.”

      “These are my brothers,” Addolgar said. “Cai the Green, Hew the Black, Adain the Yellow.”

      “It’s gold, you bastard. I’m Adain the Gold.”

      “Yellow. Gold.” Addolgar shrugged. “Who gives a centaur shit? Now,” he said to Bram, “they ain’t earned their names yet, but they ain’t half bad. You’ll be fine.”

      “Yes,” Bram replied, “I feel safer already.”

      “Good!” Addolgar boomed, missing the sarcasm completely. “Now . . . where’s Ghleanna?”

      “She needed a few minutes alone,” Bram told him.

      “Went to take a piss, did she?”

      Cai slammed his sizable fist into his older brother’s shoulder. “Addolgar!”

      “What?” And Bram saw that smirk. “It was just a question.”

      “Don’t be such a bastard.”

      “Don’t be such a suck-up,” Addolgar shot back.

      “Why is he a suck-up?” Hew asked. “Because he doesn’t want you going on about our sister that way?”

      “What way? All I asked was—”

      “Shut it!” Adain snapped. “Blood and fire, you are such a bastard!”

      “Fine. If the lot of you are going to get so girly about all this.” He turned away from his brothers and winked at Bram. And Bram, for the first time, felt a little more at ease. Especially since it seemed Addolgar would spend more time torturing his siblings than bothering with Bram.

      “There you are!” Addolgar announced when his sister approached them. “The royal here said you went off to take a piss.”

      “Don’t involve me in this,” Bram told him.

      “Right,” Ghleanna sighed. “That seems a very Bram thing to do. Announce that I’m off to take a piss. Next he’ll tell you when I’m about to take a sh—”

      “Can we just go?” Cai—thankfully—cut in.

      Ghleanna sized the youngster up. “When did you get so girly?”

      “So where are we taking him?” Addolgar asked.

      “To the east,” Bram explained. “The Port of Awbrey. There will be a boat there that will take us up the coast to the Alsandair ports. I’ll meet my contact there.”

      “A boat?” Adain asked, frowning. “Why are you taking a boat? Why not just fly into the Desert Lands?”

      “Flying into the Desert Lands would be seen as a sign of aggression by the Sand Dragons. And it’s faster to go by sea than to walk.

      “That far south,” Ghleanna explained, “we’ve always traveled by foot unless escorted.”

      “Why not fly over the ocean then?”

      Bram, Addolgar, and Ghleanna laughed outright at that.

      “Gods,” Bram observed, “they are young.”

      “What does that mean?”

      “It means you’ve got much to learn about Sea Dragons,” Ghleanna answered.

      Addolgar explained, “If more than one or two dragons fly too far over the ocean, the Fins will definitely consider that a sign of aggression.”

      Hew asked Bram, “So you really can’t make it on your own?” Bram could make it by himself easily, but he had his reasons for not flying over the ocean, alone or otherwise. Very good reasons. “Are you feeble in some way?”

      “Babysitting the royal is Bercelak’s idea.” Ghleanna told them. “You going to disagree with him, brothers?” When her younger siblings didn’t answer, she nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

      “Do you have any fighting skills?” Hew pushed.

      “I have a mighty flame.”

      The three younger brothers glanced at each other. “Don’t we all?” Cai finally asked.

      “Mine’s stronger.”

      Cai shook his head. “Gods, that’s pathetic.”

      Addolgar slapped Cai in the back of the head—ignoring his cry of pain—and asked, “Do you want to move out tonight, Ghleanna?”

      “No. We leave at first light.”

      “That’s fine. We can all camp here for the night.”

      “No need. We can stay at Lord Bram’s castle.”

      Bram’s entire body jerked. “They can?”

      “Get your gear,” she told her kin.

      “Why are you doing this to me?” Bram demanded once Ghleanna’s brothers had walked away. “Do you hate me so much?”

      “You are the one who wants my brothers to like him.”

      “No, I don’t. I couldn’t care less if they like me or not.”

      “Well, they’ll like you much better if they have a soft bed and warm food—or at least a cow or two—for the night. And what could it hurt?”

      “What if they disturb my things? My papers.” Bram began to panic. “My books!”

      Ghleanna laughed. “And what, exactly, do you expect my kin to do to your precious books? If they notice your books at all, I’ll be shocked.” She stepped closer, surprising Bram, and brushed her hand against his shoulder. “I won’t let my brothers harm your books or your papers.”

      “You promise?”

      “I promise.” She grinned, and it was a beautiful thing. “I’ll take very good care of you, Bram the Merciful.” Her grin grew wider. “Trust me.”

      Cai’s big boots landed on the table, right on top of the peacemaker’s important papers. So Ghleanna grabbed him by the ankles with one hand and flipped him back, Cai and the chair slamming to the hard earth-packed floor.

      “Oy!” Cai demanded. “What was that for?”

      “You keep your claws and your big, fat feet off Bram’s books and papers.”

      Cai got to his feet and leaned down until they were eye to eye. “And if I don’t?”

      That’s when Ghleanna head-butted her younger brother. Since he’d been asking for it and all. And it made her other brothers laugh. She did love making her brothers laugh.

      “You mad cow!” Cai yelled, gripping his head.

      “You’ll do as I say, little brother, or that lump on your head will be the least of your problems. Now”—she looked at all her kin—“we’re going to eat and sleep like civilized dragons and no one will start anything. Understood?”

      When her brothers only grumbled in response, she cracked her knuckles for emphasis. “Understood?” she growled.

      “Yeah, yeah,” Addolgar quickly told her. “Understood.”

      “Good.” She smiled and walked over to the royal, who stood a few feet away, watching her.

      “See?” she asked. “I’ve got it all under control.”

      “You head-butted your brother,” Bram noted.

      “Aye.”

      “Your brother.”

      “Sometimes it’s the only way to get through to them. And it’s kind of fun,” she admitted. “Me and Addolgar do it to each other

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