Chapter 15: A Queen's Confrontation

“I am the child of crown and flame, Yet not my father’s cruel acclaim. He steals what none should ever own, I bring the lost ones safely home.” Ryuki My dragon is many things; he’s intelligent, cunning, sarcastic, annoying, flirtatious, powerful, and fierce. But I’ve never known my dragon to recoil in the face of someone else’s anger. Until now. Yes, Skylar was beating on him after he crushed the egg. I didn’t see it. I wasn’t close enough to him to see what he was doing. But from the feelings I got from Bynjym, I knew the little dragon was suffering and he was doing what needed to be done to put her out of her misery. But it wasn’t Skylar’s fists that made my big, powerful dragon flinch. It was her words, her unwillingness to even hear his reasoning behind what he did. I watch Yttyc lift off the ground and get Skylar, flying her back to the castle. ‘Bynjym,’ I begin, ready to soothe my dragon. I know he did the right thing, even if Skylar doesn’t. ‘We should get back. We need to get food for Ylys,’ he says, flying back over to where I am and waiting for me to get on his back. Instead, I walk to his face and look up at him. ‘You did the right thing.’ He nods, but I can tell my words aren’t impacting him the way they normally would. I get angry, knowing that a woman who knows nothing about dragons has somehow made MY dragon feel guilty for doing what needed to be done. That baby dragon was suffering. Should we have let her live and suffer a long, slow death? What Bynjym did was an act of kindness, one that not all dragons could do. Her own mother and father couldn’t do it. They left it to Bynjym. And being the leader that he is, he did what needed to be done. Only to be persecuted by someone who knows nothing of the life we live. As we fly, I feel Bynjym going over his decision, wondering if he should have acted differently, or if there was anything else he could have done to save that baby dragon. ‘Bynjym, if there were, you would have done it. You can’t second guess yourself after the fact. You said yourself that the sneak-snake punctured the egg and the placenta. It’s not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last. Unfortunately, this time, the baby dragon was dying slowly. What you did was an act of kindness,’ I tell him. I can still feel his sadness, his regret that he upset Skylar. And that, more than anything, infuriates me. He’s worried about upsetting HER? She’s no one! Okay, fine. She returns our stolen eggs, but that doesn’t make her a rider. It doesn’t make her part of our inner circle. She doesn’t understand our ways, and I don’t understand why her anger is impacting my dragon the way that it is. Since I know he’s always in my head, the fact that Bynjym remains quiet tells me that he either doesn’t know the answer, or he doesn’t want to talk about it. For now, I’m going with the first one, since my dragon has never hidden anything from me since the moment we bonded. On our way back to Ylys’ nest, he picks up two large bucks, dropping them in front of her before landing on the corner of her nest at the edge of a sheer drop off. Ylys rips into the first buck, eating half of it before we’ve settled. It takes about that long for her to realize that something is wrong and turn to Bynjym. She makes a crooning sound to Bynjym, but rather than answer her, he turns his head away. She begins to chew more slowly, watching my dragon intently. Her eyes dilate and narrow before she swallows the food in her mouth and focuses her attention fully on Bynjym. She says something to him, but unlike Skylar, I can’t understand what she’s saying. I do, however, have an idea of what she’s saying. She’s picked up on my dragon’s depression. “Just tell her, Bynjym. Maybe you’ll listen to her,” I say. Ylys looks at me, then back at Bynjym. This time, she growls and fire flickers out of her mouth. He finally speaks, but I realize he isn’t sharing his conversation with me. I didn’t even know it was possible for him to shut me out. He’s never done that before. She does another round of croons and clicks. She watches him, then begins again. He answers her again and still I can’t hear what he’s saying. ‘Stop shutting me out, Bynjym. I’m your rider,’ I growl at him. He turns his head and looks at me. Ylys looks from him to me, then back again. She says something else and I feel the barrier between our minds open. ‘I wasn’t sharing this conversation with him because he’s already angry at Skylar,’ Bynjym says. Ylys begins clicking at a more agitated pace. ‘I know, but …’ More, louder clicking, overriding Bynjym. ‘The link is open now. He can hear everything I’m saying,’ he grumbles. “Thank you, Ylys,” I say, knowing she’s the only reason he’s sharing his thoughts with me again. Ylys begins her clicking again, at a slower, quieter pace. ‘She’s thinks I’m a murderer. She thinks that baby dragon could have been saved.’ More clicking from Ylys. ‘No. She was dying a slow death,’ he says to her. Ylys looks at me and continues with her clicking. ‘Ylys wants to know what you think,’ Bynjym says. “You know what I think, Bynjym. I already told you,” I say out loud so Ylys hears it from me. “I think Skylar doesn’t understand our ways. She has no idea what it’s like to be a rider or to be out here in the wild being attacked by humans and other creatures. What you did was an act of kindness. If she had bothered to listen to you, she might have understood that.” Ylys turns back to Bynjym. ‘I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does. Her opinion of me matters.’ More clicking. ‘Yttyc took her back. She was angry and she already told us that they will kill her if they figure out she’s the thief.’ More clicking. This time, Bynjym’s head snaps to Ylys. ‘Why?’ he asks her. ‘Why what?’ I ask. ‘What do you think you can learn from her?’ Bynjym asks Ylys. ‘Bynjym?’ I ask. ‘Ylys wants us to bring Skylar to her next time. She wants to talk to her.’ “Well, let’s hope there’s not a next time. Hopefully, no more eggs will be stolen,” I say. Ylys clicks and rumbles again. ‘If there aren’t any stolen eggs, she wants us to find her and bring Skylar here. She wants to talk to her.’ ‘That’s suicide! How would we even get to her? We’re not even sure which castle she lives in,’ I tell him. ‘We can find out. Yttyc is dropping her off. He’ll know where to look for her,’ he says, just as I hear Yttyc’s wings pushing against the air as he begins his descent. The other silvers warble a welcome at him. When he lands, Ylys turns to look at him. There’s a lot of conversation back and forth that I can’t hear or understand. ‘Bynjym, what are they saying?’ I ask. ‘Skylar refused to listen to Yttyc when he tried to tell her that what I did was an act of kindness. She was still angry when he dropped her off. But even with her anger, she thanked him for bringing her back. He waited high above the castle until he was sure she was inside and safe before returning here.’ A part of me wonders if Yttyc would have attacked if someone found her. Would he have called the dragons and rushed to her aid? Something deep inside me thinks the answer to my question is yes.