The Broken Bond

She had cried only once before in her ten years of life and that was the day that her dragon, Brilanya, had hatched. She was so frightened she had to dig her nails deep into her palms to keep herself from screaming and running away from the huge egg when it began rocking and cracking on the pillowed pedestal. She had begged her father to free her from this ritual, but her mother had insisted and her father had finally agreed.   

An egg of the royal mounts was a responsibility that could not be shirked. She remembered feeling the frantic pounding of her heart as it bounced erratically against her ribcage.   

They said she hated the dragons, but that wasn't true. They just scared her. It wasn't their size or power that terrified her. No one knew that it was their eyes that made her run screaming from them. Eyes that looked to her for something that she couldn't understand. A hunger, a longing, that they seemed to want her to fill.   

Would the bonding finally be the answer. Would the dragon enter her mind and suck away the thing, she was so afraid to give freely? As the tough shell spilt apart, Tersia was ready to bolt, but when the sad twisted little body had fallen from its shell and tumbled clumsily from the pedestal, she had reached out and caught it in her arms. It cried pitifully, its hide a dull lead gray instead of the shiny silver it should have been. Stubby wings flapped feebly against Tersia's chest.    

Tersia? Tersia, my love?   

I am here, Brilanya.   

Tersia elathai Brilanya   

Yes, beloved. Tersia elathai Brilanya. I understand.   

Tears of love and compassion slid from the child's emerald green eyes. The frail and weak dragon tried to lift its head and lick the trembling drops as they gathered on the young girl's chin, but it was not strong enough. Tersia cupped Brilanya's wrinkled head and pulled her close, but then Brilanya was being wrenched from her arms. She could hear the shouting then and the threats. They wanted to destroy her and Brilanya, but before she could protest she was being drug from the room by her father. She had struggled to get free of her father, to go back to Brilanya, but his grip on her arm was hard and fierce. When he locked her in her room, she had collapsed to the ground moaning, but her eyes were dry by then.   

Tersia had lived in unrelenting misery from that day. No one would speak to her about the fate of Brilanya, but she knew that the poor little creature would not be able to defend itself from the anger of the people gathered for the bonding ritual. They hated her and they hated her bonded dragon. Surely they had killed Brilanya. Only her father's strength and quick thinking had kept them from killing her. Now, they were all dead themselves.   

She could feel the blood tie and felt the crimson flow of the Gul Dar Lathan blood being spilled all around her. She heard the shattering death cry of her mother, and the fearful whimper of her father's death. She was alone and forgotten. Tersia, the youngest child of the High Lord and High Lady, Tersia, the youngest daughter and princess of the King and Queen, the odd child and freak, was the last of the ancient race of the Gul Dar Lathan.   

Continued ...