The Bastard Dragon

by Viola Grace

Trin was shocked at how far they had come. She felt like she could fly forever, and her beast was exhilarated by their journey, but something was nagging at Trin’s mind. She wheeled and headed back to the city.

  The steady beat of her wings brought her back to the city in minutes, but she didn’t want to land at the tower. She circled slowly and found her target. With careful manoeuvring, she dropped out of the sky at a measured rate. When she saw folk on the ground looking up, she tried to make herself invisible. They stopped looking, so she must have been successful.

  She landed in the back garden and transformed into a human. Inside the house, there was bustle and panic. Women were running from floor to floor, and Vasic was on the com, yelling at whoever was on the other end.

  Trin shook out her skirts and walked into the house. “Hello, Vasic. Baby is on the way?”

  He paused and dropped the com unit. “Labour has stalled, and she refused to even try to get it moving without you.”

  “I am here now. Please, let the council know where I am so that no one panics.” She smiled and climbed the stairs to the hall that led to the master bedroom.

  She knocked on the door and then entered, seeing a sweaty and grim Creata growling at the midwife and her attendants.

  “Creata, stop snarling.” Trin opened her sleeves and rolled them back. She washed her hands in the en-suite, and she came back, taking up a folded towel.

  “Trin. They said you couldn’t come.”

  “I made it, Creata. I always said I would.” Trin hiked up her skirts and crawled into bed next to her friend, mopping at her brow.

  Creata chuckled. “You did. I should have known you would come when I needed you.”

  “I will always try. I might not succeed, but I will always try.”

  She pulled her friend into her arms and whispered in her ear. “Are you ready to see your baby?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, let’s get this going. I escaped my security detail.” Trin held Creata’s hand, and together, they started the deep breathing that would get Creata’s body back in the mood.

  The midwife touched Creata’s belly and nodded. Trin started to tell Creata stories, and they moved her child closer to the world.

  Trin was exhausted when she headed down to the sitting room where Vasic was pacing, and Brommin and Orisa were waiting.

  “Lord Tal, your child has arrived. It is waiting with your tired but happy and healthy wife.” She clapped him on the shoulder and sent him off.

  He bounded out of the room, and Trin sat on the couch across from Brommin and Orisa. “Sosa couldn’t make it?”

  Orisa shook her head. “It is past her bedtime. Did you sense that the child was coming?”

  “No, I sensed that Creata was in trouble. Given her condition, it was a pretty easy guess.” She looked around. “Is there any tea?”

  Brommin smiled and got up, preparing her a cup of tea. “Here. Were you with her the whole time?”

  “Yes. It is a good thing that the dragon thing made changes, or she would have bit right through my arm during the final push.” Trin looked at her arm where the red marks had faded to pink.

  Orisa blinked. “She bit you?”

  “She half-shifted during her final rush to the finish.”

  Brommin handed her a cup, and he sat next to her. “Do you want me to take a look at the bite?”

  She extended her arm. He looked at the skin and prodded at it.

  “How long ago did the bite occur?”

  “Half an hour, maybe more. There was blood everywhere.” She chuckled. “It didn’t even freak the midwife out. She has seen it all.”

  Orisa leaned forward. “Did the child get blood on it?”

  “No. The baby was born, and we took care of the sheets while Creata held it.”

  Orisa sighed. “Good. There are rumours about what exposure of blood will do to a shifter infant.”

  “I know.”

  “Really? How?”

  She grinned. “I read a book.”

  Brommin chuckled. “That does not surprise me.”

  She finished the hot tea in one long draught. “Right. So I guess it is time to go back to the tower.”

  Orisa shrugged. “Are you hungry?”

  Trin thought about it, and her stomach roared out loud in the room.

  Brommin nodded. “I believe that is a yes.”

  Trin’s shoulders slumped. “Yes.”

  Orisa got to her feet. “Makros is holding a table for us at the Breakith.”

  Trin looked at her dress, and she frowned. “I am not dressed for it.”

  “It will be fine. They make exceptions for us.”

  “Us?”

  Brommin filled in the detail. “The senator’s family.”

  “Ah. The senator’s family. We tend to have long nights and run into strange substances. Our clothing is usually overlooked.”

  Trin nodded. “Right. Well, lead the way.”

  Brommin offered his arm to her and then his mother. “I brought the karros.”

  “Good. I could probably manage another shift, but flying in the dark isn’t something that I am familiar with.” She wrinkled her nose as they passed through the household where the maids were smiling, and the grandmother of the new arrival was beaming.

  It was a happy and optimistic household that they left, and Trin smiled all through dinner. She smiled through the conversation about her shifting, she smiled through the questions about her future, and she smiled when the senator and his wife asked her what her intentions were toward Brommin.

  Brommin merely gave her a wry glance, and he sparked her barrage of conflicting questions.

  “What does Brommin want in a mate? What are his plans for his future? What does he want?” Trin prodded at her dessert.

  He blinked and gave her a wide grin. “Thank you for asking. I have always known that a woman would be chosen for me or a series if none chose me the first time. I would be put on list after list and eventually find a woman that I would like to spend my life with. I have thought about entering politics and need a wife who would understand my need to divide my attentions, but I also want a family of my own. She would need her own focus and interests. The dream woman would be one that I knew was my mate at first sight.”

  Trin blinked as he kept eye contact during his explanation. Her cheeks heated as he kept talking, and by the time he reached the final sentence, her skin was hot to the touch.

  She gathered herself and asked him what she really wanted to know. “Do you have any personal opinion on what your mate wears?”

  “As long as she is comfortable and dressed for the season, anything is fine with me.” He gave her a soft grin.

  She leaned her chin on her fists with her elbows on the table. “Music to my ears.”

  The senator was looking from one of them to the other. “So, at the winter ball, there will be an engagement.”

  Trin sat up. “What?”

  Brommin leaned back. “Normally, your family would intercede at this point, but as you are on your own, you are at the mercy of the council.”

  She frowned and was about to tell him to fuck off, but his com rang, and he got up to answer it.

  Orisa smiled. “He is getting a call similar to the one that brought him to Lord Tal’s house.”

  “That is ambitious for an archivist.”

  The senator sighed. “He has had training in several disciplines, but as he points out, an archivist has a lot of time on his hands. It makes it easy for him to go on the Track and Restrict missions.”

  Trin watched as Brommin finished his call. “Lord Minnet is trying to kill Lady Minnet. I will meet you all back at the tower.”

  The senator nodded wisely. “They got some upsetting news this afternoon.”

  Brommin bowed and left the private dining room.

  Orisa gave him a dark look. “Do you know what that news is?”

  He nodded. “I do. Can you take Trin on another flight tomorrow?”

  “We
ll, I can lift off with her. She is far faster than I am.” Orisa gave her a very maternally proud smile.

  Trin shrugged. “My wings are bigger; it stands to reason that I would be faster.”

  Orisa chuckled. “You haven’t read the book on dragon dynamics. It isn’t actually your wings that make you fly. By the way, you are larger than most female dragons in this generation.”

  Trin wrinkled her nose. “It works for my human form as well, so I was not very surprised to find that out.”

  Senator Lefarge chuckled and got to his feet. “Ladies, I believe that there has been enough excitement for the day. My vehicle is waiting for you, so I will see you at home, love.”

  Orisa went to her husband and gave him a kiss that left smoke coming out of both their noses. Trin averted her stare and took in the portraits on the wall of the private room.

  The senator touched a wall, and a door slid open, exposing a series of steps that he took to the roof.

  Orisa sighed and walked over to Trin, linking arms with her. “Let’s get you back to the tower so that you can get to that book on dragon flight styles tomorrow.”

  Trin walked with her, past the staff that had stayed on to prepare and serve their meal. She thanked them as they walked out and grinned at the classic karros that was waiting for them.

  “Is this the senator’s private car?”

  Orisa gestured for Trin to get into the passenger side. “It is. I bought it for him on our twentieth anniversary. It is more my thing than his, but he refuses to part with it because of that.”

  Trin stuffed her dress around her legs and nodded at the doorman who shut the door. Orisa worked a rapid origami on her own skirts and slid behind the wheel. The engine roared to life, and Rish changed gears as she hit the accelerator. Trin hung on, and her flight tutor grinned, taking them through the streets at a pace that nearly approached their flight, or that is how it seemed.

  By the time they got back to the tower, Trin was sure of one thing. If her hair hadn’t already been white, the drive would have done the job.

  Chapter Eleven

  Trin focused on landing at the same spot she had taken off. The observers scattered and the medical team came in.

  Rish came over and patted her nose. “Easy now. They are going to take samples to put you in our registry.”

  Trin focused on the older dragoness as she was measured and scraped. They tried to get a sample of her claws, but their cutters kept shattering.

  “Trin, could you help them out with that?”

  Trin sighed and brought her claw to her mouth. She inserted the tip and bit down sharply. There were shouts as folks scattered, but they picked up the shards with their tongs.

  “Good girl. The claw will regenerate when you change again.” Rish patted her on the nose again.

  Trin waited and lashed her tail as one examiner got a little too personal with her backside, and the moment Rish said she could change to human, she did.

  Fuming, she stalked over to the examiner who had slid his hand under her tail for his own amusement. She balled up her fist and struck the astonished medic in the jaw.

  There were gasps and a few startled laughs as he was sent across the exercise yard on his back. Her back itched as she watched him get to his feet. He was angry at the embarrassment. The laughter in the space was directed at him.

  Rish was watching, and she didn’t intervene. Trin took her attention and put it on the man who had grown tusks and was charging at her.

  The itch on her shoulders turned to a burn, and there was a tearing sound as Trin’s new outfit suddenly had to accommodate wings.

  Trin stepped forward, extended her hand and used her wings to propel her over the charging boar. She kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling to the ground.

  She flexed her hands and her nails thickened. She straddled his back and pressed her nails to his neck. “I will bleed you dry for that insult.”

  He snorted and fought her for a moment before he paused. “I apologize for the insult. I did not know your skin was so sensitive.”

  She ratcheted his head back, and she whispered, “No lady should ever be touched without her consent. Ever. You were rude and acting like someone who didn’t think they would get caught. I expect an apology from your council.”

  “They won’t believe you.”

  She laughed, and it wasn’t a nice laugh. “All of my comings and goings are recorded. There was a scanner on you the whole time. I think that if they don’t believe the twenty witnesses, they will believe the technology. Or, you could transform, and I could transform, and we could have it out in the open arena.”

  He shuddered. “I will apologize and confess my error to my council.”

  She patted his head. “Good boy.”

  She dismounted, flicked her wings and walked back toward Rish. “I need another trip to Mirbella’s.”

  Rish was covering her mouth, equal parts appalled and amused. “Why?”

  “Because if I shift, I am pretty sure that this dress is going to drop. I heard something tear.”

  Rish laughed. “Well, we are done here. Come on, we can test your theory in your room and make an appointment with the seamstress if needed.”

  The older dragon escorted her back into the wheel and down hallway after hallway until they reached the lift that took her to her room.

  Rish was laughing. “I have never seen so many gawkers in my life. That was hilarious.”

  Trin was grimly amused. “I am guessing that not a lot of ladies wear war wings into the central hall.”

  “They can’t. They don’t have them.”

  Trin paused outside her door. “What?”

  “Women can’t do the half shift. We are either on or off.” Rish was still heartily amused. “You are gaining more and more appeal as a daughter-in-law.”

  Trin blinked. “I can do it.”

  “Well, I am thinking that it has to do with your lineage and that it isn’t quite average for a dragon.”

  Trin opened her door and noted that there weren’t any guards. “Where are my guards?”

  “You don’t need them anymore. Sosa is also reassigned unless you need a chaperone for a social event.”

  “Why did that happen so quickly?”

  Rish followed her inside and closed the door. “You are now capable and willing to defend yourself. Even if someone attempts to make themselves a nuisance, you are able to take them down. That was our worry. It was dangerous for you to be unprotected and of breeding age. Now that your dragon has chosen for you, you are a lot less attractive to the males of mating age.”

  “Wonderful. Now, how do I get these wings in?” She flicked them slightly.

  “Pull them in. You don’t need them anymore, so let them go back to being dormant.”

  Trin took a deep breath, focused, and instead of pulling, she just let the wings go. The wings had taken tension to maintain, but if she dispersed the tension, they retracted.

  To her astonishment, the dress didn’t fall. The corset remained tight, and the wide skirt that had a nearly invisible front join was moving gently with her heartbeat.

  “As I thought. The tearing sound you heard was your skin. It was like a shift only slower. It shouldn’t occur again. Mirbella is an excellent seamstress. If her work can part and reform when we are dragons, a few wing extensions shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

  Trin chuckled. “Yeah, she is a miracle worker. She understands what I need before I do.”

  “I must say that your taste in clothing is rather fetching. I thought it would be extreme, but it upholds the proper silhouette without being stiff or unwieldy.” Rish admired the design.

  “My normal clothing would be trousers and a button-down shirt with a vest. The illusion of a skirt is a concession.”

  “It is appreciated.”

  Trin went to the samovar and poured water for tea. “There is something else you wanted to tell me.”

  “Was there?” Rish sounded uncharacteristically
nervous.

  “Yes. You were going to tell me why no other woman wears the war wings.”

  Rish sat down at the small table with a sigh. “Ah. That. Well, it goes back to a tradition of battle between female dragons. Usually, the largest and fastest dragon would be the victor, but some of the females began to use their war form to gain mobility. The problem arises when the two females kill each other. The fighting for the best of the males became the dwindling of our civilization. Women were banned from using the wings, and after generations, they simply couldn’t. There have been several moments in my own life that I wanted to fly and kick someone’s ass at the same time.”

  Trin poured the tea. “It has its moments, but I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t dragon, and I wasn’t human. I had parts of both, and I was missing parts of both.”

  She fixed Rish’s cup the way she liked it and then did the same for herself. “It was disconcerting. If he had struck me in the abdomen or shoulders, I would have been toast. The only parts of me hard enough to take a hit were my wings and my claws... uh... fingers.”

  She sat and sipped at the brew.

  “Well, as long as you recognize your weaknesses, we might be able to show you what went wrong all those centuries ago so that you can avoid the same problems.”

  Trin looked at her. “There is documentation?”

  “Put your tea down and come with me.”

  Trin slammed the tea back and set the empty cup down. “You lead, and I will follow.”

  Rish laughed. “I have waited years to have an apprentice. Come on. We are going to visit my son.”

  Trin shook out her skirts, and she followed her mentor down to the archive.

  Brommin met them at the lift. He seemed surprised by their arrival. “Mother, Miss Trin, is there something I can help you with?”

  Orisa looked at her son. “Council business. I will be taking her to the council archive under my security clearance.”

  “Does Father know?”

  Brommin actually backed up at the look his mother gave him. “Right. Security clearance. You know the way.”

  “Excellent. Thank you, Master Archivist.” Orisa headed through the stacks of books, the pyramids, and containers of scrolls, and she finally paused at a structure that came to life as she wound it. A set of opera glasses elevated while Orisa turned the gears to lock them into position.