“I’m fine. I was hungrier than I thought.”

“You haven’t eaten in a couple of days. And it’s been a rough couple of days.”

Braith placed her hands on the table and leaned in a bit. “Addolgar.”

“Hhmm?” he asked, smiling down at the desserts Mary placed in front of them. “You should try this,” he told Braith. “Mary’s mum makes a great raisin and ale cake.”

Braith glanced down at the cake—it did look good—and back at Addolgar.

“Addolgar . . . I don’t know how I can thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?” he asked around a mouthful of cake.

“Putting your family at risk? Helping me with the Queen? Protecting me from Bercelak?”

“You protected yourself from Bercelak.”

“Addolgar,” she felt the need to remind him, “the Queen is holding your sister hostage.”

Addolgar blinked, nodded. “Uh-huh.”

Braith frowned. “Yet you don’t seem too worried about her.”

“If it were Maelona, I’d never have allowed it. I’d have torn the walls of Devenallt Mountain down before I let her take Maelona. So would the rest of my kin.”

“But Ghleanna . . . ?”

“If the Queen wants to have Ghleanna and Bercelak staying at Devenallt Mountain while you and I track your father down—that’s her decision. And I wish her much luck with it.” He pointed at Braith’s cake with his spoon. “You going to eat that?”

Chapter 11

“You staying here for the night, Addolgar?” Mary asked. “Me mum wants to know.”

“Aye,” he said, after glancing at an exhausted-looking Braith. “We’ll take a room. Is the one on the top floor open?”

“It is. But it’s extra.”

“We’ll take it.”

“Let me check it first, make sure it’s been cleaned right. I’ll let you know when you can come up.”

“Thanks, Mary.”

Mary headed to the back stairs and Addolgar again focused on Braith. “Stop worrying,” he ordered her.

“Who says I’m worrying?”

He rolled his eyes in answer and Braith gave a small sigh.

“I can’t help it,” she finally admitted. “I can’t believe my father has done this. And for what? He could never rule the Southland dragons. Not as a monarch. Being an Elder was the most he could ever hope to be. And he should be proud of that.”

“Perhaps he thinks he’s saving his people. There are many who don’t feel right with Addiena on the throne.”

“But she is. And she has been for nearly a century.” Braith rested both her arms on the table. “What I can’t figure out, though, is what Lady Katarina has to do with any of this.”

“Perhaps he hopes to use her father’s army to challenge Addiena. It would be a bold move, but her father’s army is strong. They have to be since they are all that lies between us and the Irons.”

“I thought the fear was that he’d side with the Irons.”

“He could, but he’d be foolish to try. The Irons see themselves as superior to everyone. In their minds, they only answer to the gods. So betraying Lord Berg would mean nothing to them. And he knows that.”

“But if Lord Berg challenges Addiena, won’t he have to face the Cadwaladrs in battle? I’ve always heard that’s what keeps many challengers for the throne from our borders.”

“Using our name will stop those who talk a lot about claiming the throne but really have no true heart for it. But those who truly want it, like Overlord Thracius in the West or the Horde leaders in the Northlands . . . the Cadwaladrs are merely something to figure out how to defeat. All we manage to do with the likes of them is keep them back until they have enough forces to move.”

Braith placed the palms of her hands against her eyes, her exhaustion and frustration beginning to grow. “I just wish I knew what he was doing. Who he was working with. My father does nothing on his own.” She dropped her hands and looked Addolgar straight in the face. “He’s not a brave dragon.”

“What about your mum?”

“The bravest I knew.”

Addolgar finally asked the question that had been bothering him for most of the day. “Why are you not close to your mum’s kin?”

“My mother saw me as a Penarddun, but her kin see me as my father’s daughter. And they want even less to do with him.” She shook her head, glanced off. “As always, I’m on my own.”

“Not anymore you’re not. You have the force of the Cadwaladr Clan behind you. That’s more than most will ever be able to say.”

“I still wish we hadn’t involved your family. If one of them gets hurt or . . . if anything happens to your kin, Addolgar . . .”

“Nothing will happen. And you seem to think you’ve somehow forced us into this. Or as if we’re doing it out of pity. The Cadwaladrs don’t feel pity. Not for each other. Not for anyone.”

“Then why are any of you helping me?”

“My father’s doing it because you won him lots of money. Ghleanna’s doing it because she likes knowing another female near her age who can’t quite wear her clothes. Bercelak will say he’s doing it to protect Ghleanna, but really he wants to spend time around Princess Rhiannon, even though we all know he doesn’t have a shot in all the hells with that one.”