Page 94 of Dragon Blood

The Queen’s Guard had gathered around Regina’s sleeping form, moving her to a lower citadel bunker reserved for the vulnerable when leaving the island wasn’t an option. Two shamans had been selected to be sealed in with her, continuing their work to awaken her, while all others would be on hand to tend the inevitable wounded and dying. The children and frail elders would be taken much further down, into the most protected vaults.

The archivists were already securing the library. Valuable tomes, scrolls and artifacts detailing Aeleftheria’s long history were being secured before heavy stone slabs were slid into place, sealing those levels from surface destruction.

Her thoughts tumbled back to Kolina, locked far underground in the traitor’s dungeon.

She doesn’t belong there.

Her gaze flicked across the citadel to the council tower, where some prepared for evacuation, and others prepared for battle.

Zadora Steelscale had led the accusations against her daughter Kolina and grandson Kai.

Launia’s gut soured.

It isn’t right. Kolina wouldn’t do this.

She could never betray Aeleftheria.

She knew because she’d been there the day Regina had tasked Kolina with removing the stone from Aeleftheria before swearing them all to forcing the events to stay in the past. As of the moment the stone left Aeleftherian soil, every betrayal the Dragon Star had committed upon the crown had been struck from history and remitted to folklore.

Regina had ordered it. Every Aeleftherian living at the time had been ordered to never speak of events except in the capacity of storytelling.

Zadora hadn’t deserved it.

Launia saw what toll resisting the star stone had taken on Kolina.

I can’t imagine what it did to her, to be the one ordered to carry it away.

Launia watched the skies with keen eyes. The enemy finally knew where they were.Because of the traitor.

Who had cast the blame and sought to destroy the most loyal of Aeleftheria’s servants?

Kolina had left Aeleftheria bearing the source of their greatest hero’s power, who sulked in whispers of disgrace, withdrawn from the people to the shuttered tower of the Council. Whispers carried away by the wind, truths dispersed over the sea.

Order restored, Aeleftheria moved on. No one that Launia knew ever spoke of the reassignment. No one understood it. The story survived, mostly as that of a tale of glory and heroism. All the best deeds preserved. A model for new generations of Aeleftherians to shape themselves into. Though without a magic rock, to give them superpowers.

When Kolina had returned after that mission, she was deeply changed. She had borne a male child and abandoned him.

Launia recognized the look in her eyes, because she’d done the same. She recognized the steel in her spine she required to stop her from returning to him every day.

For Aeleftheria.

Because the Council declared male younglings too dangerous to exist on the island.

A council lead by Zadora.

Launia had never understood why. Why would Zadora be so protected? A privilege that obviously did not extend to her daughter.

Why?

She squinted into the northern sky.

Her heart stopped, allowing ice to streak from her scalp down to her heels.

“Oh, great Goddess, no,” she whispered. Her gaze dropped to the flurried activity below.

Not enough time.

Atop the guardian tower, she ran toward the ledge, shifting. Her cotton tunic and pants tore apart as she expanded into her dragon form, diving off the ledge. With a mighty breath, she swooped low, roaring.

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