Page 169 of Broken Veil
“Eleri.” Cadell lifted the little girl up and whispered in her ear.
She giggled and climbed down Cadell’s legs, running across the room as her body erupted in a bright red shower of sparks.
The baby dragon nearly ran into Carys’s legs before she could stop.
Carys immediately sat on the floor, and Eleri turned in circles, waving her tail and flapping her wings. She was roughly the size of a spaniel and made a chirruping sound as she showed off her beauty.
“Am I dreaming?” Carys whispered.
“You will never speak of this,” Cadell murmured. “And as far as Mared is concerned, her daughter was never here.”
Carys gasped and looked up. “Are you the bad-influence uncle?”
He lifted one shoulder. “My children are more mature. I can spoil the little ones.”
“Oh my god, Cadell is a bad influence,” she whispered at Eleri, who promptly shoved her spiky head under Carys’s hand. “Yes, you’reverybeautiful, Eleri.”
The little red dragon turned her head to Cadell.
Cadell spoke to her in Cymric.
Eleri made a clicking noise in the back of her throat, then turned in more circles and puffed out a small stream of fire.
Carys pretended to be shocked. She sucked in a breath and put a hand over her chest. “Oh no!”
“Gofal!” Cadell barked.
The chirping sound was back, but this time it had the timbre of a giggle.
“Oh Eleri, you’re very scary.” Carys nodded. “Very beautiful but very scary too.”
The little dragon rolled on the ground, curling into a ball and rocking back and forth with her tail.
“They do that when they’re happy.” Cadell walked over. “I better get her back to her sire or Mared will hear of it.”
Carys stuck out her lower lip, but Cadell shook his head.
“Most humans never get to see the younglings ever,” he whispered. “Don’t complain.”
She ran a hand over Eleri’s head a moment before the little girl transformed again. She immediately started babbling something in Cymric.
Cadell answered her, then turned to Carys. “She wants to come visit you again, but I said you are only here for a short time.”
“Tell her I’ll be back though.”
“I will.” Cadell lifted the little girl to his shoulder and pulled open the chamber door, ducking under it as Eleri continued to babble.
“Cadell!” Carys scrambled to her feet.
He paused in the corridor. “Nêrys.”
“Thank you for showing me a baby dragon,” she whispered.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He shut the door behind him.
“Our riders have goneout to survey,” Dafydd said. “There is no evidence of the Morrígan on Saris Plain. What has happened in the Brightlands, I have no idea.”
Duncan said, “Lachlan and I walked through the Ynys Môn fae gate yesterday. We looked at the papers, but the only mention of a dragon in England was in the tabloids, and most people think it was some kind of prank.”
