Wings of Fire - Court of Lies

13 - Mother and Daughter

She felt tension many times in her life, Scarlet, but in that moment, it was so strong that she could have been suffocated by it, if it wasn't for the sick pleasure she was taking in staring at the other two dragoness.
Kestrel was chained to a pillar, her paws were tied togheter and an heavy muzzle was covering her jaws as two guards stood next to her, ready to take it off to let her speak. Peril moved her stare from Scarlet to her mother, like she was asking for permission to talk or for some reassuring words, finally going near the chained dragoness after a few minutes as the queen gestured for the guards to take off Kestrel's muzzle and go outside the room.

<< So... you're my mother... >>

Said Peril, Kestrel massaged her lower jaw and simply nodded, staring at Scarlet with pure hatred in her eyes.

<< I thought she killed you. >>

She simply said.

<< No, she saved my life when you tried to kill m- >>

Kestrel's laugh cute her short, she sounded more than annoyed at those words.

<< I see Scarlet didn't lost her "spirit", I'm not surprised she lied to you. >>

The darker SkyWing turned her eyes to the queen standing behind heer daughter and asked: << Care to tell her what really happened? Or should I be the one to do the honors? >>, taking the following silence as a "Yes".

<< It's the SkyWings' way to deal with sick or "strange" dragonets by throwing them off the highest cliff. You and you're brother were both born when she offered me to keep at least one of you, your brother was very weak and suffering from Ashscales, he had no fire in him and would have never survived, so I choose to spare him an hard life ending his suffering. Then Scarlet took back her word and ordered me to kill you as well. >>

Peril's eyes went from dragoness to dragoness, her adoptive mother looked insulted by those words and acted like they were as painful as being stabbed in the back by a SandWing's tail, yet she wasn't talking, she wasn't trying to defend herself and that made Kestrel suspicious.
Peril kept going.

<< But you never searched for me... >>
<< I thought you were dead. >>

Peril felt relief washing over her at her mother's words, she didn't feel any connection towards that dragoness that she never knew before that day and both her and her mother's voice and body language lacked of warm towards each other, yet she felt a strangely good sensation at the thought of her mother not trying to kill her.
But she had still killed her brother, "What if there was a chance for him?"
Yet, even Scarlet told her that it was the right thing to do, to get rid of weak and sick dragonets, every SkyWing in the kingdom kept talking about how hard it was to make the right choice for a weak dragonet that would just suffer.
"I can't be angry at Kestrel for something natural and right in our nature, can't I?"

<< You and the Talons of Peace kidnapped eggs from their family... >>
<< We were trying to stop this war, to prevent families from really losing their dragonets, dragons are dying every day and we were actually trying to do something about it. >>

Kestrel voice became a low growl at the mention of the prophecy, the thought of that prophecy that Morrowseer created and how they foolishly believed his words made her feel like an idiot.

<< But they told me how you and your friends treated them, how- >>
<< Those ungrateful brats might keep whining about their training, but we taught them how to survive, you don't do that by putting them under a glass bell and let them be weak. >>