A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 153-154

Ocono 1st, 3330 A.G

Nara grunted, adjusting the pillow behind her back. Nothing about the wooden cart were comfortable, but she supposed it could always be worse. The carriage weren't much better, neither were riding a horse for hours on end, day in and day out- even when one were used to it.
  
  Nara pushed the fur off of her, suddenly hot- and Drogo gladly reached for it. She'd spent the past hours trying to figure him out, trying to get more out of him than being shown a scar or being told a very short version of the story-

  But there'd been nothing yet. Each time she tried he tensed up, looked like he were going to cry again- and that definitely couldn't happen here. Not as they rode at the very front of the army; even with a few of the giants partially obstruction soldier's views. Not even with the dragon that rode overhead, creating a small, shadowy darkness over them and the council.

  Behind them and Renard were the council, where even Aenor rode a horse to keep pace- and looked incredibly bored doing so. Of course he did. One simply didn't go from riding a dragon, that view seen by so few people throughout all of history.... to this.

  Nara tried to imagine it to entertain herself. From the way Aenor talked about the supposed bond, there were nothing else like it in the world. However much one loved their child, their best friend, their spouse- it were just different. One were connected to their beast in a way she didn't like to be connected to people, but at least a dragon couldn't betray their rider.

  Not in the same ways, at least. A dragon could not spy on her and then beg for forgiveness. A dragon would not have killed  Andre Hemin's advisor's- in the same way at least. A dragon would not have slept with another the moment they were away from her- Nara despised the imagery that thought put in her head. A dragon certainly would have been useful during that intense rage that followed when she first laid eyes on the ruins of house Ashhand. Because those first few days, by the gods Nara would not have been able to stop herself from flying straight to voryn and burning every single speck of land.

  From intentionally burning every man, woman and child she saw. Instead she were now stuck with these annoying things called 'logic' and 'being strategical.' Because she didn't want to be Tiffan Raynerus. She were better. She had to believe that. She would not burn babes alive because she were pissed off that someone she loved got killed. She would focus all of that energy on Tiffan Raynerus when the time came, and the the woman would wish Nara had chosen to kill all of her people instead.

  Nara shifted her sitting position again, still very uncomfortable.

  "Well-" Drogo were laying on his side, trying to keep his back from pressing into anything. "I imagine we're going to have to get very used to each other these next days."

  Nara frowned, her threat completely serious.
  "Don't make me put you in the carriage with the screaming babe."

  Drogo snorted. Then there were that smile she hadn't seen in so long, however short lived.

  "I'm very good with babes." He mumbled, already brought back to those weeks. "My sister's would stop screaming any time I held her."

  That, and his niece hadn't gotten much attention from her mother the first few months of her life. Drogo understood- or at least he tried to. She'd struggled to look her in the eyes and remember how she were conceived, and she'd been so young too. No one with half a brain could have expected such a young mother to be the best one in human history- so Drogo made sure he were there for them.

  And sure, he hadn't known anything about babes himself- but there were help to be found. Women in the village who loved them both, who had multiple children of their own and gladly answered any questions he had- one that took the babe to give him a break after he'd been up four days straight.