Dragon on Top by G.A. Aiken

can take her out sometime. Or buy her something a female would like. Flowers or whatever.”
    â€œAnd,” Hew insisted, “tell her she’s beautiful.”
    â€œShe is beautiful.”
    â€œYeah. Tell her just like that. Like you mean it.”
    Bram stopped walking. “I do mean—”
    â€œGood, good.” Adain patted his shoulder. “We’ll leave you to it then.”
    The brothers walked off and Bram, confused and becoming more and more terrified by Ghleanna’s kin, went back to digging through his bag. And that’s when he finally heard it. A bird. A crow specifically. Cawing.
    Bram looked over at the trees on the other side of the beach they walked on. The crow cawed again, his wings spread out wide from his body.
    â€œWhat is it?” Ghleanna asked him.
    â€œSomeone’s following us.”
    â€œAye. We know.”
    Surprised, Bram again looked at the brothers. Although they were still talking, they all had their hands on the closest weapon.
    â€œYou’re not going to panic on me and run, are you, royal?”
    â€œMy, you do have a high opinion of me, Ghleanna. It’s very heartwarming.”
    She laughed and shook her head. “No insult meant. Simply wanted to be sure I didn’t need to chain you to me.”
    â€œTo stop me from running away? Not necessary.” Bram gave her a small smile. “However, if you find other reasons to chain me to you, feel free.”
    Ghleanna stumbled a bit. “Wait. What?”
    But before Bram could elaborate on his request—in detail—Hew yelled out, “The trees!”
    The Cadwaladrs moved in unison and with purpose, all of them surrounding Bram, their shields up and locked together, their weapons ready to strike.
    â€œWatch your right, Hew!” Addolgar yelled out. “Look to the trees, Cai. Adain, send a call out. See if any of our kin are nearby. Tell them where we are.”
    â€œI don’t see anything.”
    â€œAll you need to know,” Ghleanna reminded Cai, “is that Addolgar and Hew did. Now shut the fuck up and hold formation!”
    Then there was silence. A painful, bloated silence that had Bram panting lightly so that when he needed his flame, he could unleash it as he’d been trained to do since hatching.
    They waited, the moment growing more and more tense, but not once did any of the Cadwaladrs move. Not once did they even flinch. Even the younger ones who, according to Cadwaladr Code were still too young and untrained to be on their own.
    And, just when he thought perhaps Cai had been right and there was nothing for Addolgar or Hew to see, a dragon in full armor dropped right in front of them, the beach and trees around them shaking.
    â€œShift!” Ghleanna yelled and Bram shifted to his natural form at the same time the Cadwaladrs did. It was all that kept him from being crushed to death, too.
    â€œShields!” Addolgar yelled and with a slam against the ground, their shields changed from human-sized to a size fit for enormous warrior dragons. “Weapons!” Another slam, this time to the base of their weapons, which had the deadly implements expanding in size. He knew that the Cadwaladrs had some special blacksmith among them, but gods, what a creation.
    â€œGhleanna!” Addolgar ordered, “Protect the royal!”
    And as soon as Addolgar’s words left his snout, the first strike came.
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    With the open sea to their backs, Ghleanna felt relatively sure the traitors—because that’s how she thought of them—would be coming from one direction. They could try to come at them from the sea but they’d be quickly seen and dealt with by the Fins.
    No. Approaching by land was safer and quicker. Besides . . . there were many of them. She counted at least twenty. And all of them trained soldiers of Rhiannon’s army. Soldiers Ghleanna had fought with, drunk with, raided small towns with. And yet,