Chapter 12
Lorcan When the men had dropped me off at home, I played the part of a broken man. My mother instructed that they lie to me on the bed, and out of pity, they didn’t toss me. Once the door clicked shut and my mother came to me weeping, I braced myself for what was about to unfold. Knowing once I spoke, our lives would never be the same.
“My boy. My sweet, sweet boy. What have they done to you?” The tears fell fast and hard, sliding down her cheeks. Her eyes were red and swollen. She must have cried every day since the evening of the arrest. I doubted she had a full night’s sleep in over a week. She was running on pure emotion.
“Would you like something to eat? Something to ease your pain? Or is it the rest you seek? Tell me Lorcan, tell me what you need, and I will do the best I can.”
“Draw the curtains, please.” My mother jumped up at once and snapped the curtains shut. “The guards…are they gone?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “No one will hurt you now.” She stepped closer and pulled a chair up beside my bed. “The pain…is it much to bear?” Her voice cracked as she spoke, and her chin trembled.
“I need to show you something.” She braced herself, assuming I would show her the mark they had sealed on my skin. Instead, I carefully placed my hands on either side of my hips, sat up, and swung my legs over the side of the bed so I was sitting on it. She looked startled and confused.
“I saw what they did to you…You shouldn’t be able to move…I heard the sickening snaps as your body cried out…It should take you months to heal…you might never fully heal…” She was speaking more to herself than to me.
I reached out and placed my hands upon hers. “I’m all right. There is more.” She looked at me baffled, not knowing what I would do next. I pulled off my shirt so she could see my chest. With trembling fingers, she touched where they had branded me, shaking her head in disbelief.
“You’re perfect…Just perfect! How?”
I put my shirt back on and looked at her thoughtfully. Then I got up, walked over to her drawer, and pulled out the leather purse. I watched her smile in disbelief as I walked with ease around the room. Then, taking the seat at the edge of the bed, her gaze dropped to my hands, and her joy turned to fear as she witnessed my discovery from weeks before.
“Gods. I’ve feared this day,” she said as I slipped the pin bearing the sigil of Clan Drago into the palm of my hand. I held it up for her to see.
“Why would father have this hidden?
If it were just spoils of war, surely he would have shown it to me.” My mother took the pin out of my hand and rubbed her thumb over the dragon image. “When I was in that cell, my body was healing as fast as snow melts in the sun. I felt my muscles tearing as they stretched me on the rack, I should not be walking now. And my chest…I never even felt the burn.”
“I knew when you made no sound. The others thought you were dead, but I…” Her voice trailed off. “I prayed my theories were correct.”
“Theories?”
She remained silent, her eyes set upon the silver pin.
“Mother. I do not know how I didn’t feel the burn from the branding, or how my body is good as new, but I think this pin has something to do with it. It’s all I could think about while I lay in that hole for a week. Alone in the dark with nothing but my madness to keep me company. Tell me the truth, I beg you.”
“You don’t have to beg me, Lorcan. The truth belongs to you. But please understand that before I tell you the truth, know I only kept it from you to protect you.” I nodded. Cora took a deep breath and began.
“You will always be my son, but I am afraid I…I am not your mother.”
I looked at her without wavering. It should have shocked me, but it didn’t. After all, I had been through this week, there wasn’t much shock left in me these days. “Go on.”
“Barin, as you know, fought beside Savio in the dragon wars. It was Barin who found where Charon nested.”
“I know all this. The whole city knows this.” I didn’t mean to be short with her, but I was desperate for answers.
“Then you know that the dragons were weakened by waters, not of our land. To ensure that none of their mates were with children, the women were to be taken prisoner. Barin was ordered to round up the women. When he came upon Charon’s mate, Aelwyd, she had a babe in her arms. A boy, with hair black as night. She begged Barin for mercy. He was a soldier, but his heart was kind. He couldn’t watch a baby be killed no matter whose son it was. He hid the babe in a large pouch within his saddlebag and delivered the women to Savio, as he was ordered.” She paused to take a breath, but I couldn’t breathe. It felt as if the world had stopped as she spoke the truth to me.
“Savio had just slain Charon and was mad from his kill. The men say he smeared the blood of the dragon on his face like paint. He ordered to have the women slain as well. Barin refused, but the other soldiers were happy to slit the throats of the dragon brides.” I ran my fingers through my hair…all those innocent women. “Aelwyd, being the mate of Charon, was given a different death.
Savio told the men she must be purified and was taken to the river to be drowned.” Cora stopped to take note of my reaction, but I remained frozen, needing to soak in every word. “Then Savio ordered that the bodies be carried to Lassair and burned. Rumors say the ash-covered lands have been haunted ever since.”
I had a thousand questions, but I tried to remain focused. “And Barin?”
Cora cleared her throat. “The men rode victoriously through the city and stopped at the brothels along the way to…celebrate. There, Barin paid a woman to pretend the baby was hers until he could come back for the child. During that time, he returned to the cottage and married me. We tried for some time to conceive but couldn’t. He told me of the baby he saved from the sword, and knowing you were out there, I had to raise you as my own.”
“No one questioned it? You went from being barren to having a toddler wandering about.” The concept seemed absurd. Certainly, people would suspect. The capital thrived on gossip. No one knew that better than me.
“We said you were my sister’s child who had lost his mother to disease. Some swallowed this as truth; others assumed Barin was unfaithful and you were born in the brothels. The darkness of your hair caused people to come to their conclusions. After a year or so, the whispers stopped, and you were just the son of Barin and Cora Tarak.”
“But…I am not a Tarak.”
“No, my darling boy, you’re not.
You are the son of Charon and Aelwyd. You are from the bloodline of the Clan Drago. You were born a prince, and the rightful heir to the lands of Lassair, Borvo, and Abhainn.”
“But…am I…” The words seemed impossible. My mother reached for my hand and placed the pin against my palm.
“Lorcan, fire cannot harm a dragon. After what I witnessed, that is what you are.”