31

Serywithe threw back the covers of the bed and rose on her feet, fury on her face like a bear confronting an intruder.

“And why must I speak to you? You have given Father your consent, what else do we have to say to each other?”

“Do I really have to give Father my consent before he makes a decision?”

“But you did not protest his hare–brained decision! Challenge him, damn you!”

Perci quickly closed the distance between them and waved his index finger in her face. “Need I remind you the cost of such words against your king?”

“He is our father!”

Perci sighed. Of course, she thought so because she was young when they were captured. So was he but he never forgot the day he was brought to Arlankis and announced as Vallezarii’s rightful heir. Serywithe had been too young to remember clutching to their mother’s chest with her thumb in her mouth therefore for her, Vallezarii would always be the father she never remembered. She knew nothing of dragons or the blood running through her veins.

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