Free Celtic Stars (Celtic Steel Book 4) by Delaney Rhodes

intent on resting, regardless of what their slave-driver for a self-appointed leader had to say about it. Splashing water all over her face, Naelyn lay back down against the low brush and soaked up the sun.
    “We must be getting on,” Braeden said for what seemed the hundredth time in the previous ten minutes.
    “I don’t rightly care what ye think about it ana'more,” Orla quipped, “We need to rest and eat something, Ana'thing – and there is no way ye can be a ’carrying the both of us. Especially since ye carried her for miles already,” she said nodding at Naelyn.
    “How did ye happen upon me ana'how?” asked Naelyn to Braeden.
    “Well, I was gathering some wood for a fire and I heard yer voices, talking real low like and I watched as the lanthorn went out. So, I jest sat there behind a bush and waited to see what would happen. It appeared ye might need some help so I waited and watched and when the moment was right, I grabbed ye.”
    “Why on earth would ye help me Braeden, after all I did to ye? After putting ye in the dungeon, and nearly sacrificing ye with Odetta in the ceremony and all?  I figured ye might wish to kill me instead. I certainly would,” Naelyn whispered. It had only been a few months since their last meeting and it still weighed heavily in Naelyn’s mind. All the things she had done for, with and on behalf of Odetta Burke. But that was then and this was now, and Braeden had just helped her escape the Roman soldier and her eventual placement in the catacombs with that thing . She couldn’t even imagine it and wondered if Braeden had heard everything that had been said.
    “Well,” said Braeden, rubbing at his chin and tugging on his day’s old stubble, “I had that thought, but then I remembered all the good things that Orla said about ye, during the council meetings and the investigations and such. I figured ye may be put to good use somehow.”
    “Orla said good things about me?” Naelyn asked, surprised.
    “Aye, she did,” returned Braeden, nodding his head and chuckling at the sound of Orla’s snoring. “Said ye were much like a second mathair to her, and that means something, especially for Orla; who hasn’t had much of a mam at all.”
    “Well, I’m glad to hear that Braeden, I really do care for her.”
    “But ye know what I really want to know about don’t ye?” he asked.
    “What do ye mean?”
    “Ye know, I want to hear about eldrago ,” he said with inflection, making a point.
    “I was afraid ye heard,” Naelyn sighed. “I don’t know much about dragons Braeden, only what I’ve read, which is probably jest the same stories that ye have read. Mostly fables and fairy tales, really, I’d know idea they actually existed.”
    “Why was the solider taking ye with him then if ye don’t know ana'thing about ‘em?”
    “That’s the thing Braeden, I don’t rightly know. I guess Easal thinks I may be able to do something with a wild creature that he can’t. He has it locked down in the catacombs. I’m afraid to think what might happen if they don’t let it loose soon.”
    Orla shot straight up from her half-slumber on the bank of the brook.  Scratching at her disheveled hair, she turned to face Braeden, “Braeden, ye mean to say that it worked?”
    “What?” he asked.
    “The summoning - ye mean to say ye actually summoned a dragon and Easal has it in the catacombs?” Orla asked.
    “Ye summoned the dragon?” Naelyn gasped, pointing absent-mindedly at her adolescent savior. “Braeden what have done? How on earth did you summon a dragon? Oh! By the gods! Ye have awakened a dragon! Do you know? Is it a King Dragon? Oh, by the gods, Braeden! What have you done?” she shook her head and began pacing back and forth in front of the bubbling water, nearly tripping over Orla in the process.
    “How am I to know what manner of dragon they have caught? I haven’t seen it – and if I had, I don’t know that I would know what kind it is,” said Braeden.