Free Child of the Loch (Child of the Loch Series) by Elizabeth Delana Rosa Page A

joy and pains of life, even your thoughts are one.”
    She took a thick lock of Ella’s hair and a dead scale from Manea . With ancient words and a tear from her eye, she crushed them in her hand and the hair was inside the scale. A silver chain made from the Queen’s own scales was threaded through it and the scale was placed around Ella’s neck. When I listened to Ella, I heard Manea threaded through her mind like the chain threaded through the scale. Their souls were joined. What one wanted the other knew and what pain one felt so did the other.
    The Queen repeated the ritual for Tine and his dragon, Tyro, Sheen and Jora , followed by Kane and Kinshi , Sean and Gai , and my father and Corso . She saved me for last.
    “Young Queen of the Loch, your gift is sight so you must have a flesh bond with Sanandra .” She looked at the dragon lovingly. “The others would not choose you for this reason. However, it seems that you are kindred spirits. She is the last of the mountain ice dragons. Sanandra flew here when her hoards were demolished by disease and war. Like you, youngling, she is a queen and far from home.”
    I looked into Sanandra’s orange eyes and our minds dissolved into one. “Majestic Ice Queen, will you bond with me? Will you share my joy and my pain? Will you share my royal life that you were denied?” I asked to the mind that joined mine.
    Sanandra answered, “A flesh bond is difficult but we will be as one. I will share your council and be yours as you are mine.”
    We turned and nodded to the Queen in unison. Her hand became a talon and she painfully cut several live scales from Sanandra . Then it was my turn and from my forearm she took a large chunk of flesh. Tears flowed from our eyes.
    “Scale and Flesh, Flesh and Scale you are joined in life and joined in death. You share every joy and pain of life.”
    The Queen spit on the flesh and scales, they sizzled like they were fried. Finally, she encased them in her hands and spoke more ancient words. When she opened her hand, the scale was around the flesh and chain was threaded through it. Both would be preserved for as long as we lived.
    I felt Sanandra’s pain, so I took some of my tears and rubbed them as a salve on her wound. The wound immediately closed and stopped hurting, but there were no scales to replace those that were removed. She would always have a vulnerable place where scales would not protect her, just as I would always have the scar on my healed arm. We would always be reminded of our bond.
    The next days were spent with all of us learning to be two souls in one mind. It was quite a change to feel everything that our dragons felt. Ella and Tine grew closer as did their dragons. Each was a mated pair with hopes of long lives together, many offspring and a swift end to the coming battle. They all fed off of their love and respect for one another.
    The twins and their dragons shared a twin bond; it was as though four minds melded together into one. The twins could not share each other’s pain but as I listened I heard them all. My breath caught as Kane would ride across the sky with Jora and Sheen with Kinshi . They would, then, jump in mid-air switching dragons. Their laughter reached the ground as we watched.
    Sean and Gai bonded easily and seemed to follow Sanandra and I like silent shadows. They were acting as our protectors and we each thought that our protectors were handsome. Amazing how we could not tell where one feeling ended and the other began!
    My father and Corso loved fire. They would take turns making rings of it for the others to fly through. Even though, we were not allowed to mention the fire, it was a joy to watch them in unison creating great flames.
    Solern was our teacher. At times, he would join us in the sky as a dragon asking us to mirror his movements and other times he would wait for us on the ground directing us in various maneuvers. We were learning how to be warriors of the air.
       All of us spent