Draconess

Prologue

Before you read on, just a small request for you to read it alternatively for free on the Radish Fiction app instead because I'm trying to boost the reads on that app, my username is CSW1995, display name C. Swallow.

Up to you which app you prefer to continue reading it on :) Radish has no ads between chapters which is a bit smoother.

Enjoy!

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Rain patters softly against my skin as the day edges past dawn, onto morning. I watch from the stone arch window, curled up in the corner. My fingers tap against my bare knee, body clothed in a ribbon like cloth.

Being a priestess for the moon was always easy living, as long as my mind stayed focused.

All the young male warriors were being conditioned for their first yearly lessons down below on the streets. Mothers were grooming them with final last touches before they joined the army. Fathers were dragging them behind, onto their first day in training.

Prophecies were told, celebrations were plenty and every wise old head nodded to the young gentlemen on their way to train for great wars that never came to pass. Regardless, after the petty battles that would arise this year, what flippant stories would be told, what heroes would rise, inspiring thousands?

Swendula was a strange old city, full of wanderers mixed into established families with notable kinship.

While at least five families could challenge for the right to royal blood, certain other kinds of blood were often overlooked.

The female blood of magic was rare and treasured... if quietly. Then there was the female blood of the moon, which was both magical and mysterious. All magic was powerful, even if the few females that we accounted for in this city, were mostly shunned and ignored while kept locked away in our towers.

I sigh as I look down upon the city, hoping that this year is full of fruitful things.

Meanwhile, there is something else I can't ignore. 

I feel a pit in my stomach. While the city may have a stable fortune, my personal woes were yet to begin.

When you were a priestess in Swendula, if you were not hidden – you were hiding.

If you garnered the wrong attention, certain Masters would come looking for answers.

Warrior Masters, War Masters, Singing Sorcerers. All kinds of powerful men looking for strange answers to their own problems. Unfortunately, they usually hated the advice given, because as a priestess we had to be truthful and direct. Well, most of the time, anyway.

If you were a smart priestess you kept your mouth shut and your mind busy.

I was mostly lucky. My only job was to protect the library of curses.

While my fellow priestesses would pray in groups and tell stories of the sun, I was the only one connected to the moon.

It was rarer and stronger but far more dangerous. Not because it was evil, but because it was rare. So rare, in fact, that only I harboured the keen interest to protect the books containing the ingredients for poisons or the step by step process for spells designed to manipulate, drain and steal.

So, while my job was lonely when I was working, at least I had a special purpose.

It made me feel uniquely important.

Whereas, the bravest soldier with known knowledge and fast wit may hold everyone's steadfast curiosity this year. And I... well... I was somewhat curious to know what it would be like... to be in the spotlight, connected to everyone's hopes and dreams, responsible for other's expectations.