Day 6: Rum and Resin

The jeweler’s house, at the bottom of the incline, boiled like a cauldron. Lonan plaited tough thread and rum-mixed resin through Shay’s sweaty hair, patterning crushed cockle shells in braids away from Shay’s hairline. His fingerwork was tight and precise.

“Black Dragon” 2019

"Outside the unintelligible grumbling and angry hissing of dragon language, the home of the draca was known as Dragonhalf, Crown of Dragons. The original words translated into something more like Grave of Dragons, but the two were synonymous to draca. Once assigned, authority could not be escaped by the holder or revoked by those beholden. Unsurprisingly, in the history of draca rulers, only a handful had died from confirmed natural causes. "