Page 14 of Lady Dragon
Samansa imagined her own eyes remained entirely red-rimmed.
After her initial outburst, she hadn’t cried in front of anyone—no, she’d saved that for the nights.
And likely there would still be more of those, but for now, in the light of the morning, she took a deep breath and said, “My apologies. You saved my life a second time, and even tried to be considerate of my feelings in the process, in your own way. I fear I’ve repaid you solely with ingratitude.
You only meant to continue protecting me by not immediately telling me about Dara and hiding her away, and I appreciate the thought, but…
You have to understand, Kirek, I’m not a child. ”
Kirek gave her a dubious look, but, fortunately for the dragon girl, she didn’t open her mouth.
Still, Samansa felt her jaw tighten as she continued, “I’m the princess and daughter heir, and you can’t make these decisions for me. Dara was very dear to me, and I would have liked not to be spared the news of her death.”
“You would rather have felt the pain with such immediacy?” Kirek asked slowly, her words heavy with deliberation. “Seen the harsh truth spelled out in her blood?”
“Yes,” Samansa hissed through gritted teeth. She hoped this conversation wasn’t about to go as well as the last. She was barely holding on to her temper.
So much for being able to charm birds from the trees, as Jamsens had claimed she could. He probably wouldn’t say so now, not after how she’d treated him. She somewhat felt like chopping a tree down , even if she would feel terribly about it afterward.
Kirek’s mouth twitched. “Good.”
“ Good? ” Samansa blurted.
“Yes. I won’t spare you from such things next time.
” Instead of it sounding like a threat, the words became somewhat else when the dragon girl added, “Because I respect your stance.” Her tone turned wry.
“Although, I might continue sparing you from assassins, since you’ve so graciously thanked me both times. ”
Samansa realized she hadn’t actually thanked her. Either time.
Before she could sputter out more apologies or belated thanks, Kirek said, “I still should have delivered the news more considerately, in a way that honored the strength of your relationship to Dara. My apologies, I didn’t know.”
That struck Samansa speechless. The dragon, apologizing to her ? This morning couldn’t get any stranger.
“That’s twice you’ve saved me now,” she said, just to fill the air. “When will I get to return the favor and save you ?”
“I eagerly await the day,” Kirek said with a cynical smile, as if she didn’t think that day would ever come.
And then she abruptly leaped up to open the antechamber door—at first, Samansa thought, to extract herself from the shame of having just apologized—revealing Jamsens and the rest of the guards, whom she ignored in favor of turning back to the princess.
“Shall we?” Kirek said, holding the door wider and gesturing in invitation. “I received word before you awoke. Your mother wants to see us.”
And so Samansa found herself in the queen’s private office, used for only the most clandestine of business affairs, along with Kirek, Jamsens, Tordall, Merard, and a tall, heavily armed, and otherwise rather fearsome-looking older woman that Samansa had never seen before.
Branon was conspicuously absent—a trend that was becoming more and more common, of late. He’d been louder and bolder in his differences of opinion. Did the queen no longer trust him at all?
The princess swallowed down her nerves, trying not to smooth her skirts. This wasn’t the type of gathering she was used to. Especially not with a dragon joining them.
“I’ll cut right to it,” the queen said nearly as soon as the door was closed, “as an issue of some diplomatic urgency has arisen. It doesn’t help matters that it has arrived amidst the worst attempts to date we’ve seen on my daughter heir’s life.”
“There have been other attempts?” Samansa blurted, and then swallowed in embarrassment.
Of course there probably had been. She’d simply been sheltered from them, as a child.
But now she’d come of age, and so her mother saw fit to share such things with her, as well as invite her to meetings such as this .
She should at least try to act like she belonged here.
Samansa had just demanded to see the gory details, after all, even if the queen hadn’t been privy to that conversation.
Her mother merely leveled a heavy glance at her and carried on.
“These assassination attempts only make the peace between Andrath and the draconic realm all the more critical.” Here, she dropped her weighty gaze on Kirek , of all people.
“Except your side seems to be faltering in this peaceful endeavor.”
“What do you mean?” Kirek asked. Samansa thought the dragon girl would have been more demanding, more affronted… but she sounded less arrogantly certain of herself than usual. Wary, almost.
“I mean that a dragon has attacked one of our villages on the border to your realm. Burned it to the ground. There were few survivors. ”
Kirek shook her head. “I have heard nothing of this, on my end, from any messenger.” The words were firm, but oddly relieved , for some reason.
Had the dragon girl imagined it would be something worse?
What could be worse than a human village getting razed?
Then again, she was a dragon, and her measure of such things was different from a human’s.
“It must have been a rogue dragon, acting on her own.”
“Still,” the queen said briskly, “I would greatly appreciate it if you would bear witness to this atrocity, to take in the gravity of the situation with your own eyes and know that I speak the truth—and then try to explain it to me so that I, in turn, can explain to all Andrath. Understand, I have no desire to ignite ill will between our queendoms, but I also need reassurance that you and your queen don’t possess such for us. ”
“You… simply want me to go look at a ruined village,” Kirek said slowly, as if making sure she fully understood.
The queen gave a sharp nod. “And I want Samansa to accompany you.”
The dragon girl’s dubiousness gave way to stark surprise. “But why? I could fly there on my own far faster than I could travel with her.”
“I want this to be a diplomatic venture, conducted in concert between our two peoples—especially since a dragon is involved—and you cannot wing ahead and leave Samansa trailing behind you, at risk.” The queen paused, considering. “Or could you carry her?”
Kirek hissed, making not only Jamsens put his hand on his sword, but Merard and the unfamiliar, fierce-looking woman as well.
Tordall, for his part, remained still. Perhaps as commander of the queen’s armies, he had seen much worse and knew how to keep a cool head, even under the pressure of a potentially significant threat.
And the dragon girl was certainly something significant, if not a threat: powerful, terrifying, even beautiful —though Samansa shied away from the thought—particularly when her silver eyes flashed like that and those already knifelike features sharpened in offense.
She was, indeed, like a blade. A glorious, shining one.
“I don’t carry humans,” Kirek snapped. “That is beneath me. I’m not a horse . And that still doesn’t satisfy the question of why the princess would be coming at all?”
Samansa might have been impressed at the bold tone Kirek was taking with her mother, if not for her own annoyance. While the princess wasn’t the most stalwart of warriors, she wasn’t exactly a wilting blossom. Hadn’t she proved that to Kirek yet?
“She needs to go,” the queen enunciated with a tighter jaw than she usually countenanced, “because you two need to continue spending time together—to understand each other.” There was that concern in her mother’s eyes again—that Samansa’s and Kirek’s relationship was souring, despite the dragon girl’s protection.
Samansa obviously hadn’t had time to tell the queen that they’d made amends, since it had happened right before this meeting. “And there’s another reason.”
Kirek arched the cool, dark slice of her brow. “Which is?”
Samansa cringed inwardly. Bold or not, talking like that to her mother had landed her in the kitchens, scrubbing pots with the scullery maids, once upon a time.
“It is a twofold plan,” the queen continued, undaunted.
“Not only for diplomatic purposes, but to get Samansa away for a while, as the castle seems to be a dangerous place for her of late. We suspect other attacks are in place, while no one would suspect she would leave with only a few companions. You’ll go in secret and only take a half dozen guards for reinforcements, so as not to arouse suspicion.
” The queen turned to Tordall. “You can ensure that my daughter will be protected with so few, yes?”
He bowed his head. “I swear it. She will have my best men.”
The queen turned back to Samansa and Kirek. “Not to underestimate the lady dragon, who has indeed proved to be the best protection there is.”
Kirek appeared too pleased with herself to object at the title she purportedly disdained, while both Tordall and Jamsens looked like they wanted to argue until the queen rode over them.
“ Which any would-be assassin is now well aware of, so Kirek must appear to wing away on urgent business without the princess. Samansa will follow shortly with the utmost discretion. No one but those in this room will know she’s left, giving the assassin the window—perhaps all too literally if the last incident was any indication—that they think they need to attack her while the lady dragon is absent.
Jamsens needs to stay here, of course, to keep up appearances—”
“But—” Jamsens started to object.