Page 20 of The Dragon Queen #3

This was a mistake.

As soon as we stepped onto the hatching sands, I saw it. Glimmer, helpless and limp in my arms, coughing up poison and Zafira, her head hanging over Queen Raina like an executioner’s axe. My feet stumbled, then slowed, forcing my men to stop. In the end, that was serendipitous, because we were not the only ones here. Out of the gloomy darkness came several dragons. Not Cynane, not even Hadrian, their throaty rattles made clear the mistake we had made. This was not a tame dragon coerced to breed for the sake of the empire.

These dragons were wild.

“They’re protecting their queen,” Brom said, throwing his arms out as he stepped in front of me, as if that would be enough to keep me safe.

“A queen that’s nesting.” Flynn’s hand went to his sword, as did Soren’s and Ged’s.

“Don’t do that,” I hissed, shooting them an alarmed look, but forced to then stare at the incoming dragons. They moved so fast, with such snakelike grace, it was both horrifying and beautiful at the same time. “A sword won’t help us right now…! ”

But Glimmer would.

Her name came out in a strangled squeak, one I choked off as the dragons lunged closer, only to stop in their tracks. It didn’t stop my men from throwing themselves forward, and that’s when I understood what was happening.

Males protect , Glimmer told me as I heard some muffled roars, I assume from her mates.

And females? I asked in a faintly hysterical tone.

Queens rule, she replied.

Stand down.

That richly resonant voice felt as if it wrapped around me like a warm blanket. One with burrs in it apparently, as Cynane emerged. I stifled a gasp as I noted the changes in the great queen. Her gold scales had darkened, dimmed to an almost tarnished brass colour, rather than the antique gold of the last time I saw her.

My queen.

I don’t know how one showed respect to a dragon queen, but I dropped my head and bobbed a curtsey, just like I’d been trained to do with human queens.

Greetings, Glimmer. Cynane sounded tired, so very tired, her movements slow as she pushed past her mates and drew closer. Greetings, Pippin. I would ask you why you have come, but I can guess.

Some of the humans… What else was I going to say? That they eyed her not yet born children and wondered if they could transform them into weapons years from now if the civil war still waged? They have expressed concern about your presence in the hatching sands.

Do they indeed? This was Hadrian, not Cynane. The massive dragon stepped forward far more slowly now. That makes sense, seeing as they worked so hard to destroy all the other hatching grounds.

Destroyed…?

Glimmer asked that, but it was just an echo of my own question. Except I knew the answer to it. My head jerked up, my eyes finding Cynane’s, and in that one unscarred golden eye, I saw it. The horrific vision I’d had while out with Draven, dragonfire destroying dragons and humans alike, the explosives cutting through the layers of the town, right down to the nesting queen… Cynane nodded sl owly, making clear that she had no need of stored memories to remember that place and places like it.

They…? What did…?

My thoughts were aimless, aborted before they were even begun. What was history but the stories told of one group triumphing over the other? The victors got to decide the nature of that story and they were not the wild dragons.

But what did they obscure in the process?

For the balance to be restored, the queens must rise, Glimmer said.

My dragon had said that to me so many times, as had Tanis, but with a slight difference.

Queen , I said to her. You always said queen.

The queens must rise , she insisted, looking back at me for a second before setting off across the sands.

The last time she was here, another golden queen had stood by and watched her choke to death, so I could not let Glimmer make this journey on her own.

“Pippin…!” Brom’s shout was sharp, crisp, injecting all the command he took for granted into it, but I did not stop.

The warmth of the sands could be felt through my boots, growing hotter by the second, but I could barely feel that when so many eyes were upon me. Great alien eyes with vertical slits, in the shades of blue, green, red, purple, and bronze, they all stared, their hot breaths shifting the sand as I drew closer to Cynane. She went down into a crouch, but it wasn’t an elegant thing. The queen dragon almost collapsed down, as if maintaining her weight took too much from her and she needed to conserve her energy for other things. Her young, I realised, my eyes sliding along her flanks, looking for signs of them, even though she wouldn’t hatch for at least a week.

And what then?

I didn’t get a chance to ask as Glimmer came to stand before her, looking tiny by comparison. Cynane dropped her head low, stretching out muzzle, and both dragons closed their eyes as they had a small moment to commune. I wanted to step back, feeling like I had gotten in the middle of something, when I heard a voice inside my head.

Come forward, queen.

The male dragons eyed me as I approached, the tension in those massive bodies making clear how much they did not want me to obey Cynane’s command. But who else could order a queen around but another queen? I moved closer, my hands rising. Glimmer’s head was a familiar shape, one that fit my palm, though nowhere near as easily now, and Cynane? My eyes fell closed as I felt it: her scales, the elegant shape of her skull, the ragged scar an aberration, I couldn’t help but follow the path of with my fingertips.

Then I heard it.

A rapid thud, that was my own heart beating faster and faster as adrenaline pumped through me, my body making clear the danger I was in, but it wasn’t the only one. Glimmer’s I knew as well as my own, having felt it thud alongside mine when she used to curl into my side, so the next had to be Cynane’s. Slow, ponderous, it was as if mine was the rapid beat of a drum and hers was a gong, struck hard over and over again.

So what was this one?

Rapid little lub-lubs, I thought it was just one heartbeat at first, but at a closer listen, I could pick out the individual rhythms. One, two, three, five, seven… My eyes flicked open to find both queen dragons staring at me, waiting for me to understand.

Your hatchlings…

Cynane let out a little huff, the sand swirling around her.

My children. The last of my line.

I wanted to protest, but up close, I could see this was true. She was an ancient queen, still alive when human queens sat on the throne. Age was like a swarm of carrion birds, each one taking a tiny bite out of her until finally she couldn’t fight them off anymore.

Cynane—

I am Cynane, last queen of the wild dragons. My kind has lived free from the moment the first humans landed in Nevermere. I am a warrior. Some of her former strength seemed to return, her words forcing my heart to beat faster. I have fought fiercely to maintain my freedom and that of my kind. Her claw rose slowly, tapping her cheek. I wear the scars with pride, but this… This is a fight I cannot win, and so I must ask you to act in my stead.

What she wanted from me would cost me dearly, somehow I knew, and yet I hung on her every word. Glimmer and I drifted closer to each other, two queens standing side by side.

I need a promise from you. She cut through my protest mercilessly. Both of you. Promise you will not allow my young to fall into the same servitude the dragons born here are forced into. I swallowed, looking across at Glimmer, who nodded. Promise me they will be free to choose their own path. That massive head swung back and forth. Some may choose bondmates. Hadrian snorted, then glared down at us, as if we were the ones that had caused his mate’s decline . Some may not. Promise me they will have the freedom to choose. Promise me.

I thought of the general and what he wanted, what the whole of the city would expect at the news of a clutch of dragon eggs born in Wyrmpeak. Lads would start to talk about putting themselves forward, hoping that this time they would be chosen to join the ranks of the corp. All these dreams, expectations, wants and needs, heaped on a clutch of defenceless dragon eggs. I felt it then, that same fierce need to protect when I first saw Glimmer’s egg get tossed through the air by my step-sister, then again when what Raina had tried to achieve was made clear. It was my dragon’s eyes I stared into, because there was a question there I needed to answer.

What would I do when Glimmer was grown and rose to mate? What would happen after, when it was her nesting down in the hatching sands, the heat easing the aches in her muscles? When she birthed her clutch? Would I allow the bureaucracy of the dragon corp to swarm over the clutch, to push noble born lads towards the eggs, then others of decreasing social rank if the eggs were not receptive?

Would I force her to become a broodmare for the king?

I promise , I replied, not entirely sure where this came from.

Draven would curse me for undermining one of the fundamental elements of his power base, but… He should never have said he wanted me for his queen. I was not moved by golden dresses or je welled crowns, or even the awe and respect of the people. My experience living as a pig herder had taught me just how pointless all of that was, and even though I’d washed the dirt and shit off me, somehow I was still stained by it.

We promise , Glimmer added.

Cynane nodded and then started to draw back to the shelter of her mates. She couldn’t expend any more energy on this, not when she was growing dragonlings within her.

That didn’t stop me from asking one last question.

Why did the humans destroy the hatching sands? That seems counterintuitive. They rely on dragons for defence of the country, for transport, to keep the king on the throne. His dragon and the princes that come after him get their dragons from Dragon Home, so why would they destroy the one thing they need?

You have the means to find all the answers you need…

I felt like Cynane was about to say more, but she disappeared from sight, her sigh echoing through the entire cavern.

You have your answers. Hadrian stepped forward, making clear we would get no further here. You have the dragon seer at your side. Do the work. Find the information that you need and then when you are armed with the truth, make the right decision.

“Don’t do that again.” Brom’s hands clapped down on my arms the minute I got close. “Promise me you won’t go blundering into a pack of wild dragons ever again.”

Everyone seemed intent on extracting promises from me, but only one remained important. I blinked, staring up into each one of their eyes in turn, those beloved faces taking on another turn. What Cynane wanted from me, wanted for dragon kind going forward, would mean the relationship each one of them enjoyed with their dragons would change. Some riders… I swallowed. Some riders might lose their dragons if the idea of choice became a widespread one. I knew what Draven would say if I told him about this conversation. He was king first, man second, but I…

I’d told Glimmer over and over I was no queen, because I didn’t care a jot for the throne everyone seemed to want me to claim. Perhaps that’s why I said this.

“We’ve fulfilled the orders we’ve been given today,” I said .

“Thinking of skiving off for the day?” Ged grinned at the idea. “What did you have in mind?”

“I… We.” I looked down at Glimmer. “We need to go to Finder’s Dell.”