Page 33 of The Dragon Queen #3

“Where the hell are you taking me?” I reached out to raise the shutters of the carriage, only to snatch my hand back when his cane rapped down across my knuckles. “Gods! What the hell was that for?”

“Got a good many boltholes,” Marcus told me. “You’ve seen a few of them, but this one…? For your safety and theirs, I need you to stay ignorant of where we’re going. That way none of those pesky royal dragons can pull the location from that pretty little head of yours.”

I stiffened. Nothing he’d said to me before scared me, but this did. My elbows went to my knees as I leaned forward.

“You seek to keep the dragons.”

“Not my dragons to keep, l?—”

“Do not call me love,” I snapped. One of his eyebrows jerked upwards. “Not some silly pet name, as if we are friends or…” I swallowed hard, a ball of bile forming in my throat.

“Or what, Highness?”

Marcus’ salacious look was no compliment. I’m fairly sure he looked at every man, woman, and some animals that way .

“Or anything to each other,” I finished. “You can keep me ignorant, kidnap me against my will.”

“Kidnap…” he snorted, as if the idea was preposterous, but what else could you call this?

“But my dragon and all the dragons of the Royal Riders will come and find me, and then you’ll wish to all the gods you never even thought of this stupid plan.”

“All the way out here?” He made a show of peering at the thin crack of light coming through one side of the shutters. “One way or another, a question that’s been plaguing me for ages will be answered. Everyone knows the dragons have powerful psychic abilities, but what are their limits? No one talks about that. Don’t want it getting around, do they? That the dragons might have limits to that invisible power. How close to you does your dragon need to be to touch your mind?”

His cane was raised, ready to tap my forehead, but I knocked it away.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Marcus laughed at my stiff reply, because I’d revealed myself utterly. I didn’t know. Each dragon seemed to have different abilities, each person different sensitivities. It was like a great master doing a sketch and a child drawing a stick figure. Each was a drawing of sorts, but a world’s difference in the results. I threw myself back against the seat and sat there, arm’s folded and waited for the journey to end.

We were somewhere far from the capital, I knew that much. As soon as I stumbled out of the carriage, I spun around, trying to find some landmark, something significant to help place where I was, but Marcus just shook his head. He spun his cane with a flourish, then marched down the main street of a quaint little village. It was surprisingly pretty. Neat little houses, each one with a garden teeming with flowers out the front and children. They spilled from the front doors, then came rushing towards us.

“Uncle Marcus! ”

Uncle… Marcus?

The man himself chuckled as the children rushed over, making a show of patting his frock coat pockets, then pulling out a bag of sweets. Each of the cellophane wrapped lollies were then flicked out with precision, one landing in the outstretched hands of each child.

“Where are those lads with their beasties?” he asked the group.

“Over in the field. They’re trying to teach their dragons to fly,” one child replied, then wrinkled his nose. “Why do they need to be taught? Don’t they just know? You don’t see mummy and daddy birds putting them on the back of a trailer and then pulling them along.”

“They’re doing what?” I asked, bustling forward.

“Who’s this?” The kids all looked at me. “Are you Marcus’ lady?”

“No!” I didn’t mean to snap at children, so I felt a rush of shame as soon as I replied. “Sorry, I’m Pippin.”

“Hello, Pippin.” The children were like puppies, wariness warring with a natural exuberance. “Have you ever seen a dragon before? Four live here!”

“They are so pretty…” one little girl sighed, clasping her hands. “I want to be a dragon rider when I grow up.”

“Girls don’t become dragon riders!” one of the boys spluttered.

“I’m a dragon rider,” I said.

That redirected all of their attention back to me.

“Nah…” one of the lads said. “If you were, where’s your dragon, then?”

“Back at…” I stopped myself from giving the specifics. “The capital. She’s still growing, so she’s not big enough to ride yet.”

“There’s girl dragons?” the little girl said.

“Of course, there’s girl dragons,” the boys said. “How do you think they have baby dragons if there’s no girls? Don’t you know nothing?”

“Yes, well, rather than revisit how baby dragons are made, how about you lead us to Lance and the other lads? Pippin.” Marcus looked back at me. “She was a cadet at the same time as the lads, and she’s come to see how they are. ”

That’s what I was doing? I shot him a hard look, but when the children turned and led us deeper into the village, I followed along, taking in the sights as I went.

“What is that?” I asked, watching people digging a massive hole. Soil was shovelled into wheelbarrows, then ferried out and away from the site, spread out across a nearby field.

Marcus didn’t need to answer me, because a dragon landed then. Not Lance’s or one of the other fledglings, but a massive beast, one with no rider. I blinked and stopped where I was, watching the people pull back and allow the dragon to burrow into the ground. He raked through the dirt, sending it flying like a dog might when he was trying to bury a bone, then collected up an armful of dirt before springing back into the air, clutching it as if it was precious. I turned back to the man, waiting for an answer, but Marcus waved me off.

“Wait until you’ve seen it all before making a judgement, and I’ll make sure you’re back at the palace before those lads of yours have finished making war for the day,” he said.

It sounded like an order, and he had the upper hand here. I couldn’t climb back into that carriage and order that I be returned home. Instead, there was almost a note of… Was it pleading? I shook my head and followed him as both the man and the children marched on.

If I didn’t know better, I’d assume it was harvesting day. Men were clustered around a flat bed cart in a stubbly field, but it wasn’t because they were picking up the remaining stalks of wheat. Instead, they urged the carthorses on, the massive beasts’ hooves slamming down into the earth as the cart rattled along behind them.

With four dragons riding the winds above it.

I was pinned to the spot by the sight of it. Lance, I remembered well. How could I forget the way he sought to teach me to wield a sword, much good that it did me? Jenkins thought to challenge me to a fight during our training, assuming he could put a woman on her arse, but right now he ran beside the bed of the cart, shouting encouragement to his and the other dragons.

They were flying, and I was flying with them, it felt. My heart hurt because it couldn’t soar free of my chest and fly along with them. I forgot about Marcus, about the gimbals, everything, as I watched the dragons glide along, then flap their wings, gaining altitude. Their progress was messy, their bodies jerking in the air, as if still learning how to coordinate the movements, but they were doing it. My breath caught in my chest. They were doing it.

“Pippin?” The golden sunlight bathed the four cadets, turning their hair to different shades of dark gold, but it was Lance who held a hand above his eyes to better look at me. “Pippin, it is you!” He came loping towards me, the other boys doing the same as their dragons glided above them. The young dragons landed first, looking up at me quizzically, right before the boys arrived. “By all the gods…”

Lance’s hands landed on my arms and he stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“How are…? When…?”

“How did I get here?” I asked, unable to stop myself from grinning. “Marcus brought me, but that is of little consequence. Lance…”

He was smiling, right up until my hand reached up, my fingers brushing across the scar that scored his cheek. The flinch was an instinctive thing, not one he was born with, but had learned under Raina’s cruel rule. Lance seemed ashamed of that response, grabbing my hand and squeezing it before stepping back and sketching a bow.

“So I should be calling you Highness now?”

“Not Pippin.” Jenkins focus shifted from me to Lance and back again. “You didn’t marry the bastard prince, did you? Not after what he did to Ged.”

“And us.” Harley hung back. I didn’t know him well at all and he made it clear he had no interest in making my acquaintance. “Him and that bitch of a mother of his.”

“A bitch that was swallowed by her own dragon.”

I didn’t like using that word when talking about a woman, but for the former queen, I’d make an exception.

“No way!” Billy gasped .

“I saw it with my own eyes.” My smile faded. “Right after she tried to kill my dragon.”

“Glimmer…” Lance looked stricken as he glanced around, his dragon and the others letting out plaintive creels. “Is that why she’s not here? The queen?—”

“Died before she could succeed. Glimmer is fine, lazing around on my bed right now, I’m sure.” I looked down, not able to recognise the dragons before me. The last time I saw them they were thin and drawn, grieving for their bondmates’ pain, but I saw none of that now. The beasts looked like they’d grown twice over, their scales shining with good health. “But enough about me.” I turned to face them. “What about you?”

What an inadequate question, but what could I say? Did Raina hurt you too much? Do you still deal with the consequences of her cruelty? Of course I didn’t, each one too intrusive to even consider. I think Lance at least recognised that, because there was a painful twist to his lips as he smiled.

“Everything’s better now, since Marcus rescued us.” My focus shifted to the man in question, a simple purse of his lips making clear he hadn’t discussed the fact that the boys’ rescue was a joint effort. “Being away from the city, the keep, the crown, everything.” Lance gazed out over the field, both of us watching the village men lounge around the cart, smoking pipes and chatting. “Here, we’re safe. No one can touch us. The wild dragons have made clear that they’ll protect the village from anyone who’d try.”

A sharp cry had me looking upwards, catching the moment when adult dragons passed overhead and I was willing to bet none of them were ridden by a Royal Rider.

“You should come and settle here, Pippin. You don’t have to be queen, don’t have to put up with the prince, the king’s bullshit. Here at Dragon’s Rest, we can be free.”