Page 34 of The Dragon Queen #3

"Dragon’s Rest?” I asked.

“That’s what this place used to be called, apparently.”

Marcus sounded like a mild-mannered librarian, not a notorious figure of the city’s underworld.

“Called by whom?”

“The wild dragons,” he replied, his eyes flicking to the sky. “Terribly well informed creatures they are. Made me aware of a whole history we don’t hear much about.” His focus shifted back to me. “One where human and dragonkind lived together in peace.”

“We’re gonna do the same thing!” Billy’s face was flushed due to more than just his exertions. Despite the almost faded bruises on his face, a bright light shone in his eyes. “Live away from the city, free with our dragons.”

Gods, I doubted that very much.

“Don’t have to go soldiering for that king,” Harley growled. “Put our lives on the line for one rich man or another. Won’t be forced to pit our dragons against the defectors’ ones, fighting for something neither of us understand.”

“And how will you protect yourselves from rich men?” I didn’t want to be the one to pop their bubbles, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “Powerful ones? Any group of men that stumble across this village and sees the treasure within. They’ll see you, see your dragons, and have you chained to the yoke of their wheel moments later. They won’t be able to stop themselves.”

“We’ll stop them if they try, don’t you worry, Pippin.” Lance stood tall and somehow he seemed to have grown more since the last time I saw him. “If you come here with Glimmer?—”

“Me?”

He swallowed hard and then shook his head.

“You’re a captive, just like we were. They might’ve put you in a nicer cell, stopped themselves from physically harming you.”

“Mostly because of how it’d look,” Harley grumbled.

“You hated Draven.” It was strange to hear him using my king’s name, not his title. It felt like only our wing used his first name, and Lance hadn’t earned that right. “He beat Ged, forced you to shovel dragon shit?—”

“I remember.” I forced myself to smile. “All too well, but that doesn’t explain why I would be defecting from the Royal Riders and joining you here at… Dragon’s Rest.”

“Here, you and Glimmer would be free to choose.” Lance’s hands were back wrapped around my arms, his hold gentler now. “She’d find her mates the way dragons are supposed to, not coerced to mate with the king’s dragon. That goes against their nature, but more than that.” I looked down, watching his thumb brush my skin. “Reducing a queen dragon down to just one male narrows the breeding pool dangerously. It creates biddable, easy to control dragons?—”

At the cost of our population’s health. Hadrian dropped down just off from us, a cloud of dust billowing around him. Queen’s take multiple mates to ensure there is sufficient diversity in the eggs hatched to prevent weaknesses becoming entrenched.

I saw Stefan then, counting the water dragons in the midst of our host and finding only a few of them. My father’s steward knew to always mate the strongest cows to the best bulls, the same with sheep and hounds and any other animal we sought to produce more of. Did the same practise occur naturally in dragon populations ?

I frowned as I saw that the dragon carried a massive leather bag around his neck. The contents strained the sides.

“Glimmer…” I stepped back regretfully, seeing the hurt in Lance’s eyes. “She has chosen her mates.”

“She can’t—” Jenkins spluttered, but Lance held out a hand.

“Mates?” he asked.

“She’s known for far longer than I did that the wing’s dragons are her mates,” I replied. I didn’t need to clarify which wing, because they all knew. “Draven’s included.”

“So she…?” Lance shook his head. “And you…?”

I couldn’t say it out loud, not even here. It wasn’t just that Marcus was watching everything that transpired with a keen eye. More, it was the fact that I didn’t dare. The prohibition that forced me to stay silent about the nature of our relationship rode me too hard and my voice faltered, but the lads saw it.

“She’s chosen,” Lance told the others, not clarifying who he meant. “But don’t worry, there’ll be other queens.”

Where? I wanted to snap, but I couldn’t say that either. That the only one we had was in the clutches of an evil man, an equally evil woman trying to impress her will upon it. Unless Cynane bore a queen… That hadn’t occurred to me and my eyes flicked up to meet Hadrian’s, the deep bronze of his eyes giving away nothing.

“What is it you intend to do at Dragon’s Rest?” I asked the dragon, not the man or the lads, because I got the feeling that Hadrian was the main instigator behind all of this.

Revive it, he replied.

“This was one of the dragon towns?”

You’ve seen that? His eyes searched my body, as if for evidence of how I came across that information. Then you know. You humans came here as refugees, and under Tanis’ rule, we let you in. For what felt like an endless amount of time, we lived together in peace. Humans followed their hearts, dragons theirs, and we created something wondrous together. But human hearts…

He shook his head, his wings rattling at his back.

The legends of my kind are of creatures that lurk in the bowels of the earth, hiding their vast treasuries away, but I’ve come to understand that this is just a projection of human desires upon us. He snorted. It’s what you’d do if you had our power, our strength. There is no amount of gold or precious gems that will replace the feeling of the wind in my face, the air in my wings. No feeling that is better than diving down, claws outstretched, right before I sink them into a deer. My fangs in his neck, his blood in my throat as I rend his still warm flesh from his bones. My kind have ruled the skies for ever more and we’re done hiding behind the terms of the Treaty of Two Queens.

“So what then?” I asked, but it was obvious. Just as I had seen the destruction of a dragon town, I could see the very beginnings of the creation of a new one.

The hole in the earth, it would lead down to a cave complex I was willing to bet. Sands rich with ground dragonstone would be deposited in the warmest spots, the places where the lava that burned inside the planet rose closest to the surface. They were building a home for the young dragons and their riders, but more than that.

They were preparing for a time when a queen would claim this territory and the dragons within it, and before now, they’d assumed that would be Glimmer. Now they were what? Planning to install another queen here? There was a reason why Queen Inara eradicated other dragon queens like they were rats in a granary.

A queen does not tolerate another queen in her territory, and Inara had decided all of Nevermere was hers.

“You seek to create a town of old, complete with a queen dragon and her mates to protect it.” My eyes narrowed. “And what is it that you’re carrying? Soil to help excavate the caves.”

The boys all spluttered, making clear my guess was correct.

No. Hadrian pulled out something from the leather satchel and the shine of that white stone made clear what it was. Dragonstone, yes, but more than that, because somehow I could remember every detail of Tanis’ nest, kept preserved for generations within Dragon Home. Our history. My mate requires it, and so all of the dragons of Dragon Home work to bring her Tanis’ stones.

I needed to get back. Every muscle quivered because I felt overly full of information that I had to share with my men. This was treason, a declaration of war, and a deliberate eroding of Draven’s power base all at once, so my mind quested out, trying to connect with Glimmer’s, Darkspire’s, any of our dragons to pass it on.

“You know I’ll play no role in…” I thrust my hand outwards. “Whatever you’re building here. Neither will Glimmer.” My hand slid to my belt knife, and Lance frowned, taking a step closer. “So what does that mean for me?’

“Keeping the shutters down was as much for your safety as it was Dragon’s Rest.” Marcus sounded so very tired now, all of his usual hectic energy gone. “Jump back in the carriage, ride back to your palace and put on that ill fitting wig, little queen. None of us will stop you.”

I did just that, the space between my shoulder blades itching the entire time, expecting to get hit, but I didn’t. Lance, the boys, the townsfolk and their children, they all stopped to watch me pass, but other than pulling their children closer, no one made comment. The carriage driver looked up and then spat out a wad of tobacco as I drew closer.

“Back to the capital then, Highness?” he asked, making clear that he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Yes, please.”

The ride back was uneventful. I tried to raise the shutters and the futility of that made clear my attempts before would’ve been in vain. I rocked side by side in time with the horses’ hooves, all the way until the door was wrenched open.

“Where the hell have you been?” Draven appeared in the doorway, then climbed in when I didn’t answer fast enough, his hands going to my head, my face. I was inspected more thoroughly than a healer might until he was satisfied I was unharmed. “Roland said you caught a carriage to the keep, but you never made it. Glimmer didn’t know where you were. None of the dragons did.”

One did, but I wasn’t about to tell tales on Hadrian.

“Marcus,” I ground out and that had him going still. “He intercepted me. I was coming to show you the gimbal… ”

It was only now I remembered my initial purpose and I looked around the carriage for the piece of equipment.

To find the carriage suspiciously bare.

“He must’ve bloody taken it.”

“Keep the damn thing.”

I was swept up into his arms and carried from the carriage as Draven barked orders at his guards to arrest the driver. The man appeared to have used our distracted state to make a quick getaway, but the guards spread out to search. I was whisked up the stairs and into Draven’s chamber, only to find them all waiting for me.

“She’s here?” Soren looked milk pale, his eyes burning as he spun on his heel and then strode over. “Pippin, are you well? Did he hurt you? You can tell me.”

“I’m fine.”

I wriggled out of Draven’s arms, dropping down to my feet, but I wasn’t going anywhere. Each of my men clustered closer, needing to inspect me for themselves.

All but Flynn.

“What did that bastard do?” Ged snapped when I told him who whisked me away. “Gods, I never should’ve taken you down to Cheapside in the first place.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Soren growled. “Bringing Pippin into the presence of the likes of Marcus Lighthands?”

“I’m fairly sure if you’d made that clear to our queen, she’d have sought the man out herself.” When I looked up, Brom shot me a smile. “But Pippin, what did Marcus want?”

I sucked in a breath and then told them.