Page 57 of The Dragon Queen #3

My body felt… wrong. Too swollen, too heavy, and any attempt to move it was a mammoth effort. I felt that now as I tried to shift on the bed but barely moved an inch. Pain throbbed deep in my pelvis, but there was no escaping that. Whatever woman’s complaint I was suffering, it was here to stay, and that had me curling around the hard swell of my belly.

What?

My eyes flicked open and I saw I was in a room, not our tent. The four walls were familiar and I stared at them for a second until I realised why. Deepacre. This was my father’s, no, my room back on my family estate. So why was I struggling to move? I looked down in shock to see my body had been transformed.

I was pregnant?

My belly was like a drum, stretched tight by the child or children within. Hands hovered in the air, shaking like leaves as I reached out to touch it, because it surely could not be mine. Sure enough, I felt my fingers, my palms, touch my skin, but more than that. Something shifted restlessly inside me, conjuring a feeling of both awe and shock, right as the door opened .

“Pippin…” Soren walked in the door toting a tray of tea and toast, but he set it down as soon as he saw me. “You should be resting.”

“I am resting!” I snapped, immediately horrified by my waspish response. “I’m sorry, my mate.”

My mate? My mind caught on that phrase for a second, but the conversation continued.

“How am I…?” I gestured to my belly. “How am I pregnant?”

“You need me to remind you of the process?” He slid in behind me, the press of his body, the way he cradled me in his arms, helped ease some of the pain. I sighed as I pressed back against him. “It was a grand thing, your mating flight.”

What?

My lips remained welded shut as he continued.

“You were beautiful, my love. Your scales blazed like the sun and you fought each one of us off, forcing us to prove our worth. That eventual surrender.” He nuzzled my neck. “It made it all the sweeter. But now…” He pulled away and retrieved the tray and set it on both our laps. “You must eat.”

“I can’t.” I was snappish again. “My stomach is too swollen with our young to eat a single thing.”

“You must.” Hadrian, I mean Soren, was all gentle patience right now, staring deeply into my eyes, so why did those brown depths now sport a black vertical pupil? “To keep up your strength for our daughters.”

And that’s when the room fell away, revealing the hatching sands, though they had changed drastically. Rather than a sea of bone-dry grit, dragons ferried familiar white stones in and out of the hole in the roof. Tanis’ nest was being rebuilt right here, and I knew why. I… Cynane would give birth there, and all of our, her children, would be born in it.

Absorbing the collective wisdom of dragonkind as they grew.

Before I could respond, another sharp pain tore through me, one that forced me up and over to the haunch of meat Hadrian had brought us. My mouth watered even as my guts roiled .

For our daughters , I thought as my eyes flicked open.

You are awake. I blinked to see Glimmer perched on my chest, and perhaps she was the reason for the feeling of heaviness in my dream. You are better?

Seeing the tent, our bedrolls, was both a relief and a disappointment. I knew where I was and rather than Soren bringing me tea, Ged snored lightly from where he sat leaned against his bedroll. A snort and then his eyes cracked open as I sat up, collecting my dragon up in my arms. Ged woke up with a start.

“Pippin, you’re feeling better?”

He rose to his feet, inspecting me closely.

Was I? It felt like I had two bodies right now, and I wasn’t sure how either felt. My hands ran over my sides, then stopped at my stomach. It felt odd, wrong for it to be relatively flat. Ged frowned, taking note of that, while Glimmer fought her way free and gazed up at me.

“I’m fine, I think. Where are the others?”

Planning a war , Glimmer replied grimly.

“In a meeting with the general.” His lips pursed. “I opted out of that conversation.” That bitter smile, it wasn’t one I saw him wear often. “Once we got to the point in the battle plan where the vast majority of Blackreach would end up in the sea, I left and took over from the healer looking after you.”

“The sea…”

I could see it clearly and, by my dragon’s look, so could she. The destructive power of Aisenbran used to lay waste to Blackreach. The riders would remodel the coastline of Nevermere with those explosives.

“Pippin!”

I turned on one heel and marched out of the tent. I’d been awake for mere minutes and yet already I was working up a full head of steam. My intention was to stride over to the general’s tent and make clear what a mistake they were making. What kind of leader sacrificed a whole city full of people to remove one recalcitrant duke?

How will we retrieve the dragon eggs? Glimmer asked.

I paused, and the fact I had no ready answer only frustrated me further. I was about to reply, to swear I would argue long and hard with every rider there to ensure they were kept safe, but instead, another stab of pain had me bending over double.

“Pippin!” Ged appeared at my side, putting an arm around my shoulder, ready to steer me back towards the tent. “You need to rest.”

“I need to make sure we don’t make a terrible mistake,” I ground out.

A few rapid pants and the wave washed away again, leaving me feeling clammy. I wiped my brow with my sleeve and then moved forward. Between tents, past dragons, each one lifting their head as we passed to note Glimmer. They weren’t my focus, this was.

“Pippin!”

Everyone kept saying my name with the same note of surprise, but the fact that it was Flynn made it a welcome thing. My eyes widened, a smile ready, because seeing him there made everything better. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to enjoy that moment because every rider in the corp watched me take a step forward and then stop myself.

“How are you feeling, my queen?” Draven asked smoothly, rising to his feet and stepping between the two of us. “You gave us quite the scare.”

“I’m fine.”

I wasn’t, but I’d pretend if that’s what it took to get through this. Draven didn’t have my attention, but the map did. Small dragon markers were placed across it, sweeping towards the right hand wall, and I could almost see what would happen. Dragonfire would be dropped, exploding through the bricks, the buildings, the very earth itself, and then they would sweep in.

Nothing will survive this , Glimmer said, jumping up on a camp chair and peering at the map. Not my brothers, nor my sister. Her claws hit the table. They are to be sacrifices, no matter who wins .

Males protect. I didn’t mean to throw her words back at her, but it needed to be said. This is them protecting.

And a queen’s role isn’t a passive one, she shot back. How do the males know what to attack, what to protect if they do not consult with their queen?

Apparently, male dragons were far more conciliatory of their mates than human men were. I stepped forward, the map dropping away and being replaced by something far more visceral. My head whipped around, tracing the shadowy shape of the wall with my eyes, able to see it explode outward once the first explosive was dropped.

“You’re not just destroying a wall,” I said, my vision clouded by what I saw, which saved me from shrinking back under the weight of their collective gaze. “It’s not just markers.” I reached forward and flicked a small carved man off the map. “Pawns removed from the board.” I traced my finger along the roads marked on the map closest to the dragons’ incursion point. The houses there were closely packed, indicating that it was one of the poorer parts of the city. “People will die.”

“We know, Pippin,” Draven replied in a tight voice.

“No, you can’t.”

I blinked and blinked, pushing aside the memory of people, of dragons dying. Why the hell had I worked with Ged’s father to create those gimbals? If I hadn’t helped, the corp would have little use for dragonfire…

They would’ve used it anyway, Glimmer told me. What you did ensured less of our dragons will die, but… Her focus shifted back to the map. How many will die within the walls?

“You mustn’t.” I’d stood before Draven, head held high, despite being covered in dragon shit, and I’d made clear what I thought then. I needed to do the same now. “You can’t, because if you knew what you were planning to do, you wouldn’t be able to sit here and move markers around on the map, sipping wine.”

His eyes glittered with a dangerous light, making clear I would pay for this later, so I focussed on the others. Brom first, then Soren, the quiet pride in his gaze helping me to forge on. Flynn stood taller, a small smile forming, while Ged nodded, urging me to continue .

“We came here because the Duke of Harlston thought to clear the board himself, murdering the dukes of all the other duchies and their families. Women, children.” Riders winced at that. “All because he assumed Draven would be a good little pawn, be willing to accept his uncle’s ‘advice,’ making him the de facto leader of Nevermere.”

I plucked a bottle of wine from the table, my mouth suddenly dry, but when a glass was offered to me, I took a swig straight from the bottle.

“I expected to meet a ravening foe the moment I crossed the border,” I continued. “Which doesn’t make sense. There are plenty of you who were born in this duchy.” My eyes found Brom’s, Draven’s, even the general’s. “And you have stood up for what is right despite what loyalties you might feel to your home.” I scanned the crowd. “Now is not the time to falter. We need to do what’s right here as well.”

“How, Pippin?” Draven’s frustration was his, the general’s, and many of the men’s, I’m sure. It was a palpable force, pushing back against me. “You say not all Harlstonians seek to attack us, and yet you passed out in my arms as three of them did. You told me, told Darkspire, to stand down. You stopped us from tearing each one of them from the sky for the temerity of seeking to hurt my people. From hurting you.”

Anger and a need for understanding warred in his gaze.

“This is a war, Pippin. Some argue it’s no place for a woman, not because they aren’t just as capable of fighting.” My hands formed fists in response to Draven’s words. “But because we seek to protect them from the realities of it. My uncle has shown that he will do anything to get what he wants. A siege, to stretch this fight out long enough to hatch and raise the dragons he stole, because that’s his only chance of success. He is desperate, and he doesn’t care who he hurts to achieve his goals.”

Something in his eyes seemed to soften for a second.

“That’s why we need to strike back with everything we’ve got.” I never had a chance of winning this argument. At Draven’s statement, everyone started to make noises of appreciation. “Bring him down, once and for all. With my odious ‘cousin’ now dead, there is no one left of my uncle’s line. One of the more distant members of the family will step in and take his place as duke and be grateful to the crown for that opportunity.”

I wanted someone to step up and speak for me, to confirm that I was right, but when I went searching for allies, I was met only with stares. A flat one from the general. The riders didn’t seem to see me at all, not when victory was so close. Then there were my men. Flynn’s smile had faded, concern replaced pride in Soren’s eyes. Ged looked resigned, and Brom? There was a strange kind of resolve there.

But I couldn’t focus on them. I had one more point in my arsenal and I needed to use it. Glimmer turned to me and nodded.

“What about the hatchlings?” At that question, silence fell over the table. “Isn’t that why we came here in the first place, to retrieve Zafira’s last clutch? What happens to a cluster of fragile eggs when you lay waste to the city?”

But I knew, and so did they. Everyone was scrupulously ignoring the issue so they could claim innocence when the inevitable happened. The death of each hatchling would be marked as just another victim of the Duke’s schemes. He would be dead and unable to contradict those assumptions. More dragons would be born and…

“Ahh…!”

Silence turned to sounds of concerns as I slapped my hands down on the table. Pain rocked me as markers toppled over or spilled from the table. I came here to put an end to their plans and instead just reset the board.

“Pippin!”

That was the real Draven, I decided. The moment he put aside his formal mask and became the man I knew and loved. Real concern throbbed in his voice as he drew closer. “My queen, you should be in bed resting. You’re still not well.” He turned then and shouted, “Healer! Where is that bloody healer?”

“Don’t need them,” I ground out. “Am fine.”

“You are obviously not fine.” His arms went around me, and I was scooped up, carried away from the table. Glimmer hustled after us, as did the rest of the wing. “You are going to rest and the wing is going to look after you until I return. You can do that for me, can’t you?”

No, I thought furiously, the moment the pain stopped. No, I could not.