Page 107 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 106

“What the hell is going on?” I shouted over my shoulder to Brom as we started to make a steady descent down to the roof of the keep in Wyrmpeak. Glimmer hovered in the air above Obsidian’s neck, showing that her wings were growing stronger. But the airspace above the keep was what had caught my attention. It was swarming with dragons, both taking off and descending. Each time they landed, many passengers jumped off and scurried out of the way to make room for more dragons to land. My question was torn from my lips by the whipping wind that was instrumental in keeping us in the air, so my husband leaned in closer to respond, his beard prickling against my ear.

“The Gathering,” came his answer.

As the daughter of a minor nobleman, I was entitled to attend, but few of those who owned the estates around us in Deepacre ever did. The Gathering was city business, the only battlefield left to the dukes of the four duchies.

Nobles, well-to-do people, even some common people who had been tapped on the shoulder by the corps would be presented to the newly hatched eggs over and over and the Gathering was the first time it would happen.

Zafira’s eggs have been laid , Glimmer said, though gods knew where she got that knowledge from. And these people come…

To try and impress themselves upon those eggs .

I’d been brought up to believe this was a joyous occasion, the possibility of it entrancing me as a child. I’d begged my parents to take me to the capital, to allow us to watch the chosen members of each duchy who would be put forward to bond with the dragons in the shell. As a little girl, I’d seen it as a benign thing. We knew that dragons communicated psychically with humans, and that this was the beginning of the process. Right up until the hatching, people would surround the eggs, try to connect their minds with the dragons in the shell and ensure they were the one chosen. But now… My grip on Obsidian’s pommel tightened, and he glanced back at me as if sensing my tension.

To enslave them , Glimmer replied in a terse tone. To ensure these dragons are compliant.

And that the next queen to be hatched is willing to support the throne, as she was born to, that reality went unsaid. My body was tense as we swooped lower, and my muscles were aching and stiff by the time we finally landed on the keep roof.

“Brom!” My husband stiffened at the shout. We were in the middle of unsaddling Obsidian and when I turned, I saw the general approaching. “Thank the gods you’re here.”

“Of course, sir, but why—?” Brom started to reply.

“Tell me you’re back on deck,” the general demanded. He noticed me belatedly, and smiled slightly, but the warmth didn’t extend to his eyes. “I know you’re still on honeymoon, but with the Gathering and the missing boys?—”

“Missing boys?” Brom asked, warily. We couldn’t confess to knowledge of that.

“Keep’s in a bloody uproar,” the general said. “You went home to see your parents?” Brom nodded. “Any word come through there?”

“Ah, no, sir. I’m completely in the dark.”

“Well thank heavens for small mercies,” the general said, casting his eyes suspiciously around him. “Looks like the news has been confined to just the city then.” He starred Brom in the eyes. “Some of the cadets have gone missing.”

“Missing? But how…? With their dragons?”

“No, not with their dragons,” the man spluttered. “In some ways it would be easier if they had. Boys that choose to try and slope off with the king’s property? They’d be dealt with quickly and quietly” — which made me wonder how often that happened — “and the dragons returned but…”

The general let out a sigh, the lines in his face looking to be etched deeper than when we’d last spoken with him.

“The lads’ dragons are still here stationed in the keep and weakening by the day.” There, that was what had rattled the general. Glimmer crawled her way along Obsidian’s saddle towards us when she heard this, and both dragons, no, make that all of our dragons were paying close attention. The general looked up at Glimmer, then shook his head. “None of the boys were seen leaving the keep and you know we keep a close eye on young cadets for just this reason. The dragons are barely accepting food and just push mental images of darkness every time we try to question them about where the boys are. Many of the adult dragons are sure the boys have been taken, locked up somewhere and…”

“Locked up?” I said, with a blink, doing my best to feign surprise.

“Though gods know where,” the general spluttered. He raked a hand through his hair, the short strands standing up to form choppy spikes. “Tensions are always high during a Gathering.” He shook his head. “If another Harlstonian girl becomes queen-in-waiting…” The general seemed to realise what he was saying, shooting the two of us a wary look. “Well, as much as the duke and his sister, the queen, might think that an auspicious turn of events, I’m not sure Nevermere could survive another such ‘coincidence’.”

My eyebrow jerked up. The general was Harlstonian, as were far too many of the officers in the corps, but his frank admission was not what I expected to hear today. The man seemed to realise that belatedly, flushing for a moment before turning his attention back to Brom.

“To keep the peace, we need to find those cadets. We need a Cantlynite queen or a Tharfieldian.” The general looked across the keep roof to where a man I knew approached Flynn. The Duke of Skane looked the picture of affable ease as he greeted his third eldest son, clapping Flynn on the shoulder before the two of them looked our way. “Even a Skanian one would be better than another from our homeland.”

Their eyes slid automatically to me, if only for a moment, because, of course, my lands lay within the borders of Skane.

“But that lies within the hands of the gods surely,” Brom replied smoothly, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. The heavy weight of it was comforting.

“Of course.” Brom had given the general an out and the man took it. “I speak purely of what would be politically sensible, but the fates keep their own counsel.”

The general searched my face and then Brom’s.

“However, I need you to be aware that the disappearance of the lads coupled with the impending Gathering has resulted in growing… tensions within the corps. No lad bonded to a dragon would leave willingly, and the lack of ransom requests, of any communication at all, has resulted in theories being bandied around the keep as to where they have gone. The adult dragons are… discomfited, restless. We’ve had to ground whole wings due to recalcitrant behaviour from certain dragons and that…” The general let out a long sigh. “That has resulted in accusations being slung around with growing regularity and ferocity.”

Hearing that the queen’s hard work to secure the power monopoly over my country was starting to come apart made me want to smile, but the reality of what that meant, of the conflict that would surely come as a result, stopped me cold. I saw those two queen dragons in my mind. The sight of their claws slicing through the air was exhilarating at first, but then there were those poor unborn dragons being crushed under their feet. The small, the vulnerable, always bore the brunt of clashes between powerful factions.

“Find the boys.” The general was no longer a harried looking man, his spine lengthening, his stance growing stiff and tall, every inch a soldier, a commander. “You have connections at the palace.” His eyes flicked to where the rest of the wing waited to approach us. “The riders in your wing have connections all over the city. Find wherever the hell they are and…” He moved in close, putting his hand on Brom’s shoulder, staring intently into his eyes. “Restore the lads to their dragons, and to us, and then we can to try and cool down an already volatile situation.”

Brom didn’t get to reply to that nor ask questions, but I don’t think he would have even if given the opportunity. The general had just given us blanket approval to do what we had already intended to but… I scanned the keep rooftop, seeing all the people clambering off dragon back with fresh eyes. Each one was dressed in richly made clothes, the displays of their wealth subtle, but evident in the fine choice of cloth, the jewellery on the women’s necks and hands.

“The rich and powerful of Nevermere are here for the Gathering?” I asked Brom.

He nodded slowly. “It’s all part of the pomp and circumstance that leads up to a hatching.”

“To the crowning of a queen,” I added, my focus narrowing down on the young women who were being lifted off the backs of dragons and down to the keep roof, their cheeks flushed, their smiles wide. They were all caught up in the excitement. And that made me want to step forward, to warn them. As I was contemplating whether or not to pursue that course of action, two people caught my eye: a man and a woman. The sight of them wiped away all altruistic impulses and replaced them it with something much hotter and more immediate.

Draven was always beautiful, but with the sun beating down on him, creating highlights in his black locks a stray bar of light bleaching his eyes to pure ice blue, he looked divine. He stood extending a hand out to someone and, looking at the way he held it out, I could still feel the places where he’d touched my skin. As I continued to watch him, he reached up to help her down.

Beatrice.

I remembered her as the woman who’d clung to Draven’s side the night of the ball, when we’d been forced to make our daring escape. Her long red hair was wound up tight and bound at the base of her neck, but her green eyes twinkled, matching the flirtatious smile she bestowed upon the prince as he swung her down from the back of a stranger’s dragon’s back.

My prince.

What is the rude one doing with that woman?

I took a step forward then, Glimmer’s growl my own, just as Brom’s hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me from taking another step.

“Don’t.”

He didn’t need to explain. A flare of white hot anger washed over me, but with it came clarity. I watched the prince chat to the woman and knew exactly what she was feeling. Like she had his entire focus, that there was no one else in the world he’d rather be speaking to, her whole body softening as he wrapped his arm around her waist and then escorted her towards the stairs.

My hand went to my mouth as I watched Beatrice’s curve into a smile. I touched my lips, the skin was still tender there from his vicious kisses that had felt they bit down into my core, his fangs still lodged there somehow. Would hers grow even more full, swollen from his kisses as he?—?

“Don’t.” Brom turned me towards him, the one word taking on a whole other meaning, because who knew this kind of pain more than him. “He isn’t worth eating your heart out over.”

“You’re mine?”

My question to Draven echoed around in my head, growing higher and squeakier with each turn. And he’d told me exactly what I wanted to hear, the right things to get me into his bed, into his?—

“And how do you stop from doing that?” I asked Brom, my lover and Draven’s both, with hope in my heart, my eyes. Brom just shook his head slowly, then pulled me closer, cradling my body in the safe harbour of his, muting the pain that throbbed inside. I spread my hands over my husband’s back, burying my face in his chest and breathing in the musky pine scent of him, forcing it into my lungs.

“I’ll tell you as soon as I work it out,” he admitted, smoothing his hand over my hair.

A queen doesn’t tolerate another queen in her territory , Glimmer told me in a dark voice.

Well, if somewhere in all those visions you seem plagued by, you find the means to take these ‘queens’ out, please share them with me , I retorted back as I watched the prince and Beatrice disappear into the keep. I don’t know if I need a territory, but controlling who has access to me? Draven paused on the stairs, seeming to sense our focus finally, and I experienced the slight pleasure of watching his face grow pale as he saw us. I think I’d like that a lot.