Page 110 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 109
Shit.
Zafira’s massive head rose from where it had been nestled in amongst the eggs, her neck uncurling like a snake’s coils. And that’s when I was reminded of what Glimmer had said over and over.
A queen doesn’t tolerate another queen in her territory.
This was Zafira’s, the place where she and her young were at their most vulnerable and while Glimmer had been in the exact same position before, growing inside her egg warmed by her mother’s body heat and that of the sands, she wasn’t anymore. The queen dragon’s neck curved upward, Zafira’s head rising and rising, her eyes glittering the colour of newly minted coins in the low light of the den.
Mother… There was something of a plea in my dragon’s voice then, which I’d never heard before, a child begging for her parent’s attention. Mother? But she had Zafira’s attention alright, something that terrified me.
But it wasn’t just Zafira that noticed our arrival.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
The strident voice seemed to be a perfect match for the queen dragon’s attitude, so much so I wondered if she had spoken directly to us, but no such luck. Raina strode across the sands, dressed in all the regalia of the queen dragon’s rider at a Gathering. Her scarlet silk dress trailed across the sand, her hair was swept back from her brow by a golden circlet, complete with small dragonstones.
But that was nothing compared to the massive one in the necklace at her breast. I saw the pendant in a whole new light now, the similarities in shape to the one Cynane had worn obvious. My hand shoved deep into my pocket, closing over the stone egg the queen dragon had gifted us.
She wears her dragonstone, Glimmer said, following that with a small growl.
The same one she used to steal you , I added, and control the king.
“Your Majesty,” Ged said, sketching a bow, his neck looking perilously unprotected as the queen dragon loomed. “All riders were instructed to attend the Gathering. Pippin is?—”
“Just a rider.” Flynn’s father, the Duke of Skane, strolled closer with a cat-like smile on his face, seemingly completely unperturbed by the rapid shift of Zafira’s head in his direction. “That’s what you told us when you declared that Glimmer was not a fit heir for your dragon. If Glimmer and Pippin are to be thrown in amongst the rest of the corps to find their place here, then surely they would attend all the same events a rider would.”
“A queen doesn’t tolerate another queen in her territory.”
Hearing those words on Raina’s lips sent a wash of something bitterly cold through me. I could hear their echoes inside my head as Zafira’s head snaked forward, as Glimmer’s wings rustled. A queen? My dragon’s voice was arch, harsh. That damn humming song seemed to get louder and louder, not a sound of peace but that of tension winding tighter.
“Well, if Glimmer is a queen, then Pippin is queen-in-waiting,” the duke said with a smug smile. “A Skanian girl of good breeding. What luck.”
“She’s not—” Raina started to hiss.
“Mother.” Draven strolled closer, not seeming to realise that every step he took felt like it tread across the aching spot in the middle of my chest. He watched my hand rise and scratch at my sternum with idle fascination. “Everyone is here. The nesting sands are damnably hot and there’s only so long people can bear to stand around for the ceremony. Let's take pity on everyone here and get things started.”
He sounded so fucking reasonable, something that had my head tilting to one side as my eyes burned into his. Because it was my gaze he held, not his mother’s. Those cool blue depths seemed to contain none of the passion of the night before, making me question if it’d ever been there.
Except my damn hand went to touch my lips again, something that had his eyes narrowing for just a moment.
“So which is it, Your Majesty?” the duke said, the amusement clear in his voice. “Queen or not a queen?”
She knows , Glimmer growled inside my head. She knows just what I am and when she is not entirely focussed on negating me , she slips . My dragon looked over her shoulder at me. What we are.
“The only other queen dragon here other than Zafira is in that egg,” Raina declared, pointing an imperious finger at the clutch of dragon eggs her dragon was hovering protectively over.
“Then Pippin best come stand with us Skanians,” the duke said, offering me his arm. I took it on automatic, my training kicking in. “Rider Ged, you’re from Cantlyn?”
“Not that I was aware of it before I became a rider,” Ged replied as we pulled away from the prince and the queen. “But yes.” He shot me a look then forced his eyes up to meet the duke’s. “You’ll keep Pippin safe then, Your Grace?”
“Like she was the queen-in-waiting herself,” the duke said with a slow incline of his head. Glimmer didn’t want to back down and it took some heavy mental imprecations to get her to move, but finally she did. Just like a queen, she turned with a swish of her tail and then kept pace with us, right up until I was escorted over to Flynn’s side. “Young Glimmer is growing very rapidly, isn’t she, son?”
“Very rapidly, Father,” Flynn replied, shooting me a cautionary look. “We think she was in the egg too long which resulted in a smaller birth weight. But she is every inch the perfect dragon now.”
Too long because of her. I went very still, feeling the waves of anger rolling off my dragon and superstitiously fearing that Zafira or Raina would feel them, but she settled when further away from her mother. He is my favourite of your mates , Glimmer opined. Glacier is quite suitable as well. He composed a sonnet about the way the sun shines on my scales the other day and then recited it to me.
He did?
I snorted with amusement as Glimmer rubbed against Flynn’s legs like she was a very oversized cat, and he, reaching down to scratch her under the chin, like she really was one.
“Perfect indeed,” the duke said, shooting a meaningful look at a small cluster of richly dressed men that were standing very close to him, nursing glasses of wine. “It’s difficult to see how anyone could find fault in her.”
But he didn’t want to, just as Raina did. This had little to do with me or Glimmer or even the young queen growing inside the egg nestled under Zafira’s wing. Powerful people sorted my dragon, all of those young dragons in their eggs, like they were calves at market, determining which was worth something and which wasn’t. I stepped closer to Glimmer then, somehow sure I needed to protect her with my body, but from what? Instead Flynn just stared at me as I got closer, a sudden heat colouring those bright blue eyes.
Something his father noted with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
“Ah, it looks like the ceremony is finally starting,” one of the men started. “Raina’s got to make the most of her little moments.”
Not Her Majesty, not Queen Raina, I noted that, hearing the snickers and nasty asides as the king stepped out onto the sands, the queen now by his side.
“Thank you all for coming today for this Gathering,” the king said with a regal smile. I found myself staring closely at him and the queen, unable to decide who was doing the talking here, even if it was his lips moving. “Every birth of a clutch of dragon eggs is a happy occasion.”
The two of them stepped apart, their focus on Zafira and her eggs beyond, which made me look down at Glimmer, only to find her staring up at me.
“All dragons are a blessing, their birth a guarantee of the continued safety and security of our great country,” the king said. “But none more than the birth of a queen.”
Was there pain in my dragon’s eyes? The king had to have spoken the same words about her when she was just born, her potential as a pawn for the crown to wield still possible.
“She represents the future, a great and glorious one,” the king said.
“Some might say she already does,” the duke muttered as an aside, looking back at us for a moment to the sounds of his fellows’ titters.
“From this dragon, the daughter of the great Zafira, the next generation of dragons will be born,” the king said.
Is that what you wanted? I asked her. Did you hear the king say that about you?
I am far more than a broodmare for these kings to secure their throne with, she shot back. We are more than pawns.
“Her rider will become the next queen of all of Nevermere, ruling by the side of my son, Prince Draven.”
“The next queen, certainly,” the duke said. “The prince…?”
“That’s sedition!” I hissed at Flynn, sinking back into the crowd, instinctively wanting to put distance between the duke, his machinations and us.
“And this is the problem with the queen’s ambition,” Flynn muttered back. “Powerful people abide by the rules when they have a vested interest in maintaining them. By guaranteeing her duchy’s primacy, she discredits the whole bonding process. Why bother to see which girl bonds with a queen dragon? Why not just pluck a girl from the duchy who’s turn it is to provide a consort?”
“But the dragon…?” I couldn’t even finish that thought. “And the girl…?”
“The proper process could be honoured if people felt it was being actually followed,” he said, ostensibly watching the proceedings.
“Now we begin the process of familiarisation,” the king said. “Over the next few weeks these candidates will visit the eggs often as Zafira cares for them. The bonding process begins even in the shell, each dragon selecting the young man or woman that they will bond with.”
Not allowing them to just choose willy nilly from the population, or to bond with no one at all.
The crystal egg at the queen’s breast began to glow as she gestured for the candidates from each duchy to step out onto the sand. She held the stone on her necklace up, watching it glow brighter and brighter, as if it would ward the broody Zafira away. Her dragon seemed transfixed by it, going perfectly still as a stream of boys and small clusters of girls were ushered closer, but one in particular made my whole body stiffen.
Beatrice’s red hair gleamed in what light there was, as if absorbing illumination meant for others, and somehow that was appropriate. She traded a sly smile with the queen, nodding with a show of respect, but it felt like much more. A moment of recognition amongst thieves perhaps, because that’s what they were about to do. Steal the damn future out from under everyone’s feet.
I could accept another woman as queen. Gods knew I didn’t want the throne. My eyes slid sideways, finding Draven straight away and he stared back at me, not at the cluster of young women who came to stand beside the queen dragon’s clutch, warily edging closer. It didn’t feel like there was time, space, sand or anything between us as it felt like his mask slipped for just a moment.
And then there he was. The man who’d whispered such desperate words against my skin, right before his lips and teeth and hands and tongue ground each one in. Those heated declarations of how I was his and he was mine. But there was a reason why he didn’t dare show that side of himself too often.
“Looks like the prince is not the problem.” The duke stared back at us with the kind of look men used when buying a horse on market day. I was shocked when he didn’t step closer and check my teeth. “I think he sees exactly what we see.”
“Draven!” His head whipped around at the girlish cry of his name. Beatrice clasped her hands to her chest in a gesture so bloody coquettish I wondered how she could do so without bursting out laughing. “You’re the only rider on the sands. You need to keep your future wife safe as I’m not sure if Zafira thinks we’re future bondmates for her babies or her next meal.”
“Yes, come closer, Draven,” the queen said, shooting me a piercing look before smiling at her son. “One of these lucky girls will become your wife. With proper introductions and familiarisation, the process should be a smooth one.”
Unlike with me. Draven hadn’t come to my estate with the egg, distancing himself from the whole process. It had only been when word was sent that I’d bonded with Glimmer, that then he’d roused himself. He’d sneered, smirked and ordered me around during our all too brief courtship and that’s what made this hurt so much. Whether he was a bloody good actor or following his own heart, the man who stepped in to watch over the ladies clustered around the eggs wasn’t my Draven.
His heart remains true, Glimmer told me, staring into my eyes.
True to what? I shot back. I’m not sure if that was ever established.
Because it killed me to listen to him pitch his voice in a low and friendly tone, his arms going out when one of the girls stumbled in the sands, righting one with a smile, then withdrawing respectfully. But the girl? She flushed at the attention, only belatedly looking back at the nest when another woman let out a little squeal of surprise as the eggs rocked slightly. He stepped in though, instructing them on what to do, getting all of the young men and women to crouch down and cluster close. When he held his hand out to hover over the eggs, they did the same, following his lead like a class full of students with their teacher. He was polite, gentle, helpful in ways he’d never been with me.
“You can’t trust us men,” Flynn rasped in a low voice.
“What?”
“You can’t trust the way we act or speak, especially not him.”
Flynn didn’t look at me, didn’t dare do so, not with so many eyes on the whole den, watching and waiting to see who would do what and formulating their own responses to that.
“We lie and we lie,” Flynn continued, his mouth twisting into a mirthless smile. “Even to ourselves. Especially to ourselves, because we’re too frightened to say what we really feel.”
The look Flynn gave me was a familiar one, full of searing heat, but so much more. Seeing it here, with such a potentially dangerous audience, had my heart clenching.
“Because to put everything out there for all to see?” He shook his head slightly. “Well, that’s always a dangerous thing, no matter your situation or standing. Then everyone knows what’s truly in your heart.” He reached out then, just shifting his hand into the small space between us, daring to graze my finger with his. “And they can use that against you.”
My focus was split entirely, my senses following that small caress, my skin coming alight at Flynn’s touch. And then my eyes? They followed the way the prince moved, measuring the distance between him and the other women, narrowing down when Beatrice placed her hand on his shoulder in an overly friendly way. She seemed to acknowledge as she glanced over her shoulder, managing to look into my eyes for just a second before Zafira shifted tighter around her eggs, making clear the Gathering was done.