Page 14 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 14

"So do we need to wait for her to be big enough to fly?” I asked as all five of us sat down on the grass in the field the dragons had been given. The big beasts seemed to settle down the minute the dragonling was in view.

“That’ll take nigh on a year,” Soren replied. “She just needs to develop her lungs somewhat for when we take you up on one of our dragons.”

“Prince Draven may be the one to bring Pippin and the little queen back to the capital,” Brom said. “I’ve sent a few birds to alert him, and the king, of the news.”

“The prince.” My hand went to my scalp, already feeling the slight stubble growing back. “I’m not sure the estate is ready to host royalty.”

“Not royalty,” Brom prompted with a gentle smile. “Your future husband.”

He was trying to be helpful, but he was just making things worse. I’d spent a year grieving for my father, then my lost life, mired down in the mud of survival, each act of abuse pushing me down further. I felt like I’d only just got my head above the muck and now… The dragonling cheeped in response, craning her little neck, her oversized head wobbling as she stared at me, but stare she did. That same feeling, of trust, of comfort, but mostly of overwhelming love, washed over me again, brushing everything aside.

“So you say,” I said, then forced myself to smile. “So what do we do until His Highness arrives?”

Apparently, if we were in the capital, it’d be a week-long celebration, with many public appearances of the little dragonling, myself and the prince together. Our courting would take place very publicly, Brom had said as if to warn me. The dragon shifted in my arms, seeming to echo the rush of discomfort I felt as a result. But anything I was feeling was quickly shoved aside by being in the presence of the dragons in the morning sun.

As we sat in the dragons’ field, the grass waved in the gentle breeze, the rays beat down on my skin, warming me through, and the dragons’ heads snaked across the grass, kept as low as they could yet still make progress. The men chuckled as the beasts edged closer and closer.

“Tell me they don’t see her as a mate now?” I asked, putting my body between theirs and hers, but the dragonling flapped her wings in protest.

“Now she’s just a baby,” Ged reassured me with a laugh. “Their feelings shift with her. When she’s small and vulnerable, you’ll find them extremely protective. She must live, that burns inside them.” He plucked a long piece of grass and put it between his teeth. “That doesn’t change, but the nature of their feelings will, when she’s reached full maturity.”

“And when will that be?” I asked with a slight frown.

“Within a year,” Soren replied in a gruff voice. “She’ll go into season then. It’s customary that the prince’s dragon won’t mate her in her first year. Producing a clutch draws the strength from her bones and that’s not wise, not when she’s still growing.”

“Season?” I knew what the term meant. The dogs went into heat, as did the cats. During the summer we put the cows to the bulls.

“Your marriage to the prince will coincide with the first time she experiences a need to mate,” Brom said much more quietly now. “You’ll have a year-long courtship.”

To a man I didn’t know, raising me to a position I didn’t necessarily want and?—

“Away, you big lunk!”

Flynn shoved Glacier’s blue head with his boot, the beast’s tongue flickering out as if it would taste me and the dragonling.

“Put the little queen down on the ground,” Brom directed. “They won’t leave off until they’ve had another sniff. We’ll do this daily. Under normal circumstances, you would bring your charge into the presence of all of the other dragons, let them get to know her scent, imprinting her upon them.” He smiled slightly as I moved and then held the wobbly little dragonling before the big beasts. “She’ll just have to settle for this crude court for now.”

The adult dragons all shifted the moment I turned towards them, small rumbles rattling in their chests as I offered the dragonling out. Their heads slithered closer, jostling to get the best position in a way that had me pulling back. Their heads were huge, large enough to swallow me whole without too much thought, so there was that, but also, she was so small. As their muzzles shoved at each other, as their rumbles grew louder, as they began to nose each other out of the way?—

“Enough!”

Though Brom’s voice was full of authority, I would never have thought it sufficient to control four massive beasts, but they all went perfectly still.

“You’ll be able to pay your respects to the little queen if you can behave yourselves.”

Ged’s beast, Cloud Raker, let out a disgruntled huff, then flopped his head into the grass theatrically, all tension going out of his body, the movement forcing a bark of laughter out of me despite myself. The others did the same, either sitting up neatly, like a lady at the dinner table, or going limp like Cloudy.

“There’s also the matter of a name,” Brom prompted.

I focussed on the job at hand, stepping into the space before the dragons, just like my stepmother and Arabella had, but feeling none of their fear. Any sins on my conscience felt like they’d been washed away the moment I’d bonded with the dragonling. I trusted the riders. I had to. There was literally no one else I could appeal to for help right now. So I knelt down and set her on the grass, her body wavering slightly as she forced her limbs to keep her standing tall as the dragons stared down at her.

I felt it then, an echo of what they experienced at the sight of her, and it was daunting. Such love, such focus. It washed through me, my eyes forced to close as tears pricked at the corners. I’d never expected to feel something like this again, and the awareness of that seemed to make it swell further and further, filling me up, running into all of the cracks in my soul until…

“Take a breath, lass,” a deep voice said, a hand coming to rest on my shoulder blades and somehow that sensation became a part of everything else I was experiencing.

“But—” I began to say.

“We know.” Soren’s voice was coarse, almost ragged with emotion. “We have always known.”

And with that, I let out a long sigh.

When the dragons were done paying court to my charge, I scooped her up, the weight of her in my arms a comforting one.

“What’s her name, milady?” Brom prompted gently.

I stared down at her gleaming scales in the sunlight, saw the way the brilliant gold refracted the light, making it almost impossible to look at.

“Glimmer,” I replied. “Her name is Glimmer.”