Page 31 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 31
We didn’t end up getting to explain. Brom dismissed both of us with a harried expression, telling us to get into our flying leathers and on dragonback as quickly as possible.
It soon became obvious why.
As we walked up to the top of the keep, I spotted Darkspire first, then Draven. He was chatting to Ged and Flynn, Cloud Raker and Glacier lounging behind them. Glimmer chirruped at the sight of them, her wings flapping in anticipation, something that drew a smile from Soren and I. But any pleasure I might have felt faded as soon as Draven caught sight of me.
Before, he’d been the picture of amiability, but that seemed to transmute once our eyes locked. Those blue depths sparked, not with amusement, but with something far darker. The prince cocked his head to one side, then ran his eyes conspicuously down my leather-clad form.
“So this is why we’re late for patrol?” His voice felt like a slender knife blade across my skin. “I knew the girl would become someone’s doxy, but the whole wing’s?” Flynn blinked at that and Ged went to say something in defence of my honour, but Draven held up a hand.
“Highness, you would have heard reports that Pippin has been roomed with us,” Brom said in a calm tone. “But that was to ensure her safety, not dishonour her.”
“Oh, so you’re her protector now?” Somehow in Draven’s eyes, this seemed worse. He stared at the tall wing commander for several seconds, searching for something in Brom’s face, but I didn’t know what. Glimmer made a low grumbling sound at the growing tension and the adult dragons began to shift. “Is that why she’s coming on patrol with us, rather than slumming it with the other cadets?”
“Pippin will never be able to fly Glimmer as part of a wing,” Brom said and somehow I heard the sounds of doors closing all around me. “A queen dragon, no matter how small, in a fight? Our beasts will protect her, not Nevermere, not each other.”
As he spoke, I noted the focus of the dragons directed at me, or rather, my dragon. Each one of them watched her every move as she sat on my shoulder, and Glimmer preened under the attention.
“Unlike many of the lads, Pippin has had an education that befits her station and more besides, if her steward has the right of it. The general has instructed us to keep her safe until such time as an appropriate post can be found for her, so wherever she is in the keep, one of us will be at her side.” Brom spoke confidently, authoritatively, while also maintaining the necessary deference Draven’s position afforded him, but the prince seemed no happier for the explanation.
“How gallant.” When Draven turned to me, his eyes burned with a vicious light. “Well then, milady.” He performed a bow that was way too elaborate for the daughter of a minor lord. “Let me welcome you aboard Darkspire’s back.”
He might have been playing the fool, but the command was clear in his voice. I unbuttoned my leather jacket, inviting Glimmer in, and she coiled up inside it and against the warming stone I’d left there for her.
“Highness, I thought Pippin could—” Ged started to say.
“Let’s not quarrel over the girl like she’s a wench in a tavern,” Draven snapped. “Pippin rides with me.”
I didn’t say a word as I hauled myself up into Darkspire’s saddle, the feeling both familiar and not, all at the same time. The dragon shifted under me and then cast me a brief sidelong look as I settled, as if my weight was an onerous burden.
Not an opinion his rider shared.
Draven seemed to move slowly, taking all the time in the world to settle down behind me, moving in small increments until his body was pressed hard against mine. And I felt him. The heat of his body, the cool of his leathers, the sheer muscular presence of him. But we weren’t the only ones on this dragon’s back, my mind decided. I could feel Soren’s hands on my ankles, see Hallin and Maggie in the bathroom, my breath coming in faster and faster. Then Glimmer shoved her head up and out of my jacket.
At the sight of her golden eyes, my breath came out in a great rush and a peace settled over me. This was just a power play between Draven and the wing and I was the means for him to exert it. All I needed to do was sit still and hold on. Surely, I was up to the task. But right when I was starting to feel a little calm, Draven leaned forward, taking my hands in his and pressing them to the horn of the saddle. I felt his low chuckle more than heard it, due to the wind whistling, as he rubbed his thumbs across the backs of my hands before grabbing the horn himself.
“You’ll need to hold on very tight,” he told me. “This will be no leisurely flight for a noblewoman. You want to be a dragon rider? You need to be able to fly like one.”
I had no chance to reply, because he clicked to Darkspire and the dragon began to lumber forward. A very girlish scream rose in my throat as he ran what felt way too fast towards the edge of the keep, those massive claws grabbing the battlements when we came to them, right before he threw us off.
I did scream then. We went plummeting down, at least that’s what it felt like, as though gravity grabbed a hold of Darkspire and wrenched him downwards for his hubris. But Draven just let out a massive whoop, the first real, unguarded sound of pleasure I’d heard from the prince since we’d met. The dragon’s wings flapped out like a flag, stopping our descent, then beating in big, swooping motions, clawing our way up higher and higher.
The threat of falling might have been averted, but I was quickly introduced to a new one, slipping from the saddle. I recognised the gift Soren had given me right then as I clamped my legs around Darkspire’s neck, gripping it for dear life. My fingers buried themselves into the saddle, because it felt like we had tipped backwards now, my ears filling and popping painfully as we climbed altitude.
“Lie down flat or you’ll have us both off his back!” Draven barked and then used his body to press mine down.
I had no more sexual thoughts. I couldn’t afford to. My heart was racing so damn fast it felt like the beats had all blended together, and every muscle screamed with the effort of holding on. But when he caged his body around mine, when the wind stopped its muffled roar through my helmet, when Glimmer shoved her head out of my jacket and let out an excited trill, I allowed myself to feel it.
This was my future, my destiny. Someday, Glimmer and I would be the ones to claw ourselves into position in the sky, reducing the city to the size of a child’s toy beneath us.
“Those lads need to stop looking at your pert arse and start teaching you how to ride.”
Of course, Draven had to ruin things, didn’t he? I blinked inside my goggles and then smiled down at Glimmer.
“Well, perhaps you could impart some of your wisdom, Highness. I’m assuming this will be a long ride?”
He went very still in response as Darkspire levelled off.
My reply was impertinent at best and it was only once the words were out of my mouth that I wondered if it was wise to talk back to the man keeping me up thousands of metres in the air.
“You need to ask the wing to stop making fucking eyes at you and start showing you what it means to be a rider,” he shot back.
I had thought they were. Each one of them had shown me how to feed and care for my dragon, how to keep her warm during a flight and how to put on my leathers. But as he said the words, a small tendril grew inside me, fed by little moments that until now I’d seen as unconnected.
Ged’s arm around me and easy manner, Flynn’s hug at my parents’ graves, Soren’s strong hands. And Brom? He seemed to see everything, even as he kept himself perpetually contained.
Did that…?
I shook my head slightly, then frowned. Draven was just trying to get under my skin and I refused to let him.
“With a keep full of beautiful, willing women, I hardly think they’re looking at my arse,” I replied, relishing the coarse words that would’ve had my mother blanching. “The wing had a woman thrust in their midst, one they can’t just throw under them and rut, then send on her way.”
I felt Draven’s hips shift then, just a small movement.
“If they’re floundering around, that’s my fault, but I’m willing to make things right. What should I be doing that I am not?”
“Gods above,” he growled. “If you said that to any other man…”
Belatedly, I realised the potential for double entendre in my words.
“But I didn’t,” I charged on. “You’re the Crown Prince of Nevermere and your queen will be the next queen dragon’s rider. Who better to give me an impromptu lesson?”
“Lie down flat,” he snapped, pressing my body harder against the saddle when I didn’t follow the order to his satisfaction. I was sandwiched now between man and dragon. But then Glimmer began to shift, her feelings of distress washing through me.
“You’re crushing Glimmer!” I shouted, pushing back against him, but his body was like iron. Darkspire dipped one wing down, our path changing abruptly as it appeared we were being directed out to sea, but I didn’t care.
I wanted off.
I wanted to be back on my own two feet on land, a blessing I’d never counted until now.
I wanted away from this damn prince and the damn dragon, but most of all I wanted Glimmer safe. Her claws were raking across my jacket, across my skin and I felt the hot burst of blood that came with it. But the injury was nothing compared to what I felt from her.
She was right back where she had been, confined in a too small space and unable to get out. I could feel the hard press of her shell, the way her limbs ached from being pinned in there for too long. But worse was her terror, her attempts to claw her way free that were to no avail. By the time I’d found her, breaking open her shell, she’d given up…
My heart beat so loud in my ears I could hear the rasp of my breath easily, but that wasn’t the worst of my troubles. I felt myself slip as Darkspire’s wing tilted further and further to one side, turning us sharply now, so much so I could feel my bottom lift off the saddle. I clawed at the horn, trying to just hold on, my legs trembling with the effort of gripping the dragon’s neck.
And failing.
“I’m stopping you from fucking falling!” Draven shouted. “Right when I’m supposed to…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Darkspire straightened up and the terrible pressure eased up. Draven drew back slightly and Glimmer and I panted, sucking in breaths of thin oxygen as adrenaline pumped through our bodies. We were one right then, one mind, one heart, one terrible instinct to survive at all costs and that’s when I felt her.
Pip…
A tiny little thread of a thought, touching my mind and then gone before I could even respond.
Glimmer? Glimmer!
She peered up at me from where she was nestled down inside my jacket, wound now into a tight ball and those eyes… The minute she had bonded with me, I felt like I would lay down my life for her, but now? Love throbbed deep in my heart, pulsing in time with it.
Something that turned to white hot rage when we finally landed.
The other dragons were already waiting for us on a cliff looking out to sea, and the moment Darkspire landed I was out of the saddle and striding up to Brom.
“I’m not riding with him again,” I said, shoving a finger in his face.
“Lady Pippin?—”
“Don’t lady me!” I paced back and forth, my arms cradled around my middle until Glimmer squirmed free, taking up her perch on my shoulder and hissing at the men when they tried to come near. “He terrified her, damn near crushed her on the ride over and I won’t put Glimmer through that again. I fucking won’t.”
Swearing, while being eminently unladylike, was apparently effective. Perhaps that was exactly why ladies were told not to. Each man fell silent, then looked to Draven as he sauntered over. The prince took one look at me and my dragon and then rolled his eyes.
“The wench is a little excitable? They often are after a ride with me.”
“The lady is refusing to ride on Darkspire’s back, Highness.” Brom bit off each ostensibly polite word.
“Is she?” The prince’s eyes had turned to ice chips, but the smile remained. “Well, you know me, lads. I’ve never baulked at sharing a lass between us. If you want your turn?—”
“Don’t.” Just one word from Ged, but I felt his hand on my shoulder, then his warm presence, even as fury radiated out through his voice. “If only for this. The dragons aren’t happy the little queen is upset. They didn’t feel her when you were on Darkspire, but they feel her now. Spire is a big beast, as big as any, but he won’t fare well if four adult dragons turn on him.”
I dared a glance up at Ged, feeling suddenly shy about doing so, and his arm went around my shoulders, pulling me in close.
“It’ll be alright.” His voice was a low croon, but I couldn’t tell if that was for me or my dragon.
It didn’t seem to matter. Glimmer felt a flash of emotion in response, of relief, of gratitude and, in no small part, affection.
“I was trying to show her what a rider must do,” Draven shot back. “There’s no point trying to baby her for her noble blood. No rank is acknowledged in the air.”
“Then you’ll have no issue with the rest of the wing taking over Lady Pippin’s tutelage,” Brom replied.
It was the wing commander’s comment that seemed to hit the prince hardest. His head snapped back, as if he’d been slapped and then he scanned the rest of the wing, looking for something. Something he found, if his deeper frown was anything to go by.
“You want the girl? Have her, because the gods know no one else does.” I saw the queen’s face then, her imperious look of disgust morphing with the same expression my stepmother had worn often. “And now that we’ve decided on what to do with your little mascot, can we get back to the matter at hand? Boats have been seen off the coast and we need to ascertain whether they are legitimate trade vessels or something else.”
The tense mood seemed to dissipate then and Brom nodded, retrieving a folded up map from his jacket and spreading it across a flat expanse of stone, the other men all crouching down to consult it.
“Don’t worry about the prince,” Ged said, pulling out a packet of meat that had Glimmer hopping down from my shoulder and then opening her mouth. He chuckled as he held out a scrap for her to snatch away.
“Is this where you tell me his bark is worse than his bite?” I said, taking some of the meat and passing pieces to my dragon. Her mood was instantly uplifted by the scent of food, all the fear of before gone.
“No, the fucker bites plenty hard, just like he barks. I’d say steer clear of him, but…” Ged shook his head slowly, then his grey eyes met mine. “I’ll teach you, lass. I’ll show you how to keep your place in the saddle. You’ll be aching from head to toe by the end of the day.”
“I already am,” I grumbled, taking the waterskin he offered and having a drink. “I thought I was relatively fit from working with the pigs, but I’ve been made aware of all of my limitations today. I’ll need more of Soren’s liniment before bed.”
“Introduced you to that, did he?” Ged’s voice had changed, and it was only now that I realised just how close we were. I’d turned my head to catch his expression, seeking the source of this shift, then stopped. He stared at me and I, him, close enough that I could feel his breath on my face, his mouth only inches from mine. “I thought I recognised the smell. Did he rub down your aching body, Pip? Turn your skin to fire?”
“If you’re quite finished?”
Brom’s voice cut through the haze in my head and both of our heads whipped around to see the others watching us closely.
“Pippin can see to feeding her dragon. You need to pay attention to this and you’ll need…”
Brom’s order faded away as I hung my head, trying to shut out everything and everyone but Glimmer. Her hunger, her enjoyment of the meat, the way it tore between her vicious fangs, the coppery meaty taste on her tongue. Then the feel of her tummy stretching until a sense of deep pleasure spread through her. I cleaned my fingers on a handkerchief I’d brought, then stuffed it back into my pockets, closing up the drawstrings of the small sack of meat before standing up.
“Pippin will fly with Ged,” Brom said.
“But…” Flynn shot to his feet, then flushed.
“Best of luck,” Draven said with a mocking smile. “She flies like a sack of lead. Doesn’t know how to move with a dragon. You should give her to Flynn. Glacier can at least scoop her out of the sea when she falls.”
Glimmer chittered out something and then hissed at the prince, not giving a damn about his rank. Darkspire lifted his massive head and looked over at us, but otherwise didn’t respond.
“You have your orders,” Brom said, slapping his gloves into his palm.