Page 36 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 36

“Where are my bloody gloves?”

I stumbled out of my room, bleary-eyed, to find Prince Draven, not Soren, standing there, looking for his gloves. The drill sergeant’s were tucked into his belt and it was then I saw the distinct lack of silver detailing across the knuckles. Ged caught my eye, shooting me an impish smile and that’s when I realised how badly today was going to go. Draven already hated me. And now? My mouth opened, to confess, to take the blame myself, to prevent him from?—

“There they are.” Draven’s gaze swung my way. “Any reason why you’re standing there, gawping like a fool, Cadet? You might be bunking in here, but you need to be in the grand hall with all of the others. No exceptions.”

My mouth worked to say the words, but they didn’t come out.

“Move, Cadet!”

It was that, his imperious order, that both had my feet moving and my mouth closing. I shot Ged a dark look, pretty sure that if we were to go any further with a courtship, lies by omission needed to be off the table. But there was no time for that now. I got dressed then scurried off, feeding Glimmer scraps of meat from my fingers as we ran downstairs, her wings flapping as we went.

Lance, Jenkins and the other boys all stood together and I joined them as soon as I spied them among the mass of other cadets. Not just the first year ones, like us. There was a group for each level, so one of the boys explained.

“We’ve got a problem,” I hissed at Lance and his expression shifted to one of concern. “Those gloves weren’t the drill sergeant’s.”

“What? So whose were they?”

But as the riders marched into the hall, quiet fell and we all moved into neat rows.

“I’ll take the blame,” I told him, staring hard at the other boys responsible. “Just me.”

“But who?—?”

Who stepped forward. The prince surveyed each one of us, it felt, those blue eyes filled with pride and satisfaction, an expression I’d never seen before on him. But it was his hands going to his gloves that caught my attention.

“At ease, Cadets,” Draven instructed. “Now that the number of incoming cadets has stabilised, I’ve come here to welcome the new recruits. As most of you will know, I’m Crown Prince Draven, but in here I prefer to be known by a far higher honour, as Darkspire’s rider.”

His speech was perfect, his manner open and welcoming. He looked over the mass of us like we were important to him as he shared these personal details. But while others might have been swept away with his words, I barely heard them, my heart thundering in my ears as I watched him slap his gloves against his bare hand in time with his words.

“Him?”

Lance’s eyes went wide as he hissed the question at me, begging me to deny it, but I just nodded. He went pale as milk then, the other boys growing restless beside us, their dragons flapping their wings.

“I’ll claim responsibility,” I whispered back.

But our conversation hadn’t gone unnoticed. Draven frowned slightly: one, at the sight of me in the ranks and two, when he realised it was me that wasn’t listening to him. But he charged on.

“So today, as the future royal riders of the King’s Dragons, I accept your fealty in my father’s stead.”

He looked down at the closest boy, a reassuring smile on his face.

“Come forward, lad. We’ll show everyone how this works.”

The boy stepped forward, sinking down to his knees on automatic, and the prince went to don his gloves, a shout curdling in my throat as he pushed his hands in.

I heard Glimmer’s curious warble as I craned my neck, begging whichever of the gods who would intervene that Ged swapped the gloves over for another pair, but when had the divine ever heard my call? I caught the moment when Draven froze, the gloves most of the way on before he pulled them free, his hand now dripping with coffee grounds and treacle.

As a body, we cadets went perfectly still, treated to the uncomprehending expression on the prince’s face as he stared at his hand. We jumped when both gloves landed on the wooden floor of the hall with a sodden splat, something that was quickly followed by snickers. Not from us. Each lad and me with them was caught on the wheel, not sure if we were to spin towards fight or flight. But the riders? They had expected something like this to happen to one of their number, even if Draven hadn’t, and hands going up to mask impish grins, to try and hold back chuckles. But they weren’t very successful. The room seemed to fill slowly with a trickle of laughter, a stream that seemed to grow and grow the longer time went on.

But not from Draven.

My eyes flicked around the room frantically, searching the general’s, Brom’s, even Ged’s face, looking for evidence that what Lance had told me was true. That this was expected behaviour from each new batch of cadets. The smiles seemed to indicate it was. But Draven’s response? His eyes jerked up, taking in everyone and everything in a glance before they settled on me.

I watched those perfect lips tighten, saw the muscles in his jaw tense, throwing his high cheekbones into stark relief. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, but right now, he also looked the most murderous.

“Who’s responsible for this?” Draven’s voice rang out through the hall, but it was coupled with a muffled soundtrack of titters, depriving him of the authority he so desperately wanted to wield right now. “Anyone who knows anything about this needs to step forward right now.”

“Stay where you are.”

That’s all I had time to hiss at the other cadets before I stepped out of line, drawing every eye to me.

“It was me, Your Highness,” I said, dropping down into a deep bow. A curtsey didn’t really work without skirts. “I’m responsible.”

Well, didn’t that throw the cat among the pigeons? The whispers grew and grew, as Glimmer shifted to coil her tail possessively around my neck. But I held my position until finally he spoke.

“You didn’t act alone. You had to have co-conspirators.”

“None, Your Highness. Some of the other cadets mentioned the tradition of pulling pranks and I wanted to find my place with the lads. I took the gloves thinking they were the drill sergeant’s.”

“Looks like the lady is leaving you courting gifts, Soren,” someone joked. “Though I’m not sure whether that means she likes you or not.”

“Silence!” The room went quiet again, any struggle Draven had experienced in commanding the room well and truly gone. No one dared breathe until he spoke. “If you were a lad, you’d get my belt across your back in front of the whole assembly.”

“Draven…” Ged growled.

“Crown Prince Draven, Rider Ged,” the prince corrected.

But there was no silence to greet his words. Glimmer started to growl then, a sound I’d never heard her make, coupled with a strange yowling sound, almost like a cat, but deeper and sounding much more threatening. And, as if in counterpoint to her protest, we dimly heard the sound of dragons bellowing far off in the eyrie that adjoined the keep.

“Have the girl taken to my office,” Draven ordered with a click of his fingers and I straightened up to see two riders approached me. “And someone get me a damn rag.”

“Come with us, lass,” one said in a somewhat comforting tone, but the grim twist of his mouth made mockery of that. I nodded, indicating I’d do as they said, but I shot a look over their shoulders, meeting Lance’s eyes, shaking my head slightly before I turned to go.

“I’ll take her.” As soon as we were outside the hall Soren appeared, looking the three of us over with a severe look.

“Straight to his office,” one of the other riders said. “We can’t afford any funny business. That trick was one of the oldest in the book.”

“Last year the cadets stuffed his saddlebags with rotten pilchards.” We turned around to see Ged striding over to us. “He should’ve laughed it off and announced that the inaugural prank war had started.”

“That was before his brother died,” Soren said. “He was Draven then and Crown Prince Felix was heir to the throne. Something you should’ve alerted the cadets to when you got wind of this prank. Did you know?”

Soren stared at the other rider and I watched Ged pause, go to answer and then stop himself, before nodding.

“You’re a bloody fool, boy. Anyone else and her back would be striped red—” Soren snapped, pointing at me.

“He can’t. I’ll take Pip’s licks for her.”

“I’ll take them if you promise to come out with me Sunday night,” the rider who had escorted me outside said, then held out his hand. “I’m Jonathon?—”

“Have all of you gone bloody mad?” Soren stared at each one of us with uncomprehending eyes. “If word of this incident gets back to the king…”

“What happens in the keep, stays in the keep,” Jonathon asserted.

“Nothing stays in the keep, not when it comes to the heir to the throne,” Soren snapped. “And right when he was about to claim those cadets, the future riders who will take their position at his back, supporting his reign when he comes to power. All marred by a childish prank.”

When those dark eyes settled on me, I blanched, feeling like a small child caught with my hand in the biscuit jar.

“Was this your idea?” I wanted to answer him. Soren had been kind to me, protected me, but something in me said I needed to keep my mouth shut. I tried to communicate that in my gaze, because I couldn’t in words. “If someone put you up to this, you better give those names over. I might be able to use them to deflect some of the blame away from you.”

I shook my head slowly, feeling like I stood taller somehow, even as I was forced to shoulder this blame.

“I did it. I took the gloves during the night and snuck down to the kitchens and filled them with treacle.” Jonathon and his fellow rider snorted, Ged’s mouth twisting as he tried to stop himself from smiling. “I put them back on the table, thinking you’d find them.”

“And here was I thinking I’d have it easier with a woman cadet.” Soren’s breath came out in a long hiss. “Let’s get her to his office. I’ll wait with her.”

“I’ll—” Each man had something to say, but Soren silenced them with an upheld hand, the other going around my arm.

“Go back to the hall and, for all the gods’ sakes, keep the cadets in line. The prince can’t afford another slight to his authority right now.”

Jonathon and the other rider turned to do just that, albeit reluctantly.

“I won’t let him beat her.”

Ged stood in our way and it felt like Soren’s grip on my arm tightened slightly.

“He won’t beat a woman,” Soren said.

“You don’t know that. You don’t even know him anymore. He’s not the cadet who came up with us. He’s the Crown Prince,” Ged shot back.

“And as such, his word is law, unless contradicted by the queen or his father, the king. Which means preventing Pippin from going to his office, as instructed, could be construed as insubordination at best.”

“I’ll take my punishment.” My throat felt like it seized on the words, but I squeezed them out anyway. “I did it. I’ll take the licks.”

“And I knew they were Draven’s gloves,” Ged shot back.

“Bloody hell, Ged, you haven’t the sense the gods gave a cat,” Soren grumbled.

“So make that omission up to me later,” I replied, staring into those steady grey eyes. “He can’t do anything worse than what’s already been done.” Gods, I hoped that was true. “Stop making this worse, or he’ll be forced to make an even more dramatic example of me to push his message home.”

We had been blessedly removed from Wyrmpeak politics on my estate, not realising that a distinct power shift had happened. Draven wasn’t heir, but spare, simply there in case something happened to his brother, and he’d been afforded more freedom as a result. Like other second and third sons, he was offered to the dragon corps until such time as he was needed.

Such as when his brother had died.

So Draven wasn’t born to rule, he was born to serve, and now that had all changed and he was having to force his former comrades to see that change.

And I would be the means by which he would do that.

“Rider Soren, take me to the Crown Prince’s office. I’m ready to face whatever consequences he deems appropriate,” I said.

“Pippin… Pip…!”

“You’re making the right choice, lass,” Soren said in a low mutter as we began to walk. “But I won’t leave you. No one beats a woman in my presence, ever, no matter who his parents are. He’ll need to find another way to make his point.”

And just what the hell would that be? Soren opened the office door and ushered me in to await my sentencing.