Page 4 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 4

She had something to tell me, that much I could see, but her words seemed to be stifled by her shock at the sight of the hut, of the pigs, of me.

“Oh, milady.”

“Pip now,” I corrected her with a wry smile, stepping across the wooden planks that created a path between the door of the hut and the gate. They were supposed to keep your feet clear of the mud and they did their job, somewhat. But as she watched my bare feet squelch in the thin layer, a fluttering hand went to her lips. “How can I help you, mistress Nadia?”

“Mistress…?” She looked at me blankly. She had been just Nadia when she was in my service, but our roles had changed and I wanted to ensure that concept was pressed home by using her proper title. “Mil?—”

“Pip,” I corrected again, much more firmly this time. “Now, how can I serve the estate? I assume Arabella has another request of me, another chore?”

“Of a sort,” Nadia replied with a smile that formed and faded in a heartbeat. “The dragon riders will be here for some time.” My heartbeat picked up then and, if I focussed hard enough, I could still feel the heat, the weight of the egg in my hands. “They’re adamant the queen’s bondmate is to be found in Deepacre.” She shook her head slowly. “Lady Arabella has already put her hand on the egg.”

My fingers tightened into fists, an unfamiliar ache starting up as I saw my stepsister doing just that. Her face would have been alight, unable to keep the avarice, the naked ambition from her face as she attempted to bond with the queen dragon.

“As has the Kensington girl and all of the hoity toity ones in her ladyship’s company,” Nadia continued. “It all came to nothing. If anything, the egg lost some of its sheen rather than light up.”

“They would’ve been most disappointed with that result,” I said, and Nadia snorted.

“Disappointed? You never saw such an expression. If you remember Lady Arabella’s little fits of pique?”

Little fits? The girl had rolled around on the floor, screaming and gnashing her teeth with a violence that rivalled tales of the Mad King of old. She’d thrown herself around, smashed dishes, then torn at servant’s hair until I was forced to step in. A few broken plates I could bear, but snatching a servant’s head bald because her tea wasn’t to her liking?

“I remember them well,” was all I would say in reply.

“I feared she’d have another one of her turns.” Nadia shook her head in judgement. “I think it was only the presence of the royal riders that stopped her in her tracks. She was forced to step back and watch each of the others take their turn, each attempt seeming like it was a personal insult to her, despite the riders ordering the girls to do just that. We’re being requested to try next.”

“Then I bid you good luck, Nadia,” I replied, my facial muscles feeling stiff when I forced myself to smile. It’d been so long since I had, I’d almost forgot how. “I think you’d make a grand queen.”

“Me?” She scoffed in response, twisting her hands in her apron. “I’m terrified of heights. Can’t even get up on a ladder to brush away cobwebs, let alone fly the skies like a bird.”

“So the dragon riders are to remain for the near future.” I shook my head, still feeling the vestiges of my dream hanging around. “What has this to do with me? You can’t have slipped away from the estate this early in the morning just to share gossip.”

I saw her face fall, my eyes following her hand as it dived into her pocket and drew out a bulging pouch, much like the one I had in my pocket. Fuller though, much fuller, the chinking sound within alerting me to just how many coins were inside it.

“The riders want more pigs for their beasts,” she said, her eyes on the animals, not me. “They want all of them. Their beasts only feed every couple of weeks or so, but when they do? They glut themselves, the big rider, Brom, said. They’ve been pushing the dragons hard in this search, flying from one end of the country to the other.”

She held out the bag of coins, offering me payment for the pigs, but it was so much more than I was used to. I walked over, taking the bag from her hand and then blanching when I saw how many gold coins lay within.

“Her ladyship has told the staff to hand over any money that the riders give us, because she says a cut needs to come her way. When Brom asked about where the pigs came from, where he could get more, I told him. Anyone else would’ve given her ladyship the part she demands and then kept most of the rest, stiffing you on the sale price. That’s why I came, milady.”

All I could do for a moment was blink. Her words seemed to be somewhat muffled, as if she was speaking to me down a long tube. With this amount of gold I could… With this in my pocket, I would… My brain fought to finish the thoughts. I had shied away so thoroughly from dreams of the future, because I had none. My stepmother had trapped me here, in Old Bay’s hut, forcing me to eke out a living as a swineherd because every asset, every privilege had been taken from me. The coins in the pouch were nothing compared to what had swelled my father’s coffers, but I’d proven I could live frugally, hadn’t I? With this boon I could leave Deepacre. I could start somewhere new. Somewhere far away from the estate, from the betrayal.

“Gods above, Nadia…” I hissed the words through my teeth, causing them to sound angry, even though that was the exact opposite to how I felt. “Whatever did I do to deserve a friend like you?”

“You were a good and fair mistress,” she said, her face crumpling like a piece of old news sheet. “You were robbed of your birthright. You did nothing to deserve what those vipers did to you. The estate has never been the same since you were driven out. All the old staff keep getting pushed out and these new bastards get hired in their place. It’s like throwing open the granary doors just to let the rats in. Things keep going missing, precious things, but…” She let out a long sigh, then smiled at me. “But that won’t matter, not with the kind of money in that pouch.”

“You need to take—” I started to say, reaching in to retrieve a gold coin.

“No, you can’t do that.” Her voice was crisp and firm now, her nose rising in the air in an action I remembered all too well. “I won’t hear of it. And what would I do with a gold coin anyway? Any place I tried to spend it would result in questions as to where it came from.” Her resolve faltered slightly then as she began to frown. “That’s something you’ll need to be mindful of too, miss. I’ll bring you some more of your father’s clothes, some of the fine ones. You could pass yourself off as a young nobleman much more convincingly than you could a swineherd.”

We both laughed at that, but there was no real mirth there, just a quiet desolation.

“So I failed as a pig keeper as well, did I?” I asked, casting an eye over my soon to be discharged burdens.

“Of course you did,” Nadia replied, much more gently. “You were always supposed to. Not at the practical business of it all. Old Bay wouldn’t let you suffer like that, but…” She smiled much more gently now. “But the look of it, the appearances. You’re a lady, no matter what you’re doing, that’s plain to see. Those evil harpies just wanted you to suffer through the indignity of it.”

We might have talked at length about what motivated my stepmother, but a roar cut through the early morning air, sending the sleepy birds nesting in the trees up and swirling above the topmost branches.

“I’ll ask Master Gerald to come by and collect the rest of the pigs, make sure he brings some of his better lads.” Nadia frowned. “You’ll need to hide that money though, until I can slip away and get you those clothes.”

“Tonight?” I asked, not wanting to press the girl, especially after all she’d done to help me, but realising that she was right. Out here in the hut, especially with no pigs about, I’d be a sitting duck. All those shoves, snickers and whispered threats I’d endured in the markets would manifest into something much darker if anyone had an inkling I had this amount of money.

“I’ll slip away once the feast is on,” she replied with a nod.

Nadia had hurried back to the estate then, knowing she had to be present when Arabella and Cecily rose for the day. The sun was rising, and they would be doing so soon. I was left standing outside the hut, just staring at the pig pens, with all of the usual routines I’d been instructed to follow there in my mind, but without the requisite need to complete them. The swine would be handed over to the riders, dispatched neatly and cleanly by their dragons, or so I’d been told. But the pigs didn’t know that. Their squeals and grunts grew more and more insistent until I was forced to open the pens and let them out, leading them to forage under the oak trees once more.

When I returned to the hut, old Gerald was there with a phalanx of lads, each one carrying a flat board. Their plan was to use them to direct the pigs towards the heavy cart they’d driven over, the two great draught horses pawing at the ground as they waited placidly.

“Got them full of acorns, did you, lass?” Gerald said with a nod. “Well, I suspect they’ll still be keen for some slops on top of that.”

He moved forward, tapping a bucket filled to the brim with scraps, something that drew the herd towards him. The boys formed an honour guard of sorts, not letting the pigs wander off as Gerald lured them up the ramp and onto the cart. I watched the proceedings with a growing sense of disconnection, with the pigs’ squeals growing shriller and shriller as they were wedged in, and then the cart door was pushed up, trapping them.

“They’ll make a fine meal for yon dragons,” Gerald said, the lads moving to jump up onto the cart or grab the horses’ reins and begin leading them away. “You did well…. milady.”

But before I could protest at his use of my title, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me and the hut behind.

I walked inside, seeing the place with fresh eyes now. I was scanning everything that was there, ascertaining what should stay and what should be taken. That didn’t take very long, what with the meagre belongings Old Bay had left, which unfortunately resulted in me having plenty of time to sit by the fire, jumping at every twig break and every bird call, right up until night fell.

I had a brief meal of bread and butter while those up at the estate no doubt ate their fill of savoury meats and rich sauces, but I barely tasted the day-old bread. My increasing tension turned it to glue in my mouth, so luxurious food would’ve been wasted on me. Then I heard the sound I’d been waiting for, the regular crack of branches breaking as someone approached the hut. I was up and out of my seat, my stick in hand, ready to meet my destiny. I hadn’t dared think of leaving, of what I’d do or how I’d do it, not until Nadia came.

And perhaps with good reason.

Because when I swung the door open, it wasn’t to see my former lady’s maid, her arms burdened down with my father’s clothes. Instead, those three lads that Arabella had sent the day before stood there, smiles like knife blades in the night.

“Hello, Pig,” the biggest one said.