Page 65 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Epilogue

Draven

In the queen’s drawing room.

“It’s done,” he told his mother, stepping closer as her hand froze midway through brushing her hair. “Brom has married Lady Pippin and the two of them are on honeymoon in a remote area of Skane. I went out to the chapel myself and checked the register at the chapel. Pippin is now a member of House Harlston.”

“Pippin?”

He realised his mistake then. This was why he always avoided his mother if he could, because only Felix had been able to anticipate each of her poisonous strikes, staying ahead of each of them until… He shook his head slowly, as if it would dislodge the memory of his brother’s death.

Steady , Darkspire said. The queen is in her lair and she will exploit any sign of weakness. He didn’t need his dragon to tell him that. He’d experienced it himself more than once.

“Lady Pippa,” he corrected himself. “She uses the nickname in the keep, insists people use it and I admit I’ve fallen into the habit as well.”

“Of course, you have.” The queen’s picture perfect face screwed up into an ugly expression. “Will you use her pet name when you kill her?”

“What?”

Draven went perfectly still and quiet, as if the quickening beat of his heart would give him away.

“My frontal assault failed, so you must take up the baton. As long as your ‘Pippin’ lives and that damned dragon of hers, too, she will be a tool used to usurp Beatrice’s place as your queen, and therefore yours on the throne. Skane has made it quite clear that he will throw his considerable weight behind the girl, if only to try and push back against Harlston’s dominance.”

She flinched then, her perfectly manicured hands going to her temple and rubbing at them, but she rallied quickly.

“That insolent girl is off gallivanting around in some backwater with an entire wing of royal riders. Your royal riders. Draven, darling…”

Raina got to her feet and glided over to him, the movement supposed to be graceful but he just found repellent. He wanted to yank his hands away when she gripped them, but he forced himself to give them a squeeze.

“I know how much you love being a part of the fleet. I’m beginning to think this all has the gods’ hands in it, elevating the son with actual battle experience to the position of heir, a warrior that can lead us into battle to stamp out the rebellions that seem to be springing up everywhere.”

A sharp knock at the door had the two of them turning before the queen told whoever it was to enter.

If he felt a kind of paralysing cold as his mother spoke so callously of killing a young woman and her dragon, or the benefits of his brother’s death, he was frozen through when he saw who it was. Some of his mother’s men, now in leather armour, strode into the room with a group of boys in tow.

Lance was the first one he recognised, despite the bruises colouring the tall boy’s face and one eye swollen shut. Jenkins was the smaller lad, cowering away from the men, but not getting far with a firm hand gripping his shoulder. He had less bruises, but the fear in his eyes made Draven’s mind race to try and work out what had put it there. There were several other lads, as well, all showing signs of man-handling. All of them were from Pippin’s cohort, and probably the instigators of the pranks.

“Ahh, the young cadets,” Raina said, turning toward them with an air of welcome as though this was a social call. “Sit, sit.” When the boys didn’t move, the men pushed them forward and down onto seats near the queen. “It’s always such a pleasure to meet the next generation of dragon riders, especially those that have such a… mischievous spirit.”

Draven cursed Pippin then, loudly and thoroughly in the seclusion of his brain, because this was exactly what he’d sought to prevent. Pranks had always been a part of cadet life, but it wasn’t safe for them to happen now, not when his mother’s eye rested so heavily upon him. Before, he’d been left to exist how he’d seen fit as Felix shouldered the heavy duties of heir, so the silly pranks that were played to defuse the tension between riders and cadets had been of no consequence.

That wasn’t the case now.

He was heir and that meant any threat to his authority, however small, was the queen’s business. He noted that each boy was from a poorer family. Lance’s father was a renowned swordsman, and while that earned him good coin, he had no name, no lands or allies to draw upon. Each of these boys could go missing, die in an accident having fallen off their dragon’s back mid-flight, as was sometimes the case, and there would be no one powerful to query it.

“I’m going to have a little chat to the boys, but you’ll need to run along, darling. Do this one thing for me and then hurry back. How long the boys stay in our care is all dependent on you.”

He was proud of himself for performing a neat bow, creating a perfect facade of a dutiful son and prince. It was an act he’d been forced to master.

We go to our queen now? Darkspire asked.

Soon. Very soon , he told his dragon. But first, we need to go to the territory of the wild dragons.