Page 71 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 70
“So, you’re really doing this?” Draven asked, as he paced back and forth across the finely woven rug in my father’s study. We’d adjourned here, once the staff had got over the surprise of such a sudden royal visit. Before we’d sequestered ourselves in the study, I’d asked Nadia to tell them all that we weren’t to be disturbed for any reason.
Pausing in his perambulations, the prince looked at each one of us in turn. “You’re going to… what? Share Pippin?”
“It’s the only way,” Ged replied, shooting his prince a mutinous look. “Either that or we tear the wing apart. You weren’t here when Glimmer was born. You didn’t help her…” When he looked across at me his expression changed utterly, revealing a depth of emotion that left me a little overwhelmed. “You didn’t watch Pippin scrub herself raw on the banks of the river, trying to get rid of the feel of the hands of those bastards who tried to rape her. You didn’t see her stand up afterwards, regal as a queen, and deliver justice on each and every one of her attackers.”
“The queen part is exactly the problem,” Draven said with a sardonic twist of his lips. “A girl of noble blood, bonded to a queen dragon and with four men from each of the duchies dancing after her, seeking her favour.” His eyebrow cocked upwards. “What does that remind you of?”
“None of us are seeking to overthrow your father,” Brom said, in a much calmer voice than either Draven or Ged had been able to manage. “It has nothing to do with the throne at all.” In the light of all of Glimmer’s assertions, I wondered at whether or not that was totally true. However, I kept that thought to myself. “People love who they will. You should know that more than anyone.”
I watched Brom and Draven stare at each other for a moment, something passing between them that I wasn’t privy to. Remembering what Draven had said when he’d shared his concerns just a short while before in my mother’s bedroom, I straightened up in my chair and broke the heavy silence.
“So we leave for Harlston and avoid Flynn’s father,” I suggested.
“Thank the gods for that,” Flynn said. “I can just imagine what he’s been plotting.”
“And we remain discreet,” I added. “I’ve done everything your mother asked for. Married a Harlston man.” I looked across at Brom and he met my gaze, something intense simmering in his eyes. “It wasn’t even a marriage of convenience. I’m proud to call him husband.” My focus swung back to Draven. “But in my mind— and in my heart—each of these men wears that title.”
I felt somewhat shaky saying those words and, as a result, my voice vibrated with far more emotion than I had intended. But I didn’t seem to be able to stop myself because it was true. I couldn’t look at the others, unable to bear seeing whatever response they might have to my revelations when I was feeling so bloody vulnerable. Instead I held Draven’s gaze defiantly.
“That’s all well and good, but the last female dragon rider that claimed such a relationship was executed in the main square of Wyrmpeak,” he told me. “Don’t be surprised if you come to the same end and drag good men down with you in the process.”
“Don’t fucking talk to her like that!” Flynn snapped, jumping to his feet. “You can pull rank all you like in the keep, but not here. Not in this room.”
“Gods, you don’t even have to pull them down,” Draven muttered. “They’ll skip merrily along the road to hell all by themselves.”
“Perhaps because we’re already familiar with what hell feels like.” The room went quiet when Soren spoke, perhaps due to the fact he’d trained every person in it. He glanced at me, but not for long. “You think we don’t know the dangers? I taught the history classes which covered the end of Gloriana’s reign. We all know how this will look. The fact we choose Pippin, for as long as she chooses us, tells you something about the way we feel.”
He spared me one more intense glance before he stared his prince down.
“We’ve gone into fights before where we were unsure of the outcome, and this is just another one of them. We’ve never let a lack of certainty stop us from doing all we can. The real question is: where do your loyalties lie, Your Highness?”
Draven let out a sharp bark of laughter, then looked intently at each one of the men in his wing. Finally, his gaze settled on me. And his look burned. There was so much in those cool blue eyes it was difficult for me to decode any of it.
So I didn’t try.
We’d made a decision, one forced upon us by his mother’s actions and now all we could do was forge ahead: keep a low profile, do as we were told and pretend to be exactly what she wanted.
“Well, there have been casualties in this battle already,” Draven said bitterly. “Lance and some of the other cadets are being… detained by my mother.”
“What?!” Soren snapped.
“I’ll get them out eventually,” Draven continued. “So abandon any thought of staging a dashing rescue. We have to be smart in this, you must see that. Mother and my uncle have plans, big bloody plans that will change the landscape of Nevermere forever. The House of Nithe will fall and be replaced by Harlston, though whether that will be led by the widowed queen or by her brother? I don’t think either of them has chosen to divulge their intentions to the other for fear they’ll take the other person out before their plans can come to fruition. And my father…”
His fingers flexed.
“He trots along blithely like a lamb to the slaughter. We need to go to Harlston, not just to pay your respects to your family and introduce them to your lady wife?—”
“But to gather intelligence as well,” Brom finished for him, then nodded. “We’ll ready ourselves to fly out before nightfall.”
“And I’ll be joining you,” Draven announced. “You might think me a threat to your little ‘arrangement’ but, honestly, I’m the only ally you’ve got now that my brother is dead. He wanted to stop my mother’s plans; to do what’s right for Nevermere…”
But we all knew how that went, a dark mood settling over the room.
Once we’d all walked out, I’d gone downstairs to the kitchens to confirm the arrival of our guest, and alert Cook to the fact we would be moving on far quicker than expected. She’d had the kitchen staff jumping to, just as I’d expected. When I walked out the back door from the kitchen that had suddenly become even busier than normal, I found someone waiting for me.
“I know you’ve got lady of the manor stuff to see to,” Ged told me, nursing a bowl of meat scraps in his hands, “but I thought you might like to accompany me to feed that dragon of yours.”
“Gods, Glimmer!” I said, feeling an intense rush of guilt at neglecting her this morning. Was this the way it was going to be? The two of us pulled further and further apart by the demands of our worlds; our bond growing thinner? I took Ged’s arm and let him escort me out to the dragons’ field, vowing that I wouldn’t let such a thing happen. When we arrived, we found the adult dragons tearing apart the pig carcasses Philip had sent over, each of them ripping off smaller strips to give to Glimmer.
“You don’t have to worry too much,” he told me. “Dragons have amazing instincts. They’d never let the little queen starve.” Glimmer reached out for what looked like a tiny scrap of meat in Cloudy’s grasp, growling as she tore it away with her claws and began scissoring it with her jaws. “If anything, Cloudy sees this as a courting gift.”
“Courting?” I said in alarm.
“The books say that wild dragons used to spend a long time working out who will suit them as mates.” Ged glanced somewhat shyly at me, an incongruous look on such a big man. “They have to be sure, because they mate for life. Not as fickle as humans.”
“And will you be?” Another harsh question that betrayed my emotional state, making me feel like I wasn’t just being nakedly vulnerable, it was as though I no longer had skin and my raw flesh just stood there, flayed and raw in the sun. “You have a lot of women willing to join you in your bed, your shower…”
I frowned at him as I remembered the stories he’d told me, the obvious experience he had.
“And I was a fucking fool for telling you any of that,” he told me, coming closer, though not too close, given where we stood. Stable hands brought horses out to let them graze in the nearby pasture, farm workers walked past us to the fields. We had an audience everywhere. He may not have been touching me, but his tone became intimate. “I tried to pretend that I wasn’t completely besotted the moment I laid eyes on you, even covered in mud and pig shit. I wanted to pretend you were just one of the boys because that’s all you could ever be, but…” He reached over and put the bowl of meat in my hands, giving him the excuse to touch me even if just for a minute. “But there are no other women for me, just as there is no other queen for Cloudy. Good, bad or indifferent, we’re yours utterly.”
The moment felt like it stretched on and on because I couldn’t reply to his words, couldn’t reach out and throw my arms around his neck like I wanted to. All I could do was look at him and acknowledge his words with my gaze. As we looked at each other, Glimmer spied the bowl and ran up Cloudy’s spine, not stopping when she got to his head. She threw herself into the air to the sound of my yelp of horror, but she landed on my arm with ease, her claws digging in as she shoved her muzzle into the bowl.
Gods, Glimmer! I said to her, but she just rolled her golden eyes up at me as she continued to eat.
A dragon must fly, she replied as she ate. And I will soon.