Page 9 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 9
I blinked, coming back to the hall abruptly, and I did so to a chorus of excuses.
“She had evidence of my infidelity,” the bank manager said, shooting his lady wife an apologetic look. “It was either go along with her plan or she’d reveal all. I’m sorry, Hilary.” He reached for his wife’s hands, but she jerked herself free of him, glaring hard.
“She held my card debts in lieu,” one of the shopkeepers said. “If she called in the debt, I would’ve lost my livelihood.”
“She said she’d ruin my daughters, put about in polite society that they had lost their virtue to the stableboys,” one of the local landowners said.
“She threatened to poison my wife when she couldn’t find anything else on me,” another shopkeeper said. “Said I’d never know if this batch of flour or the next was tainted.”
Strand by strand, my stepmother’s web of deceit was unravelled, until there was only the spider in the middle. She stood tall, unbowed by the flood of accusations and completely unrepentant.
“And what do you have to say for yourself, you bleeding viper?” Soren growled.
“ You think you’d never stoop so low.” Cecily’s eyes found mine, boring into my skull, not letting me drop back down into my memories, not now it was her turn to talk. “But you’ve never experienced the travails I have. You were born to such luxury.” She cast an eye over the grand hall. “Having all of this was as natural as breathing to you, just due to an accident of birth, where I…”
The only time you saw any real softness in Cecily was when she looked at Arabella. Not when she’d gazed into my father’s eyes, not when she addressed any of the rest of us.
“My story is not so dissimilar to your lady mother’s. I bore a beautiful baby girl to a man of wealth and standing, a baby who grew into a truly accomplished, truly radiant young lady. One who would be the jewel of any drawing room or ball. One destined to become the wife of a great man, a gracious presence at his side. She sings like an angel, plays pianoforte with the skill of a trained composer, dances like one of the fae themselves?—”
“All very admirable qualities for a young lady to have.” Brom abruptly ended Cecily’s recitation of Arabella’s gifts. “But that does not explain why you would commit such a convoluted crime. Most mothers think their daughter’s perfect.”
“Mine isn’t.” My stepmother’s lips curled then. “I knew that the moment she was born, because it was the very nature of that birthing that flawed her indelibly in the eyes of society. Bastard.”
She spat out the last word, Arabella and several other people gasping at the sound of it.
“My daughter is a nobleman’s by-blow and therefore before she even took her first breath, she was tainted. When I looked into her eyes as the midwife handed her to me, I swore I’d do whatever it took to ensure my daughter claimed the position she deserved rather than the one she was condemned to.”
I watched Arabella run across the floor to her mother’s side, Cecily’s arms going around her as she pressed her face to her daughter’s cheek.
“You just had to take down someone else’s daughter to do it.” I said the words as I rose from my chair, feeling like I was encased in a hard, brittle shell. It threatened to hem me in, keep me contained, as it had for all the time I had been consigned to that hut, exiled from my own home. But every step I took forward threatened to crack that shell, break what held me down to reveal… what?
“The egg!” Flynn said in alarm, and he and the other riders rushed over to a familiar golden casket, the small, scaled egg there beginning to glow.
“Yes!” Arabella said, jerking herself free of her mother’s embrace and sprinting over to the casket, her grabby hands outstretched.
Hadn’t I seen this before so many times? Lassie was supposed to have been my puppy, but when Arabella saw her, she squealed and made such a fuss about it, Father had handed the small little furry body over, shooting me an apologetic glance. But there was no Father to just give the spoiled little bitch what she wanted, not here. I strode across the floor, my boots slamming down onto the wooden floor, as I felt the shell around me crack.
Arabella as queen? That thought lashed me hard like the flick of a whip. A curious mix of alarm, concern, outrage, disgust, but also… protectiveness surged up inside me, throbbing like my own heartbeat. I could see poor little Lassie, something in her body broken for the stupid crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with someone who hadn’t even the self-control of a small child. Gerald had held the dog close, crooning to her a steady stream of nonsense words as his big hands went to her head. Tears streamed down my face then, now, at the time thankfully obscuring the sight of him putting her out of her misery, but I could still hear the click of her spine as it was broken, marked only by a tiny yip. Arabella was not so reticent now.
Her greedy little hands slapped down on the egg, even as the riders moved to tear her away from it, the brutality of their movements curtailed when she held the egg to her chest. For a moment, her face glowed with the reflected light coming from the egg, her smile widening as she experienced a perfect moment, thinking that she was to become queen-in-waiting. It would’ve commuted any sentence, saved her from the wrath of the dragons, because she would become bonded to their future queen. But the egg’s glow flickered then died out as she gripped it tight.
My dream came back then, my mouth opening, a scream forming in my throat as I threw myself across the room, leaping with a speed, an agility I’d never shown before as Arabella’s arms went up, her mouth twisting into a horrific snarl as she went to toss the egg to the ground.
They leapt for the egg as I did, our bodies flying through the air, but I couldn’t see the riders, not while I felt her . She was terrified, fluttering madly within the confines of her shell, feeling waves of anger, fear and malice that had her crying out in pain.
Crying out for me.
I snatched the egg from the air, yanking it to my chest, letting my spine take the brunt of my fall, feeling all of the air forced from my lungs, but never letting go. Never. I ached now for poor little Lassie, for the little dragon queen, but also for the Lady Pippa who’d been so utterly betrayed, my eyes screwing tight, caustic tears fighting free anyway. They burned and they burned, threatening to set me alight.
“Gods, it's her…”
His reverent voice was what broke the spell, letting me know it wasn’t my tears that burned me, but the queen’s egg. Ged stared down at me, Flynn scrambling into a seated position, but it was Soren who dropped down by my side.
“Don’t let go, lass,” he said in an urgent tone. “Don’t you let go. She’ll be hungry beyond measure and terrified when she comes out. You need to hold her steady, let her know everything’s going to be alright.”
“Get me some raw meat in here now!” Brom shouted, seeming to contradict his wing mate’s advice for calm. “And clear the fucking room!”
People rushed to do what they said. Of course. They were dragon riders, the law of our land and right now they were going to oversee the birth of a queen.
“It's cracking!” My voice was high and girlish, my head jerking up to scour their faces for answers, then back down to the queen’s egg as dark fault lines appeared in the shell.
“So she is, lass,” Soren said, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “So she is.”
A kitchen boy appeared with a slab of meat, then another arrived with a bowl of scraps usually saved for the farm dogs. Nadia appeared with a thick blanket and all of them were witnesses to her birth.
All of the pain I’d felt, all of the indignities I’d been forced to experience, they faded away to nothing in this moment. I no longer cared if Lady Cecily ruled my family’s estate or had turned into a winged pig, flying in circles above it. There was only her . She speared into me, breaking me open, forcing her way inside me, filling me with the most complete and utter love, the like of which I was unsure I’d ever experienced. Then she pushed her shell away and there she was.
Golden, tiny, completely perfect and mine.
“Hello, little one,” I said, choking on the words, the little dragon’s head tilting to one side at the sound of my voice. I hurriedly wiped away my tears, not wanting a drop to fall on her. “Welcome to the world.”