Page 6

Chapter

Six

Gildur

I t occurred to me with a wince that I wouldn’t be able to continue with the means I’d been using to sway Saoirse into confiding in me about her plans to challenge Mother. As the woman clung to my arm and batted her eyelashes at me, a deep, embarrassed heat spread through me. This would be awkward.

“Lady Saoirse, I presume,” Selle asked, his voice higher than usual and tight as he glanced between me and Saoirse. I could feel his indignation through our bond and I regretted it.

“My lady,” Freddy said, bowing low, but with the stiffness that came from showing grudging deference instead of genuine loyalty to the woman who controlled his life and the lives of his family and friends. “The ogres began their attack at dawn. We did everything we could to fight them off?—”

“And you did an admirable job of it,” I quickly interjected.

Freddy peeked at me in confusion before glancing to Selle, then exchanging looks with his wife and some of the other serfs.

“We fought as hard as we could,” Alyce said, wringing her hands and biting her lip. “The great oafs hardly noticed we were there. They were more bent on destruction than anything else. It wasn’t until a miraculous, gold dragon?—”

“Your serfs engaged in battle with skill and honor,” I interrupted again, staring hard at Alyce.

I didn’t want them to tip my hand to Saoirse. As her name hinted, Saoirse was a powerful sorceress, and if she believed magic was involved in the defeat of the ogres, if she knew that a dragon was involved, if she saw through my disguise as her gardener, it would only add to the suspicion that had been growing in her for a while, a suspicion that her plans were being monitored and my mother knew of her impending treachery.

I’d been arguing with Mother for a while that we had enough proof that Saoirse had nothing but malicious intent in the way she’d been building up her forces and forging alliances with some of the more brutish creatures of our world and others, but Mother continually insisted that the wicked would catch themselves in their own nets eventually.

She may have had a point, but as the ogre attack proved, other people could be hurt along with Saoirse if we were not careful.

Saoirse took a half step away from me, but continued to smile and make eyes at me. “Yes, my serfs are the best serfs. They serve so well. They are the sort of serfs that a powerful lady with as much property as I have would be proud of.”

Selle arched an eyebrow and moved his hand to his face as if he would adjust his glasses, which he was not wearing.

His movement made me suddenly nervous for our egg. He still carried the precious thing in the sling, which had slipped down so that the egg was nestled against his belly, but it was fairly obvious that our golden egg wasn’t a part of his body.

I made a quick gesture toward him, using a tiny bit of concealing magic so that Saoirse would merely think Selle was a bit chubby instead of noticing a great, golden egg that she would immediately covet.

“Serfs should not have to battle ogres on their own,” Selle said, standing taller, one hand on our egg, unaware of the concealment I’d given it. “You are their lady, are you not? Should you not fight the ogres yourself?”

“Me?” Saoirse snapped straight, pressing a hand to her chest in offense. Or perhaps as a way to draw people’s eyes to her low-cut bodice. “You would have me fight off ogres?”

The way she spoke made it clear she was far more indignant about her place as lady above all instead of suggesting she could not fight because she was a woman.

“Well, if not you, then your guards,” Selle said, gesturing to the tall, burly men with Saoirse.

Saoirse continued to look offended. “But if my guards busied themselves fighting off ogres, who would protect me?” she demanded. “Who would protect my party guests?”

“I beg your pardon?” Selle asked, rippling with indignation.

I needed to step in. There were several layers to Saoirse’s comments and to her garden party that morning that I hadn’t been able to explain to Selle yet. It was all very much a part of the final stages of my mission to neutralize Saoirse.

Before I could take charge of the situation, Saoirse tipped her chin up to look down her nose at Selle and asked, “Who are you?” with such distain that I felt my omega bristle through our bond.

“He’s the dragon who saved us,” Alyce insisted.

When Saoirse snapped to narrow her eyes at her, I laughed and quickly said, “He’s the new undergardener I hired to help with preparations for your party, my lady.”

I added just a hint of persuasive magic to my words, although it was dangerous to use magic around someone as adept at wielding it as Saoirse.

Saoirse turned to stare at me again as the serfs nodded and hummed, as if figuring out Selle was a gardener and not a dragon was some sort of grand revelation. She was suspicious, but one smile from me changed her attitude entirely.

“You are so thoughtful, Gildur,” she said, swanning in and taking my arm again. “Always thinking of me and how you can help me. No wonder I like you so much.” She giggled ridiculously and raised my hand to kiss my knuckles.

Selle made a sound like a very small teapot steaming. I glanced sheepishly at him, hoping he could feel my intention to explain everything as soon as I was able through our bond.

“Enough of this ogre nonsense,” Saoirse said, stepping back and waving her hand as if brushing the problem away. “We have a very important garden party to prepare for. I want my gardens looking as magnificent as possible for our very special guests. I do not have time to bother with ogres or trolls, or anything else as base and dirty as that. Come along, Gildur.”

She smiled at me and turned to go, beckoning me with a crooked finger.

I tried not to roll my eyes.

“But my lady,” Freddy spoke up, rising from where he’d been on one knee since bowing to her. “Half of the village is destroyed. The ogres wreaked havoc before they were, er, chased away.”

“So?” Saoirse asked, her expression darkening with distaste.

“We are your subjects, my lady,” Alyce reminded her. “We work the farms of your estate and produce goods that feed and provide for you and your servants.”

“Yes, you do,” Saoirse said, a different sort of light sparking in her eyes, but not a kind one. She stepped over to Freddy, Alyce, and the others, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at them. “You have been irresponsible to let your village fall into such disarray. I should take the cost of repairing it all out of your share of everything my estate produces.”

Selle sputtered with indignation as the serfs all gaped in shock. “It was the ogres that caused the damage,” he insisted. “The ogres that you should have protected your people against.”

“How was I to know ogres would attack?” Saoirse asked with a shrug. “I told them all that if they would just pay me what I deserve to hire guards to protect them then none of this would have happened.”

“But you are their lady,” Selle argued. “It is your responsibility to protect your people. Every good leader should protect the people who owe allegiance to them. All of the people who owe allegiance, not just the ones you like or think are the best.”

Saoirse laughed. “This lot is definitely not the best,” she said as though the whole thing were a joke.

Selle had more to say, I could tell, but Saoirse raised a hand to stop him. “There is no point in any of this,” she said. “My guests will be arriving soon, and I need to make certain everything is exactly as it should be to impress them.”

I could practically feel Selle vibrating with indignation over the fact that Saoirse thought her party was more important than the destroyed livelihoods of her own serfs, but I sent him a look asking him to stay quiet.

He glared at me in return, for more reasons than one.

“Come now, Gildur,” Saoirse said. “Come along.”

She spoke to me like I was her favorite puppy, and like she had plans to cuddle and play with me later.

I sighed, glanced pleadingly to Selle, asking him to trust me. He frowned but kept the litany of things I knew he had to say to himself.

I looked past him to Freddy and Alyce. “I will see to it that help is sent to repair your homes,” I said quietly before following Saoirse and her guards to the door in the wall.

I glanced back to Selle, raising my eyebrows and holding my hand out subtly to him.

Selle sighed and stomped after me, muttering, “You owe me a very good explanation for all this.”

“I do,” I agreed. “And I have one, but it will have to wait a moment longer.”

We walked on through the doorway and into the entirely different world on the other side of the wall of Saoirse’s estate. The area of the villages was nice enough, but the gardens inside of the wall were as magnificent as the ones around my mother’s castle. Flowers of every size, shape, and description were planted in borders around the walls, and the vast land of her inner estate was divided into rose gardens, herb gardens, and flower gardens with hedges and topiary.

Selle’s indignation at everything he’d just been put through eased as he glanced around in wonder. “This is all incredible,” he said quietly.

“Thank you,” I said with a grin, proud of my work.

Selle snapped his eyes to me. “You planted all this?”

I shrugged with false modesty. “I had to ingratiate myself to Saoirse somehow,” I replied.

Selle frowned again, but before he could take me to task, Saoirse stopped on the path as it reached the terraced garden leading to the back of her grand estate and turned to me.

“Truly, you have no idea how relieved I am that you are here at last,” she said, back to smiling and flirting with me. She swept close and clung to my arm again. “I looked and looked for you this morning, but you were not in your house.”

I cleared my throat. “I was up early, working in the peach garden,” I lied.

“Oh, yes. The peach garden,” Saoirse said, lowering her voice and thrusting her breasts at me.

I wasn’t necessarily immune to female charms, but I found other charms far more alluring. Those of my fated mate, for example.

My fated mate who had his arms crossed over our egg as he cuddled it close and scowled at me.

“Never mind the peach garden for now,” Saoirse said, backing away with a wave of her hand. “My allies will be here in less than an hour. I need everything perfect so that I can prove to them they should give me their support, and more importantly, their armies and riches.”

I felt Selle’s surprise through our bond.

“They need to see that I am the most powerful ruler in the land,” she went on. “That I and I alone deserve their worship.”

She stood tall and tipped her chin up, smiling at her words. It had been clear to me from the moment Mother had sent me to monitor her that Saoirse worshipped herself more than anyone else. There was only one thing she valued equally to her own vanity.

Her smile grew, and she batted her eyelashes as she looked at me. “I need you, Gildur. I need your skills and your expertise to become the high queen.”

“If you say so, my lady,” I said with a slight bow.

Selle bristled.

“Now, I must go and prepare for the party,” Saoirse said. “Make certain that the gardens are in perfect order for my guests’ arrival.”

She didn’t wait for me to agree, she merely assumed I would. With a flourish of her skirts, a final, sultry look, and a wink, she walked away.

“How could you?—”

Selle surged forward, but I stopped him by putting a hand to his chest as he stepped forward. I kept my eyes on Saoirse until she was all the way at the top of the path, her guards flanking her.

Once I was confident she wouldn’t hear, I turned to Selle and swept one arm around him to usher him off to the hedge maze a few yards away.

“Unhand me!” Selle hissed. “You lied to me. You’re not the man or the dragon I thought you were. ”

“Rail at me all you need to, my darling,” I said, keeping my voice calm and sending reassurance through our bond.

It was clear Selle wanted to remain frustrated and upset, but my calm affected him as we ducked into the concealment of the hedge maze.

By the time we made a few turns and I conjured a bit of silencing magic so we wouldn’t be overheard, he had given up his initial ire and was left only with confusion as he asked, “What is going on here?”

I began my explanation by pulling my darling mate into my arms and hugging him. I needed to hold him for a moment as the tangle of the situation we’d found ourselves in washed through me.

“Gildur, tell me what’s going on,” Selle said once he’d calmed enough to sink into me.

I took a breath and stepped back from him. “As I’ve explained, Saoirse has been gathering allies and support to attempt to overthrow my mother as High Queen of the magical realm. It is believed she has designs on other realms as well, and that some of her allies are men who have found their way into our magical kingdom illegally.”

“Yes, you’ve told me,” Selle said, making a gesture to push his glasses up his nose, then flinching when, once again, he didn’t find them there. “Your mother has sent you to gather evidence against her so that she can be brought to justice. But what you did not tell me is that she is in love with you.”

His narrowed eyes and indignation were adorable. I was sorely tempted to forgo the rest of the mission so that I could kiss and snuggle with him and our egg until we were loopy with love and bliss. But giving in to that temptation the night before was what had trapped us in the position we were in now .

I cleared my throat and said, “She is not in love with me. Saoirse loves only herself, power, and?—”

“And you!” Selle raised his voice to argue.

I shook my head. “She loves gold. A great many of the very worst people love gold more than anything. They love it more than the lives of the people they should care about, more than the wellbeing of a kingdom. They love it so much that it corrupts them and turns them into something small and ugly.”

“But you’re not?—”

Selle stopped with his mouth open as understanding struck him. His mouth formed into a silent “Oh”, and he rested a hand on our egg. “It’s not you,” he said, blinking and bringing his focus back to the moment. “She doesn’t see you as a man or even as a lover. She only senses that you are gold, so she wants you.”

“Precisely,” I said. “An unfortunate trait that has caused many gold dragons before me to lose their way and to become lonely and suspicious of whether their friends are true.”

Selle’s eyes suddenly filled with watery affection. “I love you,” he said, blinking back tears. “I love you , Gildur, not because you’re gold, but because you’re mine.”

I sucked in a breath, far more deeply affected by my mate’s love than I thought I would be. I suppose the worry had been there in the back of my mind, the fear that even though we were fated mates, Selle would only see my shine and not my heart.

“I love you, too, my delicious omega,” I said, cupping the side of his face, then leaning in to kiss him soundly.

Selle hummed happily and returned my kiss with exuberance. Every time I thought he would be a simple, emotional omega, he showed me that he had more power and courage within him than anyone would expect.

When he broke our kiss and leaned back, he glanced determinedly up at me and said, “What do we do? How should this garden party proceed? What sort of evidence does your mother need to bring Saoirse to justice and give her what she deserves?”

I smiled from my whole heart, so pleased with my mate that I could only drink in the beautiful, brave sight of him and our egg for a moment.

“We need to give Saoirse and her guests, her accomplices, as much rope as they need to hang themselves with,” I said. “We need to allow this meeting disguised as a garden party to proceed, and we need to note well everything that is said and everything that is involved.”

“Will your mother trust our word about things that are said or will we need another witness to their treachery?” Selle asked.

“She trusts me,” I said, suddenly brightening as the genius of Selle being with me struck me. “But it will be useful to have your word as well, and the word of our egg.”

“Our egg?” Selle looked surprised.

“Eggs are very perceptive,” I told him. “Not everyone can speak to them, but Mother can.”

“I would think so,” Selle said, an amazed, slightly far-away look in his eyes. He cleared his throat and looked at me with determination. “I should like to meet her one day, soon.”

“You will,” I told him, leaning in to kiss him again. “But now, let us turn our focus to Saoirse’s machinations.”

I took his hand and led him out of the hedge maze and up toward the lawn, where the party would take place.

“We especially need to discover which of her accomplices do not belong in this world. There have been reports of a man from your own world, in fact, causing trouble and taking magic that does not belong to him. If we can find?—”

My words were cut short as we turned a corner around a hedge and came face to face with a middle-aged, balding man with a long, pointed beard. He was as surprised to find us in that part of the garden as we were to find him.

But the most surprising thing of all was the jolt of recognition I felt from Selle, and the corresponding frown of curiosity from the man.

“Manfred?” Selle whispered.