Page 118 of The Dragon Queen

My mind whipped out, slapping into his, as I saw the rest of theRoyal Riders appear. This idiot would be burned from the sky and his dragon with it. Right then, I knew what Royce had done. Psychic ability allowed us to connect with each other’s minds, but the stone helped amplify that. For what purpose? That was determined by the wielder, and right now, I pushed a violent need to retreat into the two of them. His dragon turned with a squeal, streaking across the sky, his rider still on his back.

Which just left me gripping the saddle tight.

“Draven…” Blood dripped onto the saddle in a rapid spatter but I didn’t know from where. The taste of copper made clear it was from my nose. “Draven…!”

“I’ve got you,” he said, his arms like iron. “I’ve got you, my queen.”

But there was no way to hold this back. Sunfire was swallowed up by a white fog, but I was absorbed by a red one. Pain, so much pain, wracked me. I writhed against the leather, fighting his grip, my muscles spasming. One finger pulled loose, then another. More were torn free as I thrashed. I couldn’t hold on, no matter how I tried, the pain was too great. It was a massive red dragon, larger than the sun, and it flew upwards, obliterating everything I saw, everything I felt, until the moment when I let go of the saddle.

Chapter 57

My body felt… wrong. Too swollen, too heavy, and any attempt to move it was a mammoth effort. I felt that now as I tried to shift on the bed but barely moved an inch. Pain throbbed deep in my pelvis, but there was no escaping that. Whatever woman’s complaint I was suffering, it was here to stay, and that had me curling around the hard swell of my belly.

What?

My eyes flicked open and I saw I was in a room, not our tent. The four walls were familiar and I stared at them for a second until I realised why. Deepacre. This was my father’s, no, my room back on my family estate. So why was I struggling to move? I looked down in shock to see my body had been transformed.

I was pregnant?

My belly was like a drum, stretched tight by the child or children within. Hands hovered in the air, shaking like leaves as I reached out to touch it, because it surely could not be mine. Sure enough, I felt my fingers, my palms, touch my skin, but more than that. Something shifted restlessly inside me, conjuring a feeling of both awe and shock, right as the door opened.

“Pippin…” Soren walked in the door toting a tray of tea and toast, but he set it down as soon as he saw me. “You should be resting.”

“I am resting!” I snapped, immediately horrified by my waspish response. “I’m sorry, my mate.”

My mate?My mind caught on that phrase for a second, but the conversation continued.

“How am I…?” I gestured to my belly. “How am I pregnant?”

“You need me to remind you of the process?” He slid in behind me, the press of his body, the way he cradled me in his arms, helped ease some of the pain. I sighed as I pressed back against him. “It was a grand thing, your mating flight.”

What?

My lips remained welded shut as he continued.

“You were beautiful, my love. Your scales blazed like the sun and you fought each one of us off, forcing us to prove our worth. That eventual surrender.” He nuzzled my neck. “It made it all the sweeter. But now…” He pulled away and retrieved the tray and set it on both our laps. “You must eat.”

“I can’t.” I was snappish again. “My stomach is too swollen with our young to eat a single thing.”

“You must.” Hadrian, I mean Soren, was all gentle patience right now, staring deeply into my eyes, so why did those brown depths now sport a black vertical pupil? “To keep up your strength for our daughters.”

And that’s when the room fell away, revealing the hatching sands, though they had changed drastically. Rather than a sea of bone-dry grit, dragons ferried familiar white stones in and out of the hole in the roof. Tanis’ nest was being rebuilt right here, and I knew why. I… Cynane would give birth there, and all of our, her children, would be born in it.

Absorbing the collective wisdom of dragonkind as they grew.

Before I could respond, another sharp pain tore through me, one that forced me up and over to the haunch of meat Hadrian had brought us. My mouth watered even as my guts roiled.

For our daughters, I thought as my eyes flicked open.

You are awake.I blinked to see Glimmer perched on my chest, and perhaps she was the reason for the feeling of heaviness in my dream.You are better?

Seeing the tent, our bedrolls, was both a relief and a disappointment. I knew where I was and rather than Soren bringing me tea, Ged snored lightly from where he sat leaned against his bedroll. A snort and then his eyes cracked open as I sat up, collecting my dragon up in my arms. Ged woke up with a start.

“Pippin, you’re feeling better?”

He rose to his feet, inspecting me closely.

Was I? It felt like I had two bodies right now, and I wasn’t sure how either felt. My hands ran over my sides, then stopped at my stomach. It felt odd, wrong for it to be relatively flat. Ged frowned, taking note of that, while Glimmer fought her way free and gazed up at me.

---