Page 15 of The Dragon Queen

“Shut up, Caden.”

“You’ll all have to pull your weight with me gone.” Stefan bent over the letter, reading its contents much more slowly this time. “Looks like all our time mouldering out here is finally going to pay off.” He looked up and surveyed the table. “War’s coming.”

“Who the bloody hell would be stupid enough to take on a Nithian?” Callum asked.

I sucked in a breath to answer, but Stefan got there first.

“The Duke of Harlston. They’re idiots, that lot. Da told Magnus not to marry another one of them, but that snake, Raina, had to bond with Zafira.” I stiffened, something Stefan noted with all of Draven’s keen eye. “And something tells me there’s a story there too.”

“The Harlstonians had worked out a way to influence the way queen dragons bonded while still in the shell,” I replied.

“But not you.” Stefan looked me over like a man might a horse at market. “You don’t have that funny pinched look that lot has.” He gestured to his face.

“Pippin is Skanian.” Flynn’s arm slid along the back of my chair. That was unwise in the extreme, especially as each brother noted it.

“They aren’t such a bad lot,” Stefan said. “The duke’s a bit of an idiot.” I shot Flynn a warning look, catching the moment his jaw locked down tight. “You’ve got a bit of the same look. Is it something in the water in your end of Nevermere?”

Before Flynn could reply, Ged leaned forward, his impressive forearms resting on the table.

“Do you want to fence all afternoon or can we get down to business?”

All three brothers moved, drawing closer in an echo of Ged’s pose.

“Considering this is the most fun any of us have had for some months, I’m pretty content to keep on prodding the lot of you.” Stefan’s focus shifted around the table. “Each time I do, it tells me more about you.”

“You may be so bored, locked away in this… backwater.” Flynn was every inch a duke’s son as he wrinkled his nose at the room’s rudimentary decor. “That you need to ignore the laws of hospitality and taunt us, but if I’m not mistaken, that is your cousin’s seal on the letter. In the morning, we’ll ride for the capital and you’ll see for yourself what true hospitality is.” The muscles around his mouth were tight as he smiled. “I may even direct you towards some of our more… accommodating ladies of court.”

“Screwing high-born women.” Stefan jerked himself to his feet. “Apparently, that’s incentive enough to show you the family’s stockpile.” His focus shifted to me. “Hope those flying leathers are warm, lass?—”

“Queen,” Soren snapped. “Queen-in-waiting or Your Highness, at the very least.”

Stefan’s eyes slid down, catching the way Soren’s hand went to his belt knife. My hand moved of its own accord, covering Soren’s and giving it a squeeze before pushing it away from the knife sheath.

“Don’t like to visit the capital unless I have to.” Stefan stared fixedly at my hand and Soren’s, still linked. “But this… My cousin has a story or two to share, I’m thinking, but right now we’ll do as he asks. Callum, Caden.” His brothers shoved themselves to their feet, with us doing the same. “You better come along for this ‘inspection.’ You’ll be looking after the citadel in my absence.”

“Finally…” Callum muttered under his breath, winking at me when I noted his response. Brom pulled me close, which had Callum’s eyebrows heading towards his hairline.

A story or two, for certain, but we were about to discover one for ourselves.

“So you’re aboutto see the sole reason the Nithians’ claim to the throne outweighed anyone else’s.”

Stefan stood outside a stout metal-bound door deep below the citadel. It got colder and colder the deeper we went, hence why he stopped to pull on a furred robe left hanging on a hook outside the door. Callum and Caden did the same, rubbing their hands together. Our leathers were keeping us warm, but still, I could feel the icy fingers of the cold threatening to steal our warmth.

Not here…Glimmer had followed me down, but her claws nowdug into the stone floor. Her eyes, when she looked up at me, were wide and staring.We shouldn’t be here.

Perhaps you should go back to your mates, I told her. Low muffled bugles let us know the male dragons agreed.Glimmer, you don’t need?—

“Come if you’re coming,” Stefan said, as if he could hear our conversation. He produced a large ring of keys, inserting one into the door with a flourish. “Stay if you’re not.” He spared Glimmer a sidelong look. “That little beastie might be better left behind.”

“The queen dragon?” Brom said. “The future mother of the next generation of royal dragons?” When he bent down, my dragon moved towards him and he hefted her up into his arms. She was far too heavy for me to carry anymore, but just like Obsidian, he bore her weight easily. “I think not.”

“This little thing?” Stefan leaned forward as if to chuck Glimmer under the chin, but a snap of her jaws had him rethinking that. “I guess I see it. Into the heart of an ice dragon we go then.”

Was that what this was?Ice clung to the walls, snow crunching under our feet as we stepped inside, but I saw no source for it.

“That’s what caused this?” Flynn looked around in wonder. “I don’t think Glacier could manage anything like this.”

“A dragon, or several of them, did this a long time ago, well before people came to Nevermere, or at least that’s what the cave carvings seem to indicate.” Stefan gestured carelessly to images inscribed into the wall, but we didn’t get a chance to inspect them. “No time for archaeological curiosity. You can only spend so long here, so let’s get this over and done with. Processing plant.”

---