Page 29 of The Dragon Queen

“Give them the one thing that they want.” There was something sharp and brittle about him, as if he was a blade made of glass, ready to chip. “Tonight I will announce the new dukes of Tharfield, Cantlyn, and Skane.”

My eyes followed his across the crowded courtyard to where Flynn was standing, chatting to his extended family.

“Draven, you?—”

He didn’t wait to hear my protest, striding forward and into the throng. The crowds parted to allow him to pass, because he was a king, but when I stepped forward, they moved back into their social circles, closing off the way. He was a king, and I was just a girl pretending to be a queen.

I had been taught something in my time as a dragon rider, and it wasn’t to fight my enemies on dragon back. Women must be quiet, compliant, and graceful, but the keep had shown me another way, that we were just as capable of affecting change as men, sometimes even more so. That thought had me skirting the crowd, all while throwing a thought Glimmer’s way.

Stay with Darkspire tonight, I told her, catching the way she was curled up on his shoulder, dozing.

I will not leave my mates’ side. Not for anything.

I didn’t have a chance to question what she meant by that. My skirts kept tangling in my legs, almost forcing me to stumble until I wrenched them free. People turned to watch me collect them up in handfuls, eyebrows rising as I revealed my boots and bare legs, but I didn’t care. I made my way around the crowd until I found the Skanian contingent.

“Flynn…!”I hissed, but not quietly enough.

He turned and so did everyone he stood with. For a second it was disorientating, seeing so many sets of blue eyes, so many waves of blond hair in all shades from ash to platinum. It was as if someone had made many, many prototypes of my lover before settling on him.

“Your Highness.” His correct address, the way he bowed very precisely, reminded me of who and what I was tonight. I nodded in recognition. “How may I be of assistance?”

His family wanted to know the answer to that too, if their keen looks were anything to go by, but they held their tongues, right as I wished I could do the same.

“Could I have a word?” Why? That question went unspoken as everyone stared. “My dragon, she…” I could feel Glimmer in my mind, a quiet, amused presence. “She has been off her food of late.”

“A disconcerted queen?” Flynn’s smile was well practised. “That’s something I have some experience in dealing with.” He turned to his family. “If you’ll excuse me.” They made all the necessary sounds, waving him away, but I didn’t stop to see if he followed me. The wake was being held in a courtyard, but the space felt too small somehow, the sky too close. “Pippin!” He ran over to my side, following me as I approached Darkspire, the two dragons acting as our alibis as I spoke to the next Duke of Skane.

“Draven intends to announce who will become duke,” I told him, looking up for just a moment, but I couldn’t allow myself the luxury of doing that for long. It would be too easy to be lost in allthat endless sunny blue. “Of Skane, Tharfield, and Cantlyn as well.”

“I know.” I couldn’t maintain the illusion of composure then, surprise making my eyes go wide as I stared at him. He shot me a rueful smile before turning back to a sleepy-eyed Glimmer. “And I think it’s not the little queen that is out of sorts, but the queen of all Nevermere.”

I sucked in a breath, but it didn’t seem to fill my lungs. Instead, my chest seized on it, neither letting the air in or out.

“Draven has held off for as long as he can.” There was something so fatalistic about Flynn’s tone. “I’m surprised he has managed to for as long as he has. We’re at war, Pippin. Spies, people looking to make some more coin, they will have forwarded on reports of Draven’s little display today at the funeral. I half expected Harlston to try to make an appearance, using Raina as a pretext for his presence, but… He stayed away from his sister’s own funeral for a reason. He is preparing for war, and we must do the same.”

He turned and regarded the crowd.

“The bannermen can only be summoned by the duke. Men can only be called to war by him, and so we need someone to do that in each of the three duchies.”

“Flynn, no…”

I couldn’t complete that sentence, because what could I say? No, don’t protect our country from a man determined to seize control of it? Stay here with me. Be the lover I can never acknowledge, always hiding what we were to each other. My hand went out then, coming to rest on Darkspire’s foreleg. The great dragon opened his eye just a crack, noting who had the temerity to touch him, then snorted before closing it again. Flynn’s hand did the same, placed close enough that if he stretched his little finger out, we could touch. He didn’t.

“You rushed around here to warn me?” Ostensibly, we were looking at Glimmer, but I knew where his real focus was. “What were you thinking? That I should call Glacier down from the sky and throw you on his back, fly us far away from here.”

Yes, that, I wanted to say, but his slightly chiding tone madeclear what we both knew. That was a child’s dream, and we didn’t have that luxury anymore.

“What the hell are you two doing over here?”

Soren ground that out between gritted teeth. He was in his dress uniform but had a sword at his hip, knives strapped to both thighs. Ready for anything, that was made clear.

“Talking about Glimmer’s eating habits, apparently,” Flynn replied with a wry smile.

I eat very well, she said.I killed some of the clucking things they keep behind the palace. They were delicious.

Gods, I was going to have to apologise to the head cook in the morning.

“Well, when the presumptive heir of Skane and the queen-in-waiting conduct a private audience, people start to talk,” Soren said. “Perhaps this discussion about… Glimmer, could take place at a later date?”

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