Page 3 of The Dragon Queen

My thought trailed away and this was manifestly inadequate. It felt like I was back in the school room, all eyes on me, but back then none of my school mates had the reptilian eyes of dragons.

Nor their intensity.

It felt like each dragon stared right into me, making me painfully aware of their huffs of breath, the shift of their scales on the flagstones, but that brought with it a reminder. They could peer into me, into my heart and my mind, so lying was pointless.

I don’t know.Gods, it was a relief to admit that.The old human queen tried to poison Glimmer.Cynane’s head jerked upwards like a snake ready to strike.But Zafira killed her. The human queen was no fit bondmate for the queen dragon. Zafira has…I saw again the girl Zafira had never forgotten in my mind’s eye.Gone to find her chosen human companion. During the chaos of losing the queen and healing Glimmer, they… they…My mind stuttered, unable to frame coherent thoughts.

The truth.Just tell them the truth.

I felt Glimmer’s head press into my hand, the smooth warmthof her scales helping defrost the shard of ice that was thrust into my heart the moment I saw the fates of all those people. I stared down into her golden eyes, feeling a relief that she was not one of them so intense it left me wallowing in guilt. I smiled, scratching at the ridges above her eyes until they went half closed.

The Harlstonians staged a coup, one they had been planning for some time.Shadowy figures moved inside my mind, knives out, and if they did for me, then the dragons saw them too.They killed off all of the dukes of the other duchies.I winced as I saw murder after murder take place yet again.Their families too.

When my eyes met Cynane’s again, I felt like a child might when staring up at her mother, needing for it all to make sense.

They used the uproar that resulted from the human queen’s death as a means to steal the latest clutch of eggs,I continued. Hadrian moved closer with slow, ponderous steps, the scales around his throat rattling.Among them is the unborn queen dragon.I searched both of their faces, unable to get a read on their expression. Dragon faces weren’t made to communicate such things, not when they possessed the psychic power to speak mind to mind.The dragon riders loyal to the Duke of Harlston took the eggs and headed towards the border with their bonded dragons.I shook my head. They’d be halfway towards the ducal seat now.Draven…I turned towards the palace, searching the many, many windows for evidence of him, but instead just saw the sky reflected on the glass.The king, he prepares a response as we speak.

And what of you?There was curiosity and judgement, expectation and anger, in Cynane’s tone.Why were you sent here to greet us like a lowly herald? From my limited experience with human queens they are difficult to get audiences with, preferring their minions to deal with visitors.

I swallowed, knowing now what a mistake this was. Draven didn’t want to talk to the dragons until he decided how to deal with the situation. If he presented himself earlier, the dragons would see clearly that the Duke of Harlston had caught us with our pants down, literally. While we enjoyed each other with orgiastic abandon, the duke had moved, using agents he had hidden in each court to destroy the rest of the country’s leadership. I shook my head,smiling with no mirth as I realised that in my first moments as queen-in-waiting, I’d made a major misstep.

Well, wallowing in regret would get me nowhere, so I needed to forge on. I squared my shoulders, stood tall, hearing my father’s voice inside my head as I did so–even my mother’s much more faintly–then stared each one of them down.

“Here you go.”

Ged appeared in that moment with a side of beef over one shoulder, another being carried by a wide-eyed lad wearing a blood-stained apron. My lover stopped and bowed low to the dragons, something they noted with bent heads, but the lad’s steps slowed, then stopped some distance away. His nerve failed him. The beef was dropped like a stone, and he turned and scurried back to the palace with several backward glances. I think he thought he might’ve made for a tastier morsel than the beef.

“My apologies for not bringing you food and drink before this. This is a lapse in common courtesy my prince…” Ged stopped himself. “My king would not normally tolerate. I have wine…”

The sounds of barrels rolling over flagstones made clear that was also arriving, just not from the right direction. The guards stationed in the courtyard started to mumble restlessly as Marcus came sauntering up the grand boulevard that led to the palace, a brace of goats being led on a string. Behind him came several barrels of wine, but for some reason, I think they were not brought from Cheapside at Ged’s urging.

“What the hell is that bastard doing here?” Ged hissed, his hand going to his sword as he moved to place himself between Glimmer and me and the interlopers. Cloudy dropped from the sky seconds later, providing a much more impressive barrier, his head dropping low as smoke curled from his nose.

Dear gods, what now?

“Morning!”

Marcus sounded as chipper as a baker once the market opened, not a man beset on all sides by men armed with swords, or dragons with sharp teeth. He nodded to the guards closest to him, pushing forward when the men turned our way. Not to look to Ged for direction,I realised fast enough, but me. Stop him, arrest him, cut him down where he stood, that was the unspoken question, and yet I felt utterly unable to answer it because Marcus was both a thorn in my side and an uneasy ally. Without his warning, I would’ve had no means to anticipate what Queen Raina had planned.

“What do you want me to do, Pip?” Ged hissed. “Cloudy will snap Marcus up, and his little goats as well, before he gets within ten feet of you.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t want to go and do that.” The gold in Marcus’ teeth shone in the sunlight. “Not when I’ve just come to pay homage to our recent guests.” He turned towards Cynane and Hadrian and sketched a bow with a kind of insouciance I frankly admired. “Marcus Lighthands, at your service. I bring you gifts of fresh meat and the finest ale you’re likely to taste.” He nudged one of the sides of beef with his boot. “Red, hot-blooded meat would have to be nicer than this cold, dead stuff.”

He got his answer swiftly. Both dragons moved like lightning, lunging forward from their seated position, the wind that resulted from their rapid strike ruffling my short hair. One goat made a small bleat before both were dispatched in one bite, the dragons chewing noisily and then swallowing without fanfare. Everyone stared as the massive apex predators’ tongues flicked out, cleaning the blood and bone from their jaws before settling back down again.

That was all it took to break the nerve of some of the guards. They took off at a run, sprinting towards the palace doors while Cloudy settled down in front of the nearest haunch of beef. He scissored off several smaller chunks, searing them, and then nudged them towards Glimmer, not eating a thing until she started to scoff hers down.

Break open these barrels of fine ale, Smallhands, Hadrian said and Marcus’ eyebrows shot straight upwards, obviously unused to communicating psychically with a dragon.And tell us why you have come to this place. Not to get tips on how to raise young dragons, I think.

Young dragons…?

I stared at Ged, not needing a mind link to know he was thinking the exact same thing. All dragons within the capitalbelonged to the Royal Corp, I wanted to insist, but that was no longer true, was it? A number of the Harlstonian riders had deserted, taking the dragon eggs with them.

And Marcus and his people had used the upheaval of Queen Raina’s death and Zafira’s defection to retrieve my fellow cadets’ dragons from the mews. Lance, Jenkins, Billy, and Harley, the lads that Raina had captured to force Draven to comply were now in Marcus’ clutches.

And so are their dragons, Glimmer told me, relaying the images she could glean from Marcus’ mind.

“You bloody bastard…” Ged snarled, tearing his sword free.

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