Page 58 of The Dragon Queen

Cynane’s eyes flicked open again, making clear she was talking to me.

It is not to be mistaken for the compliance that the cruel and powerful can wring from those weaker than them. True service looks at the needs of the people and then strives to do what they can to meet some of them, proportionate to their resources and position. A queen has more than most, so she must do the most.

I took in Cynane’s state and saw that this was true.

I cannot tell you what you must do, little human queen, she continued.I do not understand your kind. Humans seem so weak, so fragile and yet they manage to use their sheer numbers to do great things…Her exhale sent the sands swirling.Or terrible ones. As queen, perhaps you could try and ensure the former, not the latter, is what happens during this war.

I knew what the terrible was. Those white bones buried in the dirt of Finder’s Dell, that explosion. It wasn’t hard to see human cities being demolished by dragonfire, not dragon ones. But something great? My mind raced, thinking of the dragons, the little queen dragonling, and freeing them from certain tyranny.

Ensuring all dragons born in Nevermere could exist without that threat hanging over their heads.

I struggled to put it together, when a familiar masculine voice cut through the silence.

“Well, well.” I spun around to see Marcus bloody Lighthandsemerge from the shadows of gods knew which tunnel. His wide grin made clear he knew he was making an entrance. “I came to pay court to one queen and ended up finding three.” Hadrian moved instantly, putting himself between Marcus and his mate. “Now, there’s no need for alarm. I just brought a case of that fish your lady seemed to like.”

Tuna?

Hadrian sniffed at the barrel that Marcus rolled forward, reaching a claw out as the man danced forward and then prised off the lid. The strong smell of fish filled the cavern, and that seemed to bring Cynane back to life. Her head jerked up, and she was moving in slow, ponderous shifts to get closer to the barrel.

“What the hell are you—?” I started to hiss at him.

Your gift is acceptable, Hadrian said, backing away from the fish now that it had passed his inspection.What do you wish to speak of today, little man? History, politics, your increasingly complex ideas about governing this country?

My hands went to my hips as I stared Marcus down.

“All of that and more,” Marcus replied with a low bow, “but for now, I think we’ll let the queen eat her fill, while I speak to the other queens.”

He might’ve only had one eye, but that single green orb contained all the world’s mischief within it. His lips twitched as he gestured to the side of the cavern.

“I bear news for the human queen.” A sheaf of paper was produced and waved through the air, as if bait to entice me forward. “Papers she might find very interesting.”

“There’s nothing you have that I could possibly want to read,” I snapped, but acting rashly in front of Marcus was always ill-advised.

“No?” He made a show of shoving the papers back inside his frock coat. “Then I guess I’ll take this divorce decree and go on my way.”

Chapter 28

“Divorce decree?”

I was vaguely conscious of the fact that Marcus didn’t get where he was without being an arch manipulator. That didn’t stop my feet from moving, walking away from the dragons and towards him. Thoughts of being queen, of serving my people, fell away as I tried to look after just one of them.

Brom.

People got divorced every day, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t the palace cook or one of the guard’s divorce that Marcus waved in front of me.

“Give that to me.”

I was being terribly regal when I snatched the papers from his hands, but there was no grace in the way I read the words. Densely written legal jargon, I struggled to parse the meaning of all of that writing, my eyes skimming over the conditions of the divorce to get to the most important points.

My name and Brom’s.

“No…” I stumbled backwards, as if that would help me get out of this situation, because the document was to be signed by two people to be official. One signature had been filled in already, only one more needed to finalise the destruction of our marriage. My eyes jerked up, glad to stare at anything other than these damn words, only to see Marcus had become serious. “Where the hell did you get this from?”

“The desk of that general upstairs.” He pointed to the roof of the cavern. “Some of the girls that work in the keep, well, they’re friends of a sort and…” I waved my hand, not wanting a recount of his various spy networks. “I thought you might like to see it before the papers are delivered.”

With an expectation that I sign them, that was clear, probably in a place where it would look gauche or ill mannered to do anything else but.

“Are there any other copies?” My hands slapped down on my sides, feeling blindly for my coin purse before I pulled what I had out. Coppers, silvers and there, a gold coin. I held it out. “Are there, Marcus?”

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