Page 62 of The Dragon Queen

“That’s not an issue for me.” There was a slight edge to Flynn’s tone as he smiled down at his drink. “I’ll strap myself into Glacier’s saddle and snooze all the way to Skane.”

“Bastard.”

Ged flicked beer foam at the other man.

“I’ll be in strategy meetings all day tomorrow,” Draven sighed. “They give me a headache anyway, so I may as well earn one having fun.”

“We need to have our wits about us if we’re to survive this,” Soren protested. “All this grand talk of war and?—”

“Nothing we do is wise.” I blinked as everyone turned to stare at me, and while I wanted to meet Brom’s eyes, it was Soren I focussed on. “War isn’t wise. Drinking isn’t wise. Music, dancing, laughing…” I shook my head. “Making me queen where the world expects me to be with Draven and only Draven, all the while refusing to end this relationship. We…” I finally did stare at Brom then. “We are madness, and yet we don’t… No, we refuse to stop.”

“Can’t stop,” Flynn ground out, dragging my focus to him. “Can’t face a bloody war, can’t get on my dragon’s back and stand beside the gravesides of all of my family, not without knowing I’m coming back to you.”

My hand slid under the table and found his, that hard grip keeping me grounded. Maybe I did the same for him? I squeezed it and then continued.

“So tonight, let us not speak of logic and reason, because that’s not what this is about.” I looked around the pub and saw it truly now. Everything each person did here was an attempt to stave off the cruel mistress of reality, if only for one night. “Tonight we drink.” I raised my beer and so did the others, Brom much more slowly. “To the madness of what we are, a condition we will never seek to cure.”

“Well, I’ll drink to that,” Ged said and then did just that.

“You’ll drink to anything,” Flynn shot back.

“You’ve got the right of it, as per usual.” Soren’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “I’ll do whatever my queen orders.”

“To the queen,” Draven said, amending the toast and while it was a much quieter, more personal one, it warmed me through just the same.

We all drank down the bitter beer, Draven forced to take some of mine until the barmaid came over.

“And what can I get you gents?” she asked, leaning over the table, her capacious bosom on display.

“Another round of beer,” Brom replied in crisp tones, quickly shutting down any ideas the woman might have of offering more physical comforts. “And I need to use the facilities.”

He got up without another word and started walking across the pub.

“Me too.”

I didn’t even try to mask my voice, the tone of it having the barmaid’s eyebrows raising, but that was nothing compared to this. The men all started to protest, to let me know I’d need an escort, so I was up and standing on my seat, then scrambling across the table before dropping down on the floor. My strides didn’t match Brom’s and men appeared in my path, some leering, some offering to do things to me I didn’t even understand, but I was nimble and they were drunk, so I wove around them and kept going until I saw the sign indicating where the privy was. Out in a dark alley, it appeared, as I stumbled out of the door.

The noise was muffled out here, the quiet sounds of the night slowly filtering in. I looked right, looked left and only saw shadows and vague shapes, having no idea where Brom had gone. I chose left, hoping that dark shape was what I was looking for.

“What the hell are you doing walking out here by yourself?”

Hands jerked me sideways and before I could screech, I saw Brom standing there, frowning severely.

“What the hell am I doing?” I said, shoving myself away from him. “What the hell are you doing?”

Chapter 30

“What…?” Brom looked up and down the alleyway, as if answers could be found there. “I told you?—”

“I don’t care about the state of your bladder!” I hissed, then shrank back when I heard myself. “Well, I do, but…” I yanked the paperwork Marcus had given me and then handed him the divorce papers. “This.”

It was dark, but my eyes were keen, taking in every expression as he accepted the papers and then scanned them briefly. The frown smoothed away and then was replaced by…

Pain. Always pain with us. I was heartily sick of it. Hadn’t we earned the right to happiness? We were dragon riders. Couldn’t we just jump on the backs of our beasts and fly out to some remote chapel where I would marry all of my men before the priest and the gods? Better to seek forgiveness than permission. What would the people, the aristocracy, do if Draven took a harem of lovers, like the queens of old? It wouldn’t be viewed positively. I wasn’t naive enough to assume that, but what else could they do? Depose him and place someone else on the throne…? For a moment, I sat with that idea, my eyes going wide. It was a prospect I hadn’t even considered before, but now?—?

“Where did you get these?” Brom’s short reply was not what I anticipated when I came out here. I remembered him, remembered the promises he’d wrung from Draven. He said I was his and that the king would not take me from him, and yet there was his signature. He shook his head when I didn’t answer, hissing out some curse before stuffing the documents into his jacket. “It matters not.”

“Does to me.” My voice broke on those words. My hand shook as it rose, right before I went to tug the ring he’d given me off. “I guess you’ll be wanting this back.”

---