Page 72 of The Dragon Queen

"Dragon’s Rest?” I asked.

“That’s what this place used to be called, apparently.”

Marcus sounded like a mild-mannered librarian, not a notorious figure of the city’s underworld.

“Called by whom?”

“The wild dragons,” he replied, his eyes flicking to the sky. “Terribly well informed creatures they are. Made me aware of a whole history we don’t hear much about.” His focus shifted back to me. “One where human and dragonkind lived together in peace.”

“We’re gonna do the same thing!” Billy’s face was flushed due to more than just his exertions. Despite the almost faded bruises on his face, a bright light shone in his eyes. “Live away from the city, free with our dragons.”

Gods, I doubted that very much.

“Don’t have to go soldiering for that king,” Harley growled. “Put our lives on the line for one rich man or another. Won’t be forced to pit our dragons against the defectors’ ones, fighting for something neither of us understand.”

“And how will you protect yourselves from rich men?” I didn’t want to be the one to pop their bubbles, but I couldn’t seem to stopmyself. “Powerful ones? Any group of men that stumble across this village and sees the treasure within. They’ll see you, see your dragons, and have you chained to the yoke of their wheel moments later. They won’t be able to stop themselves.”

“We’ll stop them if they try, don’t you worry, Pippin.” Lance stood tall and somehow he seemed to have grown more since the last time I saw him. “If you come here with Glimmer?—”

“Me?”

He swallowed hard and then shook his head.

“You’re a captive, just like we were. They might’ve put you in a nicer cell, stopped themselves from physically harming you.”

“Mostly because of how it’d look,” Harley grumbled.

“You hated Draven.” It was strange to hear him using my king’s name, not his title. It felt like only our wing used his first name, and Lance hadn’t earned that right. “He beat Ged, forced you to shovel dragon shit?—”

“I remember.” I forced myself to smile. “All too well, but that doesn’t explain why I would be defecting from the Royal Riders and joining you here at… Dragon’s Rest.”

“Here, you and Glimmer would be free to choose.” Lance’s hands were back wrapped around my arms, his hold gentler now. “She’d find her mates the way dragons are supposed to, not coerced to mate with the king’s dragon. That goes against their nature, but more than that.” I looked down, watching his thumb brush my skin. “Reducing a queen dragon down to just one male narrows the breeding pool dangerously. It creates biddable, easy to control dragons?—”

At the cost of our population’s health.Hadrian dropped down just off from us, a cloud of dust billowing around him.Queen’s take multiple mates to ensure there is sufficient diversity in the eggs hatched to prevent weaknesses becoming entrenched.

I saw Stefan then, counting the water dragons in the midst of our host and finding only a few of them. My father’s steward knew to always mate the strongest cows to the best bulls, the same with sheep and hounds and any other animal we sought to produce more of. Did the same practise occur naturally in dragon populations?

I frowned as I saw that the dragon carried a massive leather bag around his neck. The contents strained the sides.

“Glimmer…” I stepped back regretfully, seeing the hurt in Lance’s eyes. “She has chosen her mates.”

“She can’t—” Jenkins spluttered, but Lance held out a hand.

“Mates?” he asked.

“She’s known for far longer than I did that the wing’s dragons are her mates,” I replied. I didn’t need to clarify which wing, because they all knew. “Draven’s included.”

“So she…?” Lance shook his head. “And you…?”

I couldn’t say it out loud, not even here. It wasn’t just that Marcus was watching everything that transpired with a keen eye. More, it was the fact that I didn’t dare. The prohibition that forced me to stay silent about the nature of our relationship rode me too hard and my voice faltered, but the lads saw it.

“She’s chosen,” Lance told the others, not clarifying who he meant. “But don’t worry, there’ll be other queens.”

Where? I wanted to snap, but I couldn’t say that either. That the only one we had was in the clutches of an evil man, an equally evil woman trying to impress her will upon it. Unless Cynane bore a queen… That hadn’t occurred to me and my eyes flicked up to meet Hadrian’s, the deep bronze of his eyes giving away nothing.

“What is it you intend to do at Dragon’s Rest?” I asked the dragon, not the man or the lads, because I got the feeling that Hadrian was the main instigator behind all of this.

Revive it,he replied.

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