Page 38 of A Thieving Curse

“Yes, ma’am.” The dragon prince turned and headed down another tunnel.

Meredith led Raelyn in a different direction, into a room she hadn’t seen yet. Peter sat on a large bed, darning a pair of socks. He looked up as they entered. Two rough wood closets and a table with two chairs took up most of the rest of the little cave.

“So he found her.” Peter nodded. “That’s good.”

“That remains to be seen,” Meredith said as she walked over to Peter. She planted a kiss on his cheek. “Alex and the princess are hungry. Can you—”

“On it.” He stood and gave her a full kiss on the mouth before leaving the room.

Meredith stuck the torch in an iron rung in the wall near the bed, then opened one of the closets. “Close the door, dear.” Raelyn did so while Meredith pulled a moss green dress out of the bottom of the closet. “This one isn’t so soft, but it should fit you. Come here and turn around.”

Raelyn pulled her braid out of the way, and Meredith unlaced the dress and helped her ease out of it. Meredith’s sharp intake of breath as the dress crumpled to the floor startled Raelyn.

“You poor thing! The minotaur did this?” Her fingers brushed Raelyn’s arm, just above her elbow. Raelyn peered down.

Red and yellow bruises covered her skin where the minotaur had held her, encircling most of her upper arms.That is going to be painful.“I guess so.”

“That must have been terrifying.” Meredith looked horrified.

“Between the minotaur trying to eat me and the dragon threatening to roast us both, yes, I would say I was terrified.” She laughed, but it came out tight and uncomfortable. She grabbed the clean dress off the bed and slipped it over her head. It had loose sleeves that hung down around her wrists. “I know he was just trying to scare the minotaur,” she added, hoping she hadn’t offended Meredith again.

“Oh, princess.” Meredith grasped Raelyn’s shoulder. “I owe you an apology. I’ve lived with Alex for years. You know, when he was nine, his little horns and wings were more humorous than fearsome. He didn’t transform into a full dragon for several months, and he was such a little dragon then. He started breathing fire in his human form a few months after that. We didn’t have to accept everything all at once. Plus, I knew him before he was cursed. I was one of his caretakers as a toddler, and after that worked as a maid in the palace. It wasn’t exactly fair of me to expect you not to fear him so soon.”

“I am going to try,” Raelyn said as Meredith laced up the clean dress. “He was kind to me when I didn’t deserve it. He saved my life twice. I…I think I trust him not to hurt me. It’s still hard not to be afraid. But I’ll be kind, I promise.”

“Thank you. I admit, I was furious with you.” Meredith tied off the laces. “But I don’t think you’re really mean-spirited. You’re struggling to understand something different and frankly a bit frightening.”

Raelyn turned around and smiled. “Thank you for understanding. And being nice. It makes this more bearable.”

“This?”

She stared at the torch flickering on the wall. “My family is out there, a treaty could be crumbling, and I’m held captive by these mountains.”

“Perhaps…try to see it another way. You’re free to start a new life. Be whoever you want to be. No pressures of being a princess. No marriage you have no say in. No duties that decide your fate.” Meredith smoothed some flyaway strands of Raelyn’s hair, a contemplative look in her eyes. “Maybe you’re not as afraid of staying here as you are of finding out who you are without being a princess. Alex had a similar struggle.”

Raelyn bit her cheek, unsure how to respond as she wrestled with the idea. Gareth’s twelve-year-old voice broke through her jumbled thoughts.“What if we weren’t royal? I would be a hunter. What about you?” “I’d keep goats.”The memory brought a bitter twinge of sorrow. She couldn’t think about starting a new life, not when she didn’t even know for certain that her family was all right. But if the dragon prince’s claims were true…

“He said some strange, horrible things. About King Henry.”

Meredith sobered. “Like that Henry killed his parents?”

“Yes.” Raelyn rubbed the hem of her sleeve. “That’s not true…is it?”Please don’t be true.

“Jasper knows more about that than I do, but we have good reason to believe Henry was at least involved in their premature deaths. And Raelyn…do you know who cursed Alex?”

She looked up. “I…hadn’t thought about it.” That shamed her. She should have wondered, but she’d been so busy with her own concerns.

“It was Henry.”

Raelyn’s eyes widened. “He…no. Hisunclecursed him?”“I know exactly what he’s capable of,”the prince had said. “But why? What did he gain—” Realization curdled her stomach. “The throne. You’re saying Henry killed King Philip and Queen Kendra and cursed Prince Alexander so he could…so he could be the hero.”

Meredith smiled sadly. “Now you understand.” She went to the door. “Come on. Supper awaits. And Alex gets impatient when he’s hungry.”

Gareth

GARETH PICKED AT his supper. He should have been starving. The sun was long set, and he’d been too busy searching for Raelyn to eat more than a couple pieces of dried meat all day.

Another day spent on his feet, from dawn until Sir Christopher had forced him back to camp at nightfall, with no progress. He’d walked until his blisters had blisters, fighting brambles and pines. But like every day since Raelyn’s disappearance, they had found nothing.Nothing.No fabric, no remains, no monsters, not even suspicious blood.

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