Page 10 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

Would they hear if I shattered some of the glass panes? Had the wyrmsleep kicked in yet? Cautiously, I tiptoed across my room and pressed my ear against the door leading to the corridor beyond, listening hard. After several long moments, a tremendous snore thundered and my heart gave a jolt.

Giddy with excitement, I went back to my balcony door, wrapped my torn nightdress around the windowpane’s interior and exterior closest to the door handle, and hit it with one of my shoes. The muffled shattering sent a cascade of glass fragments tinkling to the ground, and I shook my nightdress over the balcony to scatter the rest.

There. I was finished.

Satisfied with the chaos, I took a lantern and the small pouch of white, powdered ash, then left everything else as it was. It was with a small amount of regret that I left all my possessions behind and tiptoed past the dozing guards. Wyrmsleep only lasted a few hours at best, and it would be severely diluted, so my time was very limited.

To add to my anxiety, not all the guards had drunk from the water the maid gave them, and there were a few muttered curses about lazy guards as they worked on rousing the men who had been drugged. Each time I saw a denseness to the shadows ahead, I shrank against the wall, silently moving along the hallways until I came to the entrance to the secret escape tunnel one of my ancestors had built in behind the throne room.

Each of my nerves felt electrified as I silently lifted the trapdoor and slipped inside, replacing it above me without so much as breathing. Once inside and crouched on the platform, I lit my lantern and held the handle in my teeth, looking nervously over the edge at the ladder that extended beyond the lantern’s dim light. It had been many years since Father told me about the tunnel, and I’d never used it before. I fastened the small pouch of powdered ash to my belt, and each time I descended another ladder rung, I gently sprinkled a dusting onto the rung to replace the dust my hands and feet had displaced. It was a slow, laborious task that had my arms trembling by the time I finally reached the bottom.

The tunnel gaped ahead of me, the damp earth’s scent ripe in my nostrils as I carefully treaded along the compacted dirt passageway, grateful for the scurrying rats that disturbed the dirt enough to prevent the dust from settling. Even so, I let my cloak trail behind me to cover the footsteps that I made.

It seemed that I walked for an age, wending my way under the castle and the courtyards before the tunnel finally spit me out in the ancient ruins beyond the village. Dust and rubble had settled over the trapdoor, so it took several minutes of pushing before I was able to shove it open and clamber out, taking care to replace the trapdoor and heap many more stones over the top once I was done.

I sighed in relief and looked around as stars twinkled down at me. I had done it!

Now, I would have to make it farther than anyone would ever expect a princess to get on foot. If my fake kidnapping display wasn’t believed, I had to be out of range of where they would search. At least I didn’t have anything to carry. I might regret my decision not to stop for any supplies once the adrenaline faded and hunger and thirst set in, but I was also certain that Iwouldregret stopping for supplies if I was recognized and reported. Better to go without than have my plot discovered.

For hours, I walked.

Even when my feet ached and my legs grew sore, I persisted in taking step after step, heading for the craggy mountain where the dragon was rumored to live and where I had seen it fly to so many times. In my mind, I rehearsed everything I would say once I met the dragon, from the benefits to teaming up to the ways in which I could be of use to the dragon, and how I had knowledge of the dangers that awaited it. What was the proper etiquette when greeting a dragon and pitching a proposition as diabolical as the one I had in mind? All I knew of dragons had been gleaned from the tales passed down from generation to generation.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, shifting from the inky black to a deep velvety blue, when a loud thrumming came from the trees ahead that lined the base of the mountain. I froze, listening hard. Something much larger than any bear was moving beyond what I could see, and chills exploded all up and down my body. I had expected to walk for days to reach the dragon’s cave, not stumble across it so soon.

The noise was like a cat’s purring but amplified a thousand times by powerful lungs and combined with a rumble of thunder so that the final sound made every part of my body tremble. Vibrations rippled through my chest as if the thrumming had palpable weight that pressed on me and made it difficult to breathe.

My feet refused to take another step as the shadows ahead of me shifted, forming a shape twice as large as I had imagined—and I had imagined a very large dragon indeed.

While I had seen the beast flying in the distance on a number of occasions, its sheer size directly in front of me paralyzed me, rooting me to the spot and stealing my voice.

The thrumming grew louder, and as the sky lightened to an azure color streaked with pink, a spiked, ferocious-looking dragon head snaked its way through the trees to stare at me. All the bravery I’d envisioned myself having—of confidently proposing an alliance and forging my own future—vanished now that I was face to face with the beast. What insanity had possessed me to go looking for a dragon? I was even more foolhardy than the knights who volunteered to challenge it clad in armor and carrying weapons. My heart raced and my palms turned to ice.

“A visitor,” the dragon rumbled, and a truly terrifying noise escaped its mouth, like the sawing from a hundred lumberjacks. “How amusing.”

The dragon blew a puff of smoke at me that smelled strongly of sulfur and brimstone. I coughed, eyes streaming as I fought to keep my gaze fixed on the creature. I’d never truly recognized how small and fragile humans were in comparison to dragons. It could end me with one bite or a single swipe of its ferocious claws.

I nearly leapt out of my skin as something went slithering through the trees to my left—a massive, spiked tail. The dragon’s entire body soon emerged, lumbering into view, and I was struck with awe so all-consuming that I was rendered speechless.

“Do you speak, human?” The dragon’s grating voice vibrated my chest once more.

My bold, rehearsed lines shriveled and evaporated. The only sound I managed to force out was a small squeak. Could I run and survive?

But the mental image of living my life in a cage, bound to a man I didn’t love, hardened my resolve. A steely fortitude lifted my chin and gave me voice, despite being more terrified than I’d ever been at any other point in my life.

“I come—” My voice trembled and I cleared my throat before trying again, forcing an air of confidence that I didn’t feel. “I come with a proposition, Master Dragon.”

Grey spirals of smoke furled from the dragon’s nostrils, and a hissing noise made goosebumps erupt all up and down my arms as scalding saliva dripped down from the creature’s fanged jaw and puddled at its clawed feet.

Ought I have said Mistress Dragon? What was the correct way to address the beast? If I saidMistressand it was male, would it be more offended than if I called a female aMaster?

The dragon cocked its head at me, considering my words. A deep voice rumbled up from the depths of its chest. “Usually, I would not bother with the plea of a human, but I’m feeling indulgent today. Amuse me.”

I set my jaw. “You seek treasure, and I can help you increase your riches.”

The dragon tapped one of its talons in an angry beat against a flat stone on the forest floor as its tail thrashed back and forth. “What makes you think I care only for treasure?” The dragon’s black pupils were narrow like a cat’s, but its eyeballs were a yellow color that shifted in hue the longer I looked at him.

My mouth went dry. I had assumed that all dragons coveted gold, but what if that wasn’t what the dragon desired most? Father complained that the dragon stole sheep and oxen, not gold and jewels. I must have heard stories…were they true? Should I have offered to help it gain a more stable food supply?

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