Page 6 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

Beatrix gave me an all-too-knowing look and shook her head. “There’s not a man alive who can handle the amount of woman you are, princess.”

* * *

Horns blared and the herald announced my entrance as I daintily held my skirts and stepped leisurely down the elegantly sweeping staircase, ensuring every eye was upon me as I descended. I beamed at every man in turn, relishing their gaping mouths and dumbfounded expressions. Father held out his hand to me as I reached the bottom-most steps, and I placed my fingers on top of his, allowing him to guide me down the final stairs.

“Dearest, I would like to introduce you to Prince Ijor, Crown Prince of Coronis. Ijor, this is my daughter, Princess Rapunzel.”

I lowered into a deep curtsy, making sure to tilt forward as I did so. Ijor bowed in return, sweat breaking out on his forehead as he valiantly fought to keep his eyes locked with mine. “Princess, it’s a pleasure.” He spoke with a slight lisp and had a large gap between his two front teeth but was otherwise handsome.

“The pleasure is all mine,” I cooed, extending my hand.

Father faded into the background as Ijor kissed my knuckles. I felt the rough calluses on his hand where he touched me, the unmistakable sign of a skillful warrior. Judging from his tensed shoulders and slightly frantic eyes, he had little experience with women. I smiled expectantly and batted my lashes at him as the orchestra struck up a tune, but he didn’t take the hint.

“Prince Ijor, would you do me the honor of asking me to dance?”

“A princess should never have to request a dance,” a new voice interjected. A strapping man who looked and sounded very similar to Ijor but lacked the lisp, approached. “Forgive my brother, Your Highness. He is somewhat lacking in the social graces. I’m Prince Ivan.”

Ijor frowned. “She asked me—” he began, but his brother cut him off.

“You may have your turn after I claim the first dance.” At first touch, he flinched, as everyone did when they touched my constantly cold hands. To his credit, he politely ignored my icy fingers and led me onto the dance floor, where many couples spun and dipped their way around the enormous circle.

Ivan had skill at dancing but lacked the rough calluses that his brother had earned on the battlefield. He was well versed in the steps and kept a steady flow of conversation the whole time. Or rather, he talked in a continuous stream that proved to be one-sided and boastful.

“Naturally since my brother is heir to the throne and deals with the logistical side of operating a country our size, I have more time to devote to the high society, which is where I fit in better anyway. Ijor is rather introverted, but you can probably tell by now that I attract people… They just gravitate towards me, isn’t that fascinating? I was recently jousting with Sir Wesley of Elmsbee—you’ve heard of him, I’m sure. The one who battled the dragon of the Shadowed Mountains? Anyway, after I beat him in the joust, we were discussing…”

He went on and on. I tuned his words out but continued to bat my eyelashes and smile as flirtatiously as I could at him. Ivan relished the attention and once our dance was over, offered me his arm for a stroll. “I already promised Sir Gallas a dance when he signed up for the dragon hunt this morning, but please find me later.”

Ivan brushed his lips against the back of my hand. “I won’t forget.”

Gallas, the knight who had been first to volunteer for the dragon mission, darted up to accept the next dance. Even after my first dance, my hands hadn’t warmed up, so he, too, flinched at my touch, but he masked it well. Gallas wasn’t as conversational as Ivan had been, so I needed to prompt more from him.

“Tell me of your most recent assignment,” I coaxed.

“I was sent to investigate a possible poaching situation up north.”

An awkward silence stretched as I waited for him to elaborate, but he was too busy watching his feet and making sure he didn’t step on mine. “And was it poaching?” I finally asked.

Gallas jumped slightly and hastened to answer, stumbling over his words slightly in his eagerness to respond. “W…well, yes, sort of. It was the dragon again.”

“I suppose a dragon would need to eat large game.”

“I suppose.”

Silence fell again, and I felt obligated to fill it. “This isn’t the first report of such an instance, you know. Baron Signey filed a complaint recently about the same issue—the dragon took several of his sheep.”

“At least it wasn’t a person,” Gallas said. “I heard about your ancestor.”

Any child who went to school for any period of time in the last hundred years knew the story.

My great-great grandfather, King Tiberion was reportedly one of the only humans ever to sustain, not so much a friendship, but a cordial arrangement with a dragon. The tale went that during his reign, Rookwyn was so overrun with dragons that our people were starving to death. Tiberion, whether motivated by anger or sheer desperation, sought out a young dragon and drafted an agreement in which the dragon would work for the crown and drive away its fellows in return for half of the kingdom’s coffers.

The firedrake, who was reported to be eight times the size of the largest soldier, agreed to the proposal. The eradication of the other dragons took more than two years, but eventually succeeded. When Tiberion gave the dragon his share of the treasure, the beast demanded everything, with the threat that if he was denied the gold he deserved, our land would never be free from dragons.

Tiberion protested, and the dragon had kidnapped my great grandmother and held her for ransom until his demands were met. Terrified that the royal line would die out, Tiberion finally acquiesced and turned over the entire kingdom’s treasury to the insatiable dragon. Ever since then, all my ancestors had been consumed with greed, desperate to recover the riches that had been lost.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you,” Gallas said awkwardly. “I was just thinking about the dragon hunt next week.”

“You already signed up, didn’t you?”

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