Page 29 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
I doubted that Nazeing was so absorbed in kissing Emmerich that he didn’t know what we were doing. Since we’d entered the Great Hall, he’d treated my brothers and I as if we were castle kittens or something else too weak to bother with. There was as good a chance as any that he let himself get lost in kissing Emmerich as a way to dishearten or humiliate me.
I was disheartened, but I was also determined to move heaven and earth to find the one person who might stand a chance to break Nazeing’s spell and his dominance.
“Is he just going to let us escape?” Tovey gasped as the six of us dashed out into the hallway.
“I don’t think that’s what he’s doing,” Leo said in a dark voice. “I think he’s toying with us.”
“He’s underestimating us,” I said, taking a path through the castle’s halls that would not only get us closer to the dungeons where Father kept his most sensitive prisoners, but that let out onto a balcony with a view over the entire western part of the king’s city and the field beyond, where the earlier battle had taken place. “We need to find Osric,” I said, trying to think and plan and panic at the same time. “He’s the only one who can help us now.”
“Osric handed himself over to Father,” Obi said in distress. “He’s probably in chains by now, magical chains that dampen his magic.”
“If Father hasn’t killed him,” Misha said in a barely audible voice.
I ignored both of them for the moment, throwing myself against the edge of the balcony and leaning out as far as I could so I could see as much of the courtyard below as possible. I had to trust that Osric would be able to keep himself alive and that my father would be vain enough to want to taunt and torture his enemy instead of killing him outright.
Whether it was Father’s vanity or Osric’s cleverness, I spotted them and the front of Father’s ragged army marching into the castle’s front courtyard a minute later.
“Fortune is on our side!” I called out, pulling back from the balcony and darting for a doorway at the other end of the long gallery that would take us into a different part of the castle. “We have to get as close to them as possible,” I said, rushing on and trusting that my brothers wouldfollow. “They won’t expect us to be at the castle already. We can use that, but we have to be careful.”
“The guards will be exhausted from the battle and from the trek back to the castle,” Leo said, striding along by my side. “It’s a longshot, but they might be too overwhelmed to get in our way if we try to rescue Osric.”
“We’re going to rescue Osric?” Obi said, catching up to us, clearly distressed. “Shouldn’t we be trying to rescue our mates?”
“This is rescuing our mates,” I told him, turning a corner that led to a staircase taking us down. “We need Osric’s dragon magic to break the spell.”
“I still can’t believe Cousin Osric is a dragon,” Tovey said in wonder as we scrambled out onto the ground floor.
I could already hear the sound of dozens of boots stomping on the flagstones out in the courtyard. I pressed myself back against the wall closest to the huge archway leading to the courtyard and gestured for my brothers to do the same. There was as good a chance as anything that my father’s soldiers would walk right into the part of the castle where we waited, hardly hidden at all. At any second, we could be discovered and captured or killed.
Fortunately, the marching stopped just short of the soldiers discovering where we were.
“What are your orders, Your Majesty?” Rottum’s tired voice sounded from far too close for my comfort.
I was surprised when my father answered, “I…I don’t know. Battle is exhausting. I need a nap before I decide what to do with our prisoner here.”
“A…a nap, Your Majesty?” Rottum asked. “I cannot advise?—”
“Are you the king or am I?” Father snapped in return.
“You are, Your Majesty,” Rottum said, though he didn’t sound happy.
“Take the prisoner to the dungeon,” Father said. “I’ll deal with him in the morning.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Rottum said bitterly. “Take the prisoner to the dungeon,” he ordered the soldiers holding Osric.
I didn’t care if he was upset with the order or not. I couldn’t have been happier with it. So much so that I wondered if, once again, my father was being influenced by magic of some sort.
It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered at that moment was the fact that we’d been given a chance. Somehow, by some miracle, my brothers and I would have a chance to rescue Cousin Osric and get his help in breaking Nazeing’s spell to rescue our mates.
Chapter
Nine
Emmerich
Bliss! Love was absolute bliss. It cleared my mind of everything that had been worrying me and expanded my heart to the point where I could hardly stand it. Nothing else mattered but my omega in my arms, the taste of his kiss, the feel of his body against mine, his cherry cordial scent surrounding me and eclipsing everything else. I didn’t have a care in the world as long as I had my omega in my arms.
Cherry cordial? No, that wasn’t right. My mate’s scent was honey-lavender, warm and mellow without being sickly-sweet.
