Page 72 of Dragon Fight

What queens have always done, she replied.

Right then I caught quick visions of mother dragons crooning to their eggs, great clusters of dragons singing together in chorus while standing in one of those open air amphitheatres we’d seen on our travels. Then smaller groups of dragons singing as an old and frail dragon took its last breath, a golden queen leading the song. Peace, that’s what each one of them got from the song, but while Glimmer sought to soothe these other young dragons, others took up the song further out in the keep.

The mews worker’s head jerked up as he heard the muffled sound coming from the dragon tunnels, Ged’s doing the same, the two of us rising to our feet. Lance and the other boys’ dragons ate much more sedately now, their eyes shining bright as they raised their heads as if to listen better to the song.

“Shit, the Gathering…” Ged said, and then grabbed my hand.

I went to protest as he jerked me out of the mews and down the hall, but the song just got louder as Glimmer scuttled after us, keeping pace with surprising ease. Ged led us down deeper, darker, warmer tunnels, these carved out of the raw stone of Wyrmpeak, not built like the staircases above. We wound our way through a rabbit warren until finally we stumbled out.

Why would I forget how big dragons were? I was living within a whole city full of them earlier in the day and yet, as we stumbled out on the sands, my eyes went wide as I saw Zafira clustered in close to her eggs. The song Glimmer had been singing filled the air, as male dragons all looked out onto the nesting sands below from their burrows. I took one step, then another, my feet registering the heat of the sands even through the soles of my boots.

Mother…Glimmer said, her voice little more than a whisper.

“C’mon…” Ged urged, trying to drag me over to where people clustered around the edges of the sands, chatting and gesturing at the dragon and her eggs beyond, Zafira paying them no mind.

No, she was the picture of maternal complacency, right up until Glimmer stepped out onto the sands.

45

Shit.

Zafira’s massive head rose from where it had been nestled in amongst the eggs, her neck uncurling like a snake’s coils. And that’s when I was reminded of what Glimmer had said over and over.

A queen doesn’t tolerate another queen in her territory.

This was Zafira’s, the place where she and her young were at their most vulnerable and while Glimmer had been in the exact same position before, growing inside her egg warmed by her mother’s body heat and that of the sands, she wasn’t anymore. The queen dragon’s neck curved upward, Zafira’s head rising and rising, her eyes glittering the colour of newly minted coins in the low light of the den.

Mother…There was something of a plea in my dragon’s voice then, which I’d never heard before, a child begging for her parent’s attention.Mother?But she had Zafira’s attention alright, something that terrified me.

But it wasn’t just Zafira that noticed our arrival.

“What the hell is she doing here?”

The strident voice seemed to be a perfect match for the queen dragon’s attitude, so much so I wondered if she had spoken directly to us, but no such luck. Raina strode across the sands, dressed in all the regalia of the queen dragon’s rider at a Gathering. Her scarlet silk dress trailed across the sand, her hair was swept back from her brow by a golden circlet, complete with small dragonstones.

But that was nothing compared to the massive one in the necklace at her breast. I saw the pendant in a whole new light now, the similarities in shape to the one Cynane had worn obvious. My hand shoved deep into my pocket, closing over the stone egg the queen dragon had gifted us.

She wears her dragonstone,Glimmer said, following that with a small growl.

The same one she used to steal you, I added,and control the king.

“Your Majesty,” Ged said, sketching a bow, his neck looking perilously unprotected as the queen dragon loomed. “All riders were instructed to attend the Gathering. Pippin is—”

“Just a rider.” Flynn’s father, the Duke of Skane, strolled closer with a cat-like smile on his face, seemingly completely unperturbed by the rapid shift of Zafira’s head in his direction. “That’s what you told us when you declared that Glimmer was not a fit heir for your dragon. If Glimmer and Pippin are to be thrown in amongst the rest of the corps to find their place here, then surely they would attend all the same events a rider would.”

“A queen doesn’t tolerate another queen in her territory.”

Hearing those words on Raina’s lips sent a wash of something bitterly cold through me. I could hear their echoes inside my head as Zafira’s head snaked forward, as Glimmer’s wings rustled.A queen?My dragon’s voice was arch, harsh. That damn humming song seemed to get louder and louder, not a sound of peace but that of tension winding tighter.

“Well, if Glimmer is a queen, then Pippin is queen-in-waiting,” the duke said with a smug smile. “A Skanian girl of good breeding. What luck.”

“She’s not—” Raina started to hiss.

“Mother.” Draven strolled closer, not seeming to realise that every step he took felt like it tread across the aching spot in the middle of my chest. He watched my hand rise and scratch at my sternum with idle fascination. “Everyone is here. The nesting sands are damnably hot and there’s only so long people can bear to stand around for the ceremony. Let's take pity on everyone here and get things started.”

He sounded so fucking reasonable, something that had my head tilting to one side as my eyes burned into his. Because it was my gaze he held, not his mother’s. Those cool blue depths seemed to contain none of the passion of the night before, making me question if it’d ever been there.

Except my damn hand went to touch my lips again, something that had his eyes narrowing for just a moment.

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