by Lola Ford
“I was talking to the princess,” Brantom said.
“I’m surprised. From the way she was glaring at you, I’d have thought she’d rather bite her own tongue out than talk to you,” Niro laughed, sitting on the couch adjacent to Brantom’s.
Brantom closed his eyes again, unwilling to look at his uncle.
“The other princess. Astra. She’s quite the conversationalist.”
“She’s not the one you’re going to marry - if you get to marry either of them at all. The king seemed thrilled to have the eggs. Less than thrilled at the idea of a marriage proposal.”
“The eggs were supposed to stay with us until the offer had been accepted. But things change -” he sighed, “and I don’t know about you, but had we not handed the eggs over upon our arrival, I think that purple lizard would have charred us to a crisp.”
“They’re all terrifying!” Marza must have stepped out of her room. Her young voice pitched in just the wrong way to cause Brantom’s head to pound harder.
“Terrifying or not, you had better keep up your mental block. You don’t want them invading your mind or taking control of your body,” Brantom snapped at her.
He knew she was genuinely scared of the thought that they could control her body, and he heard her sharp intake of breath in response. He was slightly curious what it would be like, but there were things in his mind that could put all Lutesia at risk if the dragons had free access to them.
It had been uncomfortable enough to hear the white and orange dragons. He had been deeply unsettled by the fact that he could identify their gender from their mental voice. It had also been loud - another of the factors of his ever-present headache. He had gotten a perverse pleasure out of how upset the dragons had been that they couldn’t hear his thoughts.
Brantom pulled himself into a sitting position and opened his eyes. His head ached dully, but he worked past it. He focused on the room, his uncle, and his sister. Niro was sitting on the couch across from him, legs stretched out, arms laying along the back of the ornate cushions.
Marza sat perfectly upright, one leg tucked modestly behind the other. She was pale, uncomfortable that his attention was focused on her, but she looked up at him, nonetheless, determined to keep up the polite social norms she’d been raised with.
She glanced down at her folded hands, and he could see her squeeze them together until the knuckles turned white. When he didn’t look away, she awkwardly did before speaking.
“Queen Alaena’s dress was quite beautiful. The fabrics they have here are so different than the ones we have at home. And the style is so strange. I wonder if I’ll have to wear -”
“No one cares about the fucking fabric they use, Marza. Shut up,” Brantom said, standing and moving towards his sister. “You’re only here because we didn’t know if the prince had been chosen as the heir. You would have been offered for the marriage in that case. As it is, I’m considering sending you home.”
“Knock it off, Brantom, she’s just trying to find something to talk about,” Niro frowned at his nephew, crossing his arms.
“She should stay silent. She’ll be lucky if I don’t sell her off to one of the lords here. Strengthen our ties and all.”
“If we need to secure political ties beyond your own marriage, Princess Marza will undoubtedly fulfill her role as expected,” Niro said, also standing and moving towards his niece and nephew.
Brantom turned to Niro, frowning. He too crossed his arms and stared his uncle in the eye.
“Father did not send you to play guardian, Uncle. You know that if I had wanted your advice, I would have asked for it.”
Niro had, however, distracted Brantom from his sister. The prince turned and walked to his private room, his bodyguard following. She’d been standing in a corner, hand resting on her sword hilt as always.
As the door shut, Brantom threw himself down on his bed. Once again, the rougher fabric of his clothes caught on the fine silk sheets, and as he shifted, they twisted around him. Annoyed, he stood back up and started pacing the room.
A quiet knock on the door drew his attention, and he motioned for his bodyguard to open it. It was one of the Situran maids, carrying a large tray of food. As she entered, she curtsied low, keeping the tray balanced. Brantom frowned. He’d not liked his first experience with their food and was not looking forward to the next.
The maid kept her eyes low, focused on her destination. She set the tray on a small table and, with a more formal bow, took her leave.
Brantom looked down at it disgusted. The food was so unappealing, that at first, he thought about not eating. But his options were limited. It was early evening, and he had no urge to spend any more time with his sister or uncle. He doubted he would be allowed to just walk the halls of the palace - not that he particularly wanted to anyways. He couldn’t even find a bedmate - not with all eyes on him and his entourage.
What forced him though, was the quiet rumbling of his stomach. He threw himself down into the chair and poked around at the food. How barbaric - most of it was meant to be eaten with your hands. Only the soup had a proper utensil. He picked at this and that but ended up only eating the fruit and a few spoonfuls of soup.
“We’ll need to find a source of proper food while we’re here, so I don’t starve to death,” he said to his guard, not bothering to look at her. He knew she was always listening to him and their surroundings. He didn’t expect a response either.
“And as loathe as I am to say it, we’ll need new clothing. The wools are too warm - I’m tired of sticking to every surface I touch.”
He stood and pulled off his clothes, carelessly dumping them in a pile on the floor. As he crawled into bed he grunted in dissatisfaction as he failed to get comfortable. The smell that they used for the incense must also have been in the soap they used for the sheets, because his bed reeked of it.
After several long minutes, he finally quieted and fell into a restless sleep.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Graith
Zel was fascinated by the city of Alluvia. Very few people came out to the large statue, and she made herself comfortable high up on the nook where its wings met it’s back.
She found that every mind she listened into was worried about a fire that had occurred, and about Galean. The dragon protector of Alluvia.
Most of the people who thought about him had never seen him up close. From the images she could put together he was larger than she, and a bright orange. He appeared high in the sky, almost like a second sun in many of their memories.
She also found that he had left the city recently - within a day of their arrival it seemed.
This annoyed her, as it had been months since she’d last spoken to one of her kind. She wanted to know why the dragons in Situra had isolated themselves, why they’d not returned to Etria after the war.
There was also the fact that speaking to another dragon was simply more rewarding. Graith was the only human she’d met that came close to it. The ability share what she was thinking and feeling without having to verbalize it.
Zel flexed her talons in frustration.
She wanted to fly, let some of her anxiety bleed through her wings into the air. But it was daytime, and Graith and the others were only an hour outside of town. Flying to them now would only take minutes - not the extend flight she needed.
Frustration gripped her at the thought of travelling to Cian. The Market’s information had been wrong, and they’d lost so much time to end up in the wrong place. As satisfying as killing Braylin had been, and how hot her flame had burned the ships, she was still further than ever away from what remained of her clutch.
No matter how many times Graith reassured her they would get the eggs back, it just wasn’t enough. They’d been following her eggs for months. They’d be harder now, as they approached hatching - but still damageable by someone with destructive intent.
Her hatchlings must be so lonely. A large part of a dragon’s upbringing is their interact
ions with their mother before they hatch. They’d be able to feel one another through their shells, but if they were separated by any distance they’d be quite alone - and that could be very damaging for a hatchling.
Tail lashing, Zel shifted in her temporary stone nest. Focusing on her eggs was no good. It just made her want to chase after them - and she had twice seen the repercussions of that action.
***
The horse that Graith was riding was no Mero. It had balked twice just trying to get it to settle into a walking pace. Its ears were pinned back, and its tail swished back and forth constantly. Its gait was horrid, and after only an hour, his backside felt like it was on fire.
And it was the best behaved out of the four.
They’d had to tie Alix’s mount’s lead to the back of Graith’s just for it to walk forward. Kade’s beast had bitten him, and Kali’s had tried to buck her off when she’d first gotten into the saddle.
Their progress was slow towards Cian, and hours that would have flown in Mero’s saddle seemed to drag on. Kade complained constantly. The saddle was too stiff. They were barely moving. The horse was looking at him wrong.
After the first day, Kali would pull out one of her many knives any time her brother would open his mouth. When he noticed, he quickly stopped talking.
Alix already bored of the trip tried to get Kali to tell him about her knives. She declined, and Graith had to keep a close eye on the boy every time they stopped. Alix knew Kali kept even more of the small daggers in her bag, and would likely have borrowed one, given the chance.
The trip, which took them twice as long as locals had told them it would, led them to the gates of Cian, four days after they’d left Alluvia. Zel had not followed yet, as she had briefly told Graith that she was waiting for the dragon Galean to return.
As they camped for the night the cities of Veles and Cian visible from the rise they were on, Graith paced anxiously.
The likelihood that the eggs were still in Cian was laughably low, and the thought of riding that horse even another dragon length was revolting. But they needed to know where the eggs had gone - to confirm that they’d ever even entered the country with Prince Brantom.
Kali and Kade didn’t show it, but Graith thought that they’d been nearly upset at the misinformation about Alluvia as he and Zel had been. They were good kids, and once they’d gotten to know Zel, they’d wanted to help her get her clutch back as badly as Graith and Alix did.
They’d built a fire, and were gathered close around it, but it wasn’t as cold as Graith thought it should be. His inner farmer wondered if it would be an early spring, and how the next year’s crops would be.
Kade stretched and yawned, before standing and walking over to his mount. He dug out his blanket and found a dry spot on the ground near the fire. Before he sat down however, he looked over to Graith. The older man was slowly using his belt knife to cut a chunk of cheese into bite sized pieces.
“I’ll go into the city tomorrow. It’ll be faster than the four of us all going and find out what I can. I’ll leave at first light, and hopefully I can be back by noon.”
“That’s not fair! I wanted to go to the city!” Alix said, at the same time that Kali said, “There’s no way in hell that you’re going there without me.”
All three looked at Graith, who’d just put a sizeable slice cheese in his mouth. He frowned and chewed slowly, thinking about it. When he came to his decision, he swallowed the bite and a swig of water before speaking.
“I think Kade is right. I don’t think the eggs are still in Cian. We’re good on supplies, and we saw how the Situran’s responded to us in Alluvia once we’d left the docks.” He took a deep breath and another swig of water, “It’s to our benefit for him to be in and out without drawing attention.”
“But he -” Kali started, before Graith held up a hand.
“Kali, we both know how good of a talker Kade is. Let him do his job and get back to us.”
She stood, frowning, and went to retrieve her own sleeping roll. Kade laid down next to the fire, and Graith finished eating his cheese. Alix looked between Graith and the twins, not liking the atmosphere that had settled around the small fire. He too got up and grabbed both his and Graith’s sleeping rolls and brought them back.
As he laid down, Graith heard him say, “I miss Zel.”
Topping off the fire, Graith laid down. The small campsite was quiet - the only noise the restless movement of the four horses.
***
By the time Kade returned to the campsite, Graith, Kali and Alix had packed up their few belongings and were waiting for him.
The sun was high overhead, and Graith was feeling distinctly uncomfortable in his woolen jacket. He could feel beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck, and slowly rolling down between his shoulder blades. Even if the horse was a nag, the motion of riding would create a breeze that would hopefully help cool him off.
As Kade came into view, Graith saw that the young man was frowning, his teeth gritted together. For one horrible second Graith wondered if they’d been wrong about the eggs moving to Situra at all.
“What’s the news brother?” Kali asked, even as Graith’s stomach started to sink.
“Oh, they were here all right. A procession nearly a quarter mile long if I’m to believe the tales.” He pulled his horse closer to Kali and Graith, still frowning.
“And?” Kali asked before Kade could continue.
“They’re headed to Roria, the capital of Situra. Two weeks ride if we can get these ill begotten beasts to actually move.”
Graith noted that Kade had purchased a riding crop while he was in town - not that it wasn’t needed, but Graith had an aversion to hitting any animal.
“We’ll take the main rode then?” Graith asked, pointing down into the valley below, where the white stone of the road was visible.
Kade was frowning, obviously annoyed that he’d been interrupted once again.
“Yes, but I haven’t even told you the lot of it yet!” he said exasperatedly.
“What?” Alix asked trying to move his horse closer, but it was still tied to the saddle of Graith’s beast.
“Wyla - that’s the dragon who lives in this city apparently - left with them. Shop keeper I talked to couldn’t stop raving about it. Apparently, she hasn’t left the city in over a hundred years!” Kade sounded proud of himself for the news.
“Why?” Graith and Kali asked in near unison.
“No one seemed to know. And the day after she left, Galean showed up. They said he was the dragon from Alluvia.”
“No wonder he wasn’t around when we reached the port,” Alix said.
Graith would have told Zel, but she was now too far away for him to easily contact. He could feel her in the back of his mind, always present, but unreachable at the moment.
Even as he motioned for his horse to turn to face the road, he hesitated. Then he turned back to the siblings.
“Kade, Kali. You don’t have to go with us. This is about as close as we’ll get to the Lutesian border for a long time. You’ve held up the Market’s end of the deal, and I don’t expect you to keep going.”
Kade looked horrified, an expression mirrored on Alix’s face. The younger boy had really come to adore both Kade and Kali, and Graith hadn’t mentioned even the thought of them separating before.
“No!” Alix said, at the same time that Kali said, “Graith!”
Kade was the one who finally got to speak.
“Graith. Kali and I want to help Zel. We said we’d help back in Tesia, and we’re going to see this through. That means Zel with her eggs in hand -” he paused, then muttered, “claw? No - whatever.”
Kali cleared her throat and gave her brother a pointed look.
“What Kade means is that we keep the promises we make. Now, let’s get moving. For mid-winter that sun is too damned hot.”
Alix was nearly bouncing in his saddle with excitement. Graith ducked his head, embarrassed that he’d
even brought it up. He was glad though. The two young people had welcomed him and Alix with open arms.
The turned to the road, and immediately settled into the same slow poking gait that had brought them from Alluvia. Each step one closer to Zel’s eggs.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Nerie
Even as Nerie entered the palace, her two guards joined her. She’d been about to go to her rooms, but their presence annoyed her. All she wanted was to be alone.
Away from Soren.
Away from Alaena.
Away from Karina.
Even away from Kiriga.
Exiting Soren’s suite, Nerie turned down the hallway that led to her mother’s quarters. Myha might still be absent from the palace, but her room would not be the first place that Nerie was looked for.
All she had to do to assure her privacy was command the two guards to stand inside the room, rather than in the hallway.
They protested at first, but she told them if they didn’t come inside, she would just leave via the servants’ entrance in the bathroom. That made them move quick enough. Once inside she threw herself onto the couch in the center of the room, and she huffed in frustration.
Only it didn’t help.
She was hot in the riding gear meant for high altitudes and shifted uncomfortably. After only a few moments she found it unbearable. Nerie stood and went to her mother’s sizable closet in hopes of finding something less constrictive.
Hanging in organized rows were dresses, skirts, shirts and nightgowns. Not a pair of pants in sight. With a sigh she snagged one of the nightgowns and pulled it on. As she retreated to the couch, she passed her mother’s bed. Laying there, folded back and waiting for its owner was a large plush blanket. She grabbed the large blanket and exited the bedroom.
Back in the living room, she scooted the couch around so that she could sit facing the large tapestry of the dragons.
