by Alyse Zaftig
Table of Contents
Manor Party
Bubbles
Marketplace
Sparring
Tea
Maze
Translating
Second Party
Antique Shop
Tea Party
Air Bike
Speech
Avoiding the Parade
Asking Her Out
First Kiss
Showering Together
Wilde Yore
Loving Lagoon
Tabloid
Serena’s Advice
Ca Phe
Coconut Water
Decorations
Escaping
Detained
Fetch
Playing with Dragon Babies
Assembly
Wedding
From the Author
Secret Prince’s Bride
Alyse Zaftig
Contents
1. Manor Party
2. Bubbles
3. Marketplace
4. Sparring
5. Tea
6. Maze
7. Translating
8. Second Party
9. Antique Shop
10. Tea Party
11. Air Bike
12. Speech
13. Avoiding the Parade
14. Asking Her Out
15. First Kiss
16. Showering Together
17. Wilde Yore
18. Loving Lagoon
19. Tabloid
20. Serena’s Advice
21. Ca Phe
22. Coconut Water
23. Decorations
24. Escaping
25. Detained
26. Fetch
27. Playing with Dragon Babies
28. Assembly
29. Wedding
From the Author
1
Manor Party
Arienne
I saw fingers snap in front of my face. “Arienne, are you paying attention?”
I looked at my great-aunt, who was scowling at me. She looked like she was about to thump me with her fan.
“Of course.” I cleared my throat. “I heard every word.”
Shaking her head and mumbling something about the disrespectful youth of today, she turned back to her right and started talking to her best friend, a dowager countess who had a little problem hearing. While my great-aunt shouted into her ear, I looked around the ballroom. No sign of the host.
My great-aunt had insisted that I attend this soiree, because she knew that I had to find a mate soon. I had no desire to be here with Lord Georgius.
Two weeks ago, he sent me the first ornate bouquet of flowers. They'd been arriving every day since, and I dreaded seeing them every morning. The sickly sweet scent of all of those flowers lingered in my room, where my mother insisted on displaying the bouquets.
Other girls would have be ecstatic to receive flowers from such a wealthy and powerful man. I might have, too, if not for two things.
One, both of his wives had run away and told tales too horribly perverted to be believed. They had said that he kept them imprisoned before they escaped. They said that they had basically been dolls for him.
Two, he had a terrible reputation in the Draka community for taking what he wanted and apologizing later. As a member of the royal family, he had certain protections which meant that he couldn't be prosecuted like the rest of the nobility.
I didn't want to be his target. Not now. Not ever. But I knew that he had his eye on me. Now that I was mating age, he wanted me. I was just lucky that he hadn't sent an inquiry to my mother, asking to court me and naming betrothal terms.
I hoped that my mother would ask for my input, but I wasn't sure if she would. My mother believed that he always knew what was best for me, no matter what. I had to take matters into my own hands, which was why I was seated with the widows and gossips instead of taking a seat closer to the center.
"Oh, there's that handsome Lord Georgius. I haven't seen much of our host today." She waved her hand and called, "Over here, Lord Georgius."
I fought the impulse to cover my ears. My great-aunt's voice was extremely piercing. I guessed that he was handsome, but it was hard to be attracted to someone who so clearly needed to be taken down a peg or to.
After kissing all of our hands, he sat on my other side in an empty seat. "You look lovely tonight, ladies. Especially you, Arienne."
His eyes rested on the shadow of my cleavage.
"I find that ladies of mixed blood tend to be a little more beautiful than the rest, don't you agree?" I didn't know if he was complimenting me or insulting the people we were with.
"Arienne is the beauty of our family, everyone knows that. Why this little girl hasn't been married yet is beyond me."
"I'm barely old enough," I protested.
"Nonsense. When I was your age, I already had five offers sitting in front of my father. You're slow, Arienne." She sniffed. "If you don't do something, we'll take extreme measures."
"You may not have to." Lord Georgius was smiling into my cleavage again. "I think that something might happen soon. Very soon." His eyes met mine. He didn't care that I'd caught him staring at my boobs. "Would you care to dance?"
I looked at my dress. It was the proper attire for a girl who was ready to be married. Too bad that I had no desire to be with Lord Georgius.
"I think it's too hot," I apologized. "This material is just so thick. You know that we import it and it's so incredibly expensive. Beautiful, I think, but the weave doesn't allow much air through, I suppose." And then I knew what I should do. "Shame that we destroyed all the native textiles."
I sat back as my great-aunt jumped in. Her hobby was the history of the Yore. Despite being conquered by the Draka, vestiges of Yore monuments and Yore culture were all around us. Her friend shared her passion. They wouldn't shut up for hours now, talking about the fabric that had been made here before the conquest.
When Lord Georgius coughed and stood up, I sighed in relief. I knew that he was coming for me, but I had a temporary reprieve. Keeping an eye on his back as he made his way through the ballroom and spoke to other guests, I went out front to get into our hover-car.
I wouldn't be so lucky a second time. Since I was mixed blood but noble, I was in a weird in-between place between the Draka and Yore. Most full-blood Draka nobles didn't want to marry me. A Yore would never be good enough for me, according to my father. He'd fallen in love with my mother, of course, but he thought that she was the exception. Her family had been a lesser branch of Yore royalty in the days before the conquest. If my father had the slightest inkling that Lord Georgius wanted to marry me, I would be done. I just had to pray that I could figure out a permanent way to stall him.
2
Bubbles
Xuan
I looked at the baby twins. They were blowing bubbles again. Normal Yore babies weren't able to draw glowing bubbles from the air using their minds to pull together condensation, but they were far from normal.
First, they were half Draka, giving them a measure of dragon telepathy. Second, they were half Yore, giving them an affinity for water with some extra telepathy. Put those things together, and you'll get twice-royal babies who can do things that have never been done before.
Phuong's back was turned to them as they played with the bubbles. We'd taken over one of the storage rooms in the palace where they'd put away a lot of the Yore artifacts that they'd stolen from our family.
A tiny little giggle was the only warning we got when one of the babies threw a big, wet bubble at his mother. It burst. There wasn't
much water, but it was enough to get her dress wet with a big splotch.
"Twins!" She spun around and glared at them. They looked like innocent little angels. They weren't different enough for us to tell the difference yet. "Stop it! You know that you're not allowed to get Mommy wet!"
They just laughed and laughed together. One said some gobbledygook to the other in their own language. They didn't speak our language, but they'd already constructed their own.
"They're just babies, Phuong." I pulled her hair. "It's normal for them to get up to no good. Think about what we were like as kids in the orphanage."
"That's what I'm worried about. Your streak of hell-raising got us into so much trouble. If my mates hadn't rescued me from your failed plan, I'd be in pretty bad shape right now."
"All's well that ends well," I said. I put a hand on her shoulder. "You're mated now, right? It was fate."
Phuong just shook her head at me. "Did you see this?"
It was a broken crown made of jade. At the tips were our native orange-pink rubies, only found in this sector and very rarely. Before the Draka had come, this crown was nearly priceless. Now that they'd opened up trade to the outside, it was worth even more.
"I wonder how it was broken. Jade isn't that fragile."
"Probably broken during the conquest." She looked at it more closely. "It looks like it's been underwater."
"Underwater? Let me see." I pulled one part of the crown from her hands. I saw what she meant immediately. There were marks that you'd expect from river stones. "I wonder why it was put into water."
"I have no idea, but I'm going to ask Hoa about it. We need to get answers from somebody who actually knows something about all of this."
3
Marketplace
Arienne
When I got yet another bouquet the day after the manor party, I needed to get out of the house. I wondered what would happen to me. My grandmother had been something of a seer before she died. I hadn’t inherited her gifts. Her mind had slowly been corrupted by the drug that brought her ecstasy and also killed her.
My mother was extra-protective of me after my paternal grandmother's death. I was her only relative on this planet, which meant that I had advantages that some other Draka-Yore children didn't have. Nobody knew that my grandmother had been from the old royalty, and I was going to keep it that way.
I pulled out my pouch and went for a long walk in the marketplace.
The smells assaulted me. Oh, it was always noisy with the sounds of people haggling, chickens squawking, the thrum of the motors around the market, etc. But the smells made the marketplace what it was. The scent of animals, the whiff of spices, and odor from people from all walks of life mingled into the smell of the market.
I walked past the farmers' stalls and straight into the jewelry section. There were little bits and bobs, nothing too extravagant, but I wasn't looking for that. A lot of the Draka would only buy jewelry from our home world, imported and sold at double the price. I didn't mind wearing native jewelry, even if I got chastised for doing so by my great-aunt. She was ashamed that my skin was a little darker than hers, a lovely gold tint about which Lord Georgius sometimes waxed poetic.
I stood at a stall that sold small jade pendants set in thin gold chains. They were simple and lovely, all carved to mimic flowers. I looked through them, picked something that looked like a lily, and paid for it. I put it around my neck.
According to Yore lore, jade was lucky. It could protect you from certain things. It was probably wishful thinking, but I wished that it would protect me from Lord Georgius and his unwanted advances.
When I got home, the servant who answered the door whistled slowly.
"What are you wearing?"
"A jade necklace." I rubbed it. "What's wrong?"
"You need to put that away. Don't let your mother see it."
"Why?"
"Don't ask."
Then he walked away, leaving me with more questions than answers. I walked up to my bedroom. It was silly to listen to my servant, but I also didn't want to cause any trouble. There was a secret panel in my headboard. I didn't know if my father knew about it, but it was where I kept my most sensitive stuff. I opened it to deposit the small necklace inside. I didn't see what the harm was, but I wasn't going to take any chances.
4
Sparring
Xuan
"Take that!" My brother-in-law Gahariet disappeared into smoke as I lunged forward. But we'd been practicing often enough that I knew that he'd re-materialize at my back. I put my back to a wall and spun to face the opposite direction, stick ready to hit.
He landed on my stick, catching a hard blow on his thigh which tipped him over. He tapped out on the floor. I grinned down at him.
"Had enough for today?"
"If you'd moved that stick a few inches away, you wouldn't be getting any more nieces or nephews."
"Ew," I said. "I don't want to think about that."
"I do." Gahariet grinned at me, a distant look in his eyes. Disturbing and gross.
"Warrior blood beats blue blood, every time."
Gahariet snorted. "I'm just predictable. You don't beat Olivier as often."
"That's because he's crazy."
"True."
Gahariet was a much more methodical fighter than his brother. I'd learned things from other people without having the formal tutelage that Gahariet had enjoyed.
There was some old Yore literature that made it seem that we were descended from people who'd made a certain branch of martial artists who'd become warlords and later emperors. The Phoenix style was the same as Phuong's name. I probably got most of whatever I had from them. I didn't need to be shown a move more than once, which was why it was easy for me to memorize Gahariet's moves. Olivier was a constant surprise because he didn’t fight with his brother’s discipline. He was more intuitive which helped him against a fighter like me and hurt him against a fighter like his brother, who knew the way to get Olivier into a corner before beating his pants off.
In the orphanage, fighting had been a matter of survival. I didn't think that most Yore were able to do this kind of thing.
Under the Draka, right after the conquest, weapons of any kind had been forbidden to the conquered Yore. Yore fighting had evolved to put more emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. I'd practiced with some of the easy things to pick up, like staff fighting. More of the Yore had the fight beaten out of them by the Draka.
"Let's go eat."
"Sounds good." Gahariet stood up and limped down the stairs to go down to the kitchen.
"Since you won, you have to cook."
"I don't think that's how it works, but sure." The kitchen was always well stocked. There was a corner that was just for me. Food had been something ultra-expensive for us. It was a huge relief when Phuong had mated her two dragon mates, because we suddenly could afford any food that we wanted.
I sliced the mushrooms into slivers. They didn't look like the white button mushrooms that the Draka had brought with them. These were brown and long. I put some pork into a pan to brown before adding the mushrooms and a generous amount of garlic.
"Smells good." Olivier walked into the kitchen.
"Where's Phuong?"
"With the babies. They're in the bathroom, so..."
"So you have no idea when they'll come out."
Olivier shrugged. I noticed now that he had a huge wet spot on the front of his shirt.
"The babies love water just as much as she does."
"And they have the same silvery thing that Phuong and you do when exposed water." Olivier walked to the stove. "What's that?"
"Pork and mushrooms. I'm going to wrap them into dumplings."
Olivier was washing his hands now. "I'm starving."
I had a place here in my sister's home, even if it was just as her chef. Neither of her mates could cook. There was a time when my home was hers, but even though they hadn't been anything but welcoming, I knew that I couldn't stay forev
er. When I provided for her, it was right. It wasn't right for me to mooch off of my brothers-in-law. I had plans. Once the hover-antiquary was totally ready, then I'd use the profits to move out. There'd been whispers about our royal Yore blood. She’d be fine in here, mated to two Draka. I needed to move on at some point.
Impatient, Olivier reached into the fruit basket and brought out a na. The na looked like a grenade with yellow skin. He peeled it. It was full of seeds, like a pomegranate, but so sweet that you could get cavities just from looking at it.
Gahariet and Oliver scuffled over the peeled na as I kept cooking the pork and mushroom dumplings. I needed to get out of here. I was better off as an occasionally seen uncle. I loved my nephews, but I didn't belong here indefinitely. I needed to move out to find my own mate.
5
Tea
Arienne
"Serena, please!"
"But Agatha is so insanely boring," Serena whined.
"I'll buy you something pretty, I swear."
"How expensive?"
I named a figure. Silence reigned on the hologram while she thought it over.
"Twice that and we have a deal. You'll owe me a favor."
"Done." I smiled. "You're a lifesaver."
"I know." She sniffed. "You might regret owing me one."
