The Dragon’s Treasure

by Caitlin Ricci

  “None of them ask for something so great as for us to save a life. In our world the reward must match the price,” Thadius replied.

  “Is this the only condition you ask in exchange for saving the life of my brother? Only that I marry your son?”

  “Yes.”

  Isabelle was skeptical. Being Andrew’s sister had certainly taught her that there was always another condition when it came to generosity. “For how long?”

  “Long enough to bear his child. Once the child is born you will be free to leave and of course, once Caden is well enough he may leave at any time, even if you have not yet given birth,” Thadius replied.

  So that was it, Isabelle thought ruefully. Her eyes narrowed slightly at him. How dare he try to trick her? “A child? That is far different than a simple marriage. And what would become of the child?”

  * * * *

  He returned her glare. This girl was already becoming more trouble than she was worth. He had not thought that the girl would be this…well…human, for lack of a better term to describe those that he disliked so much. “It would be raised by my son and this clan of course. Does this not meet your satisfaction? Are you unwilling to have a child with my son even though it will save your brother’s life?”

  “I will do anything you ask of me in order to save him,” she snapped, a bit more loudly than she had intended.

  Thadius smiled indulgently at her. “Very good.” With a snap of his fingers, a guard, dressed in all black, appeared at her shoulder with a roll of parchment. “Please read through this and sign at the bottom. When my son returns home later tonight, I will have him sign it as well and then you two shall be married.”

  “Oh.”

  Thadius quirked an eyebrow at her. “Does it bother you that there will be no extravagant human ceremony?”

  * * * *

  She quickly shook her head as she continued reading. “No, this is a marriage in writing only and should not be paraded as anything else.” Isabelle took the inked quill the guard offered her and signed her name in a rush before she could change her mind.

  “Very good. Now, Isabelle, do you swear to be faithful only to my son?”

  She gulped nervously. “Yes, I do swear.”

  “And you will not leave here unless escorted by him or under his direction?”

  “I will not.”

  Thadius’s dark eyes seemed to bore into her. She shifted under the intensity of his gaze. “And you will not harass anyone here or interfere in our ways or customs at all while you are a guest in my home?”

  “I will not,” Isabelle continued.

  “And when the child is born you will leave this place and the child, never to return again or try to contact the child ever again?”

  As she did not want children right now, especially not with someone she had never met, she thought this was the easiest of the requirements. “I will do as you ask.”

  Thadius nodded, thoroughly satisfied. “Very well, my dear. In this sacred place, your words are binding as much as they are in that contract you signed. As your brother’s health is what you seek, that is what I shall take from you if you fail to keep your word. Do you understand?”

  Her eyes widened slightly at this, but she still managed a meek, “Yes, sir.”

  “I will have a guard show you to your chambers. In a few minutes my healer will come to see you,” he said by way of dismissal.

  “Sir?” she asked as she began to stand.

  “Yes, Isabelle?”

  “What is your son’s name?

  “Faolan. Now get some rest. I’m sure my son will come to your rooms soon enough. You and your brother will be sharing a suite, but you will of course have different bed chambers,” Thadius said as he turned to leave.

  “Yes sir, thank you,” she said, turning to meet the guard that had appeared behind her. Isabelle trailed behind the guard in a daze. He was silent as he led her through the large maze of corridors and never once took his eyes off the path ahead, never once looking back to see if she was still with him. She was married, or soon would be once Thadius’s son returned. It was all so surreal. He stopped in front of a large wooden door sparingly decorated with ornate symbols and carvings. Isabelle barely gave them a glance though as the guard let her inside. She immediately sat down on the bed, more exhausted than anything really as she attempted to organize her thoughts. Absently she noted that this was to be her wedding bed. She had seemed so strong before. The decision to protect Caden and make him well again had seemed right.

  A gentle knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts. “Hello?” she called.

  Isabelle felt slightly better at seeing the healer come through the doorway.

  “Tired?” he asked with a soft smile as he came to stand next to her.

  “That’s one way to describe this I guess,” she said miserably.

  “I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that your brother’s fever is starting to break,” he told her blandly.

  She blinked rapidly, her mouth hanging open slightly. “Already?”

  “Yes, from the moment you signed that contract you were married and now everything you do to produce an heir for this great clan will help him.”

  Isabelle nodded absently and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What do you think would happen if I refused Faolan one night?”

  “There is a good chance that any negative action will result in Caden possibly becoming sick again.”

  So that’s how it was, she thought. “I see.” She had expected as much. But knowing something and hearing it said aloud were two very different things. The knot forming in her stomach coiled tighter.

  The healer studied her momentarily and sighed. “I know it is a hard choice and believe me, I do understand the burden you now have on your shoulders.”

  “Don’t fret. I chose this remember? I accepted this fate as soon as I left Nuer with Caden in my arms,” she replied with a forced shrug. She didn’t fool herself and knew that she probably wasn’t fooling him, but thankfully he brushed her off.

  He nodded quickly and placed two small blue bottles in front of her. “Very well. I have brought you these vials. Now please drink them.”

  She eyed them warily and glanced back at him, her eyebrows raised. “What are they?”

  “This one is to increase fertility. Take it now,” he ordered.

  She hesitated for only a moment, eyeing the clear liquid uncertainly before downing the entire contents in one gulp. It was sweet, she realized after a moment. But it did have an awful metallic aftertaste that made her cringe.

  “And this one is to ensure your faithfulness,” he told her, handing the much smaller bottle to her. “Be careful with that, it is very rare and hard to make.”

  “What does it do?”

  * * * *

  “If you were to be with another man, Faolan would know instantly. That way the child you will be carrying is assured to be his,” Kylin replied.

  “I see. Will he also take something similar to this?”

  “You silly girl. Because he cannot get pregnant there is no need to ensure the parentage of a child in his case.”

  “Of course,” she replied and, with one fluid movement, emptied the bottle into her mouth, gagging slightly as it burned the back of her throat.

  “Oh yes, that would be the pepper. Sorry about that. I should have warned you perhaps,” he said, chuckling slightly as she shot him a rueful glare.

  “Very good. One last thing, I want you to take a cleansing bath. There are many bottles by the tub in your chambers. I’d like you to use them all. Make sure to use them in order as well. They have instructions written on them. This step is traditional in these lands on the wedding night. It is also one more thing you can do to help Caden get well again,” he told her as he put the empty vials in a small pouch on his hip.

  “The wedding night. I guess it really is starting to sink in now,” she said softly and mostly to
herself.

  “He’s a good prince. You have nothing to worry about.” The confidence in his voice was helpful, but she still had doubts.

  “Will it…will it hurt?” she asked, her voice stumbling over the words she should be asking her mother right now. She needed the woman now more than ever, even if it was just to hold her hand and kiss her forehead like she did when Isabelle was young. She quickly brushed away her tears.

  He stopped, his weathered fingers pausing in the air as he stared at her. “Have you never been with a man?”

  She chuckled dryly, it was more forced than anything else, and met his gaze. She quickly shook her head no.

  “Many young women feel the need to…Oh never mind, that doesn’t matter now. Yes, I believe it will probably hurt. But I have also known Faolan for many years. He is a good man, young, but good. He will treat you well if you only give him a chance,” he said hurriedly, a pale blush forming on his cheeks.

  Isabelle took some comfort in the knowledge that he was as uncomfortable talking about this subject as she was. “I will try.”

  “That’s all anyone can expect from you. Oh, I almost forgot.” Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a small jar of cream, and quickly handed it to her. “Starting tonight rub this cream into your stomach at night after you bathe. It will help with the pregnancy and the herbs in it will help calm you and allow you to sleep.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Will you be off to bed now? I hear Faolan should be back by early morning, it would be good if you were bathed and ready to meet him.”

  She nodded quickly and let her gaze travel around the large room as she tried to collect her thoughts. “Before you go, can you tell me when I can see Caden again?”

  “By tomorrow afternoon he should be strong enough to see you. He is sleeping in the other room right now. Get some rest, alright? And remember what I told you.” He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and turned to leave.

  “I will, thank you,” she said as she walked him to the door. As she watched him walk down the deserted hallway, she realized just how much she felt like a lost little child and the feeling of desperately needing her mother washed over her again.

  Chapter Four

  Biting back the tears, she forced herself to think of the night ahead. First things first. Kylin had said she was supposed to bathe so she walked across the room to the small doorway she assumed was the bath and stepped inside. Like the bedroom, this room was quite large and the few furnishings were simple. The bath was what she would have expected a hot spring to look like with just a large area cut from smooth stone that, she was happy to realize, was already filled with hot water.

  There was no bench or chair in the room to lay her gown on so she undressed and folded them neatly on the dark stone ledge just beyond the water’s reach and stepped gingerly into the large bath. She stumbled getting in, her foot barely catching on the small ledge a few feet below the water’s surface before she sank the rest of the way in. She was surprised that her feet didn’t even touch the bottom of the bath, but since the stone was so dark and there was hardly any light in the room, she had no way of knowing just how deep the water really was. She pretended not to be afraid of what she couldn’t see, but pulled her legs up to her chest and sat squarely on the small ledge just in case.

  She wasn’t sure how someone knew that she was going to take a bath, but however they knew and whoever they were, she was grateful to them. Isabelle knew that the bath was required according to what Kylin had told her, but she doubted that she would be able to stay awake long enough to enjoy it. Though she had been asleep for hours already, she still felt exhausted. At least the bottles Kylin had told her to use were easily laid out for her. Each small blue glass bottle had a number and a set of carefully scrawled instructions on it.

  The water was warmer than she would have normally liked, but Isabelle hoped the extra heat would help relax some of her raging emotions. Even as she began the process of adding each small bottle’s contents to the steaming water, she had trouble understanding just what she had agreed to. Marriage, a husband, children of her own, these were not uncommon desires in a woman her age and many of the young woman she knew already had husbands of their own. In fact, most of them were also in arranged marriages or ones that had absolutely nothing to do with love so really she was no different.

  Or at least that was what she kept trying to convince herself of. She did this for Caden. Thadius had asked her how much she would give to save him and she had told him the truth. She reasoned that this was a small price to pay for his health. And by all accounts Faolan was said to be a good man. If only she could convince the uneasiness in her stomach that things really were as fine as she thought they were going to be. It wouldn’t be an easy marriage, she had no delusions about that, but she hoped that she and Faolan could at least find a way to get along long enough for her to fulfill his father’s demands. She had come too far already not to do everything she could to help save Caden.

  Whether it was the gentle aromas of lavender and chamomile from the bottles mixing with the thick steam or if she really had reached some form of conclusion, she couldn’t be sure. She just knew that as she stepped out of the tub and wrapped herself in a long robe she found in the bath room that this arrangement really couldn’t be as horrible as she thought it might earlier that evening. She was still nervous, but the worry and fear that had held her so tightly earlier had seemed almost to wash away in the bath.

  She ran a soft brush through her long brown hair before stepping into the bedroom. The large oversized bed with its draping dark blue sheets gave her sudden pause. She wondered if her mother had been this nervous on her wedding night. Some of the women she used to know had explored somewhat before marriage, but she had never wanted to. She had yet to even share a kiss.

  Part of her wanted to get the night over with as quickly as possible. Perhaps it would hurt less and seem slightly more comfortable that way. But somewhere deep inside she knew that she would never have this night again. Her choices tonight could easily affect how the next year of marriage would be. She was nervous and even a little scared, but she at least wanted to be comfortable around her husband and that wasn’t going to happen if she didn’t try to get along with him, starting tonight. Before she could change her mind, she quickly grabbed the salve Kylin had given her and stepped out of the robe. Within seconds, she was lying nude between the sheets. Isabelle took a few deep breaths to calm her raging nerves before trying to get comfortable amongst the few scattered pillows. Andrew would be furious if he knew what she was doing. That thought and the image of his stern face going red with anger sent her quickly into a fit of giggles.

  She instantly became silent as large, heavy footsteps came down the hallway. Isabelle curled into a ball on her side and stared at the doorway as she willed whoever it was to keep walking. In seconds, all of her resolve had disappeared into nervousness and more than a little fear as the sound of footsteps stopped directly in front of her doorway.

  “Hello, Faolan,” she heard a voice she instantly recognized as Thadius’s smooth drawl say.

  “Father.”

  Isabelle sat up at hearing his voice. It was smooth and elegant like his father’s, but Thadius had a harsh overtone that his son did not. Faolan’s voice was softer, gentler and Isabelle hoped more friendly than his father’s, although he did sound more than a little annoyed at the man.

  “You and I must speak.”

  “I assumed so by the urgent message I received to return to these mountains early. So what is it? Tell me so that I may be on my way.”

  “There will be no more going out for you tonight, my son.”

  The footsteps stopped, followed by the swish of heavy fabric against the stone floor.

  “Oh?”

  Isabelle heard the rustling of stiff parchment and the knot in her stomach twisted even tighter than before.

  “A marriage contract? Surely, Father…”


  “Read it, Faolan.”

  There was a long pause in which Isabelle scarcely breathed. Her hands wrung together nervously. If Faolan wouldn’t sign the contract, if he stood up to his father…Isabelle pushed down hard on that bit of doubt and shook her head. No, it would work. It had to. He would sign the contract. She silently willed him to do as she needed.

  “I see. You have outdone yourself in your cruelty towards humans this time.”

  “I have done no more or less than you would have were you in my place. When you’re king, you’ll understand that. Sign it, Faolan, and go inside these rooms to meet her.”

  “She’s waiting for me? Already?”

  “Her brother’s life is waiting on your signature, son. Kylin has instructed her on our wedding night traditions and he has seen to certain details of this marriage. We are all waiting on your decision. If you do not wish it though, if you wish to in effect kill an innocent child, then do not sign it and I will send her away this very night. Make your decision, Faolan, and make it quickly.”

  “You are merciless to use this child’s life against me,.”

  Suddenly Isabelle felt as if a wave had washed over her and she knew instantly that Faolan had signed the contract. She could even almost picture his form on the other side of the stone wall.

  “I can feel her,” she heard him say. She was surprised by the wonder she found in his voice.

  “As I’m sure so can she. The marriage is complete and final now. You two will be able to sense each other, especially when intense emotions are involved. This is my wedding present to you both. I hope this gift will help you both in your understanding of each other and your needs in this marriage. Make good use of it though, it will only last for tonight.”

  “I see. Go to bed, Father, it is late and I wish some time alone with my wife.”

  “Yes, very good. I’m sure Isabelle is anxious to see you as well.”

  She heard the heavy footsteps walk away from the doorway and breathed a quick sigh of relief. She stared intently at the door for a few more moments before it slowly opened and a shadowy figure stepped inside. His movements were graceful and although she was sure he was wearing boots, his feet made no noise as he walked across the stone floor.