“I think they’re too old to get used to this food.”
“Me too. Thank goodness for imports. Well, maybe we could visit when the twins are older.”
The feast was very entertaining; we had brought a chef from Capamere to train the dragons in the kitchens in preparing our foods. The people didn’t know what to make of the pastries from the north, the cured sausage of Capamere, the fermented bean sauce of Gaermon or the dried mangos of Kamiri. Some went over better than others. I saw a small child diligently licking the sausage meat out of the casing and then throwing the casing on the floor for a cat to make off with.
Cuttings from my garden had been brought to the rooftop of Irandal, and I already knew what would keep me busy when I wasn’t handling the duties of motherhood and royalty.
It was good to be home.
However, ruling a kingdom is never without troubles, and the centuries of hatred between the mist dragons and high dragons didn’t always go easily. The high dragons didn’t trust the mist dragons to live near them; the mist dragons kept to themselves in Gemuru palace. Seron was always the first to volunteer to travel to other parts of the realm to settle these disputes. The rock dragons took jobs in quarries, workshops, and as guards and servants, but they were easily exploited and Ezeru had to be swift and harsh in protecting them from greedy high dragons. Aurekdel and the advisors gave us both instruction in writing laws, which quickly got Oszin volunteering information about labor laws and elections overseas, and before I knew it I was catching him reading his pamphlets to Aurek.
I pretended not to notice this was happening. I didn’t want to fight with Oszin and Aurekdel both, but…that stuff was dangerous. We don’t need to be giving people ideas about getting rid of kings and queens!
Meanwhile, a lot of the people who considered social graces and lawmaking the province of a king still privately referred to ‘King Aurek’ and whispered that he was robbed of his crown.
Others wanted a warrior king and backed Seron.
No matter how well Seron and Aurekdel got along, some conflict remained.
One day I rode to the village with Ora on my back and Hara accompanying me, to do a little shopping. Trade was booming and the shops were full of goods from home that came in a steady stream. I was at the cloth vendor’s stall trying to choose between red reeds embroidered on pale blue or storks embroidered on pale green when a brawl came bursting out of a nearby tavern.
Hara rushed in front of me, drawing a sword, while I took out my knife for good measure.
The men were shouting expletives at each other. The cloth vendor looked uncomfortable. “You should go, my lady. These fights have been happening a lot lately.”
“About what?”
He paused. “Oh, I don’t know. A woman, probably.”
But I could tell from his face that wasn’t it. “You don’t need to protect me, Mr. Kandal. I want to know what’s going on in my own village.”
“It figures you would say that when your king isn’t a fighter either!” one of the men shouted.
“Well, your king is always leaving; he doesn’t care what happens in this town!”
Oh, I don’t believe this. “Excuse me!” I shouted. Ora started screaming her face off. I handed her to Hara.
They all froze when they saw me. “Your Majesty—we didn’t see you there.”
“Are you actually brawling over Lord Aurekdel and King Seron? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. They share their duties.”
“Mm…” The guy backing Aurekdel looked a little upset. “But, Seron wears the crown.”
“Seron has the blood of kings. It’s just a crown,” I said.
“It’s not just a crown.”
“It’s the crown of his ancestors.”
“But he ruled for almost thirty years and now he’s been relegated to—”
“Seron did all the work anyway,” the other guy put in.
“No, no, they’ve always done the work together!” I said.
“Are you arguing with the queen?” Hara said, in between trying to calm down my screaming child.
At this point, some guards came around to break it up, threatening the men with jail if they didn’t calm down.
I came home still shaking over it. “We can’t have this,” I told my mates. “People are arguing about the two of you, and it’s ridiculous. We need to—I don’t know—decree something. And dragons all need a lesson in manners. In Gaermon they would all have prostrated themselves the moment they realized the queen was standing in front of them, but that bunch of ruffians just kept on squabbling about it right to me! We need some tighter laws on slander.”
“This is a very delicate balance,” Aurek said. “But the crown means something to people. To some people, the tradition and bloodline are very important.”
“But generally Aurek’s rule has been known for greater freedom and equality,” Seron said. “Some people don’t see why I should have the crown just because of my bloodline. And I can’t say I disagree.”
“Can’t we just make a second crown?” I said. “You both rule together.”
Seron glanced at Oszin, who gave this knowing shrug. I knew exactly what his face was saying. I told you she’d react like this.
“I’m pretty interested in trying out an election,” Seron said. “I don’t really like the idea of Sorek having to be king when I’m gone. He might like to do something else. He’s clearly a healer dragon. Maybe that will be a great quality for a king someday. But he also might be shy and hate parties.”
“You’ve gotten a lot better with speeches,” I said, since he was obviously talking about himself. “It just takes practice.”
“Yeah, but when I travel I don’t have to make any speeches, or go to any parties, and I like that so much better, except that I have to leave my family behind.”
“A lot of our people do feel safer with a warrior king,” Aurekdel said. “Let’s not dismiss that. I don’t feel comfortable taking the throne from Seron when it isn’t my birthright.”
“So that’s why we want the people to decide,” Seron said.
“It’s not going to fix this problem,” I said. “Whoever wins, the loser will be angry. And if Sorek wants to be king someday, he’ll have to fight for it.”
“I think he should fight for it,” Aurek said. “Every king has to fight for it to some degree. Only, under the old law, overthrowing them is a lot messier. If I hadn’t worked hard to prove myself and win favor, I might have been murdered.”
“There is another reason for an election,” Seron said. “The mist dragons can be allowed to vote. There definitely aren’t enough of them to vote in one of their own. But they will be included.”
“Well…how do we have an election? It sounds like a lot of work.”
“We have a registry of dragons,” Aurekdel said.
“We would appoint election officers to every region and invite everyone to come and vote for their choice within a certain timeframe,” Oszin said. “Their names will be checked against the registry and all the ballots will be brought back to Irandal and counted by a neutral committee. It’ll take some time to set it all up. Probably through the year.”
“But we can announce it now and calm everyone down a little,” Aurek said.
“Or inflame them even more!” I said.
“Moth, do you trust me?” Oszin said.
He looked so excited. “Er…”
“I want to tell you a story, and don’t judge me, because I was a kid,” he said. “When I first signed up to apprentice for the military, I vowed to bring down your family for enslaving my people. I changed my mind almost from the first moment I saw your brother, because he was so forthright and fair. And when I met you…well, all my dreams were out the window, and replaced by you instead. I would have happily died for you. Still would. But…we all know what a bad king can do. All of us. When I first read about a different kind of government…like a tribal election for a whole country…I never thought it could happen. But
the idea of a peasant like me being able to choose who rules over me is something we’ve never known in this world. Of course, I will still choose you. I would always choose you. Like your brother, you are forthright and fair. Kind and compassionate. But don’t you like to choose your masters?”
I understood, then. I had been a very lucky woman, to be ‘forced’ into marriage with Aurekdel.
It was almost Leonidas. It was almost the man whose army killed my father, the man who put his mouth on my breast and told me he needed it. He got me all the way to the altar before I was saved, before I had a chance to fight for myself.
I was helpless once. We all needed each other to stand up sometimes.
I took Oszin’s hands.
“Okay,” I said. “I will trust you.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Aurekdel
“I found ‘em fighting in the hallway,” Ezeru said, dropping two squalling children in dragon forms onto the floor.
Ora, in pure rock dragon fashion, could fight before she could talk. But she was also an eighteen month old child who immediately turned into a girl and slumped onto the floor sobbing.
“What happened, bug?” Ezeru asked her.
I heard her voice come out smothered and incoherent as she clung to his shirt.
“Where did your clothes go?” he pressed.
I abandoned my desk and crouched in front of Vorja. “What happened?”
“Pushed me,” he said reluctantly.
“Who?”
“Aran.”
“Why?”
“Do we need to ask why?” Ezeru said. “The mist dragons still aren’t…the most popular. Vorja is the only one in the palace since Ijaru and Peri left.”
Peri had offered Ijaru a job as her interpreter so she could travel the sky world without any trouble. Ijaru took her father with her. All of them seemed like they could use some time away from this place, and dragons were quite fashionable company in the sky world these days. Many of the mist dragons who rebelled against Izeria had decided to take jobs in the sky world instead of staying here.
“Aran is Horu and Merika’s son,” Ezeru said.
“We’d better talk to them, I suppose.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Ezeru said. “I’m not sure I could conduct myself in a…dignified way. Ora has bite marks on her arms.”
“Dwagon?” Ora said.
“Aran dragoned first,” Vorja said. He was almost four, by our best guess, and so a slightly better bet for getting a real answer.
“Were there any adults around?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why were you alone?”
“Ora was there.”
“Ora is certainly not an adult. And what was Ora doing running around by herself?”
“Well…,” Ezeru said, sounding a little embarrassed. “She is a rock dragon. She has to learn her instincts on her own. And she was with Vorja.”
“Does Himika know you let Ora run around by herself? I’m pretty sure she thinks you’re watching her.”
“I knew where she was,” Ezeru said. “But Himika is not always understanding of Ora’s hunting instincts. She caught a fish down by the waterfall last week.” He sounded very proud.
“Himika or Ora?” I asked, just to be trouble. “Vorja, where is Maja?”
“I wanna play with Ora. I don’t wanna be in the nursery. The—the—” He hunched down and sounded like he was trying not to cry. I could only guess. The nursery was a busy place because orphaned children grew up there and most parents put their children in the nursery during the day; it was both school and playground.
We used to worry little Oranu would have trouble with the other children, but I worried about Vorja. I couldn’t help it. I never had to spend time in the nursery and hadn’t really been allowed to play in the same way as other children, but I knew how it felt to be blind and alone, without parents to protect you. All the advisors and nurses in the world had left me spoiled, but also isolated. Sometimes they fought with each other to shape my views as the boy king and win my favor.
Oranu didn’t seem to care much what the other high dragon children were doing. She and Sorek had their own nurse, a clever young woman named Rima, and they played all the time, and she was happy with the other rock dragons. At this stage of life, she seemed ahead of her brother. Her rock dragon instincts meant she had learned to walk, play, and hunt for food and treasures before other kids.
“Oranu often takes Vorja’s hand and brings him with her,” Ezeru said.
“Seron used to take my hand…when I was your age.” I took a handkerchief and wiped Vorja’s tears. “Vorja, I’m taking you out of the nursery. You can still see everyone there if you want, but Rima will be your nurse now.”
“With Ora?”
“Yes, but you’re also going to spend an hour with me after lunch. I’m going to teach you to fight back. And I’ll also teach you to read plates like I do. I’m not sure if there’s any way for a blind mist dragon to write, but you can certainly read.”
I felt his small hand grab my sleeve, a rather lonely hand, I thought. I could just feel it.
I had never needed a child of my own blood. I loved Ora and Sorek as much as I would love my own.
Was I waiting for you, Vorja? We were not tied by blood, but by loss and rejection. Ora seemed to have the protective instincts Seron once had for me. But I also knew Vorja would need to be strong on his own. It was harder to be strong without someone to love you.
“No more nursery?” he asked, like he didn’t really believe it.
“No.” I put an arm around his small shoulders until I felt them relax. “I’m going to make you a cup of the queen’s special tea. But first, where did you kids put your clothes? I can only imagine what Himika thinks of this place when she sees our princess running around naked…”
Ora giggled and said, “Naaaaked!”
“Maybe we do need a few more rules on manners before the election,” I said.
Chapter Forty-Four
Oszin
“And it did end up taking us about a year. I headed the election commission but to ensure fairness, we had a team with different types of dragons from all over the country and two humans to collect and count the votes. It’s been a huge undertaking but I think I did a pretty good job in getting everyone informed and counted. Just teaching people what an election is wasn’t easy.”
I was talking a lot.
I hadn’t seen my parents in over two years. And in that time, I had gone from Himika’s guard to sharing her bed with three ruling dragons. Plus Ora and Sorek called me “Touta” which was Kamiri for “Dad.”
No wonder I had just given them a tour of the village and talked for an hour about election procedures.
“I am so proud of you,” my mother said. “I’ll even forgive you for not becoming a beekeeper.”
“Your grandfather must be dancing with your other ancestors,” my dad agreed. “To think that our boy would be responsible for ending a monarchy!”
“Well, let’s not put it like that when we get to the palace. And it wasn’t really me. Aurekdel and Seron have always been open to new ideas.”
“And what about your lady, hm?” Mom asked. “She was the most beautiful princess, but I still can’t imagine any lady of the House of Kai giving up her title.”
“She won’t be giving it up,” I said. “Unless everyone writes in someone besides Aurekdel or Seron. Which I can’t imagine would happen. But please don’t say anything like that in her presence.”
“We definitely will not.” Dad crossed his arms. “Look at those dragon children. They play just like humans, don’t they.”
“It’s not too strange here,” Mom said. “You said it would be very strange.”
“It is pretty strange. But I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I thought you might be overwhelmed.”
“I’ll never be overwhelmed by anything again after all that money you sent,” Dad said. “Everything that happens, I just float
along like seaweed on the waves. Did we tell you we bought a big house and ten goats?”
“It has a bathtub and it has a toilet,” Mom said. “Only kings used to have toilets.”
“Now we have one,” Dad said.
“Yeah, I gathered that, from what Mom said.”
Inside the palace, Himika was waiting with Ora and Sorek’s hands in hers. Ezeru, Peri, and Ijaru were with them too. The two mist dragon women wore embroidered dresses from Rungenold and the kids had colorful dolls from there, so I could guess they’d all been talking of their travels, although the kids looked nervous.
“You don’t remember Grandma Peri?” Himika asked the children.
“No…”
“You don’t remember her? She was here last year! She talks with her hands.”
“Okay!” Sorek said. He made the sign for ‘cat’ at Ora and she made the sign back and soon their signs and the dolls were having a battle. Ezeru grabbed Ora to put an end to the chaos.
“This is your Grandma Remia and Grandfather Zakha. I’m so glad you made it all the way here. I didn’t know if you would ever want to make the attempt!”
“Grandma?” my mother said, looking at me. “Is that right?”
Sorek ran to my leg and I swept him up in my arms. “Yeah…um…I didn’t know how to explain it in a letter, but in this world, being the queen’s champion also means being her mate. And Ora and Sorek call all of us their parents.”
“Beard,” Sorek said, reaching for my father’s face with interest.
“It might seem a little unconventional,” Himika said. “But…the kids don’t know the difference. And when they play with their cousins, it’s the same for them, since my brother become a guardian to the priestess.”
“I still don’t know how to explain it in person,” I said. “Ezeru, Seron, Aurekdel, Himika and I all considered ourselves a family.”
I was hoping all the money was enough to butter up this news. My mother looked at Ezeru with an expression that clearly said, Does the queen really need any other man besides him?
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 81
