The True Queen

by Zen Cho

  “It is the convention to devour the defeated after a duel,” said Georgiana. She looked at her nephew with new respect. “Those rabbits will hardly satisfy your appetite after your exertions. I must say I did not know you were capable of this. How came you to challenge your brother?”

  The golden dragon seemed to feel none of Georgiana’s pleasure at his success.

  “Lost my temper,” he said lugubriously. “Dashed at Barty. He jumped up roaring—made to fry me to a crisp—hit his head on the ceiling and fell over. Poor Barty! Still, he oughtn’t to have said all that about Poggs!”

  Georgiana glanced at the cage. Damerell had contrived to fashion a hammock out of the velvet cloak of a late princess, and it appeared to be occupied. It was not as though Rollo could have liberated his bondmate in any case, of course. She had seen to it that he would not have magic enough to do anything foolish.

  “I suppose that still counts as a defeat of sorts,” she said dubiously. “Our ancestors would not have hesitated to devour him in the circumstances.”

  “But Mother wouldn’t like it if I ate Barty.”

  “Oh, your mother is a most irrational creature!” said Georgiana. But now that the point had been raised, she found she could not easily dismiss it. “Would it distress her greatly, do you think?”

  “Certain to!” said the golden dragon. “She’s no end fond of Barty.”

  The more Georgiana reflected upon the matter, the more it seemed to her that Rollo was right—a most unusual state of affairs, but then, it was a time for unprecedented occurrences.

  “Yes,” she said irritably. “Like as not your mother would declare war if you ate him, and we cannot afford a civil conflict in Threlfall now. You had best restrain your cannibalistic instincts, Rollo, though they do you credit. You may have the carcass if Bartholomew dies, but if he does wake you must let him alone.”

  “Pray don’t speak so, aunt! I never thought of Barty’s not waking.” The dragon nudged Bartholomew’s prone form with his snout, apparently in hope of discerning some flicker of life.

  “I expect there is no harm done and he will only have a headache,” said Georgiana. She continued, with a solicitude quite unusual in her dealings with Rollo, “Had not you better leave before you are overcome by blood-lust? Even I find it difficult to restrain myself when the urge is upon me.”

  “I don’t feel as though I will be overcome,” said the dragon, craning his neck to look down at himself. “I never could work up a good blood-lust, even as a dragonet. But perhaps I had better go. The rabbits will taste better en plein air.”

  “I do not see why you did not eat them when you caught them.”

  The dragon was nearly at the threshold, but he said, “I thought I would see if Poggs would like one. But I had forgot he don’t eat things that talk, and the rabbits are raw besides.”

  “Silly mortal prejudices!” said Georgiana.

  In a moment the golden dragon would be out of the cave, but as she looked after him, Georgiana was struck by an odd detail.

  “Why, Rollo,” she said, “one of your rabbits has yellow hair on its head. Yes, yellow ringlets, I declare—like an elf, or a mortal! I have never seen that on a rabbit.”

  “I believe it is the new fashion,” said the dragon. He stretched his wings, his haunches tensing as he prepared to leap into the air.

  But something in his manner had piqued Georgiana’s curiosity. She followed her nephew to the threshold.

  “Stay, now,” she said, her eyes alight with suspicion. “I did not notice it before, but you sound different today.”

  “Sore throat!”

  “Do not you dare fly away, Rollo!” bellowed Georgiana. “You will give your aunt an answer, and you will drop those rabbits in your mouth while you do it!”

  Her voice resonated through the cavern, drawing forth strange echoes. The very walls of the cave seemed to sag, as though they felt their weight, and all at once the golden dragon’s feet were rooted to the spot.

  “Why, aunt, what’s amiss?” he said, turning his head.

  The wide-eyed dismay, the apprehensive tone, were all Rollo to the life. They were enough to give Georgiana pause—but only for a moment. For despite the dragon’s best efforts his eyes had acquired a ring of hazel that was rapidly drowning out the blue.

  “You are not Rollo at all, are you?” said Georgiana grimly.

  Before the dragon could answer, there was a piteous squeak from his mouth.

  “I cannot keep hold of the spell,” said the yellow-ringleted rabbit. “Oh, help—Mr. Damerell—Miss Muna—help!”

  The enchantment unravelled. Out of the golden dragon’s mouth tumbled three small furry bodies—but they began to transform before they ever hit the ground.

  * * *

  • • •

  MUNA could not help, nor do more than gasp, as she changed back into a human being. Unlike Henrietta, she had adapted without difficulty to her metamorphosis. Her human body might have been no more than a costume. It had seemed just as natural to be a rabbit.

  To be transformed again so abruptly was bewildering. She could not remember how to persuade her tongue to shape human speech, much less cast a spell to save them. Scream she could, however, and scream she did as she fell, until her collision with a warm body knocked the breath out of her.

  Even having Muna’s full weight land on him did not wake Rollo. He had reverted not to his draconic but to his human form, and he only stirred a little, snorting his sleep. Next to him Henrietta was sobbing, so distressed that she scarcely seemed to notice the impropriety of their position—entangled with a gentleman, none of them remotely fit for company.

  A great leathery wing swept over them. Muna sneezed, and when she looked down on herself she was clothed again, in the robes she had worn before they were changed into rabbits.

  “There!” said a kind voice. “You will be more comfortable so.” A four-clawed foot planted itself on either side of her, Henrietta and Rollo, each large foreleg covered in scales. The same voice said:

  “You will account to me, Georgiana, if any harm comes to these three!”

  “You must be a stranger to Threlfall if you think you will intimidate me,” said Georgiana disdainfully. “A gentledragon would introduce himself before making threats! You must be a shape-shifter of talent to have imitated Rollo so closely. I was very near being taken in. What do you call yourself?”

  The golden dragon said nothing, but though Muna could not see his expression it must have betrayed him.

  Georgiana said, in an altered tone, “Oh!”

  A broad smile spread across her countenance.

  “Well, well, well,” she said. “Paget Damerell! I never suspected . . . but if the bond enabled Rollo to assume human form, why should it not have done the same for you, t’other way around? Foolish of me never to have thought of it! But who would suspect anyone of taking a mortal form by choice?

  “Of course, there is Rollo,” added Georgiana as an afterthought. “But he can hardly be taken as a guide to rational conduct. I’d always thought you had more sense, Damerell. If you are able to take this form, why do you ever spend any time in the other? You are far handsomer as you are now—there is no comparison!”

  “You honour me,” said Damerell. Sheltered as she was by his bulk, Muna could tell he was taut with tension, but he spoke with all his accustomed suavity. “I find my mortal form possesses certain advantages. Among other things, it is far easier to fit into a hackney coach.”

  “And here are your rabbits,” said Georgiana, surveying Muna, Henrietta and Rollo. “How ugly Rollo looks without his scales! As for the other two—why, they are mortals! Mortal females, I do declare.”

  “They are friends of the Sorceress Royal and under her protection,” said Damerell.

  He seemed to mean this for a warning, but it had the opposite of the intended
effect. Georgiana looked pleased. If she had had palms, it was clear she would have rubbed them.

  “The Sorceress Royal’s friends, you say? How convenient,” she said. “This might have been my design all along. Indeed, I believe it was, for I must have guessed your friends would hear of what had befallen you, and I had the sagacity to see where that would end. Few mortal magicians can resist the allure of an adventure in Fairy!”

  She lowered her head to inspect Muna and the others, her sulphurous breath gusting over them.

  “You are a discriminating creature, Damerell,” she said. “I have never understood what you saw in Rollo, for on the whole, I have no doubt you only befriend people of the best kind. You, now, with the yellow hair—I expect you are wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice!”

  This succeeded in rousing Henrietta out of her waterworks. She sat up, dashing the tears from her eyes.

  “You are mistaken, ma’am,” she retorted. “I have not a penny in the world!”

  “Oh, you cannot mislead these nostrils,” said Georgiana. “Nothing can equal the Threlfall nose for detecting the scent of gold, and you stink of wealth.”

  “If so, the stench is deceptive,” said Henrietta bitterly, but she might have remained silent for all the notice Georgiana took of her. The naga turned her gaze on Muna.

  “I cannot tell what you are at all,” she said contemplatively. “But that must be a sign of your powers, for there are not many mortals that can bamboozle me. We will say you are a renowned magician. That ought to satisfy the Fairy Queen, particularly since you are a friend of the Sorceress Royal. It has all fallen out very well! I shall substitute these two mortals for you, Damerell, and offer them to the Fairy Queen in your place.”

  Henrietta gasped.

  “What?” said Damerell.

  But Muna was on her feet in a moment, hope flaring. The words tripped off her tongue before she could stop them.

  “You mean you will take us to the Palace of the Unseen—the Fairy Court, I mean?” she said breathlessly.

  “That is just what I intend,” Georgiana agreed.

  “No!” said Damerell.

  The dragoness’s look of satisfaction dimmed. “Why, Damerell, I should have thought you’d be pleased.”

  “I am not and I won’t allow it,” said Damerell. His claws dug into the floor of the cavern, scraping grit from the stone. “I have been a sorcerer bonded to a dragon of Threlfall for more years than I like to recall. To suggest that two greenhorn girls would be a worthy replacement for me . . . do you mean this for an insult, ma’am?”

  “I do not say they are exactly equivalent,” allowed Georgiana, “but it is not as though the Queen will ever know she might have had you instead. I should think two Englishwomen would please her just as well. In her current temper, nothing will suit the Queen better than to do the British an ill turn.”

  “Very good,” said Damerell. “I am English, so why should not I do?”

  “You are being very strange, Damerell, I must say,” said Georgiana, peering down at him in puzzlement. “Why should you wish to be eaten when we have two perfectly good replacements? Indeed, I never wished to sacrifice you at all. I’ve always been fond of you, you know.”

  “You are most kind,” said Damerell frostily, “but still, I must insist—”

  “I don’t deny I held up my talons and squawked when Rollo first told us he had taken a mortal bondmate,” Georgiana continued as though he had not spoken. “But I am not afraid of owning my mistakes. I am happy to say you are far better than anyone had a right to expect for an inconsequential runt like Rollo. I should not have proposed offering you up to the Queen, but there seemed no other course if Threlfall was to be saved. However, now there is no need for it.”

  “I cannot agree,” said Damerell.

  Muna did not think he was likely to sway the dragoness, for far from being convinced, Georgiana was beginning to look vexed. It was clear she was like all powerful people accustomed to having their way—to be resisted would only serve to annoy her.

  Still, Damerell was an old, canny magician and he appeared determined that Muna and Henrietta’s lives should not be exchanged for his. Left alone, he might well prevail upon Georgiana, and that would not suit Muna at all. She did not of course wish to be eaten by the Queen of the Djinns, but she meant to be taken to the Palace of the Unseen. Since Fate had granted her this chance, she could not pass it up.

  “Don’t be silly,” she burst out, forgetting shyness. “You will not waste all our efforts to rescue you, sir? I call that disrespectful, after all we have done!”

  “Hear her!” said Georgiana approvingly. “You had best attend to your rabbits, Damerell. They speak good sense.”

  Damerell gazed down at Muna with a look of surprise. “I mean no disrespect. But if I could abandon you—two mere girls, one of whom I have known since she was a babe in arms—I had far better be dead than alive.”

  Henrietta had been silent, watching the dragons quarrel with wide unseeing eyes, but now she bestirred herself.

  “No, sir,” she said. “Miss Muna is right. We came to save you, and we must see the job through. Britain could readily spare a Miss Stapleton, but a sorcerer of your age and experience would be a grievous loss.”

  Damerell looked outraged. They will argue forever if I let them! thought Muna in despair. Then she saw what she must do.

  She stepped out from the shelter of Damerell’s body. Georgiana Without Ruth loomed over her.

  Georgiana was built upon such lines as made it evident that Rollo was, in fact, on the petite side for a naga. From Muna’s position the dragoness’s teeth looked enormous, and it was necessary for her to swallow a lump in her throat before she could speak.

  “Madam, I have heard that spirits will sometimes agree to a bargain,” she said. She was relieved to hear that her voice was steady, if rather high-pitched. “I have one to propose. If you will take me and allow Mr. Damerell, Mr. Threlfall and Miss Stapleton to return to England, I promise to come quietly with you, and not give any trouble.”

  Georgiana let out a scorching plume of red flame, blackening the ceiling. Muna scuttled backwards, but after a moment she realised the naga was laughing.

  “What a bargain!” said Georgiana. “Why, what trouble could you give me?”

  What would Sakti say if she were here now?

  “I shan’t tell you, of course. That would only teach you how to guard against it!” said Muna, tossing her head. “But I would counsel you not to underestimate me. Have not you wondered how we contrived to gain admission to your home despite your wards? Everyone knows no one may approach the caverns of Georgiana Without Ruth unless they have Threlfall’s blood in their veins.”

  Georgiana shook out her wings. “There is no mystery about that! You conspired with Rollo, of course.” Yet there was a note of doubt in her voice.

  “I had never met Mr. Threlfall before this day,” said Muna disdainfully (it was not a lie, she thought, for surely a dream-meeting did not count—one met all sorts of unlikely people in one’s dreams). “But if that is what you like to believe, far be it from me to disillusion you!”

  Her air of superiority—assumed in memory of Sakti at her most exasperating—was somewhat punctured when a hand landed heavily on her shoulder and she leapt, yelping. But it was only Henrietta.

  “Muna, you are brave—noble!” Henrietta’s voice trembled. “But we could not let you sacrifice yourself for us. It was I who insisted upon coming to Threlfall. If anyone is to be offered up to the Court, it should be me!”

  “So you will be,” said Georgiana. “You will both be offered up. There is no need to quarrel among yourselves, for your opinion is not of the least consequence.” She turned to Damerell. “You and Rollo will return to the mortal realm. Rollo will be safer there if the Fairy Queen decides to pursue him—and it will be a relief to be rid of his mumc
hance airs!”

  She cast a discontented look at Bartholomew. He had yet to stir; indeed, both he and Rollo were still lost to the world, despite the hubbub around them. The Sorceress Royal’s charm must be very potent, thought Muna.

  This gave her an idea. If only the hairpin had not been lost in the course of her metamorphoses! Her hand stole inside her robes—and closed around what she was looking for.

  “I suppose it is too much to hope that Rollo had anything to do with vanquishing his brother?” Georgiana was saying.

  “That was the work of the fair hands of these ladies,” said Damerell, bowing.

  Georgiana sighed. “They will make worthy gifts, at least. It has been some years since any mortal has got the better of a Threlfall. Bartholomew will not know where to look when he wakes. Well, we had best be off! Come along, you two—what do you call yourselves?”

  A breeze ruffled Muna’s hair, and a golden wing descended in front of her and Henrietta, obscuring their view of Georgiana. The dragoness’s incredulous voice could be heard, saying:

  “Come now, Damerell, do not play the fool! You don’t wish to quarrel with me.”

  “Let us go, Mr. Damerell,” said Henrietta. Her voice was unsteady, but she lifted her chin and took a step forward with the air of a martyr. “We came to Threlfall of our own accord, and we are prepared to suffer the consequences.”

  “Don’t be a gaby!” said Damerell curtly. “You cannot think I will allow either of you to come to harm.”

  “Oh, you need have no fear of that,” said Georgiana. “I shall see to it myself that they are delivered to the Court without a scratch upon them. The Queen will not have them if they are anything less than perfect.”

  Damerell only growled in reply. Peering around the edge of his wing, Muna saw wisps of smoke rise from Georgiana’s nostrils. Her jaws began to glow.

  “You will leave me with no choice, will you?” said Georgiana. “You drive me to this, Damerell!”