For Patrick Samphire, my partner in every adventure.
I love you even more than dragons!
Books by Stephanie Burgis
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart
The Girl with the Dragon Heart
The Princess Who Flew with Dragons
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
I knew it was a bad idea to leave home even before I ever heard about the ice giants. But when your older sister rules your entire kingdom, it’s almost impossible to say no to her.
‘Sofia! Good morning.’ My sister, Crown Princess Katrin of Drachenheim, gave me her warmest smile as she greeted me from her seat behind the polished wooden desk of her office.
Oh no. I’d seen too many powerful nobles take their seats under the spell of that smile, only to be sent away fifteen minutes later with stunned faces, somehow persuaded into plans they could never have imagined in their worst nightmares. It had been six months since the last time Katrin had come up with a clever new plan for my life. The very idea of being drawn into another one now made me want to flee straight back to my bedroom, to curl up with the protection of my books and a locked door.
I was a princess, though, and princesses can never show fear. So I crossed my arms and scowled, planting myself firmly in place. ‘Well?’ I demanded. ‘What is it this time?’
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘I beg your pardon?’
I narrowed my own eyes back at her even as nerves rattled frantically against my chest, reminding me of every battle I’d lost against her before. ‘You’ve summoned me to your office instead of your sitting room,’ I told her impatiently. ‘That means we’re here on business – there’s something you want me to do for you. But you’re sitting behind your desk instead of coming around to meet me. That means you know I won’t want to do it – so you’re reminding me that you’re the one in charge.’ As always.
‘Hmm.’ Katrin’s lips tightened. One long, elegant brown finger tapped twice on the desk. Then she stilled it and her face relaxed into its usual serene authority. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘apparently I haven’t wasted the kingdom’s money by hiring those expensive tutors of yours.’
Now she was complimenting my intelligence.
I was in so much trouble.
I said, ‘Please tell me you haven’t promised me in marriage to a wicked fairy again!’
Her perfect jaw tightened. Her voice sounded as if it were being ground through glass. ‘I never actually signed that betrothal contract last winter.’
But she’d seriously considered it, and we both knew it. My sister might have been forced to take on the duty of raising me when our mother died, but I’d always understood what mattered most to her: anything for the good of the kingdom.
I raised my eyebrows pointedly. ‘How about that time you sent me up to the top of a clock tower to be eaten by monsters?’
‘I did not –!’ She stopped and let out a long, controlled breath. ‘I was forced to send you as a hostage to attacking dragons, not as their supper. If you recall, it was our only chance of saving the city! But those “monsters” have become our kingdom’s best allies ever since we signed our treaty with them. Didn’t you just send a five-page letter to one of them yesterday?’
‘Hmmph.’ Of course her spies told her whenever I sent Jasper a new letter. The fact that my one true friend was a dragon who lived underneath a mountain over sixty miles away – and wouldn’t be allowed to even leave his cavern until he turned fifty – meant our letters were the happiest and easiest space I knew. We would never meet, so I would never have to worry about mucking things up the way I always did in person.
But I should have known that our letters had never been truly private. Even in the apparent safety of my own rooms, I was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting at all times and, naturally, I wasn’t the one who had chosen them.
My sister was all about control.
Control of her emotions, which she never allowed any of us to glimpse any more – if they still existed and hadn’t been swallowed up like everything else in her life by …
Control of the kingdom, which our father had handed over to her several years ago. He hadn’t wanted to deal with any difficult decisions – or any emotions of his own either, after our mother’s death. Something had vanished behind his blue eyes when Mother died, leaving only a hearty, artificial veneer that I could never manage to pierce.
And, of course, control of me.
‘I trust,’ she said evenly, ‘that you will always wish to do what’s best for our kingdom, no matter what the personal sacrifice might be. Is there any other repayment for what our people give us?’
She waved one graceful hand at the luxurious office around us, full of rich, dark wood and gleaming silver. ‘This palace … these lovely gowns we’re both wearing …’ She tilted her head. ‘Haven’t you just put through another order of new books from the university at Villenne?’
I tried not to squirm. ‘So?’
I’d been forcing myself to save most of my pocket money for other purposes lately, but this was a brand-new series of tracts by my favourite philosopher in the entire world, Gert van Heidecker, taken from his famous lectures in far-off Villenne, and it looked utterly amazing. I couldn’t wait to curl up with all six volumes on my bed and close the door on the rest of the world while I absorbed every one of them from beginning to end. I might not even come out for meals until I’d read them all through at least three times.
It was the one time I ever felt completely confident that I was definitely doing the right thing: when I was lost in a beautifully impractical, passionate debate over the nature of truth or free will or reality itself, with my imagination flying free and the terrifying outside world locked far away from me.
Philosophy was all about the search for wisdom – a search that could take place without any interruptions in the safety of my own bedroom. Better yet, I could argue anything I liked when it came to philosophical debates, because, for once, I couldn’t hurt my family or my kingdom with any of my stupid mistakes or strong opinions – and in the study of philosophy, unlike courtly life, we were supposed to argue over everything.
It was absolutely perfect for me.
‘I saw the price of those books, Sofia.’ Katrin’s voice pierced my happy fantasy. ‘Do you have any idea what most girls your age earn as an annual salary in their full-time work as apprentices or housemaids?’
Ouch. I set my teeth together.
The awful truth was, I hadn’t known that a year ago. It had never even occurred to me to wonder. Six months ago, though, I’d seen for myself the way refugees lived on our city’s riverbank, sleeping in thin tents even in the snow. All of them scratched out a living with their makeshift market – even the youngest children there.
I’d met fierce, brave girls my own age too, who worked hard for their living. Unlike the unobtrusive servants in our palace, they hadn’t been shy about letting me know what
it felt like.
Last winter, two of them had saved my life and the entire kingdom from a fairy invasion that had left me with nightmares ever since … and the worst part was, I’d done almost nothing to help them along the way. I’d always dreamed of showing my sister that I was worthy of our family after all, but when the real test had come, I had stuttered and stumbled and had to be rescued, like a helpless – no, a useless – princess.
I’d always known I was a disappointment as a royal. But I’d never realised how disappointing I was as a person until then.
Katrin’s tone gentled as I stood in scowling silence. ‘I know about the money you’ve been sending to the riverbank to build real houses there.’
‘So?’ My shoulders hunched. ‘They deserve roofs over their heads, don’t they?’
It was the least I could do from the warmth and comfort of my rooms. But I’d tried so hard not to let my ladies-in-waiting find out. No one was supposed to know that I was the one funding those houses.
I should have known better than to think I could keep any secrets from my sister.
‘I agree,’ she said calmly. ‘Unfortunately, there’s been some unrest among the city’s merchants. They claim the new construction would spoil the view from their shops – and you know how much they hate that riverbank market! However, I dealt with their objections rather neatly in yesterday’s privy council meeting. In fact, we’re all delighted that you’re finally taking an interest in our city.’
Uh-oh. I eyed her suspiciously, hugging my arms tighter across my chest. I knew that purring tone of voice.
‘What would you think,’ she asked, ‘of not having those books shipped here from Villenne after all?’
Oh no. Righteous fury boiled up within me. Not this time!
I had been out-manipulated by my sister so many times. But this was going too far.
‘That money came from my personal allowance, Katrin!’ The words ground out between my teeth. ‘I have every right to spend it on books –’
‘And of course you can still buy your little books,’ said Katrin soothingly. ‘But you needn’t have them shipped all the way here.’
‘I … beg your pardon?’ I blinked, caught off balance.
My sister sat back, lacing her hands on her lap and cocking her head, like one of my many tutors waiting for me to fail another unexpected test. ‘You may not have heard,’ she said, ‘but there is a great and historic exhibition about to take place in Villenne.’
‘You mean the Diamond Exhibition?’ As if she could catch me out that easily! I’d had tutors in everything from etiquette to astronomy flinging unexpected quizzes at me almost every day of my life. ‘Of course I’ve heard of it, Katrin. It’s in all the newspapers.’
‘Well, it is a once-in-a-lifetime event.’ Katrin’s smile deepened. ‘The chance to view the greatest inventions, magical spells and industrial offerings of our age, all gathered together on display … It sounds worth a royal look-in, don’t you think?’
I stared at her. ‘Katrin, Villenne is over four hundred miles from here, and that exhibition begins this week. Unless you’ve learned how to fly – oh.’
Oh no.
Of course humans couldn’t fly themselves, without wings. But I had flown once before, veering wildly back and forth through the night sky on the scaly back of Jasper’s ferocious sister Aventurine, as she and her best friend had saved me from invading fairies and goblins, leaving my family’s palace broken and burning behind us.
That whole night was a memory shrouded in horror – one that I never, ever wanted to repeat. I’d barely left my own room ever since. If it were up to me, I would never step outside the rebuilt walls of our palace again.
But I should have realised that my calculating older sister would remember all the details from that night and reshape them into a use that I could never have imagined.
Oh, Katrin.
I’d been trying so hard to stay fierce and strong throughout this meeting, but at the thought of my sister’s slim, upright body sailing out of reach, so high and vulnerable in the sky above me …
I sank down into the chair in front of Katrin’s desk. ‘You’re going to fly there?’ I asked in a horribly small voice.
My sister was going to fly hundreds of miles away from me? Out into the terrifying, unknown outside world where literally anything could happen?
My sister, who kept everyone and everything in this kingdom under control, was planning to leave?
Never.
‘You can’t leave Father to look after everything!’ I straightened triumphantly in the chair. ‘He would never agree to that. Anyway, you know he would make a terrible muddle of the kingdom while you were gone.’
‘I know.’ Katrin nodded approvingly. ‘That’s why you, Sofia, are going to fly there in my place to represent our kingdom. We need someone to represent us to the wider world, to find us new trading partners and allies from across the continent. If you can manage any of that, you’ll win our merchants’ full support for those houses on the riverbank. So, if you want to help our people, collect your precious books and finally prove your value to the kingdom …’
She smiled sweetly as I gaped at her in disbelief, an empty hollow forming inside my chest where my silly, unearned sense of security had rested ever since our palace walls had been rebuilt.
‘Isn’t it lucky,’ said my sister, ‘that you’ve already flown once before?’
CHAPTER 2
Needless to say, my devious older sister didn’t give me any time to think up an escape. Within less than an hour, I was sitting in a beautifully ornamented wooden carriage – one of my family’s finest! – as it rose straight up into the air from our south-west courtyard, dangling from the giant claws of a massive green-and-gold dragon: Jasper’s terrifying aunt Émeraude.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like his family … in theory. But it was so much easier to like them from a distance of sixty miles or so.
Katrin smiled serenely as she waved her farewells from the safety of the paved ground below, where she stood next to our big, bluff, red-headed father. He had finished waving already and was beaming around at the gathered courtiers with his usual, meaningless public smile. I’d hoped to snatch a moment in private to beg for his help, but he’d only strolled out at the last minute and given me a quick, bruising hug that muffled every protest I’d tried to make.
Then I’d been bundled into the carriage with my ladies-in-waiting all rustling and chattering after me, and our guards had shut the door firmly behind us.
Wind gusted against the doors and windows as the dragon’s giant wings beat above us, sending our carriage swaying in mid-air. My two younger ladies-in-waiting, Anja and Lena, shrieked with excitement as our view of the golden palace veered sickeningly up and down.
The two guards who accompanied us looked stern and unmoved. My older lady-in-waiting, Ulrike, was already working at her embroidery with her usual aggravating air of prim self-righteousness, blonde hair piled in perfect curls above her head.
I took deep, slow breaths through my clenched teeth and tried with all my might to calm my roiling stomach.
‘Aaaah!’
The carriage took a sudden, swooping dip, and my stomach swooped with it. A horrible moan escaped my lips before I clamped them shut and squeezed my eyes shut too, against the nauseating view of all those houses below … much, much too far below us.
‘Isn’t this exciting?’ Anja bounced happily up and down on the seat beside me, tilting the carriage more every time she moved. ‘I never imagined that I would fly!’
Oh, for goodness sake.
‘You’re not flying,’ I muttered, slitting my eyes half open to glare at her. ‘That’s the dragon.’
And it was utterly humiliating. No matter what I tried – no matter how many promises I ever made to myself – my sister always outwitted me in the end.
Gert van Heidecker wouldn’t have let himself be so easily outmanoeuvred. He won philosophical debates across the contine
nt every year and left his opponents shrivelled and mumbling in defeat. I’d read all of the details in his published letters, and Jasper and I agreed: he was the ideal philosopher.
The ideal human philosopher anyway. Jasper insisted that the finest dragon philosophers were even more impressive. But when he found out that I had bought van Heidecker’s newest treatises hot off the press, I knew perfectly well he would snort smoke in envy.
It was almost enough to reconcile me to this trip …
Until the carriage took a sudden, sharp swing to one side and my stomach lost its battle with gravity.
‘Urrrrp!’
My sister’s guards really were well trained. They didn’t budge so much as a muscle as I was sick all over their polished boots.
Anja and Lena did, though. They both shrieked with horror as they yanked their feet out of the way, and Lena’s face turned positively green.
It was the only comfort that I found in that whole day’s journey.
*
We finally sighted Villenne forty-eight unspeakable hours later. By then, my silk gowns were hanging noticeably looser around my figure and my head was pounding an endless, throbbing beat. I’d managed to eat a few scraps of food each night when we’d landed, but each time I’d got back into the carriage, I’d lost everything I’d eaten the night before.
With every breath, I cursed my sister’s scheming. The amusement in our dragon’s golden gaze both nights, as she watched me stagger around on legs like loose jelly, didn’t sweeten my mood either. Not even a long new letter from Jasper – tossed carelessly in my direction from Émeraude’s great claws – could make me feel any better.
I only wish I could be there with you to explore the most famous human city in the world! he’d written to me in a big, sloping, dark red scrawl. Just think: you’ll be exploring the city of Gert van Heidecker himself! You must tell me everything about it.
But all I could think of were the stories his aunt Émeraude would carry back to him about me. They would all be unbearably humiliating. Jasper and I had formed a perfect philosophical friendship by letter – could it ever survive if he discovered how useless I was in real life?
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