Page 41 of The Last Dragon King
Narine started to wash my hair.
“A few centuries ago, there weretworoyal dragon families. Embergate was also broken up into two territories, with each royal family encompassing one part of it. Grim Hollow and Jade City used to be home of the Dark Night Dragon clan, which is what King Valdren is. And Gypsy Rock and Cinder Mountain were the Eclipse Dragon clan.”
Eclipse Dragon clan?
Why had I never heard this story? Probably because it was something from some fancy history book that we didn’t get in Cinder Village. But still, you would think it would be told verbally. “I’ve never heard this,” I informed her.
She nodded. “It’s forbidden to speak about. My mother told me when I was a young child.”
Forbidden to speak of a story? That didn’t sound right.
“What happened to the other royal family?” I really,really, didn’t want to know the answer to that question, but I asked it anyway.
She looked at the door, the one that Regina sat on the other side of. “The queen of the Eclipse Dragons went to war with the Dark Night Dragon clan and slaughtered nearly all of them. For what reason, I don’t know.”
I could physically feel the blood draining from my face. “Eclipse Dragon queen?”
She nodded. “The queen of Cinder Mountain. She had a special type of magic. They called her theking killer. She could steal other dragon-folks’ magic and merge it with hers, making her all-powerful.”
My heart must have stopped, because I didn’t feel it anymore. I just felt… numb… and in shock. So very much in shock that I forgot to breathe for a moment.
No. Make it not true.Make it a lie, I prayed.
Narine went on, speaking barely above a whisper. “When the Eclipse Dragon queen tried to kill the Dark Night Dragon king, who at the time was King Valdren’s great-great grandfather, she lost. But it’s said her daughter went into hiding in the cliffs above Gypsy Rock with her husband and that the royal line lived on.”
My heart hammered in my chest. “What are you saying?”
Narine chewed her bottom lip and faced me. “I’m saying, my lady, that I think you are the lost queen of the Eclipse Dragon clan.”
My heart fell into my stomach and I couldn’t speak. How? It wasn’t possible. A queen? That was a joke.
I shook my head and laughed nervously. “A good children’s story surely,” I murmured. “Besides, I only transformed my wings.”
Her eyes cast downward to the floor. “This time,” she mumbled.
What didthatmean? That next time I wouldfullytransform? I couldn’t handle this anymore. In an effort to escape the conversation, I slid down and dunked my soapy head underwater.
The memory of the blue wings hanging off my back came to my mind and I considered Narine’s story. It sort of lined up with my mother’s. That the woman who gave birth to me had fled a battle, covered in blood, and said that her entire family had been killed, right? Maybe eighteen winters ago, when I was born, the dragon king at the time had found her in hiding and killed them all. I tried to remember every word my mother had said, but I’d been under stress and the exact wording of the story failed me.
Two things I did remember…
The woman who birthed me had said her family was killed because of a magic they carried.
And she’d said I would be killed if that magic were revealed in me.
I would need air soon, but I didn’t want to leave the water and the safety of its embrace. I lingered another moment, then I broke the top of the water and gasped, relieved to see that Narine had left me to myself. Clean clothes lay folded on the chair in front of the window.
This might be the last bath I ever took. King Valdren did me a small kindness in letting me clean up before my interrogation, but I knew what I was about to walk into. The king could smell a lie, and so this interrogation was going to be a truth bomb of epic proportions that would no doubt get me killed.
I only had one thing he desired, and that was my womb, so I needed to hope like Hades that he really wanted an heir that badly, and promote my child-rearing powers lest my life end today.
It was time to take my mother’s advice and make him fall in love with me. Whether it was possible or not.
* * *
When I steppedout of the washroom, Narine looked right at my unbuttoned tunic and a slight smirk graced her lips. I’d left it open just enough to give a hint of my cleavage. I also kept my hair down in loose waves, as I had heard men at the tavern say they liked that once. I wasn’t proud of what I was doing, but I was desperate enough to do it. I needed the king to see me as more than a threat, which was all I was to him now.
A king killer.
