Page 25 of The Dragon Queen

You are a queen.Glimmer sounded as querulous as a child, and in some ways, that’s what she was.

Human queens don’t usually run around in dragon rider uniforms, I explained.

Do they wear gold?One eye opened sleepily.

Of course. I have to try to match your magnificence somehow.

That’s what Darkspire’s rider is worried about.He thinks you won’t like the clothes you have to wear.

“You need me to play a role,” I said to Draven.

“The ways in which I need you are so many it’s difficult to put into words.” I’d gone to sleep in Soren’s shirt, and it puffed up around me as Draven tugged me to the edge of the bed, then stepped between my thighs. “That’s what I’m going to focus on to get through all this. You, here, us…” He was forced to smile when Ged snorted, then started snoring again. “Even bloody Ged’s snores. Anything to ground me in reality, rather than the ridiculousness of today.”

That should’ve been warning enough of what was to come.

Glimmerand I were led down the hallway by a phalanx of maids. Women were rushing in and out of the room, their voices a high-pitched babble until I stepped inside. That silence, the way they all dropped down into a curtsey, had me wanting to protest that it wasn’t that long ago that I was covered in pig shit, but that’s not how things worked. To be queen meant putting yourself above almost every other person in the land, and that’s what they were showing me with this sign of respect.

“Good morning to you all,” I said, forcing my voice to stay strong and even. “I understand that you are helping me to dress for the funeral.”

“Daisy, Your Highness.” The seamstress bobbed another curtsey, then flushed, obviously thinking that was overkill. “Come and take alook. The prince worked so hard to come up with something you’d like.”

By all the gods, he had. I stared at the mannequin before me, taking in the flowing black skirts, the leather bodice that had been stitched into a much more stylish version of a rider’s uniform, but rather than silver insignias, golden metal covered the arms. If I were a man and a knight, they would be called pauldrons: metal armour used to protect the shoulders and arms from a sword’s blows, though I was willing to bet no knight wore them crafted from gilded steel. They shone in the morning sunlight, glittering like newly minted coins.

Oh, I like that.The women heard Glimmer’s croons, stepping back abruptly to allow her to pass, then cooing over her response. I saw their fingers flex, wanting to pat my bondmate like a dog, but Glimmer was far more than that.Gold. My dragon turned my way.You need more gold. It’s what marks you as a queen.

I’m fairly sure my dragon would be a queen if she had black, blue, red, purple, or green scales, but before I could say anything, there was a sharp knock at the door.

“The breastplate,” Daisy said, bustling forward.

Draven had gone all out. He’d had a cuirass of sorts made for me, also of gilded metal. I stared in disbelief as it was brought into the room, and I wasn’t the only one. Each maid watched Daisy’s every move until she noticed their presence.

“What’re you…?” Daisy said, her eyes widening, then narrowing as she glanced at all the maids milling around. “The queen-in-waiting does not need an audience for when she dresses. Off with you, all of you!”

A violent wave had the women scattering, just leaving Glimmer, the seamstress, and myself.

“Now we see how this fits.” She locked the door and then pulled the dress down from the dummy. “We’ve got time for a few quick alterations,” she said, eyeing me and then the dress. “But His Majesty seemed to think he had your measurements right, and I dare say he was correct...”

He was.It was a strange thing, pulling on a costume custom made for me. It felt like I was spending most of my life in the uniform of a dragon rider, but now I needed to don the one of a queen. The bodice was a complex mix of straps and decorative embossing, the black skirts flowing over my now booted feet. The gold pauldrons felt heavy, but also strangely reassuring, across my shoulders. Daisy was forced to call some maids back to help with the breastplate, the lot of them confused about how it went on. I was no better, having little experience with armour. We worked it out eventually and then it settled over my bust.

It was a decorative thing, with no real practical purpose. My stomach was bared, unprotected, and yet… I stared into the mirror, seeing not Pig or Pip or even Pippa, but…

A queen, Glimmer finished for me.Your outside matches your inside.

Was that what it was? I glanced back at my reflection, seeing that Glimmer had joined me. She was getting so big, now up to my mid thigh. There were ponies the size of her, ridden by children.

We are both queens, I agreed with a nod, and that’s when Daisy had to ruin everything.

“Your hair is beautiful, Highness.” Daisy was bobbing up and down frantically in some strange dance of obeisance. “But we were concerned that from a distance?—”

“I’d look like a twelve-year-old boy?” I finished for her.

The poor woman’s cheeks flushed bright red.

“I took the liberty… I found…” By all the gods, we’d be here the entire morning if I didn’t calm the woman down. My hand reached out and took hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. “There’s a wig.”

Of course there was. There was one back when I first came to the capital, so why wouldn’t there be one now? A far grander one this time, Daisy produced a cap of flowing blonde hair and held it out for me to inspect.

“It’s fine, really,” I told her, then bent my head.

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