Page 86 of The Dragon Queen

“My love,” he replied, right before he kissed him.

Did it look like that when I kissed either one of them? My heart ached as I considered it, knowing the answer. No, there was no softness in either of them, and so there was none in their kiss. Hard and hungry, it was almost a fight rather than a confirmation of their love. I went to step back, sure they’d need some time, when two hands shot out and latched around my wrists.

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Some of the old prince was there in Draven’s feline purr and Brom snorted in response.

“Always greedy.” Then he turned and faced me. “Though this time I see why.” They separated, putting me in between them and then going right back to what they were doing. One claimed my mouth, then tilted my head back for the other to do the same, after which I was treated to a very close up view of them kissing. “This is where a queen belongs,” Brom informed me before nodding to thedragons. Obsidian and Darkspire were curled up side by side like cats and in the dip between their bodies, Glimmer was nestled. “Even the dragons know.”

“So that’s where you got to.”

Ged slid out of the saddle as soon as Cloudy’s claws hit the ground. His dragon wandered over to the other three, his nostrils working as he sniffed them all over, trying to gather clues about what had happened.

“Commander!” Soren rushed over, taking the lot of us in. “Obsidian was hit? Reports?—”

“Of my demise are greatly exaggerated,” Brom replied with a smile, pulling away, but keeping his arm around my shoulder. “Now, tell me, what happened to Castle Fast?”

“Not much to tell,” Ged drawled, plucking an apple from his tunic and biting deep into it. “There’s a crater where the town existed.”

That was the moment when the remnants of the golden light faded, leaving me cold and empty as I remembered what Draven had done.

“Tell me,” I demanded. “Tell me what you saw, Ged.”

Chapter 41

Did Queen Inara regret destroying the dragon town? I’d never thought to wonder at that until now, because whatever devilry rode me during the fight, it was all gone now. Ged hadn’t lied. We all returned to what remained of Castle Fast, the rest of the Royal Riders having caught up in the meantime, and each of our beasts looked out onto a field of destruction.

What was once a castle was now just rubble, and while I was glad to see those damn ballista in pieces, everything else? I felt cold, empty, and wrung out as I walked forward.

“Don’t go in there.”

Soren was at my side, a gentle hand on my arm, and to everyone else I’m sure he looked like a solicitous officer dealing with his queen, but I saw it. He gazed down at me with real love, real concern, and that made for a strange combination.

“Why not?” I asked that too sharply, imperious as a queen. “Why shouldn’t I see this?”

“Pippin—”

“We did this, so why shouldn’t I look upon my own handiwork?”

But I knew why as soon as I got closer. As always in a fight between powerful men, it wasn’t just them who got hurt. Everyoneelse, the common people, they were the pawns so easily expended in the early days of the fight. I saw evidence of this in the rubble. Men picked through the carcass of the castle, cheering when they found a cache of fruit and vegetables under some fallen stone, but I knew that had to have been someone’s market stall. The flutter of a length of fabric told me that the land I walked over may have once been a dressmaker’s or a weaver’s workshop, but it was something far simpler that drew me forward. Glimmer walked alongside me, suddenly very quiet as I stopped in front of a single shoe.

A woman’s boot, that I knew, from the heel and the slenderness of the ankle. I picked it up, saw the marks of use in the scuffs on the leather, noted that one of the loops the buttons were pushed through was long broken. Someone had worn this boot over and over.

But who?

Where was she? What had happened to her when Draven dropped the vial? What had happened to all the people of this keep? Not just the soldiers who decided to turn their hand at attacking dragons, but the farmers, the maids, the artisans.

The children?

I moved far more carefully now, wondering at what I tread upon. Bodies? People trapped beneath rubble? Graves? My head whipped around at the sound of a ragged cheer. The riders clustered around Draven seemed to be telling tales of his feats in battle, completely unaware of the cost.

But I wasn’t.

Glimmer—

Here.

She was like a hound, clawing at the dirt, flicking great plumes of it away. I fell down on my knees beside her and started digging as well. My nails raked against stone fairly quickly, the sensation sending shivers down my spine, but right as I went to trace the outline of one brick and then pull it free, a massive presence appeared by my side.

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