Page 88 of The Dragon Queen

“Every person we find, soldier or citizen, will be treated for theirwounds,” I continued, the faint waver in my voice the only acknowledgement of the habitual fear I felt at speaking over an older man with more authority than I had.

Or did he?

“Majesty.” Rex wasn’t even bothering to engage with me. He focussed on Draven now. “We need to press our advantage. The traitor on his dragon got away, and no doubt reported our presence to the Duke. If we’re to rely on the element of surprise, we must push ahead. What has happened here has shown just what dragonfire is capable of.” Gods, when I saw his smile my whole body went cold. “If we prioritise the shipment of dragonfire to where we are, we will have all of Harlston back under the throne’s control within the week.”

“Within the week…” I barely whispered that as my back snapped straight. The muscles there hurt, as if unused to such a rigid posture. Glimmer came towards me, standing by my side and eyeing each and every one of them in turn. “You intend…?”

Why was I asking this question? I knew the answer. I’d worked with the women at the workshop to assist dragons in dropping these explosives far more effectively. We’d sat there and talked about their fears for their loved ones.

Forgetting that the Harlstonians had families too.

Brom’s family for one. I refused to believe that they supported the duke, and if they didn’t, then so did many others.

“General.” A rider ran over and sketched a salute, something Rex acknowledged with a nod. “We’ve found Lord Fast.”

“His remains?” Rex asked, suddenly one hundred percent more interested in the conversation.

“No, sir, he’s alive. Battered and needing medical attention, but alive.”

“More’s the pity.” Rex moved into action completely independently of us. “Well, have him brought to my tent. I’ll interrogate the bastard and find out how the hell they got the ballista here so fast and why he thought it a good idea to launch missiles at my riders.”

“Am I queen or not?” I shouldn’t have asked that question, I saw that, as they all turned to face me. Back down, that was silentlycommunicated in all of their gazes, all but my men. “I gave you an order. The people here aren’t Harlstonian or Skanian, they are citizens of Nevermere and will be treated as such. A field hospital will be constructed now. Medical supplies will be pooled and used to help the injured. All riders.” I stared Rex down, catching the moment his eyes narrowed. “Will help with the rescue efforts. We will dig down to the dungeons of this castle and retrieve every single person that still lives.” My focus shifted to the line of limp bodies that were growing by the minute. “And a proper burial will be provided for those that did not survive.”

Rex sucked in a breath to protest, but Draven cut him off immediately.

“You heard your queen. Everyone has their orders. Report to me directly if you don’t understand them.” He turned to the rider who had reported the discovery of Lord Fast. “Bring his lordship to the tent and have one of our healers look him over, see if he’s healthy enough to answer some questions.”

Rex scoffed at that, but I watched the muscle in his jaw twitch as he fought the customary chain of command. He expected all beneath him to obey him without question, and that same principle applied to him when he received direct orders from the crown.

“You heard His Majesty,” Rex snapped. “Move!”

“We’ll make sure your wife, your mother, gets help,” I told the wide-eyed family we’d rescued. “Everything will get better, I promise.”

“You know I’m going to hear about this at length from Rex later,” Draven muttered as the six of us walked towards the tent. Glimmer was at my side for every step. “There will be lectures, so many lectures, about bringing a woman onto a battlefield.”

“Males protect,” I said, shooting my dragon a sidelong look. “Queens let them, but sometimes…” Did I imagine a gleam in her eyes? “Sometimes males need some direction on how to best protect our territory.”

Chapter 42

“My king…” Lord Fast was covered in dirt and blood and he looked like the chair he was sitting in was the only thing keeping him upright. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t rise.”

“The intricacies of court protocol don’t really interest me, Fast,” Draven snapped, moving over to a table that had been set up, bottles of wine and glasses produced from gods knew where. The sight of them felt like a slap to the face after what I’d just seen. Draven poured himself a glass and then offered one to the lord, but he shook his head. I stared down at his hands and saw that they were swollen and bloodied, no doubt unable to hold something like a wine glass stem. “Your attack on my dragons does.”

“Didn’t do much, did it?” The man coughed, and I noted the blood there. I was up and out of my seat, but Fast waved me away. Painfully slowly, a kerchief was produced from his jerkin and he mopped at his mouth, the dirt and blood ruining the white square. “I told him that.”

“My uncle?”

Draven’s glass hovered in the air. He turned and then forced himself to sit down, then glanced at me, making clear I needed to do the same. This seemed like some awful foreshadowing of whatwas to come. While I had been hauled in front of Raina and King Magnus to be inspected, others would be forced to do the same. Fast nodded to me, the best approximation of a bow he could muster right now.

“My queen.” Then he turned back to Draven. “Yes, your uncle. Ugly thing, a war between families. Told him as much when he came, flying in with a phalanx of his pet riders and their dragons.” He shook his head slowly, and I felt like I could see a shadow of the man who dared to contradict his duke. “I had no interest in getting involved in a fight between dragons. We’d shift our alliance, change the border so we became part of Tharfield or Cantlyn. Of course, that’s when his men swarmed in, took my wife, my daughters away.”

“He…” That had escaped me before I had time to think. My brows creased as I tried to piece together what the lord was saying. “He took your loved ones as hostages?”

“A trade, that’s what he told me it was.” Lord Fast grinned and I could see the red blood staining his teeth. “He’d give me some war machines shipped up the river and to my door. Some soldiers and some dragons to protect my castle.” The smile faded. “My people. I could either launch an attack on you the moment dragons were sighted or…” His eyes glittered as they met mine. “Or he’d give my womenfolk to his men as playthings. Let them do as they willed with each of the girls and my wife, then toss what remained in a ravine.”

His hand clawed at his jerkin, yanking it down to reveal a wound on his shoulder that was too neat to have come from the bomb blast.

“Put his sword to my throat when I went to protest. Those riders of his used their dragons to ensure everyone was compliant. The one he left was a dull-eyed thing, obviously no good in any fight. I…”

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