Page 32 of Consorting with Dragons

“Yes, of course, I want to marry you as soon as possible. I’m going to inform the queen tonight and I’ll arrange a wedding for us.”

“And I’m not through talking about this camp of yours. It’s silly to think that you can make your men some kind of ‘warrior monks’ who have no lives outside of work. That’s never going to work, you know.”

“Well, I…”

“Have you spoken to my parents about all this yet?”

“No. Not exactly. Not yet. I thought I would do that in person, when your bearer arrives. I did speak to Prince Mikos already, as you know, and he knows my intentions.”

He turned toward me. “Oh, I know. He told me, but he’s not my father. He’s my uncle. That whole conversation was kind of a disaster, anyway, wasn’t it?”

“Was it?”

“You know it was. He makes most people nervous. Not you, though, he said. The two of you argued.”

“It wasn’t exactly an argument. But no, he doesn’t bother me, though I think he wanted to. I tried to make him understand how I felt about everything, but I’m still not sure if he did. He said one of his fathers is coming along with yours.”

“Blake, Davos’s consort, like I already told you. We call them omaks. They’re our bearers, as well as one of our fathers. I don’t think you have those here.”

“No, we do not.”

“I don’t plan to bear children, just so you know. If you have that idea, just get it out of your head right now.”

“No,” I said, looking over at him in horror at the idea of altering his body. “I don’t want that at all.”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with it, so there’s no need for your face to look like that. It’s just not for me. I don’t plan to stay at home all the time and take care of babies.”

“I…see. Then what do you plan to do?”

“That’s something I’ll have to figure out. I’ve decided that I will marry you—though you still haven’t exactlyaskedme to.”

“Yes, I did.” I said a little heatedly.

“No. We discussed how you told my uncle you planned to keep me and mentioned sending my father a marriage contract. We negotiated a little over Talon. But no, you never actually asked me to marry you.”

“Well, I…”

“You’ll have to send the contract to my other father, King Stefan, or else he’ll be offended. He’s pretty tough, you know. But he’ll probably agree. You should also call him and just be nice and respectful to him. Not like you were with Mikos.”

“Of course.”

I suddenly needed to touch him, but I thought that once I got started with that, I wouldn’t be able to stop. “I’m sorry if I’m messing this up.”

He put a hand on Talon’s head and finally turned to smile at me. “You’re getting a little better at it. And as Blake says, ‘practice does make perfect.’”

Chapter Ten

Rylan

Quinn had decided to greet my family at his home, and he thought that we’d all be more comfortable staying there, so reluctantly I had agreed to spend the night, though I made it clear we’d be in separate bedrooms. Meanwhile, he’d had one of his servants go to a store and purchase some clothing for me from a list I made, while I took a long nap. The activities of the morning had tired me out. He had also contacted his queen, and he said that she wished us happiness and told him she would be happy to make arrangements for our wedding. I told him I’d think about it, but that my omak would probably have other plans.

I wound up sleeping most of the day, waking up only when the servants brought a tray to my room. I guess I must have really needed the rest.

The next morning my omak and Blake were set to arrive, and I couldn’t wait to see them both. I’d wanted to go down to the docks to meet them, but I had a slight headache when I woke up, and Quinn didn’t want me to exert myself. He’d planned on picking them up himself, but my omak had sent a message that they had their own transport and would come to us. They just needed our coordinates.

Considering the contentious meeting he’d had with my uncle Mikos, I wasn’t too sure what my omak and omak-ahn would have to say about any of this, but I was ready for anything. I really needed to talk to them. My omak could talk to my father if he would, before Quinn sent him the contract, and the kingusually listened more to him than to anyone else. I was anxious to hear what my parent would have to say about King Travon and how he’d been less than honest and had run back to his ship once the trouble started.

Meanwhile, Talon had settled in nicely and liked the big open field by the house and all the food he’d been offered since he’d been there. Maybe it was more accurate to say heespeciallyliked the food. We’d both met Sulamon, and my first sight of him was a little terrifying, to be honest. Quinn’s huge red dragon had sniffed curiously at us both, but seemed friendly enough. Then again, Quinn had been right there to intervene if he hadn’t been. He was enormous—much larger than I’d expected, to be honest. Unlike Talon, who chattered away at him, he didn’t talk to us at all. I wondered how much he understood, though I thought he looked at me with intelligence in his eyes.

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