Page 40 of The Gold Dragon Prince
Chapter
Twelve
Selle
All I needed was a few moments in my dragon’s arms to find the courage to continue on and finish the quest we’d started.
“You don’t remember?” I told my father, peeking at my brothers to indicate that they should go along with whatever story I concocted. “A great, noxious odor filled the castle, making everyone sick. You ordered us brought from our room so you could laugh at the five of us getting sick as well.”
As I made my explanation, I worked to conceal my egg under my tunic, praying Father wouldn’t ask what the bulge around my stomach was.
“Yes,” Rumi said slowly. “The odor was horrific. You laughed and laughed at the five of us choking and gasping until you began to retch yourself.”
“You ordered the windows to be opened and foreveryone to get out,” Leo added, glancing at me to make certain he was getting the story right.
I nodded. “It was terrible.”
“Perhaps the princes should be returned to their room now, Your Majesty,” Argus suggested, rubbing his long beard thoughtfully.
I still couldn’t believe that my father’s long-time councilor was one of Gildur’s dragon relatives. It made me feel safer to know that my brothers and I had always had help on the inside.
None of my brothers knew what I knew, though. They all glanced warily at Argus, like he might suggest our father throw us in the dungeon.
“If everyone became ill, then what are you doing here, Dormas?” Father asked.
Argus shrugged. “I lost my sense of smell decades ago, Your Majesty,” he said.
It was helpful that the doors opened just then and a pair of confused guards wandered back into the room.
“Er, you sent us to take the princes back to their bedchamber, Your Majesty?” one of them asked.
I peeked at Argus, who winked at me.
“Yes, yes,” Father said, waving distastefully at us. “Get these whores out of here.”
I’d never been so glad to be summarily dismissed by my father before. He ignored the five of us, turning to question Argus as my brothers and I were led out of the throne room and up to our bedchamber.
“What’s going on?” Misha asked in a meek whisper once the door was slammed behind us. “What really happened in the throne room?”
I smiled at my brother’s cleverness in realizing something beyond what he was aware of had happened.
“It’s a long story,” I said, pulling my egg out from under my tunic and walking to Rumi’s bed. My brothers gaped at the egg, but there wasn’t time for introductions. “I’ll explain the reasons for the commotion in the throne room once everything is resolved, but for now, all you need to know is that everyone’s memories were wiped and rewritten, and no one will remember what truly happened.”
“Even us, it would seem,” Leo said, his face pinched with frustration as he came over to help me and Rumi move Rumi’s bed aside.
The three of us were able to move the bed easily, and once the magical door was revealed, we wasted no time in going through it.
Only, instead of our golden staircase descending into the same part of the forest near the pavilion where it usually descended, it spiraled down into the most magnificent and peaceful garden I’d ever seen.
The whole thing was lovely. The flowers were somehow more vibrant. The sky seemed bluer and the clouds more playful. The trees that circled the clearing where we stepped away from the stairs were of every description and seemed to glitter, as if they were hung with gems. A clear stream wound through the area, and the wildlife came forward to stare curiously at us without fear.
All of that was secondary to the beautiful woman who stood near the center of the clearing. Gildur and Saoirse were there, as was Manfred, without his amulet, I noticed. Freddy and Alyce from Saiorse’s estate were also there, but I barely noticed any of them, even my mate.
The woman had my full attention. She appeared both old and young, with long, waving white hair that was adorned with a flowered garland. Her clothing was gossamer fine, but it was not salacious orrevealing. She had her hands folded in front of her, and the smile she wore as she greeted us was as warm as if she were our mother.
“My children,” she said, enhancing the feeling as if we belonged to her. “I am so happy to meet you at last.”
She opened her arms, and it took all of my willpower not to run to her and embrace her like a child.
