Page 11 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
Far in the back was a very large doorway ten or more feet off the ground with no way to reach it. A dragon’s den that one had to fly into? It was dark within, making me wonder if Cighyss was not home or was sleeping.
And why was I wondering about him?
I refocused on Phineas. “How long was I unwell?”
“Four days. It’s mid-morning now. Are you hungry?” He waved for me to follow him and walked toward one of the fire pits. “There’s always something brewing, but we also have excellent cold storage.”
Four women in simple gowns sat around the fire on stone benches softened by colorful cushions. They stopped their conversation to look at me, and a pregnant woman in green with fiery red hair stopped weaving lace on a small stand. She stood and held out a hand to me exactly as I’d expected Camille to do.
“May I present,” Phineas said, “Princess Gilda of Xanthous.”
I took her hand as she clicked her tongue at him. “Ignore him,” she said. “I’m simply Gilda Gerrard.”
“Then, for now, I am simply Declan de Lancret.” I kissed her knuckles anyway.
“For now?” Phineas asked.
I stared at him. Did I really need to explain?
He frowned at me and shook his head. “After everything we talked about, you’re going to return home?”
“Not necessarily.”
“But you won’t stay here,” he said with clear disappointment.
“Why would I?”
He cupped my shoulder and cocked his head at me. “Declan, Iknowyou. Why would you want to go to a place where you can never be free to be yourself?”
I stepped out of his reach, my gaze flicking to Gilda and the other women who clearly listened.
“Declan—”
“Stop,” I warned.
His face hardened. “No, I will not stop. This is the one place in the whole world where no one will judge a royal for being a man who loves men.”
I looked again to the women, horrified that he would declare such a thing in front of witnesses. I expected disgust or disdain, but all I saw was…pity. They pitied me.
I hated that and stood up straighter. “I’ll… Then I’ll live as a commoner. None judge them.”
Phineas snorted a laugh. “Even half-delirious with pain and nausea, you still ordered everyone about like the prime prick that you were trained to be.” He waved behind me. “You even came down those few stairs like a royal entering a ball.”
I wanted to deny it but honestly had no idea if I had or not. On either count. How did a commoner descend a staircase? There were very few choices to make when doing so.
“If you leave,” Gilda said, “you can never tell anyone about us or this place. It would endanger all of us.”
“But they know. Everyone knows.”
She shook her head. “They know a dragon lives here. They don’t know about any of us.”
True. I nodded and said, “I’ll say nothing.”
“Swear it, Declan,” Phineas said with a hard edge to his voice. “A random prince or sacrifice every now and then is one thing. We can welcome them into the hoard. But a fleet? An entire navy?”
“Cighyss would be forced to defend us,” Gilda added. “We don’t want that for him.”
She wanted to save the dragon from having to protect them? Because it would result in the deaths of countless humans? No, what she’d said was that she didn’t want him to kill to keep them safe. Like the deaths of his enemies would weigh too heavily on his soul? How could she worry so about the creature that regularly defiled her husband?
