Page 2 of Lady Dragon
If only. Her first sight of the dragon made her stop short and her lips part with a little gasp. Her mother, seated across from the dragon on a lavish settee, cleared her throat. Samansa snapped her mouth shut and carried on into the room, feelingher cheeks flush. The dragon was standing, and turned to face her fully.
Samansa wasn’t sure what she expected, but it wasn’tthis. The dragon was… agirl. A striking girl, little older than the princess, at least in appearance. Samansa knew the dragon would have changed into a human shape for this visit, but she still expected something morebeastly.
The only sign the girl was a dragon lay in the strange color of her hair and eyes. Not strange, Samansa corrected herself, merely inhuman. Dark purple undertones belied any age the deep gray of her hair could have indicated, as did her flawless, pale face, composed entirely of angles. Her eyes were silver. Not gray with silver highlights like the rare human had, but pure silver, as bright and sharp as winking blades.
The dragon girl didn’t smile. “Greetings,” she said before the queen could introduce her. Her tone was hard and flat. “You may call me Kirek.”
A name as sharp as her. Despite looking human, the dragon girl couldn’t be more Samansa’s opposite. Kirek was all edges, from the slate slabs of her perfectly straight hair to her high cheekbones, narrow nose, pointy chin, and daggerlike eyes. Never mind theactualdaggers strapped about her lithe, tall frame, the lean musculature of which was coiled like a whip under fitted plates of dark leather armor, a sword strapped to her back.
Samansa suddenly felt short and soft and plump under her creamy silk gown. Her rapid breaths pushed up certain parts of her a little too much for the low scoop of her neckline—courtesy of the royal tailors and their efforts to find her a suitor—and her red, fluffy curls flared in the sunlight out of the corner of her eye.Her round, freckle-spattered cheeks flushed very easily, as they were demonstrating now, turning her skin a pink that she didn’t need a mirror to confirm. If the dragon girl was a knife, Samansa felt like one of the strawberry cream puffs stacked on a side table with the other refreshments.
She stood frozen for too long because the dragon girl said, raising an eyebrow, “Thisisyour daughter, I presume? She’s very young. Much younger than I expected.” Kirek glanced at the queen.
As direct as a sword thrust, Samansa thought ruefully. Indeed, at fifty-seven, her mother was nearly old enough to be her grandmother. She’d given birth to Samansa’s older brother at twenty-four, and then struggled to bear any child, let alone the daughter she needed as an heir to appease the dragons, for the next fifteen years. She’d had Samansa—a miracle, they said at the time—when she was thirty-nine.
Samansa didn’t feel very miraculous, standing before the dragon girl. She felt as if her brother, in his early thirties, not to mention second-in-command of the queen’s armies, would be better equipped for this task. He certainlythoughthe was, though he hadn’t even been invited to this first meeting.
It was an especially good thing, perhaps, that her succession wouldn’t involve a fight. She only needed the dragon girl to like her. And she wasn’t off to a terribly good start.
Samansa bowed her head with a slight curtsy, unlike the dragon, who remained rigidly upright. “Yes, I am Princess Samansa. I assume you’ve met my queen mother—but we don’t call herMotherlike you do your queen. I mean, rather,Icall her Mother, and so does my brother, but no one else.” Floundering, Samansa indicated the dessert tray and blurted, “Cream puff?”
Behind her, Dara coughed, obviously to disguise a laugh. Samansa wished the parquet floor would open up and swallow her. On the settee, her mother briefly closed her eyes.
“No,” Kirek responded. “I don’t like sweets.” As the dragon girl spoke, she stared right at Samansa, as if delivering her opinion ofheras well.
“What do you prefer?” Samansa asked, merely for something to say. She should probably stop talking altogether, but the dragon girl was making it difficult.
“Meat. Still bloody.”
“Of course,” the princess said politely.Of course!her inner voice cried shrilly. She suddenly wanted to giggle, but she knew her mother would kill her.
Kirek cocked her head like a bird. More specifically, like a hunting falcon. “But you are not the cook who prepares the meals. So I don’t see why this is important to you.”
Samansa tried on her usual cheerful smile, but it didn’t fit so well. “Why, we must get to know each other!”
“I’m here to study your species and strengthen our diplomatic relations, as is customary for the favored heir of the draconic queenship. I’ve been made aware that the human princess, this realm’s heir, will be studying alongside me as well. Studying me, even, as I study her, for the duration of my stay, which will be unavoidably lengthy.” The dragon girl sounded as if she would have very much liked to avoid it. “I understand that’s you.”
Those silver eyes were indeed studying Samansa. Carving her like a haunch of meat, rather, on a butcher’s block.
“Yes,” the princess said, swallowing, even though it wasn’t a question.
“Then perhaps it’s appropriate to ask what I eat. Would you like to watch me eat sometime?”
The words, delivered in that flat tone, those bright, inhuman eyes trained on her, made Samansa want to step back. She managed to hold her ground, tensing every muscle to keep the shudder under her skin.
“That’s quite all right,” she said, at the same time her mother chimed in, “A luncheon will actually be served in an hour. I understand you can eat perfectly well while in human form, Kirek, so we hoped you would join us, though you’ve just come a long way. Perhaps you’d like to freshen up in your rooms first? We have a busy few days ahead, with a tourney being held tomorrow in honor of your visit. While the prize is the Princess of Andrath’s favor, as is customary, we do hope you look upon the event favorably as well.” Here, the queen glanced pointedly at Samansa, as if to include her in what the dragon girl might find favorable. “Rested eyes will no doubt aid your perception.”
Her mother, trying to rescue her while throwing her to the wolves.How like her, thought Samansa.
“I’ve already seen my appointed rooms,” Kirek replied. “They’re to my taste, but I have no need of them right now.” Those eyes cut back to Samansa. “Perhaps the princess will accompany me on a walk about the castle grounds before thisluncheon. Explain some of its… eccentricities… to me.”
Samansa choked audibly. “I’m—I’m sure I could…”Find someone more appropriate, she intended to say—and Jamsens was already stepping up to offer—but Kirek nodded abruptly before she could finish, turned on a booted heel, and strode out of the receiving room without excusing herself.
Slinging a panicked look at her mother, Samansa receivedonly a hurried shooing motion in response. The last thing she wanted was to follow the dragon girl, but for once, there was no one else to do it for her. It was the princess’s duty to win Kirek over, and perhaps this was her chance. Never mind that Samansa already felt at a loss.
She gathered up her skirts in her sweaty hands and rushed through the double doors after the dragon girl.
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