Page 24 of Lady Dragon
Samansa decided she would let herself grieve just a little bit longer, but no more. And then she would steel herself and do her duty, like a queen.
On the third day, when the princess emerged from her bedchamber to find Kirek inexplicably still guarding the antechamber, she took a seat next to her on the daybed, earning a wary flash of those startling silver eyes.
Samansa imagined her own eyes remained entirely red-rimmed. After her initial outburst, she hadn’t cried in front of anyone—no, she’d saved that for the nights. And likely there would still be more of those, but for now, in the light of themorning, she took a deep breath and said, “My apologies. You saved my life a second time, and even tried to be considerate of my feelings in the process, in your own way. I fear I’ve repaid you solely with ingratitude. You only meant to continue protecting me by not immediately telling me about Dara and hiding her away, and I appreciate the thought, but… You have to understand, Kirek, I’m not a child.”
Kirek gave her a dubious look, but, fortunately for the dragon girl, she didn’t open her mouth.
Still, Samansa felt her jaw tighten as she continued, “I’m the princess and daughter heir, and you can’t make these decisions for me. Dara was very dear to me, and I would have liked not to be spared the news of her death.”
“You would rather have felt the pain with such immediacy?” Kirek asked slowly, her words heavy with deliberation. “Seen the harsh truth spelled out in her blood?”
“Yes,” Samansa hissed through gritted teeth. She hoped this conversation wasn’t about to go as well as the last. She was barely holding on to her temper.
So much for being able to charm birds from the trees, as Jamsens had claimed she could. He probably wouldn’t say so now, not after how she’d treated him. She somewhat felt like chopping a treedown, even if she would feel terribly about it afterward.
Kirek’s mouth twitched. “Good.”
“Good?” Samansa blurted.
“Yes. I won’t spare you from such things next time.” Instead of it sounding like a threat, the words became somewhat else when the dragon girl added, “Because I respect your stance.” Her tone turned wry. “Although, I might continue sparing youfrom assassins, since you’vesograciously thanked me both times.”
Samansa realized shehadn’tactually thanked her. Either time.
Before she could sputter out more apologies or belated thanks, Kirek said, “I still should have delivered the news more considerately, in a way that honored the strength of your relationship to Dara. My apologies, I didn’t know.”
Thatstruck Samansa speechless. The dragon, apologizing toher? This morning couldn’t get any stranger.
“That’s twice you’ve saved me now,” she said, just to fill the air. “When will I get to return the favor and saveyou?”
“I eagerly await the day,” Kirek said with a cynical smile, as if she didn’t think that day would ever come. And then she abruptly leaped up to open the antechamber door—at first, Samansa thought, to extract herself from the shame of having just apologized—revealing Jamsens and the rest of the guards, whom she ignored in favor of turning back to the princess.
“Shall we?” Kirek said, holding the door wider and gesturing in invitation. “I received word before you awoke. Your mother wants to see us.”
And so Samansa found herself in the queen’s private office, used for only the most clandestine of business affairs, along with Kirek, Jamsens, Tordall, Merard, and a tall, heavily armed, and otherwise rather fearsome-looking older woman that Samansa had never seen before.
Branon was conspicuously absent—a trend that was becoming more and more common, of late. He’d been louder andbolder in his differences of opinion. Did the queen no longer trust him at all?
The princess swallowed down her nerves, trying not to smooth her skirts. This wasn’t the type of gathering she was used to. Especially not with a dragon joining them.
“I’ll cut right to it,” the queen said nearly as soon as the door was closed, “as an issue of some diplomatic urgency has arisen. It doesn’t help matters that it has arrived amidst the worst attempts to date we’ve seen on my daughter heir’s life.”
“There have been other attempts?” Samansa blurted, and then swallowed in embarrassment.Of coursethere probably had been. She’d simply been sheltered from them, as a child. But now she’d come of age, and so her mother saw fit to share such things with her, as well as invite her to meetings such asthis. She should at least try to act like she belonged here.
Samansa had just demanded to see the gory details, after all, even if the queen hadn’t been privy to that conversation.
Her mother merely leveled a heavy glance at her and carried on. “These assassination attempts only make the peace between Andrath and the draconic realm all the more critical.” Here, she dropped her weighty gaze onKirek, of all people. “Exceptyourside seems to be faltering in this peaceful endeavor.”
“What do you mean?” Kirek asked. Samansa thought the dragon girl would have been more demanding, more affronted… but she sounded less arrogantly certain of herself than usual. Wary, almost.
“I mean that a dragon has attacked one of our villages on the border to your realm. Burned it to the ground. There were few survivors.”
Kirek shook her head. “I have heard nothing of this, on my end, from any messenger.” The words were firm, but oddlyrelieved, for some reason. Had the dragon girl imagined it would be something worse? What could be worse than a human village getting razed? Then again, she was a dragon, and her measure of such things was different from a human’s. “It must have been a rogue dragon, acting on her own.”
“Still,” the queen said briskly, “I would greatly appreciate it if you would bear witness to this atrocity, to take in the gravity of the situation with your own eyes and know that I speak the truth—and then try to explain it to me so that I, in turn, can explain to all Andrath. Understand, I have no desire to ignite ill will between our queendoms, but I also need reassurance that you and your queen don’t possess such for us.”
“You… simply want me to go look at a ruined village,” Kirek said slowly, as if making sure she fully understood.
The queen gave a sharp nod. “And I want Samansa to accompany you.”
