Page 33 of Lady Dragon
SAMANSA
Samansa told her mother everything and then some, after the queen’s questioning seemed to pry even more information out of her than she realized she held. This occurred in the same private office in which they’d hatched the plan to embark on the ill-fated venture, with the same group of people, minus only Kirek. There, Samansa found out that Cenarahadcaught an assassin while they’d been absent—who’d then chewed on some sort of capsule filled with poison wedged in a tooth and died. Beyond there being one less killer in the world, and the princess feeling the burden of her duty to the queendom more than ever before, no part of the plan had been overly successful.
Samansa might have thought her mother would have wanted the dragon girl present for the debriefing, but then, once it was over, she abruptly dismissed everyone save Samansa.
“We need to discuss the lady dragon,” the queen said without further ado, as soon as everyone was gone and the door closed behind them.
“She despises that title.” Samansa shifted nervously in her chair. “Mother, you can’t suspect—”
“Of course not. I know she had nothing to do with theattack. She’s proved herself time and again.” The queen’s heavy gaze sank onto her like a weighty mantle from across her desk. “That’s not what I want to discuss with regard to her.”
Her mother definitely suspectedsomething, or else she wouldn’t have adopted this tone.
The princess felt herself begin to sweat. “Then what? We’re getting along quite well.”
“Yes, I see that, and that is part of my concern: Your level of… interest… in the lady drag—the dragon princess.”
Samansa wasn’t sure how well Kirek would likethataddress, either, but she knew the queen also wasn’t here to discuss that. “Of course I’m interested in her. She’s adragon, and it’s my duty to my queendom to get to know her.”
Samansa knew, of course, what her mother was getting at, but she refused to bandy subtle words. She wanted her mother tosay it, if she was going to make them have this heinously awkward conversation in the first place.
“Samansa, I’ve heard how your regard for Kirek might have shifted, of late. Even glimpsed it myself, in how you look at her.” The queen cleared her throat, straightening some papers on her desk. The princess had never known her to be this hesitant before. “It might be better for you to spend more of your time focusing on choosing a suitor now,” she said eventually.
“You’re the one who sent me off alone with her!” Samansa burst out. “You’re the one who wanted us to be friends! Don’t tell me you haven’t been worried we weren’t getting along.”
“I did send you with her and I do want you to be… friendly… but more as distant allies than the closest offriends. My worry has adjusted accordingly.”
Samansa stared at her for a moment, holding her gaze, whereshe might have buckled under its weight before. “Did Cenara speak with you?”
“No.” The queen pursed her lips. “Perhaps.”
The princess felt like turning the tables on this line of questioning—to see how her mother liked it. “Why did you never tell me abouther?”
Her mother’s gaze slipped away, stirring up the lessons she herself had given Samansa on diplomatic negotiations.Shifting eyes are a sign of avoidance, perhaps deception.“It was a long time ago.”
“So does this worry of yours stem from… personal experience?” the princess asked, her tone sweetly casual.
“Guard your tongue, Samansa,” the queen snapped, slapping her palm on her desk and making pens rattle and Samansa jump in her seat. “I simply don’t want you getting hurt over something that cannot be.” A shadow of pain passed quickly over her mother’s face, leaving only steely resolve behind. “You must fulfill your duty to your queendom and to the dragons by providing a daughter heir. That doesn’t mean—that doesn’t mean you can’t have… friends… on the side, but you must bediscreet.”
“Like Cenara must not have been? Did she want more from you than you were willing to give?” Samansa was already pressing her luck, so she didn’t say the rest out loud.And so you got rid of her?
“We are not discussing my past,” the queen hissed with nearly the ferocity of a dragon. “As queen, many things are within your reach. And some are not.” She paused heavily. “With a dragon—it’s entirely out of the question. Intimate feelings between species are strictly against their rules. Utterly forbidden, not to mentionthat acting upon such would be impossible without the singular Heartstone. Youcannotbotch this diplomatic arrangement so thoroughly as to commit quite possibly the gravest offense against dragonkind that there is. I won’t allow it.”
Samansa hadn’t known about this prohibition, but she saw no reason her mother would lie about something so serious. The queen had other ways of discouraging her daughter—such as simply forbidding herwithoutreason.
Of course the dragons would have such a law againstintimate feelingsfor humans. Humans were beneath them, never mind love itself. Beneath even one who was walking around and masquerading as human. Perhapsespeciallythen, so said dragon couldn’t be further debased.
Samansa was a complete fool for thinking—whathadshe been thinking? She wasn’t even sure, since it had been such a tenuous, distant hope, barely given form in her thoughts.
Such a foolish hope.
Her face was burning, and not just from humiliation. Anger rose in her chest, enough to draw her to her feet. “Well,Kirekprobably wouldn’t allow it in the first place, so you can rest assured my unlikely happiness will be of no threat to the queendom’s stability!”
Her mother half stood in a rush, looking slightly stricken. “Samansa, dearest, wait, I only meant to—”
But the princess had already stormed to the gilded door—and then slammed it in the queen’s face.
Samansa intended to obey her mother, she truly did. But then a servant delivered a sealed envelope to her rooms. The wax wasindented with a simple slash, as if made by the press of a fingernail. The closest thing that a human had—or a human-shaped dragon—to a claw.
