Page 61 of Lady Dragon
The Queen Mother, crouched atop Pavak, wings arching above her, settled her jaws on her sister’s exposed neck. She paused, for the briefest of moments, to look her in the eyes.
Eyes that glinted with clever, fevered malice. Kirek realized her aunt’s hind legs were drawn up and pressed against the queen’s underbelly, where the scales grew thinner and finer. Pavak hadwantedto land like this. She dug her back farther into the ground for leverage, and raked out with all her might, her wickedly curved claws cruel and seeking.
They found what they were looking for. The queen’s screech split the air as her blood—and more than blood—spilled out across the stone, landing with a wet splat.
What you perceive as weakness, sister, is sometimes hidden strength, Pavak hissed beneath her.And what you perceive as strength, such as gloating over my supposed defeat—twice now—is truly weakness. I promised I would gut you. And so I have.
Hot bile climbed up Kirek’s throat. She couldsmellthe destruction even more than she could see it, but her reaction wasn’t that of a dragon. Dragons threw fire; they didn’t vomit. She couldn’t add such shame to her mother’s loss.
And yet, the Queen Mother wasn’t finished. Pavak’s neck was still exposed, and even while keening in agony, the queen lowered her jaws to rip out her sister’s lifeblood.
Then they would both die. Such things had happened before, in a challenge for who would be Queen Mother. It would fall to Kirek and Valraka to continue the fight.
Kirek wasn’t afraid of Valraka. But she also wasn’t ready to be queen. Not like this.
And yet, at the last moment, the Queen Mother froze, silver eyes going wide as her pain-filled gaze tracked across Kirek and Samansa.
Or at least where Kirek and Samansausedto be.
Because Kirek was changing, she realized with more nauseated despair. And so was Samansa. Kirek dove away and fell hard from her once-great height, landing on human hands and knees, nearly retching in her disorientation, as an enormous red dragon rose like flame from ashes where the princess had just been braced against Kirek’s leg—a leg now clothed in leather, not scales, tucked beneath her against the stone. Small.
Kirek felt so small.
Samansa straightened to towering heights behind her and let loose a roar that shook more dust from the high ceiling.
Raka?Just as Pavak spoke the name with disbelief, the Queen Mother said, astounded—horrified, even—Kirek?
Pavak tore her eyes away from the red dragon, and lunged for the Queen Mother’s upraised throat. Her jaws clamped around it, there was a horrible, wet tearing sound, and then blood fountained in an arc across the platform, splashing all the way to Kirek’s knees, as if marking a path to her.
Now Kirek would truly be sick. She already felt as if her own guts were spilled on the ground instead of her mother’s, but she vomited hers up anyway, what little she could. It was a pitifulsound, her retching, the only one in cavern now, save for the Queen Mother’s last breaths.
The gurgling hiss of it turned into silent choking, and then the queen’s massive body went completely limp, slid sideways off Pavak, and toppled over, crashing to the stone floor where it lay still. Her silver eyes stared blankly at Kirek.
Kirek—the last thing the queen had seen before she died. The last name she had spoken. All of it with shame and horror, because she had found a soft, weak human in her daughter’s place, dishonoring her even in her death.
Pavak dragged herself into a possessive crouch over the corpse, a predator over her downed prey. Opening her bloody jaws, she trumpeted her victory.
Kirek screamed. The cry was more animal than human. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d dug her fingernails into stone, scrambled upright, and charged her aunt, her bare hands outstretched.
You dare challenge your new queen, human wyrmling?Pavak spat, baring her red-stained teeth in return and spreading her wings. One looked broken, and she was dripping blood from multiple wounds, but that didn’t stop her from launching herself at Kirek, claws raised.
Those claws would have torn Kirek in half if the red dragon hadn’t crashed between them, hurling Kirek aside, where she bounced and rolled over the hard ground, banging elbows and knees she shouldn’t have. She barely managed to cushion her fragile skull with her tumble.
When she raised her head dizzily, Samansa had planted herself between Kirek and her aunt, her tail lashing. She roared in Pavak’s scratched face.
You will bow even before me, Queen, Samansa growled.
Kirek thought she was beyond being stunned, but that’s exactly how she felt, not only at Samansa’s words, but when Pavakactuallylowered her head to the red dragon.
Raka, her aunt said again, incomprehensibly.You have returned.
Raka?Samansa repeated, blinking her great golden eyes in as much bafflement as Kirek, enough to breach her rage.I’m not Raka.
You are, even if you don’t realize it yet. I will help you regain yourself. I will do whatever it is you wish of me.Pavak’s head lowered even farther.
Samansa could only stare before she managed to shake herself and cry,I want you tonothurt Kirek! Leave her alone!
Pavak hissed, settling into a crouch that looked more pained than threatening, her wing draped irregularly across her gouged and bloody back, the smears of red stark against her pale scales.As you wish, Raka.
