Page 12 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
“Hey now, we made it here,” I tried to reassure her, not sure how to handle tears. In the mud quarter, you learned real quick that no one cared if you cried. Crying only made you thirsty, and water was scarce. “We’ll watch out for each other from now on. Won’t we?” I glared up at the girls assembled, daring them to say otherwise. Murmurs of yesses and an occasional ‘of course’ mumbled toward me.
“I’m Mari,” I announced to everyone. “I will not bother with second names because we’re here and don’t need them unless we run into a double name. That’s Leilani from the bread quarter, and that’s Azalea from the art quarter.” I gestured to each, and they smiled and made a welcoming gesture when I said their name. I turned to the girls who had to be sisters. Their hair was light brown.
“Heather Stone—er, Heather, of the stone quarter,” the one on the left sniffed, then elbowed her sister.
I wondered what it would be like to always have someone else there to lean on—a sibling to share every fear and joy with you.
“Hyacinthe, also of stone,” the one on the right said.
I gave them wide, fake smiles. “Well, we all know Freesia, I take it.” I rolled my eyes at Freesia’s haughty nod. “How about the rest of you?”
A girl whose hair was light brown stood nervously, shooting wary glances at Freesia. Her eyes were green, and she looked similar enough to Freesia that I could guess where this was going.
“Ivy. Stone quarter.”
Freesia rolled her eyes and gestured at the next girl with ashy hair, mixed with tones of brown and copper. She had a straight, flat nose that reminded me of my mother, and gave an embarrassed wave to Leilani. “Wisteria, also from the bread quarter.”
That left one more girl with brown hair. “Oleria.” She glared at Freesia. “Stone.”
I liked how she glared at Freesia. The girl either had existing beef or just good instincts.
Five girls from the stone quarter, two from bread, one from art, and just me from the mud. Nah, this game wasn’t rigged at all.
I stood and clapped my hands together. “Well, now that’s over, let’s strategize the best way to not all die horrific deaths.”
ChapterFour
“I’d like to hear about the dragon. No one talks about it. Has it always been there?” Leilani clutched a pillow to her chest as if that could protect her from everything in the world.
Freesia’s building indignation deflated a bit at this. We all glanced around the room at each other.
Azalea raised a tentative hand. “We study the dragon for our art. That naturally leads to talking about it. I could share a bit, I guess.”
We closed our girl circle a little tighter around her, and I gave her a confident nod.
“Well, it starts with our records of the dome, I suppose. A long time ago the royal family contracted us to design it, though my father says the exact records are gone, so it’s hard to say exactly when.”
My brow furrowed. What if every other quarter had adult men except mine? Did all the other girls have fathers?
No. That was impossible. We couldn’t be the only quarter with no true families. That was just … unthinkable. I put the thought out of my head.
“We designed the dome, and the families from the stone quarter got to work figuring out how to get the materials needed. They rumored it to have taken over a hundred years to build!” Azalea said with a flourish.
The girls all went wide-eyed at the thought.
Azalea continued, “One reason it took so long was because of the dragon. It kept disrupting progress and killing the workers, as well as destroying materials. Eventually, they figured out how to craft dragonsbane. Construction pushed forward due to sheer need: more people would die if it wasn't built. The workers went at it day and night without stopping.”
Hyacinth clapped her hands like a ninny. “I don’t care about the dome. Tell me about the dragon!”
Azalea paused, considering. “We get a lot of commissions from the noble quarter, and many of them want art with the dragon. To do this properly, the fireguards gave us access to some of their drawings and accounts. From everything they’ve seen, the dragon is pure gold with scales that glint red in the sun’s light. His eyes are black like pitch, and his teeth are razor sharp. His wings are mostly gold, but it fades to black at the tips, which are also sharp like his claws.”
“And he breathes fire?” Heather added, picking up where her sister had left off.
“Of course. It breathes red and orange flames hotter than any fire we can conjure. That’s why we had to find special materials from the earth that could withstand it. Steel mixed with iron, and as much stone as we could get away with. Stone chars, but won’t burn.”
“How do you build something in the air out of stone? Won’t it be too heavy and fall?” Ivy sat with her chin in her hands, lying down on her belly.
Azalea’s back straightened, proud. “It can be done, but carefully.”
