Page 162 of Golden Queen
"Oh," I said, realizing that he had done all he could at the time, and I should have known that.
He took a deep breath. "And I’m sorry I was rude to yourfriend." He said it in a way that told me he was still not convinced that it was all Rhychulson was—or all I was to Rhychulson, rather. "I promise to be nicer next time," he added.
"I can't make the same promise as regards Radella," I said, feeling my lips curve into a smile.
"Oh really. Why is that?"
"Because unlike with Rhychulson, youhavefucked Radella, and I don’t think I can ever look at her without wanting to stab her in the eyes for remembering what it feels like to have you inside her."
His laugh burst out of him with enough force to make me flinch before I realized what the sound was.
He leaned down and bit the side of my neck even as he continued to chuckle. "You wicked, violent little thing. Your jealousy becomes you. But rest assured, she may remember me, but the moment I slid inside you, I forgot every other woman who came before."
Deep, delicious satisfaction rolled through me, even as I chastised myself for it. What was I thinking, acting possessive and admitting it to him? I could not stay with him, could not allow him to start a war with his own brother that might tear his kingdom apart—and then throw his life and the lives of his riders away by going into a fight they could not win.
My body would not listen to the admonishment, though, as he ran his hand down my leg.
"If Veles would not be absolutely mortified by it, I would fuck you right here and now," he said, and I felt the evidence of it in the hardness at my back.
Veles responded with a rumble and a ripple of distaste that rolled down his body, and then I was the one laughing.
I reached down to him, placing my hands on his warm, dark scales. "I'm sorry, my friend. He is such an asshole, I know."
Veles belched a cloud of fire—silver and gold with streaks of vivid blue snaking out and flowing back toward us. I had never seen his fire before and it was beautiful. The flames dissipated before they reached us down his long neck.
The golden flames had looked so similar to Io's fire that I wondered—and determined to somehow find out—if I was also immune to it. I knew Eroa's silver fire wouldn’t burn me, and perhaps it was only misplaced hubris that told me I might just be immune to Veles's pretty gold, silver, and blue flames as well.
Twenty-Nine
Aben, Britaxia, and Eroa joined us the sun rose on a new day.
We crossed over the snow-covered peaks of the unnamed mountains—the absurdly named mountain range that cradled the northern edge of the southern continent.
The mountains were home to a short-statured people called the Doa Luna, the Moon People. They spoke a language so guttural and strange that the name of the mountains had been impossible for Alterran speakers to say. This had somehow led to them becoming known as the unnamed mountains, and thus were named after all.
There were hundreds of separate long, snaking mountain ranges, all with sharp, craggy, ice-capped peaks that rose up into the sky like jagged teeth.
Blue ice glaciers flowed between the ranges, carving deep valleys through the landscape—their edges dotted with spruce and pine forests.
I could not take my eyes from the wonder and beauty of the blue and white world unfolding below us.
I kept pointing and exclaiming when I saw a collection of the Doa Luna’s domed huts, or when we passed another peak, and an ethereally pale blue glacier would appear, looking like a hidden lake nestled between tall mountains.
Io directed Veles down low over anything I happened to be exclaiming about, granting us startled glances from one village of Doa Luna, and whoops of delight from another.
The little people decked out head to toe in fur looked like miniature stuffed bears from a children's playroom, and my heart ached to go and meet them. They were my subjects as much as the people of the godsgrass plains were.
We flew all that day, finally stopping in a wide snowy valley so that we could relieve ourselves and give the dragons a break from flying.
Eroa angled out of the sky to make an appearance just as Aben and Britaxia joined us on the ground. I had not seen the white dragon for hours after she disappeared from the group at some point, sliding away into the blue sky without us even realizing. Io assured me she was near, though. Hecould sense the presence of all the dragons in the area, and I wondered how far that ability might span. Miles or even across the entire continent?
Eroa scrambled over to bump against my leg, rubbing her head against my calf as Aben and Britaxia strode across the clearing, the hard crust of snow crunching under their feet. Their shaggy dark-gray furs were pulled up around their heads and shoulders against the cold.
Io strode out to meet them, wearing only his coat, as I knelt to scratch the little dragon beneath her chin. I watched his breath cloud out in big puffs of vapor in front of his face. It was bitterly cold, but he was something like the dragons, able to manufacture the fire that kept him warm.
Io reached Aben and Britaxia, and they all halted some distance away. I felt a bit of unease as I imagined what he might be telling them about his change in plans regarding me. I knew he went to speak with them outside of my hearing, and I didn’t like the idea that he would hide his words from me—or what they would say in response to them.
We were far enough north that Aben and Britaxia would need to fly west soon to reach Orin. Io and I would continue to follow the mountains through the Twilight Gap until we reached the Iyridian Valley. Just contemplating the plan sent my mind on an anxiety-driven whirlwind as I imagined what the two of them must be thinking of me.
