Page 45 of Golden Queen
I smiled at her, and she responded with a wide, excited grin.
Ignoring Bryce's words, Markus gave us me a dark look and spurred his horse back toward the city gates.
Before they had taken more than a few steps, a sound reverberated off the low hills, sending chills running down my spine.
And then another echoed, a dragon's roar, deep and eerie; a ferocious bellow that split the air in two.
I scanned the sky, heart racing, as the guards around me all drew their swords.
"Back to the city!" Markus shouted. He and the guards started galloping toward the gate. The other nobles followed suit until the thunder of hooves drowned out the sounds carried on the wind.
Baron Mandelian, to his credit, did not move.
He looked at me, his blue eyes sparkling with some excitement as he motioned for Franca to bring her horse close. "Darkwatch, I presume?" he said.
“Indeed.” I said, giving him a smile as his horse danced nervously under him, shying away from what we could now see on the horizon. Great winged creatures, their dark outlines silhouetted against the cloudless blue, were racing out of the northern sky.
I counted three dragons...no it was four, I realized, as a smaller one became visible behind the others. Four dragons soaring over the Godsgrass Kingdom.
I heard a shout and turned to see that some of the guards had returned to flank me. One of them was pointing.
I followed the direction of his gaze to see riders coming up the Godsway, long blue banners streaming behind them as their horse's hooves kicked up a cloud of dust on the road.
Another harsh bellow sounded, and I looked up to see the lead dragon angling downward. He was enormous—inky black with a long neck and spiked frill jutting around his massive head. His wings were tucked back as he soared toward us, impossibly fast.
The smaller dragons, one blood-red fading to black, one midnight blue, and the last a pale stone gray, followed the larger one, pointing narrow heads toward the ground as they sailed down and down.
My heart lurched as they snapped their wings out to catch the wind like a ship's sail, to arrest their fall.
Huge, clawed feet touched down in the godsgrass with a rumble that could be felt through my horse.
A few of the guards had arrows nocked in their bows. I shouted a command for them to lower their weapons.
They looked like they were considering ignoring me, their disgruntled, fear-filled faces full of reproach, but then they reluctantly lowered their bows and sheathed their swords.
I turned in the saddle. Markus was nowhere to be seen.
"Fucking coward," I muttered as I nudged my horse forward even as terror filled me, making my hands on the reins shake.
Baron Mandelian's horse was bucking and kicking, fighting his attempts to move it forward. Franca was behind him with their guards.
"It's okay, My Lord," I called. I motioned for him to stay back as Etreyiu trotted to the dragons with his big white head held high, fearless.
I finally had the nerve to look at the dragons again. Their beauty took my breath away. They were so much more grand, so much more incredible than my imagination could have conjured. The illustrations in myBook of Beastsdid them absolutely no justice.
Great scaled heads with ridges running back to those enormous spikes, their tall forms on massive legs jutting up above the shoulder-high godsgrass, wings so massive they blocked out the sun.
The big black one swung his head around as I approached, but I was not afraid. Not any longer.
My fear fled the moment I turned my eyes to the black beast and glimpsed his rider. The tall, broad-shouldered form stalking toward me through the godsgrass was flanked by three more riders in dark, scaled armor.
The world seemed to tremble beneath the feet of the Darkwatch dragon riders. Power rippled off them, or perhaps it was just him. It crackled in the air like a living entity as tendrils of magic, unseen, but felt, rippled with some harsh undercurrent. It seemed to cleave the air apart as it curled around and through the godsgrass.
I turned to see Bryce Mandelian, on foot, marching toward me. He had abandoned his horse rather than make me meet the fearsome beasts myself.
Bryce pointed behind him. I followed the line of his gaze to the castle where the entire wall-walk was dotted with figures—hundreds of them watching from the city.
I swung my leg over the saddle. I should give them a good show, I supposed.
