Page 87 of Golden Queen
As the dragon riders reached us, Aben angled between us, resting an arm on both our shoulders.
It always surprised me to see him standing even taller than Io, towering over everyone around him. He smiled down at me and then turned to Io. "Tell me, cousin, that I am not seeing what I think I'm seeing, and that you didn't both just hop off the back of that dragon."
"Impossible," Britaxia said, her mouth hanging open in shock.
I looked up at Aben and smiled. "He likes me."
"No shit?" he asked.
He turned to Io, who gave him a confirming nod. "She has a way with beasts, apparently.”
Aben removed his arms and turned. "Well, that's obvious," he added with a wry smile.
Io gave his cousin a warning glare, but my attention was drawn to another pair of scale-armored figures striding our way.
Io clasped their forearms in turn, greeting them warmly.
"Malach and Adia," he said, turning to me. "This is Aelia of Windemere, Queen of the Godsgrass Kingdom."
I reached out first to clasp hands with the woman, Adia, I assumed. She was tall and had short blonde hair, styled very similar to Io's—trim and neat around the ears and longer on top.
Her face was handsome, with a fierce beauty that came from a kind of physical strength I was not accustomed to seeing in women. "I am not yet the Queen of Windemere," I told her, giving Io a dark look.
Adia smiled at me. "You are the rightful heir, past her majority. You will find, Your Majesty, that we all consider you as such."
"Indeed," Malach added, reaching to take my hand. His skin, the color of rich, fertile soil, was positively luminous around his bright golden eyes. "You will find that we do not make the distinction that the eldermen of this kingdom do when they style their queen as a princess because she has not lowered herself to take a husband. And now, presented with Her Majesty in the flesh, I can see why she has not yet found a man among these fields who can do her justice."
Their words nearly bowled me over. I recalled Cazmiri calling me “majesty” as well, but I had assumed it was an oversight. To be handed such honor by strangers when the people of my own kingdom so often looked down on me with derision and scorn for having had the nerve to be born a woman...it was enough to knock the wind out of me. "Thank you," I told them, barely registering Malach's smooth compliment thrown in at the end. "You have absolutely no idea how much that means to me."
Io took my hand, not seeming to care who saw it, and led me into one of the tents.
The others filed in after us, gathering around a table in the center of the room. A huge map of Alterra was spread out across the surface, the two halves of the continent connected by the narrow slip of land at the Twilight Gap.
Io answered the question in my mind of why exactly we had come to this camp when he began to tell them all the things the guard, Fenric, had told me.
When he was done, Malach used a graduated stick to make marks on the map, starting at Balus, the island nation beyond the Thyella Sea west of Windemere. He traced several possible routes the Penjani armada might be taking.
When he was done, he straightened, slipping the stick and his pencil back into his pocket. He gave Io a tight-lipped smile. "Any of these likely routes will have them at the southern continent by early next week at thelatest. We only have general information about when they were in Balus, how long they might have needed to regroup. It could be sooner."
His words seemed to clang around my brain like a bell. Early next week. It was so soon. Even knowing Penjan was likely heading our way, it always seemed like it would happen some time in the future. Early next week was not far enough in the future.
"We have to evacuate the city," I said, to no one in particular.
"There's no need to go that far yet, Your Majesty," Adia said with what I thought was meant to be a placating smile. "There's no guarantee that they will even come to Windemere. They could be heading to Castering or Athelen, for all we know."
"And besides that," Aben put in. "Your city fortress is your best bet for holding out until reinforcements arrive from Nightfall. If you abandon the city, your people could be caught out in the godsgrass."
I was horrified at what he had not said—that the people could be caught out in the godsgrass when Penjan burns it. "Will the rest of your dragon riders come?" I asked.
I immediately felt their eyes shift from me to Io, who nodded.
"They will. But, it won't be enough, Sera. We need the king's armies." He turned to Malach. "Which is why I'm here. We need to get word to Behr more quickly than a bird can be dispatched. Is Nefr back in camp?"
Britaxia had been quiet during the meeting in the tent. Her face was set in grim lines as she answered. "Marolis is just down the hill. Nefr will not be far."
As we left the tent, I turned to Io. "Who are Nefr and Marolis and how do they send word faster than a bird can fly?"
He grinned down at me. "You will like Marolis, and something tells me the ugly creature will like you just as much as all the others do."
