Page 79 of Golden Queen
I laid my head back down on his chest, running my hand across his skin as I listened to his heartbeat, so strong under my ear.
I woke some time later to find that he had covered us. I had shifted onto my side, and he was wrapped around me, his arm stretched out across the bed under my head, the other around my waist.
I didn't understand what woke me at first, but then I felt his hand jerk. I could see the faint glow of fire licking up from his open palm laid on the bed and more from the one against my skin.
He jerked again, and I realized he was dreaming. The fire flared to life.
I grabbed his hand, pulling it up and away from the sheets, cradling it against my chest where it couldn't burn the bedclothes.
I felt him wake, and with consciousness, the fire died away. His arms tightened around me as he settled back into deep, even breathing.
I wondered, as I began to fall asleep again with his big hand clasped tightly against my chest, if that was the reason he did not sleep—the fear of losing control and burning the whole place down in his dreams.
Thirteen
Ileft him, with a great deal of effort, just before dawn. I knew I would be with him at breakfast, and I was already scheming for some way to see him outside of mealtimes as well.
Unfortunately, my uncle had returned to the city. He was in a foul enough temper that he canceled the formal meals and had everyone served in their chambers. The servant who showed up with my breakfast unapologetically informed me of it as she led two boys into the room with a large tray balanced between them.
After I bathed and dressed, I left my chambers to go and see what I might learn about his journey to Gold Harbor.
A stone-faced guard met me at the door and told me the regent asked that I remain in my chambers. I narrowed my eyes at the man and stepped around him, intent on finding my uncle for answers.
The guard didn't dare stop me, but he followed me down the length of the hall, where I found that the door to the stairs leading to the main hall had been closed and locked.
I whirled on the man. "We have guests in the castle. You cannot expect me to remain in my chambers. That would be the height of disrespect."
"Begging your pardon, Your Highness, the guests have left the castle on the regent's orders." He would not meet my eyes as he relayed the information.
I softened my features as I regarded the young man. He was obviously only doing what he had been ordered to do. "And Taiger, the boy who tends my dragon?" I asked.
"He and the dragon were sent away with the party from Radune, Your Highness."
"That bastard," I spat, not even caring if the soldier told Markus what I said. He had no right to send my dragon away.
The soldier looked up and down the hall before turning to me again, lowering his voice. "I have to say I agree, Your Highness, though I hope these words won't ever reach the regent’s ears. I fought on that field with the fae from Darkwatch. They are not the enemies some would have us believe. I,for one, would feel a damn sight better knowing we had an alliance with Nightfall for the coming war."
"The coming war?" I asked, a shiver running up my spine. "Is it assured then—that Penjan will attack?"
The soldier eyed the door warily. "Walk with me if you will, Your Highness, and I will tell you all I know."
As I walked back to my chambers with the soldier, whose name I learned was Fenric, he explained all that he'd heard and guessed about the coming war. It was more information than my mind knew what to do with. Fenric had spent a lot of time in the service of my uncle and had kept his ears open for news.
The ships sighted off the coast were indeed Penjani scouts ahead of an armada that some estimated at upwards of a thousand ships and hundreds of times that many soldiers. Most of them were dohtor frigates, notoriously fast ships with huge iron claw legs that their crews could use to haul them up onto nearly any coastline they landed upon.
The massive armada had been seen for the last several months, hopping from port to port, rampaging across the seas. Fenric explained that it was impossible to visit any tavern along the coast without hearing some tale from a fisherman or merchant regarding where the elves might be heading next or what their likely final destination would be.
When Balus, one of the closest kingdoms to the west of Alterra, fell to Penjan, it became clear that they were in the Thyella Sea and poised to make Alterra their next conquest.
The Shadow King, Magnus of Penjan, led the armada himself. They brought elven shadow walkers, necromancers, wyverns, skinchangers, witches, and all manner of dreadful beasts and dead things.
They also traveled with the Black Fleet Skylleken, a band of pirates, led by Admiral Nadjin Skyllek, who was as notorious for her brutality as she was for the fact that she and her all-female crew sailed into battle topless. Admiral Skyllek was well-known in every sea, but she had come into service with Penjan at some point in the last few years. That, at least, was something I already knew.
Something I did not know, which Fenric relayed with calm solemnity, was that the Stoneteeth Tribe, a notorious group of cannibals, was also said to be traveling with the Penjani King's armada. I had never even heard of the Stoneteeth, but when Fenric spoke of them, it sent dread coursing through me.
I left the conversation with the guard nearly shaking, both with fear of the war that now seemed imminent and with anger that so much had been kept from me.
I paced my chambers until the sun set, after spending an infuriating half hour arguing with Tatana about how dangerous my little excursions to Io's chamber had been. I knew she was only worried about me, but I found it hard to take that into consideration in the face of all that I’d learned. Tatana seemed far less concerned about the threat of Penjani elves invading our kingdom than she was for my reputation, but all I could think was that there would be no reason to set me aside from the throne if it was in the hands of necromancers.
