The Dragon's Queen (Dragon Lords) (8 page)

Curse him.

“We’ll wait for you to gather whatever belongings you need for the trip,” he added.

“
Why? Are you unable to run? The western fields are not that far,” she challenged. “I can run there and back by tonight if we don’t stop.”

“
We’re worried about a couple of the ceffyls. We thought it best to bring them to your father, instead of summoning him to the palace away from the herd. They’re traveling slowly.” Llyr did not rise to her baiting.

“
My father is not going to be happy with that,” she mumbled, going to pack a bag. Mede hoped it wouldn’t be more than one night—though how she was going to make it through one night in the same campsite as Llyr, she wasn’t sure.

Var Palace, Attor
’s Bedchamber

“
What do you mean you don’t know where she is?” Attor demanded, glaring at the guard. “How hard is it to find one female dragon?”

He paced his bedchamber in frustration. It was as if Mede
had disappeared. Where were they keeping her? He’d sent his best scouts into Draig territory to find her. He should have her in front of him by now.

“
We’ve been watching the skies, but we haven’t seen her,” the guard, Novem, defended.

“
The skies?” Attor tried to take a deep breath to calm his outrage. If he wasn’t so disappointed, he would have laughed at the man. Instead, he grabbed the nearest object—a bronzed rendition of the Var royal crest—and flung it at Novem’s head. “She can’t fly, you
hurtyn
! Those are children’s stories.”

The guard dodged the crest and looked as if he wanted to escape.

“Why are you staring at me?” Attor yelled. “Go back. Find her. Search the mountains this time.”

Novem
nodded once and quickly backed out of the room. Attor grabbed a decorative pot and threw it. The antique shattered but it didn’t make him feel better. The memory of the kiss haunted him. He wanted Lady Mede. He wanted to dominate her, make her his queen. Seeing her, touching her, had made his path very clear. She understood him. She could love him. He’d seen the sympathy in her eyes when she’d talked of the prince. Why hadn’t he told her he was the prince?

Why
hadn’t he finished his seduction in the forest that night?

Attor looked down the length of his body to his erection. He felt out of control.
Where was Myrddin with his nef? He needed to temper back his desires, control them.

Almost angrily he turned to
the footsteps entering his room. A maid carried a bucket of hot water and a satchel of cleaning supplies. She froze when she saw him.

“
I-I was about to clean the hall. Th-th-the guard said to…” She gestured toward the broken pot and made a cleaning gesture.

“
Leave it,” Attor commanded. Then, eyeing her waist, he added, “Take off that gown and get in the bed.” Her blonde hair and rounded figure were not what he wanted, though they were very pretty to look at.

“
I’m married,” she whispered in shock.

“
Then send me someone who isn’t!” Attor yelled.

The woman ran from the room
, leaving her bucket behind. Attor grabbed another antique, a statue of a shifting cat, and threw it. The metal clanged, bouncing across the floor but not breaking.

The walls of the palace were closing in on him. He hated his life, hated his weak father and dead mother. That rage fueled him. Ever since he
’d decided to take Mede as his wife, life without her had become unbearable. Fucking brought some relief, but it was always temporary.

Where was that maid? How dare
she use marriage as an excuse not to obey him? What was taking her so long? He should have made her get on her knees for him, married or not. She was a servant. It was her job to see to his needs—all of them.

Attor threw another statue, aiming in the direction
where its metal twin had landed. The clanking noise still did nothing to ease his anger.

“
Just bring me my bride,” he whispered through gritted teeth. “I want my bride.”

* * *

“Why are you so adverse to marriage? Your parents seem very well suited to each other.” Llyr watched Mede carefully as she walked next to one of the sick ceffyls.

“
This ceffyl ate solarflowers,” Mede answered. The large animal walked slowly with its center horn pointed more forward than up as its head drooped. It stayed close to Mede as if the creature remembered her from its ceffylhood. Chances were it did. The creature opened its mouth and slithered a long tongue against Mede’s arm. The action was slow and the reptilian eyes had a glassy sheen. “And then she was given her normal food. That’s what’s wrong with her. They can’t eat solarflowers and normal food close together. It’s toxic to them.”

“
That doesn’t answer my question. Why do you dislike the idea of marriage?”

“
You should really take better care of the animals in your charge.” Mede kept walking, not looking at him. The cool mountain breeze gave an odd contrast to the heat of midday. Seeing the orb of the blue sun reminded him of how rare Mede’s birth was. The temperatures on the planet were always warm, though it could get chilly in the mountains. The blue radiation genetically altered the men so they produced mostly sons.

“
So you’re not going to answer my question?”

“
How hard is it to make sure there are no solarflowers near their grazing land?” she asked.

Llyr chuckled. “
Fine. You don’t want to answer.”

Mede glanced over her shoulder to where Tomos followed behind them. He was too far back to listen easily. “
Every male during my training tried to claim me as a bride. My mother wants me to have a thousand children. My father wants anything that will please my mother. I want to be treated like an equal and not a brood mare.”

“
Only
a thousand?” Llyr drawled wryly.

Mede turne
d a shocked look toward him and then started to laugh. “Yes, only a thousand.”

“
So your mother wants to be a grandmother and boys had crushes on you when you were a child, so naturally you don’t want to marry just to be contrary?”

Mede grimaced. “
Don’t say it like that. It makes it sound ridiculous.”

“
Well…”

She arched a brow. “
I won’t apologize for being me and wanting what I want—not to a commoner, not to a Var, not to the Prince of all the Draig, not to the King of the Accursed Universe. So you smile your handsome little smile and think whatever you want, but insult my life choices again and that’s one battle you’ll lose to a girl.”

Llyr tried to look properly chastised.

“And you’re baiting me, aren’t you?” she asked in exasperation.

Llyr couldn
’t maintain innocence and started to laugh. “You think my smile is handsome?”

“
I think you, prince, are teasing me.” Mede reached her hand to pet the ceffyl as they walked. Her long, delicate fingers glanced over the center of the animal’s face. “I’m just not sure why.”

“
Maybe I like you,” Llyr admitted. It was only a fraction of the truth. When he looked at her, he felt as if he’d found himself. When she touched him, his skin lit on fire and a shockwave rocked him to the very core. He thought of her more than he thought of himself. He wanted desperately to win her, not because the crystal glowing in his pocket told him they were fated but because she chose him. He wanted her to choose him. As Draig, they spent their whole lives being told that the gods knew what was best when it came to the heart and would reward those who lived honorable and did their duty. This practice contradicted independent dragons like Mede who wouldn’t appreciate being told what to do.

“
I was very excited when I heard your father had contracted Galaxy Brides Corporation for a steady shipment of brides who would agree to marry strangers. Trading rocks for brides is genius.” She sighed dramatically. “I had hoped it would distract the men with new blood, but I quickly discovered that it still didn’t stop men from proposing to me.”

Mede was a strange and complicated woman. He could tell
as much within five seconds of meeting her. Actually, he’d concluded as much before he’d even officially met her. She’d defied gods and tradition by crushing her own crystal—and she didn’t appear to regret it.

No, a woman like Mede wouldn
’t want his crystal telling her what to do. She’d need to discover her future for herself. Just because the crystal glowed, it didn’t mean the bride had to say yes.

Ll
yr needed her to say yes.

“
Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“
You have dirt on your nose,” he answered.

Mede wiped at her face. Llyr laughed.

Realizing he again teased, she made a small playful noise of discontent and turned her attention to the path in front of them once more.

* * *

Draig Northern Mountains, Western Fields

Mede absently
patted the sick beast as she walked, trying to give the ceffyl some comfort. Her father had taught her a lot about the herds, especially after he’d found out what she’d done to her crystal. Though he never really said anything directly to her, she had the feeling he wanted her to have a skill in case she never married. Taking care of the herds was an honorable job, one that would ensure her future and Axell’s legacy—at least for one more generation.

The western fields were easy to find. They consisted of a series of connected valleys that led between jagged cliffs.
The rocky walls provided safety and shade for the herds. Finding which nook of those valleys her father was holed up in proved to be more difficult. Instead, she watched the ceffyls for signs that others were nearby.

Llyr was pleasant company. She couldn
’t fault him for his charm and likeability, but she still found herself tense from his nearness. Coming to consciousness in his arms after being strangled by a wedding gown had been a surreal experience. Those green eyes of his had pierced into her, until confusion and desire had locked her muscles and made resistance impossible. Though the moment had been brief by any real standard, it felt like it had lasted an eternity in her mind.

Part of her said
to run.

Part of her said
to kiss him.

The majority of her told the rest of her
, to keep quiet and get control of her emotions.

Mede couldn
’t explain the thread that filtered out of her toward him. She found herself looking at his neck, to the dormant stone. Everything in her culture told her they were not meant to be together. From his neck, her gaze moved down to his chest. When he walked, the tunic molded to his muscles. She remembered the press of his stomach to hers when he’d held her on the couch. There were plenty of well-shaped men on her planet, but for some reason she found herself looking at Llyr with renewed sight. Her steps faltered and she fell a few paces behind him. The breeze blew his shirt against his spine, burrowing into the indent cutting down his back.

Tingling erupted in her lower stomach.
Mede did not want to be married. She clung to that fact. As everything else inside her turned to turmoil, she had to go with logic.

“
My lady?” Llyr questioned.

Mede realized she
’d stopped walking. Instead of admitting she’d been staring at his backside, she pointed to the distance. “My father likes to camp near that cave. If he’s not there, we can track him from there.”

Llyr lifted his h
and and motioned back to Tomos before changing directions to walk toward the cave.

Mede closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The mountain air was sweet in the valleys. The blend of grasses and
tiny blue flowers mixed with the almost acidic smell of porous black rocks that littered the ground, like forgotten pieces of the past.

“
I don’t think I’ve ever been to this part of our territory before,” Llyr said.

“
Not many people come here,” Mede answered. “There is nothing here but grazing land for the ceffyls. It’s protected territory. Nothing to hunt. No reason to come.”

Llyr reached down and
picked up a black rock. He bounced it in his hand. “I haven’t seen aphanitic stones like this either?”

“
Aphanitic?” She frowned.

“
See the fine grains? It happens when rocks cool fast from high temperatures.” He ran his finger down the center of the rock.

She watched the touch, captivated by his fingertip. “
You like rocks?”

“
I like reading,” he admitted. Llyr dropped his hand but held the rock, as if he’d keep it. “You said earlier that we trade rocks for brides. We actually trade ore, not simply rocks. Ore is a big part of our planetary economy, so I read about it. Then I read about other rocks and minerals. Then I read about making ore into fuel. Then I read about the engines that use the fuel.”

Mede reached her hand out for the rock. He glanced at her questioningly before handing it over.

“You should have read about our laws.” She dropped the rock on the ground. “This land is protected, which means removing stones is forbidden.”

“
Only if I’m caught.” Llyr took a bold step closer. His gaze dipped to her lips. “You won’t tell on me, will you?”

“
What would be the point?” She arched a brow. It was hard to act nonchalant when he was close. She imagined she could feel the heat from his body. Her eyes went to his chest, to the cracked crystal. Unsure as to why, she lightly touched the cool stone. There was more hum between their un-touching bodies than in the crystal against her fingers. “I have a feeling you would not be imprisoned for the offence.”