The Dragon Of Her Dreams: A Paranormal Love & Pregnancy Romance

by Lilly Pink

  The former archivist was displeased to see her, and she almost quailed before his hateful gaze. Execution would be so much easier. But she thought of Kian lying unconscious in the House of Healing, and she remembered how much of the trouble they were having now was due to the hatred and cruelty of one man.

  She straightened her spine and told him that the only way to escape execution was to reveal the location of the portal he had created. He hemmed and hawed, and made excuses, but when their stance never wavered, he wilted like wet lettuce.

  He gave a location a few hours flight to the south. Shahin gathered a cadre of scouts and mages to travel there right away. Zoe informed Faizel that if the location was false or if any of the others died trying to deactivate his portal, then she would ensure he was burned at the stake, since she’d heard it was the most painful method of execution. The man swallowed thickly when he saw her expression, and divulged more details of the kinds of defenses they could expect.

  She left, and after stopping by the kennels to fawn over the still weak but clearly-recovering Sirius, spent the rest of the day with Ameretat and Darya, preparing for her first solo public appearance as queen and practicing the spell they would hopefully be using.

  Shahin returned in the evening, proud to say his team had been successful. The directions had led to a small half-ruined tower. By the looks of it, only Faizel had been there in the past century or so. The portal had activated just as reported. Shahin had gone through himself, after a few careful trial runs, and found an office in the human world.

  There, Faizel seemed to be some sort of rich politician, and they found plenty of journals and papers that might prove useful. The mages had deactivated the gateway and destroyed it. They had ransacked the tower for any other information they could find, and then Shahin had decided to destroy that too, burying the whole thing in an avalanche.

  “It felt good,” he said with a grim smile, “and I hope it will prevent anyone from following in his footsteps. Though, with any luck, it will soon not be needed.” Everything that had been recovered from the portal, as well as most of the contents of Faizel’s office in the palace, had been locked in an empty room next to Kian’s study, since he was the only person who could both be implicitly trusted and able to make sense of any of it.

  They rehearsed the spell one more time before going to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day for everyone.

  ***

  That day, Zoe wore white and red, reasoning that she wanted to look severe, but not like she was in mourning. Some of the Kumari would likely not believe that Kian was still alive until he walked among them, and, as Ameretat said sardonically, then they would probably accuse her of necromancy.

  The speech and judgement would be held in the throne room, a place that Kian avoided like the plague. She could see why. It was enormous, filled with creepy statues of previous monarchs and draped in ridiculous amounts of purple velvet and golden silk. The thrones themselves were monstrously gaudy things, encrusted with gold and gems, and sitting in hers, Zoe felt like a child pretending to be a grown up.

  Previous queens must have been taller. The other Kumari filed in a moment later, some of them whispering to their neighbors, probably unaware that the bizarre acoustics of the room sent their whispers straight to Zoe’s ears.

  “I told you I saw the queen yesterday. She’s fine, and still pregnant, you can see that for yourself.”

  “Yes, but what about the king? No one has seen him for two days.”

  “You saw the fight. He was badly injured. My cousin is a Healer. She saw him just today, when the queen visited, and told me they’ve put him to sleep on purpose. That archivist poisoned him.”

  “That’s the craziest thing. The stuffy old librarian. I never would have thought…”

  Everything else was much in the same vein. People had questions and doubts, but most of them still had faith that everything would come to light. It buoyed Zoe’s spirits.

  When everyone had filed in and settled down, she stood. “My people,” she said. It felt strange to call them hers. She had been here for less than a year, and though she recognized many faces, she knew few names.

  Still, she was the queen now, and that made the Kumari hers in the sense that she had a responsibility to them. “I apologize that I have not addressed you before now, but I am afraid I am not used to ruling anyone but myself. Speaking to crowds is not something I have any experience in, but I will do my best.”

  “As you probably heard already, yesterday I was attacked by one of our own, a man once trusted by the king, Archivist Faizel. He opposes the unification with the human world that Kian and I have been working so hard to achieve because we believe that the Kumari should rejoin our estranged brethren as conquerors rather than friends.

  Because of this, and a family grudge older than anyone present, he planned to sabotage our efforts by killing me and using that failure and grief to usurp the throne he felt was his by right. Rather than surrender when his plan failed, he killed our friend Zhubin, esteemed Captain of the Guard, and gravely injured the king.”

  Zoe swallowed, made somewhat uncomfortable by the large number of eyes staring at her in rapt attention. She looked up at the ceiling to get her bearings before continuing. “Though I have heard the rumor mill has given a number of fantastical reasons for the king’s absence, let me lay those to rest right now. My husband is, indeed, alive. The Healers have put him in a magical sleep so that he can recover from his injuries, as Faizel managed to poison him during their altercation.

  However, he should be fully recovered by the end of the week. Since the king cannot speak, the judgement of Faizel falls to me. He is too grave a threat to the kingdom to let the matter rest until Kian is recovered. Bring him forth so he may be judged.”

  Shahin brought Faizel in himself, backed up by a few of the scouts and guards he trusted most. The former archivist was bound physical and magically, and he’d been put under a spell of silence to prevent his ranting. He stood at the foot of the throne and scowled up at Zoe.

  “Former Archivist Faizel, you are hereby charged with treason, murder, and attempted regicide. Do you have anything to say in your defense?” she asked, unraveling the silence spell for this mostly symbolic gesture.

  “I would have led you all to glory! These naive fools will only hasten our destruction! I should have been king! I..!” Zoe recast the spell with a frown.

  “This man is clearly unrepentant. The path he advises is the same one that nearly destroyed the Kumari and led to the worlds being split. I do not know whether there are gods, but I will say that if there are, surely they had some hand in our estrangement from our brethren.

  If we tried to reform our shattered world using the same means by which it was destroyed, it would likely be doomed to failure. Only through peaceful means can we prove we are worthy of restoration.” Zoe looked out at the people, and saw their eyes shining with hope and faith, and realized how much it meant to them, this chance for renewal, and that she, above everything else, was a symbol that it was possible.

  “I have promised Faizel mercy, in return for his cooperation in ensuring that no one else will reap the seeds of betrayal he has shown.” There was some scattered booing, which she had expected. “So, here is my mercy. He will not be granted the quick death that so many long for. Instead he will be exiled, stripped of magic, and flown to a secret location as far from the palace as can be managed, with supplies to last him one week.

  For his survival he will have to rely on his own skills and the grace of the gods. He is an outlaw, his name and house will be forgotten, and he will no longer be welcome among us. That is my decree. The sentence will be carried out now.”

  Faizel looked both perplexed and horrified as Zoe stepped down from the dais. Ameretat handed her a crystal tipped staff, and they, along with Darya and Shahin, approached the former archivist. Zoe pounded her staff thrice on the marble floor and the magic circle that Darya had drawn the night before sprang into bein
g.

  Shahin made sure Faizel was in the proper spot and bound him there before taking his place opposite Darya. “This man stands before the gods unworthy of the gifts he has been given,” Zoe said loudly. “The world cries out for justice, so let him be judged.”

  Ameretat struck her staff on the ground now. “I stand for the earth, strong as stone in my oaths, nurturing as a mother to my charges, champion of life and renewal. This man has committed an offense against the earth by striving to tear children from their mother’s womb too soon and by ending a life before its time. I declare him outcast,” she said, banging her staff again.

  Then it was Shahin’s turn. “I stand for the fire, courage runs hot in my blood even as my heart burns bright with joy and warmth. This man has committed an offense against the fire by striking his foes with cowardly poison and coldly plotting the deaths of those that called him friend. I declare him outcast!”

  Darya was next. “I stand for water, swimming through the flow of time as a fish in a river, cool and calm as the surface of the sea and mysterious as the depths. This man has committed an offense against water by fighting against the tides of change and bringing a storm when there should have been peace. I declare him outcast.”

  Zoe was last. “I stand for air, bringing a message of hope, I uphold the truth and execute the law. This man has committed an offense against the air by spreading lies and messages of betrayal, and turning his back on those he was sworn to serve. I declare him outcast.”

  The last part was spoken together. “Forsworn by earth, fire, wind, and wave, let all creation withhold their blessings and the gods turn their faces away from this man, oathbreaker and betrayer. Let his name be forgotten, let no one raise a hand to succor or aid him.

  Until these four souls can look upon him and see redemption, we declare him outcast and Kumari no more.” They struck their staves on the ground in unison. The magic circle flared with power and then faded away. Faizel was there, in the center of the circle, a vivid black mark that Zoe recognized as the ancient Kumari symbol for oathbreaker now emblazoned on his forehead.

  He moaned. “What have you done to me? It’s gone, all gone. This is not mercy.” Faizel lurched toward a group of spectators, who recoiled in horror, and Shahin grabbed a hold of him again.

  The hunter had wanted to be one of the ones who carried out the final sentence, dropping Faizel in the biggest stretch of uninterrupted wilderness they could find, but he was needed to oversee his brother’s funeral that evening.

  Ameretat too was needed at the palace, both to keep an eye on Kian’s progress and to ensure that Zoe didn’t go into labor again. So Darya agreed to go, along with three other dragons that all of them could agree were trustworthy. It was a two day journey, but all the supplies had been packed. All that remained was for the four dragons to don their flight armor and for Faizel to be placed in the carry basket-cage they had devised for the trip.

  It was all accomplished quickly, in full view of the entire court. “Be safe and hurry back,” Zoe said to Darya and the others over the sounds of Faizel’s increasingly pathetic sobbing. Darya, who had transformed into a slender pale blue and lavender dragon with a spinal ridge like a fish’s fin, nodded gravely, and then the four dragons took off as one, the basket suspended between them. Zoe watched them fade into the horizon and hoped for maybe the hundredth time that she had made the right decision.

  ***

  Zhubin’s funeral was not quite as depressing an affair as she had feared. His body had not been in great shape when it had finally been recovered at the base of the tower, but one of the healers had taken the time to make him at least look presentable, and after everyone had paid their respects in the largest garden, the pyre was lit, filled with fragrant herbs to somewhat mask the smell of charred flesh. Then people began telling stories about Zhubin, and most of them got spectacularly drunk. Ameretat, at least, had agreed to keep Zoe company in her medically required sobriety.

  “Kian will be sorry he missed this,” Zoe said wistfully as a group around one of the smaller bonfires roared with laughter. “I wish I had taken the time to get to know Zhubin better.”

  Ameretat nodded. “He was not an easy man to get to know. Even after living in close proximity for two hundred years or more, I cannot say I really knew him well. His brother was always the more outgoing one.” Shahin was currently twirling on of the female healers around the fire with exuberant glee. “Kian trusted him, and looked up to him, especially when he was younger, but I don’t think Zhubin was close to anyone except his fellow guards.”

  Zoe sighed. “It’s a shame he didn’t live to meet his mate, you know. I have a feeling he would have ended up being one of those guys who only really opened up around his children.”

  Ameretat smiled at the image that brought to mind. “I can easily imagine it. And now because of Faizel, we will never get to see it. I think you did the right thing, Zoe.”

  “You do?” she said in surprise. “I thought you were disappointed that we didn’t have to execute him after all.”

  “Out of spite, perhaps,” the healer admitted. “After what he had done to my closest friends, the absolute agony he put you and Kian through, worrying for each other, and killing Zhubin, I thought he deserved death. But you denied him the easy way out, and you also gave him a chance, however slim, of redemption.

  Death and violence only breed more death and violence; I know that, but in my anger, I had forgotten. The people need hope, and today, you showed them that there is a chance for even the worst of us.”

  Zoe felt her cheeks getting hot. “Thanks, Ameretat. I needed that. You’ve always been a good friend to me.”

  “See if you still want to be friends when I’m yelling at you during childbirth,” the healer said with a playful nudge of her elbow.

  CHAPTER 13

  Four days passed. Darya returned, having dropped Faizel in a high mountain valley far to the east. “One of the hunters felt sorry for the man and showed him how to start a fire and build a simple shelter. We made sure there were no bears or wolves in the immediate area. Now it is up to Faizel and the gods.” The oracle sighed heavily. “I erased their memory,” she said after a moment.

  “What? Whose?” Ameretat demanded before Zoe could get the very same questions out of her own mouth.

  “The others that were with me. I erased their memories of the location and replaced it with another. I know it wasn’t right but…”

  “Did you think one of them might be a traitor?” Zoe asked her, indicating that she should sit down. Darya looked exhausted, physically and emotionally.

  “No. Not precisely. It is only… they are all good people, kind and generous. I feared that once the anger faded, well, they would remember that he is just one old man, out there, alone, with no magic, and they might be moved by pity. Or else by curiosity. I could not take the chance. I do not think, even now, that they truly realize the kind of man he is.”

  “Not that I disagree with your reasoning, but memory modification?” Ameretat said, shaking her head. “That is just so…”

  “Unethical?” Zoe finished. “I didn’t even know a thing like that was possible.”

  “It is certainly not… approved of,” Darya admitted. “A seer might use it, to help themselves forget a particularly troubling but unhelpful vision. Or a healer could use it to aid in recovery from trauma. But never without permission. I have been consumed by guilt since the moment I performed the spell. I accept whatever punishment you think fitting,” she said with a sigh. It seemed more like relief than sadness.

  In the end, Zoe decided to leave that in Kian’s hands. Ameretat had told her that they were going to let the sleep spell fade slowly, starting that evening, which would hopefully allow him to wake on his own the following morning. They had already transferred him to his own bed, which delighted Zoe. She would be glad to have him there, even asleep.

  Just the familiar sound of his breathing and the comforting feeling of his warm skin next to
hers was a huge improvement over the empty and cold bed she had experienced the past week. Sirius was doing much better, but Shahin wanted to give him a few more days in the kennel to recover his strength. The hunter knew that Zoe would have gladly cared for the sick Vryka, after he had proved so vital to her rescue, but he also knew she had plenty of other things on her plate.

  Ameretat had other news, delivered in the business-like manner with which she pronounced most of her medical advice. “You have passed thirty-six weeks of pregnancy now. It almost seems a miracle after everything that has happened. But it means that it would be safe for the children to be born at any time.

  The closer to your due date, the better of course, but you are free to resume normal marital activities. If Kian feels up to it, of course.” Zoe’s face had turned about seventeen shades of red while Ameretat maintained a deadpan expression. Then she grinned knowingly. “Why do you think we moved him back to your bed?” she said as she left the room.

  As embarrassing as that had been, Zoe felt nothing but relief and gratitude when she climbed into bed that night. The spell was already starting to fade, and Kian, still asleep, turned to curve his body around hers as she slipped under the covers, murmuring her name against her hair. She had come so close to losing him, to losing everything, all because she had been afraid.

  It was true that magic would be hard for humans to accept, but that part wouldn’t happen all at once. The Kumari would be there to help the world make the transition, though they too would have things to get used to. If Zoe was being honest with herself, she knew the real reason she had hesitated was because she was afraid for herself, afraid of failure, afraid of the knowledge that people depended on her, that she had power.

  She still found the thought both intimidating and disturbing, but when she had seen the hope shining from the eyes of the gathered Kumari, people she didn’t even really know, she realized she couldn’t deny them this chance. And even though they don’t know it, this is humanity’s birthright too. Everyone deserves to share in this gift.