by J A Armitage
The queen blinked. “Excuse me?” she said. “Living outside?”
“Did we not mention that before?” I said.
She scowled, an unusual expression for her. “You most certainly did not.”
“I lived outside for a while,” I said. “Remington.”
“He didn’t like Deon very much,” Lilian said delicately.
Daisy’s lips twitched, but she didn’t say anything.
“It’s lovely to know Deon has such good friends,” Queen Rapunzel said to Daisy. “Thank you.”
A surprised smile flashed across Daisy’s face before she curtsied and left the room. I wondered if she’d ever spoken directly to the queen before. Gardener or not, I’d been privileged to grow up with the queen’s attention on me. I had a lot to be grateful for. It made my head spin.
We ate and talked about yesterday’s celebrations. The king recounted an entertaining story about his tipsy great-aunt trying to pick a fight with a suit of armor in the hallway, and the queen reported that her ladies had witnessed not one but three marriage proposals during the course of the ball, our guests no doubt moved by all the romance in the air.
“We wanted to talk to you about your honeymoon plans,” the queen said as we were sipping tea after the meal. She looked tired, but in a way that might have just been a result of yesterday’s late night. Still, the gray of her eyebrows was beginning to show. “Lilian and Duke Remington were originally going to spend a week at his manor in Thornton, followed by a boating tour around the coast. I suspect you two might want to do something different.”
“I think you should absolutely honeymoon at the duke’s manor,” the king muttered darkly into his teacup. “I’m not averse to someone rubbing that man’s poor decisions in his face.”
Lilian’s eyebrows shot up. “Papa!” she exclaimed.
The king was usually the epitome of diplomatic calm. It was almost funny to see him this annoyed.
“Tempting as that may be, I advise you go on your own honeymoon,” the queen said.
Lilian glanced at me, and I gave her a small nod. She smiled and turned back to her parents.
“Deon and I talked this over already, actually,” she said. “We don’t want to go on a honeymoon. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to travel together, but right now, we want to follow some leads that might help us solve the blight.”
The king raised an eyebrow. “You want to spend your honeymoon gardening?”
“Some of that,” I said. “We also need to speak to botanists and geneticists and consult with some magicians.”
“Can we take over one of the rooms on the ground floor as an office?” Lilian said. “It would be nice to have somewhere to hold meetings.”
“You don’t have to keep working as head gardener anymore,” the king said, hesitantly, as if unsure whether I already knew this.
I laughed. “I’d like to, Your Majesty. At least for now.” I took Lilian’s hand. “We have some important work to do together.”
Queen Rapunzel watched us, amused, and then leaned back in her seat.
“Well, it seems you two know exactly what you’re about,” the king said. He frowned. “And Deon, you can just call me Alder.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. I nodded anyway.
“And me, Rapunzel,” the queen said. “Or Mama.”
She winked, and I laughed. I had slipped up more than once as a little boy, calling her Queen Punzel and Mama and Lilian’s Mother in equal measure.
“Let us know if we can help with these ambitious plans of yours, whatever they are,” she added. “Although it rather seems you won’t need us.”
Lilian’s hand tightened on mine. “I’ll always need you, Mama.”
There was weight behind the words, an awareness that whatever was happening in the kingdom was tied to the queen, and that we didn’t yet know how this story would end.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said briskly. “In fact, now that I have this charming wig, I’m quite ready to get back into the world. Things have gone sideways while I’ve been hiding away, and I don’t intend to let them keep sliding.”
She tilted her head and considered me, her expression soft and full of love.
“I’m terribly proud to have you for a son, Deon,” she said. “Thank you for everything you’ve done to help me and the kingdom.”
“I only wish I could have done more,” I said. “But I’m going to keep searching for the answers to everything that’s happening in the kingdom. Lilian and I think we know where we want to start, but if that doesn’t work out, we’ll try something else.”
“And we’ll keep trying until this blight is gone for good,” Lilian said.
“I know you will,” the queen said. “I have tremendous faith in you both.”
The kingdom was still covered in gray, but now I could see a world of shimmering possibilities. I had magic, and parents-in-law who loved me, and a wife so dazzling it blinded me just to look at her. Lilian and I would heal this land. The soil would recover. The color would return. It would take love and hard work, but we had both in spades.
Someone knocked at the door, and Lady Camellia, one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting stepped in, an irritated frown on her face.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but some of our weddings guests are demanding to see you, Your Highnesses,” she said.
It took me a second to realize she was talking to me.
“I’ve told them you’re otherwise engaged, but they simply will not take no for an answer. And, well, one of them has a baby dragon, and it appears to be getting agitated.”
I looked to Lilian, but she seemed just as confused as I was.
“I don’t know anyone with a baby dragon,” she said slowly. “That sounds dangerous.”
“She claims it’s tame,” Lady Camellia said. “Only I don’t think that’s actually possible, and I’m getting worried it’s going to damage the furniture.”
“It’s inside?” the queen said. I couldn’t tell if she was curious or horrified.
Lilian stood. “Let’s go see what this is about.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’ll admit, I have no idea who they could be--”
“But you want to see the baby dragon,” I finished.
“It’s like you know me.”
Lady Camellia led us downstairs to one of the conservatories on the bottom floor of the palace. I saw in an instant why she’d had them wait here; there were chairs, but they were all bare wood devoid of the usual upholstered cushions, and the stone and glass walls were likely among the least flammable in the palace.
We stepped forward into the room, curiosity brightening Lilian’s face. Lady Camellia sighed and left, but not before muttering to me that she’d post a guard outside the room, just in case.
The three visitors shot to their feet as we entered, and the taller of the two women stepped forward. It took me a moment to place her, and then I recognized her face and her tightly bound hair. She’d been at the ball last night, watching me from the side of the room.
“Your Highnesses,” the woman said. I half-expected her to curtsy, but she offered us a refined bow instead. She was dressed in a fitted tunic and leather leggings, and the young dragon with gleaming purple scales slunk around her legs and hid behind her leather boots.
Lilian tensed beside me, and I knew it was taking everything she had not to drop to her knees and try to make friends with the beast.
“Do we know you?” I said cautiously.
“You do not,” the woman said. “I’m terribly sorry for bothering you, it’s just that we desperately needed to see you before you left on your wedding trip.”
“We’re not going on one,” I said.
The woman relaxed a little.
“Then I hope you have time to talk,” she said. “Really talk. We’re here because we know why your flowers are dying.”
My heart jumped. Lilian took a tiny step forward.
“Why?” she demanded. “How? What do you know?”
>
“Have a seat,” the woman said. She held out her hand. “I’m Azia.”
Lilian shook the woman’s hand, and so did I. Azia seemed to linger over our brief contact, her eyes fixed on my face.
I stared back. She had golden rings around her irises.
Just like mine.
“These are my travel companions,” Azia said, gesturing behind her.
The woman with fiery hair I’d seen yesterday examined me intently. She was seated next to a young man with dark, shaggy hair and a rugged shadow that looked like it would become a proper beard if I only waited a few moments. They both had the same rings around their eyes.
“This is Blaise from Atlantice,” Azia said, nodding at the red-haired woman. “And this is Castiel of Elder.”
“Princess Blaise…” Lilian said.
She was a princess? And Lilian knew her?
Blaise brought her into a hug, and as I looked on, I realized I recognized her too. She had visited Floris a few years ago as part of a Royal Tour from Atlantice. I’d not paid much attention at the time, but it seemed that Lilian and she had kept up with each other. Lilian then turned to Castiel and offered her hand. Castiel kissed the back of it with a solemn expression.
We all sat. I stared at the visitors’ faces. I couldn’t help it. There was something of me in each of them. Our faces were distinct, and the shades of our hair and skin varied wildly, but their eyes--they stared back at me as if through a mirror.
The dragon began pawing at Azia’s boot, and she frowned down at it. “You have wings,” she said, in a tone that made me think she and the dragon had gone over this before. “You are perfectly capable of getting onto my lap on your own.”
The dragon’s tail whipped back and forth, and it stared up at her with its wide, jewel-like eyes. Azia rolled her eyes and bent to pick it up.
“May I?” Lilian said, leaning forward with her hand half-outstretched.
“Of course.” A smile crept onto Azia’s face. “This is Nyre, and she’s a right little monster. Tell her no if she tries to nip at you.”
The dragon blinked at Lilian as she carefully leaned forward. She let the creature sniff her hand, and then it butted her and shoved the top of its head under her fingernails. Lilian giggled, delighted, and scratched between the dragon’s delicate little horns.
My wife’s joy at making a new animal friend was utterly contagious. I loved watching her.
The dragon marched across Azia’s lap and flapped awkwardly over to Lilian. She leaned back to give it room, eyes enormous, and bit her lip in barely suppressed excitement.
“She likes you,” Azia said approvingly.
The dragon curled up on Lilian’s lap and started snorting like a contented cat trying to purr. A tiny tongue of fire emerged from its nose and disappeared into the air.
“I’m going to die,” Lilian announced. “She’s too cute.”
“I’d like to learn more about our human guests, if I may,” I said. “I’m sorry to be so blunt, but… Who are you? And what does it have to do with us?”
“We’ve been trying to figure that out,” Azia said. “Now that we’ve met you, I think we might have found a clue.”
They glanced between one another, but all their significant looks meant nothing to me. Finally, the redheaded woman leaned forward.
“We’re here because something is wrong in our kingdoms,” Blaise said. “It’s been rough in Atlantice lately. I know people who are trying to make things better, but still, something isn’t right. There’s magic involved, but I don’t actually know what’s happening. Things are going wrong in Elder, too, but Castiel doesn’t understand why.”
“We decided to travel together in search of answers,” Azia said. “My mother is dying. My adopted mother, anyway.” She narrowed her strange eyes at me, and I felt like a sample under a microscope. “I’m adopted. We all are. We don’t know if that’s important.”
“Given your eyes, I’d say it is,” Lilian said mildly. She raised her eyebrows at me as if to say, Well, isn’t it obvious?
“We’re trying to find Azia’s birth mother,” Blaise said. “And we’re trying to find the woman who gave me to my parents. She had eyes like mine. Like ours.”
I glanced again between their faces. Their eyes were uncanny.
“We think she has magic,” Azia said.
I sat up straighter. “What kind of magic?”
Azia shrugged. “Who knows? Magic that might help the situation back in Draconis. And Atlantice. And Elder.”
“And Floris,” Castiel said, unsmiling. “My land is cursed. It appears yours might be, too.”
Lilian and I exchanged glances. This was too much to be coincidence. I wished Hedley was in the room.
“They’re all cursed,” Blaise said. “My adopted mother was a mermaid once. She became human after she won her legs from a sea witch.” Her lips curled in distaste. “But she’s lost her legs. I need to figure out how to get them back. The woman that left me as a baby said I was a good luck charm,” she added and pursed her lips. “Seems my luck’s worn off.”
“What else is happening in your kingdoms?” I said. A horrible thought struck me, and my stomach turned over. “The blight hasn’t spread, has it?”
“No blight,” Castiel said. “My kingdom was struck with a terrible disease. A madness that turned wolf shifters savage. I’m searching for a cure.”
Azia let out a heavy sigh. “Something strange is happening to the magic in the world,” she said, watching her dragon as Lilian scratched its nose. “Wicked witches seem to be gaining power if Blaise’s recent experiences are anything to go by. Meanwhile, ordinary practitioners of magic seem powerless to stop whatever’s happening.”
My head spun. Wicked witches. Dame Gothel.
“We think our problems might have come from a witch, too,” I said.
These people were complete strangers. Caution battled with curiosity inside me; I couldn’t figure out how much I should tell them.
But we needed answers. These strangers might have them.
“Of course, they did,” Azia said dryly. “I’m not surprised.”
“Nothing would surprise me right now.” Blaise nodded at me. “Whatever’s happening, you’re part of it.”
I looked between the strangers, aware of our differences--and our glaring similarities.
“That’s why you came to talk to me,” I said. “My eyes. And my adoption.”
“We didn’t come for you, actually,” Azia said. She nodded at Lilian, who was still scratching the dragon’s head. The creature had fallen asleep, and the gentle sounds of its snoring provided a calm rhythm beneath our conversation. “We thought it might have something to do with you.”
“We had no idea we were arriving in the middle of your wedding,” Blaise added. “That was a strange surprise.”
“What were you hoping to find?” I said.
Azia and Castiel exchanged glances. Blaise shrugged.
“We didn’t know,” she said. “To be perfectly honest, none of us have any idea what we’re doing or why we’ve been drawn together.”
“We’re all on different missions.” Azia seemed to be the leader of this small group, inasmuch as it had a leader. “I’m attempting to find the woman who birthed me, whom I suspect might be able to help the situation in Draconis and heal my mother. Blaise is searching for someone who can restore the charm that gave her mermaid mother legs. And Castiel is trying to learn more about the curse that’s plaguing his people.”
“Or the person who cast it,” Castiel said, a hint of threat running through his voice. “I’d settle for getting my hands on them.”
Azia frowned but otherwise ignored the comment. “The three of us have problems, all related to magic. It made sense that we should travel together. Different problems, but the same problem. None of us know where we came from. We think our history...your history has something to do with everything. We just don’t know what.”
“There’s safety in numb
ers,” Castiel said. “Sometimes.”
“You’re ignoring the eyes thing,” Blaise pointed out. “Doesn’t anyone else think it’s strange that we’ve all spent our lives thinking we have the most unique eyes of anyone we’ve ever met, and now, all of a sudden, there are four of us? And the woman who dropped me off as a baby had them, too?”
The sleeping baby dragon shoved its head deeper into Lilian’s lap and stretched out one leg before relaxing again.
“I’ve had thoughts about this,” I said slowly. “About what’s happening in Floris and how it relates to me. My mentor--the man who all but raised me--said that something happened in Floris around the time I was left at the palace as a baby. He said the flowers grew like they’d never grown before, and it was like the whole kingdom was… blessed.”
It sounded arrogant, phrased like that, but I pushed on anyway.
“I wonder if I maybe did bless the kingdom somehow. If we all did. Maybe the person who left us--maybe we were all adopted out by the same woman who gave Blaise to her parents.” I looked around, but I didn’t know these people well enough to read their expressions. “Am I crazy?”
Blaise’s fiery eyebrows shot up. She pointed at Azia. “I told you. I said that.”
“We can’t jump to conclusions,” Azia said more calmly. “I don’t know anything about my birth family. Neither does Castiel.”
“I usually try not to jump to conclusions,” Lilian said.
Azia nodded. “Exactly.”
“However,” Lilian continued, “there’s jumping to conclusions, and then there’s ignoring the evidence. Blaise is right; I’ve never seen eyes like yours on anyone else. It’s possible you all came from somewhere else. There are undiscovered lands out beyond the edges of the sea; for all we know, they could be full of some golden-eyed race. But it also seems very possible--very probable, even--that you look like this because you have some kind of magic in common.”
She gave me a significant look, and I knew she was silently urging me to tell them about the abilities I’d recently discovered.
I couldn’t. Not yet. My magic was new and delicate, and telling them would almost be too personal.