Himika
Hara and Raia dressed me in the skimpiest of underthings.
“There’ll be a robe over it,” Hara said. “Of course.”
“Thank goodness…”
“What kind of jewelry do you want?”
“Oh, nothing too fancy. You know me. How about moonstone?”
Raia was pawing through a big box of royal jewels. “They’re all tangled up.”
“Oh, Raia, you always just make a mess. Give me that.” Hara fished out an ornate necklace of tiny silver braid with multiple moonstones of different sizes. She held it up to me. “Mm-hm. You’ll look like a goddess.”
“Are you sure you’re ready for him?” Raia asked.
“She is,” Hara said. “Look at her. She’s grown up fast and now she’s got all the most powerful men in the kingdom wrapped around her finger.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” I said. “I was just feeling guilty to be hoarding them all.”
“Don’t worry about that for a second,” Hara said. “We all respect you the more for hoarding them. You are the queen, after all. The dragon queen is not supposed to be shy. Dragons love to hoard.”
“I’d like to see a woman in charge,” Raia said. “In the human world, men are in charge, I certainly noticed that, but around here, it’s more about whoever is the strongest personality. Aurekdel was always great at that, but he’s not the king anymore, so—”
“If you speak more forcefully than King Seron, you’ll be in charge,” Hara said. “Better yet if you keep them all hungry for you.”
“I’m not trying to keep them hungry, exactly… I want them to be happy.”
“I guess you’re sweet too,” Hara said. “But someone needs to be on the attack.”
“I’m trying to make peace,” I said. “But we are fighting too. Seron’s gentle, but he doesn’t just let people walk over him, and neither will I.”
“I don’t think anyone should be making trade deals with the Traitor King,” Raia said.
“You know, where I come from, servants don’t tell the queen how to run the country,” I said, only half teasing.
“Aren’t we glad we’re not humans?” Hara slapped golden bell bracelets around my wrists. Then she skipped off and grabbed some for my ankles.
“I’m…very jingly. How am I supposed to be a woman in charge right now? I feel more like a sacrifice…”
“I bet he feels worse,” Hara said. “But look at yourself…”
She walked me over to a mirror in the dressing area of the baths. She had lined my eyes and blushed my cheeks with a little cosmetic, then brushed my hair and put a section up with a moonstone comb, and the moonstone and silver jewelry was set against my pale skin. Living underground really makes for that fair complexion all the ladies in Gaermon wanted, I thought wryly. Gaermon had long, mild summers with beautiful sunny weather and most girls ended up with a tan unless they were ridiculously diligent about carrying their parasols. I missed those days. My skin shone faintly with scented oil and the bells jingled with every step.
Raia draped the robe over my shoulders. It was a pale pink silk with silver thread in a design of water lilies and reeds.
“Don’t you look yummy?” Hara said.
I laughed, breaking the glamour of my reflection. “I must say that I do.”
Raia fussed with the clasps of the robe and tried to cover my cleavage a little better. “Here, have a fan, since the neckline of this is low.”
“Be confident,” Hara said. “There is such a confusing array of kings. Everyone is looking toward you to unify them.”
I held my head high in the mirror. Now I proceeded back upstairs to the throne room, the floors cool on my bare feet. I heard drums beating already. When I walked into the throne room, the court was all gathered, playing cacophonous music on instruments and producing a makeshift rhythm from sticks and rocks, others clapping some festival song. A bed had been built up, seemingly out of nowhere, a pile of furs on the dais, which was decorated with garlands and lanterns that hung from the ceiling set on a platform of crystal pillars. Flowers were piled around it and scattered everywhere. I had no idea how they had put all this together so quickly. Aurekdel and Seron were standing in front of it. Even Seron looked like he’d been won over by the festivities; maybe he was getting a little more used to the public nature of ruling.
I realized this was no moment for me to be shy. Just as my handmaidens said, the dragons needed a queen.
I walked to the bed and lifted my hands. “May the gods bless us with the first of many children.”
The dragons roared with excitement.
This was a moment when I seemed to go outside myself. Life was strange. I was born to have all eyes upon me and fulfill my duty as a queen, and I had to rise to the occasion whether I liked it or not. Had I chosen this, or had it chosen me?
It felt like both.
Ezeru appeared in the midst of the cheering, drumming mob.
I expected him to look utterly embarrassed, but instead he was focused on me and me alone. He didn’t look embarrassed so much as impatient.
My heart started beating very fast.
“My lady, this pot is full of kulum,” someone said. “We’re putting it near the bed, if you should tire and need it.”
“Um—thank you…”
I was distracted by Ezeru’s face. Even now, I thought, there was such an aching loneliness in him that I reached out my hands until they joined with his.
“All right, everyone out,” Aurekdel said. “Out, out, out!” He cut a big swath with his cane, herding everyone to the main door, while Seron moved the rest out one of the other doors. They shut the doors behind them, but outside the party was still going on.
“Do high dragons never have anything better to do?” Ezeru asked.
“Well, they’ve all been working hard getting ready for the move back, and to be honest, there isn’t much else to be done now,” Seron said, raising an eyebrow. “We’re just waiting for the message that the fog has receded.”
I still felt like I could hear the bells quite clearly as I sat down on the bed, but outside, that probably wasn’t the case. They were singing outside. I had this feeling that it was a good thing I couldn’t really make out the lyrics.
“I’ll guard the door,” Seron said.
Ezeru looked at them and then at me. “So…”
Aurekdel strolled over to him. “She is our queen,” he said. “We share her with you and protect her, and however my own status may have changed, I made a vow to her, to guard her with my body unto death and to never leave her side. And as such, I will not let her be with any other man until I am satisfied with how he treats her.”
I hadn’t realized that Aurek really remembered those vows. It would be a little more romantic if we weren’t hearing a constant din of singing and drumming outside so that Aurek had to say everything in a loud voice.
“And to be honest, if I’d been the king first, I wouldn’t have let her be with anyone else,” Seron said.
“Yes, if you’d been the king first,” Aurek said. “You would have missed out on a few things, wouldn’t you?”
Seron stalked toward us and grabbed Aurek’s shoulder. “Well, why don’t we guard the door.”
“Don’t be intimidated,” I told Ezeru. “Is it your first time?”
His silence answered that.
On one hand, I could see him still wanting me so badly that once he gave in, I was in for something pretty intense. He was so strong, and he had a lot of walls up, so it was easy to forget that he was also young and had been through hell, and that this whole circumstance wasn’t part of his plan. I knew I needed to put him at ease.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. Unlike Aurek, who was naturally loud, Ezeru had such a low, soft voice that I basically had to read his lips.
“Well, I’m pretty well broken in.” I smiled wryly, speaking into his ear so he could hear me. “Oszin and Seron didn’t have any experience when thi
s started either. It’s not just you. And of course I didn’t. But we made you the king of the rock dragons for very selfish reasons, you know. We’re using you. And a king should have a queen. I think I liked you from the very moment I saw how kind you were to the rock dragons at the lake. I thought rock dragons were monsters, and you showed me a different side of them, and then the whole world seemed better and more hopeful. Since then…I’ve seen all the qualities I value in a leader in you, Ezeru. And when you left, I missed you. I tried not to miss you, but I still did, and I wouldn’t want you to have any other queen. Clearly, your instincts feel the same way. So let’s act on them.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Himika
I stepped closer to him, and put his hands on the clasps of my robe. He tugged them apart, desperate to free me of the robe now that there was nothing else in the way of him getting what he wanted.
I had never been wanted this way before. I wondered if this was how the priestess felt with her sigils. If Niko had ever torn off her clothes in desperation. Somehow, I doubted it.
The robe fell to the floor. He put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me down onto the soft pile of furs, the bells ringing, his hands now spreading on either side of my head as he looked at me.
“You can just—get to it,” I said. “If you need to.”
He yanked at my underwear. It was skimpy enough that one of the strings just broke in his hand, and now he started licking me between my legs.
“Oh.” It was immediately intense. I mean—all of the guys were pretty good at this. Maybe better, technically. Like, they tried to really pay attention to the sweet spots. But Ezeru seemed like he actually wanted to taste me, like—he was grabbing me and lapping at me and fucking me with his tongue, and I could feel such a raw need in him that it unlocked something utterly primal in me and I just kept getting wetter and wetter. I was still wearing the moonstone necklace and even the leather bandeau that supported my breasts under the robe. I felt like Ezeru had forgotten absolutely everything except the core of me.
When animals mate, they just sniff each other and get right to it, and they don’t look into each other’s eyes either, I thought.
I wondered idly if I should be more disturbed. Maybe I should be disturbed on his own behalf, because clearly he wanted to be more like the other high dragons.
But he wasn’t.
He was like no one else in the world, and I didn’t care why. Whether magic made him, or blood, or coincidence, or prophecy…
He’s mine.
I was already panting with my first climax, trying not to make too much noise, as the music outside was not quite as loud now. The dragons must be getting a little restless. My hands clawed at the necklace and I shut my eyes. As I trembled with the aftershocks, Ezeru unbuttoned his trousers and just started fucking me. Just—right into it. He didn’t talk to me. He was certainly the opposite of the other guys in that way; I mean, Seron and Aurekdel were always bantering with each other and Oszin had never been one to be quiet.
Ezeru’s silent hunger was definitely its own turn on. I loved it when Seron let out the raw side of his personality and just went for it, and Ezeru was like that right from the start.
But— “Stars above,” I gasped, and my royal language hardly seemed appropriate for the occasion. I felt like a mere vessel for Ezeru’s need, his eyes glazing as he rammed into me over and over. The merrymakers outside were definitely getting an earful of the bells that jangled with each thrust, so all I could do was bite my lip and stay silent and remind myself that dragons were not that private anyway. I’d seen plenty going on in the shadows.
It was over fast. He came hard and then quickly tore away from me. He was still almost fully clothed; I hadn’t even gotten to really see him. Now I looked at his black hair, still wet from the baths, resting on the back of his collar, and the tense posture in his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I needed that. I needed you. Did I hurt you?”
“No…”
He paused and then looked at me as if he could now take the time to appreciate what he’d just taken for his own. “You are…so beautiful,” he said.
I brushed my arm with his fingers. “Let me see you, too.”
He turned to face me slowly, and I eased myself up and slid his robe off his shoulders. I could see that I needed to handle him gently. I had to show him with my eyes and hands that he was welcome here. He wasn’t shy like Seron; he was almost hostile to a loving hand. He flinched when I touched him.
“Fight or flight,” I said. “That’s how you are, isn’t it? You make love like you’re going to battle but you don’t know how to just accept affection in return.”
He tried to hitch the robe back up over his shoulders, even as I tugged it back down again. “The fact is, I—I didn’t ask for all this.” He moved out of my reach. “I just realized that I can’t deny it. But now that I’ve satisfied my need, you should take that tea. I don’t want you to have a child with rock dragon blood.”
“If we had a child, he or she would be half human, one quarter high dragon, one quarter rock dragon. A little bit of everything. It would be all right. You love the rock dragons. Would it be that terrible to have a child of your own blood?”
His expression turned cold and I nodded gently. I could only imagine the insults he’d grown up with, and the suggestion that he only had worth because of Izeria’s magic.
Seron walked over to us. “We’re not giving her any more tea.” He climbed into bed behind me and wrapped a hand around my arm, pausing to softly kiss my temple. “But you’re also in a new world. We’re all in a new world, because we’re aiming for a world where everyone is welcome. I’ve been guilty of treating rock dragons like vicious beasts myself. But now I understand that Dvaro is the one who turned them that way.”
“Yes,” Ezeru said. “They’re still not worthy of this place. Everyone and everything in this palace is beautiful.”
“Ehh,” Seron said dismissively. He unfastened my top and drew me into a kiss, pushing my breast up in his hand. “Much of my life has been on the battlefield, and not beautiful at all. But I know what I’m fighting for.” He traced fingers around the curve of my breasts, my nipples, and the moonstone necklace, before brushing my lips. “You’re ready for more.”
“Yes…” I had a much easier time removing Seron’s clothes, of course, stripping off each sleeve to reveal the solid, scarred flesh of his chest and his thick arms leading to dragon scales. I still thought, on sheer aesthetics, he wore the marks of the dragon king better than anyone. His scales and horns were almost more beautiful than his skin, although he was certainly a handsome man and seemed more so now after I had gotten used to his pale, blue-tinged coloring, and it made his purple eyes the most brilliant color. I traced my finger over the perfect curves of his lips as he had done to mine. Nothing about the dragons was strange anymore.
He kissed me, his hands tender around me, moving down to gently cup my buttocks as he pulled me close. I spread my legs to accept his length but for a few long moments we focused mainly on the kiss as I tasted him slowly, and he built up my desire by flexing in and out of me slowly and gently as his lips and tongue explored mine.
He drew back and gave me one of his small, almost sheepish smiles.
“Aurek?” he said. “I can’t believe you’re still over there.”
“Ah—sorry.”
“Were you actually thinking about something else?” Seron asked.
“It’s noisy out there, so I can’t really hear Himika,” he said.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.
“Just—Oszin isn’t here.”
“Oh.” Now I felt bad. “I—I would have waited for him but it doesn’t seem possible. Besides that, he knew that I had some interest in Ezeru. I think he would understand…”
“Yes,” Aurek said, and I realized he was actually just worrying about Oszin. I could tell he was. That freaked me out a little.
Luckily, they brought me back in
to the present moment. If I thought worrying about Oszin would help him with his mission, I would worry about him all day, but he had chosen it and I knew I had to keep living my life too. Aurek finally came over to the bed and sat behind me. He drew my mouth away from Seron and kissed me himself, and then his hands slid around my breasts and he pinched my nipples and worked his fingers in teasing, circular motions. By this time I was more than ready for Seron to step it up, and he did. Aurek’s tantalizing touch assured that I came at the same time as Seron.
I fell back, breathing hard, my body quite spent, but Aurek immediately slipped two fingers inside me, feeling my wetness. “You must be quite full of seed by now,” he said. “But I’ll still have my turn, my gem.”
I could have said no. But I had never actually wished to say no. The exhaustion of my body was only a frustration to me. I was certainly developing more stamina with all the sword fighting and keeping up with my men, but it was never enough. I remembered Hara saying that she only liked it rough when she was in dragon form. Of course she’d say that! Because dragons are so much stronger!
I reached out for the container of kulum mist and knocked it over, releasing it into the air. It was the first time I had ever resorted to the aphrodisiac, and it hit me in a wave of hot, agonizing desire so that no matter how tired I was, I thought I would die if Aurek didn’t reach those spots inside me. My hand flailed for Seron and Ezeru, desperate for more of their touch.
“Ah, Himika, you naughty little beast,” Aurek said. “How we all love you.”
And how I felt that, down to my very bones.
When it was done, I carried the potential inside me for any one of three dragon children, blessed by ritual. I prayed I could live up to all these hopes and wouldn’t be barren like Izeria. When we had dressed and opened the doors, the court came in to sit me down and parade the chair around the room before dropping me down—slightly dizzy—and dancing and eating up all the fresh food long into the night.
The next day, the messenger came as expected, and we set out for Hemara.
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set Page 49