by Olivia Hart
They were people that served a single purpose. Taking care of dragons. Some of them hunted for the dragons. Others helped to groom them, whatever that entailed. Others took care of these helpers. They’d done this for thousands of years, and I had memories that showed their roles.
The dragons could have done these things on their own, but this was the Fae’s way of thanking them. The memories of the Throne told me that the dragons had sworn not to interfere, but most of the Fae didn’t know that. They didn’t know that these creatures were oathbound, nor did they know that the rumors of visitors being hurt or eaten were mostly stories.
People moved about just like any village, but when they noticed my wings, they stopped and stared. They were as secluded as the trolls, and they did not bother to worry about Court intrigue. The Fae courts had very little influence on their everyday lives, but even they had heard that I had become Queen of the Dark Realm.
I stopped a fairy with gray wings with swirls of indigo who was hanging hides up to dry. He was nothing like the fairies I was used to. Wearing simple leather traveling clothes, he looked like he belonged here. It reminded me of how I imagined my life being before I’d been wrapped up in court. “I’m looking for two fairies that had a boy named Nicolai.”
The fairy turned to me and, in a gruff voice, said, “That’d be Giselle and Wymond.” He pointed towards a hut further down the path through the village. “They should be home. Came in early this morning from the caves.”
That was when he saw the dragon that walked beside me, and though my wings hadn’t given him pause, the dragon did. “Why do you have a youngling?” he asked, his eyes becoming mistrustful.
“That’s why I’m looking for Nicolai’s parents. Thank you.” I turned and, though I could feel his gaze on my back, continued towards the hut he had pointed out. This village was no different than the one I’d lived in. Outsiders, Queen or not, were not welcome without a purpose, and these villagers didn’t believe that I had a good one. Especially when one of my companions was a baby dragon.
“The people are staring at us, Rose,” Amra said with more than a little fear in her voice.
“It’s okay. No one is going to bother us. They may not like us, and they definitely don’t like the fact that we have the dragon with us, but they won’t do anything to stop us.”
She sighed. A part of her probably wished that they would stop us and tell us to go home.
I knocked on the door and heard a shuffling inside. Then the door opened wide, and I saw a woman with the same eyes as my father had. Dark and smiling. I smelled his scent. Not exactly the same as the one in the visions, but so similar.
I closed my eyes, and memories of him flooded my mind. Those of my childhood and those of the visions from the Room of Disillusion. When I opened my eyes, Giselle, my grandmother was staring at me with a smile on her lips.
My grandmother.
How had I thought that this would be simple? How had I somehow glanced over the fact that I was going to talk to people who had no knowledge of their grandchild or their son’s life?
“You’re Queen Rose?” she asked.
I nodded as I tried to put words together. She smiled and shook her head. “Will the wonders never cease? Please come in. Never thought I’d have a Queen in my cottage. Wymond, brush your hair. The Queen of the Dark Realm is here.”
Then she saw Amra and the dragon. Her eyes took them in, and I could see confusion written all over her face. Amra stuck out her hand and said, “I’m Amra. This is Dragon. I hope you don’t keep me from seeing him anymore.”
Giselle took Amra’s hand and gave it a soft shake while we stood in the doorway. “Why would I keep you from seeing Dragon anymore?” Looking back to me, she asked, “And why do you have a youngling dragon? I’ve never seen this one.”
I needed to get my act together. Yes, this was my grandmother, but I had an important reason for being here. I tried to shove down the emotional turmoil I was in and said, “Let’s sit down and we can talk about it all. I’d prefer not to talk about it where all of the villagers hear it.”
“Of course, Lady.” She moved out of the way and let the three of us walk through the door. Closing the door behind her, she met us back in the central area of the hut. There was a simple table for us to sit at, and she offered us seats as an older fairy stepped out from behind a curtain.
God, this man looked just like an older version of my father. Wild black hair with streaks of silver cut short so that it wouldn’t tangle. A smile wider than anyone else I’d ever met. A hint of mischief in his eyes. The only difference was that his eyes were green instead of the dark brown of my grandmother and father. His wings were light gray and looked like smoke rather than my own midnight black. He was not a powerful fairy, but my father hadn’t been either.
Amra and I sat down at the table, and the dragon lay down between us. Giselle said, “Let me put a pot of tea on, and then we can talk about why you’re here, Lady.”
I took another deep breath as Wymond sat down across from me. “I feel like I know you, Lady, though I couldn’t. I’d remember meeting a Queen.”
I stared at him, not sure what to say. Amra didn’t hesitate in blurting out the first thing she thought. “That’s because you’re her grandpa.”
Amra didn’t seem concerned that she’d just said something that wasn’t hers to say, but that was Amra for you. I glared at her, but Wymond took my attention away from Amra. “You jest, Lady. We couldn’t have grandchildren. Our only son died.”
I took a breath and let it out slowly as Wymond watched me. Giselle abandoned the teapot on the stove to come to the table after hearing that. How do you explain to someone that everything they thought happened was a lie? Simple truthful answers were probably best. “It’s true. Nicolai was my father. He left the Immortal Realm with Queen Seraphina. They unclaimed their magic so that they’d be nearly impossible to find, and they had me.”
“Our Nicolai is still alive?” Giselle asked with tears already welling up. Her hands went to her breast as the soul wound was reopened.
I shook my head knowing that I should have stated that from the very beginning. Even a moment of hope for something like that was cruelty, and I should have known. “No Giselle, he was killed to save the Dark Realm. He sacrificed himself to save everyone.”
I felt my own soul wound reopen as I spoke about my father. I had accepted his sacrifice but accepting the reason behind a loss that went as deep as that didn’t heal it. It simply made it a little more bearable. “He accepted his death before it came. He made the choice to die so that everything else could live. Even the dragons.”
Giselle closed her eyes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a glimmering trail behind it. She breathed softly, letting the emotions move through her, and I reached out to her, taking her hand in mine. “He was a wonderful father, Giselle. The best father I could ever have had. Thank you for raising such a good man with such a warm heart.”
She opened her eyes and smiled at me. “He was a wonderful boy. He must have grown up a lot to raise a child. Until he left, he was always such a mischievous boy. He was always in trouble, especially with the dragons.”
I chuckled. “He was always in trouble when I was a girl, too. I think that’s what made him such a great dad. We were both always in trouble together.”
“Wait,” Wymond said, “if you were raised in the Mortal Realm, how did you become Queen of the Dark Realm?”
I smiled thinking back on the chain of events that led to bonding the Dark Throne. “That is a very long story, and one day, I will have to tell it to you. For now, I have some questions about our little dragon.”
I glanced down at the dragon again. “We found this guy in the Dark Tower, and we have no idea how he got there. I don’t know if he ran away from the dragon caves like a little thief in the night or if he was sent there.”
“I would have known if a youngling had left the caves. His mother certainly would have found him by now.
Dragon mothers aren’t the kind to let their younglings wander. No, he’s not from here. Where did he say he was from?”
I blinked in confusion. “You can talk to him? I mean, I talk to him, but he barely even makes sound.”
Wymond and Giselle began to chuckle. “Lady, the younglings don’t speak like the adults. Their language is not a verbal language. They can understand us, but they don’t speak for hundreds of years.”
“Well, how in the hell do they talk then?”
Wymond grinned and held out his hand. A ball of smoke rose from his fingers, forming into a Throne and then disappearing. I was reminded of the many times that the dragon had blown smoke into strange shapes in the past.
“How is that a way to communicate? It’s just one picture.”
“Reach out and touch it with magic, Lady. It’s not just a picture. It’s a thought become reality. A bubble of thought that anyone can touch.
He repeated the action again with the smoke, this time in the shape of a man in a tree. I reached out to it just as I would try to connect to Sebastian or anyone else with the Gift of Sacrifice or empathy, and a memory played in my mind. A memory I had never had.
A younger version of my father climbing to the very top of a purple tree and then getting stuck. His leg was caught between two branches, and he was far above the tree line. No one could see him, and no one knew where he’d gone. Wymond and Giselle hunted for him for two days. Finally, worried that he was lost or worse, they begged a dragon to help find him. The dragon left the cave and found Nicolai in under an hour. When he was brought home, Giselle had gone after him with a birch branch.
The memory was accompanied by the thought, “Was he still this much of a troublemaker?”
I burst out laughing at the thought. The dragon finally left Amra’s feet, running to the side of the table. Without warning, he jumped, his scaled wings flapping as he tried to make it onto the table.
His front claws dug into the wood, and Wymond moved to help him. Grabbing him where the wings connected to his back, he hauled the dragon onto the table.
Immediately, the dragon began puffing out image after image of smoke. I tried to grasp what he was trying to say, but it was all too fast. Something about another place. Not the caves. Then blackness. Aurora and Risna had something to do with it as well.
Wymond and Giselle gasped. “What? What is he saying?”
“This dragon isn’t from here,” Giselle said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Queen Aurora still lives?” Wymond asked, turning to me.
“Hold on,” I said quickly. “What do you mean that the dragon isn’t from here?”
“He is from another world. One far away. Where they came from originally. These two fairies with no wings, Aurora and a dark one with many scars, went to their world and pleaded for a dragon to help. This dragon was the only one who agreed to come.”
“Why would Aurora and Risna ask a dragon to help?” I muttered, looking at the dragon.
“He refuses to say why. Though, he does say that you can stop calling him dragon and call him Embrys.”
I chewed my lip, “Alright Embrys, try it again, but slow. I’m new to this.”
An image of a dog appeared in a puff of smoke, and I connected to it. An image of me calling him an idiot puppy popped into my mind along with the thought, “Now who’s the idiot?”
I grinned and shrugged. Wymond and Giselle gasped as they realized how I’d spoken to him. But it was Amra who talked first. “Manners, Embrys! It’s rude to tell people they’re stupid. I know because people told me that a lot, and it hurt my feelings.”
Another puff of smoke appeared from his nostrils. This one had the memory of Amra lying in bed scratching his spines and talking to him. Along with the image he said, “You’re kind, Amra. I would never call you names. Rose is rude.”
Embrys glared at me, and I frowned. “I’m sorry, Embrys. I didn’t know you were trying to talk to us this entire time. I won’t call you names anymore.”
The next puff was an image of a buffet table filled with smoked meats. “I’ll accept this as an apology,” he said. Somehow, the words felt like giggles. Was he making a joke or actually expecting a feast?
I grinned and glanced at Wymond and Giselle who seemed completely flabbergasted that we were talking without any kind of formality.
“Really?” Embrys blew another bit of smoke, and when it had formed, he opened his mouth just a little, and I would have sworn that he was smiling.
I tapped into the smoke, and there was a simple memory that I already had. That first day when he jumped on me and I was terrified. “No, but it’s fun to make you worry a little. Like when I jumped on you.”
“You’ve been scaring me on purpose,” I said with a snarl. “That’s why I’m the only one who’s nervous around you.” I huffed and turned back to Wymond who didn’t look like he could handle any more surprises. “Aurora died, but because she had been connected to the Throne for so long, her soul is still here to guide the future Queens. It’s part of the sacrifice to the Throne that all true Queens make. If I live long enough, I may take her sister’s place.”
Wymond frowned at me for a few moments before saying anything. “That is a terrible sacrifice. Even Queens should be allowed to rest in the void after a life that long. Queen Aurora has guided the Immortal Realm for longer than anyone. She deserves to rest.”
I wanted to explain everything, but then I realized why no one understood. It wasn’t for them to know. Only a Queen should have to shoulder the burden of their sacrifice. Not the people she served.
I glanced at Embrys and smiled. He understood the sacrifice. Another puff of smoke rose from his nostrils, and I connected to it. The night that he’d rushed into my room. He had put his head to my stomach, and I heard what he had heard. A throbbing similar to a heartbeat. I knew it for what it was.
A soul.
Then the words, “You are with child.”
Everyone in the room, even Amra, gasped at that message. I put my hands to my stomach. Amra put her hand on my arm and said, “Congratulations, Rose. You’re going to be a good mom.”
That word. That simple word brought memories of my own mother. Not the woman that she had become. Not Queen Seraphina. Not the glacial Princess from before, either. No, the woman who had read me bedtime stories. The one who had braided my hair while she sang fairy songs to me.
She’d been so wonderful. But then she’d changed. She’d become a monster. Was that inside me too? I’d done terrible things already. No one’s soul was clean in this world. The train of thoughts stopped at an even more pressing concern.
Time seemed to stop as I thought of how this changed everything. I wouldn’t be able to fight as I had been. I wouldn’t be able to train. What would happen if I were stabbed in the stomach?
I made a decision as I looked at Giselle and Wymond. My grandparents. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to talk to them, to learn more about them and my father when he’d been young. They were family. True family. And they seemed so sweet.
But, I needed to talk to Sebastian. Everything had changed after this conversation with Embrys. After the information he’d given me. I wanted to talk to them, but what I wanted mattered very little in comparison to what I needed to do. Time was in short supply these days. Maybe if they were in the Dark Tower, we could spend some more time together.
I took a deep breath. “I hope so, Amra.” I looked at Giselle and Wymond. “I need to get back to the Tower. I need to talk to my husband. I know that we haven’t gotten to spend very much time together, but I’d like to. Come stay in the Dark Tower with me, and we can get to know each other. Not only that, but war is coming to the Dark Realm. The Tower is the only place where I can guarantee your protection.”
Wymond and Giselle turned to each other, frowns on both their faces.
“You won’t stay the night?” Giselle asked. “You only just got here.”
I shook my head. “No, we need to get ba
ck. This information changes everything, and Sebastian needs to know.”
Wymond shook his head. “It would be nice to be able to spend more time with you, but we have a job to do. There is no one else to do it for us. We will go to the caves if war comes here, Lady. The dragons will keep us safer than even you and your armies.”
I took a breath and let it out. “I understand, but we’ll be back. Now that we’ve been here, it won’t be hard.”
I stood up and everyone else did as well. I walked around the table and wrapped my arms around Giselle in a hug, and she hugged me back. She was where my father had gotten his warmth from. “I’m so glad that I found you. When all of this is done, we’re going to have to spend a lot more time together.”
“That would be wonderful,” she said.
I pulled away from her and turned to Wymond who already had his arms out. “You stay safe,” he said. “If you’re anything like Nicolai, I know that you’re bound to get into trouble, and war is not the place for that.”
“I’ll do my best. I can’t wait to hear all about my dad’s younger days.” I pulled away from him and giving them both one more smile, I moved to where Amra and Embrys were standing.
Looking down at Embrys, I said, “I guess that you don’t get to hang out with other dragons after all. At least we can talk now.”
He snorted, and I didn’t bother to look down at the bit of smoke that puffed out. Amra was smiling as I put my hand out. Shadows crept up my arm as I imagined the Throne Room. I needed time to think even before I talked to Sebastian.
Wymond and Giselle gasped again as they looked at the portal. “Will the wonders never cease?” Giselle said under her breath.
“Goodbye. We’ll see each other again, but until then, stay safe.”
They nodded, and we walked through the portal. As soon as Embrys came through the portal, it closed behind us. I sighed as I felt more weight settle on my shoulders.