The Princess Who Flew with Dragons

by Stephanie Burgis

  Grumbling, Jasper lowered his wings, and I scooted myself back into place behind Fedolia. All together, we flew to the snowy ground just in front of my sister’s prison.

  Katrin reached towards us through the ice with her brown eyes widened in unending, desperate appeal, her slim figure looking tiny by comparison to the massive dragon whose jaw was open in a ferocious snarl just behind her.

  A low, ominous growl rumbled through Jasper’s long throat.

  ‘Wait!’ I whispered. ‘Your mother will come out next. I promise!’

  My breath shortened into shallow, unsteady pants as I slid off Jasper’s back and stood in front of the block of ice, gazing into my older sister’s frozen eyes. Four feet of transparent ice separated us.

  My heart thrummed against my chest.

  ‘This one,’ I said to the Big One. ‘She’s mine.’

  Fedolia let out a snort from her perch on Jasper’s back, where she held the blue heart carefully cradled in her crossed legs. ‘Now you sound like a dragon!’

  Good.

  I kept my eyes fixed on Katrin’s face as the Big One held out a massive finger … and the ice finally began to melt between us.

  Bitterly cold water eddied around my ankles. I didn’t so much as budge to avoid it. I didn’t dare look away for even a second.

  Hold on, Katrin! I ordered silently.

  She’d held on to our whole kingdom for years since Mother had died. She could hold on a minute or two longer.

  Ice melted away from her figure, my breath caught … and Katrin let out an explosive cough and then spluttered, her eyes finally falling shut. Her body tipped forward helplessly.

  I caught her before she could fall, grabbing her arms tightly. It was the first time I had actually touched her in years.

  Her skin felt cold and wet and clammy – but I tightened my grip, and I didn’t let go.

  Slowly, her eyes reopened.

  ‘So-fia?’ Her voice cracked, and she coughed again.

  ‘I’m here,’ I said firmly, ‘and you’re going to be all right.’

  For a moment, she just looked at me, wide-eyed. Shivers racked her tall body. Her teeth chattered.

  ‘Quick!’ I said. ‘Jasper, warm her up.’

  He shuffled sideways obligingly, and she gave a violent start of surprise as his big purple-and-blue body appeared before her.

  ‘Come on,’ I said briskly. ‘Lean in! It helps.’

  ‘Sofia …’ She clenched her teeth together, but she couldn’t stop her shivers.

  It was the most out of control I had ever seen her – except, of course, when she’d lost her temper in Villenne.

  ‘Oh, give in!’ For the first time in our lives, I was stronger than my sister. I dragged her with me until we were both safely wrapped under Jasper’s big wing, soaking in the glorious heat from his scales. There!

  Her eyes fell shut. She took a long, slow breath, her jaw visibly relaxing. For one long moment, everything was silent, safe and absolutely perfect.

  Then she cleared her throat and pulled away from me with a yank as her eyes snapped open. Her gaze traced over my bizarre layers of clothing and the thick layers of grime on my skin with mounting horror. ‘Sofia, what in the world is going on here?’

  Now we were getting back to normal.

  ‘Um.’ Her accusing gaze dried up the words in my throat. ‘Well … Ah … The thing is …’

  ‘Everything going all right in here?’ Fedolia asked brightly. She peered under the curve of Jasper’s wing and then sauntered casually in with us, carrying the heart in her arms. ‘Are we past all of the boring kissing and hugging parts of the reunion now?’

  Katrin’s stunned gaze shifted from Fedolia’s ghost-white face and long ears to the big, blue, pulsing ice-giant heart.

  ‘I told you,’ I muttered to the kobold, ‘we’re not that kind of family!’

  Katrin’s eyebrows shot even higher at my words.

  I couldn’t bear to imagine what she was thinking. I ground my teeth. ‘I was just helping my sister warm up for a minute before she gets started with all of the diplomatic bits!’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Katrin let out a choked laugh, turning back to me. ‘Perhaps, before I get started on anything, you could explain to me where we are and what’s been happening?’

  ‘Oh, that.’ Fedolia dropped to the ground and stretched her legs out comfortably before her, wriggling her bare white toes in the snow. ‘It’s simple! The ice giants froze you and all of the other royals and carried you off to their palace in the north. So Sofi dragged us all across the world to save you, and then she hammered them over their big heads until they agreed to let you go.’

  ‘What?’ Katrin’s jaw dropped open.

  ‘That is not what happened!’ Wincing, I edged away from both of them. ‘There wasn’t any violence involved – not on our side anyway. I just explained to them, in a perfectly reasonable way, that it would be much more sensible for them to let you go, and –’

  ‘She lectured them,’ Fedolia said happily, ‘for hours. She wouldn’t stop talking philosophy until they finally gave in. She is so stubborn!’

  ‘She always has been.’ Katrin shook her head in what looked like wonder. ‘But, Sofia … how did you keep them from attacking you as well?’

  ‘She blackmailed them with this after stealing it from me.’ Fedolia held up the ice giant’s heart with unmistakeable admiration. ‘She can be really ruthless, can’t she? And she’s getting much better at crime – had you noticed that too?’

  ‘Not … so much,’ said my sister faintly. ‘But I think I had better hear all about it.’

  Luckily, Katrin had always been a quick study. It only took her a few minutes to absorb the main details of what had happened and exactly what I had promised the ice giants so far.

  ‘That’s all perfectly acceptable,’ she said at last, ‘but I still don’t understand one thing. Why did you need me to be melted first, for your plan to work?’

  Wasn’t it obvious? ‘Someone needs to talk the rest of the royals into it.’

  ‘And you really think that “someone” will be me?’ She shook her head. ‘Sofia, have you even looked at me?’ At some point during my recitation, she had sagged back against Jasper’s side, and she was leaning all her weight against him now. ‘I have been frozen for nearly a week. I can barely even think, let alone stand upright long enough to persuade a dozen angry rulers into anything!’

  ‘Don’t be absurd.’ I scowled at her. ‘You can talk anyone around.’

  ‘So can you, apparently,’ she said drily. ‘Otherwise how would I be standing here right now?’

  My jaw dropped. ‘You want me to talk to them? You know I don’t have any diplomatic skills. They all despise me anyway – and I’ve already created one international incident!’

  ‘But this time,’ murmured Katrin, ‘you’ll be the strongest one in the conversation. And, Sofia –’ her voice began to fade – ‘power is all about perception. I learned that rule a long time ago. All you have to do now is make sure you use their perceptions to your own advantage.’

  ‘You mean –’

  ‘You’ll figure it out,’ she said quietly, her eyes falling closed as her head tipped wearily back against Jasper. ‘You’re the one who studied at Scholars’ Island.’

  There was something in her tone that I couldn’t quite pin down. Something that sounded almost like … envy? No. That couldn’t be it, surely.

  But as I watched her slide down Jasper’s scales to the ground, her legs giving out beneath her, I had to accept the unpalatable truth.

  My sister wasn’t going to save us after all.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Fedolia told me. ‘I’ll look after her. You just deal with the other humans.’

  Deal with the other humans? I grimaced, remembering the last time I had ‘dealt’ with them.

  All the other humans in this group hated me! They thought I was positively feral – that I was the wild royal. They thought …

  �
�Use their perceptions to your own advantage.’ Katrin’s words echoed in my ear, and I frowned.

  The other royals thought I was the horrible, disobedient one, the one who might say or do anything.

  So …

  Oh. My eyes widened. Oh! I could use that.

  Despite everything, a smile spread across my grime-caked face. I loved figuring out the answer to a really clever problem!

  Jasper’s mother was just as limp as Katrin had been when she first began to melt from her frozen state. Jasper and I both shouted again and again in her ears, before she could even start to move, that the ice giants weren’t our enemies any more – that the people threatening her hatchling’s safety now were the other human royals.

  Protecting her hatchlings would always come first for any dragon mother, no matter how much she might wish for fiery vengeance.

  And it was amazing how much easier it felt to face the king of Valmarna ten minutes later, when I had two dragons looming directly behind me and the ice giants gathered all around us.

  ‘… So you see,’ I concluded firmly as he finished coughing his way back into life, ‘this is a victory for everyone. The newspapers in Villenne will all claim you had a great success here, and everyone will be deeply grateful to you.’

  ‘They … will?’ He blinked blearily at me, shaking his head … and then cringed, as Jasper’s mother lowered her own head to give him a threatening golden glare. ‘But … look here, I told everybody we’d found new settlements up north, with farms and villages for them!’

  ‘That was only a threat,’ I told him, ‘which you made in public to frighten the mighty ice giants into agreeing to a peace treaty with you. In exchange for staying out of their territory from now on, they will officially, publicly agree to never attack your kingdom again. Think of it! All the legends say no one could ever stop the ice giants – but you have, because of your Diamond Exhibition.’

  ‘I … have?’ He blinked again.

  ‘You have,’ I told him, ‘and the ice giants will say so too, instead of stomping you right now, if you make the right decision. Your word is binding, my allies are your witnesses … and this is your only chance.’

  He looked up at the ice giants. He looked at the dragons. Then he looked at me … and apparently, what he saw on my grimy face didn’t look like reassurance to him.

  He really did think I’d stand by and watch him be stomped or burned into ashes without a single word of protest.

  I’d always thought it would be nice to be liked, the way my sister usually was, but I was finally starting to understand that being unlikeable held a power of its own.

  ‘This is all most irregular, but I suppose …’ He slid another uneasy glance at the giants, and his bushy grey moustache quivered. ‘If it really is for the good of my people, I mean …’

  ‘You’ll be known as the Peacemaker,’ Jasper offered helpfully.

  ‘The Peacemaker?’ His moustache twitched again, more cheerfully this time. ‘I do like the sound of that!’

  The other royals all liked it too.

  They especially liked being released from their prisons while still being allowed to call themselves the winners … and not being stomped or flamed in the process.

  So it wasn’t long before every kingdom on the continent had agreed to their first-ever peace treaty with the ice giants, which established the frozen north as a forever untouchable territory …

  And that made the ice giants happy too.

  Afterwards, most of the royals clambered on to Jasper’s mother’s giant back, while she picked up four other royals with her claws. They would all speed together across the ice to return to Villenne as soon as possible – and to call a halt to any advancing armies they spotted along the way.

  Katrin, though, stayed with me, Fedolia and Jasper. Once her legs had finally regained their strength, she had emerged from the protection of Jasper’s wings to stand and watch the whole proceeding with an unreadable expression. Now, as we waved away the others – after many stern instructions had been growled at Jasper by his mother, and many earnest promises had been made by him for good behaviour on his way back – my sister turned to me with a look that said we weren’t nearly done yet.

  ‘Sofia,’ she said, ‘I think it’s time that you and I have a talk of our own … in private, if you please.’

  Over her shoulder, Jasper gave me a sympathetic grimace.

  Fedolia didn’t even try to hide the warning ‘Ooh!’ shape that she made with her mouth.

  ‘Fine,’ I mumbled.

  There really wasn’t any excuse to put it off any longer.

  Slowly and reluctantly, scuffing my feet in the snow, I followed my sister away from my friends to my certain doom.

  CHAPTER 26

  All too soon, Katrin came to a halt. We were only fifteen feet away from Jasper and Fedolia when she turned to face me – and I knew for a fact that they were both watching us. I hated being told off in front of an audience! My back stiffened and my skin prickled with misery as I braced myself to endure it once again, just like I had back in Villenne.

  Jasper and Fedolia already knew all my worst secrets, though. That was something that had never been true for me before. After all those years of scrambling to hide my imperfections from everyone, it felt nigh on miraculous to have two friends who knew every one of my flaws – and liked me anyway.

  Still, the pressure built up in my chest as I waited … and waited … and waited for my sister to pronounce judgement.

  ‘So –’ Katrin finally began.

  ‘I know!’ The words burst from my mouth like an explosion. I flung my arms high in the air. ‘I know everything you want to say to me, all right? You don’t have to go over all of it. I did everything wrong from the time I landed in Villenne. I was rude to their king, I ran away to Scholars’ Island, I made the wrong kind of friendships –’

  ‘And you just saved all of our lives, including that pompous king’s, with the help of the friends that you found on Scholars’ Island.’ Katrin’s head tilted to one side as she studied me. ‘Had you really not noticed that part? I did.’

  I glowered furiously up at her. I would not be fooled again. She was only trying to soften me up! She wanted me to think I was safe so that I’d relax my guard, and then she would immediately announce some horrible new mission or a terrible decision about my future marriage.

  If she tried to betroth me to an ice giant, I would not agree to it!

  ‘I know you’ll never forgive me,’ I said bitterly. ‘I heard you back in Villenne, remember?’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Katrin gave a startled laugh. ‘Sofia, in case you didn’t notice, I was a wreck when I arrived in Villenne!’ She plucked at her crumpled gown and grimaced. ‘I had just spent three days straight being sick from morning until night, and I’d barely slept for worrying about you and our kingdom. How could I have made a sensible decision about anything under those circumstances?’

  I wrapped my arms around my chest like a shield. ‘Your decisions are always sensible. Everyone knows that.’

  Her lips twisted. ‘So you think you’re the only one who’s ever allowed to make a mistake or behave irrationally?’

  Unbelievable!

  ‘How can you say that?’ I demanded, my arms falling to my sides. ‘You never let go of anything I do wrong! I am never allowed to be anything but perfect!’

  ‘Oh no?’ Katrin’s voice took on an edge. ‘And how do you think I should train you instead? By telling you it’s fine to be rude to powerful people? By encouraging you to make enemies and lose important connections?’

  She shook her head impatiently. ‘You’re a princess, Sofia. That means you’ll be on display for the rest of your life, whether you care for it or not. I have to help you learn to hide your feelings and do whatever’s necessary to survive court life.’

  ‘What do you care about my feelings?’ Tears thickened my throat as I glared up at her, years of pain boiling up at last. ‘When you lost your temper in Vi
llenne, it was the first time you’d let me see any of your feelings in years. And your true feeling, when you weren’t well enough to hide it, was that you don’t want to be my sister! You’ve only ever looked after me because you have to, and I know it!’

  Katrin lurched back as if she’d been slapped. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about!’

  But I wasn’t holding myself back any more. ‘Oh, yes, I do. Your promise to Mother.’ Salty tears burned my eyes; I wiped them away impatiently with my stolen shawl. ‘I heard her make you promise, at the end, to look after me.’ I shrugged bitterly. ‘Everyone knows you always keep your promises. But you have always made it clear that you didn’t want to do it. I know I’m a horrible disappointment to you.’

  ‘Sofia …’ Katrin sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘If you’d only stop for a moment and calm yourself –’

  ‘I can’t!’ I said impatiently. ‘I’m not a natural princess, the way you are, and you know it. Why did you even send me to Villenne in the first place? Were you really that desperate to be rid of me? You must have known I wasn’t ready for that mission!’

  Katrin’s laugh sounded shockingly raw. ‘How do you think I learned to rule a kingdom at sixteen?’ she asked. ‘Do you think I felt ready for that?’

  She shook her head. ‘Sofia, I’m not a “natural” princess either. Mother trained me all her life until she died. But I was supposed to have years left to learn! I was even trying to think up ways to attend university in Villenne myself.’

  ‘You were?’ I couldn’t even imagine it.

  She cut a dismissive line through the air with one hand, moving on. ‘Of course I didn’t feel ready to take over at sixteen – not with the kingdom, and certainly not with you. That was never supposed to be my responsibility! Not until I was old enough to have children of my own.’

  My shoulders hunched.

  ‘But who else was going to do it?’ she asked. ‘Father?’

  Our eyes met.

  We both knew the answer to that question. Mother might have been the one who’d died, but our father – the one we’d known, the one who’d loved and looked after us – had left both of us just as permanently.