“Then you likely heard how he spent his time in Vasna,” I say as I sit.
This she frowns at. “I did, but I have to tell you I had a hard time swallowing it. Not that I don’t believe you. Tilly told me about the minister’s audience with the king.”
It’s my turn to frown. “Tilly wasn’t in the room.” Not for most of the encounter, anyway.
Marta’s mouth twitches. “The girl has good ears.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry Abely represented Tirenth so poorly,” she says, dusting some sand from my cushion. “You may not know this, but Rally and Ty’s parents left them when they were young, and Abely essentially adopted both of them. He loves Tirenth and his king. It’s difficult to believe he would do something so reckless without persuasion.”
I stiffen. “You think someone in Vasna encouraged him to act the way he did?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t mean to offend. I’m only telling you that what I heard didn’t sound like the Abely I know. Soren never would have sent him if that was the case.”
It’s true that Soren doesn’t seem the type to tolerate incompetence. He was shocked when I told him of Abely’s behavior, shocked and outraged.
“Though why the king didn’t assign someone else to you afterward, I can’t say,” Marta says with vehemence. Then, as fast as a weathervane changing direction, she takes my hand gently in hers. “About the stone, please keep in mind that I’ve been among dragons for years now, and their blunt ways have rubbed off on me.”
She looks to me as if waiting for assent. “Of course.”
A nod is given to me, to herself, and finally to the room at large before she says, “The stone is a gift for your first mating, Princess.”
I stare at the woman, her words clanging around my head like a fistful of pebbles thrown into my mind.
First mating.
“It’s tradition,” she continues, “to give the stone directly after.”
My ears start ringing. “Directly after what?”
“Your first mating. Is that not when Soren gave it to you?”
I jerk my hand away and spring to my feet. “Of course not! He gave it to me on the carriage ride from the docks to the palace. We were in plain view.”
She winces. She tries not to, but I see it all the same. Instead of blushing, I go absolutely pale. “Are you saying…?”
“That a dragon would assume your first mating took place in the carriage?” She lets out a sigh. “Yes.”
That’s impossible. “That’s impossible,” I repeat aloud as I begin to pace. “The ride was hardly long enough to accomplish such a—such a thing.”
She props her cheek on her hand. “Have you met a drake?”
“A what?”
“A male dragon. A virile male dragon, I should say. They’re hardly known for patience.”
Now a blush does take hold, and the more I think back, the more it deepens. No wonder Lord Tallin looked at the gem with such significance when I first stepped out of the carriage and met the wyverns. I was announcing to him, toeveryone, that Soren and I had consummated in acarriage.
What would my sisters think? Mother would die of mortification if she knew. I’m thinking of doing so myself.
“What do I do with it?” I cry, my hands flying up to cover the thing.
Marta crosses her arms. “Now don’t say it like that. There’s no telling what Soren went through to get it. They dig the stone up themselves, you know. I can’t imagine where he got something that size.”
I sink back onto the cushion. “But I can’t wear something that says so plainly that I’ve done something I haven’t.”
“Most of Tirenth has already seen it, and it’s good that they have. They’ll more easily accept a human queen when she respects their traditions.”
