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I wasn’t naïve enough to think I’d have the luxury of doing the same. My father was a strong man and a powerful sovereign. But he was dead. As a young female, I knew I’d have power-hungry lords wanting to challenge my claim to the throne. If war broke out, I might be forced to make an alliance with one of them to keep peace in the kingdom. Take him to rule beside me. But I’d be damned if I’d go down that path unless it was absolutely necessary to spare innocents from being slaughtered.
Still, any marriage I entered into would most likely be based on politics rather than passion. I might never have the experience of making love with someone who sent my heart soaring. Made my pulse race and my pussy ache to be filled, like the dragon lord of my dreams did. I’d be lucky to end up with a mate who was even tempered and reasonably gentle, both in and out of bed.
The carriage headed steadily south, and the temperature rose. By the end of the second day, I put aside the heavy cloak, replacing it with a light shawl I could drape over my head and around my face whenever we came near other people.
The chances of anyone recognizing me from the likenesses strewn all over the capital were slim. People in this part of the kingdom didn’t often venture to the north unless they had business there. Crops to sell or goods to trade. And no one who’d been at the coronation ceremonies would expect their new queen to be traveling in such modest circumstances, so far from the palace.
On day three, we left the well-traveled road and headed up into the mountains on a narrower track. The carriage swayed from side to side through the ruts. Antonius was forced to put aside his scrolls and use both hands to hang onto the sides of the carriage or risk pitching off the seat.
I took the opportunity to pump him for information.
“Have you seen the Oracle?”
He nodded. “Yes, my lady, I have.”
“What is she like?”
He gave me a sharp glance. “What makes you think the Oracle is female?”
I shrugged. “In the old myths, it’s always a woman.”
He relaxed. “You’re right. The Oracle is female. Age-old, yet ageless. She is very wise, but you may find her message a bit cryptic. That’s why I’ve been reading the old scrolls. Studying the past prophecies. Later, when you tell me what she had to say, I can help you interpret it.”
“You mean you’re not going to be there when I meet her?”
“I cannot be in her presence when she recites the Prophecy of Doom. Her message is for the ruler of the World of the Seven Stars. For your ears and yours alone.”
The prophecy of doom? His words sent a shiver of foreboding down my spine. I hadn’t been afraid until that moment.
I’d looked on this journey as a waste of time, humoring the eccentric notions of an old man. I accompanied him out of a sense of obligation. Antonius had devoted his life to serving my father and his father before him. I figured we’d be going to some backward village high in the hills where I’d meet an abbess as ancient as the stones of the shrine where she worshipped. A dried-up old virgin who spent her life muttering prayers and curses over a so-called sacred object. An odd-shaped rock, perhaps, or a crystal ball.
As we climbed higher, I saw fewer villages perched on the slopes of the mountain. Then all signs of human habitation disappeared completely. The landscape took on a grim, yet strangely familiar appearance. Towering peaks blocked the light of day, throwing everything around me into a shadowy twilight. Jagged rocks pierced the ground, like giant stakes driven deep into its heart. It took a while before I made the connection, since in the past I’d only seen this place at night. In my dreams.
The place where a magnificent, naked man walked into a river of fire – and emerged a dragon.
Chapter Three
Drayke
She was near. I could feel it. My dragon heart beat faster.
I’d seen her hiding behind a huge boulder a few times over the years, a dreamlike figure without substance. She watched my transformation with wide-eyed horror. I recognized her by her mane of golden hair shot through with streaks as red as the flames I strode into. Besides, the Oracle had spoken of her to me so often, I felt as if I knew her. Tonight I’d see her in person. Breathe in her scent. Touch her.
My queen. The woman I was born to serve. To protect. To love.
I awaited my role in the wings. I’d be called in after she heard the Prophecy. I wasn’t allowed to be there while the Oracle recited it. The ceremony was shrouded in centuries of tradition, the message meant only for the reigning monarch.
Of course the Oracle had violated that rule, as she did so many others. I knew much of what it foretold. She’d told me. Sometimes she acted as if she herself was the Goddess, or at the very least one of the minor deities. She’d been the dominant presence in my life since the night I first shifted. I both hated and loved her, for the two are simply flip sides of the same coin. The opposite of love is not hate but indifference. That’s what the old lady taught me.
She taught me other things, too, including how to please a woman. Oh, not by any personally administered lessons, thank the gods. Instead, she talked to me about sex, at times shockingly frank. She explained how the female body works, what a woman needs and wants, and more important, the difference between the two. It was far better training for bedding a maiden than most lads in my station received, listening to randy stable boys with their exaggerated tales of conquest.
And I practiced, every chance I got. I became fabled as a passionate lover. Upstairs maids cornered me at the homes of my acquaintances, pulled me into linen closets for a quick fuck. Wealthy matrons who’d been given in marriage years ago to men far too old to satisfy them invited me to weekend-long house parties, with the excuse of introducing me to eligible young ladies. Then they’d sneak into my room at night. I made certain they always left my bed before dawn with smiles on their faces.
I knew my role in this epic drama, one written and produced by the gods for their amusement. For is that not what we all are, simply pieces in a giant game between the powers of good and evil in the Universe? We live and die at their whim.
As for my queen, I’d see her tonight. Soon I’d lie with her. Be her lover. The Oracle told me so. That’s why she’d been teaching me.
I’d play my part. Claim my queen. And thereby claim my destiny.
