AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look almost human,I think with disgust. My body reacts to this instantly, and my hood flares to fan my face while my tail curls into the air behind me.
“Okay,” I say. My voice is bored. “You can all go.”
My attendants scurry away, bottlenecking at the door of my chambers before they all manage to get out. Many of them almost trip over their own tails, and I roll my eyes at their clumsiness.
The sun is higher in the sky, and I know that I need to leave, too.
I have a meeting with my parents to discuss the arrangements for this evening’s engagement party.
I let out a heavy sigh as I make my way down to my parents’ meeting room, which is adjacent to the throne room. This meeting room is usually where diplomatic meetings take place, and I am surprised that I have even been invited to set foot, or tail, into it.
You are about to marry and eventually become King of Lodra. I assume they want you to get your bearings,I remind myself.
As I walk to the meeting room, I consider the prospect of marriage.
Marrying Vippera is not an event that I am particularly looking forward to. We have met several times, and I know that she is more interested in gaining power and notoriety than marriage.
She is also especially cruel and violent, even by naga standards, and she has made a national game in her kingdom, Jalma, of hunting humans with magical abilities.
I don’t care for humans as they’re not worth much, but even my stomach roils at the thought of hunting one of them.
I know that they are nothing more than mindless beasts, but they are still capable of feeling pain. We do not even kill our taura or dripir as viciously as Vippera chooses to kill her human prey.
It is messy and violent and unnecessary. If this is her form of entertainment, I cannot imagine that we have anything in common.
I have protested against this union from the very beginning.
“We are doing it for the good of the kingdom,” I mimic my father’s words. The words he repeats whenever I even consider opening my mouth about Vippera. “And you’ll go along with it. I’ll not have you be a failure like your brother.”
I haven’t seen my brother for months. With a shake, I banish him from my mind and straighten my jacket.
Maybe I can talk them out of it. This is my last chance, anyway. May as well give it a try.
After this talk with my parents, we will start welcoming the guests to the engagement ceremony.
Once I sign the engagement agreement and the feast starts, I am as good as married. Signing the engagement agreement binds me to Vippera, and only death will get me out of it.
At least you have that option,I think darkly as I enter the meeting room.
It is empty except for my best friend, Slyth, who I trust with my life. He has been at my side for more than a decade now, and he will accompany me all the way to my death.
“You are not happy.” This is not a question.
Slyth and I are close enough that he can read the expressions on my face, no matter how fleeting they are, as if he was reading my mind.
I shrug. I am tired of discussing this. I am doomed to marry Vippera, and I do not think anything can get me out of this engagement.
“You need to put boundaries in place,” he insists. “You need to stand up for yourself and say no!”
“I cannot do that,” I tell him. I lean tiredly against the doorframe. “Not after the way Kradmi messed up.”
We hear footsteps then, and I straighten my posture while Slyth disappears through an adjoining door into the library on the other side of the meeting room.
“Mother, Father.” I kiss my mother and bow in front of my father when they enter the room.
“I see you are well prepared, my son.” My father looks at me with an expression on his face that could be pride but probably isn’t.
Naga are not known for our affection, but my parents take our cold-blooded nature to an extreme.
