The Dragons' Chosen (15 page)

After two hours of hard climbing, we arrived at a false summit—the penultimate summit of my journey. The shadow of the final peak of the Crystal Mountain touched the tops of scraggly pines that were huddled together as if in fear.

At the edge of these, Chris was now hemmed in by the captain’s men. Lucinda stood nearby, her hands clasped in front of her as if she were in mourning. George and Malcolm shifted uncertainly.

I glared at Captain Markus. “Release Chris, immediately!”

The captain pursed his lips before speaking. “Your Highness, the time is here. You now go to your final destination.” He looked me directly in the eye. “She can’t go. She won’t accept what will happen, and so she
must
be restrained, but only until you’re away.

“Tom says that you must be at the cave entrance before dusk.”

He looked over at the sun, assessing. It was still shining brightly, but low in the sky. Darkness came quickly in these mountains. Tom stood a little way off, holding three of the horses: his own, the captain’s, and mine.

Markus spoke to me again as he poured a mixture into a cup. “We have to leave, your Highness. I’m doing what I can to help you. Take this and you will sleep.”

He moved toward me, his hand outstretched, and I retreated a half-step, jerking away from him. “Don’t you dare tell me how it is to be. I have my own plans about how this will end. Don’t touch me! I know my duty.” I was terrified and spitting mad.

He held a cup out to me. “This will calm you, and then we must be gone.”

I felt myself baring my teeth at him. “I said, no!”

He pointed again to the cup and I instinctively stepped back.

“Your Highness, please, don’t make this more difficult. Drink. Once it is done, we will release your lady. She is overwrought. Lucinda will watch her until I return from the cave. Now, drink.” He looked at me beseechingly, desperation in his eyes.

I backed up farther as the sweet syrupy smell of poppies hit my nose. “No, I will go to the dragons on my own power, with all my wits about me, not as a staked-out goat. Father wouldn’t want this. He didn’t.”

“Your father, your father!” Distance from the palace had made Markus bold. “Where is he now! These are dragons, fire-breathing dragons. You saw them. They can destroy the lives and livelihood of our whole world. I have no stomach for this, but it is my duty and I will see it properly done. No matter the cost to you.” He took a breath. “Or to me.

“Tom says each princess has always been left outside the Crystal Cave and tied to a stone pillar.” His voice wavered. “You must meet your end alone, but I’ll not leave you there fearful and aware.” He gruffly pressed the cup into my hands. “You will at least sleep and have no knowledge of what will come. It is the best I can do for you.”

Before he could react, I dashed the potion onto the ground and glared back at him.

Captain Markus looked at the liquid seeping into the ground and then lifted his eyes to meet mine. I could hear the men grumbling even from here. Chris was cursing, saying every vile thing she could think of, and she was not known for her restraint. The captain would have to concede that I was a princess and he, merely my father’s hired help. I raised my chin, defying him.

The Captain looked suddenly very tired. “Shall I describe what is going to happen? Must I do this? Speak to you of entrails and pain, remind you of your screams that will come as the dragons attack you with claws and tear you apart?”

He faltered here, trembling and white. I raised my chin higher.

“Please, Your Highness, I beg you.” His voice cracked with emotion as he spoke. “Please! Do this for me, for my men. They revere you. They would die for you if it would help.”

He was right. In that moment, I knew it. How simple-minded I must seem to him, thinking I could change what was going to happen, what must happen, for my land to be saved.

From this distance, we could both see the men watching, tension rippling through them. If I just said one word they would come, revolt right then and there. And for what? I still had to die. And they would die also for defying their commander. Their families left bereft so I could pretend that my ending would be different. I couldn’t.

“Your Highness,” the captain implored, “none of us can bear this. Must I beg?” He looked at me then and started to kneel. “It will give them, me some comfort knowing that you are…unaware, when you are taken.”

All my careful plans with Chris: the chair, the pig. All my unspoken hopes that somehow I might escape this, gone. I held out my hand. “No, no more.” I hadn’t thought this through. I felt as if I were being ripped apart already.

Behind me I a heard a grunt from one of my men as Chris must have tried to escape. “You will release Chris?” I asked.

He pulled out his sword, pressing the hilt into my hand. “Upon my honor, as soon as my task is done, she will be released. No one will harm her.”

I watched his eyes. All I saw was fear. Fear of what would occur if he failed in this task and fear for me. “If you have more,” I turned my hand toward the empty cup, “I will drink it.”

Markus leapt up and returned with a flask, stirring in a white powder before refilling the cup. “I promise. You will rest. Nothing will mar your sleep.”

I heard another grunt and then a yell. “Goddamn it, Genny, don’t listen to him!”

I resisted her plea.

“I’ll stay by you until the potion takes hold.”

“No, leave me.” And so saying, I turned my back on him, walked into the privacy of my tent and drank deeply.

Lucinda joined me, silently removing my sweat-soaked clothing and changing me into something appropriate for my last journey, my shroud. Brushing out my hair, wiping my face and hands clean. In a small felted bag, she placed my treasures: my knife, the pawn my father handed me, tying the cord around my wrist, preparing the body for death, though I still lived.

I let her, not wishing to cause anyone more grief and trouble. I took another sip.

Once she was finished, I sat, settling the half-empty cup in my lap as I looked out to the mountain. It was almost over. This long trek now was at an end. One more princess delivered to the beasts. Soon, my thoughts started wandering and my eyelids grew heavy. Strong arms held me upright. Lucinda sat beside me, tears streaming down her face. I tried to be brave for all of us.

As I lifted the cup to my mouth, I recalled the man who had saved me from the wolves. I could see him cleaning his sword beside the fire, see the designs embossed into the bone handle.

Sleep was drifting upon me when I remembered the delicate interlocking pattern that overlaid the sword hilt. I hesitated, pushing the cup away. Half the potion was gone. My mind danced, a slow stately pavane, and I saw first the sword, then the pattern rimming Chris’s card, and then the pattern on my knife hilt that the bard had given me. I held them in my mind’s eye and slowly reviewed them again. The patterns were identical.

I met Lucinda’s tear-stained eyes, as I realized my mistake. Carefully, I poured the remainder of the cup onto the ground, and then my eyes closed.

Chapter 21

I knew I should struggle back from this dream-like state, but I couldn’t convince myself that it mattered. I would be eaten anyway—what could possibly make a difference? Perhaps this was better; I might not feel the pain as much. A nagging thought kept trying to insinuate itself forward, something I should remember, something relevant. It skittered away and I let it. Everything seemed so unimportant; sleep was nearby, beckoning like a lost friend. My head dropped onto my chest, too weighty a burden to lift. A voice shouted, muffled and unintelligible as if heard through water. I thought my mother called to me. My hands, no longer tied, fell to my sides, but they were so heavy. I must have slipped sideways as my head bumped the ground. Something was forced into my mouth and I gagged. I bit down and a woman yelped. Once again fingers were inserted and I roused enough to retch.

As I heaved over and over, I heard Chris’s desperate voice. “That’s it, empty your gut. Come on, wake up. Oh, gross. How much of it did you drink anyway?”

I lifted my head and stared into Chris’s frantic face.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she insisted.

I closed my eyes.

“No, don’t go back to sleep.” I felt her shaking my shoulders. “Oh, for friggin’ sake.” She tugged me upright.

I opened my eyes again as she pulled me away from a single post set against a swirling sapphire and crimson sky.

“Can you walk?”

I nodded, admiring the panoramic view.

“Will you focus! Move your feet. God, you weigh a ton.”

I tottered along with her. Something crept low along my brain, something important. Something about a weapon. I couldn’t remember. My head ached and I reached one hand up to hold it atop my neck.

“Come on, only another little step. Move, move.” Chris shoved me toward the mountain face. A dozen holes gaped like mouths and I resisted her, struggling.

“Stop it! They’re just caves, Genny. This mountain is riddled with them. We have to hide.” I felt her stop tugging on me and stiffen. I breathed and looked around. We were on a high plateau. I smiled. I could see forever here. In the distance, far away, birds flew.

“Oh my god! Here they come!” She snapped me forward and shoved me into the maw of a low black hole.

Chris lit her magic sticks as I sat whimpering in the dark. I was coming out of my daze and didn’t like what I saw, a dark cold space smelling of what must be bat dung. I kept my hands on my lap.

“Listen to me. We’re safe here. No dragon can squeeze into this small a cave. They’d have to tear the whole mountain apart.”

Unlit torches were set in the walls every few feet; I weakly pointed to one. Chris’s gaze followed my hand. She grabbed the torch, lit it and placed it back in its sconce. “Who put these here, do you think?”

I couldn’t respond—too tired. In the dim light, all my fuzzy thoughts swirled around like uncatchable fireflies.

Outside, the trumpeting screech of dragons echoed across the mountain. The earth rumbled and the walls of the cave reverberated as they landed heavily on the ground.

I could see the whites of her eyes as Chris looked over at me. “I think they noticed you’re gone. Too bad we lost the pig; it could be real useful about now.”

Fear and shock are heady attention-getters. My mind was coalescing quicker than a company of men bracing for battle. I stood up shakily. And then I remembered: the etchings on the sword.

“…may I shee…” I couldn’t get my mouth to work quite right, but my mind raced faster and faster. “Might I see your card?” In the torchlight, Chris looked totally disheveled, her long hair disordered, sticking out every which way. I touched my hair, checking for my last intact snood. It was missing, my hair trailed loose, my face must be smudged with dirt.

Chris was back in her blue trousers and a chemise of yellow with writing again, “The more I see the less I know for sure.” I agreed. Impatiently, she reached into the folds of her trousers and pulled out the card. “Good idea, should we try to both use the card to leave?”

I groaned as my stomach lurched.

“Okay, maybe not right this minute.” She looked at me again. “Do you have any idea how you’re decked out? Tom insisted Lucinda do you up before they packed you off. Some fluffy gold dress and your hair all brushed out into ringlets almost to your waist. You looked like some movie starlet about to be delivered to King Kong. Lucinda was outraged, but the captain said Tom’s word was law on this.”

I looked down. Even in the low light, I could see my wrist covered in white lace with satin-padded buttons marching up my arm into golden sleeves; my skirt was golden with white gussets. This wasn’t a funeral shroud. Why was I dressed in such finery, almost like a bride? When Lucinda had brought me the dress to put on and fussed with my hair, I was too despondent to even notice. But now it did seem strange. More than strange—perverse.

I tried not to think back to the tears my castle retainers must have shed sewing those tiny stitches, piecing this gown together, envisioning it being shredded at the end, my end.

Out on the mountain, the noise changed. A man yelled, “Where is she?” There was silence. “You don’t think she fell or jumped, do you?”