The Princess's Dragon (7 page)

After all, we should take care of our elderly and infirm and she does love taking charge of such charity projects …”

Sondra continued her monologue explaining away the night’s experience.

As she lay curled up beneath the covers and nearly asleep just before sunbirth, she realized that she had returned to the castle and her own bed rather than continue her planned journey. She drifted asleep immediately after that revelation.

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CHAPTER 5

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Liliana opened Sondra’s door the next morning at the sound of a tentative knock and bobbed a curtsy to Sarai, who waited uncertainly on the other side. Sondra didn’t spare her sister a glance as she brushed out her waist-length hair in front of the polished silver. She pointedly ignored the other woman and addressed her maid. “Liliana, I wish to wear the blue court gown today with the silver headdress and embroidered slippers. Please lay it out for me.” Liliana bobbed another curtsy and disappeared into the dressing room. Sondra continued brushing her hair and watching her refl ection. Sarai noticed dark circles beneath her eyes and her skin appeared pale and colorless in the harsh morning sunlight.

“How long are you going to ignore me, Sondra?” Sondra continued brushing.

Sarai heaved a sigh and gracefully seated herself on the bench in front of Sondra’s draped bed. “I don’t know how to apologize to you, Sondra, for what I said last night. I spoke unforgivably hurtful words. I didn’t mean it, not the part about defending you from malicious talk. I don’t know how to make you believe me about that except to ask that you remember how close we are. You can’t possibly think I ever faked my affection for you!” Sarai watched her sister; Sondra’s reflected expression revealed nothing save her sickly pallor. Sarai felt the wave of guilt increase at the thought that she caused such pain in her sister. Finally, Sondra arrived at some private decision. She tossed her horsehair brush aside and faced her sister. Despite the exhaustion on her face, her eyes blazed with anger and pain.

“And what about the other part, Sarai? Did you lie about that as well, just 36

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some words said in anger, or are people really talking about me?” Sondra could tell when Sarai silently bowed her head and averted her eyes that that part at least was the truth. People had been talking about her.

“Some people have expressed concerns. Some people don’t like your ideas and some even fear them.”

“Why? What could they possibly fear from me! I’m trying to educate people, to elevate them from superstitious peasants to modern thinkers.”

“What makes you think they want to be educated? What makes you so arrogant that you would set out to mold another person’s beliefs to fit your own view of the world? You and your Sir Pilphragm! Did it ever occur to you, Sondra, that people might like believing in magic? They might like their superstitions and feel comfort in the world they see.”

“How can they feel comforted living in constant fear of retribution from capricious fairies because they didn’t set out the proper offering? How can they want to believe in the need to race home before the rise of a full moon because the lycanthropes might be on the prowl? How can someone find comfort in jumping at shadows and dreams? It limits people, Sarai! I want them to expand their horizons, not remain paralyzed by fear.”

“Sondra, the only thing these people really fear is you.”

“Because I threaten to show them the truth?”

“No, because you threaten to do something stupid!” Sarai shouted, growing angry yet again, though she meant to apologize this morning.

“What do you mean?” Sondra asked in confusion, and Sarai sighed, continuing in a calmer voice, desperate to make her sister understand.

“You may not believe in magic, Sondra, but other people do. I do …” Sarai stood and paced slowly, the fall of her slippers soundless on the thick rug. “I like believing, I’m happy that there is magic. What sort of world would this be if every mystery had a logical explanation? It’s not fear that keeps people believing, it’s hope. Hope that through magic, we will witness some miracle, some marvelous event that leaves us with a memory we can carry with us throughout our everyday life. A memory we can pull out and peruse when that life grows burdensome.”

Sarai turned on Sondra, determined to force understanding on her stubborn sister. “They don’t fear that you will strip away their belief, Sondra.

You couldn’t do that if you tried. They fear that you will anger some … thing, with your constant denial of magic and all magical beings.” 38

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“Anger who, the ‘fairies’ in the Wood?” Sondra crossed her arms, stubbornly planting her feet, bracing for an argument.

“Ahh! You are so frustrating. Will you never let that go? No, not the ‘fairies,’

Sondra, but maybe the old wizard.”

Sondra remained unimpressed.

“Yes, I shudder in fear of offending a poor old man who wouldn’t remember me the next day. We can’t have that,” she replied sarcastically, her memory of the previous night so vague, she grew ever more convinced she’d dreamed the entire episode.

“Fine, Sondra. What of the dragon?” She held up her hand for silence, continuing heatedly, “Stop! I know you don’t believe he exists but everyone else does, including Father. It is by royal edict that none may pass the forbidden boundary set by Ulrick himself over one thousand rotas ago. I know you, Sondra. Eventually you would get the idea into your head to travel to Thunder Mountain and march heedlessly through the stone ruins, determined to prove your molten rock theory. And despite your disagreement, your violation of Ulrick’s Law would succeed in destroying the wards he placed around the mountain and free the imprisoned dragon to annihilate us all. Don’t bother to deny it, since I already know you don’t believe the legends. But everyone else knows that our ancestor bewitched the dragon and trapped him, and if the wards are broken by any human, the Dragon would escape, whether you believe it or not!”

Sondra didn’t bother to deny it. She knew for a fact that that is precisely what she would do and had intended the very night before, just before she fell asleep … if she had indeed fallen asleep. She remained confused about what had happened exactly but clearly recalled her original plans last night. Instead she remained silent, thoughtful.

“This is the reason some people fear you. They fear where your actions will land the kingdom. You believe you know better than anyone else, so you listen to no one. That attitude could hurt us all one day, Sondra.” Sarai fell silent, collapsing gracelessly onto the bench, emotionally shredded, and hoping to the gods that she had reached Sondra and finally made her understand.

“I have to think about this, Sarai. I never looked at things this way before.

I am sorry that I made anyone afraid. I am very sorry that I embarrassed you and our family.”

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Sarai jumped up and hugged her little sister, who immediately dissolved into tears, her broken sobs shaking them both.

“Oh, Sondra, you’re not an embarrassment. I love you and so do Mother and Father, though they are not free to show it as I am. We are proud of you, of how intelligent you are. Don’t cry, dear sister. I’m so sorry I hurt you.” Sarai rocked her sister slowly until Sondra’s sobs eased and finally stopped altogether.

She stepped away and smiled, her own eyes teary. “Look at us, we’re a mess. You had better call Liliana back in here; she has a lot of work to do to make you presentable for this evening’s feast.”

“I daresay that I look worse than any gruesome monster from the Woods right now.” Both women broke into unsteady laughter.

Sarai squeezed her sister in one last hug. “Am I forgiven?”

“Depends, Sarai, on whether I am forgiven?”

“Of course, Sondra, I’ll forgive you but not for that atrocious pallor. Have you been playing in Mother’s powders and unguents again?”

“Ooh, I am so telling … you know Mother would never use such things.” Both girls giggled. Mother’s vanity and the extreme measures she took to maintain her beauty never failed to amuse them.

“Seriously though, Sondra, are you feeling okay?” Sondra laughed away Sarai’s concerns. “I had a sleepless night but already I’m feeling better.”

“That’s a relief. Now get that poor maid to work her miracles; she’s going to need every last bit of her considerable skill to fix you up.” Sarai grinned and turned to leave.

“Sarai.”

Sarai paused and looked back at Sondra.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, you impossible girl!”

Sondra smiled with a hint of her old joy and Sarai felt her heart lift as it always did when her sister smiled.

“Go on, get.” Sondra shooed her away and Sarai left the room laughing, feeling the pain compressing her heart ease as she nearly skipped down the hall. Her mind turned to the upcoming celebration feast, the reason for it, and the potential income that meant a dowry for her and, maybe, someday soon, a husband.

Sondra waited until the door closed and then checked on the dressing 40

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room door as well before digging out the little-used chamber pot to heave up what little breakfast she had managed to choke past her swollen throat this morning. She felt worse than she ever had before, every joint ached. Her throat stung and her stomach roiled. The faintest brush of her morning robe irritated her skin worse than the coarsest flaxweed. She hid the chamber pot beneath the bed before calling Liliana back into the room. Liliana, a longtime servant nearly as close to her as her sister, would question her illness. The chambermaid who cleaned daily would not bother to inspect the contents before dumping them nor ask why she used the pot rather than the retiring closet in her dressing chamber. Sondra didn’t want to miss the feast nor be ordered to rest during her illness.

She also didn’t desire time alone with her thoughts, especially not after the conversation she just shared with her sister. She couldn’t say she’d experienced an epiphany, but her sister’s words did provide some small insight. She had never considered someone else’s point of view before. She’d always felt certain she knew all the answers and that all she must do was prove them—and the people would rejoice gratefully for her enlightenment. Instead, she realized that they might actually stone her in the street, and even her father couldn’t stop them because, as her sister said, in everyone’s mind, she posed a very real threat to the kingdom. The thought of the untenable position she placed her family in and the potentially dangerous position she nearly placed herself in chilled her.

As Liliana helped her into her gown and arranged her hair around the filigreed silver headdress, she stole a look at her maid. The chatelaine often hired girls as young as eight rotas away from their homes for service in the castle, but few ever rose to the position of lady’s maid, especially to a princess.

The child that arrived from the countryside rotas ago was the same age as Sondra, and when the lonely young princess spotted a new girl entering the servant’s quarters, she had demanded a meeting. Liliana soon became the youngest royal lady’s maid and the girls grew up together, but for the first time Sondra questioned Liliana’s loyalty. She wondered if the girl she considered her best friend would be one of the first to cast a stone. She wondered if the maid secretly feared her too. It didn’t seem likely as the other girl poked and prodded Sondra, regaling her in her drawling accent with servant’s gossip and funny anecdotes about life below stairs. Liliana appeared as she always had: friendly, talkative, and loyal. Deciding that she couldn’t question the allegiance

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of everyone she knew without growing paranoid, Sondra focused instead on ignoring the pain of getting dressed and concentrated on not heaving up all over Liliana.

Sondra managed to avoid any more stomach upheaval that cycle but she didn’t dare eat. She shifted the food about on her plate and flicked as much as she could to the floor, where the massive castle hounds waited to snap up any dropped morsels. The food and drink flowed freely and everyone overindulged.

Her sister flirted genteelly with a baron old enough to be her father. Her brother laughed raucously with his friends between bites as he shoveled food into his mouth like a starving animal. Her mother and father sat at the center of the high table and conversed quietly, their parley inaudible amidst the noise of the crowd and the musicians playing in the galley. She couldn’t wait to break away from the table and the crowds.

After the servants dished up the final course, the king and queen stood to retire to the sitting room; a huge chamber crowded with seating of all types and filled with musical instruments and games for the entertainment of the guests. They took their places in heavily upholstered chairs at the head of the room, while their guests made it a point to stop in and visit until dismissed to seek entertainment in that room or one of the other many public rooms of the castle.

Normally, the princesses joined them and sometimes played the harp or the lute for their guests, but with a gathering this large bent on discussing one thing and one thing only, the queen released her children from their duties and gave them leave to mingle among the guests in the other rooms or the back garden, properly chaperoned. Sondra sighed in relief and made her escape determined to reach her chambers before collapsing in agony on her bed. She’d almost attained the steps to the royal residences when Derek intercepted her, his handsome features solemn, his eyes glittering with a strange excitement that sparked a different kind of disturbance in her stomach.

“Your Highness, may I have a word with you, privately?” He glanced at the ladies-in-waiting that Sondra had already dismissed in her escape attempt.

She nodded, struggling not to wince visibly when he gently took her arm, causing agony to shoot through her body at the contact. He led her out to the back garden, smoothly avoiding other couples and groups seeking private conversation or more scandalous entertainment.