A Shade of Dragon 3(41)

Michelle grimaced. “You could at least go to my bedroom and get my gowns. Now.”

The crash of a window punctuated her sentence, and a stream of fire came pouring into the hallway below us. An ice dragon shrilled with horror and unleashed a ribbon of ice in combat. Someone in the great hall went to the front entrance and unlocked it. A powerful wind came gusting, causing the chandeliers to twist and tinkle. It was freezing out there. Damn, the fire dragons were probably not going to be able to fight much longer. It might have been long enough. The “royal family” was, after all, poised to depart. And the fire dragons were poised to enter. In every window, separate blazes filled the sky. The snow had come, but come too late.

“Now?” Lethe reiterated. His eyebrows settled over his blizzard-blue eyes. “The only ‘now’ which we must consider, queen, is that the fire is upon us.”

Another window downstairs exploded inward, a tongue of flame lashing into the castle. Meanwhile, out the front door, gusts of wind carried snow across the foyer… and ice dragons shifted and took to the sky in droves.

“We must not spare a single member of our court,” Lethe went on.

“She is not a member of our court,” Michelle insisted, jabbing a finger at me. “Lethe, don’t be an idiot—she’s Theon’s wife!”

“And yet you brought her up from the dungeons,” Lethe retorted.

Michelle spluttered and grasped for a new point. “I sent her for valuables and she returned with the astrolabe! The single tool in this castle which could ensure the victory of the fire dragons!”

I could definitely smell smoke downstairs. I pursed my lips and maintained my peace.

“The fire dragons are taking the castle,” Lethe replied. “If she had left it, they would soon acquire it. That she took it shows loyalty.”

“Oh, Lethe.” Michelle rolled her eyes and refused to look at him. “How can a king be so—?”

Another window crashed, shards of glass spewing in every direction, but this came from our own floor. I thought in horror that the fire dragons wouldn’t know, wouldn’t stop, and would accidentally kill their own queen… kill their own king’s brother… but no tongue of flame was exhaled through this broken window. Rather, an auburn, speckled harpy came tumbling through, slammed into the opposing wall, and collapsed on the rug.

As had become customary, a strong cocktail of relief and apprehension swelled in my chest at the sight of the harpy with whom I had stricken a fruitless exchange. Parnassia.

“King,” she huffed, straightening. “I arrived the second I heard that the fire dragons had risen again in your fair, frigid country. Come to Thundercliff. You will be welcome there, not only safe from Aena’s men but also comfortable.”

“Thundercliff,” Michelle noted. “Where in Maine was that, again?”

I rolled my eyes. “Beggar’s Hole,” I reminded her under my breath. It was painfully reminiscent of high school English, wherein she would never quite remember any of the books she’d sworn she’d read.

“I’m afraid your dwelling is too small for the likes of us,” Lethe replied. “As you can see, we have with us a court of four, and the women are human. They cannot withstand the cold and the altitude kept by your kind, fair harpy.”

“Thundercliff’s forest, then, may suffice,” the harpy tried again. How… accommodating she was being.

Downstairs, I could hear the sound of more glass breaking. Many of the servants had fled now, leaving precious few in the halls… and smoke was buffeting up toward the ceiling, dark and ominous. We would need to make a decision—and soon.

“But this is our castle,” Lethe insisted. I wanted to argue that point, but held my tongue.

“But Thundercliff Forest,” Michelle interjected, “is where my ‘castle’ is.” She used air-quotes to denote that her palatial lake house was only a castle in a manner of speaking.

“What is ‘this’?” Vulott asked, mimicking her.

“Nothing.”

“Means that it’s not a real castle,” I explained to Vulott, who immediately frowned.

“I don’t want to go to a castle that is no castle at all,” he denounced.

“Um, the place is gorgeous, and everyone would be psyched to see me,” Michelle argued, oblivious to the smoke and broken windows.

“We need to decide now!” Lethe insisted.

“Come with us to Thundercliff, and the harpies will be your allies in wartime,” the winged woman cooed. “Perhaps the young queen should not be so eagerly dismissed. Perhaps it would behoove you to maintain a satellite castle, rather than a castle on this disputed territory, so vulnerable to attack.”