Page 33 of The Dragon Maiden

“It was a test to see if you had the guts to stand up for yourself or not,” he said. “And you passed.” His smile grew before he gestured me to follow him to his cave.

“You were just testing me this whole time?” I said. I could not believe he had been sneakily watching from the sidelines.

“As I said, it was to see if you would stand up for yourself. The Dragon Maiden of the High Dragon Lord needs to put boundaries in place with the other Maidens. Vimery certainly was not an easy opponent, but she was a good lesson for you,” he said.

When we arrived at Lord Dracul’s cave, I immediately set to work picking up the scattered papers and books, organizing as I went. I briefly glanced over the paperwork as I sorted it into piles, quickly realizing that the issue with Borthen and the Starfire clan seemed far more dire than Lord Dracul had alluded to. More than once, I took several moments, my eyes scanning over the papers to glean more information on the issue. From what I could gather, it seemed that Borthen had been reaching out to other clans more frequently, bringing up concerns with Lord Dracul’s leadership and amassing more military forces. My heart skipped a beat when I read the words,He is beginning to pull more humans to his cause, willing to sacrifice them to reach his goals.

“My Lord,” I said after reading a few more papers that said the same thing. “This issue with the Starfire clan seems to be quite serious.”

Lord Dracul looked up from his desk, frowning slightly as he saw the sheaf of papers in my arms. “Bring those here,” he said, reaching a hand out. I brought them to him, and he quickly scanned the documents. “I’m not too concerned,” he said at last. “Like I said, he’s been trying to do this for years.” He fixed me with his gaze. “And I thought I told you to call me Dracul.”

I bowed my head, feeling the need for formality. “I understand, my Lord,” I said. “I’m sorry for my question.”

He leaned his elbow on the desk, resting his chin on his hand. “What about the other part?” he asked. I knew he would not like my answer.

“My Lord, for now, I think it best that I address you by your title,” I said.

A look of despair briefly crossed his face before he could fix his expression. “I understand,” he said. “If that is what you wish, then I won’t push further.”

He went back to his paperwork, and I could not ignore the pang in my heart at his saddened expression, but the closeness rising between us was growing dangerous.

Chapter Twenty-One

Dracul

For the next few months, my days were spent attending meetings with the other Dragon Lords. Once again, they expressed concerns with Borthen’s behavior, citing it as suspicious and inflammatory. While I agreed the Starfire clan’s actions were a cause for concern, I did not think it warranted the level of alarm the other Lords thought it did. Most of the time, my meetings were with Lord Hiram and Lord Firenze, receiving updates on Borthen’s military actions. Lord Firenze assured me that our forces were ready for any attack from the Starfire clan, so I was not that worried. The Lords I had appointed were good at their jobs, though they did have a tendency to worry more than they should. Eventually, we decided that I would visit the Starfire clan in the spring with Lord Verhorn and Lord Firenze to examine the situation up close.

Usually, in the afternoons, I was able to spend time in my quarters to complete any paperwork, but Lord Verhorn and Lord Noxus would typically barge in with some other concern about how the clan functioned and whether our financial status was in a good spot. This was one of the reasons I hated winter—I could not easily escape the cave to avoid their questions. My only saving grace was that I could stay near Valora while they brought their concerns forth. And even though she pretended to be occupied with her tasks, I could tell she listened in and learned a lot in the process. After they left, she would wait a while before asking her own questions about what had been discussed. She had really started to take an interest in the clan activities.

I knew Lord Lorka had a good hand on our crops and distributed food to the human villages that did not have enough to survive the winter. Thanks to his talent and effort, our clan always had more than enough, so we were easily able to spare food to help those less fortunate. His reports were always the easiest to read and the ones I had to worry the least about.

After her punishment, Valora threw herself into her duties more than ever. She made sure to stick strictly to the rules and had maintained that wall she had put up, much to my disappointment. I still felt the pull to her, to mydragaria,and I knew based on the way she would pause at times that she could feel the pull as well.The distance she put between us hurt, and it was an effort not to push aside all boundaries and embrace her. Her interest in the activities of the clan gave me hope that we would be able to move past this, but there was a new stiffness to our interactions now. At least the fact that she had been following the rules without issue made it easier for the other Lords to approve of her going through the oath ceremony to become an official Dragon Maiden. I hoped to tell her about it soon, but felt anxious as to what her reaction would be.

* * *

One afternoon, I came back from my morning meetings to see her dusting the bookshelves once again. She certainly seemed to love the books, taking any spare moment she had to read them. From what I could tell, she loved the books about herbalism and flowers, eagerly devouring the pages of information. As I watched, she took a book from the shelf and sat down on the couch, beginning to read.

I slowly crept behind her. “What are you reading?” I asked, popping up over her shoulder. I got a small feeling of delight as she jumped, her face flushing.

“My Lord, I wasn’t expecting you!” she exclaimed. She slammed the book shut, but not before I saw it was one about dragon history. Interesting.

“You thought you could slack off in your duties?” I teased, raising an eyebrow.

“No!” she said, moving to put the book back. “This one just caught my eye, is all.”

I moved swiftly, plucking the book from her hands before she could put it away and flipped through the pages. “What exactly were you hoping to glean from this?” I asked.

“It doesn’t hurt to learn more,” she said, looking at the floor. From her reaction, I could tell she was embarrassed for an unknown reason, but could not figure out why.

“I’m not mad about this, Valora,” I said softly, bringing the book over to her and placing it in her hand.

She blushed harder as our hands touched, and I was glad to see she was not totally unaffected by my presence. There was hope for us yet.

“I just wanted to tease you.”

“I know,” she said, still avoiding my gaze. “I just wanted to know more about you—I mean, about the clan,” she suddenly corrected herself.

A laugh escaped me as I sat down on the couch, patting it for her to join me. “You can ask me anything,” I said. “What do you want to know?”