The Dragon’s Throne 1

She waited for a moment, then the telltale click of his boot heels on her wooden porch signaled his exit.  She let out a heavy sigh, happy that Gabe was leaving, though she knew that he would try to stand beside her at the meeting.  Nearly twice her age, Gabe was forty-seven and had been pursuing her relentlessly since she’d turned eighteen almost seven years before.  She’d turned him down more times than she could remember, but still, he persisted. 

She grabbed her jacket from the back of the door and pulled on her boots.  Looking down at her jade green dress that matched her eyes, she decided not to change.  No one in the village paid much attention to her, and the lore surrounding her father John’s death meant that many in the village whispered about her behind her back but never spoke to her face. 

She shook her head.  Even though they’d evolved beyond the ridiculous customs and clichés of the twentieth century, some things never changed.  She was an orphan and considered a burden even though she provided for herself and always had.

The door closed heavily behind her, and she wished that she could turn around and hide at home.  She didn’t want to go into town when everyone would be there, crushed together near the stage where Mayor Freeman would stand and address his people like a king.  She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she set out down the trail that would lead her to that very spot.  It would take everything that she had not to laugh at whatever pressing matter he needed to discuss.  The only village they had contact with was Aman, the Dragon Kingdom, and they had enjoyed peace between the two villages for twenty-five years.  Anna couldn’t imagine what could possibly be so important that the entire village needed to assemble, but Mayor Freeman enjoyed the attention, so it could be anything.

Her house was the furthest from town, but she was joined already by people leaving their homes and walking excitedly toward the center of the village.  Unlike Anna, a lot of Aldeians enjoyed Mayor Freeman and his showy speeches.  The women in front of her on the road were talking amongst themselves, trying to guess what could be so important.

“Did you hear about the fires?” one of them said.

“I did.  Morgan told me that the Dragon Prince started them after he flew into a rage.”

“I heard that the village hasn’t kept up their end of the deal with the sacrifices and that King Silas is pressuring Mayor Freeman to choose a martyr.”

Anna rolled her eyes. 

Here they go again with the superstitions and folklore, she thought.  She couldn’t believe that otherwise intelligent people still believed the stories that their parents told them.  Didn’t they know that fables weren’t meant to be taken literally?

“I heard that the martyr has to come from the family of the last one,” the first girl said.  “Do you think that’s true?”

The first girl turned, looking over her shoulder and almost jumping out of her skin when she saw Anna just a few yards behind them.  Anna shook her head in disgust but said nothing.  The first girl’s cheeks colored with embarrassment, and she lowered her voice.

“Do you think she knows about her father?” the girl asked.

“I can still hear you, Charity,” Anna said loudly.  “And yes, I know that everyone thinks my father was sacrificed to the Dragon King to keep the peace between our villages, but you’d have to be a fool to believe that.”

“Then, what happened to your father?” Charity sneered, her pretty face twisting with her ugly words. 

“I don’t know,” Anna admitted, wishing she hadn’t engaged Charity.  “But I know that he wasn’t a martyr.”

“You can’t know that,” Charity insisted. 

Anna was about to open her mouth when she saw a flash of white-blonde hair come bounding down a narrow walkway to join them on the main path.  Anna let out a sigh of relief.

“Eleanor,” Anna said, hugging her best friend and resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at Charity when the girl turned away suddenly.

“Hi, Anna.  Have you heard that our fantastical Mayor is about to give a speech?”

Anna laughed at her friend’s sarcasm.  Like Anna, Eleanor thought that the Mayor was a pompous windbag.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Anna said.  “Charity was just about to explain why I should be fed to the dragons.”

Eleanor glared at Charity.

“Don’t you ever get tired of being a hateful cow?” she said.

Charity didn’t answer, picking up speed and forcing her friends to keep up so she could put some distance between herself and Eleanor.  Anna shook her head, laughing at how immature the others were, and amazed at how intimidated they were by Eleanor.

“I guess being the Mayor’s niece does have its perks,” Eleanor said.  “I just wish I knew what Uncle Teddy was going to talk about so I could skip it.”

“He hates when you call him that,” Anna laughed.

“I know.  I hate when he calls me anything.  I can’t believe I’m related to him.”

“It’s only by marriage.”

“That’s bad enough.”

Eleanor put her arm through Anna’s and rested her head on her friend’s shoulder as they walked. 

“I wish that people wouldn’t give you a hard time about your father.  My father says he was a good man and that he loved your mother more than anyone in the entire world.  It’s so horrible that people say the things that they do.”

“It’s alright,” Anna shrugged.  “If my mother had been able to speak about what happened, she could have cleared it up.”

“Did she ever speak?”

“Lillian said that she never spoke again, but you can’t trust what she said, either.  She was angry at me for being born.  She was not exactly the most rational person that we know.  She said no one knew what happened to John, and no one ever will.  The only thing we do know is that his body was never found and he disappeared on the side of the river that’s in Aman’s village limits.”