The Dragon’s Throne 1

“No pun intended, right?” Anna laughed.

“I didn’t intend it, but it makes sense.  Just try not to put yourself into a box.  You can be a Dragon Slayer and the Dragon Queen in the same breath without losing any part of yourself.  You just have to understand that it’s possible.”

“Dragon Slayer?  I thought I was fighting humans.”

A look passed over Lauren’s face, but just as quickly, it was gone.

“I think they’re almost ready for us,” Lauren said. 

Anna knew that she’d changed the subject on purpose, but she wasn’t going to call Lauren on it right then.  There was too much going on, and she had a feeling that Lauren would give her some sort of pat answer to keep her from digging further.  No, she would wait until the right time to bring it up, and she wouldn’t let it go until she had the truth.

As if to prove her point, there was another knock on the door, and a petite woman who Anna was certain was human poked her head in shyly.

“They’re ready,” she said simply, the disappeared without another word.

“Alright, Child.  It looks like it’s now or never.”

“I’m ready,” Anna said, holding her head high.

“Are you?”

“For the first time since this entire thing started, I am.  I feel ready, which is just as good as being ready, right?”

“I would say so,” Lauren said, holding out her arm for Anna to take.  “You look radiant.  Eli is going to be beside himself when he sees you.”

“Good.  I didn’t sit in that chair for an hour to look how I do every day.”

“You’re going to take his breath away,” Lauren said.

With huge smiles on both their faces, they left the dressing room and made their way through the door that led out to the courtyard.

The string quartet segued seamlessly into the bridal march when they saw Lauren and Anna appear, and almost as one, the entire crowd turned around to see the pair of them heading down the aisle. 

A fine, red and gold carpet covered the grass beneath their feet, and every type of wildflower imaginable hung from ribbons on the chairs that had been placed on the massive lawn.  Anna took slow breaths, trying not to pay attention to the fact that there were hundreds of people on either side of the aisle as they walked; every one of them there to get a glimpse of the human that would be their queen. 

Anna trembled softly, excited and scared all at once.  She tried to focus on the friendly faces in the crowd, but there weren’t nearly as many as she had hoped there would be.  She thought about turning around, but Lauren placed her other hand over Anna’s, looking into Anna’s eyes and smiling.

“Don’t let them get to you,” she said, leaning over to speak into Anna’s ear so that no one else could hear here.  “A lot of women had their sights set on catching themselves a prince; they’re just bitter.”

Anna laughed.

“I guess humans and dragons aren’t that different after all.”

“Not in the ways that count,” Lauren agreed.

By the time they got near the altar, Anna was feeling less jittery.  She caught Eli’s eye and smiled at him.  He stood beside his father, the pair of them in matching tuxedos that made them both look exceptionally handsome.

“Wow,” Eli said when she got within earshot.

“Wow yourself,” she shot back, feeling giddy now that the crowd was behind her and the only person in front of her was Eli. 

Everyone else had faded into the background and even their glaring disapproval couldn’t ruin this moment for her.

Lauren handed her off to Eli, taking her place behind Anna and smiling at Silas over the couple’s head as the cleric began the ceremony, spending more time talking about Fate and the duty to uphold traditions than Anna would have thought possible. 

Eli smiled at her when he saw her eyes glaze over as the cleric continued the same line of thinking, winking at her and making a face at her that said that Eli was more interested in what they had planned for after the ceremony than the ceremony itself.  Anna blushed, knowing full well what he was thinking of.

She caught Silas giving Lauren that same look from over Eli’s shoulder and she almost burst out laughing.  It seemed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, if at all. 

“And now to bind you both, ensuring that this bond will last for this life and into the next,” the cleric said, yanking Anna out of her musings as she tried to figure out what he meant by binding them.

When she saw the strips of leather being brought forward, she realized that they meant to bind them physically, symbolically tying their souls together for all the guests to see.

Her hand was trembling as she held it out for Eli.  He clasped his fingers of his left hand over her left wrist and she did the same.  They held tight to each other as the cleric went to work, speaking an incantation over them as he carefully wrapped each of the four strips of leather around their arms in a specific pattern as ancient as dragons themselves.

The leather was warm to the touch, but by the time it was completely tied around both their arms, it was hot.  The thin strips pulsed and glowed, the heat just a step above comfortable.  Eli held her gaze, his face calm even as the strips heated up against their bare flesh. 

When the heat grew so much that Anna began to panic, Eli held her arm tight, his smile calm and reassuring. 

All at once, the strips burst into smoke plumes, dropping away and disappearing into thin air.  In place of the binding, intricate swirls of soft brown ink covered both their arms, the patterns identical mirror images of the other.