The Dragon’s Throne 1

The four of them stood together on the platform, and Anna looked over the scene with a calm she didn’t expect.  The faces below them were the same, but many of the expressions that had been filled with doubt were now filled with joy and pride.  By attacking her, Marissa had given Anna the opportunity to prove to the kingdom that she was ready for this life, and anything that was thrown at her.

“I like that suit,” Silas said, still smiling and waving to the crowd.  “Brilliant.”

“Thank you.  I got the idea watching Eli fly.”

“Just from that?” Lauren wanted to know.

“That, and a dream.”

“Are you going to share?” Eli asked, clearly interested in the dream she had kept from him.

“I’m not the only human that’s going to join the resistance, and I needed a way to make sure that I would survive if I fell and you weren’t there to catch me.  It needs some work, but I was happy with the outcome.  I just need to add something to make it work if there’s no dragon to come to our rescue.”

Eli shook his head in awe.

“You are more amazing than I ever imagined you could be,” he said, kissing her then, ignoring the lighthearted shouts of the crowd below.  “I don’t think the Rebellion is going to know what hit them.”

“It’s time for us to retire now,” Silas said.  “We need to speak with you both, so we’ll be waiting in the den.”

“We’ll come with you,” Eli said.  “There are some things I want to talk about as well.”

They waved again to the crowd, then turned, taking the stairs from the roof down into the castle and following Silas and Lauren down the long hall that led to the den.  She could still hear the crowd outside, and she wondered if things were always this intense.

“First things first,” Lauren said.  “You have your choice of which wing you want, but you don’t have to decide today.”

“Or we can live in the guesthouse,” Eli said, giving Anna a look that made her blush.

“I didn’t know we were moving into the palace,” Anna said.  “I’m going to miss our castle in the clouds.”

“It’s not forever,” Eli said.  “But tonight proved that there are more against us than we originally thought and I need to be able to keep you safe.”

“It was only two,” Anna said.

“More than two left the crowd today,” Eli said.  “It wasn’t a large number, but there is a group of dragons that are against us.”

“You mean against me,” Anna said, frowning.

“Against all of us,” Lauren said.  “Silas and I have embraced your rise to power, and Eli married you even though he had the option of taking Marissa as his queen.”

“No wonder she was so angry,” Anna said.

“It was a sound move to let her live,” Lauren said.  “A ruler must show action and a fair amount of benevolence.”

“Hopefully, I won’t come to regret that choice,” Anna said.

“You will see her again,” Silas said.  “But just like everyone else, she has her part to play in all this.”

“Will Daniel be moving into the palace?” Eli asked.  “I could use his help guarding this place against attacks, especially since some of our own are upset with this new government.”

“You’ll have to speak to Daniel yourself,” Silas said.

“Where is he?” Eli asked.  “I didn’t even notice that he missed the coronation until now.  There was so much going on.”

Lauren shrugged, clearly worried about her younger son.

“I don’t know.  We haven’t seen him since the wedding, and he missed the feast.”

*

Daniel slipped on the dead leaves, skidding down the hill and gritting his teeth to avoid crying out in pain as his battered body hit the ground hard.  When he came to a stop, he got up carefully, assessing his injuries briefly, then getting to his feet and stumbling forward.  The ground was frozen underfoot, small patches of snow that were shaded from the sun remained in clumps around the base of trees even though it hadn’t snowed in over a week.  Daniel passed over these and more obstacles, ignoring the crunch of his boots in the ice encrusted snow piles, and the hard pounding of the icy ground on his sore joints. 

He heard a dragon battle in the distance behind him, but he didn’t turn to look.  He knew that Marissa was after Anna and that there was nothing that he could do about it now.  Right now, he had to save himself or he would be of no help to anyone.

The sun had just sunk below the horizon, and Daniel was relieved that he would be running in the darkness soon.  He was miles from the Aldeian border, and likely wouldn’t make it until daybreak, if he made it.  His injuries were extensive, so much so that his body could no longer shift into a dragon and focus on healing his wounds.

 His cells were struggling to do the latter, and there were moments as he ran where he thought that he might succumb to his injuries even though his body was working to heal itself hundreds of times faster than the human body ever could.

He pressed on, every step as painful as the last, his body protesting with each staggering step.  If he could fly, he would be out of Aman and beyond the eastern border of Aldeia by now, but he was trapped, and he knew that he was better off on foot.  It was only a matter of time before his absence was noted, and then the kingdom would take to the skies, looking for him.  It was better to remain hidden and to have a chance to heal before he tried to go back to the palace. 

His mind lost track of time as he half stumbled, half slid down one hill, then crawled up the next, his pain making it hard to concentrate for any length of time.  He blinked, noticing that it was dark now, even though he wasn’t sure when the sun had finally set and the day had turned to night.  Surely, he had watched it happen, but he was so focused on keeping his feet beneath him that he didn’t notice.

The moon was high above him and already making its way toward the horizon behind him when he broke out of the trees and saw the river that divided their two nations from each other.  He found the small foot bridge that he and his brother had built when they were teens so that they could sneak across the narrowest part of the river and onto the other side.  There, they had watched the villagers going about their day, marveling at how backwards their life seemed when Daniel and Eli lived in the lap of luxury several miles away.