“I… can’t accept this. It will get stolen or I’ll ruin it. It’s too nice.” It was nicer than the Royal Guard uniforms. More detailed in artwork and embellishments.
“Hogwash, you’re in the running to be queen. You’ll wear it well,” my mother said.
I grinned. “You’re right. Should I wear it now?”
My mother nodded and I slipped out of my tunic and trousers and she helped me into the skintight hunting suit. There were leather cuffs that buttoned on, and a matching waistbelt with a purse for jade coins. The left armpit pinched a little but I said nothing because Mother was staring at me with tears of happiness in her eyes. Kendal could help me loosen that left seam a little in Jade City.
“It’s perfect,” I told her and did a spin.
She nodded, holding her throat as she showed more emotion in the last few hours than the entirety of my life.
“I… I know today has been a lot and I hope you still feel… like my daughter,” she whimpered.
The fact that she would think anything different tore my heart in two. It was not uncommon when a mother died in labor that an aunt or female friend took the baby in as their own. The child was loved and happy and was none the wiser. That’s the same as what had happened here, except this woman had been a stranger and my mother did a kind thing. “I’ll always feel like your daughter.” I could barely speak through my emotions.
“Arwen?” Regina’s voice called from the doorway and my mother flinched.
“You can’t even stay the night?” she asked me. “You have to run back to Jade City right away?”
I reached out and grasped her hands. “It sounds like they’d been all over the realm and this is their last stop. They must also be eager to get back to their families.”
My mother nodded and pulled me in for one last hug. I cherished the moment. This was a genuine hug between me and my mother, who I now knew didn’t birth me and yet I loved her no less. After we pulled away, she clasped my trunk and then stepped outside the room.
“Porter!” she called through the house in a snotty Jade City accent that had me snickering.
Seconds later, a man appeared wearing a long traveling cloak and took my trunk on his back like it was made of air.
Magic?
He was short and skinny so it had to be. This display of magic was typical of dragon-folk who lived in Jade City and were very powerful.
I followed my mom to the doorway, where Regina stood beside Nox, the other member of the Royal Guard. A quick glance at their chest plates confirmed my suspicion. Nearly all of the guards here were not just Royal Guardsmen, they were Drayken. The king had brought his most elite team with him to search for a wife.
The question was why? His own people wouldn’t hurt him. Was the skirmish with the Nightfall queen at the border bigger than I realized?
“I’ll see you off here. I don’t fancy crying in front of the whole town,” my mother said with barely restrained emotion.
I nodded, giving her a last hug, and then with trepidation stepped out the door of my childhood home. Looking over my shoulder, I frowned at the boiling pot of stew.
After a week’s worth of hunting, I didn’t even get a bowl of Mother’s cougarin stew. This Jade City castle chef better be the best damn food artisan in the realm, because I was hungry.
FIVE
“Nice armor.” Regina raised an eyebrow in surprise at my outfit change. We’d just left my street and were stepping over to the horse and carriage that waited in the middle of town.
“Thank you. Kendal and my mother made it,” I told her dryly. I liked her, she was my idol, but I didn’t like that she was taking me away from everything I knew and loved.
She looked surprised again, and I wondered if she thought only the palace seamstresses at Jade City were capable of such talent.
“Sorry about my mother. She’s… protective,” I mentioned to Regina, suddenly a bit embarrassed about how bold my mother had been to her and Nox.
“Good mothers are,” she replied, and then had my trunk loaded onto the black carriage that was hitched to two royal horses. There were a dozen horses waiting at the gate, all with Drayken riding on them. The horses were all black with braided tails, and I dreamed of one day riding on one like the Royal Guard did. Maybe I could learn in Jade City, make the most of this time there while the king flitted about trying to make an heir.
Speaking of the king… I scanned the group of guards, my gaze landing on the one with his hood up.
The village people had no idea they were in the midst of royalty.