He grinned. “Deal.”
“I would have gone for a thousand,” Joslyn told me as I walked over and handed her my sword, coin purse, and belt.
I smiled at her. “Your bones are far more valuable than mine,” I informed her, and then walked towards the creek where the brush was thick, so that I could change in privacy.
The king simply faced a tree and began to disrobe out in the open. That man didn’t care who saw him naked, and I was again currently transfixed by a view of his butt cheeks. With a chuckle, I peeled off my training clothes, which were covered in mud from my sparring session with Cal earlier, and when I stood fully naked I looked down at my body.
A variety of purple, blue, and yellowing bruises marred my hips and knees. I was proud of every single one of them. The muscled indentations in my stomach and thighs were the most pronounced and I was proud of that too.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and felt for my magic.
Transforming, as the king had taught me, was a different compartment of magic than throwing or breathing fire. It was deeper, and needed to really be pulled out with confidence. Reaching for my transformation magic, I pulled on it hard with as much strength as I could muster. Pain laced along my spine and I hunched forward as the sound of cracking bones began to ring throughout the bushes.
“He’s already done!” Joslyn trilled.
“Well, he has to wait!” I bellowed back in a painful growl.
The king was an impatient man, I’d learned, but that only made me want to make him wait longer on me.
After I finished my transformation, I stepped out of the thick bushes, breaking some of the branches on my way.
‘Perfect day for flying,’ the king said when he saw me.
I gave him the equivalent of a dragon snort and eyeroll. ‘Remember, my Royal Guard contract states that if I die, you must bring my body back to my mother in Cinder Village.’
He chuffed, ‘I would never let that happen, Arwen.’
I sidled next to him, giving him a long side look. ‘Now you care whether I live or die? You’ve come along way, my king.’
A month ago, he’d imprisoned me and threatened to kill me. I was determined to never let him live that down.
‘I told you, I regretted my actions from when we first met. I thought you were here to kill me!’ he snapped.
Shooting my wings open, I pumped them as I fast as I could. ‘Nope, just a girl from Cinder Village who can’t fly!’ I kicked off the ground at the last word before I could lose my nerve.
Terror shot through me as the wind resistance pushed against my wings. I faltered, but Drae’s voice was in my head to comfort me.
‘You’re doing great, just breathe and focus on your wingbeats.’
I sucked air in through my dragon nostrils and then looked down to see Drae directly under me.
‘I’ll catch you if you fall.’
Shaking my nerves off, I focused on what his wings were doing. Up, pause, down, pause, up, pause. I mimicked what we were doing, which was a lot slower, smoother, and controlled than my frantic fast flying.
‘That’s it,’ he said.
“Go, Arwen!” Joslyn’s voice from down below reached me and I grinned.
Drae veered to the left, heading for the farmland outside the palace gates, and I swallowed.
‘Are you sure?’ I asked him.
Only select members of the Royal Guard and house staff knew about my transformation powers. To fly over farms would get people talking. Only a full-blooded royal dragon could transform.
‘I’m prepared to address questions about you and your abilities,’ was all he said as we flew over the castle gates.
I’d never flown this far, or this long, but I pushed away my anxiety and followed him. We glided over rows and rows of wheat, then the golden fields turned to purple lavender, and finally he began to descend over a group of willow trees.
We were maybe a half hour walk from the castle. It had been a nice short flight. Not too long for me, but just enough that I felt confident and wanted more. As we lowered, I peered down to see where he was taking us and my heart leapt into my throat.
Between the circle of four giant weeping willows were a handful of gravestones. One was large, as you would have for an adult, and the other four were small.
Four children.
This was where Queen Amelia and his unborn children lay.
‘I don’t know why I brought you here,’ he said suddenly in my head as he landed before the small graves. A basket of clothes was beneath one of the trees, and I wondered if it was because he flew here often and then shifted into human form.