Chapter One
I still missed him.
Master Eloy climbed onto his dragon, enjoying the crowd that watched him. Even though it had been a couple months since he'd first called the blue dragon from the Fold, people still gathered at the novel sight. The blue dragon glimmered like a clear, true jewel. Unlike the dragons of red, bronze, and green, the blue dragon was shiny; not a speck of dust dulled his brilliant scales.
Princess Kia emerged from the dragon barn and waved at me. “Haya!” she called.
I waved. I was happy for them: they were meant to be together. Master Eloy lost much of his moodiness after their marriage. I did not miss him because I wanted Master Eloy for myself: the quick taste he'd given me of married life had me yearning for it, aching for it.
He'd been kind when he claimed me. He'd explained his heart was with Kia, and that our union—although we intended for it to be temporary—would save her life. There was no question: I would have done anything to help my best friend.
She hugged me now. “How is the queen?”
I sat down with her on the grass. “She still grieves. Your Mama has not left her side for a week. She fears she will grieve herself to death.”
We watched Master Eloy bow and do his strange, formal dance with the blue dragon. Their affection for each other was deeper than most Dragon Masters and their dragons. Blue dragons were so rare that most thought them myths, at least until Master Eloy had called one.
“The blue dragon is being talked about everywhere. Some say it's a sign that King Erik will make peace between the North and South, that the kingdom will be united truly and forever in a peace that will last until after our grandchildren have grandchildren.”
Kia narrowed her eyes and scoffed. "And what do the others say?"
I didn't answer. It was not a message that would please her.
She lowered her voice and commanded me, “Tell me, Haya.”
I hated when she used that tone of voice with me. She was princess, but when we had first been friends, she had not believed she was princess. I believed she was, and I was glad she had grown into her role and title. I just didn't like it when she was so comfortable with it that she ordered me to do something instead of asked me as her friend.
I sighed and answered. “Some say the blue dragon is a sign that Master Eloy is the chosen one.” I paused, waiting for her to say something. “Surely you've heard those rumors?”
She didn't deny or confirm it. She just said, “I do not understand this. King Erik and Eloy are friends. They are on the same side. What would someone have to gain from Eloy that they could not gain from my brother?”
I did not pretend to understand the politicking and manipulating that went on at court, and I certainly had no idea what the commoners thought. She didn't wait for my answer, but she did that half-frown she did when she was thinking hard. She went somewhere else, somewhere I wasn't welcome.
This was another thing that had changed between us: she kept more of her thoughts to herself. She had always done so, but of late, she'd gotten worse. It made me feel lonely and alienated from our friendship.
I was tired of it, but I smiled at my friend and squeezed her hand. “I must go tend the Queen.”
She bit her lip. “Haya, you would tell me, wouldn't you? If Erik got it in his mind that Eloy was an enemy?”
I'd thought that Master Eloy had sold me to the Queen for this purpose, but I'd been uncomfortable with it. I'd hadn't thought such a request would ever come from Kia. “I am a simple girl. I just aim to keep the Queen entertained. I'm not privy to any secrets that would be of use to you.”
She frowned at me, and I didn't think I deserved that. I got up and left without a curtsy or a goodbye or a word of respect.
***
When I took a seat by Queen Lena, Kia's mama slept in a chair in the corner. I chattered to the Queen about the blue dragon. I went on about how beautiful it was, and how she must come out tomorrow and see it.
I managed a small, weak smile from her.
“Haya, how are you ever so cheerful?”
I did not feel cheerful all the time, but most took me so. Besides, there was no point acting sad or lonely: it only made matters worse.
“I have been selfish,” she said.
“Why do you accuse yourself, Your Majesty?”
She closed her eyes. She looked beautiful like that: black hair strung across the white pillowcase, her eyes shut in thought that did not furrow her brow.
“I promised to find you a suitable husband, and I have not even looked. I do not want to lose your company.”
“Promised? Promised whom?”
“The Princess.”
“Why would you promise such a thing to her?”
“We wanted to give a gift to our new sister, and she requested your happiness.”
My eyes flooded with tears. I felt ashamed of myself: here I had been annoyed with my best friend all day, and she had used a moment when she could have requested anything to request only something for me.
“You are not much more than a servant girl.”
I nearly dropped the glass of water. “You are not happy with me, Your Majesty?”
“No, I am very happy. I'm saying that instead of being married to a Dragon Master or a Duke, you're stuck here feeding a sad Queen. My selfishness has reduced you to a servant, when you deserve much more.”
“I like being of service to others, Your Majesty.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “There are so many things to make me sad, Haya.” She glanced at Kia's mama and sighed. “My mother has not come to me.” When I pressed a glass of water to her lips, she drank. “I poisoned my father.”
I took the glass away. “No, Your Majesty! That is not what Sierra said. She said your mother did it, for the good of the kingdom.”
Tears ran down the Queen's face. “But she will not forgive me for it!”
I don't know what came over me. Perhaps it was my irritation with Kia, or perhaps it was my worry that some gossip amongst commoners would drive apart Master Eloy and King Erik. “Your Majesty, you must get strong. It is you alone who holds the peace from the North. They are restless.”
She turned away from me. “I have lost my mother and I have lost my daughter. Now Erik is losing his kingdom, and all of it is my fault.”
I stood up. “The King is not losing his kingdom. The people love him. They still call him Good King Erik.”
She pressed her lips together. “Not as many as once did. There are many that say Master Eloy is the chosen one.”
Fear nipped at my heart. “Your Majesty, Master Eloy is utterly devoted to King Erik. He would never allow such things to pass.”
She was quiet. After some time, she turned to me. “Go. You make me tired today.”
I felt slapped. Had I led us into such deep conversation? Here the Queen was sick at heart in bed, and I had failed my duty in entertaining her. I wanted to apologize, but she stopped me.
“Tell the King I am looking well, that I am doing much better, but I still don't want to see him.”
“But it is a lie!”
She shrugged.
“I am a terrible liar. Please ask someone else.”
She ordered me unkindly. “Do as you’re told, Haya.”
***
When I left, I tried avoiding all the places I thought I would run into the King. The castle was quiet, of late. After the attack and the death of the baby Prince, the mood had been somber. The official mourning period was over, but the Queen continued to wear black; the King, too. It was turning summer, and I hoped the sunshine would bring more light into the dreary castle.
The library seemed a safe place to hide for a little while, but as soon as I entered, I saw the King sitting in front of the fireplace. I started to leave, but he saw me.
“Haya,” he said kindly. “Our ray of sunshine in these dark days.”
“Too dark for any light, your Majesty,” I snapped. My tone surprised even me. I didn’t normally speak like that, and certainly not to the King.
He was quiet as he observed me.
I felt my face flush.
His long limbs unwound themselves from sitting, and he stood up. “Do you wish to be away from court?”
I wasn’t sure whether that was a threat or an honest question. I didn’t want to be sent away. “I miss the old days. I miss the parties and the fun at court.”
He stood and poured a glass of some liquid from a pitcher. "How is my wife?"
I delivered the lie I'd been ordered to.
His face turned red. I backed away a step and grabbed the nearest chair for support. He stared at me in a horrible way, and my throat swelled. When he took a step toward me, I felt the urge to run so strongly, I had to squeeze the chair to make myself stay.
He set down his cup so slowly and carefully, I knew he was controlling his anger. He went to a shelf and picked up a paddle.
I told myself I deserved it. I believed I deserved it, but a tiny part of me resented the Queen for putting me in this position.
King Erik pushed me over the back of the chair that I was gripping, then raised my skirt. The height of the chair forced me on tiptoe. When I rested my elbows on the seat, my bottom was stretched high. The paddle touched my naked bottom once, then twice, and then swatted full force.
He walked to the other side of me and repeated the same rhythm.
It was slow, but each full swat scorched a layer of skin off my bottom. It burned and tingled on the surface, and throbbed inside my muscle. He paddled me as if he had all the time in the world. One side: tap, tap, swat!; then the other: tap, tap, swat! Over and over, until I thought I could bear it no more.
“Lying to your King,” he said. “That is dangerous.”
I gulped, unsure what he meant by that. It got me to trembling, even before he lifted the paddle and swatted me ten times in a row, fast. Again, he walked to the other side of me. I held my breath the whole way, wishing for a longer break. As soon as the first one struck, I broke into sobs. The next group of spanks was given like the last: fast and hard.
When he started walking to my other side, I cried out, “No, please! Mercy!”
I was trembling uncontrollably. It was not so much the paddle I feared, it was that I’d lied to the King. He could throw me in jail if he liked; hang me from the gallows if it pleased him.
He put a hand on my shoulder. "Are you so afraid of your King?"
I nodded, sniffling and swallowing my sobs.
He didn't respond for a moment."Then perhaps you would do well not to lie to him."
I trembled while he stood behind me, his hand resting on my back.
"My sister asks after you often. She wants to know if the Queen has found you a husband, and Eloy wants to know if you're being spanked. They speak so highly of you, I never imagined you for a liar."
Tears dripped down my face so quickly, they rolled off my chin. He swatted again, and I held my breath, just in case this was going to be a group of spanks.
I was right: this time he used the paddle across one check, then the other. The paddle spanked each cheek in an even rhythm: right, left, right, left, right, left. It kept going as if he had no intention of stopping, and I finally cried out for mercy again.
"Even the Queen adores you."
She hadn't adored me today, but I didn't tell the King that, because he doing the tap-tap-swat! thing again.
"Why the lying?"
"It is my job to serve the Queen. I lied because she ordered it and because I thought I must obey."
He swatted me so hard I nearly bit my lip.
“You will obey your King first. Are we clear?”
Before I could answer, the paddle swatted my bottom twice more.
“Answer me!” he ordered while paddling me yet again.
“Yes, Sir,” I cried.
He dropped the paddle on the seat of the chair, right next to my elbow. He tugged up my panties, and it surprised me that I was more embarrassed by him putting on my panties than I was about him seeing my naked bottom to spank it. He carefully lowered my skirt back over my bottom, then helped me stand.
“Now,” he said. “Tell me how my wife is doing.”
As I tried to get my sobbing under control so that I could speak, I rubbed the sting from my bottom. Unlike the Wise Women, he did not object. “If you are punishing me as a liar for telling you she is well, then you already know how she is doing.” I didn’t even have to look at the expression on King Erik’s face to start angling toward the exit.
To my surprise, he looked hurt by my words. He raised his hand, and I braced myself, closing my eyes. The smack didn’t come, though. He palmed my cheek and stroked under my chin with his thumb.
“Do you think that because you have the favor of Master Eloy, you have no reason to fear offending me?”
I shook my head, unable to speak.
“Why are you so angry, Haya?”
I couldn’t look at him and I couldn’t answer him. I was angry, though.
“Do you need another session with the paddle?”
“No,” I said firmly.
Master Asher limped in on his cane. When he saw us, he politely waited by the door.
“Shall I have Master Asher use his cane on you?”
I shook my head.
“Then how should I teach you to remember your place?”
I couldn’t think of an answer.
“You are lucky I am merciful, and you are lucky that you have defied me in private. If this were public, then I would have to make an example of you.”
I wanted to say I was sorry, but I didn’t feel sorry enough to make it sound respectful and sincere.
“Very well, you are banished from the castle for two weeks.”
I gasped. I paled. I squeezed my hands together to keep myself from begging. Where would I go? My mother and father were too far away. Even Sierra was way down South. I was tempted to plead, but Master Asher came over, put a hand behind my back and guided me to the door. He said nothing as he pushed me out into the hallway and closed the door behind me.
***
I gathered a few things and went straight to the Dragon Barn. As soon as I saw Master Eloy, I ran to him.
“Haya, what’s wrong?”
I bent my head to his chest. “I’ve offended the King. The Queen and the Princess, too.”
“So apologize.”
I shook my head. “I’ve been banished from the castle for a fortnight.”
He laughed. “What could you have possibly done to offend the King so much?”
I pressed my lips together. “The King wants me to give him the Queen’s secrets, the Queen wants me to lie for her, and the Princess wishes me to spy for her.”
He frowned. “I will speak with Kia, but you must wise to the ways of court, Haya.”
“I don’t want to. I am tired of being everyone’s ray of sunshine. I am tired of being used.”
Guilt flashed across his face, the same expression he’d had when he’d first laid me in his bed and claimed me. Even he had used me, if only to save the Princess. It had been wonderful at the time and I hadn’t minded. I’d agreed with my whole heart.
“I cannot invite you to stay with me, Haya. You know that. Everyone is waiting for some sign that we are at odds, and I will not risk it.”
I’d helped save his wife’s life. I felt he owed me. Dragon Masters can read the minds of dragons and those they’ve claimed. Some can read the minds of those they haven’t. Usually, though, if a Dragon Master sells a women he claims, their connection deteriorates with time. I could tell Master Eloy was trying to read my mind, but he was not successful. He grabbed my arm, and the touch opened our minds to each other. It felt like a flood of warm, comforting water through my body, and then it receded.
“I am sorry, Haya. I do owe you more than my life, but if I take you in, it will risk the peace of this country.
“Can you take me to Sierra?”
He shook his head. “I attract a crowd just by leaving. If I were to take you anywhere, gossip would be all over the castle.”
“Another Dragon Master, then?”
He looked around as if trying to remember which Masters were at the castle, but then shook his head.
“May I stay in the dragon barn?”
He put a palm to my cheek, much like the King had. “I should say no.” But he relented. “If the King comes for a visit, stay out of sight. Understood?”
I started to go inside, but he stopped me.
“If I had been there, I would have stripped you and strapped you severely. What were you thinking?
It made me resent him, too. I wished he’d never claimed me. I could have gone on the Wedding Block and maybe some kind man would have chosen me. We could retire to a quiet life in the country, with children and animals and people who said only what they thought, and didn’t weight the political ramifications of their every word and action. I turned away from Master Eloy without answering. He grabbed my arm.
“You need a good spanking. You are not ready for it yet, but let me know when you are. You’ll need to be in the right frame of mind before you try apologizing to the King.”
I pulled my arm from his grasp and strutted into the dragon barn. A large dragon sensed my anger and hissed at my feet, but I was not afraid of dragons. I went to the back, abandoned stall and curled up in the hay.
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