“No, seriously.” He quit smiling then and tightened his hold on me for a second. “I want to make sure that he’s okay. That he’s over his injuries.”
“You want to go check on Gunter?” I asked. Winston and Rhys couldn’t stand Gunter. Or his mother.
Not that I could blame them. Ever since we’d first arrived in Nerissette, the Lady Arianne of the Veldt had been nothing but a pain in my neck, always trying to steal land from other nobles and doing her best to convince me that her son should have Rhys’s job. Or at least she had pushed for him to become lord general of the army—until the day we had fought the Fate Maker outside my palace and Gunter had lost his left hand in the battle.
“He’s an idiot, but he’s our idiot,” Winston said. “And, according to Rhys, he was brave that day.”
“I know. That’s why I promised his mother I would dance with him tonight. She says he’s sort of worried about what people will think of him, now that he’s missing a hand.”
“They’ll think he fought bravely for his country, and his people, and for your throne,” Winston said. “And anyone who says otherwise will have to face me and Rhys and everyone else Gunter stood beside that day. Like I said, he’s an idiot, but he’s ours. And we protect our own.”
“So you don’t mind me dancing with him?”
Winston pulled back from me and shrugged. “Not really. While you’re dancing with Gunter, I’ll just dance with his sister.”
I felt my hackles rise at the idea of Winston anywhere near Gunter’s younger sister, Carolina of the Veldt—otherwise known as the biggest flirt in Nerissette. She’d done her best to throw herself at Winston during the Welcome Back, Princess Allie ball that had been thrown when I’d first arrived in Nerissette. I’d heard rumors that she’d flirted with him before the battle, too. But while the rest of us were fighting for our kingdom she’d run back to the Veldt, taking some of her mother’s best troops along to guard her inside their family fortress until the Fate Maker had been defeated.
“I really need to work on getting dungeons built in this place,” I grumbled.
Winston laughed. “Speaking of dungeons, tell me about your meeting with the new ambassador.”
“He’s a pain.”
“Duh, he’s a wizard. They’re all pains.”
The sun dipped behind the horizon and the chirp of night crickets began as the sky dimmed. I could smell the flowers of night as they bloomed, their dark-blue petals unfurling to release the night pixies that lived inside my gardens. The first of the tiny creatures woke, her feet blinking softly as she flitted from flower to flower, touching their petals and putting them to sleep for the night.
“He wants me to leave Nerissette, go visit my aunt in Bathune at the Palace of Night, and have some sort of family reunion with her.”
“Oh yeah, like that’s going to happen.” Winston wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You’re just going to go to Bathune and trust your aunt to let you come home when it’s all over.”
“Yeah.” I snorted. “But just because she’s got a castle full of wizards doesn’t mean she’s bad. Does it?”
“No.” Winston smirked at me. “It doesn’t make her bad at all. Neither does the fact that she was willing to let you die in a civil war while she sat on her throne, munching on popcorn as she watched everything going to crap here.”
“You weren’t supposed to catch onto that.”
“So how are you going to brush her off?”
“I’m not.” I shrugged. “We invited her to come here. A nice, happy family reunion right here in Nerissette. With my guards surrounding us. Just in case she decides to try to kill me herself.”
“You think she would?” Winston asked. “Try to kill you, I mean.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Everything I’ve read about my aunt is that she doesn’t do her own dirty work. She won’t even send an army to attack me, she’ll use the wizards to trick me. Like Eriste.”
“Hmm…”
“What?” I asked.
“I’m just thinking that we may need to double our patrols over the White Mountains.”
“Why?”
“If the wizards are going to attack us, they’ll do it when we least expect. And that’s right now—when you have an ambassador in your court, trying to hammer out an alliance between you and your aunt.”
“You have a point.”
“So do you think we should?” he asked.
“Do I think we should what?”
“Increase the number of patrols that the dragon warriors are flying over the White Mountains? You just told me that you were sick of me and Rhys and John making decisions without asking your input, so I’m asking. Are we increasing the patrols?”
“Yes. You’re right. If the wizards are going to try something they’ll do it when they think we’re distracted.”
“I’ll go talk to Rhys. We can get the first patrols in the air before the ball starts.”
“Yeah, and since we’re talking about the ball, I should go. I’ve got to get ready.”
“Right.” He leaned in to kiss me quickly and I smiled against his lips. “So I’ll see you in a few hours then?”
“Yep.” I kissed him again, slightly longer this time. “I’ll be the one in the big, uncomfortable dress and the crown, standing in the doorway while a goblin announces me and everyone bows.”
“I’ll keep an eye out,” he said. “But just in case I miss you, just look for the guy all in black standing next to the throne waiting for his date.”
My heart fluttered at the idea that he was going to be waiting for me. He was my date. I was the girl with the most handsome dragon in the kingdom as a date. Even with all the crap I had to put up with there were definite advantages to being a queen. “I’ll try not to keep you waiting too long.”
“You better not.” He stood and helped me to my feet. “Otherwise I might have to dance with Carolina of the Veldt instead.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” I swatted his arm and we started toward the palace.
“What would you do if I did?”
“I might have to bring back beheadings.” I grinned at him. “Then I’d have to find something really nasty to do to you.”
Chapter Five
I entered the main foyer two hours later, ready to do the whole ball thing. But then I reached for the reassuring weight of my sword and my hand froze halfway to my hip. I wasn’t wearing my sword. Apparently it wasn’t considered polite to go to a ball armed inside my own castle. I brought my hand up to touch my crown’s delicately worked golden leaves, making sure that it was in place, and then glanced down to make sure that my full, white-and-gold satin skirt wasn’t creased before I made my way into the ballroom.
“Allie?” My best friend, Mercedes, stepped forward from her place near the door with Darinda, head of the Dryad Order, at her side. She was fidgeting, twisting her fingers in her skirt, and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Mercedes?” I admired her long, bark-colored dress, with silver leaves embroidered into the skirt. “What’s wrong?”
“I needed to talk to you.”
My stomach churned. I’d watched enough romantic comedies to know that nothing good could come from that sentence, even when it was coming from your best friend. “Sure, what’s up? Did something bad happen?”
“Yes. Well, no. Something’s happened, but it’s not bad.”
“Okay… So what happened? ”
“Oh.” She smiled and started to twist her fingers together. “I’ve, um, well I’ve found my tree.”
“Your what?” I looked at her confused.
“My tree,” she said, stressing the last word. “I’m a dryad. I have a tree. We’re two halves of the same whole. Me and my tree. Like Siamese twins but not. I protect it and nurture it and in return the tree acts as a sort living magical wand that lets me control my powers. Except I don’t have to touch it since me and the tree will have a psychic link.”