Light My Fire. G.A. Aiken

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СКАЧАТЬ He left that sort of thing to his siblings. Celyn preferred a gentler approach.

      Yet he’d never expected her to admit that she was here to kill his queen. Again, his siblings would have killed her right then. But Celyn knew his queen. She was his aunt-by-mating and they amused each other. She loved to be entertained.

      And he was very certain this woman was going to be the best entertainment his queen got today.

      The White Dragon Queen sat on her stone throne, her massive head resting on the talons of her left claw, the elbow of her forearm resting against the arm of the stone throne she sat upon. One talon on her right claw tapped against the other arm of the throne. Her excessively long tail snaked around the back of the throne to the front, where the tip tapped against the stone floor in time with the talon on her right claw.

      Studying Elina, the queen finally asked, “Could you . . . repeat that?”

      Elina blew out a breath and gripped her spear a little tighter. The spear the black dragon had allowed her to keep. She’d thought he was being foolish until she’d seen the size of the Dragon Queen . . . and all the other dragons standing around her court . . . staring. Gods, Elina had never seen beings so big before—or known there were so many.

      “I am here to . . .” She cleared her throat. “. . . take your life, queen of the dragons, and bring your head back to my noble people.”

      The white dragoness nodded slowly. “Aye. That’s what I thought you said.”

      A deadly silence followed, and Elina prepared herself to meet with her ancestors on the other side. But then one of the old dragons standing behind the queen suddenly snorted. And once he snorted, the rest of the dragons burst into hysterical laughter, while the Dragon Queen waved at the old dragon behind her.

      “Elder Clesek!” she said around her incessant giggles.

      “I’m sorry, my queen. I just . . . I can’t . . .” He burst into further laughter and the rest of the Queen’s Court laughed with him.

      Elina glanced behind her, but the black dragon who’d brought her in was gone. After a whispered conversation with the queen, he’d deserted Elina. Not that she blamed him. Perhaps he didn’t want to view her messy death.

      “My dearest girl,” the queen said around the others’ laughter, “who hates you so much that they’d send you here . . . to face me?”

      “It is a quest of honor.”

      “One you thought of yourself?” she asked. And when Elina did not answer, the queen nodded. “If you’d thought of all this yourself, it would have been bloody stupid. But for someone to send you to me? It’s just cruel. Someone clearly wants you dead.”

      Elina sighed. “This I know.”

      “Then why did you come here? Why did you not run? Start a new life somewhere else?”

      “I am Daughter of Steppes,” she replied, automatically knowing she wasn’t getting the Southlander language quite right. They seemed to use too many words; it was hard to remember all that needed to be there.

      “I do not run,” Elina went on. “If I am to meet my death at your claw, then I will meet my death.”

      “Daughter of the Steppes? You are from the Outerplains?”

      “I am.”

      “The Rider tribes that raid the valley territories of the Northlands, Quintilian Provinces, and Annaig Valley. Your people are greatly feared. Tell me, little human, what is your name?”

      “I am Elina Shestakova of the Black Bear Tribe of the Midnight Mountains of Despair in the Far Reaches of the Steppes of the Outerplains.”

      The queen blinked several times before she asked, “That entire thing is your name?”

      “It was one I was given at birth.”

      “Kind of cursed coming and going, weren’t you, sweetness?”

      The old dragon leaned forward and said, “My lady, perhaps we should end this quickly rather than drawing it out unnecessarily, now that we know the truth of her situation.”

      The queen looked at the dragon. “Whatever do you mean?”

      “It seems cruel to toy with her.”

      The queen frowned, shocking Elina with her ability to show emotion despite all those scales. The queen looked over her court, her expression now confused. Finally, she exclaimed, “Wait . . . do you all think I plan to eat her?”

      The old dragon behind the queen gave the smallest of shrugs. “Don’t you?”

      “No! I don’t do that anymore. It seems unacceptable . . . with the grandchildren and all. Besides . . . look at the poor thing.” And they all did. The size of the dragons was harrowing enough, but really it was the expressions of pity that had Elina’s stomach curdling in horror. It shouldn’t, though. She often received that same expression from other tribe members.

      “You poor, poor thing,” the queen said again.

      The black dragon who’d brought Elina here suddenly returned, barely glancing at her as he passed. It was the same way Elina glanced at a mouse that ran past her in the woods outside the tribes’ territories.

      “My queen,” the black dragon began, his voice low, “you wanted me to let you know when Lord Bercelak was nearing the mountain.”

      “Yes, yes. We’ll have to get her someplace safe.”

      The black dragon glanced again at Elina and back at the queen. “Someplace safe?”

      “Aye. And we must keep this information away from Bercelak.”

      The black dragon shook his head. “No.”

      “I am your queen.”

      “Yes. But you adore me. Your Bercelak . . . not so much. And he hits.”

      “Oh, honestly! Are you afraid of your own uncle?”

      “Yes! I am. Hence the whining in my voice.”

      “Take her, Celyn. Someplace safe.”

      “Auntie—”

      “Don’t auntie me, Celyn the Charming! And how did you even get that name? You clearly don’t deserve it!”

      “You gave it to me.”

      “That was obviously a mistake on my part.”

      “You never make mistakes, my queen. You told me that yourself.”

      Slowly, the queen looked over at the black dragon and, in return, he slowly grinned, flashing a number of exceptionally large fangs. The largest fangs Elina had ever had the misfortune of seeing.

      “Take her,” the queen ordered, “someplace safe. And do it before I am forced to get my ass off this throne so that I can throttle you to death!”

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