What I didn’t expect was the chaos of feelings upon uttering my request. As much as I wanted to tell myself it would all add up to words on a page, it wasn’t so easy. Did I really believe I could control Ironclaw? That my actions would be enough to keep him from turning Draw over to the Dark Mage? That he’d turn immediately from me to the queen for a happily-ever-after?
More damning than my doubts, it was as if as soon as I invited Ironclaw to a late-night rendezvous, my heart decided to rebel. The fling I craved upon first arriving in the Queendom of Landsome was intended to sate my years of fantasies with this bookish hero. However, the lust I’d felt for fictional Ironclaw dissipated the longer I was in Landsome. Moreover, it had been replaced with something else.
Draw was something else and more. If he had the power to make me fall in love, he could just as easily break my heart. And I would break his when I left. He was real, as was the way I felt about him.
And I’d just invited his cousin to bed.
A breeze came off the stream and my hair flitted across my face. Ironclaw reached out and tucked the long strands behind my ear, his hands rough but warm. He was closer now, his shoulders stooped, almost as if he was about to kiss me.
He met my eyes and nodded. I saw something there, something hungry.
I hoped I knew what I was doing.
Chapter Three: What An Absolutely Stupid Idea
The queen’s voice rangclear through the village square of Sage Ravine. Half-timber houses and shops surrounded us on all sides, the dusk graying them. The cobblestone gathering area and connected alleyways were packed with citizens foregoing supper to see their queen. Young children had climbed the sculpture of the fountain to see better. The village’s signature sage seal was engraved on pillars and carved into window shutters and doorway lintels. It was like a Ren Faire without the strollers and Porta Potties.
I was standing in the mouth of one alley gripping my satchel tightly, trying to resist the crowd’s push for fear of making contact with the stocky man in a floured apron next to me. He smelled of nutty yeast and I couldn’t risk a smear of white powder across my maroon dress. Children’s voices peppered the crowd, high from an unexpected vacation from the end-of-day routine.
I had expected Sage Ravine to be centered around a castle in which we would speak to a small group of leaders...not the entire village. A trio of women in front of me shifted their stance and I caught a better glimpse of the queen on the block stage. Queen Elthra wore her hair knotted tightly to the back of her head and had donned her golden armor for the first time since Castle Creneda. The only jewel she wore was the mood ring I’d given her. I wondered if her unusual simplicity was brought out for wartime PR purposes or if it was her standard rule to dress down when among the commoners.
At her side stood Lord Parable and Lady Ariana, and a set of soldiers holding torches to give light to the stage as a purple dusk fell. Her captain of the guard, Sir Aaron Key, stood well behind her. He was taller than the queen and used his height to scan the crowd continuously over her shoulder. The long scar ending at his chin seemed to only enhance his good looks. To the front, just a step below Queen Elthra, was Ironclaw.
Draw wasn’t on the plaza stage, which didn’t surprise me, but neither could I spot him in the crowd. I had wanted to stand with him for the queen’s speech, but I was shunted to the shadow of the bakery walls as soon as the queen arrived and dismounted from her horse.
Queen Elthra’s voice pitched. “Which is why folk from across the realm have flocked to my cause.” She paused dramatically. “To take down the Dark Mage, we need magic might of our own!”
A cheer went up. That was my cue. Approximately fifteen minutes ago, Ariana had come to tell me that the queen expected me to impress the crowd.
“What? I can’t speak in front of all these people.” As the body of our host (wagons, marching units of soldiers, noble men and women on horseback) had entered Sage Ravine, townspeople emerged from houses and shops to gawk at us. Everyone who lived in the village had gathered to hear the words of their ruler, perhaps the only time in their lives they would. I had nothing to offer them.
Ariana frowned. I hadn’t spoken to her since she’d ridden away from me on the road earlier that day, and it seemed she wasn’t endeared to me now either. “You serve at the pleasure of the queen, and the queen needs to convince these good people to send their youth north to battle.”
“Someone else should speak,” I insisted. I spun Grandma’s silver ring on my finger, nervous.
“The queen doesn’t want you to give a speech.” Ariana looked at me suspiciously, the corners of her eyes crinkling, her lips slightly pursed. “She wants you to do magic.”
