“Elaria?” Verin angled his face into my view. “Are you all right? You look a little green.”
My stare happened upon Meilen; she was smirking at me.
I swallowed past my disgust and straightened my shoulders. “I'm fine.” I smiled at him. “Just surprised. You should have warned me.”
“I'm sorry, sweetheart. I didn't think it would be so shocking to you. We're sea dragons after all; we prefer our fish raw.”
The word sweetheart made it all better.
I grinned fully this time and kissed his cheek. “Forgiven.”
A platter of grilled fish and one of steamed crab legs was set down before us then.
I inhaled appreciatively and smiled wider. “And forgotten.”
“I'm glad you at least like cooked seafood,” Verin said as he doled out portions of the fish and crab along with the side dishes until my plate was nearly overflowing.
“That's good.” I stopped him from adding more.
Verin grunted, then nuzzled my cheek. “I forget that most Beneathers don't have our voracious appetite.”
“Not for food, at least,” I whispered in his ear.
Verin grinned wickedly. “You'd better not be teasing me, Your Majesty. Dragons don't react well to teasing.”
“I assure you, your patience will be rewarded.”
Verin made a pleased rumble.
“It's lovely to have another person at the high table with us,” Queen Savassa noted. “It would be even lovelier to have a conversation with her.”
Verin grunted in a grumbling way and sat back so his mother and I could see each other.
“Ah, there you are!” Savassa exclaimed brightly. “I forgot to ask you earlier; how did you enjoy your tour of the palace, Queen Elaria?”
“I enjoyed it immensely. I was particularly impressed by the way you use geothermal energy.”
“Thank you,” Savassa said as if she had been the one to build the machines. “We brought that technology with us from Rielle.”
“That's your home planet?” I asked.
“Yes, in the Shang Realm.”
We dined and talked—Savassa and me more than Verin but his vocal cords were probably exhausted from all of the speaking he'd done with me earlier. Despite the savage eating habits of the Lóng, I found the meal to be delicious and thoroughly enjoyable. After everyone had been served—and had served themselves—a group of musicians came into the room and started to play in the center aisle. The music was heavy on the strings and delicate in melody. A woman started to sing softly in another language; it could have been mistaken for Chinese, but I knew it wasn't any of the Chinese dialects. As had often happened with Beneather races who migrated to Earth, the Lóng had influenced the humans they'd settled among.
“She has a beautiful voice,” I said between bites of fish.
“She's Qiú Niú, they are the best performers,” Savassa informed me.
“Qiú Niú?” I looked from the Queen to her son.
“There are nine Houses of Lóng—sub-races, if you will—each with aptitudes for different things,” Verin explained. “Only two of the races are dragons, the rest are assorted shapeshifters.”
“Like that woman you saved me from in the Cinnabar Court?”
“Yes.” Verin lifted his brows. “She was also Qiú Niú.”
“You're telling me that all of those musicians are octopus-shifters?”
