“I’m just going to take a moment to get some things and collect my thoughts. Should I meet you in town?” asked Charlotte.
Alison told Charlotte to meet them back at Keir’s house in Herot’s Hollow. She thought a more private location would be better for their reunion, and Charlotte agreed.
“Now,” said Nolwynn once Charlotte had gone into her tent to pack. “What was it you actually came here for?”
Chapter Nineteen
THE PICNIC
Rinka
Smoke poured off of the red dragon sitting in the middle of the drive before the manor house in thin wisps that filled the air with the smell of brimstone.
He was sitting upright like a cat, his forearms reaching the ground where great claws at the ends of his talons scratched deep grooves in the gravel. In this position, he was only a couple of feet taller than in his human form, but the draconic body that stretched behind him was at least twice as long, and the tail that swept the gravel side to side was longer still.
He held his wings close to his body, but the left wing did not seem to fold all the way in to mirror the right.The Curse of the Air, Rinka thought.
Perhaps the most peculiar thing of all was his clothes, which were still on him, stretched and adapted to his new figure. At some angles, they seemed to be less visible, the shiny red scales visible beneath. His magic, Rinka realized. The same magic that he used to stretch the coin beyond its usual shape.
The footman bowed and backed away, stumbling as he went. “Your royal highness. I’m te-te-terribly sorry, sir.”
Idris huffed, a cloud of thick black smoke coming from his mouth.
“I’ll fetch the others. We’ll get your rooms ready at once. Please, sir. Right this way,” said the footman. He remained bent at the waist, unwilling or unable to look Idris into his eyes.
Rinka was not frightened of him. Perhaps she should have been, but what she felt was more a sense of awe than fear.
He turned towards her, and she instinctively reached out for him. She pulled her arm back, unsure, but he held one of his scaled forearms out to her to touch.
She stroked the red scales. They were smoother than she’d expected, polished like river rock, with many bumps that felt like the sequins on a fine dress.
“Incredible,” she whispered. She traced the line of his forearm over his ragged shirt and onto his back, where his broken wing emerged.
It was smoother still, stretched like satin over bones that weren’t quite in the right configuration. It was a terrible thing, what had been done to him as a child.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He leaned his long neck towards her, nuzzling his head against her shoulder. Then he gently pushed her back, and there was another loudcrackas he returned to his ordinary form.
“After you,” he said to her, gesturing for her to follow behind the footman.
“Your highness,” said the footman. “May I inquire about the young lady accompanying you? Will she be joining us as well?”
“This is the Lady Rinka, heiress to an earldom in the principality of Paistos. We met on the ferry when we were besieged by pirates. She’ll be staying for the summer as well. She’s had to send her lady’s maid home early, but I’m sure a house as fine as this one has one to spare to attend her.”
Rinka had never heard of Paistos. Did they speak the common tongue there? Did they have an accent?
“How do you do?” she said, affecting her voice just slightly to mask the recognizable accent of the working class in Arcas Dyrne. She curtsied to the footman and then immediately realized her mistake.
The footman looked at Idris, puzzled.
She wasn’t meant to curtsy to the servants, only her superiors, including royalty and the highest-ranking nobles. “Are you not the duke?” she asked, feigning ignorance. “In my land, it is customary for the head of the house to greet guests.”
The footman laughed. “I’m afraid not, my lady. The duke is away receiving more of our visitors. He’ll be sorry to have missed the opportunity to greet you.”
When the footman turned his back, Idris winked at Rinka.
Perhaps all those hours spent watching picture shows had been good for something after all, despite what her mother said.
