Chapter 12
Fern
“Well, you’ve certainly made the keep a far more interesting place.”
I flushed at Cora’s words as everything that happened played on a loop inside my mind.
Be quiet, be demure, that was what Mother always said, but when I recalled the rest of her vitriolic rants, I straightened up and met the other rider’s gaze head on.
Her smile had the tension in my body releasing.
“Last chance to make a break for it and fly for the hills.” Cora’s smile faded as she stared off at the horizon. “Though I wouldn’t advise it. Being a cadet is tough. Being hunted down by the Royal Riders would be tougher.”
“Wouldn’t want that.” I eyed the grand entrance to the keep, taking in the spiked portcullis, which was currently winched up to allow people to rush in out out of the building. With a conscious breath out, I nodded. “No, I’m ready to sign up to become a cadet.”
“Glad to have you with us!” She linked her arm with mine and started us off at an alarming pace.
“It’s only for a year, but you can stick around for three or four, like I am.
If you take all the academic subjects, you can emerge at the end with a university degree, something women wouldn’t have thought possible before the war.
It can be tough but rewarding.” We stepped inside, the cool, the noise of the keep falling over us. “Well, if you like books.”
“I love books!” My hand slapped over my mouth because that came out far more vehemently than I intended. “I mean, an academic schedule would suit me well.”
“Might keep you away from those ruffian silver riders.” Cora seemed suddenly serious. “Just… be aware that there will be plenty of suitors knocking at your door.”
“Oh, no—” I tried to wave her words away. The idea of it was utterly ridiculous, even as I felt the indent of the hawk-faced man’s hands on my arms.
“Looks like Lance is sweet on you.” She hip checked me with a cheeky grin. “Though the keep gossip is that he still carries a torch for the Runaway Queen.”
The Runaway Queen was the title they gave to the woman who was supposed to be crowned queen of all Nevermere, but instead she eloped with the king’s own wing of dragon riders.
Lady Pippa Wentworth would’ve been notable just for bonding with a queen dragon, but when Prince Draven rejected her, she’d been the first female cadet in the history of the Royal Riders.
Married to Draven’s childhood friend, Brom, it appeared she would be absorbed into the corp, but then the human queen was killed by her own dragon.
Prince Draven ignored the marital bond and claimed Pippa as his queen.
But the rest of his wing of dragon riders had refused to relinquish their claim.
On the morning of her wedding and coronation, she’d eloped with the four men, decamping to some rural seat in the middle of nowhere.
Apparently, they lived there now. The king had abdicated, relinquishing the crown to his cousin, the current King Stefan, to become one of her many husbands.
The scandal was talked about long and hard over the dining room table in my father’s house, my mother eyeing my sister and I, as she made clear no daughter of hers would do something so disgraceful.
“Pippa—” Cora had more to say, but both our heads whipped around as someone called out her name.
“Cor…” A woman in full dress uniform bustled over. “Hate to drag you away, but—”
“Intake is a nightmare and not going to plan?” Cora finished for her.
The other woman’s grimace told her everything she needed to know.
“Fern, I must go, but we’ll talk later. I’ll leave word that you’re to be roomed with me.
” Her smile was back twice as bright. “Us queen riders need to stick together.”
Just walk through the door all the other women were streaming towards, that’s what she told me. For a moment, I stood there, a stone in a rushing river of people, forcing them to move around me.
But that wouldn’t get me a step closer to fulfilling my destiny. I wanted to have an adventure? Well, this was the first part, so I sucked in a breath and then walked inside the hall.
A long line made clear where I was supposed to go.
It was the response of the women there that had me pinned to the spot.
Heads turned my way, some neutral, some bored, some irritated, but as they caught sight of me, their responses became much more uniform.
Eyes raked up and down, taking in every inch of me, a frank curiosity in their collective gaze that had me wanting to reconsidering my decision to stay as a cadet.
I should’ve brushed my hair before I came in here, that thought came dimly. At least find a clean dress. I’d been in the same one for days, but it was only now I felt the grime on my skin. Washed my face and—
“Hello.” A tiny woman with a mop of unruly brown hair marched over, hand extended. “I’m Sparrow. You’re the girl that had those big brutes ready to throw her over their shoulders.”
“Ahh…” I looked down at her hand, caught sight of her wide grin and then found myself smiling. “Not quite. I’m Fern.”
Shaking her hand like a man might on a deal, it felt good. Her grip was firm, there and gone again, before she turned towards the line.
“No? They seemed like warriors from the old sagas. Y’know the ones that used to rape and pillage and just take what they wanted? And silver dragons? I’ve seen dragons every colour of the rainbow, but never a silver.”
Her lips moved so fast I was shocked she didn’t trip over them. No sooner had one question been asked, then another came before I could even think of an answer.
“Did you know silver dragons existed?” Sparrow asked me as we took our place in line. The people in front of us slowly, surreptitiously began to turn our way, obviously trying to listen in.
“Ahh, no—”
“So you didn’t know those fellows? The way they marched past every man and woman, making straight for you.” Sparrow’s hazel eyes sparkled with mischief. “Ignoring the crown princess and all.”
“Crown… princess?” I squeaked.
“Cora,” Sparrow told me. “She’s a good egg.
Doesn’t stand on ceremony that one. No rank in the corp but that which you earn.
” The woman matched the princess’ cadence perfectly.
“I thought they were some dragons from the continent come to whisk her away like a fairytale or something, but they made a beeline for you. What’s that about? ”
The women in front of us turned around now, unable to pretend to be otherwise occupied. Perhaps because they saw in their minds what I did. The incongruous sight of three massive riders taking the steps two at a time to get to me. It felt like I could still feel their eyes upon me.
“Honestly, I haven’t the faintest,” I replied. “I’ve never seen those men before in my life.”
“So they just got all growly and went ‘mine!’ for no reason.” Sparrow re-enacted Kael, the hawk-faced man’s expression perfectly. “Oh well, that’s even more interesting.”
“No introductions had been made?” one of the other women said, then turned to her friends. “How shocking.”
“Men of the corp don’t leave calling cards and ask for your father’s permission to court you, Prue,” her companion said with a little giggle. “You might find your own brutes trying to claim you in the dining room.”
“But how does that work?” Prue looked around the hall in alarm. “How are the laws of propriety observed?”
“Don’t know that law.” Sparrow’s far coarser accent became apparent then. “Just the one of consent. That’s the only one that matters in the keep.”
“You know the keep well?” I asked Sparrow, and she smiled proudly in response.
“Born and raised here. Thought I was going to become a serving woman like my mother—”
“Serving woman?”
A small crowd had clustered around us, but I found my eyes narrowing as some took a step backwards, and unfortunately I knew exactly why.
We’d lived for hundreds of years under an absolute monarchy and as a result, there was a strict social hierarchy.
The king first, then the princes, then the dukes of each of the four duchies of Nevermere, then lords like my father beneath that.
Layers and layers of power and privilege, until you got to where most people were: the working class.
Of course, that was all usurped when the king turned from the ruler of the country to its ceremonial head.
Our prime minister, the hero who lead the militia to protect Wyrmpeak when it was under surprise attack, was a man of the streets before becoming the most powerful political leader in the country.
“Your mother works at the keep?” I said, looking down at Sparrow with a smile. “Then you must know where everything is. The place is so much bigger than I expected. I’m sure I’d lose my way wandering just the bottom floor.”
“Stick with me, Fern and you’ll never get lost.” She linked arms with me and we shuffled forward as the women in front of us were all signed in. “No one knows the keep better than me. Once you work out the lay of the land, I’ll show you the old servant tunnels.”
“Tunnels?” I asked.
“They were used in the old days when the Royal Riders were supposed to stay chaste. Some maids took pity on the men, if you know what I mean.” Her brows waggled rakishly. “The way I heard it—”
“Did you see that great brute with the silver dragon?” A woman’s arch voice silenced all of us, announcing her presence as she walked into the room. Her question was directed at one of her two companions, yet said loudly enough all other conversation died. “Since when are dragons silver?”
“And his rider looks like the ghost of my cousin, the late Duke of Harlston?” This woman was tall with a long fall of dark brown hair. “I’m going to have to send a bird to Father and ask him if there’s any family members we’re unaware of.”
“You think that you and that rider could be related?” the third woman asked cautiously.
The dark haired woman tugged her fur stole closer.
“By the look of his armour, hardly.” She shot her companions a scathing smile.
“Looked like it’d been cobbled together from a combination of offcuts and old saddles.
” I hadn’t noticed that. Just the smell of him, musky and woody, the faint creak of the leather as his hands landed on my arms. “And anyway, its not silver dragons I’m here for, but gold.
” With an imperious look around the room, she noted the line and then went to sweep past it, going straight to the table at the front where the keep staff were doing the intake interviews. “So let’s get signed in—”
“You need to wait you turn.” When Sparrow stepped into the dark-haired woman’s path, I bit back a hissed warning.
If the fur stole woman was who she said she was, she was the daughter of an important noble in Harlston.
That didn’t hold as much weight as it once did.
Being the aggressors in a civil war and related to the man that started it, affected one’s social standing, but Sparrow just put her hands on her hips.
“All of us are waiting in line. You can too, there.”
She stabbed a finger at the end of the line, now considerably longer. The dark-haired woman glanced at it in the same way someone else might the presence of dog faeces on the side of the road, then back at Sparrow.
“You need to get back to washing dishes or emptying chamberpots,” she told Sparrow, taking one slow step, then another towards the tiny woman.
Sparrow didn’t back down for a second. If it meant she had to crane her neck to meet the dark-haired woman’s eyes, then that’s what she’d do.
“I am Lady Seraphina, daughter of Baron Ashbourne and—”
“You need to get to the back of the line, just like everyone else.” Cora appeared by Sparrow’s shoulders, putting an arm around the smaller woman and giving her a squeeze. “Everything alright, Sparrow?”
“All good here,” the tiny woman replied. I blinked. Sparrow was like one of those lapdogs women loved to carry around. Small and cute, but with a bite that outpaced their size. “Isn’t that right, Seraphina?”
“Your Highness.” Watching Lady Seraphina drop down into a deep curtsey, I knew that was exactly what I should’ve done when I met Cora.
“It’s so nice to see you again.” The crown princess just stared at the woman.
Seraphina rose up again, the silence growing awkward.
“We were at Madame Gentian’s Academy For Young Ladies together. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember.” Cora was all smiles with me, but right now her tone had a distinctly frigid edge. “I also remember that all ladies that graduated from the academy were well-versed in the art of waiting their turn. Please join the back of the line.”
Seraphina’s companions hurried to do just that, but there was something so terribly brave about the noblewoman. She advanced upon the princess, offering the other woman her hand.
“Oh, I was so looking forward to catching up on old times—”
“Another time, Seraphina.” Cora frowned. “As you can see, we’re all very busy, so don’t make the process any more onerous than it has to be.”
The lack of title, the way the princess turned on her heel and marched back to the table made clear what had happened.
Seraphina had been brutally snubbed. In the unspoken language of drawing rooms, this was social suicide.
The noblewoman looked around herself and then frowned when she took the two of us in.
My rumpled dress, my messy hair, every flaw was noted by those keen eyes.
“Gods, do they let anyone in as cadets nowadays?” she said with a roll of her eyes. “If she’s some jumped-up serving woman.” Her hand went to her hip. “Who are you, the night soil girl?”
This one thinks she’s a queen. I didn’t know how tightly Auren was bound to me, but it appeared what I was aware of, so was she. Better show her who really is a queen.
No, that’s not needed, I thought hastily. Stooping to her level—
“I’m Lady Fern Rochester,” I found myself saying. “Bondmate of the queen dragon, Auren. Who the hell are you?”