The Dragon Prince's Consort

Four

Valen raised his hand and hesitated before pushing open the door to his father's office. Foreboding washed over him along with heat and the scent of ash, incense and the burnt smell of black coffee. They stepped from the hall and into a space of black-and-white quartz threaded with gold. At the far end a massive hearth blazed, the orange and red glow scintillating off of the crystal structure of the walls around it and setting the entire room aflame. Overhead a chunk of raw crystal glowed with an inner light, illuminating the far corners and casting soft shadows behind ornate desks of incredible workmanship stacked with books, papers, ledgers and computer terminals. At the center of it all, on a solid black-marble desk with its piles of papers pushed to the edges sat his father.

Dragon Emperor Matias Tenurkhan Drassian IV looked up from his breakfast, a massive silver tray sporting bowls, plates and cups brimming with porridge and cream, fried dough-cakes, soft yellow butter, a mound of colorful fruit, black bread slathered with preserves, seared meats, vegetables, eggs, and a gigantic mug of steaming black coffee. He acknowledged his son with a voice that seemed none too amused or pleased to see him. "Valen."

"Your Majesty... Father." Valen nodded, though his insides quivered.

Matias Drassian's posture was straight even at ninety-nine years old, his head high above the desk, and the only parts of him that moved aside from his jaw and hands were his long, leaf-shaped red ears pierced multiple times and threaded with studs, chains, enormous chunks of diamonds and rubies and dangling bits of metal that made soft bell-like sounds when they swung. His hands, busy with his breakfast, moved deftly despite their heavy weight of rings, and his black horns gleamed under the light between their wide bands of gold encrusted with ruby and diamond shards and strung with more golden chains very nearly like a halo; his massive tusks jutted out from his bottom jaw at a slight angle, and they too were completely covered in gold. "I assume," he said after swallowing his bite and taking a swig of coffee, "that whatever has finally brought you out of your rooms or wherever you've been hiding has something to do with that human behind you. Out with it."

Valen drew the folded deed out of his robes, willing his hands to stop shaking as he opened it. "He-" his voice squeaked, and he cleared his throat and tried again. "Here, I think you should see this." Valen walked the deed to the Dragon Emperor's desk. He stopped short and waited while his father carved a chunk out of a fried dough-cake and methodically consumed it, parting his massive jaws and placing it neatly between his ivory-colored teeth, not losing so much as a crumb. Matias set down his implements and reached for the deed with one hand, pulling a chain around his neck with the other and retrieving a pair of reading glasses from inside his robes. Valen watched him shake the document open and hold his reading glasses up to his nose, peruse the document for a moment, then sigh and set it aside. Valen steeled himself.

"Warden Captain, find the First Prince and bring him here. Now." Benna snapped a smart salute and stepped out of the office, and the Dragon Emperor sighed again. He picked up his tongs and knife, and pointed at Fang with his smallest finger. "You, tell me how you came to be my son's property."

"Um..." Fang buried her hands inside the sleeves of her threadbare coat and looked at her feet. The toes of her shoes peeked from under the hem, worn and faded. She looked so out of place here, so small and pale in his father's office among the black marble and stacks of papers; Valen's hearts went out to her as she looked to him for support, he could only nod at her to go on. Fang raised her head, drawing a shaky breath. "I-I was trying to make some money last night, and two Drass dressed as Wardens in a black car came up to me and asked if I could speak Drass. Obviously I can, sir, and I told them so. They told me it was their friend's birthday and offered to pay me good money to keep quiet about it. So I got in the car and they brought me here."