The Dragon Prince's Consort

Six

"Are...are you all right?" The prince regarded her with concern. "Does the wine not agree with you?" 

Fang's first instinct was to scowl at him, a prince in his beautiful clothes and enormous bed and real blazing fireplaces that kept the suite somewhere between comfortable and sleep-inducing. He probably didn't know what it was like to be so cold at night that you huddled with your roommate and slept in your clothes, to be hungry for something that wasn't compressed protein that tasted like sawdust and left a weird taste in your mouth. Fang wanted to be angry with him, wanted to despise him for his wealth and resent him for his generosity, but after last night...

"The wine's fine," Fang tossed back the rest of the glass and set it on the table before the fire. She watched the reflection of the flames dance on the curved surface and in the drops left clinging to the walls. "I just feel bad because I could've done something to stop this." She crossed her hands in her lap and twisted the loose threads of her sleeves in her fingers. "I could've saved everyone a lot of trouble."

Valen finished and poured himself another glass, taking his time inspecting the contents before tipping the glass back between his tusks. "Is that so," he said as he smacked his lips, "I'd like to know how you could've thwarted my brother's plan to play the worst prank in Drass history."

"I could've said no. I could've refused to sign the thing, I could've taken the time to learn how to read-"

The prince shrugged. "He would've gone on to try it with some other woman. I know Tias, nothing gets in his way if it's meant to hurt me."

"And he's supposed to be the next Emperor?" Fang remarked, horrified.

Prince Valen leaned back against the couch and rested his elbow on the arm, glass suspended midair. He kicked up one leg and laid it across his knee, one fine black boot embroidered and trimmed with fur laced halfway up his calf. "Hngh, he'll be a good enough Emperor - he's been studying under our father since he could walk and has more training hours than some of my father's advisers, it's just that he's always hated me and I'm not in a position to push back." He shrugged one shoulder. "Tias has his consort and children and soon enough he'll be the Dragon Emperor. All I need to do is wait for him to be too busy to come looking for me and I can get on with living my life." He took a long drink and Fang wondered at the resignation in his voice. She'd learned enough about Drass body language to read them by watching their ears and tails, and Valen's ears had dropped steadily down until they lay flat and close to his neck. Before her eyes the Dragon Prince revealed a facet of himself she had yet to see, and a reality she hadn't considered – despite the robes, the wine and the remarkably enjoyable sex the night before, all the wealth anyone could want and more luxuries than most people dreamed of, Valen was terribly unhappy.

The prince finished his second glass and looked at her. "I didn't lie about my age," he said suddenly, and Fang turned back to him with a frown.

"I'm sorry?"

"I know I don't look it, but I really am twenty-nine." Prince Valen turned his empty glass in his hand. "You're probably used to normal-sized Drass. You saw how big my brother is, and my father. I suppose I could've been as tall, but I stopped growing at sixteen and... well, I didn't start again."

"I didn't mind," Fang stopped fiddling with her sleeve and bunched it in her hand. "Actually, it was... kind of nice to be with someone closer to my size."

His ears perked. "Is that so?" He peered at her from the corner of his eye and Fang detected something there. Hope?

She nodded, and wondered why her face felt warm. "And you've been very kind to me Valen, you let me use your bath and fed me and served me wine. I've never, um, slept with royalty before, I didn't think you'd be so generous." Now she watched his long red ears flatten again, but straight back instead of down and even so they quivered. He looked so bashful and cute that Fang smiled, and he fumbled his empty glass and dropped it on the plush rug. It rolled over to Fang's foot and he dove for it, checking her with a shoulder.