The Dragon Prince's Consort

Twenty-Three

A weight settled onto the bed behind her, and Fang blinked sleepily at the press of a soft mouth against her cheek. It lingered for a few seconds, gold tusks warm and smooth on her skin. "Go back to sleep," Valen murmured in her ear, then tucked a few strands of her hair behind it. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

"Hmm? Oh, okay..." She dropped her head back to the pillow and drifted, barely conscious enough to notice the silk pulling up over her shoulders. Floating back down into the comfortable darkness of dreams, Fang snuggled with a silk-cased pillow for a while until the need to use the facilities brought her awake. She stood under the shower letting the water bring her fully around and thinking. Valen had spent a few minutes huddled up behind her in bed the night before, absently running his short claws through her hair and nuzzling the back of her neck. Fang reached behind her head and touched the spot on her nape where he'd rubbed his nose and occasionally touched with his lips. He's so cuddly, I feel like he's spoiling me. Sex was one thing, this sweetness and affection was another. And as of late, Valen's attentions were less centered on his appetite for sex than they were Fang in general. The ride on Ika, Fang realized, was just the first time she'd really noticed it. Something had happened after he'd caught her sliding off of the manyu, in that moment where she'd taken hold of his sleeves and looked up into those very-not-human orange-and-amber eyes with their tall, narrow pupils, nevertheless bright with intelligence and uncomfortably familiar emotion: fear.

He's doing a really good job hiding it most of the time, but he's scared too. He's worried about failing and what that would mean for us. It didn't take a genius to consider that if Valen failed in his task, Fang might be trapped with him until either Matias was satisfied or finally decided enough was enough and broke the contract. Or worse, until Tias became the Dragon Emperor and decided to make their lives miserable in some stupidly inventive way. It wasn't much of an intellectual stretch to think that after a decade or so of their forced relationship, she might turn bitter and resentful. The stress would get to them eventually, perhaps locking them in a dead marriage that neither wanted.

I said I'd choose him, however long it takes, but I don't know if that's true. And Valen's so young, who's to say he never would have met a Drass woman who doesn't care about how short he is? Maybe there's a girl out there who also stopped growing, and I'm keeping him from finding her. Fang's chest twinged at the thought, and as she washed and rinsed her face she wondered why that should be. I'm just sad for him, it's my fault he's in this position. If I hadn't signed that paper... Sometimes Fang wondered how her life would be different if she'd turned down the job, if she'd just begged Pina to give her enough money to escape Anun, if she'd gone to the Wardens and told them she was a traveler who'd just had her ID and money stolen, if, if, if! Stop it, no use crying over fallen snow – I'm here now, all I can do is pick up a shovel and deal with it.

Stepping out of the shower she heard the door chime and pulled on her long green wrapper to investigate. Abita, Lady Yena's chief maid, stood patiently in the hall with an elegantly folded envelope in hand. Fang swallowed, remembering what happened the last time someone handed her a piece of paper, but she took it and read slowly the vertical columns of Yena's precise, efficient hand:

Lady Lienfang –

Please accept this formal invitation to a ladies' tea in my suite this afternoon, during the common dinner hour. We will be joined by Lady Consorts Aisana and Shisa and the young Lady Rashanna. Lunch will be provided, as will conversation and discussion of Imperial events. 

NO BOYS ALLOWED!

Fang smiled at that. "'No boys allowed'?" She glanced up at Abita, who nodded with an air of matronly seriousness that clashed with the conspiratorial glint in her yellow eyes.