A Fifth Daughter [Book 1: The Dragon Rider]

Chapter ~ 13

~ Chapter 13: WHAT?! I Blanked Out At Grandmother and Queen ~

Seems like back some time ago a woman came to my house, in fact I think it was the night before I left for Legend. Mom had called her 'Mom' then. And that woman had said something about me being a successor or something like that. She'd sounded powerful, if I remember correctly, and she had those following shadows that in my fuzzy memory appear as long, feathery wraiths.

My memory probably isn't correct on the long, feathery wraiths part, but it's not off on the woman being my grandmother.

"Why is she here?" I pause mid-step, remembering something he said on the flight over. "Is she one of those bad, classified things you talked about earlier?"

Cai scoffs. "No. She's Queen of Fantasy."

Oh? Is that all?

I blink. "Wait! What?!"

He chuckles. "Ah... humans. So cute and amusing." I kind of hoped he'd add 'gullible' or 'easy to deceive' to his list, but he doesn't, and I'm left realizing he might not be lying.

"My... my grandmother is... the queen... of Fantasy...?"

"Yes." He answers impatiently. "Do I have to spell it all out?"

"But that's not... she can't... that doesn't... no... wait... how?"

"Geez woman, think before speaking, please." He seems to realize that he can hear all my thoughts and shakes his head, sighing. "Never mind. Just... come on. She can explain."

I nod slowly, and move to follow until another thought comes to me and I stop again. "Wait, how do you know she's my grandmother and that she's queen?"

Cai frowns down at me and the answer becomes obvious. Right. He's in my head.

"But, I didn't – don't – know my grandmother is – could be – queen, so how do you know?"

"You've known." He says thoughtfully, "It's just buried so deep under all those fears and memories that you disregarded it. Besides, you were like... three months old when you first met her – which was also the last time you ever saw her until a month ago – so it's understandable that you don't remember."

I nod slowly and we start begin walking again, finally getting somewhere.

Aside from the desk in the middle of the small, dark, burnt pine smelling room, there is a fire blazing in the hearth and a woman flicking through papers at the desk, along with two armchairs set before the large desk. No one else appears to be in the room but the woman – excuse me, my grandmother (the queen!) and I.

"I was told something very interesting on the way over here." I say, shutting the door. Cai said to enter without knocking, so I did, but now my stupid mouth has decided it'd like to talk about some interesting information without considering to be polite first.

The queen looks up from her mahogany desk and meets my gaze. She has the same violet eyes freckled with gold, the same long, black hair, and the same sharp jaw. All characteristics that I got from my mother and she seems to have gotten from this woman. She smiles and it's sweet, but on the verge of almost venomous.

Nagging thoughts and ideas spiral around in my head, yelling at me that I'm an idiot. I agree. If this is really the queen, then there is no way she's related to us. She owns a castle and lives high above the world, while my family struggles through life and lives in the Burrows of Folklore. If this queen is somehow related to my mother – to us – then she has some explaining to do.