Dragon Blood

Forty-Eight: Sides Chosen

The awkwardness hadn't left the room yet, and Orion had been gone for ten minutes. This bothered Skylar greatly; she'd thought they'd all been having a good time together. The fact that her mother and Greta were getting along with her dragon family let her hope for a moment that they could all be in her life, that she wouldn't have to choose. Violet's proclamation changed that stopped thread of hope in its tracks. Dragon business wasn't her business, she said. Skylar felt like her parents forgot what she was, that she was a dragon herself. She didn't know if it was because they were so used to pretending like she wasn't or because they were in active denial about what she was.

She looked up at the queen through her lashes to find Violet incredibly focused on stripping the leaves off of the stocks of rosemary to set them to dry. Skylar didn't think her mother had ever used her hands a day in her life, not like this. The queen was adept at sewing in her spare time, and Skylar had seen her sketch every once in a while, but she didn't do manual labor like this with her hands. Skylar had no idea what it meant that Violet was so willing to suddenly help with chores like this. She was not only a guest of the clan, but the human queen. No one expected any of this from her.

Violet wiped her hands on a towel Nana had set next to her. She'd changed out of the purple dress she'd arrived in, although her new attire was no less expensive or nice. Skylar was impressed she had managed to keep in clean while working on the herbs, and was even more impressed that she'd endanger the fine garment at all.

"Is something the matter, love?" her mother asked, looking up at her.

Skylar tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "No, why?"

"You're staring," Violet pointed out, looking back down at her work. Skylar blushed and averted her own gaze. Leave it to her mother to point out when she was being rude, whether she realized it or not.

"Sorry," Skylar muttered. Surprisingly, her mother didn't get on her case for her lack of enunciation.

Everyone went back to working in silence, the only sounds coming from the mortar and pestle and the gentle noises of Benny nursing. Skylar wanted to say something to break the silence, but she had no idea what to say that wouldn't sound forced.

She was saved from having to say anything by Laura appearing in the doorway. She appeared absolutely flustered and her eyes darted around the room frantically until they landed on Skylar and Violet. Relief flooded over her, but it didn't last long.

"Skylar, Your Grace," she said rapidly. "You both need to come with me, right now."

"Laura, what's wrong?" Skylar asked, wiping her hands off and walking over to her friend. The first thought through her mind was that something had happened to Orion, but those fears went away as soon as they appeared. If something had happened to Orion, Laura wouldn't bother telling Violet about it. There were two other people in the room who would care much more.

"The king and Leo, they're-- just come with me," she demanded. "Orion said to get you."

Based on the tone of her voice, it was obvious enough to Skylar that Leo and the king had a disagreement. The only problem was about how intense the disagreement was. She thought that it probably wasn't good, especially if Orion wanted to draw her into it.

Violet looked between Skylar and Laura with worried eyes. No one moved to follow Laura, but Victoria unglued all of their feet form the ground.

"What are you all doing staring at each other?" she snapped softly, gently swaying the infant in her arms. "Go stop them! I would, but I don't want Benny anywhere near that."

"Greta and I will stay with Victoria," Nana told them. "Go, now!" 

Violet and Skylar dropped what they were doing and took off after Laura. Laura and Skylar would have sprinted to the field where all of the soldiers and dragons were, but Violet wouldn't dare lose her composure that much. Instead they left it at a light jog, but it didn't take long for the shouting to reach Skylar's ears.