The Hidden Sister | Book 1 of the Dragon Queen Series (BUY ON AMAZON!)

۵ Chapter One ۵

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Chapter One
albatross

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⌇The Queen's Veil⌇
An obsolete village in the Northernmost Kingdom of Snowfall; a mountainous snow biome. The Queen's Veil is collectively held inside a magical periwinkle dome created by the mages of The Spire hundreds of years ago, to protect the inhabitants from the ice dragons. Even though the dragons have been gone for over sixty years, the dome still stands. A small waterfall named Izur's Tears (after King Christofre the 2nd's dragon), and Miriam's lake are its most famous landmarks. The dome protects and keeps the citizens safe from the outside elements; however, it comes at a cost. Anybody under the age of eighteen, born and bred inside the village, cannot leave - a sort of binding magical contract signed at birth. If they try, their body turns to a lilac dust, blending with the ground. Into nothing.

Dainty snowflakes lingered in the icy air before fluttering down atop the Princess' head like lotus petals. They danced around her in the cold wind.

Her lashes caught some like a canopy; and the ones that landed in her braided, platinum hair blended in, like the details woven into a tapestry.

Her heart palpitated.

She reached down and picked up a half-buried, sharp slice of flint, and turned it thrice in her pale fingers. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled it across her dainty wrist, and watched with glassy eyes as the cerulean blood seeped out of the incision.

Horrified, she dropped the flint, and felt a hand to the warm liquid. There was scarcely any pain, but enough to shock her back to life. A single trickle of blood slid down her arm and dug a blue crevice into the deep snow.

Her heart beat heavily in her ears, her feet sunk deeper into the ground. Her bright, opal eyes shone in the moonlight; a single icy tear dripped down her cheek.

It was true, it was all true.
True as the air she breathed.
Her blood, the colour of sapphires and Kings.
True as the white of the snow.

A crunching of boots could be heard. "-Do you believe me now, my Princess?" A soft and calming voice called through the darkness.

She turned her head to face the source of the gentle voice. A dark-skinned man emerged from the snowy flora. Broad shoulders and a stocky figure, a handsome face and sorrowful yellow eyes. A great-sword of bright iron clung to his hip, like a third hand.

This was the man she had spent her entire life with, the man that had saved her life as a babe; though she had only been revealed this truth hours before. A man of once great stature and bravery, diminished into a common servant.

Once Ser Topaz the Honest, of The Voiceless Savanna. A barren wasteland in the East; with scarcely any water or flora, and a war that had been raging between the Hills and the Shores for centuries.

She could not bring herself to look into his bisque eyes. A symbol of shame, dyed yellow at birth, they inspired fear to those who looked upon them. Those with his eyes, seen as a bad omen when away from the East, and as beautiful as they were, many onlookers saw them as flesh-made demons.

Fear and belief oft bred stupidity; for he was no flesh-made demon, but a man. A man of flesh, a heart, and bone.

His head arched shamefully. "You must find it in your heart to forgive me, Princess." He spoke softly. "In time you will come to understand why I kept it from you." He whisked his cloak ahead of him with disdain.

The Princess' face turned sour.
How could she trust his true intentions if he withheld such information for so many years?

He furrowed his dark brows, and took a step forward. "I know you must be angry with me. I know you must be upset. I know you must be afraid, Princess." He said gently and took another step closer, his arm outstretched.

I can't bear to hear that title. She thought. I am no Princess, I never have been, and I never will be.

"...I am not a Princess." She said, so quiet it was almost a whisper; she did not reach for his arm.

The man took a deep inhale of the icy air. "You're right. You are not a Princess. You are a Queen."

She shook her head, brushing snowflakes from her hair. "I fear that is much worse." Her blue blood leaked onto the snow floor in single droplets, like the tears from her cheeks.

She touched the wound, as if to remind herself it was real, and noticed her mentor hawking with a worried look in his eye.

She caught his glance. "-It doesn't hurt." She reassured with a furrowed brow. "Not anymore."

The man nodded, his lips slowly curved into a smile. He took a deep breath. "Of course not, my Queen. For you have dragon's blood coursing through your veins." He said, taking another step forward.

She frowned, with a patterned sigh. "The dragons are gone, Ser."

The man's soft gaze emerged into a bright smile. A gentle chuckle left his lips. "Oh, but they are not, my Queen. Not anymore."

Ashai gazed up at the night sky, and with a deep sigh, she spoke. "Ser, what if I never believe you?" She asked, timidly.

He smiled tenderly, and gently took a hold of her cold cheek, then took one of his fingers - the one in which a jewelled ring hugged - and lifted her head up by the chin.

"You will, Ashai. Trust me, as you always have. You will believe me, and when the time comes. You will know what to do."