In the Time of Dragon Moon (6 page)

Pendragon Summer Castle, Dragon's Keep

Egret Moon

August 1210

T
HE
QUEEN
WAS
in the walled garden the next morning, playing ball with a little curly dark-haired boy of two or three, and her lapdog, Pippin. I came up to Lady Olivia as the boy raced after the red ball, squealing, “Mine!” Pippin reached it first and caught it in his mouth, his tail wagging furiously.

“She slept through the night,” Lady Olivia said, with her usual untouchable tone. The woman who had buried her face in the blankets like a terrified vole was gone. Her silks shone, her face was powdered, her skin scented with hyacinth perfume. I decided I liked the woman I'd met last night who was less proper, more human. The woman who had sung a lullaby, cried.

“There is something I must speak with you about,” she said sternly. We both ducked as the tossed ball flew over us and splashed in the fountain at our backs.

“Retrieve it, Lady O.,” said the queen, lifting the hem of her elegant gown as she crossed the lawn. Lady Olivia threw me a look that asked,
Why should a person of my station have to fetch it?
before she curtsied in resignation, rolled up a lacy sleeve, and turned for the fountain.

I offered Queen Adela her tonic while we waited on the gravel path. It was less than an hour after breakfast, a good time to drink it. The little boy on the lawn didn't seem to need the ball. He ran in circles now, romping on the grass with Pippin.

“He is a delight,” the queen said. “So like Desmond at that age. I'd almost forgotten.” She swallowed the brew and licked her lips. I thanked the Holy Ones for my ample supply of honey that made the potion tasty. “I will reward you if you help me have another child,” she said with sudden brightness. “This,” she added, lifting the emerald necklace from her throat. “This will be yours if you succeed.”

I blinked at the expensive jewels. “Thank you, Your Majesty, but . . .” I paused. “What I truly want—”

Her eyes flared. “What you
want
? Don't tell me you do not appreciate my gift!”

I curtsied, afraid. “I like it very much, Your Majesty.” The smile I tried on did not quite fit. My cheeks felt hard. “It is beautiful. Much too good a gift for me. You are exceedingly generous. But if you wish to give me anything, more than any jewel, any gift, all I really want is to go home to a free people.”

“Why?”

“Wh . . . why?”
By the Holy Ones, how could she ask that?
“When the soldiers leave my village, we can all live without fear.” There. I'd said it. The naked confession made me shiver.

“Your skills are wasted there, Uma. You could have so much more. You could practice medicine anywhere you like. This necklace would buy you a pretty house and good land with a few servants to tend it.”

“My home is in Devil's Boot, Your Majesty,” I said, though saying it didn't make it true.
Would I be any more welcome there now than I was when I left?

Lady Olivia returned with the dripping ball. The queen raised a brow at it until Lady Olivia sighed and used her skirts to dry it off. Satisfied, Her Majesty took it out to the boy and dog again.

Lady Olivia peered at me. “Are you all right, Uma?”

“Fine, my lady.”

She shook water droplets from her hand and rolled her sleeve back down. “What did she say to you?”

“I talked of home,” I admitted.

“You miss your tribe,” she said.

“I'm worried about what the king's troops might do to them while I'm away.”

We watched the boy and frisky dog run into the bushes after the ball. Jackrun's sister, Tabitha, came into the walled garden, the sun catching gold-brown gleams in her hair. Her fey blood from her mother's side showed in her graceful steps as she passed the fountain. “Is Kip out here?”

Lady Olivia nodded toward the hedge. “Your little brother has been playing catch with the queen.” The hiding boy giggled in the bushes. More laughter and squealing erupted as Tabitha moved toward the hedgerow. Queen Adela joined her. “Where is Kip?” she called, the game of catch turning into hide-and-seek.

“Your talk of home brings up the matter we need to discuss,” Lady Olivia said under her breath. “It is a matter of discretion between the sexes.”

I felt my spine go taut as a tugged rope.

“I spoke with Sir Geoffrey at breakfast this morning. He told me about the incident between you and Prince Desmond in the ship's galley.”

My jaw dropped before I said, “Incident?”

“He was right to come to me with his concern. It is Sir Geoffrey's job to keep an eye on Prince Desmond, and mine to watch out for you.”

Her explanation did no good. I felt betrayed. I'd thought of Sir Geoffrey as a friend, or at the very least as someone who wished me well. I'd made it clear I hadn't wanted Prince Desmond's attention.

“Kip? Where's Kip?” Tabitha called in a singsong voice, peering through the bushes.

“I do not know what your customs are regarding unwed men and women back home in Devil's Boot,” she continued in a half whisper. “We've talked before about courtly manners. I thought you understood our strict rules of decorum. I was shocked when Sir Geoffrey told me—”

“I did not approach the prince, my lady.”

“You must have done something to attract him.” Her shrill voice had risen above a whisper.

I shook my head. “I don't know what Sir Geoffrey told you, but—”

“He told me very little. He is a man of discretion.” She had a bitter look, as if she'd eaten hax root. I knew she expected her daughter, Bianca, to marry the prince someday. I'd seen Bianca and Prince Desmond together often my first months at court, and I'd heard the rumors flying. His Highness made it clear he was interested in the prettiest girl among the eligible maids. He'd given her one of the finest horses in the king's stable. I hoped Lady Olivia didn't think I was trying to lure him away from her daughter. If anything, I felt sorry for Bianca.

“Please believe me, my lady. I did not seek his attention.” I scraped my shoes in the gravel like an impatient mare wanting to run.

“Listen closely, Uma. You will keep your distance from now on. He is royalty. He is the Pendragon heir. You are a queen's servant.” Her face was growing redder. “You should do nothing more than curtsy when he passes you in the hall. I've taught you how to behave in court. I expect you to comply with my instructions. Your life depends on your actions both medical and moral in these next few months.”

“Of course I know that! My lady,” I added in a brutal whisper.

“Good,” she snapped.

A child's high-pitched scream came from the hedgerow. Kip ran out of the greenery, crying, “Bee! Bee stinged me!” Pippin followed, barking at his heels.

Kip's screams turned to tears as we ran to him. I joined Tabitha, who was on her knees.

“Where did it sting you, honey?” she asked.

“My . . . my neck.”

The tiny stinger protruded just below his ear. “Let me,” I said to Tabitha over Kip's sobs. Pinching the stinger between my nails, I carefully pulled it out.

“Oweee!” Kip cried. Tears rolled down his pink cheeks. I looked at the red spot. It didn't surprise me that the bee had stung his neck. Egrets are slender-necked, and necks are vulnerable in Egret Moon. But I was glad to see the swelling had already stopped. This wasn't the kind of dangerous reaction little Melo had back in Devil's Boot, just an ordinary sting.

“Poor little Kip,” the queen crooned. “It must hurt terribly.”

“He will be all right soon, Your Majesty,” Tabitha said. “You're a brave boy, aren't you, Kip?” Her little brother was still sobbing.

Queen Adela flicked my shoulder. “Run and fetch an ointment for him, Uma.”

She considered my medicines hers, and rarely shared them. A little surprised, I left the garden. In my chamber I unlocked Father's trunk, thankful I had a key to protect the medicines inside. I still had no door key. Had Jackrun tried to bring it up last night while I was with the queen? I found the corked ointment jar and pulled it out. Kip wouldn't need the breathing cure I'd used on Melo.

I locked the trunk, remembering Melo's soft cheek, still wet with tears as he sucked in breath after breath. Four males and one female had been born to the women who'd used my father's medicine. Both sexes were needed to ensure our small tribe's survival. The Adan had planned to treat more women with Kuyawan, hoping they would have girls. Now I used all our precious Kuyawan to help
one
woman—the one woman who'd ordered the army down to hold my people captive.

It was deeply wrong.

Kip was in the queen's lap when I returned. He sniffed a little as he ate sweetmeats from her hand. “He looks much better already, Your Majesty.”

Queen Adela smiled up at me, her face radiant with joy. I had never seen such a look from her before.
This is what she has been missing,
I thought
. Her son is grown. It's been years since she had her own child on her lap.
I pulled the stopper from the jar.

“Careful with him now, Uma,” she warned.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” She watched like a doting mother as I salved the pinkish swollen spot on Kip's neck.

“Bee!” he said, whimpering.

Queen Adela wrapped her arm around him. “It is all right, Kip. My physician will help that nasty sting go away. And when you are better, we will play catch again.”

I joined Tabitha in the shade of a cherry tree. “Thank you for helping Kip,” she said.

“It was my pleasure.”
The queen is very taken with him,
I thought to say before deciding not to. “Your chain of fire was beautiful last night.”

She smiled. I was sad to see thick lace wrapped around her neck hiding her dragon scales.

“You don't need to wear that,” I said softly. Tabitha fingered it a moment, blushed, and dropped her hand. I wondered how long it would take for Desmond's caustic remarks to fade, how long she would continue to keep her scales covered.

“Have you seen Jackrun this morning?” I still needed that key.

“He's usually out fighting in the practice yard this time of the morning.”

I nodded, liking the sound of that. “But,” she went on, “he left before dawn with Babak to invite the island fairies to the masked ball we are having in honor of the king's visit tomorrow night. Do you dance?” she asked, giving a graceful swirl, her lavender skirts flaring out.

“Not your courtly dances,” I admitted.

“But others? Euit dances? Maybe you can teach me some?” I thought of our men in their impressive clothes and headdresses, of how proud Father looked as Mother helped him into his colorful costume for the ceremonies, the complicated Moon Dance steps our men did in the center of our circle, and the wilder courtship dances where our warriors truly shone.

“The dances are very . . . bold.”

“Good,” she said. I liked her for that.

She gave me a smile I didn't know how to receive. When I was small, I'd tried to play with the other girls. Their mothers tugged them away. Later those same mothers let me in their huts when I trailed behind my father. The women were warmer. Still, I'd wondered if their smiles were genuine or if they only welcomed me to please the Adan.

• • •

A
N
HOUR
LATER
I was peering through the iron grille of my tower window, watching Jackrun and Babak soar high above the earth. I traced the fox mark below my collarbone. Fox is an earth animal, and I am mostly earth, but a person needs to balance all four sacred elements to be whole. I needed more wind, more sky. I clutched the bars, and felt a deep tug inside watching the freedom Jackrun had every day of his life and likely took for granted. One day I would ride a dragon higher than this tower. Feel wings draw me up.

I pulled off my slippers, unlatched the grillwork, swinging it open and hooking it to the wall. The narrow ledge outside the window was less than three feet wide. I studied it a moment, then threw my leg over the sill and climbed out.

Laughter drifted up from the garden far below as I stood pressing my back against the rough stone wall. Falling from this height would kill me. But my feet were sure. I inched farther to the left so I could not be viewed by those in the garden below. Back in Devil's Boot, I'd learned to scramble along the cliffs with Father to pick precious herbs caught in the cracks. These walls were stone as cliffs are stone, and the ledge was more generous than some of the dangerous places I'd explored. The river that ran along the back side of the castle into the dark forest beyond gleamed bright silver in the sun.

“Uma?” A woman's voice called from inside my tower room. I braced myself against the wall.

“We were made to climb the steps for nothing,” another whined. “Where's that healer got to?”

Two female servants entering my herbarium without permission. I gritted my teeth.

“You'll have to go back downstairs and say we couldn't find her.”

“Not me, I won't.”

“Maybe she'll be back. Look, there's her shoes. She can't have gone far barefoot.”

“She might have another pair. Look how sandy they are!”

I crept back toward the window.

“Ou! It stinks in here!” Rustling sounds.

“What do you suppose this is?”

“Witch potions. Look now. This packet is full of dirt. You think she doses the queen with dirt?” They laughed.

Do not touch my medicines!
I pressed my back harder against the wall to keep from jumping in through the window.

“You go look for the queen's physician. I'll stay here in case she comes back.”

“Lazy slug!”

“I'm not.”