Princess Seraphina's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Princess Seraphina pressed her knees into the brown dragon's neck and aimed him at the cliff wall the knights below could not climb. Smoke rose from the ridge where Kingdom Fortier's border patrols had turned back yesterday. She had ridden past them at dawn, past her father's silence at the gate, past the old rule that said princesses kept their feet on stone. She wanted one thing the kingdom could not deny her: the title of its first dragon-riding warrior princess. To earn it, she had to bring Luna Fortier home to a throne. Luna rode behind her, light as a held breath. The deposed princess had found Seraphina three nights ago at a hollow oak where a wise helper kept counsel for travelers. Luna had asked for a dragon because roads no longer worked. The men who took her seat watched every road. Seraphina had said yes before her father could say no. The dragon dropped them inside the courtyard of the seized keep. Seraphina had expected guards. She found instead a small fox with ink-stained paws darting along the flagstones, paper scraps tucked into its fur. It froze, watched them, then bolted through a side door. Luna ran after it. Seraphina followed with her sword drawn. The throne room was empty of people. At its center sat what remained of the Fortier seat: a wooden chair swallowed by green vines, three living snakes curled across the armrests, a faint sick glow pulsing under the wood. Whoever had taken the throne had fed it something. Luna stopped at the steps. "They left it like this so I would have nothing to sit on," she said. Seraphina cut the largest vine. The snakes hissed but did not strike. She cut again, and again, until the seat was bare enough for a person. Then she stepped back and let Luna climb up alone. Luna sat. Nothing struck her down. From the corridor came the sound of boots, many of them, and shouting. The fox reappeared and dropped a folded paper at Seraphina's feet. Luna read it over her shoulder. It was a list of names, written in a hand Luna knew, of every noble who had sworn to the men holding the keep. Half the kingdom of Fortier was on it. The boots grew louder. Seraphina whistled for her dragon through the high window. "You have your chair," she said. "You don't have your kingdom yet." Luna folded the list into her sleeve and stood. "Then take me where they can't follow." Seraphina lifted her onto the dragon's back as the first soldiers reached the door. They rose past the broken roof into open sky. Below, the keep filled with men who already knew Luna was alive. Seraphina had won the throne and lost the secret in the same hour. Now every road in two kingdoms would be watching her.