Queen Glaciana Frostborne Alpineglow's Arc

Chapter 22 of 33

Glaciana walked into the courtyard with Victor at her side. The dragon filled the space, its wings folded against the walls. Servants stood pressed to the stone, still as ice. She had told her people the truth already: the dragon came to guard, not to harm. Now they had to see it with their own eyes. She stopped at the edge of the fresh straw and made herself hold still. Victor moved past her. He walked straight toward the great head, no fear in his step. The dragon lowered its neck to meet him. He pressed his palm flat against its scaled cheek. For a long moment neither moved. Then a low sound rolled from the dragon's chest, deep as a struck bell. Victor closed his eyes. "You came back," he said. His voice cracked on the second word. He did not try to hide it. Glaciana had never heard him sound like that. The boy who lost his father and his dragon in the same young years stood before her, and something old in him broke loose and healed at once. The servants let out their held breath. A few stepped forward from the wall. The fear in the courtyard thinned. The queen's word had been true, and now they believed it. Victor turned and reached for Glaciana's hand. He drew her close, then stepped half in front of her, one arm across her shoulders. She felt him settle her behind his own body, the way he always did when he was uncertain of a thing. "This is my wife," he told the dragon. "You protect her now. Both of them." Glaciana did not correct him. She let the dragon look at her. Its huge eye fixed on her face, then dropped lower, to her belly. The great head came down slow. Warm breath washed over her gown. The dragon made a soft rumble, gentler than before, and pressed its snout near her waist. Glaciana's breath caught. "It knows," she whispered. Victor looked at her. "Knows what?" "The child." She pressed her hand over the spot the dragon had found. "It went straight to it. Before anyone else could tell." Victor's jaw tightened. He looked at the servants gathered close around them, at Kira in the doorway, at the guards along the wall. The dragon had named their secret in front of every watching face. The pregnancy they had sworn to keep private was no longer private. His hand closed over Glaciana's on her belly. "Then the court will know by nightfall," he said, low. Glaciana lifted her chin. The dragon had chosen. Her people had seen. She would not let them hear it as rumor from a servant's mouth. "No," she said. "They will hear it from me. Their queen. Before the sun sets."