Firedrake - By Bianca D'Arc Page 0,16
for us in the castle from time to time, but I had no idea…I mean… You wrote them, didn’t you?”
Drake felt a little uncomfortable. Jenet was never hesitant in her speech, except when she was emotionally overwrought. He didn’t want to be responsible for making her sad or upset. He answered carefully. “Yes, I wrote most of them, sweetheart.”
“Oh, Drake!” Jenet took a moment, raising her head a bit as she shifted just slightly. Drake knew it was a sign of her distress, and his heart seized.
“What is it, honey? You know you can tell me anything.”
Her jeweled eyes rolled back down to meet his gaze. “You’re even more famous than I thought you were, aren’t you? You truly have a life in the lands beyond. Without me.” Her tone was flat, somewhat defeated, and Drake hated the sound of it, but was powerless to contradict the truths she spoke. “I’m so proud of you, Drake. I knew no matter where you went or what you did, you’d succeed, though I often wished I’d been able to go with you on your adventures. But a dragon’s place is here, in Draconia. No matter how many times I contemplated flying off to find you, our parents reminded me it just wasn’t that simple.”
“Oh, baby. I wish you could’ve come with me too. But I had to do it on my own. I had to learn who I was, outside of the duty I could never fulfill. I had to make my own way.”
“I’m sorry you saw it that way, Drake. Truly.”
The crowd cheered as the instrumental tune they were playing came to an end, and Drake moved quickly into the introduction for a new song. He couldn’t win this argument with his words, but perhaps he could express his feelings in one of the many songs he’d written over the years to explain the things he’d learned on the lonely road he’d chosen. The other musicians followed his lead and some of the crowd seemed to recognize the opening bars of one of his most poignant tunes. Sighs met the first clear notes of his voice as he sang the opening bars.
And he sang his song, “The Golden Beauty”, finally, for the dragon he’d written it for, all those years ago.
When the song ended, the crowd was hushed for a long, sweet moment while the last clear notes rang through the room. Then a cheer erupted, louder than all that had come before, and coins were tossed toward the wide-brimmed hat one of the other musicians had placed on the floor in front of the make-shift group.
“‘The Golden Beauty’ isn’t about a human woman, Jenet.” Drake wanted her to know the truth. “I wrote that song—and many others—just for you.”
Jenet sighed, a fine mist of cinnamony smoke wafting into the air above their heads as Drake saw her struggle with her emotions. When she reached down to butt him in the chest with her snout, soft chuckles came from a few in the crowd, but when a single, magical tear leaked from her eye to land in his palm, the crowd was silenced. This was magic. True magic, in their midst.
The dragon gifted him with the rarest of the rare—a tiny bit of her magic made real—a gem of the finest quality. A fire opal that flashed like the faceted fire in her eyes.
Drake was very conscious of the crowd sharing this special moment with them. He was still the Spymaster of the Jinn, and he had a reputation to uphold.
He displayed the rare gem, holding it up to the crowd. “A kingly gift for a poor troubadour.” Drake stood and bowed low to the dragon. “I thank you, Lady Jenet, from the bottom of my heart.”
Jenet bowed her head as well. “You play nicely to the crowd, Drake. I loved your song. Almost as much as I love you.”
“And I you, sweetheart. No matter where I go or what I do, you are always in my heart.”
Chapter Five
Mace was a handsome fellow, if a bit quiet. Krysta had taken to him right away and enjoyed the solid camaraderie of the knight who seemed wise beyond his years. She guessed he was about the same age as she, but his eyes seemed older somehow. Perhaps, she thought not for the first time, there was some truth to the rumors about knights and how they stopped aging when they bonded with their dragon partners.
It was a well-known fact in Castleton that the