The next evening Storm’s wings brought them into Haven, she slowly circled above the open green in the center of the town before she touched down, giving ample time for the green to be cleared.
Lessa slid from Storm’s back and Rina ran into the clearing straight up to her.
“Where is my son?” she shrilly demanded.
Lessa leaned back away from her, nearly against Storm. It dawned on Lessa that coming here without Zar might lead Rina to think the worst.
“He’s fine,” she said hastily. “He sent me here to get you, and Shakara. He wants you there for his coronation.”
Rina’s hand went to her mouth and she gasped, then she collapsed to her knees, curling over face down in the grass.
Lessa’s hands hovered over her back, hesitant to touch the woman who made it painfully clear she held Lessa in no high regard.
“Muhma?” Shakara came running into the clearing and her arms went around her mother. “What is it? Lessa?”
Without any context, Rina’s reaction would easily cause Shakara to assume the worst as well.
“Zar sent me here to bring you to the Mountain,” Lessa blurted before Shakara could start crying as well.
“Zar is the king? You did it?” Shakara’s hands clasped together and she bounced hopefully.
Lessa couldn’t help smiling at Shakara’s bubbly excitement. “Yes, he is to be crowned very soon. Pack your things, we need to leave at once.”
Pulling herself together Rina stood from the grass and wiped her face. “I have some business to attend to before we can leave.”
Holding her stomach she turned away from Lessa.
“Zar asked me to bring you as soon as possible,” she told Rina’s back.
“It’ll take us weeks to get there, a few more hours won’t make a difference.” The woman waved her hand dismissively.
Lessa bit her lip, she really did not want to correct Rina. “Rina, I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. He did not send me to escort you. He sent Storm and I to bring you.”
Shakara gasped loudly and clasped her hands to her cheeks. “We’re going to ride the dragon?”
Lessa answered with a nod.
“Oh,” Rina said, paling. “I see.”
“Storm said we will be leaving in an hour.”
“I said no such thing.” Storm snorted fire at Lessa’s feet.
But it served to accentuate Lessa’s lie. Rina paled further and scampered toward her tent.
It was closer to three hours by the time they left. An impressive amount of adjustments and fastening was required to get all of Rina’s bags attached to Storm’s saddle. In the end, Lessa ended up attaching them with magic.
She had Rina sit in the saddle, Shakara rode just in front of her, and Lessa sat on her knees straddling Storm’s back just behind Rina. Magic was also required to tether herself to the saddle, for the fear she would fall off in her precarious position.
When she offered to do the same for Shakara, Rina replied shortly, “I can do it myself.”
It was Lessa’s deep hope that she had enough magic to actually hold Shakara to the saddle. If she fell off it would surely be a traumatizing experience for the girl.
It wasn’t until they were airborne in the dark sky that Lessa realized how cold the air was. She then lashed a semi-permeable bubble to the saddle and raised the temperature inside of it until Shakara and Rina no longer shivered.
When they stopped to sleep, well after midnight, Lessa jumped from Storm’s back while Shakara and Rina struggled down the loops. She groggily dropped bags to the ground and dug through them until she found the small tent Zar had given her before she left.
Too tired to pitch the tent properly she forced it up with magic and threw bedrolls into it. She then dropped against Storm and was asleep almost at once.
A thin layer of snow coating the ground was a surprise when Lessa woke. She groggily looked around at the bags and tent dusted with snow.
“I’m still not fully recovered,” she told Storm as she rubbed sleep from her face.
“Once we get back you can sleep for a week.”
The frown on Lessa’s face was conjured by sorrow as she looked at Storm. “We can’t avoid talking about it forever.”
Storm turned her nose away from Lessa.
“Good morning,” Lessa said to Rina who was just starting to crawl from the low tent. The woman stood and looked at her bags and their sheet of snow.
Lessa scrunched her nose apologetically at Rina’s disapproval. To make amends Lessa found the bag that held their rations and pulled the food out for Rina.
“Lessa,” Rina said with uncharacteristic friendliness. “I see you have started wearing a braid in your hair.” A false smile bared her teeth.
Lessa’s cheeks heated and she felt them turn a deep red and she dropped her eyes to the ground. She tried to meet Rina’s eyes but the woman was glaring at her.
“Who is it for?” Rina demanded, all pretenses of friendliness gone.
“It’s for Zar,” Lessa whispered to the ground.
A squeal came from the tent, where apparently Shakara was awake. The girl burst from the small tent and threw her arms around Lessa.
“Stars,” Lessa thought to Storm as she peeked at Rina from the corner of her eye. “I’d rather infiltrate the castle again than talk to her about this. She really hates me.”
“Why do you think she hates you?” Storm asked, openly staring at Rina.
“She clearly doesn’t think I’m good enough for her son…. But she won’t have to worry about that for much longer.”
Storm’s reptilian eyes turned on Lessa, then she pushed Lessa out of her mind and put a barrier between them.
“Storm!” Lessa shouted mentally. But it was pointless. Storm couldn’t hear her unless she spoke out loud, but the conversation she needed to have would have to wait until they were alone.
In silence, Lessa tethered the bags back on Storm, helped Shakara and Rina mount, and climbed onto Storm’s back herself.
They reached the Mountain just after sunset, taking far too many breaks because of their passengers. Storm had refused to talk to Lessa the entire day and was no more communicative now that they were back.
The front door opened the moment Storm’s claws touched down and she strode into the entryway and crouched to drop her riders. Lessa released all of the bags at once, causing a series of thumps on the stone floor.
“Mother!” Zar’s voice called as he jogged down the stairs. “Shakara!”
Rina held out her arms and Zar jogged into them. He held his mother for a long moment, then hugged his sister and finally turned to Lessa.
He opened his arms to her and Lessa eagerly embraced him, despite Rina glaring a hole into her back. Gently, Zar’s hand stroked her hair while he hugged her.
“Thank you for bringing them to me,” he whispered in her ear.
“Of course,” Lessa replied warmly.
Because Lessa was still blocked from Storm’s mind her claws clicking on the stone were Lessa’s only indication that she was leaving. Lessa scrambled after her.
“Where are you going?” she demanded as she followed Storm back outside.
Storm gave Lessa a withering glare and jumped into the air.
“Hey!” Lessa yelled after her, “where are you going?” She threw her arms out to the sides and stomped back into the castle.
“Is something wrong?” Zar asked.
Lessa scowled at the floor, “Storm is mad at me.”
“Why?”
She shrugged.
Storm didn’t come back for three days.
Each time Lessa started to wonder if Storm wouldn’t be coming back she stopped herself. She would come back. Their bond was too strong.
The intermittent three days had been chaos. One of Zar’s first orders had been to summon all eight of Kathardra’s lords to the castle; they had begun to trickle in. The last was due in the next few days.
Most of them came to the Mountain without incident. One came to the castle with every apparent intention of apparently dethroning Zar. The man had nearly lost his life to Zar’s blade. In the end, Zar had passed his lordship to his daughter. The old lord was now being held in his daughter’s rooms while she was welcome to attend all ceremonies.
A single lord refused to come at all, so Zar decided to deal with him later. It would likely only end when the man was dead for trying to turn an entire lordship into revolt.
Zar’s maternal grandfather was one of the lords who answered his missive. There was merriment and laughter behind his stern eyes, particularly when he noticed Rina’s disapproval of Lessa.
Zar had just finished introducing Lessa to his grandfather when Storm came back into contact.
“Where have you been?” Lessa demanded the moment she could feel Storm again. “And why did you leave?”
“I needed time alone to think.”
“Think about what?” Lessa asked, outraged.
“I needed to come to terms with your leaving.”
Sorrow spiked through Lessa. She excused herself from Zar’s throne room and trotted toward Storm who met her just outside the door.
“I’m sorry Storm,” Lessa said as she hugged Storm’s nose. “But I don’t belong here. I would always be an outcast here. And my family….”
“I know. I’m sorry too.”
Lessa frowned at the flippant feelings she was getting from Storm.
“You don’t seem very sorry.”
“I am.”
In an effort to understand Storm’s apathetic attitude Lessa pushed deeper into Storm’s thoughts but the dragon pushed her back out.
Snow blanketed the landscape before Lessa, here and there dark trails tracked through where humans or animals had disturbed the frost.
“It’s nearly time,” Zar said at her side, his hand found hers where it rested on the balcony rail. “Are you ready?”
“Not nearly,” Lessa said, “Do you have another tyrannical monarch I can kill for you instead?”
He chuckled, “Hopefully never again.”
The thought of what she was about to do had Lessa’s stomach spinning with nausea, despite having already thrown up twice.
“You’ll do great,” Zar said, stroking the hair at Lessa’s temple. “That dress is beautiful on you.”
She looked down at the full-length emerald grown that swished around her boots when she walked.
His hand slid into the hair behind the nape of Lessa’s neck, goosebumps rose all along Lessa’s arms, she leaned into Zar’s grip. Despite knowing it was a bad idea Lessa let him pull her toward him and-
The door opened. “Lessa, they’re….” At Worran’s voice, Lessa jumped away from Zar and smoothed her hair, partially to hide the red in her cheeks.
“Aw, Stars. Did I just…”
Zar’s jaw clenched. Lessa slid her eyes away in embarrassment and Zar stomped toward Worran.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t…” Worran said and leaned away from Zar.
Zar grabbed the front of Worran’s formal jacket and straightened it forcefully. “You’re lucky I can’t hit you,” Zar growled at him with a smile that belied his words.
Hiding her face with her hair, Lessa slid out the door.
One corridor away dozens of guards were standing at attention, barring entry from any unauthorized person.
Lessa willed her hands to stop shaking as she walked by the men. Just on the other side of them thousands of people were packed into the castle. Before Lessa was even able to cross into the crowd, shouts went up, it only got louder when she came into full view of the people.
She kept her eyes on the carpet that had been rolled out for the occasion.
If she could just not fall. She was expecting to kick her toe on the ground at any moment. Or trip on her dress. Then the noise would change from cheering to laughing. She knew it. Even worse, she would probably throw up again.
Lessa made it to the stairs. Very carefully, Lessa clamped her shaking hands in the fabric of her dress and raised it, she walked slower than she had ever had up the staircase. Listening to the masses cheering and calling her name.
“You’re being a little dramatic,” Storm told her from where she was waiting in the throne room.
Lessa ignored Storm and continued to focus on not falling, she made it to the top of the stairs, she was most of the way there, she now shifted her eyes to Storm and focused on just walking toward her dragon, lying to the side of the throne. The last hurdle was just to stand on the first step up to the throne.
“Don’t fall,” Storm teased as Lessa stood one step up and turned to wait, facing the people.
Not that she was standing still, they quieted, but so many were still staring at her.
Instead of looking at them, Lessa looked over their heads at the wall, at the door, at anything. There were murals on the walls along the throne room, Lessa’s eye was drawn to one of a woman with silvery hair standing by a tree.
Cheering erupted again, it was uncomfortable to realize that the cheering was more subdued than it had been what she walked through.
Worran escorted Rina and Shakara to the very front row where a place was set aside for them among the lords. Once they were in position he separated himself and stood just to Lessa’s side, for in his hands was a pillow that held an ornate silver crown.
The loudest cheers of all broke out. Lessa could easily track Zar’s progress toward her by the sound that rolled alongside him.
Once he gained the top of the stairs their eyes locked as he walked toward her. He looked amazing, with layers of deep blue to match his eyes, edged in silver like the sword at his hip. Even the hair that was usually so unruly had been forced into decorum by the glare of his mother. The entire ensemble was brought together by a heavy cape that dragged and billowed behind him.
Zar reached Lessa and slowly sank to one knee. Silence fell like a curtain over the thousands present.
“I’m going to throw up,” Lessa told Storm.
“No, you won't, there is nothing in your stomach. At most, you would dry heave... Take a breath.”
At the same moment, Zar looked up at her from under his heavy brow, likely noticing Lessa’s extended silence. He mouthed the words, talk to me.
Lessa took a deep breath through her nose and raised her chin, but kept her eyes on Zar’s.
“People of Kathardra,” her voice was shaking.
“You didn’t throw up!” Storm said.
Lessa took another breath and forced her voice to be unwavering. “Looking out over you I see many good people who have been struggling for far too long. Struggling because of a king who was unfit to sit upon the Mountain Seat. But to all of Kathardra, I say to you, that day is past. To lead you into a better tomorrow I give you a man who loves Kathardra and her people. A man who has struggled alongside you, who understands what this country needs to bloom again.”
Lessa gingerly lifted the crown from the pillow in Worran’s hands and held it above Zar’s head, “To all of Kathardra, I give you King Lazaron Tasmir Rhodrin of Kathardra.” Lessa brought the crown down on Zar’s head, gently but firmly.
The raucous cheers were deafening as Zar stood and faced his people.
Lessa dropped down the stairs, out of the way, to stand by Storm. The dragon added her own voice to the cacophony as she bugled out over them all.
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