ALBERT
I released Maggy after Andrew told me to get my head out of the clouds and remember why we were here.
We had a war to plan.
He sure was different and it made me even more curious. I didn’t even know if he was different anymore.
Maggy was actually a nice girl. After I showed her why we were planning this war, why it was necessary, she became friendly and helped out in the kitchen.
Issy sure loved the extra pair of hands and she cooked too.
One thing I can say about commoners, they could make a meal last.
We didn’t have to hunt so much with Maggy taking over from Issy, but she still needed Issy as they cooked for many dragon mouths. They were a bit different from humans, had more space in their stomachs than normal kids and they were always hungry.
We learned a lot of things from Maggy’s cooking too.
I got an entire new respect for the poor. They had their own kind of magic.
She hadn’t told me yet how Katherine passed away but one thing I didn’t buy was that she and Andrew didn’t know each other.
The way they were with one another made Helmut slightly crazy.
He was smitten with Maggy and she was giving him hell.
Andrew and Maggy had a bond, that was for sure, but they weren’t dragons.
Maybe they were like Katherine and me, or Katie, the way Maggy referred to her.
I wish I could know her the way she did, but no matter how hard I tried, she didn’t want to tell me a damn thing about how she died.
I caught Andrew and Maggy one day at the lake.
He was showing her his penis, which made me turn around and walk away.
They had the strangest friendship and when I asked Andrew about it, he said he was curious and she said she would show him hers if he showed her his.
Helmut would love that.
Still, it wasn’t a good answer. Men Andrew’s age, don’t do that. That was something that belonged to boys of twelve.
He was weird that was one way to look at it.
I put together a new scouting team and was surprised when Andrew asked me to go.
The Cavern changed him that was for sure.
I still would like to know what he asked to see in the pond.
That’s afterall the reason why everyone goes into that Cavern.
But what he saw, he never told anyone.
Still the two of them were driving me insane. There was no way in hell that Maggy and Andrew didn’t know each other before now and if they did, it meant that he had lied to me about Katherine.
I paused as I wanted to go to the back of the log house to get Connie more wood and heard Maggy and Andrew talking.
“I still don’t know why you have to go, what if something happens to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me woman, I can take care of myself.”
“Oh says the big man.” She teased.
“Shut up, and I mean it.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Tanya was right, Andrew was hiding something.
I retreated my steps and slipped into a small area in the dark. I left as they past my hiding spot. Maggy needed to tell me something, anything. If I locked Andrew up, I knew she would.
I would have to do that when he returned.
I needed to know what they were hiding.
That night we all ate supper and afterward I helped with the dishes.
“I still can’t believe that a prince is doing dishes.”
“I need to stay put. If anyone sees us, it will all be for nothing.”
Maggy laughed and Helmut tried to help too.
“It’s more than enough that one prince is helping, shoo.” She said to him and he walked out.
I smiled. “Why are you giving him a hard time woman?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Ooh sounds bad, poor Helmut.”
“Oh c’mon, he is anything but poor. Besides he is royalty.”
“So, Katie wasn’t royalty either, it didn’t change the way I felt about her.”
“Seriously Albert, you didn’t even know her that well.”
“Thank you Maggy.” Connie said.
She just smiled at Connie. There was something lingering between them.
“Just tell me how she died, please.”
“No. I’m not doing that. Andrew is right, you need to stop this and think about why you are doing this.”
“What is up with you and Andrew?”
“Nothing, I…just like him, that is all.”
“You helped him out. Release some of his stress.”
She looked at me as if she had no idea what I was talking about and then the connection was made. “What?” Maggy said. “No. It’s not like that.”
“Then how is it, cause you know you make Helmut crazy.”
Maggy blushed. “Stop it, I’m still crazy upset with you guys. Katherine thought you were dead Albert, you don’t know how that affected her.”
“It did?”
“Of course it did. Her mother said it was a real Cinderella story, she hated your guts before that, thought you were the biggest spoiled brat and just wanted to scold you.”
“She sort of did.”
“She didn’t know it was you, but after that night, things changed for her. Pity she was a commoner and you royalty.”
“I’m going to be king one day, that’s the first law I will change.”
“What Drizelda doesn’t do it for you?”
“Oh please, she is the worst. I’d plan wars just to get away from her.” Everyone laughed.
“That’s not funny Albert, this war is seriously taking its toll on Paegeia.”
“There has to be a war for peace, Maggy.”
“I know, but still. You didn’t think about the people that you already rule. The people Katherine worried about.”
“Stop making me feel bad.”
“She would’ve hated all of this.” She mumbled.
“She would’ve probably scolded me, just like you are.”
Maggy chuckled. “That she would’ve done, but she would probably fall hard if she saw your reasons.” She sighed.
“I wish I knew her the way you did.”
“Me too.” Maggy said and smiled.
“So you and Andrew really don’t know each other.”
“No, we don’t.”
“And it’s not like that either.”
“No it’s not.”
“Then why didn’t you want him to leave.”
She stopped with the dishes and stared at me. “Come again.”
“I eavesdropped a little. Tanya believes he’s hiding something.”
“The Green dragon. I thought they were compulsive liars.”
“They are.”
“And Andrew is supposed to have a bond with her.”
“He is.” It sounded like a trick question.
“Andrew is nothing like that.”
“How would you know, you know him less than I do.”
She froze slightly but eased up fast. “We talk a lot.”
“And show each other plenty too.” I teased.
She blushed scarlet red.
“Please tell me you didn’t see that.”
“I see everything.”
She grunted.
“It’s okay if you were curious, I just wonder what Andrew’s intentions are.”
“Meaning?”
“You do know Andrew has more affection towards men, Maggy.”
“No, he doesn’t.” She was shocked.
“C’mon, you must have seen it.”
She started to laugh. “Okay fine, but you are an idiot, Albert Malone.” She put down the rag she was washing with and stepped out of the kitchen.
Connie and I laughed and finished off the dishes.
“How did she die Constance?”
“Fine, I’ll tell you after the war, but you need your head in this game. Just stop bombarding Maggy. It can’t be easy for her.”
I smiled and nodded.
“One thing I can say Albert. She was really something. I can see why she stole your heart as her death was noble. I wouldn’t mind if I had one person in my life that loved that deeply.” She put the rag down and I knew that Connie’s answer was going to bug me for a long time to come.
Did she die for her people, saving Eikenborough, what?
My heart ached just thinking about her.
She would’ve made one hell of a queen and I would’ve been the luckiest king.
KATIE
I made the decision of staying as far away from Albert as possible.
It wasn’t easy either being in the same camp as him and Constance.
He kept on breaking my heart. I knew he was royalty, but not to wait for me. Okay fine, the guy thought I was dead and I hoped that Maggy would keep her mouth shut.
I knew how she caved under green eyes and royalty, not to mention Helmut.
But I had to give it to the girl, she was mad as hell at him.
It wasn’t like she knew him, but they had been a couple for the last ten years, only it was all in her head.
My lips curved slightly just thinking about it.
Commoners falling for royalty was never a great recipe for happily ever afters.
They only existed in fairytales, and sometimes those princesses were secretly dutches or came from a noble family, or were royalty themselves.
It was so unfair that the fairytales weren’t really about commoners.
What were the chances anyway? There was no chance, but then why was I going to have a daughter with him? Was she a love child? Which left me with another question. If I was going to end up with Goran, what would that do to him, to their friendship?
That was the one question that kept bugging me and I didn’t want to admit to the answer. That I was going to be on the sidelines of his life, bearing his daughter, raising her not as royalty.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“Andrew, you okay?” Emanual asked.
“Yes, just tired.”
“I can imagine. You know you are the first man to get out of the Sacred Cavern.”
“Oh, I didn’t know the Sacred Cavern had a preference for women.”
“Or the Cavern just got a bit confused,” Darryl said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Nothing, it’s a stupid joke.” Emanual said. “Shut up, you’re an idiot Darryl. I would like to try to get some sleep.” Emanual lay on his bed roll and I did the same.
What the hell was Darryl implying. Did he know what I truly was?
I hated being the fifth person to walk out of that Cavern. All of them were women, including me.
What if it was only women that could do this? No, it had to be virginity.
It didn’t care whether you were a man or a woman. As long as you were pure. That’s all that mattered.
I was worthy as I had never been with a man.
Time ticked on as we scouted out this side of Tith. There were only animal sounds around us. A wolf crying in the distance, and owl hooting. Paegeia was falling asleep.
I closed my eyes after I put another kernel in my mouth. I couldn’t take any chances while scouting.
No one could find out that I was a girl.
Maggy just had to keep her mouth shut.
We finally went back to the base camp to report nothing.
I didn’t even know if there was a war going on.
Goran was back. I missed him.
He brought a few other members.
“Already scouting I see.”
“Guess he trusts me more and more each day.” I tried to make a joke.
“I heard what happened to you. You made us look bad.”
“Maybe if you royals didn’t screw around at the age of what twelve, you could’ve gotten a kick ass scar too.”
Goran laughed. “Touche,” he said. “But that is our royal privilege. So that one day we can make our women happy.” He was flirting again.
“Stop that and you are a pig.” I said and went to go hunt down Maggy.
I found her and Helmut behind the building. What are you doing Maggy?
I cleared my throat making her jump.
“You are back.” She shrieked and jumped into my arms. She raised her eyes slightly.
“What is it Maggy, I can’t read your mind.”
“Urgh, fine. I’ll talk to you later.” She looked at Helmut.
“Seriously.” Helmut growled at me.
“Sorry,” I lifted up my shoulders and left him mumbling.
“He is so going to hate you if he discovers the truth.” She whispered as I told her dragons could hear far.
“What happened, Maggy?”
“I didn’t say anything, I promise but he did mention something about Andrew.”
“What?”
“He thinks you are different.”
I squinted. “Different.”
“That you like men. You might look like one but your feelings are betraying you.”
I huffed getting what Darryl meant. Just my luck. I made them believe that Andrew was queer.
“I don’t care.” I said it out loud.
“You don’t mean that.”
“What are you doing Maggy, you know how this is going to end for you.”
“I can’t help it, It’s Helmut McKenzie. My secret love for the past ten years.”
I laughed. “You are going to get hurt.”
“Would you stop it. They put all this into motion, they can change anything. Have a bit of faith in them. They are going to be kick ass kings one day.”
“Oh and what, you going to be queen.”
Her smile fell. “I dislike you when you are so practical. I’m going back to Helmut.” She turned around to go and hunt him down.
I stayed behind and went to the lake.
I wanted to go back when Tanya stepped out of the bushes but she was fast and on top of me.
“Stop this, I’m not going to play your fucking game.”
“You are going to die today, no matter who or what you are.”
She cast a green fog and I coughed but it didn’t suffocate me. It just put me in a trance. One where I saw my father.
“Dad,” I said. I was Kate again.
I ran into his arms and cried. “You are alive, Maggy said…” his smile disappeared and he shook his head.
“You are dead?” Tears welled up in my eyes.
“I don’t know. This feels so real. I don’t understand it.”
“I do. She killed me and they send you to fetch me.”
“No, sweetheart. I don’t think it’s that.”
The dragon was gone. Andrew was gone.
It was only me and Nicolas Squires.
“Then what are we doing here dad?”
“I don’t know sweetheart,” his eyes welled up in tears too. “We never got a chance to say goodbye. I was wrong.”
“Dad.”
“No, I’m honored Kate to have you as my daughter. Your love for me was one of the greatest joys in this world, and I’m blessed to be called your father. You took my place in a war I wouldn’t even have survived the way you did.” He touched my cheek. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I will try to make it last for as long as I can. So where are we?”
“I’m fighting for the rebels dad.”
“What?”
“It’s not what you think. Albert didn’t die, neither did Helmut or Caleb. They are the rebellion Dad.”
“This war, was for nothing.”
“No, it’s for something big. Something that they tried to stop without war, they just couldn’t because of our wonderful kings only thinking about themselves.”
“Why do you think a dragon killed you?”
I laughed and told them the story about me and Tanya. He listened. He was so open minded.
“Maybe it’s this bond that made this happen Kate.”
“This bond. Dad, seriously, you can’t buy into this.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
“She must have killed me.”
“I don’t think so. You said that someone told you this other human had the same abilities as his dragon.”
“I don’t have green fog pouring out of my hands Dad.”
“No, but you have an ability to get yourself out of sticky situations.”
“Only because I don’t have a filter. I can’t persuade people.”
“You sure about that.”
“I couldn’t persuade you, now could I?”
“No, because I was your father and didn’t hold a threat against you.”
I got what he was saying. It only happened when I was in sticky situations.
“Tame her, and see what happens.”
“She is a dragon dad.”
“You can do it, Kate. You fought in a war for the past three years. Taming a dragon, is not so hard.”
My father always made me feel as if I could do anything and I hugged him tight. “I love you sweetheart.”
“I love you more.” I said and his touch disappeared.
I opened my eyes and was surrounded in a thick dark green cloud.
I pushed Tanya off me. I was still Andrew and her eyes were huge. “Enough. You want to fight, then fine, let’s get this over with.” Andrew yelled.
She wanted to shift to a dragon, but I pinned her down.
A voice yelled at the two of us to stop, but I couldn’t.
“You will stop this now, and let me go. You will forget what this is, forget about me, forget about who you are.”
“What are you doing?” I asked and her face numbed.
“No, this can’t be.” She grunted but she couldn’t change.
She sucked in a deep breath. “Reveal yourself.” She spoke in a deeper voice. Her eyes were bright green and for a split few seconds I was Kate again, I felt smaller, Andrew’s clothes were hanging on me like rags, but I pushed back and my clothes fit perfectly, and I was taller, had more strength. Andrew appeared once more.
How many of them saw me as a woman, I didn’t know, but she was a liar and a deceiver. I didn’t care about her word at all.
I got up after she punched me and I let her go. She changed immediately as I spit blood on the floor.
“You okay?” Al just got to the commotion.
“I’m fine.” I grunted at him. “She is seriously getting a handful Al. She tried to kill me.”
He looked at me.
“What was that. We saw what she did. What are you hiding?” Marcus asked.
“What do you mean?” Albert wanted to know.
“He changed.”
“Oh c’mon. It’s her dragon magic. She could make anyone of you see anything.”
Albert just look at me.
“You know what, believe what you want to believe. I don’t have time for this.”
I went to my treehouse. I could wash up later.
I saw my dad. Why had I see Nicolas Squires? It didn’t make any sense.
I lay on my bed roll, thinking about what the hell had just happened. I shook softly and heard someone climbing up my staircase.
Maggy’s smell filled the room.
“I’m sorry about today. If I knew she was watching you, I wouldn’t have left.”
“No, you left because you couldn’t handle the truth, Maggy.”
She came to sit next to me.
“Does Goran know about you?”
“Yes, he does. Now please go, I want to be alone.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing, just go before Al asks more questions, please.”
She nodded and left.
Later than night I went to the lake. I froze as I saw Albert and Constance enjoying a swim too.
I hid behind the tree but couldn’t leave.
I needed to hear this, to hear everything. To get my heart properly shattered so that I would never fall for his charm again.
But then Connie brought Andrew’s name up instead.
“You know what Andrew said is the truth. She is a Green-Vapor. Tanya would do anything to put a wedge between you and him.”
“I don’t know Bob thinks he is hiding something other than his love for men.”
I closed my eyes. That is what he thinks.
“You still believe that, maybe the Cavern set his ways straight.”
“I agree it’s magical, but not that magical.”
Idiots. Love was love, it didn’t matter in which form it came.
I got up, not caring if they heard me or not and went back to the campsite.
Maggy almost ran into me.
“Where is Albert?”
“Maggy what is wrong.”
“It’s his dragon.”
“What happened?” Albert’s voice was right behind me.
Maggy stopped as she stared at his naked body. I looked away.
“Uhm.”
“Maggy!” I yelled.
“Sorry, he is busy killing Issy.”
“What?” Albert said and both Connie and him darted for the campsite.
“He really has a nice body.”
“Seriously, that is all you think about. What do you mean he is killing Issy.”
“With his acid. Tanya rejected him. She is harsh Katie.” She spoke softly.
“Andrew,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, it’s still Katie, doesn’t matter what you look like or what is between your legs. Issy got too close. I don’t even know what the hell she was thinking and acid gob fell from his hand and onto her face. It’s horrible.”
“She has a bond with Robert.” I said.
“A what?”
“It’s complicated. Like the bond Tanya feels for me.” We ran toward the log house and heard Issy’s screaming as we neared.
Her sister was attending to her.
Albert was talking to Bob, he was out of his mind and I walked in the opposite direction.
How the hell were we going to win this war?
The campsite quieted down late into the morning hours.
I struggled to sleep.
Connie said that Issy would heal herself but it would take time, maybe years and was mad at Robert for losing his temper with her like that.
Robert left and that was the end of that.
Connie, Al, Helmut, and Caleb were taking turns watching her.
Goran came to talk to me about all of this, since I had tamed Tanya.
“I don’t want a dragon Goran. It’s too much drama.”
“It’s not like you are going to marry her, she will just have a bond with you.”
I huffed. “And what about next time it’s me and not Issy on that bed.”
“Al is dealing with him. He feels bad.”
“She could’ve died. It’s Issy, the kindest woman I know, Goran.”
“And she knew better.”
“I don’t care, we won’t win if we can’t even stand together.”
“I agree with you. But we have one thing they don’t.”
“What.”
“Magic. I have frost, Helmut has fire. All the dragons on our side have abilities. They might not like each other but everyone in the camp is fighting for the same thing. Freedom.”
“Freedom. You think your father is going to see it that way, The king of Paegeia. Of Areeth? Honestly Goran.”
“No, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“And what then, this war is going to be for nothing. So many people are dying, for what.”
“What do you want me to tell you. That this war isn’t affecting any of us. It does. What happened with you in that Cavern? You are so different.”
“Oh I agree with you on that. I never wanted to be in that Cavern, but I had no choice. If I wanted to get out of there to live, I had to finish. The question is just this, what kind of life am I going to have?”
“When the king’s time is over…”
I started to laugh. “He has Swallow Annexes, Goran. It is never going to be over.”
“King Louis isn’t that lucky. He was cursed by his first love’s father. It’s dragon magic and no Swallow Annex can heal him. He will die.” He got up and walked away.
What was wrong with me? Being Andrew was messing me up big time and Goran knew it. Soon he would tell someone or make me tell Albert.
I looked at my bag of kernels. It was no use. I had less than two weeks worth left, and we still had about thirty days of this.
They were going to know Andrew’s biggest secret whether I wanted them to or not.
