Archive of Our Own

Char and I had been married for a little over a month when we’d been sent on what King Jerrold had called a “diplomatic tour” of Kyrria. Queen Daria had called it our just desserts after the complete pandemonium we’d caused, she’d claimed. She wasn’t exactly wrong: there’d be one lass, me, fleeing from the prince in the middle of a ball. Then, the same prince chasing after her, only to find her working as a scullery maid at a wealthy manor. Followed by yet another twist, that she was the step-daughter of the lady of the house. And then we’d been married in a month!  

Across the country, everyone was curious about me, and I couldn’t exactly blame them.

Whatever it was—diplomatic tour or just desserts—I was delighted to get the chance to leave Frell and even happier to be alongside Char. Even the fact that I’d been assigned my own seretary (who I knew was a secretary only in name and was instead there to help me learn the role that I would someday step into as Queen) hadn’t dimmed any of my happiness. My secretary had assigned me several heavy books on Kyrria that she thought would help me. I’d elected to start with an in-depth history of Kyrria—a more unvarnished look at Kyrria that my History Mistress would have blanched to know that I was reading.   

“Her Royal Uninvited Guest,” I said suddenly.

Char looked up from his book, his face puzzled. I wanted to reach out and gently rub away the wrinkle between his eyebrows. Realizing that no one could stop me, I leaned forward and did just that.

The look on Char’s face eased and he smiled, catching my hand and bringing it down. Gently rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand, he threw a questioning look again at me.

“Her Royal Uninvited Guest,” I repeated.

This time, Char understood and he leaned his head back and laughed, delighted. When he’d calmed down, he examined me, giving my suggestion the due inquiry it deserved.

A week or so prior to our wedding, Char and I had both realized that the customary title given to a person marrying into the family was prince or princess, as applicable. But something about it had made my skin itch. We’d both agreed to leave the matter to rest for the moment and King Jerrold and Queen Daria hadn’t pushed me. I’d been addressed as Lady Ella at the ceremony and reception, but I was on the constant hunt for the right title as befitting my station.

So far, Char had turned down The Royal Bather (I’d bathed a lot after leaving Mum Olga’s house, luxuriating in being able to bath when I wanted and for as long as I wanted), the Impressionist (I’d made Queen Daria and Cecilia roar with laughter at an impression of the Exchequer) and the Friend to Centaurs (Char and I had visited Apple several times to all of our delights), among others.

“Have you been uninvited many times?” Char asked when he finally calmed down. “Or is it because you show up without an invitation?”

“Oh, I have been uninvited a great many times,” I said. “Hattie was the usual uninviter—perhaps she should share in this title—but Mum Olga wasn’t too far behind. But, I was thinking of when I showed up at Uaaxee’s daughter’s wedding and, then your balls.”

Char gave me a fond look. “If I had known, I would have invited you personally,” he said, his tone warm. “I don’t think you could truly call yourself an uninvited guest. And I’m sure that Uaaxee would say the same.”

I thought that over, unable to keep my own smile from spreading across my face.

“Perhaps,” I said. “I’ll have to keep searching.”

We both went back to our work, but I found my attention on the rich land that we passed. We had just left the rich farmland of Velte, the southern region below Frell. We’d spent a few days in Velte and had been treated beyond our imagination with delicious fruit delicacies and vibrant vegetables at each of the inns that we’d stayed out.

It was a different type of work than I’d imagined for myself—meeting the people of Kyrria and talking about their lives, but it was endlessly interesting. Maybe I’d grow bored of it one day, but for now, after a year of being kept in Mum Olga’s home, it was pure heaven.

Leaving Velte, we entered the forest of Arisa, which bordered the River Lucano. We were heading down south to city of Lucano where we would stay for a week to meet Kyrria’s southern-most citizens before continuing on our tour of the country. Lucano was a port city, known for its excellent seafood, and I’d made Char laugh a few times by pretending to be a lobster or crab.

The flashes of silver in the forest shook me out of my half-daydream of what we’d be eating for dinner that night at our next lodging. I immediately shoved my thoughts of elk medallions and roasted leek tarts to the side and sat up straight.

“Char,” I whispered, and Char put his papers down, his hand going to his sheath at the urgency in my voice. “There’s something out there.”

His knights were already moving into a defensive formation, their faces stone still as they marshalled themselves around the coach. A few quick words to the coachman and the coach began to pick up speed, the horses going at a gallop. But we all knew that there was no way that a coach would be able to outrun a group of reasonably well-trained horses.

I put down my book, trying to steel myself for whatever would come next. There would be no mistaking that Char was royalty and I was his wife. Would that help us? Or make the situation worse?

Suddenly, the coach pulled up short, the horses neighing loudly. I tried to look outside, but Char motioned me to stay where I was. He looked out the window, his face pale but steady. Whatever he saw was not encouraging.

“Ella, take this,” he said, and quickly removed his dagger from its sheath along his belt. I had a knife of my own, safely hidden in my satchel, which I put over my body, but I took his as well. He looked at me, his face grave, and squeezed my hand.

My heart jumped up into my throat. I’d never seen Char look so scared. “I love you,” Char said.

“I love you too,” I said quietly and squeezed his hand back, giving him my biggest smile. We would get out of this.

The moment stretched, neither of us able to move, and then it broke with sudden clarity at the sound of rising voices outside. Char leaned forward and kissed me briefly on the lips before he opened the door and slipped out.

I know that I should have waited there inside the coach, but if I was going to die, I wanted to know what was going on. So, I pressed my face as close to the window as I dared and peeked outside.

The dirt and dust from travel made it hard to pick out details, but I saw a lot of men surrounding our group of knights in a circle. I tried to count them, ending vaguely around twenty-five. Twenty-five men just surrounding us. They might possibly have more men up in the branches of the trees or hidden by the forest. We’d travelled with fifteen knights, as well as the coachman and footman. I’d declined the assistance of a maid and my secretary I was especially glad for that decision now.

Fifteen knights, even exceptional and well-trained, would be hard-pressed against twenty-five armed men.

Four of the men had bows and they’d trained them on four of the knights, the threat very clear.

“What are you looking for?” Char asked. “We can be reasonable, but only if you give us a reason to. Otherwise, my men are excellent fighters. You have the advantage of numbers, but I think that we have the advantage of training, so your victory is not assured. If there’s something that we can give you in order to be on with both of our days, then we will do our best to make it so.”

The man who must have been the leader—a short and compact man with dark hair and skin, laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “Your Highness, the only thing that we are looking for is the company of you and your princess wife.”

Char stopped short. I saw him think about denying that I was there, but he discarded it after a second. A lie easily disproved. He threw a look over to Stephan, Stephen gave him a steady look back that said that he and the other men here would be willing to go to their deaths in order to protect their royal charges. And for a moment, I saw Char weigh it. The likelihood that I would escape unscathed if they fought the bandits.

I couldn’t take that on my head. Or life.

I burst out of the coach. Everyone turned to look at me, Char included. I shook my head at him. He frowned at me—he wasn’t wrong. We had no idea what this situation entailed, but I wasn’t going to let his men die for the chance that I could run away. Besides, I’d survived being taken captive by ogres. I took heart from that—I’d made it out from situations with worse odds.

Char’s look said that he would risk everything for my safety. I shook my head emphatically. Char’s face tightened and I could see that he wanted to argue against it. I raised my eyebrows at him in question and he sighed and then looked back towards the leader.

“Princess Eleanor,” the leader said, making a small bow. “I wish we were meeting under different circumstances.”

“Fine,” Char said, teeth gritted. “My wife and I will go with you in exchange for leaving my men unharmed.”

The leader stepped forward and Char held out a hand. “There is more,” he said. “I want to be assured of all of our safety.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Your highness, I don’t think that you’re in the best position to be bargaining. But I will give my word that you and the princess will remain unharmed if you agree to come with us.”

I could hear Char wondering what exactly this man’s word was worth.

Char threw another look back at me. “Are you looking for a ransom?” he asked.

“Of a kind,” he said. “I will leave the ransom note with your men after we have tied them up.”

“What is the ransom?” Char asked. But the leader refused to tell Char.

“That is for your kingly father,” the leader said. “A ransom that only the king can provide.”

It was worrying—how much money could the bandits be asking for? Were they asking King Jerrold to empty Kyrria’s coffers? Surely that would be a way to get the entire army sent after them. A small ransom, these men could likely disappear into the forests of Kyrria and never be seen again. But if they raised the asking price for our freedom too high or sought to double cross King Jerrold, the country would come after them.

In a sort of baffling, dream-like state, Char’s knights, the coachman and footman were bound to the trees around the coach. The leader told the knights that they’d been tied with enough slackness that they’d be able to work themselves free in a number of hours.

“We wouldn’t want you to starve,” he told them, a smile on his lips at odds with the grim-faced knights. Sir Aubrey’s mouth was pressed into a thin red slash on his face. Sir Bert looked positively maudlin. I tried to be more optimistic but it was hard to see our protectors being left there.

As for Char and I, we were bound.

“By your leave, princess,” a tall one, with deep tan skin and bright green eyes, said as he gently pulled my hands behind my back.

“I’m not a princess,” I told him. I heard him huff out a laugh.

“Well, lady,” he said, “why don’t you come this way?” He directed me to a nearby horse, a dappled mare and helped me mount her.

Char was being put through the same paces by his new companion, a man with deep red hair and light brown skin. The rest of the bandits got on their horses, the horses beginning to stamp eagerly in anticipation.

One of the bandits carefully lay a few sheaths of paper in the coach, presumably with more instructions and the ransom.

“Now, we ride,” the leader said and we did.

We rode for a time on the road, until we got to a stony area and the bandits turned off, making our trail harder to track. Eventually, we got to a cart path that wound its way through the forest, but the bandits took precautions: one of the bandits stayed behind the sweep our path, to disguise our trail from the knights who would be pursuing us.

But, the road was rocky enough that I wasn’t sure that even if he hadn’t done that that Char’s knights could have found our path.

Eventually our cart path linked up to another smaller path and we continued on that path for a while. The trees and meadows and grass rushing by. Of course, it was a beautiful day. The kind of day that I would otherwise feel happy just to get to sit and tilt my face up in the sun. I laughed at myself to be thinking about that while I was in the middle of being kidnapped, for an altogether not clear reason.

I had felt invincible when I’d first emerged from the coach—I was Ella, I had defeated a fairy curse! I could survive these bandits easily. But the longer that we rode, the longer my fears and doubts began to emerge from the back of my mind.

I looked over at Char and tried to take strength from his presence. With the two of us together, we would be able to figure out our situation.

That first night, we stopped near a small creek and the men cooked some trout and mushrooms. I tried to note what I could about our captors. Their clothes were well-worn but cared for and they were unceasingly polite with us.

Before dinner, Char and I were each separately guarded as we made our way to the creek for our necessities. The two men with me turned while I cleaned up, giving me privacy, and I was struck by how odd our situation felt. These men didn’t feel like hardened criminals…

Once we each finished, our captors directed us to a central spot where we could be watched as they prepared for dinner and sleeping.

We were unbound, so Char immediately moved next to me, his hand reaching for mine. The first touch as our hands opened and held each other sent relief straight down my spine, easing the fear throughout my body.

“Ella, are you—?” he asked, keeping his voice pitched low.

“I might be walking a little funny in a few days,” I said, “but I needed to improve my horseback riding anyways.” Char smiled at that, his face lighting up and it made me feel alright. That even now, kidnapped and with no idea where we were, I could still make Char laugh.

The trout was delicious and mushrooms were so flavorful. We hadn’t stopped to eat since we’d left our coach and hunger spiced our food immensely. Char and I both scarfed down our food. “I’m glad that they filleted the trout,” I said once we’d finished. “Although I was eating so quickly, maybe they didn’t.”

Char laughed. “What would Manners Mistress say to that?”

“She would be aghast at this whole situation,” I said seriously and then paused a moment for dramatic effect. “No fish forks? They didn’t even change napkins between the courses.”

“We’ll need to inform these men about the breach in their manners as soon as possible,” Char said seriously. And then we both burst into laughter.

The leader of the men came over to us. “I didn’t introduce myself earlier,” he said. “But my name is Jerome. I hope that you know that we intend you no harm.”

“You’ve gone about it very curiously,” Char said, his voice neutral.

“I can only hope that my actions continue to show that I mean what I say,” Jerome said. “My men will make sure that you’re comfortable this evening. We will be keeping a guard, as a precaution, but you won’t be bound. Anything that you need, we’ll do our best to provide.”

Sure enough, his men had procured two bedrolls for us. I’d spent a few nights on the road when I ran away from finishing school, but none of them had been with Char.

Even amidst a camp full of unknown men, in the middle of danger, there was something delightful about lying in a bedroll next to Char, looking up at the stars. We spoke in hushed whispers about nothing important as the men of the camp went to bed as well. I fell asleep between one heartbeat and the next and then slept straight through until morning.

I woke up at the movement of men to an early morning sun. Char was still sleeping, his bedroll had moved closer to mine in the night. His arm pressed around me, keeping me snug, but I carefully slipped out from it. I pushed myself up.

Two men were watching us, sitting there, their expressions serious. They weren’t the men who’d been there when I’d fallen asleep, so clearly they’d swapped out in the middle of the night. “What are your names?” I asked.

“Tim,” the one on the right, a man with light skin and dark hair pulled back by a ribbon. His seatmate, with dark skin had no hair was introduced as Kieran.

“What are our plans for today?” I asked keeping my tone light.

“How do you feel about ridin’?” Tim asked.

I grimaced, my sore limbs making themselves very much known. Tim and Kieran laughed, but in a way that felt like commiseration. I still didn’t understand why we’d been kidnapped. A ransom yes, but something felt wrong about it.

My experience with practical geography was non-existent. I couldn’t be certain, but I suspected that as we rode throughout the day, we were headed south and to the west. Kyrria’s forests met the oceans and slowly became the sparse hills of Southern Kyrria. I knew that Southern Kyrria would eventually run up against the grasslands of Miraelle, the country to the south of Kyrria. The border towns between Miraelle and Kyrria had changed hands numerous times.

I wondered if that was where the bandits were taking us—one of the few places where they would be able to take their kings’ gold and disappear to the four corners. Geography Mistress would have been delighted that I was able to use her teaching so well but also horrified at their actual use.

I held that theory in my mind and it mostly made sense. Something about it felt wrong still, but the accent of the bandits now fit. They spoke with the southern rolling r, but also a flatter vowel than I’d yet to hear in Kyrria.

As we rode, I felt myself wishing a little for the simplicity of ogres. At least with them, I’d known that they’d wanted to eat me! Their motivation couldn’t have been plainer.

I looked over at Char frequently during our long ride and he was often looking at me too. I threw him a look and then gestured around us, shrugging my shoulders. He did the same. Good, he was also confused about what they wanted. I thought about trying to convey what else I’d figured out—where we were headed—but Char had probably been able to piece together our direction as well. And we’d be able to talk when we finally stopped for a rest or meal.

I motioned towards the leader, riding up ahead near the front of the pack on a large black horse. Char nodded in understanding. We would talk about it with him tonight.

That night, we stopped for the evening in a large clearing. As soon as the men broke to make camp and Char and I had dismounted from our respective horses, Char spoke quietly to one of the men around us. His eyes flickered between Char and me before he made a sort of half-bow and then turned and disappeared into the chaos.

“The Royal instigator,” I said to Char.

He laughed. “I’m the one instigating this time!” he said, mock-affronted. “You can’t claim my royal title.”

I squinted at him, trying to draw him out, and he laughed again. “Can I marry into the royal title?” I asked.

“I think that question has landed us with our current dilemma,” Char asked and we both laughed at that. Touché.

“How are you, Ella?” Char said softly. He reached out for my hand and I gladly took it, letting it anchor me. I was so profoundly glad that Char was here—whatever was happening, we would face it together. I vividly remembered my fears when I’d been kidnapped by the ogres. No one had ever looked as good as Char had when he and his knights had appeared.

Within a few minutes, Jerome appeared. “Your Majesties,” he said, and also sketched the same half-bow. He sounded almost nervous. But he held all of the power in this situation?

I glanced at Char, who had taken all of this, his face carefully blank. But the blankness was now as familiar an expression as any and meant that this had surprised him as well.

“Jerome,” Char said. “I think you should tell us why you’ve really kidnapped us.”

“Aye, as I’ve said, we’re going to ransom you,” Jerome said, his voice firm.

I shook my head. “It’s not a normal ransom, whatever you say.” I looked around the clearing. “I would swear that we’re headed southwest,” I said, “but then we’ll soon be leaving Kyrria.”

Jerome went still at that and I knew that I’d hit upon the heart of the matter. “You’re taking us to the border towns,” I said.

The man flicked a glance at Char. Was it because they wanted the anonymity of the border towns once they’d received their ransom for us?

It still didn’t fit. “No,” I said to myself, “you need us for something, something that’s happening outside of Kyrria.”

Char looked at me sharply as well. But he nodded. He agreed with my assessment.

“Tell us. We cannot help if we don’t know,” he commanded, in a tone that I’d only heard from him once or twice. Being sufficiently princely was a skill that he was still learning, but right now, he sounded every inch like the future King.

“If you’re not going to hurt us. And you don’t plan to ransom us for money,” Char said, running his fingers through his hair, “then why take us?”

Jerome looked at Char and looked at me. He then looked around the camp, gauging what the others were doing. Was he checking to see that if he told us something that we didn’t like, his men could be ready to subdue us at a moment’s notice?

“We need the royal guard and army to show up,” Jerome said.

I glanced at the men at the camp site. “Unless you’re taking us to your secret forest fortress with hundreds of other men, I think that the odds aren’t in your favor,” I said.

Char snorted under his breath. “Good, Ella,” he said. “Give them more advice.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “It can’t be because you’re looking to challenge them. You don’t seem that foolish.”

“High praise,” Jerome said, but he smiled faintly. “No, we need it for another reason.”

“You need something,” Char said slowly, “something that can only be achieved with an army at your back.”

Jerome nodded. He took off his cap and run his hands through his hair and then scratched at his beard a few times. He let out a deep breath and then looked each of us in the eyes. “I’m from a town called Cana. Right on the border. Usually it’s not thought of as Kyrrian. And we’re desperate for help. Help that comes quickly. Our village has been taken hostage by dragons.”

“Dragons?” Char asked, dumbfounded. I was shocked as well. No one had seen dragons in Kyrria in twenty years. Maybe more.

Dragons were deadly—more than deadly. If they wanted you dead, then you and your surrounding neighbors would be burned to a crisp before you even thought about running away.

What did I truly know about dragons? They lived far from Kyrria. They gathered treasure. Myth said that once, maybe thousands of years ago, the dragons and Kyrria had fought in a war together against some great evil from the north. But no one knew if it was true or what the great evil had been. There’d been a few dragon attacks over Kyrria’s history, but none recently.

I’d once seen a list of the partial translations of some of their words and I could have counted the number of known words on my fingers and toes. Clearly, I should have tried to learn more of the dragon language while I had the chance. I tried to remember what had stuck in my brain. A greeting. A few words.

Flying. Treasure. That was it. And this was going to be our foe?

“Dragons,” Jerome confirmed. “We don’t know why. They encircled the town—they’re sieging it. No one can get in and no one can get out.” He rubbed his beard again, nervous energy needing to dissipate. “And my family is in there along with all the families of the rest of these men.

“These men and I work outside the village most of the day. Some are farmers, some are merchants. Most of us hunt. When we tried to get back to the village, the dragons blew fire at our group. They won’t let anyone approach. We can’t get to our families. Anything could be happening and we wouldn’t be able to help.”

“And this is a particularly risky situation,” Char said, thinking it through.

“The army can’t just attack the dragons outright—they’d be burned to a crisp,” I said. I’d never read of a dragon attack in recent times in Kyrria. The dragons’ enclave was somewhere across the sea. I don’t know how we could even start to think about attacking dragons to try and free a village.

“And Kyrria’s army would be reluctant to attack a village that didn’t entirety belong to it as well,” Char said, thinking it through. “You want me there because otherwise the army would likely not act quick enough to save a sieged city.”

“Your Highness,” Jerome said, an acknowledgment.

“If you make the army think that Char is in the village, then they will have to act,” I said.

Jerome nodded. “One way or another. Either we get you into the city or we make them think that you’re there. And we’re willing to die to accomplish this goal, to save our family.”

To go straight into the arms of dragons? That was an unbelievable thought.

But I couldn’t leave village to its fate.

Char took a deep breath. He looked at me. I certainly knew all about impossible challenges. “We’ll help you,” he said finally. “In whatever way we can, we will.”

Two days later, we arrived at the town of Cana. The group of men—I’d stopped thinking of them as bandits—slowed down as we seemed to come to where the forest started thinning out. Jerome dropped back to where Char and I were riding together.

We’d had a long discussion after Jerome had come clean about what he and his men were facing. Char’s and my willingness to help them had been met with shock and respect. So much so that they’d let Char and I ride together, our usual riding companions riding together on another horse, and had given up all pretense of guarding us.

In fairness, I had only the vaguest direction of where we were and Char wasn’t much better, so the risk of us setting off to get lost in an unknown forest was pretty minimal.

But still, our treatment as allies instead of hostile opponents was appreciated.

I knew that Cana lay at the edge of the grasslands that bordered the edge of Southern Kyrria. Neither Char nor I had ever been this south before and we’d both marveled at how vast the sky appeared here. Blue stretching in every direction.

Normally, the ability to see for some distance around it gave it an advantage—the city of Cana would see an attack well before it arrived. But now…it would work to our disadvantage.

The grasslands gave way to a large copse of trees. The trees went on for some distance before abruptly ending and turning into further grasslands, which led to the town of Cana not too far away.

My eyes were fixed above the town as we got closer and closer. What initially looked like clouds resolved into the distinct scaly forms that could only be dragons. Dragons!

There were three and I watched them greedily circle over the town as we stopped in the thicket. Jerome felt confident that the dragons would only attack when people approached the town. We couldn’t have been that far and yet the constant circling of the dragons made the town feel completely unapproachable.

“There are more,” Jerome said. “They come in shifts. Sometimes there are up to five here. Never less than three.”

One dragon would be enough to defeat. But three? Or five?

I nibbled at my lunch—some traveler’s bread and cheese—watching what was in front of me.

The sky was blue, no clouds, making the presence of the dragons even more breath-stealing. They were huge—the smallest was maybe the size of four horses, one in front of the other. Absolutely enormous. They were different colors, their scales sparkling in the sun like jewels.

Over the past hour, I had watched them make circles above the city. It was a cute town, buildings bundled together, on the crossroads between several large roads running through it. It was quite a distance away, but I could see people moving around the town occasionally, looking like ants between toy blocks.

At Jerome’s direction, a group of the men tried to ride in to the town, carrying a white flag, but one of the dragons immediately took guard, blowing a stream of fire so hot that I could feel it, even some distance away. It forced the men to retreat back to us.

Once the dragons were satisfied that the men weren’t going to come back, all three resumed circling the town.

What could they want? Why hold the town hostage?

Frankly, I’d expected to find a town destroyed. Every dragon attack that I’d read had been in revenge for something. And the revenge had been swiftly delivered. What revenge were they seeking out here?

Were they seeking out revenge? Or something else?

I stood there, thinking about the dragons for a while. Char stood with Jerome and two of the men I’d come to think of as his lieutenants, Rowland and Damien, their faces low and worried as they discussed the dragons. It was clear that the dragons had the town of Cana under siege. The dragons kept circling it—they’d blown a very potent stream of fire when our group had made to approach, even with the white flag. No one was meant to come in.

And yet the townspeople were alive—we could see them in the buildings or even walking around. If the dragons had hurt people or taken them truly captive, I think that there would have been a sense of fear or desperation. Would people have been moving about so freely?

I knew about ten words of the dragon’s language. I knew that it would be incredibly foolish to try and do something.

But something about this situation wasn’t sitting right with me. I knew, in my bones, that there was something that I wasn’t seeing—that none of us were seeing! And so, without being entirely conscious of my actions, I began to move slowly towards the edge of the thicket of trees.

At first, I told myself half-truths. I was just trying to get a closer look. I was curious. No one was keeping an eye on me anymore, especially not with such dangerous creatures around, so I was checking to see what I could get away with.

But deep down, I knew what I had already half-planned.  

I couldn’t be thinking about doing this. I couldn’t be thinking of going and throwing myself on the dragons’ mercy on the chance that my ten words of the dragon’s language could allow me to communicate with them, assuming that they had something that they wanted to communicate to us.

I kept creeping. At the moment of transition from tree to clearing, Char’s head shot over. He looked at me, his face confused, brow wrinkling, and then his eyes went wild.

“Ella, no!” he said. Unfortunately for both of us, I was free to ignore that order.

I started running.

My movement attracted the dragons circling above. The one closest to me was the dragon whose scales were a deep amethyst that sparkled in the sun. It saw me approach and opened its mouth. My entire body seized up and I waited in horrified terror for a blast of pain and fire to come.

It never came. Instead, I felt a wave of heat behind me. When I turned, I saw that the dragon was instead warning off Char and his pseudo-knights—all of whom had swords, what might they had on display.

There was no path except for forward, so I picked up my skirts and ran again.

I made it to the village gate after about ten minutes. It had clearly seen better days, but two women stood there, waiting for me. One was old, her hair completely white and her skin almost translucent. The other was a few years older than me, her skin dark and her hair jet black. They both wore dresses that looked fairly clean, no sign of singeing. I took that as a good sign.

“What were you thinking?” the younger said. “You are a fool! Now you’re trapped with the rest of us.”

“Now, now, Naomi,” the elder said. “Let’s get this young miss inside and we can hear what she has to say. I imagine it ought to be quite important.”

Soon, I found myself seated in one of the village taverns, a mix of men and women sitting around me. All of them looked worried, but none of them looked outright fearful.

I introduced myself as Ella. It was good that we hadn’t agreed upon a title, because then I wasn’t omitting it when I told them that I was from Kyrria.

“I was found by a group of your neighbors,” I said, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, “and they told me about what had happened here, so my husband and I travelled with them to try and find a solution.”

“Solution?” a taller, bald man said. He had thick eyebrows and they frowned at me as he talked. “You can’t reason with dragons. They’ll kill us all.”

“But they haven’t yet,” I said. “That feels important. Have the dragons mistreated you?”

“No,” one woman said. She was fairly tall with reddish hair and she scooted her seat closer. “They haven’t let us leave though. We’re running out of food. But they haven’t harmed us.”

“Why are they here?” I asked.

The woman shook her head. “We don’t know. We’ve tried to communicate with them—a few days ago, one of the smaller ones flew into the town. When we finally roused ourselves, shaking with fear, to see what they wanted, it tried to speak to us. But no one could understand it. We think it was asking for something.”

Aha. We’d finally hit an area where I could do something. “I know a few words of the language that the dragons speak,” I said. Everyone in the room went still. I shook my hands. “Just a few words. Mostly theoretical. I’ve never heard anyone speak it. I just saw them in a book. But, if I at least attempt to speak to them, maybe that will be enough to convince them to try. At least?”

Manners Mistress would have been appalled at my suggestion that I throw myself directly into harm. I could hear her voice, rising in panic, at a lady of gentlebreeding attempting to negotiate with a dragon.

It gave me a much-needed burst of satisfaction. If she thought I was doing something wrong, I was probably doing something right.

“Yes, yes,” the elder woman who I’d met when I first entered Cana nodded. “It’s worth a try. They want something from us. But what?”

“I agree,” I said, “because they haven’t ill-treated you and they haven’t tried to kill any of the parties coming to your rescue. Only warned them off. And I imagine that all the ones attempting to enter have had their spears, knives or arrows ready, armor on if they had it. So the dragons must assume that those men intend to hurt them.”

The dragons probably weren’t unfamiliar with that.

They debated for some time on how best to signal the dragons. Eventually, it was decided upon that they would try to draw their attention with fire. “After all,” Naomi said, wryly, “at least they understand that.”

Food was offered to me, but I turned it down. I felt too nervous to eat, butterflies swirling in my stomach.

Several large torches were lit in the middle of the town’s biggest square. I waited near them, filled with nervous energy, but convinced that this was the key to everything. I must have stood there for hours, Naomi keeping me company.

We made conversation about everything and nothing. I learned the bits of gossip in the town from Naomi—all of it harmless and all the more interesting for it not affecting my life in any way. I also told her an abbreviated version of my own story. I made Naomi laugh with my rendition of the ogres, although she looked at me with respect once I finished.

“If I had escaped from ogres, I would have come back here and never left home,” Naomi said. “Much the less continued to travel all of Kyrria.” She shook her head. “You are—”

What she was going to say was cut-off, by a shadow beginning to grow over us. We both looked up, our conversation completely forgotten as the amethyst dragon from earlier began to beat its wings slowing its descent as it came nearer and nearer.

With a smooth motion, its four legs stretched out underneath it and its wings folded in, landing neatly on the grass in front of us.

There—there was a dragon. Right there. Looking at us, its eyes watching us steadily. I heard the sounds of other flapping wings and knew that another dragon must have come closer to keep an eye on its brethren.

“Foaaahh uhhloa fooaarr eleeeeeen,” I said. I’m sure that I was horribly mangling what was supposed to be ‘may your treasure be great and shiny.’ I could only hope that I was just mispronouncing it rather than offering a deadly insult.

The dragon regarded me for another moment. “Fosss foaaahh reesveee,” it said in a voice that felt like the whisper of two silk cloths against each other. I could only recognize the word treasure, but I had a vague recollection that ‘fosss’ meant ‘you’ or ‘your’. I sighed in relief.

Most of the other bits of the dragon language that I’d seen were intended for a specific purpose, like “go away” or treasure related descriptors. But one of the words, ‘loeffinne’ meant ‘help’.

“Loeffinne?” I tried. I gestured towards myself, “loeffinne,” and then gestured towards the dragon.

The dragon seemed to sigh at that—its legs settled into the soil more firmly and, this time, it looked right at me. “Loeffinne,” it said and then nodded its head. It then let out a string of words of which I knew none of them. I only heard a cacophony of ff sounds and I shook my head and emphatically gestured towards my ear, hoping the dragon would understand my charades.

The dragon stood for some time studying me. I tried to look more trustworthy and less flammable. Next to me, Naomi stood still as well. I could feel the eyes of the village on us from a very safe distance. I wondered if Char knew what was going on.

After maybe ten minutes, the seconds slowly ticking by, the dragon took a deep deep breath and then let out a stream of fire. Naomi and I both tensed, but the heat never came. The air around me felt cool, as if someone had slowly breathed out to chill their meal.

The fire seemed to curl around Naomi and I before settling in front of us. I’d never seen anything like it. An image slowly came over the fire, as if we were seeing a vision of something far away. I saw a cohort of dragons, up high in a mountaintop, in an intricate structure built into the side of the mountain. It was a beautiful combination of rock and well-polished wood, brightly ornate gold and shiny jewels decorating the walls in beautiful patterns. Then I saw the dragons taking turns to sit on a large nest inside their home, a nest which had four or five eggs in it.

The image changed to a group of people scaling the mountain and attacking the dragons. While the dragons were fighting back, one of the attacking party snuck into the nest and fought the blue-green dragon guarding the eggs, stealing an egg after wounding the dragon. The dragon shrieked in silent outrage and the dragons outside flew in, but it was too late. The egg had been taken and the attackers disappeared. I could The dragons were devastated when they came back, all of them opening their mouth and wailing—I could understand it clearly without any sound at all.  

“Loeffinne,” I said again to the dragon. It nodded and motioned back towards the flame. The image showed the raiders now on the sea, sailing back to Kyrria. When they arrived in Kyrria at the port of Lucano, they gave it to a man and woman. They must have been traders. They, in turn, handed it off to a man who carefully took it with him on a horse.

Then—a sudden attack by ogres. The man and horse dead. The egg missing.

The image slowly disappeared and then the fire faded as well. What magic! To be able to recreate a memory. And not just a memory—the dragons could not have seen all of that story, but the vision had showed it.

“The ogres have it,” I said to Naomi. I smiled broadly. “Loeffinne,” I said confidently to the dragon. “What is the word for that—an egg.” I made the shape of an egg with my hands.

The dragon said, “Effellele. Loeffinne fosss effellele.”

I nodded. “Effellele,” I said to the dragon.

To Naomi, I said, “The ogres have the egg. We’ll need to get the eggs back from the ogres.”

“Oh, is that all?” she said, rolling her eyes. She looked at me again. “Lass, are you so eager to jump back into the ogres’ frying pan?”

“I know the trick this time,” I said. “And now we know what they want. They want their egg back. We get the egg back and they’ll leave.”

Noami sighed, but there was a cautious smile there.  

Naomi and I spent the next few hours talking with the dragons. Painstakingly, I was able to pick up another handful of vocabulary. Enough to tell them that I knew where the ogres’ lived and that I would need to leave to go get the egg.

I could see that the dragon didn’t like that one and it left for some minutes to go congregate with the other dragons to weigh the merits of me leaving. When the amethyst dragon came back, it said “Uluu efreenefe,” in its silky voice.

I knew that uluu indicated the dragon. The dragon wanted to do something. The dragon looked meaningfully towards the edge of town. I gulped.

“I think that the dragon wants to come with me,” I said to Naomi.

Naomi breathed out a long sigh. “Well, certainly no one will attack you with a dragon at your back,” she said smiling.

I nodded back at the dragon. I didn’t know the word for yes, but I said “yes” and then gestured for the dragon to follow me.

The dragon took to the air as I walked towards the edge of Cana, Naomi by my side. She squeezed my hand once and then she stayed while I kept walking.

I must have interpreted it correctly, because the dragon stayed above me, no jet of fire as a warning, as I walked towards the forest. I could see Char and the men of Cana waiting for us. Char’s face was pinched with concern, but as he saw me getting closer and closer, his face relaxed and he shook his head in wonder as he stared up at the dragon above me.

When I made it to the edge of the woods, my pace picked up as Char ran to meet me and I felt some essential piece fit into place as he took me into his arms and hugged me. We stood like that for a moment—our hearts jubilant in our meeting—before Char pulled back.

“What on earth were you thinking, Ella?” he said. “You could have been killed.” But I could hear, already, the excitement in his voice. That he, too, knew that there was possibly a way out of this.

“You’re never going to believe it—” I said.

“I have a feeling that I will,” Char said.

“The dragons want—well, our help to right a wrong. One of their eggs was stolen by a group of people and brought back to Kyrria. Where it was taken by ogres after the untimely demise of its holder in transit.”

Char looked at me, a smile spreading across his face. “Good thing that I’ve got the best ogre-tamer in Kyrria right here.”

“Good thing,” I said, laughing.

After all that, the next part almost came laughably easy. I knew about how to speak to ogres and Char knew all about capturing and fighting them, so I went back to the town to collect the supplies that we needed.

Naomi and a bunch of the people that I’d seen in the village tavern were waiting when I got back into the town. Everyone looked eager and excited at the hope that there was finally a solution. “Do you have enough food supplies for about five more days?” I asked. “It should take us about a day and a half to get to the Fens, where the ogres are, and then another day to return. I don’t know how long it will take there.”

Naomi nodded. “We’re not doing great on food,” she said, “but we can make it a few more days. Especially if we know that it’s just a few more days.” She looked around at the rest of the people for confirmation. I saw enough people nodding to convince me that she wasn’t trying to hide anything from me about their stores.

“Good,” I said. “But I will need something from you all.”

“Anything,” Naomi said, serious.

“Hopefully nothing that bad, just beeswax.”

“Beeswax?” Naomi asked. I mimed putting some beeswax in my ears. “Oh!” She laughed. “Will you use those for the ogres?”

Once I’d finished in the town, the dragons let me pass without incident. While I had been gone, Char had explained to Jerome and his men what the dragons wanted and how we could help then. To their credit, not one of them balked at the thought of riding into the Fens in order to purposefully seek out the ogres.

The Fens were about a day away and we made haste. I had time to think about our plan as we rode. It was a good thing that Jerome’s men would come with us. We might need as many people as possible to help bind the ogres that we came across as we tried to track down where the dragons’ egg might be.

My amethyst friend kept pace above us, steadily flapping its wings across the sky. If it was tired or needed a break, it gave no indication, and when we stopped for the night, it must have found some place to roost but I had no idea where it was. I didn’t want to look too hard in case it felt threatened by me knowing.

The next morning, when we rose, the dragon was already in the sky, waiting for us.

Right before we reached the Fens, all of the men took out the beeswax and put it in their ears. They wouldn’t be able to hear me, but if things went poorly, they would still be able to resist the ogres.

It didn’t feel real until that moment, that we were purposefully going to be baiting the ogres in their own den. I’d been thinking of this as an adventure up until now, but suddenly, my stomach sank and I vividly remembered the fear as the ogres had ordered me not to leave. I heard them discussing who would eat which of my body parts. They’d felt that I was worth so little of their regard that they could dissect me to my face.

They didn’t have my curse to act against me, but the ogres were still strong and deadly persuasive. There was no guarantee of my safety or the safety of the men around us. And I’d come up with this plan.

I squeezed my arms around Char, just to reassure myself. He took one of his hands from the reins and gently squeezed my arm back. It will be ok, Ella, he said with his body. He trusted me to get him out of this. I needed to trust myself as well.

I looked up at the canopy of trees above us. If our dragon friend was above, I couldn’t see it. We’d see it next when we made it out of the Fens. I could do this for Cana and for the dragons.

It took maybe an hour of riding into the Fens before we came across our first set of ogres. It was a band of three men and they looked delighted when they first caught sight of us. I didn’t have to imagine their glee at finding almost thirty people to feast upon. But, I’d spent most of the past day practicing my ogrese, making sure that my voice was perfectly smooth and sibilant.

(Char had listened to me practice and he’d attempted a few phrases, but his accent was so terrible, it kept making both of us laugh.)

“A delicious feast, just for us,” one of them said, a tall ogre with lank, dark hair. He grinned at me especially. That was my cue. I took a deep breath and started talking.

I poured oil and honey into my voice as I laid out our proposition. “We are looking for a special egg, something that you may have taken from a man traveling recently nearby. And as a reward for it, we have all of these horses for you to eat,” I told them in ogrese. “Very delicious. And all for you.”

“Why just eat the horses when we can have all of them?” one of the other men said, this one also looked unkempt and had sandy brown hair. He looked over the group of us, his eyes shining and he thought about a meal of twenty-five people and their horses.

“But why try to go against people who are bringing such gifts to you?” I said. I tried to look as guileless as possible. “These are a gift in thanks for the trade of what we’re seeking.”

The third one nodded at that. “They are giving us the horses without any work on our part at all. That is a true treat.”

“Yes, a treat from friends,” I said.

The ogres talked among themselves, huge smiles on their faces. They talked of how delicious our horses would be. They talked about the merits of double crossing us, never considering that we might act against them. But in the end, the easy promise of getting horses without any victims fighting back seemed to be the most persuasive.

“We don’t know where this egg is, but we will find it. If we find it for you, you will give us the horses?” the sandy brown-haired one said.

“Of course,” I said.

“Yes, yes, come with us. We take you to heZZoo, she gets all weird things. She will know.” The ogre men took us, ambling along for about an hour, to what must have been a small trading area, but there was an older ogre woman there and her eyes lit up when she saw us and then her face went slack with anticipated with pleasure when I told her about the gift of our horses.

“The horses will be in return for a strange egg—one that you may have received recently. Taken from some travelers nearby.”

“That egg?” she scoffed. “Why are you interested in it? It’s too hard to use for anything. Stone.”

But interested I was and when I dismounted from the horse, she eventually led me to a trash pile filled with an assortment of bones and…other things that vaguely made me gag. I promised to reward the ogres shortly and asked that they sit down to wait for the horses.

I picked up the egg. No matter what the ogre said, it didn’t feel like stone. It certainly felt hard, but there was a warmth to it. It felt different. Different in some way that I couldn’t explain. If I hadn’t known what it was, maybe I would have thought it was stone, warmed by the sun. But the image from the dragon was clear in my mind and I knew that I held a dragon’s egg in my hand. It was probably just my imagination, but it felt slightly magical, as if it contained something truly special inside.

I explained to the ogres that, for their safety, we would be bringing the horses to them, but before we could leave the horses, we needed to tie up the ogres or else the horses would spook and flee.

heZZoo seemed skeptical, but the three other ogres talked her around, with some assistance for my part. And then, obligingly, all the ogres sat down, so several men quickly bound them up.

We left quickly, the ogres furious yells rising up behind us. For a moment, I felt the strange pull of their words and then the noise of the horses’ hoofs covered up the ogres’ yells and I felt sheer relief.

We had barely left the Fens when the amethyst dragon came down, its wings flapping furiously before it pulled itself up and carefully landed on a large rock next to our group.

The men immediately took a defensive position around us, on guard against ogres coming upon us unaware. I went over to the dragon and handed the dragon the egg. Carefully, the dragon took the egg in its claws. Its whole body seemed to relax and it stared at me. It said something to me quickly, but the words moved too fast for me to try and catch any of it. Not that I would have known what it was saying even if I could have heard it.

But the dragon’s meaning was clear. It meant thank you.

“You’re welcome,” I said. After a long look, the dragon reached out its snout and very carefully pressed it against my head. I stood as still as could be, but it was just that and nothing more.

With one more word, “Effelveeli,” the dragon took off in the air, back in the direction that we’d come.

We went with Jerome’s men back to Cana. I’d hoped with all my heart that the dragons would be gone but I still felt a sense of bittersweet emotion sweep over to me when we arrived to see the town bustling with activity and no dragons to be found.

I wondered if I would ever see a dragon again.

When we made it into the center of the city, everyone seemed to be there, laughing and crying, and it doubled when they saw Jerome and his men.

Naomi found me and she was crying. She gave me the biggest hug. “Ella, you did it!” she said. “They’re gone. They’re gone.” I found myself crying as well and I hugged her back. “I’m so happy,” she said into my arms.

It couldn’t be hidden anymore who Char and I were, not now that Jerome and his men were back in the town. I saw everyone assessing Char and me, but Naomi’s demeanor didn’t change at all when she heard.

“Somehow, it didn’t surprise me,” was all she said.

It was a good thing that we got back when we did—Jerome’s original plan had succeeded and the royal guard had showed up in force.

Jerome’s message must have been very convincing. Not just Char’s guard was there, Sir Aubrey, Sir Stephan and everyone else, but at least five hundred members of the royal guard. I was uncomfortably glad that the dragons were gone and that Char and I were there to explain what had happened.

And explain we did. It took Char some considerable time to get the royal guard to understand that Jerome and his men shouldn’t be prosecuted. The captain of the guard wanted to take Jerome and the men back to Frell for an accounting with King Jerrold, but Char convinced them that it wasn’t necessary.

The guard did insist on escorting us back to Frell. I suppose that wasn’t too bad of a compromise, although I couldn’t exactly recommend travelling with a guard of five hundred plus men.

Back in the coach, Char and I sat side by side and watched Cana disappear into the distance.

“The lady rescuer,” I said.

“I do like that one,” Char said thoughtfully, “although perhaps you might be confused with other lady rescuers.”

He had a good point. “I’ll find one,” I promised.            

“I’m counting on it,” he said, pressing a kiss to the back of my hand. He thought for a few minutes and then said, “Ella the inventive. You always seem to come up with a plan.”

“I feel like I’d need to start being an inventor with that title,” I said. “How do you feel about turning one of the rooms in the palace into a workshop?” Char laughed at that.

“You know that I would happily give you a workshop,” he said. I did, I knew it very well.

 “Court Linguist,” I said. That was something that I did want to do, far more than try to invent contraptions. I thought about getting to spend time studying languages and traveling to different courts and learning new ones. I couldn’t help the smile that came across my face.  

“I think that I can live with that,” Char said. “Ella, my wife, and the Court Linguist.”