A Pirate's Kiss (Wattys Winner 2011)

Epilogue: Surprise

"Brother!"

The Princess was beside us again, Nelonimi swinging her head to the side to playfully nudge Unabonan on the neck. It seemed as though both dragons and the two royal siblings were alot more relaxed once they were back in their own lands, they had certainly not acted like this back at the ship.

"Brother we have to go to the Palace immediately, Mother has ordered it so, she want's to speak with the girl as quickly as possible."

Zalas stiffened behind me and I felt something whisper past my ear, the language strange and unfamiliar. I only heard a few words and then the whisper was gone.

"Very well." Zalas's voice was suddenly hard as he spoke. "I had hoped that she would be busy for a few days so that you would be allowed time to settle, but it seems that is not to be the case."

"Why? What is going on?" I heard the panic in my voice more clearly than anyone else. All of my previous excitement at seeing the city had suddenly vanished and was replaced with cold hard fear as I remembered the situation I was in.

"Hush Princess," Zalas soothed, his voice taking on a musical lilt. "you have nothing to fear from our Mother, she will answer the questions you have, and the ones you have yet to answer."

I took in a deep breath and swallowed my fear. The sooner I did this, the sooner I could get back to Obsidian and the others I had left behind.

"Okay. Take me to her."

* 

We had been climbing steadily upwards for over twenty minutes now and slowly the cloud was thinning.

"Today it is rather cloudy," Zalas stated. "on a good day, the Palace is able to be viewed from the ground and it looks simply spectacular. We could always will the clouds to leave of course, but we try not to interfere with the course of nature too much."

Before I could ask him what he meant we burst through the last of the cloud and I was graced with my first sight of the Royal Palace. 

My immediate thought was that it looked as though it was floating on air. There were no clouds to mar the blue sky above and the Palace seemed as though it had been built on the clouds themselves. If it weren't for the fact that I knew I would fall straight through them, had I attempted to stand on one, I would have said that the clouds looked as solid as dry land. But suddenly I wasn't too sure about anything anymore, were the clouds here solid enough to walk on? But that had to be impossible, Unabonan had just flown straight through them. I shook my head, trying to get the muddling thoughts out of my head. None of it made any sense.

"You will understand later." Zalas whispered and I nodded firmly to myself. My thinking was ruining the moment. 

Once I had pushed aside my logic, I was absolutely swept away by the breathtaking sight. The entire Palace glimmered and shone in the sunlight like the brightest of jewels. It twisted and curved, long delicate turrets spiraled out of the main body of the Palace, reaching for the sun like newly sprouted plants, desperate for life. 

The whole structure was about a mile away and Unabonan was steadily making his way towards it, Nelonimi at his side. The closer we got to the Palace, the more nervous I got. Would I have time to change before meeting the Queen? What would I say? What would I do? How was I supposed to act? Was there any certain protocol I had to follow? Any customs?

I grew more and more panicked as we flew towards one of the highest out of the turrets and by the time we landed I was so nervous that I barely noticed that the side of the large room at the top was wide open and big enough that Unabonan was able to land right inside the room, his clawed feet clacking loudly on the smooth floor.