The Dream Keeper's Dragon

3.31 Sealed

Halbrook's dining hall stood at the very top of Krefis Mountain. The residents built most of their houses within the many caves, which they created too. Hundreds of round doors were attached to the cave entrances and led out to little-fenced gardens. Some of the caves looked as if they had multiple stories, their windows large and titled along the mountain slope. Most of the original scenery had been removed. The only trees Aurelie saw among the dark rocks were those planted in their gardens, standing in neat, little pots.

They did not take the mountain path but instead turned away from the group and stopped at a door that stood on its own, attached to nothing. When Milleanne, Sasha's sister, opened the door, high arches appeared through the opening. Aurelie and Michael followed her through onto mosaic tiles which were laid to form three stones, one red, one blue, and one so white that the reflection of the sun made it very hard to look at. Five statues, all men, hunched beneath the arches which were balanced on their backs.

A breakfast table stood by the edge. Aurelie's ears blocked as soon as she released her hand from the door, and her stomach turned. She had snuck into her quarters early that morning and heard a knock on her door about ten minutes later. A young girl brought her a fresh change of clothes with a written invitation to breakfast.

They sat down at the table, overlooking the colorful paths of the plantations below. Aurelie could not see the witches and wizards working them, they sat much too high up for that.

"We hire a lot of your humans," Milleanne said, looking down along with them, "to help with the harvest."

"Do any of them live nearby?" Aurelie asked.

"It has significantly increased over the years. There's work and there's food—fresh spring water on the west end of the mountain. My point is, we've established quite a community here, without the crown's help. Traveling merchants come by daily, purchasing the daily harvest and transporting it to the city, the humans have opened their own shops that sell our goods in the nearby villages. We don't want our way of living to be disturbed. Your father has made it impossible for us to live anywhere else but here, or to even roam the kingdom without the fear of being . . . consumed."

Aurelie looked away from the plantations and focused on Milleanne. Her hands were folded over her chest, just their wrists showing between the slit of her bear hide cloak. The mountain had been incredibly chilly. The corners of the floor were filled with snow where the workers could not reach with a broom.

"We have an agreement," Aurelie said. "I won't back out if your side comes through."

"I've had agreements with many kingdoms." Milleanne winked. "Do you care to know how many stood true to their word?"

Aurelie started to speak, but the squeak of Michael's chair interrupted her. "My Queen does not make empty promises."

"I can speak for myself, thank you, Michael."

Milleanne glanced over Michael, her eyes lightened with age but vicious with sharpness. "A young man ought to defend and love his Queen." She nodded in approval. "But you have your kingdom, or maybe even just her as your one and only charge, and I have this place. Though I want to trust Her Majesty, we have very different priorities."

"Actually we do not. Unless you want my grandfather, who plotted this whole mess, to gain back his control over the kingdom, we are on the very same side. My uncle doesn't care for his magic. In the seventeen years that I lived with him, I only ever saw him appreciate it when he didn't have to wait for his supper to cool."

She nodded. "We've drawn up a contract." Milleanne pulled a paper out of the inside of her cloak and passed it over the table.

Aurelie read through it carefully, relieved that the contract was simply written and not riddled with foreign words and phrases of entrapment. The binding between Aurelie's bloodline and the council's would be held a secret from everyone but the four members of the council, the Holver's and whomever else Aurelie decided to tell, which now included Michael.