Princess of Dragons

Chapter 8

The three men watched wordlessly and wide-eyed as the young girl practically sprinted out of the throne-room. A moment passed between them in silence, even after the grand doors had closed.

The king felt an angry gaze on him and simply lifted his finger in the Commander's direction.

"You do not have to say anything, Sergon, I know."

Perhaps shouting at a girl, who'd just lost the closest people around her, wasn't his brightest move.

"You went too far right from the beginning, Lodin. But the end was just horrible of you."

The king turned to him with a scowl. "I did not do anything wrong until the end!"

Sergon crossed his arms. "Well, you could have certainly been a much better host, that is for sure."

"I do not believe I was that bad," the king muttered with a frown, then turned to his advisor, who'd been silent throughout all of this. "Was I?"

Narza sighed deeply. "I am afraid she seemed scared of you far before you began shouting, your majesty."

Lodin sighed, burying his face in his palm. "This is why I was against the idea of bringing any more women in here in the first place."

Sergon huffed. "Woman or not, you need to go and apologize to her."

"I am the king – I do not apologize to anyone," Lodin argued, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Sergon sent him a chilling glare.

Lodin sighed audibly. "Fine, whatever, I will go and apologize to her later." There was no fighting with Sergon when he was like this.

"No, you will do it immediately. And while you do, I will have a talk with Arthas about all this."

Narza nodded, mostly to himself. "I will prepare a message to sail back to the Dragon Kingdom as soon as possible. Afterwards, we should send a search-team to find the bodies and have them buried properly." He looked up at the king, who was trying to disappear in the throne. "You should ask the princess if they have any special traditions regarding this if you get the opportunity."

"I will, I will." Lodin sighed, getting out of the throne slowly. He might as well get this over and done with as quickly as possible.

"Walk slowly – you should give her some time to compose herself," Sergon said when he'd taken the first step down his little podium.

"Hells..."

...

Ciara closed the big doors behind her, resting her back against them, her hand hovering over her hammering heart.

What had she done? She'd yelled at a king! He definitely hated her now. And surely he'd send her back.

How could she be so stupid? It was clear from his reaction that he had nothing to do with it – just like their escort had told them.

How could she have allowed herself to do something so stupid and disrespectful? No matter how angry she might get, she should never shout at a king.

"Are you okay, princess?"

She jumped up in surprise. She was without a doubt her heart had skipped an entire beat.

She looked up and saw it was just one of the guards who'd brought her here earlier.

"Oh," she breathed.

The first guard scratched the back of his head with a little, lopsided smile, which brought out charming wrinkles around his mouth and eyes.