(1) Fierce Winds and Fiery Dragons (Dusky Hollows) by Sweet Nan

Author:Sweet, Nan [Sweet, Nan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nan Sweet
Published: 2014-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

MINERVA STORMED DOWN the dark hallways, angry at the upstart commoner. She stopped before the throne room. It was hard waiting for the petitioners to finish, but Minerva knew something of timing. When the last petition had been heard, the princess glided into the throne room with an air of superiority that had taken years to perfect, “Father, I have returned.”

The king frowned. This wasn't exactly what he and King Theo had planned. King Theo was going to set her up in the tower above the underground and send out word that he had captured a princess. While he held her captive, King Glome of the underground had promised marriage to Minerva's rescuer which would be either Theo's prince if he thought her pretty or someone King Glome selected. But the plan failed...and here she was.

“Were you unhappy with King Theo?” he asked.

“Father, I was a prisoner, locked in a tower. And there was light everywhere.” Minerva said the word as if it were the most foul thing she had experienced. To a dark dweller, it was. Imagine living in a world where the light was brightened ten-fold.

“Well, you're back and that's what matters. Come show me your husband.” King Glome looked around the room while his subjects looked up at the ceiling or down at their feet, anywhere but at him, likely one of them thought they'd be married off to the girl who was rather spoiled.

“How could I get married? I was trapped.” The princess put a hand on her hip just above a frilly circlet of lace and lifted her chin. “I would like to have a bath drawn and fresh bedding. Are my royal chambers in order?”

The king looked at his steward who shook his head slightly. “I'm afraid your sister, thinking you were not coming back after so long, moved into your royal chambers. However, we will get you settled into new ones.”

Women were forever meddling with kings. It was a fact that very few princes ever came to terms with until they were well entrenched in a marriage, bound forever to the woman who would most meddle with their life. In this case, Minerva's step-mother, Queen Norde, was the culprit who determined empty chambers should not go to waste.

“Ah, I see.” The princess curtsied to her royal father, nodded at his steward, and with a lift of her skirts strode gracefully from the room the way women who practiced with books on their heads might. Not that the princess would have learned that way. She was much too proud to wear a book.

“My Lord?” The steward interrupted the king, who was still looking puzzled in the direction of the door which had swung closed.

“I'm sorry, you were saying?”

The steward put a finger to his lips, deep in thought. “The princess never named her rescuer.”

“You're right. Ask her right away. We may salvage this yet.”

“Do you suppose this means we can send King Theo's daughter back?” The steward asked.

The eyes in King Glome's skeletal sockets glowed brightly for a moment, as if the thought excited him, then sat back and they dimmed.

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