The Dragons of Summer by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Jeffe Kennedy
Published: 2019-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

~ 9 ~

“They were both astonishingly beautiful,” I remembered. “As elegant and polished as the wealth of an empire could create. My eldest sister had inherited her mother’s beauty—and Empress Hulda was famous for her ivory hair and extraordinary deep blue eyes. On top of that, my eldest sister had lived all her life indoors, with only magical light, away from the sun, so her skin was fair and unblemished, her hair only shades darker. And they’d dressed her in white silk, diamonds and pearls. She took my breath away.” I frowned. “I don’t mean that to sound…”

“It doesn’t,” Ursula murmured. “She was dazzling. Your beloved sister and the epitome of feminine beauty. You probably worshipped her.”

“I did, yes.” I rubbed my hand along her back, grateful she understood. “I was in awe of her and I wanted to save her. I warned her about Rodolf, told her she should break off the engagement. But she wouldn’t listen. I figured it was because I was only a boy and not worth paying attention to.

“She married him, and they stayed in the Imperial Palace for a week. She was always either with him”—my voice shook, and I had to steady it—“or in the seraglio where I couldn’t go. Everyone was so happy, celebrating the royal wedding. When I asked about her, everyone told me not to worry, that she was fine.

“But we had a reception for her that last night before she left on her wedding journey to travel with him to his kingdom—a party for her that she actually got to attend—a party. And, oh, Essla…” I had to pause to catch my breath. “She was so changed. He’d broken her. They’d covered her pretty skin with makeup, but I could see the bruises beneath. And her klút—her gown—covered more of her, and they’d given her gloves to wear under her wedding bracelets, but I could tell by the way she flinched, how she hunched into herself that the cur had hurt her in terrible ways.”

Ursula made a sound, and I stopped, fully aware of the parallels, how Ursula had submitted to whatever her own father expected of her. “Is this too difficult for you to hear, given what Uorsin did to you?”

“It’s not easy,” she admitted, still not looking at me. “I want to say I’m over that and it’s in the past, but we both know that would be a lie. And what happened to me was nothing like this. I want you to keep going. I begin to understand, though, how you could see so much in me, so easily.”

Not easily. Nothing about Ursula had been easy. I squeezed her reassuringly, then relaxed my hold. “I asked her if he’d hit her and she laughed. Laughed in my face, and I realized that what she’d been through was so much worse than that. I wanted her to appeal to our father, her mother, to Hestar, heir apparent. I begged her to tell them, to show them her injuries.

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