While Dani stared after the two males, Sirki had already lost interest in the topic. “Do you like flowers?” When Dani nodded, her new friend’s face lit up. “Then you have to see my mother’s gardens.”
She led Dani up multiple ramps until her legs ached. It was clear why Dragons preferred to fly to the higher reaches rather than walk.
Dani was contemplating shifting to Dire and doing it on four legs when Sirki finally abandoned the ramps and took her along a corridor. They passed a series of rather stern-looking guards. Each one stared suspiciously at Dani but greeted Sirki with obvious affection.
The corridor brightened. They rounded a corner, and Dani stopped.
The palace was built into the side of a mountain, but the area before her opened to the sky. The stone walls caught and reflected the bright, clear sunlight. Dani gaped. Soil had been hauled up the mountain to create a lush garden. It even had trees. How had they managed to root them? Dani couldn’t tell, the bases were covered by shrubs and vines.
Sirki was beaming as she escorted her along the pathways, pleased by Dani’s obvious awe.
“You like?” she asked. “My mother brings plants with her everywhere she goes. Her chambers are full of flowers.”
“It’s—stunning.” The word was inadequate. Small birds and insects flitted through the blooms. Impossible to tell this was a few thousand feet up a mountain.
They stepped from a small grove of trees and almost ran into two huge guards. They stiffened, glaring at Dani.
“Cut it out,” Sirki complained. “She’s with me, she’s good.”
“It would be best if you went back the way you came,” one grumbled at her.
Sirki straightened. “I want to say hi to Mother. Step aside.”
Dani scanned the guards. They returned her appraisal with deep suspicion. She got it. They were responsible for the Matriarch’s safety.
“She has met me before,” Dani pointed out, although she didn’t recognize these guards as the ones who had come to Tyrez’s apartment. “I didn’t eat her then. I won’t now.”
The guards’ eyes narrowed, but when Sirki’s stare turned into a glare, they stepped aside. One followed them as they continued along the path.
“So are you a princess, then?” Dani asked.
Sirki giggled. “Kind of. We don’t really use that term. My mother is our Matriarch, my father the Emperor. So yes, I have influence from both sides. My sister might be the next Matriarch, and my oldest brother, Taran, will likely be the next Emperor. Me, I will probably spend my life arranging flowers.”
Kind of? Dani swallowed. She hadn’t been aware, really, of the royalty she’d met in the apartment. She’d only really thought of them as Tyrez’s parents.
They emerged into a paved circle of stones, surrounded by blooms the size of dinner plates, that featured benches beneath an arbor. A figure rose as they appeared.
“Sirki!” The woman hugged her daughter warmly.
Once again, Dani was struck by the Matriarch’s beauty. She was stunningly gorgeous, and when she turned her brilliant-green gaze to Dani, the welcome in it pierced straight through her walls.
“So nice to see you again, Dani.”
Dani swallowed. How should she address this woman? “Nice to see you too, your Majesty.”
“Oh, don’t call me that. Eriana will do. Have you sniffed these roses? We crossed ones imported from the human realm with a species we found here, and the scent is to die for.”
She picked up a cutter and sliced through a stem, handing the enormous blossom to Dani.
Sweet, with a hint of spice, and powerful—Dani had never smelled anything quite like it. Eriana cut two more for her.
“Take them back with you,” she said. “It will brighten your day.”
As they took their leave, it all seemed so surreal. Dani walked away with an armload of exotic blooms and the sensation that she must, surely, be dreaming.
Almost two weeks ago, her life had been a living hell. Now, it was teetering too far the other way.
It made her fear for the future, and what it might hold in store.
