Chapter Four

Leila was in my room early and it was like she had never left. After helping me wash vampire off me and somewhat out of my hair last night she had left me to sleep and it felt like my eyes were closed for the half a second before sunlight poured into the room and set my eyelids ablaze with bright red and I heard Leila pulling the heavy curtains open. With a groan, I rubbed my eyes and rolled away from the sunlight. My body and mind were already awake, as if they had never fallen asleep but I wanted sleep. I wanted the peaceful nothingness and I was sure I would get none of that while I was here. Not until...I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to follow the road my mind wanted to go down, shifting my thoughts to listening to Leila moving around the room.

When she went silent, I finally rolled onto my back and then slowly sat up. Leila was beaming, standing in front of the vanity. There was a large dress hanging from the stand beside the vanity. Sewn into the fabric was fresh flowers of every kind and propped beside the dress was a parasol made of flowers as well. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, propping myself up on my arms. "What's this?"

Leila seemed to beam brighter, if that were possible. "They are serving breakfast in the garden, Lady Aria. You're going to love it."

"Do I really have to wear all of that?"

"Of course!" She preened, "There is only the best in wardrobe for the Dragon Bride."

I swallowed a groan and slid out of the bed. "Can I at least shower first?"

Leila made a sound almost like a squeal and moved to the door behind the bed. "I've run a bath for you already, and I will help wash your hair. You have so much beautiful hair!"

It should have made me uncomfortable to think of someone helping me bathe but I wasn't. Maybe I was too exhausted to care and welcomed the help, because in truth I did have a lot of hair, or maybe I was just used to strange things and learning to go with the flow is how I survived this long. Learning to pick my battles had saved my life a time or two. This wasn't going to be life or death, the shower that is, but it wasn't something to really fight about either. Besides, I had never been as modest as most of my human counter parts. So, in the bathroom, I pushed the sleeves of the dress off my shoulders and let the chiffon pool on the floor around my feet before stepping out and into the tub. The warm water tinted pink with the left over blood that stained my skin and hair but felt good on my sore muscles. Leila moved behind me and gathered my hair smoothing it out and giving it a thorough washing which served to only further relax me while she massaged my scalp. While she worked, Leila hummed a song that nearly put me to sleep. I caught myself dipping off a few times. After about the third time, I began to wash my body with the soft sponge and the scented soaps and oils provided. Those seemed to wake me up and wash off the fatigue of the previous night.

Though it seemed longer, within the hour I was dressed in a big ball gown, off the shoulder with puffy sleeves and fresh flowers sewn in varying bouquets all over. Leila swept all of my hair onto one side and fastened it with a string of flowers and fluffed out my curls before fitting me with a halo of golden ornaments and handing me the parasol made of sheer fabric filled with bunches of flowers. Because we were going to be out in the gardens, she gave me thick wedges. The straps across my toes and around my ankle and heel all had small blossoms sewn into the rich leather. This was my second day and everything I had worn so far, including my night gown had been so incredibly over the top. This was a life for that bitch Evelyn but now it was mine. For how long? I was two days into my week, yet to meet the Prince and I felt like I was burning through to my end.

Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself that I was supposed to pretend. I needed to stay alert and present. It was the only way to learn more about this world and hopefully come across a way to get out this whole ordeal and back to my home. I'd made the declaration twice now that sleep and rest would make me better able to pretend and that's what I intended to do; fake till I made it. Made it to where, I wasn't sure, a better place maybe. I still didn't know the full details of what it meant to be a Dragon Bride but maybe someone, Leila or maybe Dante, would be willing to shed more light on it. Dante had been very adamant about me not professing to being the wrong person to be in this position. What was it Dante said?

"Listen to me. The Hic Sunt Dracones does not make mistakes. You were chosen and you are the Dragon Bride. To say otherwise will mean your death. Do you understand? And not just yours. That of your people."

Foreboding, to say the least.

I brushed my fingers along my face and under the perfect quaff of hair that Leila had created on the left side of my head with the ponytail. With the motion, I tried to brush the thought of danger to the back of my mind. Men always chose danger and war. It was a knee jerk reaction to fear and misunderstanding. So far in my life I had been able to circumvent that reaction to come to more peaceful means to ends and survive where most would have disappeared.

Releasing a breath, I stood from the vanity and allowed Leila to lead me out of the room and into the garden again. Almost immediately I felt eyes on me though unlike yesterday, I felt them encroaching. Without realizing I reached for Leila's hand. She didn't flinch and patted my hand gently, leading me to a long table richly decorated with everything edible and pleasing to the eye. It looked exactly how one would imagine a table in any fantasy movie. Every fruit was ripe and sweet, every flower the perfect complimentary fragrance, every pastry sweet and flaky and yet my stomach churned at everything.

Leila made me a plate and we took a seat at a table under a large swaying willow but I couldn't eat and ended up in a pool of my flower covered skirts in the grass idly brushing my fingers through the thick blades, my parasol tucked under my arm. I felt all eyes on me, and even those of my little dragonfly sprite handmaiden as she frowned. "You need to eat, Lady Aria."

"I'm not hungry."

She was quiet a moment then said, "Perhaps I could have our cooks make something from your home?"

"Or," I said still playing with the grass, "You could tell me more about being the Dragon Bride." She was quiet again, long enough that I turned to look up at her sitting on the bench. "What?"

"Nothing," She said quietly and tentatively. "It's just that the Dragon Bride is usually more educated than this. These questions are answered for her prior to arrival."

I turned to face her, motioning for her to join me on the grass and lowering my voice as well. "I wasn't prepared at all, just thrown into this. I told you this yesterday. Remember?"

She nodded softly, bobbing her long brown ponytail. "Alright. The Dragon Bride is a gift to the Prince of the Dragon realm. Our realm receives one every century. She is treated to every luxury for a week, the week before the Prince's coronation. On the day of his coronation, once he is crowned King, His Highness decides if he wants you as his wife."

She paused long enough that I needed to encourage her. "You told me that yesterday. And if he doesn't want me?"

No answer, just wide eyes.

"Leila tell me."

The dragonfly sprite couldn't meet my gaze. "You are sent away, but rarely do they send you back home."

The knot that I had woken up with tightened. If the prince didn't pick me I would be cast aside like trash. Great. "How many other brides have been chosen? Is the current queen one?"

"No, King Hydra chose Queen Adrastina, a siren, as his bride over his offering. She is Princess of the Realm of Tides and her brother is now the Lord of the Realm of Tides."

"So how many Dragon Brides have been chosen?"

Leila was stalling again, but finally spoke in such a soft voice I had to lean in to hear her. "Just one... that I know of."

"And?"

"We are not allowed to speak of it."

It was time to switch gears. The look on Leila's face said I wouldn't get much else out of her. "Alright, so tell me about the realms?"

"The only one you need to be concerned with is this one." Dante interrupted.

I tilted the parasol to shade my eyes as I looked up at him. He was impossibly tall with me sitting on the ground, dress casually in black with a sword nearly as long as him, strapped to his back. "Why? Because this is where I will die? Maybe Leila should take me into the city to pick out a headstone and a plot or are you planning to poison and cremate me?"

He frowned, his dark brows coming together in anger that didn't quite live up to the sorrow in his deep blue eyes. "Are you always this dark?"

"Says the man dressed in all black." He scoffed and I waved him off. "Stop trying to get me to see this in some sort of beautiful fantastical light. From what I have been told, which isn't much, and what I have gathered on my own, I am nearing my doom with every day." I stood up but still had to look up at him. "So you and your people can dress this up any way you want it. Dress me up as a pretty little doll all you like but we all know the truth: I am nothing more than a sacrifice. Nothing more than a lamb. I am flowers at a funeral, my own funeral." I was near tears again, and began to move past him. "Ugh, you're all the same."

Dante took my arm, "What do you mean?"

I jerked free of his grasp. "The rich and powerful. Human, dragon, whatever, it doesn't matter. All you care about is yourself and your ceremony. It doesn't matter how many lives you uproot, how many innocent people are tangled in your vicious games for power and pomp."

He had the audacity to look wounded. "The Prince isn't like that."

It was my turn to scoff. "You sure do talk for him a lot. Even as I stand here as living proof of the vanity of the rich and the royal."

"My, my, she is a fiery one."

That was a voice I didn't know. Both Dante and I turned to find a man a few inches shorter than him, with the same ink black hair but he had eyes like sea glass. He was smiling at me, a smile I was sure melted more than one heart. He was wearing what amounted to a Grecian toga in a shade of dusty blue and what I was sure was actual gold fibers woven along the trim. His black hair was almost long enough to start curling around the gold leaf crown on his head. He was golden, a golden god, covered in scenes of the sea.

"Lord Xavia." Dante said. He'd moved behind my right shoulder.

They shared eye contact over my head for a long tense moment before the Lord of what I assumed was the Realm of Tides, brought his beaming smile back down to me. "And you must be the Dragon Bride. My apologies, I couldn't help but overhear your spirited conversation."

"I suppose I could forgive you for snooping. I'm starting to understand it's a condition of your station...My Lord." I was already mad, and it was hard to keep it down.

His smile widened, even as Dante said cautiously. "Aria..."

Lord Xavia chuckled heartily and waved him off. "No, no. It's quite alright." Then he leaned into me. "But I would be careful of that fire around others. It may turn on you."

I stepped back and away, nearly bumping into Dante. "Let it. My sentiment doesn't and won't change just because you heard me, and it won't because anyone else does. It's the truth. Lamb or lion, I am allowed to speak the truth. Perhaps, My Lord, it will take me to my death sooner. So that I may be done with all of you and this."

The Lord of the Tides was watching me intently. Then, for a moment his eyes flicked up to Dante before returning to me. "I doubt my nephew would be so quick to allow you to fall on your sword."

I threw my hands up. "Here we go again with the fairy tales of this most benevolent prince."

He arched a brow at me. "Prince Lucien is a benevolent prince. He is a great warrior and a great protector of the Dragon Realm. You should not be so quick to judge a man you have never met. He is a good man and will be a great king."

I scoffed, half turning away before reeling back, nearly getting into the Lord's face. "Tell me what sort of benevolent Prince, no, what sort of good man, cowers to this archaic and embarrassing tradition of subjugation!"

He blinked at me. I could feel more eyes on me. Most of all, I could feel the wall of muscle known as Dante tense behind me. The tips of his fingers brushed along the back of my dress and his voice came out in a whisper of my name again, but before I could react Lord Xavia said, "Perhaps, with the right queen, such things could change."

"Perhaps," I said, reaching behind me and flicking Dante's hand away, "perhaps, in another century or so." With that I turned to leave, feeling for the first time since the dominating presence of the Lord of Tides and my personal body guard, Leila behind me.

"Well," My Uncle Xavia said smugly, "If you don't marry her, I might."

The idea of my uncle married to Aria made me want to growl like a possessive animal. I managed to just shake my head and fold my arms over my chest as if that would keep the sound in.

"You know her name, nephew, but she doesn't seem to know yours or who you are. Why is that?"

"She thinks I'm her personal guard."

"And... why would she think that?"

I shrugged, letting my arms drop. That territorial feeling was easing off. "I found her yesterday," I nodded to east side of the garden, "crying. But when I tried to comfort her, she nearly tore my arm off."

My uncle laughed. "That little thing disarmed you?"

I nodded, reaching for the sore spot on my shoulder. "She did. She's fast and fearless. I didn't think she would talk to me if I was the prince so I lied."

He nodded, staring off into distance where she had gone. "... And bold." Xavia rubbed his chin and looked me up and down. "And if she was able to disarm you, my nephew, the Prince of the Dragon Realm, its best warrior, then my offer firmly stands; if you don't want her, I will pursue her."

This time I growled. "That isn't funny uncle."

He laughed again, patting me on the shoulder. "This one just might be your saving grace."

I shrugged that off, grasping onto the dark part of my soul. "She is one human. For all I know it could all be an act. Humans are deceitful and greedy. They destroy their own for power. They would destroy us given the chance and you know that, uncle."

"And by her account, we are no better."

Leila followed me silently through the castle all the way back to the library. I moved directly back to the book I left last night and sat down at the table, the dragon sprite beside me. She let me muse over a few pages before finally clearing her throat.

"You are unlike any Dragon Bride before you."

"I'm starting to get that." I said, shutting the book.

"Why did you come into the library?" Leila asked, looking at the books I had stacked from the night before.

"I wanted to know more about this place."

"I will tell you." She said, shifting on the bench beside me. "At the beginning of time, creatures of all kinds lived harmoniously together in one realm -- The Realm of Light, ruled over by the royal dragon family. But humans, the weakest of all the creatures with the weakest ties to magic, demanded a completely separate realm void of all contact from the rest.

The wise Dragon King, chose peace and treaty over the threat of war to gain their own realm and granted the humans their own realm, The Realm of the Mundane, where magic and magical creatures became nothing more than myth. In exchange for his gift, the Dragon King, required that the humans make tribute every century in the form of the humans most beautiful woman, The Dragon Bride.

As the centuries passed and populations grew, the Realm of Light was no longer enough for all the creatures and the Dragon King divided the realms further. The Realm of Clouds is home to all air-borne magicals that prefer to live in the sky such as angels, griffins and Pegasus. The underwater Realm of Tides is home to water creatures such as mermaids, sea serpents, and sirens. The Realm of Darkness is home to all creatures of the night, especially those that practice dark arts or are influenced by the phases of the moon, such as witches, ghosts and vampires. The Realm of Seasons, which is one of the largest realms, second only to the Dragon Realm and further divided into for sub-sections; spring, summer, autumn and winter, is home to creatures like me; nymphs, pixies and fairies. The Realm of Light is where we are now, and it has more commonly come to be known as the Dragon Realm. But there is one more realm, the Realm of the Forgotten which is more a land of exile than a realm, where the guilty and rebels are sent to live out their banishments.

While the royal dragon family continues to rule over the six realms, rulers are appointed to maintain order. And though, naturally, magicals often choose to reside in the realms that are bound to the nature of their magic, the places where their magic is the strongest, they are free, which the exception of the Realm of the Mundane and the Realm of the Forgotten, to pass from one realm to the next or live in any realm of their choosing."

It was a lot to take in but somehow, I think I managed. Her story was not to far off what Granddad had been spewing at me every day since I started my job but there were some differences. Of course, I expected that. Everyone remembered history with a spoonful of sugar; however it went down easiest.

"But there are some that can move back and forth freely from my world to this one?" I ventured.

Leila looked completely uncomfortable but nodded. "Royals, such as Lord Xavia..."

"Lord of the Realm of Tides," I said absently.

Leila's eyes widened at me. "How did you know?"

I shrugged. "The tattoos were a clue. Who else can travel?"

"Some of the higher ranking guards." The dragonfly sprite said uneasily.

Silence must have settled between us for some time because Leila's voice startled me, "Lady Aria, the man with you today..."

"You mean Dante?" I finished for her. She nodded. "What about him?"

She was quiet, thoughtful, for a moment as if choosing her words wisely. "Nothing. I was just wondering if that is the guard you spoke of. Also there is something you should know," she went on, changing the subject," tomorrow night is the customary dinner in your honor. Many royals from the other realms will be in attendance. The Dragon Bride is required to perform in some way."

I rubbed my face. "Great."

"I'm sure you have a great many talents, Lady Aria." She was trying to sound encouraging.

I thought for a moment then said, "I suppose I could sing. Though I'm not sure how it will go over with no music."

"If you have a song in mind, we could look it up." Now she sounded chipper, rising from the bench and going to another table where she opened ... a laptop?

I rose and followed her. "Is that a laptop? A computer?"

"Why, yes, of course. You have them in your realm, don't you?"

"Yes, but I mean my world doesn't have magic."

Leila couldn't seem to comprehend my astonishment. "Yes, well, we have quite advanced technology here. Magic is wonderfully helpful yes, but some things are easier done through technology." She logged in the machine and went on, "Give me the song. I'm sure we can find the sheet music and have the band prepared."