Chosen: Book 1 in the Dragon Queen series

“You can’t keep a dragon. It’s against the law.” Eyes wide, Brunna chewed her lip anxiously.

I held myself back from rolling my eyes. My best friend was so completely upright it was a wonder the two of us had ever become friends. “I’m not trying to keep it. I’m not sure what to do with it.”

“Where did it come from?”

Brunna was so entirely without deceit I thought she might even believe me if I said it had flown down the chimney. “Turns out Pa had a dragon egg, hidden in his … stuff.” My face warmed, but Brunna didn’t notice my discomfort. Most people I had no problem lying to, but Brunna… Brunna was a friend. A proper one. But I still couldn’t tell her that we’d had a dragon’s egg on the premises for six months without doing anything about it. She wouldn’t understand.

I looked at the dragon so I didn’t have to look at Brunna. He’d found another mouse, his fourth. I thought he might be getting full since he was eating this one with slow, delicate bites, his snout smeared red with blood.

Brunna followed my gaze. “Why isn’t it … fierce?”

“Fierce enough if you’re a mouse.” But I knew what she meant. This creature wasn’t anything like the stories of wild dragons that could savage a herd of cattle in the space of an hour. “He’s only a baby,” I said.

Her brow corrugated in a frown. “Is there a reward for finding dragons?”

Now, if I’d been having this conversation with Pa, that’s the first thing that would have been mentioned. “That would be nice.”

“So, what? You take it to the watch house and they deal with it?”

I cocked my ear to listen overhead. No; Pa didn’t rise from his sickbed when that obscenity was mentioned in his house. “No, Brunna. I’ll handle this myself.” The watch was assembled of men with fine ideas and clear morality – and a nasty habit of asking awkward questions. I had a clear purpose for this dragon and the fewer people knew it, the better. I glanced at the creature, who had finished his meal and curled up in front of the stove.

“Who will you take it to?” Brunna’s voice was disapproving. “I’m sure the watch would be more suited to this.”

“Pa wouldn’t want me to involve the watch.” That was true enough.

“So, what, then? You’ll take it to the king yourself?”

I nearly laughed. “No, not the king.” As though a poor girl from Besserton would be allowed an audience with King Haran! They wouldn’t let me through the palace gates – and I’d trust snooty palace guards even less than I would the local watchmen. “I need to find a mage.”

Brunna’s eyes widened. “Where will you find a mage?” She sucked her teeth, still shaking her head in disbelief.

“I’ll go to Muirland City. There are plenty of mages there.”

Brunna stared as though I’d announced I planned to jump to the moon. “All that way?” she breathed.

A week of walking, if I kept a good pace. “Yes, all that way.” And when I returned with a cure, I’d be a hero. “They can give me a cure for Pa.” And then Pa might skin me for not demanding gold in exchange for the dragon. But what use was gold when he lay insensible and unable to enjoy it?

“Do you think the city mages will really help us?”

“Us?”

She blinked in surprise. “I’m coming with you. You won’t want to go all that way on your own.”

My eyes widened. I coughed. “I don’t plan to drag you all that way with me,” I said firmly.

“But I want to come.” Brunna’s expression slackened. “Please let me come, Alliss.” She wrapped her arms around herself, hunching into her own embrace.

I searched her face, my own worries fading. “What’s happened?”

She lifted a shoulder, staring out of the window as though bracing herself for rejection. “It would be exciting, wouldn’t it?” Exciting and Brunna weren’t a pairing I’d have come up with naturally. “An adventure.”

Perhaps she was just letting her imagination loose, picturing some kind of a quest like in the stories we both loved. It didn’t entirely matter her reasoning. After all, I hadn’t been completely honest with her. “I’d love your company, Brunna, if you truly mean it.”

“Oh yes, I want to go with you.” Her eyes shone. “It’ll be something to tell my ... my grandchildren.”

And why did that idea make her look as though she was about to cry? “It’s business. We won’t be going as tourists,” I said gently. Brunna was blissfully naïve. Hey, without Pa I was probably little better.

“I know the city’s ... dangerous. That’s why you shouldn’t go alone.”

A hotbed of magic and villainy. I’d fit in much better than Brunna would. “You’ve been reading too many stories,” I chided. “I don’t believe it’s any more dangerous than here. We just need to stay alert.”

Brunna smiled; she’d heard the plural that had slipped out. “I can be alert. I’ll go pack a bag.”

“Wait, wait, I can’t just walk out.” She was talking as though I’d pick up my coat and lock the door behind me. “I need to make arrangements for the shop – and find something to carry the dragon in.”

The dragon crooned and jumped up, landing on my shoulder. He butted his head against my jaw, which was very sweet, but didn’t help. “I need a basket for him. I’m sure we’ve got one somewhere.”

“He’s quite a pet.” Brunna stepped close, raising a hand to rub behind his ears. “Does he have a name?”

“No.” My tone was implacable. I twisted to face the creature on my shoulder. “I will call you Dragon. If you ought to have a name, the mages can give you one.”

Dragon butted his head against my chin. I felt a pang, my stomach dropping with the pain of separation. That was stupid. Dragon wasn’t mine and never would be.

Brunna’s fingers dropped to where my collar gapped around my throat. “That’s a pretty piece.” Her closeness had brought her within sight of the necklace I was, perforce, still wearing. She tapped the scale that rested where my collar bones met. A surge of heat warmed my skin.

I took a step back and met her gaze, my mouth twisting in a half-smile. “No, Pa doesn’t know I’m wearing it.”

“We’ll put it back before we go,” Brunna said.

“Yeah, that might be a problem.” Dragon nudged the chain. The heat faded. I glanced down to see those wide eyes upturned to me, as though he understood the bind I was in. I really must stop attributing thought and emotion to the creature. He was a walking payday, that was all.

“Can’t you get it off? I’ll help.”

I shook my head. “It won’t come off. It sealed once I put it on. I think it’s cursed.”

Brunna blew out a breath. She met my gaze with a crooked smile. “That’s just greedy.”

I frowned. “Greedy?”

“It’s not enough that you’ve found a dragon, you’ve also got a cursed necklace.”

My lips twisted. “All my good luck has come at once?” I suggested.

Brunna laughed. “Something like that.”

I lifted a finger and rubbed the dragon’s neck. When I realised my lips had curled into a happy smile at his expression when he stretched, I dropped my hand.

“Okay.” Brunna turned to business. “I need to get organised. Shall we meet at the crossroads in an hour?”

“I’ll need longer than that. Someone will need to mind the shop.”

“Can’t you just close it?”

I cast my eyes to the ceiling, as though I might hear Pa’s shriek of denial at so heinous a plan. There was nothing, of course. “No. Pa wouldn’t like that.”

“Who will you ask?”

I pulled a face. “I suppose—”

“Cooee!”

I closed my eyes at the rattle on the front door and the cheery call. As though summoned by my desperation, here was Ma Fowler, poking her nose into things that didn’t concern her. Still, she could make herself useful for once.

I grabbed Dragon off my shoulder and thrust him at Brunna. “Keep him out of sight.” Pasting a smile on my face, I strode through the curtain into the shop and unlocked the front door.

“Good morning, dear.” Ma Fowler stepped inside without an invitation, forcing me backwards. “I was just passing. Thought I’d see if you needed anything. How’s that father of yours?”

“No change. But I’m glad you’re here, actually.”

“Oh yes?” Ma Fowler had been barging her way to the counter, but that stopped her in her tracks. She was used to me pushing her out as soon as I could manage it. She looked me up and down, then found a smile as insincere as my own. “What can I help you with, dear?”

“I’ve decided to go to Muirland City. To find a cure for Pa.”

She folded her arms over her ample bosom. “You?” Her lips pursed.

“Me and Brunna.”

She tutted. “Two girls? All that way? I’m not sure that’s wise.”

“Nevertheless, that’s what we’re going to do.” I was seventeen; hardly a child. “I wondered if you’d be willing to watch the shop while we’re gone. You don’t need to open all the time, just a couple of hours morning and afternoon. And keep an eye on Pa, of course.”

Ma Fowler’s eyes gleamed. My heart sank. I’d half-hoped, half-feared she’d jump at the chance. I suspected her of designs on my widowed Pa, who hadn’t dissuaded her the way he should have done.

“I’d be delighted to help, dear. When are you leaving?”

So much for her worry that Brunna and I were too young and too female for such a trip. I wished I had someone else to ask, but there was no one else I trusted, and no one Pa would consider an acceptable substitute.

“An hour,” I told her. “You’ll want to make arrangements back home, I’m sure.” I edged her back towards the door. For once, she let me hurry her out.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised.

I closed the door behind her and heaved a deep sigh as she hurried across the street and disappeared into her house opposite.

Dragon crooned behind me and I snapped out of my reverie. I had to find a way to hide him.

“Has she gone?” Brunna peered through the curtain.

It was as well she had, because Dragon also poked his distinctively-dragonish head through. “Yes, she’s gone.” I looked at my friend. “You’d best go home and pack, too. And tell your mother what we’re planning.” I hoped Ma Henderby would agree.

Brunna nodded. “Shall we meet at the crossroads?”

The junction at the edge of town marked the beginning – or the end – of all journeys. “Yes. I’ll see you there. I guess an hour will be long enough.”

Brunna nodded and ducked back into the kitchen. A moment later I heard the door thud shut and Dragon and I were alone.

“There’ll be a basket I can use for you somewhere,” I muttered. I’d tidied the shop’s contents so our goods looked more attractive and less of a jumble. We had a basket here somewhere. I just couldn’t remember what I’d done with it.

I squinted at the creature, who was extending his long neck as though fascinated to see the contents of our shop. “If I slung you in a blanket, would you keep still?”

He couldn’t understand, but those brown eyes fixed on mine and he opened his mouth to give a mewing cry that seemed to me to be a clear refusal. “No. I didn’t think so.”

My gaze settled on a tin travelling trunk in the corner beneath a hatstand and a tailor’s dummy decked out in a wedding gown. “I could punch holes in that. Plenty of space.”

Another cry that had a distinct overtone of no.

I shook my head. “I’ll be taking a pack. A trunk isn’t really practical.”

And then I remembered. I hurried upstairs and knocked the wicker basket from the top of the tall cupboard in my room. The hinged cat basket had come in useful two years back when Pop had broken his leg and I’d needed to enforce stillness until it healed.

Pa had told me to add it to the shop’s stock afterwards, but I’d kept it aside, thinking I might need it if the daft animal came to harm again. I set it on my bed and frowned. Dragon wasn’t much bigger than Pop at his fluffed-up best. “You’ll fit. Just don’t grow before we reach Muirland City.”

Another mew. I didn’t think Dragon was pleased at the prospect of his new accommodation. “We must all make sacrifices,” I told him firmly.

I filled a pack with spare clothes, a toothstick and a map. Dragon hitched on my shoulder as though fascinated to watch my preparations. When I was done, I went into Pa’s room.

He was unchanged. Dragon’s weight shifted, his impatient feet padding side to side before he launched himself off my shoulder and onto the bed.

“Careful!” I admonished. Dragon watched me, head tilted, then padded across the covers towards Pa. “He’s sick,” I said – again as though I thought the dumb beast could understand.

The shards of shell were scattered where I’d left them on the edge of the bed. I added them to my pack. I could sell them to a jeweller in the city — that would make my money stretch further.

Dragon’s neck arched so his nose nearly met Pa’s.

“He’s poorly,” I told Dragon. “A curse, I think. I wish you could cure him.” The corners of my mouth lifted at the idea – if I possessed a curse-curing dragon what couldn’t I become? Fame and wealth would be mine. Except only mages could channel a dragon’s magic. And if I were a mage I’d already be wealthy, if not famous. But I was a woman, so if I could use magic I’d actually be dead. Life’s rarely easy. “That’s what I’m going to ask the mages for; so you will cure him, I guess.”

Dragon faced me and crooned. I tamped down the idea that I was going to miss him. That was absurd. He wasn’t a pet. And I couldn’t keep him, by law, however I felt about the matter. So it was a good job I was never going to become attached to the creature.

A cheery call alerted me to Ma Fowler’s return. “Ready when you are, dear!”

“Come along.” I snatched Dragon, flicked the basket open and shoved him inside before he could protest. The latch was snapped before he managed to turn around. He mewed reproachfully through the hatched end.

“I’m sorry. But I can’t have Ma Fowler asking awkward questions.” I collected my pack and headed downstairs.

I sneaked into the kitchen and stowed the basket in the shadows beneath the table before walking through to the shop.

When I tried to show her where everything was, she flapped her hands at me. “Why, your Pa’s already shown me around, dear. I could run this place as well as you, I daresay.”

Misgiving tightened my chest. She was an open book, Ma Fowler, seeing herself with a ring on her finger making her co-owner of Magpie’s. Pa kept his cards much closer to his chest. But perhaps not that close to his chest if he’d already shown her how things worked.

By then I’d opened the shop and watched Ma Fowler deal with our first two customers. I hated to admit it, but she was every bit as adequate as me.

I skimmed money out of the till that I thought I’d need for the journey and collected my coat. “I’ll see you in two weeks’ time.”

“Take your time, dear!” Ma Fowler trilled back.

I grimaced. Then I grabbed Dragon’s basket and headed out.

I was huffing with effort by the time I reached the crossroads, Dragon’s basket bouncing against my thighs and him giving off mournful cries every time he was jolted. I’d hoped Brunna would be there already, but the only person at the junction was an apprentice, the boy staring off into the distance, cap pulled low and an overlarge greatcoat swathing his narrow shoulders.

Then the apprentice turned and I blinked. “Brunna? By the maker, why are you dressed as a boy?”