Sacrificed to the Dragon

1. Solstice day

“Your Highness!” Lord Penn shouted and ran to the grand table where the Royal family sits at the festival. It was weird to see the older man run and he is all flushed, too. “The dragon! The dragon!”

“What about the dragon?” King Loriel asks his groundskeeper.

“The dragon!” Lord Penn shouts again and almost collapses at the table.

“What is it? He didn’t come?” The king asks and the frustration is clearly visible on his face.

“He didn’t take the girl!” Lord Penn exclaims.

“What!?” This time even the king shouts and stands up. There is sudden silence all around and everyone turns to see what the king will do.

“He didn’t take the girl!” Lord Penn repeats. “What do we do?”

“Find another one and fast! Wasn’t she pretty enough?” The king orders.

“There isn’t another eligible girl close enough.” Lord Penn shakes his head.

“Of course there is!” One of the councilmen speaks up. “The princess is eligible.”

“No! No, no, no!” Queen Lyria stands up and her eyes are flames. “You will not take my daughter! She’s barely 18!”

“Forgive me, my queen.” The councilman bows in her direction. “All the girls we sacrifice are barely 18.”

The quarrel might be entertaining to Katherine, if she wasn’t the main topic. Dred pools in her stomach and she spits the wine out. She is as pale as the white dress she chose for today. Why in hell did she decide to wear white? And why is she thinking about this at all? Father and mother will never sacrifice their only daughter. Surely they won’t. She glances over to her brother and Lear only shrugs, he has no idea what to do here.

“We have no choice, Your Highness. The dragon is circling above the capitol. He might attack any moment.” Lord Penn voices his concerns.

“No! Not Katherine.” The king shakes his head.

“Your Highness, there are riots in the city. People are panicking.” One of the royal guards approaches with news from outside.

“We have no choice. We can’t wait for him to do the first move.” The councilman speaks up. “We have no defence against the dragon. All our magic is in vain here.”

“We have to, Your Highness.” Lord Penn says again.

Katherine sits in her chair and wishes she could do magic, real magic, not just the few parlor tricks her aunt taught her. She would just disappear and hide. They can’t sacrifice her to the beast if they can’t find her, she thinks. But she is too late to do anything and her blood freezes in her veins as she hears the defeated voice of her father.

“Prepare the princess. We cannot afford a war.”

The look on her mother’s face makes her cry and thick tears are streaming down Katherine's face as she is being led to the sacrificial pillar. She can even see the shadow of the dragon in the sky. She is  terrified and she can’t even say goodbye to her family. Lord Penn ties her to the pillar and steps back. There is a huge empty space between her and the rest of the court, what is worse, the whole city can see her there and she knows there are murmurs of who she is. Everyone will know about this in minutes.

Standing there, tied to the pillar and crying, Katherine feels like all dignity has left her. She knows exactly how all the others have felt before her. She only hopes the dragon makes this fast and ends her suffering. She wishes she could at least say goodbye to her mother, but the queen is nowhere to be seen. She hopes mother can forgive them for this, because even Katherine, the spoiled little girl, knows there is no other way. She was listening to the reasoning of the council and she knows their country is a peaceful one and not even close to equipt for a war.

Thinking about it will not help either. As her tears slowly dry up, she finds the resolve to go in peace. If nothing else, she will do one good deed in her life. She will bring peace to her fellow Loredanians for another six months. She can check out of this life with her head raised and with the dignity of the Royal heritage she is so proud of. Maybe the people will see her in a different light now. She faked so many things in her life, she can pull this off, too. Nobody will see her tremble in fear, she will not let one more tear drop and she will hold her head up high. 

There is a sudden wind around her and she knows it’s the dragon. She closes her eyes and stiffens her body. She will not flap around like a ragdoll. She will not cry out. She will not give him the satisfaction of humiliating her. She is the princess of Loredan. She is better than him and she will show the brutish dragon that he can’t break her.

The ties snap off in an instant and she can feel that he lifted her in the air. The claws around her are surprisingly gentle. She thought that he would pierce her body with the long curved claws and snap her neck on the way back to his nest. She can’t move at all, but there is no pressure on her body or hands. She dares to open her eyes and inhales sharply. They are flying high above the fields and she can see the mountains in the distance coming closer and closer. 

I guess this is death, she thinks. A surprisingly gorgeous death bringer. She can’t stop but to admire the beast. He is all black and huge, the spikes running down his neck and tail are frightening, but she feels safe. He radiates heat and she is nice and warm in the embrace of his claws. She caught a glimpse of one big golden eye and the wicked fangs peeking out from the dragons mouth. She doesn’t feel afraid any more.

‘You’re not going to die, so you can stop that fatalistic thinking! And yes, I can read your mind.’ The dragon’s deep voice intrudes on her thoughts and she knows he didn’t say those words out loud.

‘No. I haven’t.’ He sounds amused and she can hear faint laughter from him. 

‘Can we just talk like this?’ Katherine tries with a question.

‘Of course. I’m not a mindless animal. But that is a conversation for some other time.’ The dragon smirks at her.

‘What is your name?’ She asks.

‘You will find out in due time.’ He says and drops her on a platform high on a castle tower.

Katherine looks around herself astonished. The tower is high and connected to a grand castle with a bridge. She can see the grounds are lit with torches and lanterns, but there are no people around. The feeling of loneliness creeps on her and she hugs herself, missing the warmth of the dragon. Stop thinking like that! She reprimands herself. The beast is the enemy! You are not here out of your own free will! She reminds herself. 

Looking for a door, she wanders around the platform and finds it in a nook behind a double wall. The door is unlocked and she descends down the stairs. There is hardly any light coming in the small holes in the tower walls. She would not call them windows, even dungeons have bigger ones where she is from. It feels like an eternity has passed, when she finally reaches the bottom of the tower. All the doors she passed were locked and she hopes that this one is not. The climb back would be too tiring and there is nothing there at the top. Even the dragon flew off to somewhere else.

Katherine opens the door and is surprised that it doesn’t squeak. She finds herself in a lit room with a few armchairs and a lot of books. The lady in the armchair looks up from her book and smiles brightly.

“Greetings. Our lord took his time tonight. I almost finished the book.” The lady stands up and beckons Katherine to come closer. “Come on. Don’t be afraid. We don’t bite.”

“Who are you?” Katherine asks.

“Oh, silly me!” The lady exclaims. “I’m Agneta. The grounds keeper of castle Eiry.”

“Eiry has a castle?” Katherine is surprised to hear that.

“Well, yes! Where do you think the lord lives? In a cave?” Agneta is outraged. “Do you really know nothing down there?”

“I don’t. Maybe others do.” Katherine answers.

“What’s your name, child?” Agneta asks her.

“Katherine.” She whispers.

“Oh my lord! The princess!” Agneta exclaims.

Katherine is shaken that the lady knows who she is just by her name. It’s not an unusual name, like her brothers, many common folk share her name. At least two of the maids in the palace have the same name. She narrows her eyes at the lady in front of her. She thinks hard if she ever saw her before tonight and comes up with nothing.

“How do you know?” Katherine inquires.

“There is only one Katherine with brown eyes. The eyes gave you away, my princess.” Agneta smiles. She takes out a bundle of keys and opens the other door in the room. “Come with me. The party is about to start. The lord will probably miss it, but that’s just the way he is. He is not one for the parties, but we love any excuse to celebrate.”

“What are you celebrating? The solstice?” Katherine asks as she follows the lady.

 “Oh, no. We don’t do that up here.” Agneta laughs. “It’s Anery’s birthday. She turned fifty today.”

They cross the bridge to the castle and Katherine looks around her with wide eyes. It is spectacular on the inside. Gold and glass and gems of all sorts. The floors are marble and the grand staircase is even bigger than in her fathers palace. They go one floor up and Agneta opens a door for her.

“This will be your room. Mine is just next door. Let’s find out if any of the dresses fit you. We don’t have time to alter any, so you get what is here. We can work on that in the coming days.” Agneta opens the wardrobe doors wide and Katherine stares at the abundance of dresses. All are really good and some even better than her own.

“Who do they belong to?” She inquires.

“Well, you.” Agneta laughs. “You will find out that nothing is as it seems. Now hurry up, we have a party to go to.”

“I’m confused.” Katherine confesses and grabs the first dress to try on. A sky blue with diamonds on the bodice. She is amazed at the quality of the dress and spins around to see how the skirt flares around her legs.

“You look good. Come on.” Agneta rushes her out again. “See those double doors on the end of the hall? That is Anery’s room. She is the lord's mistress and the best pastry chef we have.”

“The lord’s mistress works in the kitchen?” Katherine asks, perplexed.

“Oh, yes. Everybody works here. We will find out what you will do, tomorrow.” Agneta smirks.

“I’m a princess.” Katherine whispers and frowns.

“That’s a title, not a job.” Agneta shakes her head at her. “Have fun tonight, reality starts tomorrow.”