Rina stood outside Prince Aiden's door, her hand hovering hesitantly over the polished wood. Her heart was doing a funny little dance, a frantic jig of nerves and duty. The Queen had ordered her to wake the prince. A simple task. Except it wasn't simple.
Just knock, she told herself. It's just Aiden.
But that was the problem. He had told to call him Aiden. " 'Your Highness' makes me feel like my father," he'd grumbled. But the words felt strange and dangerous on her tongue, like a secret she wasn't supposed to know.
She took a deep breath, puffed out her cheeks, and knocked. A series of tiny, timid raps that a mouse would have been ashamed of.
No answer.
She tried again, a little louder. "A-Aiden? It's time to wake up. Breakfast is... ready."
Silence.
Frowning, she carefully turned the ornate doorknob and peeked inside. The room was bathed in the soft morning light, but it was still. Too still. The bed was made, the covers pulled tight with military precision. Aiden never made his bed; that was her job. His book from last night was gone from the nightstand. The room felt empty, cold. Abandoned.
A knot of dread tightened in her stomach. This wasn't just a prince who had woken up early. This was an absence.
Her eyes darted around the room, and then she saw it. Tucked under the leg of his desk was a corner of parchment. She scurried over and pulled it free. It was the note he had written. Pressing royal business. Back in a few days.
Her blood ran cold. He hadn't been confined to the castle after his confrontation with the Queen yesterday? Or... he had broken out. The thought was both terrifying and, in a strange way, thrilling. But where would he go? The only way out of the castle without being seen was...
"The rookery," she whispered.
Meanwhile, high in the castle, Aiden was cinching the straps on a worn leather saddle. It wasn't his ceremonial one, the one his mother's guards had confiscated. This was an old, practical saddle, hidden behind a stack of empty crates, a relic from his more rebellious teenage years. He was nothing if not resourceful.
"You do realize this is a terrible idea, right?" a deep, gravelly voice rumbled. It wasn't a sound heard with the ears, but felt in the bones, a vibration of ancient intelligence.
Aiden didn't look up from his work. "Good morning to you too, Nimbus."
"I am serious," the dragon said, shifting his immense weight. The stone floor groaned in protest. "The Queen will have our hides. Or worse, yours. She will likely make me listen to her poetry again as punishment."
Aiden paused, resting his forehead against the dragon's warm, scaly side. "I have to do this. After what I saw... what they did to Granite's mate..." He pulled back, looking the dragon in the eye. "It's about time I started acting like a prince, Nimbus. For real."
Nimbus let out a snort, a plume of grey smoke smelling of ozone and regret. "So you are trading a gilded cage for a frozen tomb. A noble, if idiotic, trade. The Spine Mountains will eat you alive."
"They'll have to catch me first," Aiden muttered, grabbing the pommel of the saddle and preparing to swing himself up. "Let's go."
He had his foot in the stirrup when a frantic clatter of footsteps on the stone stairs made him freeze. He spun around, his hand instinctively going to the dagger at his belt.
Rina burst into the rookery, her face flushed, her apron askew, and her chest heaving. She looked like she'd run the entire length of the castle.
"Aiden!" she gasped, pointing a trembling finger at him. "You're not allowed to leave!"
Aiden stared at her, completely thrown. Of all the people to discover his escape, it had to be the one person he least expected. "Rina? What are you—how did you—"
"You can't go alone!" she interrupted, her voice surprisingly firm despite the tremor. She took a step forward, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and sheer, unadulterated determination. "It's the Spine Mountains! It's dangerous! You need... you need someone to... to..."
She seemed to run out of steam, searching for a logical reason for her to be there. "To... to make your sandwiches! And... and bandage your wounds! You can't do that while you're riding a dragon!"
The great black dragon lowered his head, his golden eyes fixing on the small, trembling maid. The low, gravelly voice rumbled through the rookery again. "She has a point, you know. Your survival skills are questionable. You would likely starve before the poachers got the chance."
Rina, who had grown accustomed to the castle's many wonders, didn't flinch at the talking dragon. Instead, she blinked, then nodded emphatically, pointing at Nimbus. "See? Even the dragon agrees with me!"
"Don't you start," Aiden groaned, pointing a finger at the dragon. "You're supposed to be on my side."
"My side is with the one who ensures I am fed," Nimbus rumbled. "The little one comes. She can carry the supplies. And the sandwiches." The dragon gave Aiden a look that was utterly final. He had made his decision.
Aiden stared from the determined, disaster-prone maid to his giant, traitorous dragon. His perfectly planned, solo escape mission had just been officially hijacked.
The situation, he realized with a groan, had just spun completely out of his control.
Aiden continued to stare at the dragon and his maid, who had clearly formed a conspiracy against him, completely speechless. His brilliant plan—painstakingly crafted—had been utterly destroyed by sandwich logic and dragon betrayal.
And then, from the shadows behind the towering stone pillars, a sound broke the silence.
Slow. Deliberate. Applause.
Clap… clap… clap…
"Oh my, Rina. Such an excellent argument. Truly irrefutable logic."
Aiden knew that voice.His blood turned to ice.
Queen Isolde stepped out of the shadows, a thin, victorious smile on her lips. She wasn't angry. She wasn't disappointed. She was… amused.That was far worse.
"Mother," Aiden hissed, panic creeping into his chest. "How long have you been—"
"Long enough to see that my son is just as stubborn as he is clever," the Queen replied calmly, her voice carrying the weight of steel. She glanced at Nimbus, who returned her gaze without flinching. "And long enough to understand that locking you in your room would only delay the inevitable. You would find another way out, wouldn't you?"
Aiden said nothing, his jaw tightening. He knew she was right.
Queen Isolde sighed—a sound that carried genuine exhaustion, yet also sincerity, as if the burden of the kingdom truly weighed on her shoulders."I could place guards at every door. I could assign soldiers to watch you twenty-four hours a day. But that would not solve anything. It would only be a larger prison."
She stopped in front of Aiden, her eyes searching his face with an intensity that made him uneasy."You are going to the Spine Mountains. Nothing can stop you. I understand that. So we will do this my way."
"There are conditions," Aiden said flatly. It wasn't a question.
"There always are," the Queen replied, her smile returning. "You may go—on one condition."She turned her gaze to Rina, whose eyes had gone wide."You will not go alone. And you will not go with only your… sandwich maker."
Queen Isolde looked back at Aiden, her eyes gleaming with dangerous cleverness."You will take all five of them."
Aiden stared at her as if she had just suggested burning down the royal library."What? No! This mission is far too dangerous. They would—"
"They would what?" the Queen cut in, her voice sharpening slightly."They would be a burden? Let's see."
She began counting on her elegant fingers.
"You have Talia, a dragon rider who knows the battlefield better than any general.You have Lyra, who can sense suffering from a mile away—an ideal early warning system.You have Eira, a mage who may see traps before we ever step into them.You have Seraphine, a vampire whose knowledge of the Heart-Eater cult surpasses even our own."
Then she turned to Rina.
"And you have Rina, who… well, Rina can make sandwiches and bandage wounds—which, as she correctly pointed out, are things you cannot do while riding a dragon."
Queen Isolde stepped closer, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper."They are not merely servants, Aiden. They are assets. A small strike force.You are a prince. Princes do not embark on suicide missions alone.Princes lead squads."
Aiden fell silent.
He had been defeated—cornered by his mother's cruelly effective logic. Every argument he might have made had already been anticipated and dismantled.
"The choice is yours," Queen Isolde said, stepping back."Stay here and remain my prisoner, or go to the Spine Mountains and become their leader."
She offered a final, all-consuming smile."The choice seems obvious to me."
With that, she turned and glided out of the tower, leaving behind a stunned silence.
Nimbus was the first to break it, his gravelly voice echoing with something close to admiration."She is terrifying. I like her."
Rina looked from the dragon to the door where the Queen had disappeared, then back to Aiden, confused."So… I can come with you?"
Aiden stared blankly ahead. His perfect solo adventure was utterly ruined.He would not depart as a mysterious lone hero.
He would depart as the unwilling caretaker of five dangerously powerful women on what was shaping up to be a lethal camping trip.
He let out a long sigh, the taste of defeat bitter on his tongue.
"Yes, Rina," he said wearily."You may come. All of you."