Secret Dragon

Chapter 15

Wyvern

“We have to tell your dad this.” After hearing everything Elena had said, this was going to crush him.

“Unfortunately.” He leads the way out of the kitchen in a hurry, and he leads us to his dad’s office. I’m not here much, but I’m sure Cadmus is. We get to an ornate door with his dad’s dragon engraved into the wood.

“Come in!” We heard him from inside, and we all went in. “Well, I’m always surprised to see you two, but why do we have a maid?”

“This is no ordinary maid, Dad. This is Elena Gardner, Wyvern’s former cellmate from when she was in jail.”

“Uh huh… nice to meet you, but what is she doing here?”

“Go on Elena, tell him.” She tells him everything she has told us, and he’s unhappy.

“What!? You’ve been spying on us since Wyvern has been here!?" I could almost see his dragon coming out, and if it did, it would destroy his small office."

“Yes, sir… I’m sorry, but Her Majesty paid well, and I gave all the money to my parents in the forest kingdom.”

“Well… this doesn’t surprise me. I mean, it does, but I’m not surprised she’d spy on us. So how about this? We continue with celebrating your engagement when you do, with a ball and your tour. We will give your mother wrong information that Cadmus ‘has some news to share’ She’ll probably come to the wrong conclusion, and then we will hit her with your engagement and her rejection.” Oh, no! There hasn’t been a royal rejection in my lifetime! This is going to shake up everyone! “Maybe now I’ll be able to find my rightful mate or just stay single.” Even though I can hear the relief in his voice, I can tell he’s also sad about what she did.

“So… what to do with you…” He turned towards Elena, and I could tell she was nervous. Being a spy, from what I’ve heard, is a back-to-jail crime.

“Please, sir! I don’t want to go back to jail!” She grovels at his feet, almost crying.

“IF you pledge your loyalty to me and Cadmus, intentionally give Adelinda wrong information, you can stay out of jail and keep being a maid.

“Of course! Just don’t send me back to jail! I’ll be happy with the house arrest! I, Elena Gardner, pledge my loyalty to his majesty, King Ario Pendragon, and his highness, Prince Cadmus Pendragon.”

“Excellent. We accept your loyalty. Now go on, continue as you were.” Elena scurries off, and we’re left alone in the office.

“Well… that was exciting.” I tried to loosen up the tension, but both of them were deep in thought.

“We’ll leave you alone, Dad. That’s all we wanted to share with you.”

“Thanks, Cadmus…” We both leave the office, and I’m sure he just needs time to process what he’s been told and how to figure out this mess. I hugged Cadmus outside the door with everything that had just happened.

“At least we can use Elena against your mom in a trial.” I try to sound optimistic, but it sounds worse.

“True, but I hate that she’s done this at all. Denied my father, his true queen and mate, my true mother… things could’ve been different. We can find out more details about what she says.

“Do you need to be alone with your thoughts? I know it’s been a lot.”

“No, I enjoy your company. Let’s enjoy the garden swing.”

“There’s a swing?”

“Yeah, I added it after the garden party incident to make it a better environment for you.” He gave me a little smile, and I hugged him again.

"Thanks, I'd like that," he says as he leads me to the gardens. I noticed that the swing was decorated with flowers and ivy. He lets me sit first, and then he joins me. The fountains are going in the background and it sounds relaxing. We sit on the swing for a moment, enjoying each other's company, and he breaks the silence.

"I know everything has been chaotic. Between rebuilding your parents' castle, all the drama with my mom, and helping dad... but there's no one else I'd like to be in this chaos with." He digs into his pants pocket and pulls out a small box. When he opens it, it reveals an alexandrite ring with a light yellow gold band. There are small blue topaz stones around the halo alexandrite. Simple but elegant. It reminds me of Hayle's scales!

"Oh, Cadmus... there's no one else I'd rather be with, either. Yes!" We kiss until we can't, and we enjoy the moment. He puts the ring on my left hand, and I can't help but smile.

"Now, there's a second box. I'm not sure what's in it, but Dad said to open it when I proposed." He goes back into the other pocket and pulls out a similar box and a brief note addressed to both of us.

"My dearest son,

I hope this moment brings you happiness like it once brought me. I'm so proud of the young man, prince, and future king you are. I'm watching this moment from a distance to leave you this moment with Wyvern. Your dragon inspired me when I was thinking about this day. I love you very much, my son.

All my love,

Dad"

He opens the box, and it's a rugged black ring with red fire-like swirls in the middle. His dad is right. It does remind me of Volt. I put his ring on his left hand, and we kissed again.

"I didn't know it was a custom for a guy to have a ring as well."

"Well, normally not for the average commoner, but for us royals, I have heard that. Also, it'll rub it in mom's face." We laugh at the thought of his mom's scrunched-up face of disgust when she hears this news! We swing for a moment longer before we hear applauding, and we see his dad and my parents! I ran over to hug them and show them my ring. We had a special dinner, just the parents and us, and we had a good time. After the party, we were pretty sure that Elena was around somewhere to tell his mom what had happened.

“Elena! Come out wherever you are!” Cadmus shouts around the garden, and she comes out from behind a tree.

“Yes?” She approached us sheepishly.

“Of course, you’re here… tell Mom that we have news and we’ll grandly tell her. Do not mention us being engaged. I want her mind to wander to what she thinks it could be.”

“Yes, Your Highness…” She runs off to tell Mom the fake news. We both laugh at what she thinks is the news.