The Dragon Prince

You can call me Ash

The Queen reached for her glass of wine and took a small sip, sitting the glass back down and taking a moment to look me over. I blushed under her gaze, unsure how to react to being watched by a Queen of the Fae. She was, again, the first to break the lingering silence.

“I’m sure you have many questions. I’ve heard this is your first visit to our realm.” I nodded as she went on. “It must be overwhelming to take in, having lived your life in the mortal world.” I nodded again in agreement, “Yes your majesty. A lot has happened in the past two days.”  I replied, trying to keep my expression polite and calm.

She gave me a smile that caught me off guard, and let out a small laugh. “Take a walk with me, young one. I’d like to show you something.” she stood and I rose to follow quickly. She headed to the door and they opened seemingly of their own accord. I looked around slightly puzzled and realized that the guards had opened them for us.

“Us Fae have very good hearing, Arya. They knew we were coming.” The Queen said smoothly, noticing my look of alarm. She breezed past the guards and led me down a long expanse of hallways. The feeling of being trapped within a maze returned as we went.

The hallways corners were lined with the same glowing flowers from the field we’d been in when we’d arrived to the realm, lighting up everything around us. Delightful tapestries of strange creatures and other high Fae were scattered along the walls.

The Queen led us to a door which opened up into a massive garden; filled with glowing flowers and trees hung with exotic looking fruits, whose colors reminded me of precious gemstones.

She walked over to an exquisite stone bench and perched on the edge of it, looking as if she had just stepped out of a renaissance painting. “Come, sit. There’s no reason to be nervous.” She gave me another unnerving smile as I sat down beside her, and looked up into the night sky.

“You may call me Desdemona. I have been the Queen of this Court for a very long time.” She sighed, and shifted her glance to the garden. “My Court has a bad reputation with the others, because of its eternal darkness. Beings that fear the daylight live at the edges of the little light that does shine here. But there is a certain beauty in the darkness, don’t you think?” She asked, as she cupped one of the flowers growing next to where we were seated.

I nodded my agreement, waiting for her to go on. The million questions I had burning the back of my mind as I patiently waited for my turn to speak. She turned to look at me, an intense gleam appeared in her eyes. “Arya, I knew your mother well.” I gasped as she said it, no longer able to hold my tongue.

“How did you know my mother?!” I asked loudly, surprising myself and biting my tongue in embarrassment. The queen simply smiled and let out a barking laugh. “Your mother went into hiding many years ago, after meeting your father.” A fleeting look of anguish flashed across her stunning face. “She came to me when she found that she was with child, and was scared for your future. I helped her flee the realm and haven’t heard from her since.”

My mind was reeling with the information. I had no idea what any of this meant. My mother was friends with a Queen, a Faerie Queen, and was also a Fae herself. 

The Queen... Desdemona, continued on, disregarding the look of astonishment that I was sure was plastered on my face.

“I sent Joshua’s father with her for protection, but the mortal realm takes a toll on our kind after a while.” She said with a sad shake of her head. ”Especially those of us who have been alive for a very long time. The iron in the atmosphere is toxic. Only the strongest of us can survive there for long periods of time.” She glanced toward the garden with sadness in her eyes, and went on. “He returned to us a few years ago, merely a husk of himself. That was when I decided to send Joshua to take his place. Being young gives him advantages, he’s less susceptible to the iron.”

I sucked in a gasp, taking in what she’d just told me. It felt like I’d swallowed hot coals. My stomach ached and my mind was swimming. “So, your m-... I mean Desdemona. Are you telling me that the Josh I knew most of my life, and the Josh I know now, are two different peop-… Fae?!” I was tripping over my words, trying to piece everything together. Nothing made sense anymore, my entire world had been changed in the drop of a hat.

“Yes, they are. Joshua is only a few years older than you are. I sent him when he had just turned twenty-one. That was four years ago. The more powerful of us can change their appearances through glamour.” She paused and turned away from me for a moment, and turned back. When she did, her eyes had changed to a magnificent shade of purple.

“Joshua did well, for none of you to notice. His father was one of my best knights. He would’ve been proud.”

**************

Josh is my age.

My mind was still reeling as I was led back to my bedroom after I finished speaking with the Queen. She’d explained that Josh’s father had been a wolf shifter Fae, and he had served in her court since he was just a young man. He had passed away from iron poisoning after he’d returned here, the healers unable to fix the damage that had been done after over two decades.

A pang of sadness hit me as I realized that the man I’d known for most of my childhood was gone. He’d spent almost every holiday with our family, and I'd spent summers with him, fishing and hiking through the woods around the mountains that towered above our small town.

I knew that he and my mother hadn’t spent as much time together over the last few years, and he’d recently stopped showing up for holidays, but I hadn't thought anything of it at the time. Everything was slowly starting to come together in my mind.

My parents had to have known that it wasn’t the same person. They’d known that Josh, wasn’t Josh.

But why hadn’t they told me anything? Why was I left out of this strange and beautiful world, and why did I need to be protected? Where are they now...?

We finally reached the room I’d been given, the guard that had accompanied me gave a small nod and turned to leave. I resisted the urge to thank him and instead gave him a slight smile of appreciation, remembering my reprimanding from the Queen earlier. I still had so much to learn about this place.

I opened the door to my bedroom, to see a figure standing by the bay window. He was looking out over the scene that I hadn’t been able to catch a glimpse of before I was whisked away to meet Desdemona.

I walked over to stand beside him, finally looking out over the Court. It was ravishing, the golden glow of the flowers covered the large village around the castle. I could see large branches hanging down from above, a tree that cast a beautiful glow that encompassed everything I could see for miles. It finally tapered off at the edge of my vision where it was met with an eerie darkness that seemed to suck at the tendrils of its light.

“So, I heard the Queen told you about my father.” He said quietly, breaking the silence. I looked up at him to see sadness flicker across his features. “She did.” I said curiously, studying his face carefully.

“So, I guess it’s time to introduce myself, then.” I raised my brows as he turned to me and there was a small flash of light.

“Hello, Arya. You can call me Ash.”