The Dragon King's Bride

Mother Knows Best

Back in her room once again Lillian was sitting at her large white desk, sketching a picture of a rose purely from memory using charcoal and parchment paper; one of the many talents which she preferred to keep a secret from her parents.

Her shading was perfect and the realism of this one sketch had her quite proud as she smiled at it with delight.

A small amount of black residue from the charcoal was smeared across her cheek as she worked happily on her sketch, completely unaware of everything else taking place outside of her chambers.

Servants were busily working on setting up for the wedding ceremony and the people of Rykiss had started to gather below for an important announcement to be made.

Glancing up from her work Lillian could hear footsteps and then voices from behind her chamber door.

Quickly standing she hid the piece of charcoal inside of a small wooden box, then pushed the parchment papers underneath the desk and out of sight just in time for the door to suddenly open.

“Father,” she greeted the King with a smile as he walked over to give her a warm hug.

“To what do I owe this delightful surprise?”

As he stood staring into her glistening green eyes he forced a smile and then kissed her on top of her forehead, before taking her by the hand and leading her across to her bed.

“Come my child, sit here with me.”

Obeying his wish, Lillian sat next to her father as he continued to hold her hand in his.

“I so rarely get the chance to talk with you, I thought it would be nice to do so.” he began their conversation.

“How have you been?”

Lillian although unsure of why he was paying so much attention to her chose to ignore those concerns and continue their conversation.

It was true that he was normally far too busy to speak with her, just the two of them and she was enjoying their uniquely private chat.

“Uh, I’m fine father.”

“Good... that’s good.” his forced smile now obvious as he patted her hand with his and took a deep breath in to calm himself.

Lillian’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“Is something the matter?” she enquired softly.

“You know you can talk to me.”

Greggory smiled at her kind heart, this time for real.

“Oh my dear, you’ve grown up so much.” he reached out his free hand to dust the smear of charcoal away from her cheek as he added, “You’re not my little girl anymore. You are now a woman.”

“I’ll take your word for it, father.” she replied sarcastically, smiling.

But he did not smile back and this worried her.

It was time to come clean, no point drawing it out any longer.

“Lillian, I know you left your chambers this morning and ventured down to the garden again.” he confessed.

She immediately closed her eyes and sighed.

“I’m sorry father. I can’t handle being cooped up here any longer, I’m bored out of my mind.” she tried explaining, “Please understand. I did not mean to defy you.”

He smiled, though it hurt to do so.

“I know my child... But with your action it appears there is a repercussion. One that I know you will not be pleased with, I’m afraid...”

She rolled her eyes and released his hand, leaning back on her arms as she spoke.

“I take it I’m to remain in my chambers until further notice?” she assumed aloud, “Fine, it’s not like I’m not used to it anyway.”

“No, not that.” he replied.

“Lillian, as you may or may not be aware that a very powerful King came to visit us this morning.”

She sat forward, showing apparent interest in their conversation once more.

“Yes, I saw the escort arriving not that long ago. Um, King Draxus I believe they called him... The Dragon King...” she smiled at such a silly name.

“But, what does that have to do with me?”

“Go on Greggory...” came a sudden voice from the chamber doorway.

It was Queen Katherine.

“Tell your daughter the truth.”

Lillian frowned at her mother’s comment and current expression.

“Tell me what?” she glanced between them.

Greggory glared up at his wife.

He hated how she was siding against him on this vital matter, even when it hurt him just as much to do this to their only daughter, as it did her.

“Father, what is going on?” Lillian asked.

“What are you not telling me?”

His mouth opened, but he could not find the words to speak aloud and Katherine decided to do it for him as she walked across the room to where the two sat on the edge of the bed.

“You father has promised your hand to King Draxus.”

Lillian’s expression changed instantaneously, “What!”

“You are to marry him at sunset, here in the castle.” her father added, somewhat smothered with guilt as he kept his gaze downwards.

Unsure she had in fact heard what she thought she had, Lillian looked to her father for clarification, but when he could not meet her eyes she knew instantly that her mother’s words were true.

“Father... tell me it’s not true.” she spoke, clear pain in her voice as she pulled away from him.

Greggory finally met her gaze as she stood up from the bed and took a step back from where he sat on the edge.

“No...” her head shook from side to side, slowly.

“I’m so sorry, my child.” he spoke softly, shaking his head as tears filled his eyes.

“There was no other way.”

“You promised me to him? To the Dragon King?” she shook her head, this time in anger.

“Why?”

“As King, I had little choice.”

“You had a choice!” she snapped angrily.

“Lillian my child, you don’t understand-” she cut in overtop of his voice, outraged by his decision to do this to her.

“-Don’t understand? Father, are you serious? If you think for one second I’ll agree to this sham marriage you’ve concocted then you’re nothing but a fool!”

“Lillian!” Katherine chimed in sternly.

“Watch your tongue!”

“No mother, I will not!”

Lillian turned and began marching toward the doorway in an angry huff.

“I refuse to marry him and you can’t make me!”

“Lillian! You’ve not yet been excused... Come back here this instant!” Greggory called out after her but his words fell on deaf ears.

His clearly furious daughter pushed her way out of her chambers and began marching down the hallway.

“Lillian!”

“Oh Greggory, give it a rest.” Katherine’s voice suddenly silenced him, her demeanour showing her obvious anger at the entire situation.

“Just leave her be.”

Greggory let out a gigantic huff, expelling all of his anger and fury at once.

Yet no matter how hard he tried he could not expel any of the guilt that remained.

He had failed his only daughter; the light of his life hated him and soon he would probably never get to see her again.

The very thought of it began to break his heart from within.

Still sitting on the edge of the bed, Greggory buried his face in his open palms as his wife spoke again.

“She needs time to process all of this, we all do.”

“Yes... of course.” his words were spoken in a soft and somewhat insecure way as he lifted his head back up.

“I’ll go find her then.” she said, turning and making her way towards the chamber door.

She stopped as she heard her husband’s voice speak one last sentence.

“She means the world to me... You both do... and I would do anything within my power to protect you both.”

Katherine, still standing in the doorway rested a hand on the wooden door as she replied loud enough for him to hear her words, though still with her back facing him.

“I know, my love.”

With those words she disappeared around the corner, leaving a heart-broken King sitting alone in his daughter’s chambers.

-

After a quick search Queen Katherine found her daughter hiding high up in a large oak tree; one of many grown from a seed in the Castle’s main garden.

Lillian had often climbed this very tree when she was a child and it was one of her well-known hiding spots when she was in trouble or simply angry about something.

Her mother knew her daughter well, it would seem.

As the Queen came to stand next to the large tree trunk, she did not face her daughter as he spoke, she did not need to; Lillian knew she had been found.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Katherine announced softly as she casually placed her hand onto the prickly bark of the widened tree trunk standing before her.

“Please, just leave me be.” Lillian said, still frowning as she leaned with her back resting against the trunk of the tree.

“I’m not in the mood to talk right now.”

“Well, perhaps you’re in the mood to listen...” Katherine quickly countered.

“You know your father adores you Lillian.”

“Huh, he has a funny way of showing his love.” she snapped quickly.

“Be that as it may, he would do anything to protect you.” Katherine continued.

Lillian sat forward, looking down at her mother as she spoke.

“Then why is he doing this to me? Why would he promise my hand to such a... a monster? Doesn’t he know what this man is capable of? If he truly cared about me, why would he even consider handing me over to such a blood-thirsty tyrant?”

“Because he had to, Lillian.” Katherine’s words were blunt now.

There was a moment’s silence shared between them before Lillian replied with her next questions.

“Had to? What do you mean?”

“King Draxus threatened to wage war against Rykiss if he did not agree to the marriage. Your father’s hand was forced in this decision.”

Lillian’s heart stopped for a mere second, her emerald eyes wide in shock upon hearing this information.

She couldn’t believe it.

Katherine continued.

“If your father had simply refused your hand, Draxus would have given the orders to have every man, woman and child in Rykiss massacred. No doubt his dragons would have wiped out our entire Kingdom from the pages of history itself.”

Lillian’s voice was but a whisper now.

“I... I didn’t know...”

“Of course you didn’t. It’s not your place to know of such things, my child.”

Lillian frowned; something was still troubling her.

“But I still don’t understand. King Draxus, he could have any woman in the entire world... and he’s not even met me before! Why does he want me as his Queen?” she questioned desperately.

Katherine rolled her eyes.

“Daughter, do you recall what it was that you did this morning?”

It took a moment for Lillian to think, her guilty expression showing the moment she had remembered sneaking out of her room to go and visit the flower garden.

But how did that have anything to do with this?

Katherine continued.

“Well, your little trip to the gardens was by far a costly one I’m afraid. Instead of being somewhere safe like we planned, far away from prying eyes, you were right there as our guests arrived for their meeting this morning.”

Lillian gasped with realisation.

Katherine was looking up at her daughter now.

“Yes, the Dragon King saw you in the flower garden this morning. He got a good look at you I’m afraid.”

Lillian didn’t know what to say in response; her words were stuck deep within her throat as she chose to instead climb down from the tree and stand by her mother who was obviously there to smooth things over between her and her father.

As it turned out, her father was not entirely at fault after all.

Lillian stood before her mother who shared many of her traits; long golden blonde hair, emerald green eyes, smooth olive skin and a dazzling smile.

She could think of only one thing to say upon hearing her father’s side of the story and as she leapt forward, wrapping both arms around her mother for a desperate hug, she whispered them into her chest as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“I’m so sorry mother. I’m so sorry...”

“So am I, my dearest...” her mother replied.

“So am I...”