Dragon Heart by Cecelia Holland Read Free Book Online Page B

each.”
    Dawd said, unthinking, “One per cup?” and she turned quickly and smiled.
    â€œYes,” she said, and he saw he had cheated himself: she would have taken one penny for all of them. But already the men were moving toward the keg on the porch and she was taking down cups from her rack. As he went up among them she thrust her hand out. He dropped six more pennies into it, and she gave him ale.
    It was good ale, too, and he drank deep. But being cheated still rankled him.
    *   *   *
    They were all monsters, the Archduke Erdhart thought, looking around the hall. They wore human faces to beguile the world, but the truth about them always showed through. Knowing that made it easier to plan what he had to do. He placed his hands together before him and thought this all over.
    The two Princesses sat on his left side, beyond their mother. They were beautiful, Mervaly round and bubbling, Casea quieter, slender, pale, both with the hair of the family, the red of late oak leaves, the red of poison. Mervaly was always laughing, an unseemly merriment, no decorum in that woman, no sense of her rightful place. He would deal with that.
    Casea had already formed all the objects around her into straight lines; now she was arranging them by size. While he watched she lifted her eyes and stared at him. For a moment she seemed not to see him at all, only some other object she had to put in order.
    He would deal with that, too. He would deal with all of them. He laid his hands together in front of him, palm on palm, admiring the flicker of the ruby on his long white forefinger. Marioza would have to yield, in time. Make him King here, by the law as well as conquest. His brother had insisted on that: bind them with the laws, until no one there can draw so much as a free breath.
    Under that, the unspoken: fail me once more, Erdhart, and you’ll never see the Holy City again.
    He did not mean to fail. This ocean kingdom was small, weak, with no army, and he would bring it under him as he brought its Queen under him. Then he would have a place to advance himself within the Empire, force his way back into his brother’s councils, even … aspire … He stopped thinking about that. Not yet. He watched the red light against his white skin, charmed.
    There was, certainly, little to like about Castle Ocean itself, and he would have to move to a better place, once he was truly King. Inland, out of reach of the sea. He moved his gaze around the hall again, long and low as a cave, which was probably how it had begun, a wretched cave, the walls and ceiling of solid rock. Even the great winged chair he sat on was carved from the rock; he shifted his weight, uncomfortable on the hard, uneven seat.
    Before him the great room opened up onto a broad terrace that overhung the sea. Now with the rain beating down from the west they had sealed that end of the room behind a wooden barrier, but the wind still swirled around, fluttering all the rush lights. Several fires burned in the hearths around the room, and he had to admit it was warm enough, but the light was very strange, like being underwater.
    He frowned down at the rest of the court, seated at the inferior tables. His own officers sat nearest him; he had always insisted on this. Below, at the far side of the hall, were the local people—the kinsmen of the King, some such designation. Old men and women, of no consequence. Some lived in the castle, some in the town, and they did nothing but gobble food. They barely acknowledged even that he was there, stared through him, never spoke. Once he was married to the Queen, he would send all them out, to feed themselves. Leave them here, when he moved inland.
    A servant had brought him wine, which he did not drink. Instead, after he had seen Marioza, on his right, take several sips of her cup, he exchanged his cup for hers. Her long, colorless eyes slanted toward him and the massy bundle of her body