Dragonfly by Julia Golding Read Free Book Online

stake?
    "I fear we got it wrong from start to finish. The worst insult apparently was offered by Prince Ramil himself."
    The King rounded on his son. "What did you do?"
    Ramil sat up indignantly. "Nothing. You were there. She sent me this stupid paper bird. How about that for insults!"
    "That 'stupid paper bird,' Your Highness, was her personal sign, the dragonfly," said Lord Taris.
    "Didn't look anything like a dragonfly," grumbled Ramil.
    "To hand your symbol to another is to entrust them with yourself--the fragility of the paper expressing the delicacy of each person's soul."
    "Oh." Ramil started to have an inkling of what he had done.
    "Your son took this gift, flattened it out, and made it into a paper dart."
    "Ramil!" growled the King.
    "I didn't know!" he protested. "What was I supposed to think? She came thousands of miles and gave me a squashed paper model."
    "Actually, the squashing was my fault," admitted Lord Usk, his blushing cheeks clashing with his coppery hair. "It was very neat the way she made it, but by the time it reached Prince Ramil, I'd . . . er . . . sat on it."
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    King Lagan buried his face in his hands and groaned. "So we have a stranger in our midst, a princess, but also, let us remember, a girl of sixteen.
    She's come to do her duty by giving herself in marriage to my son, behaving with decorum beyond her years, and what do our young people do? They snub her, sit on her gifts, then fling them back into her lap."
    Ramil and Usk looked at each other guiltily.
    "Suggestions?" rapped Lagan.
    "Send her home," mumbled Ramil.
    The King scowled at his son.
    "I think we owe her an apology," said Lord Taris. "Your Majesty, if you could perhaps speak to her?"
    "I'll talk to her, but Ramil is the one who should apologize."
    Ramil felt hot under the stares of all the ministers. He knew that Hortlan and Yendral would tease him unmercifully for crushing his future wife's gift like an ill-mannered oaf. But it hadn't been his fault. He'd warned his father that the two cultures were completely incompatible.
    "Of course I'll say sorry," Ramil said grudgingly. "I did not intend to insult her."
    "No? I am surprised to hear that." Lagan felt like shaking his son. He sat there so sullen and uninterested in the business, almost as if it were someone else's betrothed they were talking about. He acted as if he had no inkling of the true seriousness of the situation. Gerfal could not afford the failure of this union. "I'll seek an audience with Her Highness and then perhaps,
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    Ramil, you can make your own peace with her in a suitable setting, away from the confines of the court. Do something that shows that you do have a good side. Sometimes I need reminding you have one too!"
    "The Princess shows an interest in the horses, Your Majesty," interjected the chamberlain as the King and his son exchanged stony glares. "She apparently visited the stables early this morning."
    "That's it!" Lagan thumped the table. "Take the girl riding. Show her you can be considerate, if you try."
    "So I'm allowed out again, am I?" Ramil said, folding his arms across his chest.
    "Even you, Ramil, would not abandon a foreigner in the forest. I trust you to show her the courtesy of a host," Lagan replied, moving on to the next item on the agenda.
    Tashi was in a terrible state. She realized she had to face the Gerfalian court again, but now that she had hidden in her rooms for a week it was doubly difficult to come out. She felt humiliated--and knew she was a failure.
    Wrapped in one of the furs bought in the Ice Archipelago, she paced the private terrace in front of her chamber, staring down on the city below her with unseeing eyes. She already hated it here and suspected that the people despised her. Even in the stables, the servants had all gazed at her like some curiosity in a menagerie. No one lowered their eyes respectfully as she passed.
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    On her desk lay the many drafts of the letter announcing her decision to return home unmarried.