The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko Read Free Book Online Page B

ever drawn her to him. Back then, at any rate. He
just wasn’t giving off the impression of someone who could ever
fall in love, let alone maturely take on a wife.
    Diana watched as her former self, with forced
cheer, prepared a—canvas?
    She couldn’t believe it. Yes, it was a
canvas. Certainly not made of the exact same materials Diana used
now, but there was no mistaking what the that heavy bit of cloth,
nailed to a square panel was.
    The sight excited her. The fact that she had
painted back then too, and that she was looking at herself mixing
colors and preparing an ink pot, was something calming and familiar
that she could cling to. Perhaps this one extra little thing would
help to unlock her memories.
    If before she still required proof of Azoth's
claim, she didn’t need it now. These were her memories.
    “Hold the brush like this, my lord.” Diana,
the fae Diana, said. She moved to stand behind her betrothed, and
wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close until their hands
touched, and she shaped his fingers in the proper way to hold his
new tool.
    Azoth held it with distaste, like he’d never
even drawn a picture for his parents before, let alone paint.
    “There are more productive ways to spend
one’s time than this.”
    “But you will find this one the most
rewarding and relaxing.” Diana’s memory version said.
    The real Diana couldn’t have agreed more.
    “You risk ruining perfectly good garments
with such an activity. If I were to do so, I would rather have a
game of dragon’s egg with my men.”
    As the princess looked to be wearing a gown
much plainer than the one from the day Nyx proposed, Diana doubted
that was a real issue. “This is for exercise of the mind and soul,
not the body, my lord.”
    “You merely wish to paint those flowers
growing on your window.” Azoth pointed at their subjects. “Why copy
their image to look at when you can look at the real thing?”
    Diana frowned as she watched the exchange.
Azoth seemed dead set on causing trouble and being nitpicky. Even
so, she had a view of Azoth’s face that the princess did not have,
being that she was standing behind her fiancé.
    Azoth was blushing as Diana held him.
    He liked her, she realized, suddenly
recalling that neither of them had a choice in this marriage.
Regardless, Azoth was already crushing on his soon to be wife but
was trying to hide it, very poorly, under the farce of grumpiness.
It was grade school cute.
    But the princess could not see his facial
expression, and so she sighed, the way Diana did when she was
struggling for patience. “I will not always be able to look at the
real thing, my lord,” she explained. “The flowers will wilt and
die.”
    Diana took her eyes away from the vision of
her former self and Azoth, to look around. She noted all the
paintings of trees, castles, waterfalls, and people as well. They
weren’t hanging, but were on the floor, leaning against the stone
walls and chests. They were being packed away.
    Maybe it was partly because her memory was
coming back to her, but Diana knew, she knew , without a
shadow of a doubt, that those paintings were portraits of the
various landscapes of her former home.
    The princess was painting as much as she
could because she was afraid she would never see her home again.
Guess that was the way it was back then. The bride went off to live
with her new husband.
    Even though it was ridiculous, Diana felt
sorry for her other self, who was trying so hard to at least make
friends with her betrothed, and was having her efforts met with
such badly executed scorn.
    Azoth made a grunting sort of sound.
    Fae Diana sighed again. “You have been
introduced to my family. My mother, siblings, and uncle. Do you
like them?”
    She was trying so hard.
    “Well enough, I suppose.”
    They continued their mostly one sided
conversation, and Diana watched them as the minutes ticked by,
seeing the little signs of Azoth's embarrassment that her previous
self didn't pick