Last Dragon Standing (Dragon Kin #4)(73)

Oh.

Shit.

Oh, shit!

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

Pulling from nearly two centuries of royal training, Keita broke out her most dazzling smile. “Of course she is!” she said with a laugh. “I was merely teasing.”

She went back up several steps until she was close enough to the Northland warlord’s daughter. Keita grasped one of the human’s tiny hands between her own. “I am so glad to meet you, my Lady Dagmar! It’s taken far too long for us to meet.”

“It has,” the human said. For the first time, Keita noticed that the female wore little round pieces of glass held between two wires that she had perched on her nose. Whatever for? Was she blind? “I’ve heard so much about you and have longed to meet you. You are truly as beautiful as all the many men throughout the land have said.” Another laugh escaped the barbarian dragon, and Keita briefly thought about flipping him over the stair banister. “And you are,” Keita said in return, “well… you. And I’m sure you’re the best you that you can be.” At this point, Ren now headed back into the castle and Gwenvael forced the two females’ hands apart.

“All right then!” her brother said with an obscene amount of forced cheer. “That’s enough greeting, don’t you think?” He turned his mate toward the doors and shoved Keita back down the stairs. Keita barely kept her snarl in—and on her feet—but before she could stomp away, the human maneuvered around Gwenvael and said, “Oh, my Lady Keita, one other thing.”

Keita stopped and faced her, keeping that cheery smile on her face.

“Aye?”

“Dogs…off limits.”

“Are they now?”

“If you hadn’t heard, it’s a rule of the land. And I’d hate to see you get into trouble over it with your mother.”

“My mother?” Keita asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice. “My mother agreed to a law banning the eating of dogs?” The same dragoness who wouldn’t even agree to a written ban on the eating of humans? Instead she felt it was something her dragon subjects should simply know not to do “unless they can get away with it.”

“In fact, she agreed happily.”

Knowing when she was beat, at least in one area, Keita said, “Of course. The gods know I wouldn’t want to go against my mother.”

“Then I’m sure we won’t have any problems.”

Normally Keita would argue the point, but she was starting to feel terrible about the whole thing and decided it was best to simply walk away.

Reaching up, she caught hold of Ragnar’s hand and pulled him off toward the gate’s east-side exit. And it wasn’t until they’d gone about twenty feet or so that Keita heard the warlord’s daughter snap, “Canute!” She and Ragnar stopped walking and looked behind them. The dog that had been with Lady Dagmar now stood behind them. He dropped his bone and pushed it toward Keita with his snout. Lifting his massive head, his tongue hanging out, he grinned at her.

“Ohhh,” Keita exclaimed. “Aren’t you sweet?” But before she could pat the dog’s head, Ragnar yanked her away, sniffing in disgust.

“Well, don’t get mad at me,” she argued. “Is it my fault males always want to give me things?”

Chapter Nineteen

Ragnar got as far as a copse of trees outside the fortress walls before he decided to stop and face the princess. She gazed up at him with those brown eyes and asked, “That went badly, didn’t it?” And that’s when the laughter started all over again. So bad, he couldn’t stop. He just sat down in the grass and let the laughter roll right through him.

“It’s not funny!” Keita yelled, stamping her bare foot. “You could have bloody warned me!”

“You didn’t give me or anyone else a chance! I don’t know which was better. The look on your face or the look on hers!” Keita paced away from him, her hands twisting against each other.

“How was I supposed to know that was Dagmar Reinholdt? A warlord’s daughter? I thought she’d be huge! A snarling, snapping hound beast!” Ragnar pushed himself up on his elbows and studied her. She gave a small shrug. “My brother has…interesting tastes.”

She continued to pace. “I feel horrible!”

That surprised him. “You do?”

“Of course I do. I never wanted to hurt her feelings. But with that headscarf, those pieces of glass on her face, and all that grey…how was I to know?”

“Those pieces of glass on her face are spectacles.” Keita, appearing horrified, briefly covered her mouth before asking in a desperate whisper, “She’s blind, isn’t she? I mocked a blind woman!” Laughing again, Ragnar fell back on the ground.

“It’s not funny!” She stood over him, scowling. “Don’t you see? She’s probably crumpled at my brother’s feet right now—sobbing hysterically!” Stretched out on their bed inside their fortress sleeping quarters, Gwenvael asked, “Does this mean I can call you my sassy servant girl now?”

“No, it does not.” Dagmar sat on the edge of the bed and pointed a finger at her dog. “And don’t you come over here. I’m still not speaking to you.”

Whining, the dog lay down on the floor, tucking his muzzle between his paws.