Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Page 27

  “So what do we do?” I begged, my eyes fixed on the dragon, drawing ever closer to us. “What do I do?”

  “Don’t let him find the rest of the relics that I’ve hidden. Stop him and stop Fate once and for all. Destroy any monsters that they put in your way, and don’t let them find a way to get into The World That Is.”

  “But how?” I asked.

  “That…” Esmeralda bowed her head and I watched in horror as she began to fade away. “I do not know.”

  “Esmeralda!”

  She looked up at me again, her eyes glowing constant even as her body started to shimmer like a heat mirage.

  “Don’t.” I held out a hand to her. “Don’t go. Stay and help us defeat him. Then we can all be free. All of us.”

  “Oh, Your Majesty,” she sighed. “I am always with you.”

  The cat disappeared then, and I heard the beat of the dragon’s wings as it flew closer.

  “This world, Nerissette, is mine,” the Fate Maker’s voice taunted from inside my mind. “And I’m coming for it.”

  Instead of fleeing I stood my ground, waiting, terrified but holding my head high as the dragon swooped lower. He veered toward me as if to tackle me to the ground. No matter what happened, though, I knew I wouldn’t move. I was firm, steady, and this—this—was nothing more than a dream.

  “Your Majesty?” A soft voice sounded next to me, and I felt a touch on my shoulder, jerking me out of my nightmare. The small, smiling maid was leaning over me. “Your Majesty, you were screaming in your sleep. Again.”

  “Right.” I swallowed and then sat up. “Sorry. It was just a dream. Just a very, very bad dream.”

  “Of course it was, Your Majesty,” the maid said absently. “Now come on, up you get. You’ve got your Great Hall after breakfast.”

  The Great Hall. That was today. The one day a month where I sat on my throne and allowed my subjects come to me so that I could pass laws and judge disputes and basically rule them. Otherwise known as the worst day of the month since I’d become the Golden Rose of Nerissette, the rightful queen of the World of Dreams.

  “Thank you.” I studied her face, trying to remember her name. There had been a lot of new faces around the castle since my coronation three months ago, and I still couldn’t keep everyone straight.

  “Brigitte,” the maid replied. “From Sorcastia. I’ve only been here a week.”

  “Oh.” I nodded. “So how is it? Working in the palace? Do you like it?”

  “Much better than working on a farm, Your Majesty.” She smiled. “That was what had been in store for me, but once you came, I knew that I could do better and, well…”

  “Here you are.” I couldn’t help thinking that if war came again Brigitte, and all the others who’d flocked to Neris, would have been better off if she’d stayed put. They still believed the lie that their lives were controlled by the invisible, nonexistent, Goddess Fate.

  “Here I am.” She laid out a brilliant sapphire-colored dress with silver vines embroidered on it and placed my sword beside it. “Maid to the Golden Rose herself. Dressing her for her Great Hall.”

  “Right.” I rolled my eyes at her. “The Great Hall. Yay. Bring on the Great Hall.”

  She giggled lightly. “Master Timbago said that you might say something like that. So he told me tell you that the cook is making eggs in honor of your big day.”

  “Because that’s supposed to make everything better.” I rolled out of bed and started tugging off my nightgown.

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” she said and then smiled at me.

  “Come on, let’s get me ready to go administer some justice. Deal with some land disputes and maybe argue about a pig or two.”

  “I heard about your decision on the pig,” Brigitte said. “It was particularly inspired. Telling them that they had to split the pig exactly in half or they both had to forfeit their land in repayment? That was brilliant.”

  “Yeah, who said Shakespeare didn’t occasionally come up with a good idea or two?” I shrugged.

  “Who?” she asked.

  I picked up my dress from the bed and slid it on before turning so that she could do up the laces. “Never mind.”

  About the Author

  Andria Buchanan is the pen name for Patricia Eimer, a small town girl who was blessed with a large tree in the backyard that was a perfect spot for reading on summer days. Mixed with too much imagination, it made her a bratty child, but fated her to become a storyteller. After a stint of “thinking practically” in her twenties she earned degrees in Business and Economics and worked for a software firm in southwestern Germany, but her passion has always been a good book.

  She currently lives in Pittsburgh with her two wonderful kids and a husband that learned the gourmet art of frozen pizzas to give her more time to write. When she’s not writing she can be found fencing and arguing with her dogs about plot points. Most days the Beagle wins but the Dalmatian is in close second. She’s a distant third.

  http://www.andriabuchanan.com/

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  ria, Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen)