Dragon and the Princess Read Free Page A

towed her out. She heard a trumpet blast beyond the wall, and a voice calling. It had to be Jerrott shouting the traditional words. “To horse! To horse! A dragon comes.”
    Rozlinda laughed, broke free and ran, skirts hiked high. The dragon had come! By evening, Izzy, ready or not, would be SVP. In days there would be mother stone and dragon eyes, and everything would be all right.
    Aurora’s child would be safe, and she herself would be free to flirt, to kiss, to marry and have children. To cease at long, long last, to be V!
    She burst into her chambers just as her mother rushed in through another door, crown atilt, crying, “The bath! The Virgin’s bath!”
    “Is it really a dragon?” Rozlinda gasped as her clothes were peeled off. The bell still clanged.
    “Yes, yes! A clear sighting.”
    “And just one?”
    “Just one.”
    Rozlinda heard the relief in the queen’s voice and knew she, too, had feared war.
    “Everything must be done exactly as it should be,” the queen said forcefully.
    “Of course . . .”
    “But, Your Majesty,” Lady Petrulla whispered, “the princess has no gown.”
    Everyone froze.
    The Virgin must wear white for the sacrifice. All white. No other pure white gown was permitted in Saragond. But there’d seemed no point in preparing the costume for Rozlinda when Izzagonda was expected to take her place.

Chapter 2
    “Aurora’s,” the queen said. “Find it!”
    The SVP’s gown was ceremonially burned once the tribute arrived. Last time there had been no tribute, and so the ceremony had never taken place.
    “It’ll never fit,” Rozlinda protested. “I’m half the size she was even then.”
    “Don’t exaggerate. And too large is better than too small. To the bath!”
    Rozlinda was swept into the next room and into a steaming bath. Many hands scoured her body as others washed her hair, giving her time to think.
    This must be what her vision had foretold, though she couldn’t understand how one meant the other. Still, it was good. The dragon was early, but it was here. Soon everything would be normal again.
    If everything went as it should.
    Was it crucial that the SVP gown be new? As the dragons had always come with clockwork regularity, the possibility of a used gown had never occurred before.
    Izzy burst in. “It
can’t
be a dragon! If she gets a dragon, I’ll never get one. Cousin Jesseletta will be ready in time. It’s not
fair!
”
    “Don’t worry, Izzy,” Rozlinda said. “If the dragons can come at any time, there may be one for you in a couple of years.”
    “Zlinda!” the queen protested.
    Izzagonda glared. “You summoned it, didn’t you? Just to spite me!”
    “Why on earth would I do that? And how?”
    “You would if you could.”
    “Of course I would. Years ago. If you were ready, you could have today’s thrills with my blessing, and the status of having made the sacrifice.”
    “Then why can’t I? Mother, you heard her. I can take her place! No one need know.”
    The queen slapped her, the
crack
shocking everyone to stillness.
    “Do not even
mention
the possibility of deviating from the tradition, Izzy. Ever. Go to your room and prepare your mind. By tonight you
will
be the SVP, flowering or not, and you will observe every jot of your duties as your sister has always done.”
    Wailing, Izzy fled.
    “Mother . . .” Rozlinda protested.
    “She’s another Aurora, and I will not have it. Everything must go off perfectly. Everything.”
    A page girl rushed in. “It’s eaten a cow in Prubrook, Majesty!”
    She dashed away, and Rozlinda was pulled out of the bath to be dried. She hurried into a silk shift, lace-trimmed drawers, and fine stockings. At least white underwear was common, but this was another deviation. Every stitch she wore should be new, and only the stockings were.
    Her mother’s tight lips showed she noted it. “Sit!” she commanded, and Rozlinda collapsed onto a chair, her teeth beginning to chatter.
    What if this all went