5.8

It was only after the two of them were closed off in the bedroom that had been set aside for Jewel’s wedding she remembered what the next step was supposed to be.

And promptly put her now husband back down on slightly unsteady feet.

Her wedding finery was ruined, what of it had not been blasted away by divine magic was further lost in her haste to escape before the full ramifications could settle in the guests or her host.

She was essentially as naked as usual, but given the situation that felt a lot less acceptable then it normally did.

Paul was not providing any distraction to this mortification. He was barely doing anything besides swaying a bit on his feet, and Jewel herself did not even know what to say in regards to what had just transpired.

She distracted herself with the bedroom.

There was honestly by some counts very little bed to be said to exist in the space she had dragged her now legally and divinely acknowledged husband to.

As was Jewel’s preference in comfort almost the entire floor was filled with cushions, soft rugs, pillows, blankets and thick folded cloth.

In other regard the phrase was also incredibly apt, it was not a room which contained a bed. It was a room which had been made into a bed in its entirety.

Finally Paul seemed to find some words to say.

“Well, that was certainly a thing.”

Jewel could not help but laugh and shake her head. Once again she was glad that Paul was her husband and not someone like the many men she had met among the guests.

She shook herself off and more of the draped cloth which probably cost some poor throng of women months of labor to weave fell in its tatters to the floor.

Every scrap that had been even slightly close to Jewel’s front was singed black.

“That is certainly a word for it. A meeting to be remembered in song for sure.”

Paul took a heavy breath then looked around.

“The wedding of a dragon, where a goddess was called and instead of taking a vow in bargain bestowed a boon of protection upon the new husband like a supplicant to her lord.”

Jewel let out a great anguished groan of a sigh which seemed to catch paul by surprise.

But he did not flee from her, just jolted a bit in place.

“My husband I must apologize but I fear this is hardly the end of the trials and troubles I have brought you with my marriage.”

He laughed, in a short bark of humor that yet still showed his frayed nerves.

“My Wife, Jewel. It is our marriage now. And I can’t say I have not feared what you might be before meeting you. But as your husband I must be honest.”

Jewel froze, this was the moment she had feared. A man could hide and pretend to be much and this was when Paul would abandon the mask and show how he really thought of her.

A beast.

A great wyrm.

“You are absolutely and ridiculously too nice of a girl for your station or presence. It is the greatest jest of the stars that you happen to be a dragon as well.”

Which caught her off guard. He was sincere, he seemed to think well of her in fact. He despite his initial fear at the ceremony was now again brash and joyous as before.

“w-What? Why Don’t you hate me?!”

He struck her then. Punched with a solid and firm fist right in her throat.

It was of course hardly something that even phased her.

His strength might be fine for a man of his years and size but even with all his strength he could not have harmed her.

“You are a fool to think I should! Why should I hate you? You are kind, you have good sense, you stood between me and the act of a goddess.”

Jewel was not sure why but her voice was getting less and less controlled.

“But I’m a martial lady, I can lay waste to armies, I’ve slain a Weird, I’m improper in everything there is about me! I don’t fancy you like I should! you’ve had to marry me! I’m a dragon! Everyone out there is expecting you to lay with me and I know I am abhorrent to behold and look like a beast!”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

She did not know why she had ended up saying so much, she did not know that she even thought that. But the words were undeniable, Jewel heard them everywhere, she could smell it on the people around her.

She had spoken with relief to Bethica on it. The first being she could speak too who had to struggle with a pressure she had never realized she pushed against all her life.

But Jewel had not dwelled on any of it after.

She had seen it and then refused to look again. Told herself marriage would make everything fine and proper.

That she would be a wife and do all her duties and her husband would do his but here they both were and Jewel had lost her last hope she could feel anything like what a wife should for her husband.

But Jewel could smell it on him, he did not want her.

Not like the Countess’ men wanted the thief she had rescued.

Not like the soldiers wanted the women (and sometimes men) in the tents.

Not like the peasants wanted one another or even the beasts in the fields or forests wanted each other.

Not like her parents obviously could desire one another.

She’d fled here for solace and peace and completely forgotten what this room was for.

What she had just said in parting to their guests.

Her husband did not desire her no matter how well they might get along.

And in this Jewel was a failure as a lady and a woman.

Like she was in so many other ways.

Her husband who did not want her settled down into the cushions Jewel had not even realized she had collapsed into.

Leaning back into her scales with his miniscule weight and simply laid his arm on her back, running fingers through the hair over her spine.

Jewel found breathing that she had not realized was at a rapid pace slowing.

She felt her heart beat slow.

The awareness of her own tears running down her cheeks and wetting the cushions far below coming to her.

He spoke softly after a time.

“It’s true you can hear my heart beat? Smell the desire in my blood? Sense the truth in my voice?”

Jewel nodded and sniffled, but it came loud and haunting. The sniff echoed in her snout and billowed air too far.

“Good, then you know I’m speaking the truth now?”

Jewel could only nod again, she did not trust herself to keep her voice from shaking the doorframe.

“Then you know I mean it when I say I do not care whether we lay together tonight. You’ve more than proven to me every oath we made today. And you acted in more ways than any vow to a god could.”

Jewel finally found the composure to speak quietly, tenderly, as softly as she could. Embodying in voice all she couldn't in form.

“But you don’t want me at all. And I don’t desire you either. It’s a sham of a marriage.”

Paul shrugged hard and just kept stroking the hair of her mane he could reach.

“So what? I like you more than my mother and father ever cared for each other. And they had twelve kids.”

Jewel blinked at that.

“Twelve?!”

Her husband laughed again at her confusion.

“Only eight survived, but that’s not including the one or two bastards I hear mother had before she married.”

Jewel stared at nothing in particular considering it.

“So many...”

To which Paul sighed and patted her rib cage hard enough the sound thumped in her lungs.

“Your family is extremely small by any standard Jewel.”

Jewel could not deny that.

“Besides I’d not be the first lord to take some time with brothels or courtesans. It’s not like you need to deprive me of those pleasures.”

Jewel, his wife stared at him, aghast and horrified by the suggestion.

“Absolutely not.”

For the first time Paul looked upset, he was shifting to get up to his feet so he could be a little closer to her eye level.

“Now see here Jewel! A man has needs and why would you mind? Neither of us fancies the other.”

He was still struggling to try and escape the position he had sunk into against her side. But Jewel could not stand for this. A marriage without him fathering offspring was one thing but infidelity was quite another.

“My husband, you shall not lie with any woman, who is not your wife-”

He made a strangled noise of protest but jewel simply covered him with her wing to smother the words.

“Or an officially acknowledged and sworn concubine bound to our union.”

Which for some reason melted all resistance or struggle to reach his feet that Paul had strived for.

His voice was muffled by her wing membrane.

“Oh... that would be acceptable to you?!”

Jewel lifted her wing back and turned her head around to stare at her husband in confusion.

“Well of course it would be. It’s the proper way to do it.”

Paul for some reason found that so funny he laughed until the weight of the day seemed to settle on him abruptly and then he was fast asleep snoring and slumped against her side.

Jewel for her part shifted her coils around to better support her husband’s neck and back. Then after watching him for a time rested her jaw across his lap.

Soon she was joining him in slumber.