The early morning sun ignited the skies scarlet. Tama was already up, making final preparations for her departure, while Princess Amida had been moved to another wing. The Drahian delegation arrived last evening and had been lodged in the guest rooms. At nine o'clock in the morning, they would be guided to Princess Amida's chambers to clothe her in the traditional Drahian bridal robes and collect her. Therefore, at six o'clock, the real Princess Amida was relocated to different quarters to stay hidden. Tama bade her goodbye before she left.
"Take care!" She smiled at the Princess. "I suppose my cousin, Demon Prince Arubah, will come for you from Lunaria when their arrangements are complete!"
"Thank you so much, Tama!" Amida sniffled, unable to hold back her tears. "I can never thank you enough!" She dashed at Tama and squeezed her in her embrace. "Please, be safe!"
"You needn't worry about me, I'm tough!" Tama grinned, trying to show the Princess a brave face and lull her fears.
After Princess Amida's two stout attendants took her out of the chamber through a concealed servant passage, Tama remained alone in Amida's bed. At seven o'clock, Queen Eclaire and a few attendants (who'd never seen Princess Amida) came to help Tama pack. Here, Tama realised her identity was already stripped away. She couldn't take any of her belongings as Tama Raveene but only the most important items owned by Amida, which designated her stance as the princess of Hasurei. However, Tama decided to keep her golden hairband and the skull hairpin since the latter was her family heirloom, so, even before the Queen and the servants arrived, she concealed the two items in Princess Amida's jewellery box she'd be taking along.
When the packing was complete, it was nearly nine o'clock. Queen Eclaire turned to Tama.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"Yes!" Tama nodded, keeping her brave face.
"I'll have the Drahs informed, then!" Queen Eclaire said.
She sent the servants away and some guards to summon the Drahian delegation. Alone with Tama in the chamber, she took a seat on the bed and sighed.
"I'm sorry I'm such a pathetic queen!" she said. "A worthy ruler wouldn't be sending her precious people to the man-eating dragons!"
"Please, don't apologise, Your Majesty!" Tama said. "Before being a queen, you're a mother and a great one! You're willing to go on a huge risk to save your daughter, which speaks volumes."
"Even after I put you through all this, you remain so kind!" Queen Eclaire rubbed Tama's head, smiling bitterly. "Thank you!"
The Drahian delegation arrived. It consisted of five women, four of whom were about twenty years of age, their fiery hair tied up in ponytails, the likes of which Tama usually carried. They wore yellow kimonos and crimson hakama trousers, their feet left bare. The fifth woman was the oldest, about sixty years of age, her grey hair tied up in a bun with a golden hairpin of dragon ornaments. Her cheeks, which should've been beautiful once, were wrinkled and droopy. Her brown eyes looked stern, almost surly. Unlike the four girls, she wore a red kimono dress tied with a yellow obi and expensive wooden sandals on her feet.
"Good morning, Your Majesty, and thank you again for your warm welcome!" the old woman said to Queen Eclaire. Although she spoke Hasu, the official language of Hasurei, her coarse accent hinted at her foreign roots. She bowed to the Queen, but Tama noticed this was a polite facade, devoid of genuine respect. The old woman then eyed Tama from top to bottom as though appraising her and gave her a curt bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess Amida! Your mother was correct, you're gorgeous indeed, a worthy consort for His Majesty, King Gerart von Drachenwelt! I'm Theresa Dienschein, the senior court lady in the royal palace of Belphezar. As per the tradition, it's up to me to collect the chosen consorts, prepare them and present them to His Majesty. These four" – she pointed to the young women, who bowed rather to her than Queen Eclaire and Tama – "are the slave girls from our palace, trained in service and combat. They'll dress Princess Amida in our traditional garments and accompany us in the dragon carriage as guards."
"Thank you, Madam Dienschein!" Queen Eclaire answered with a polite smile. "My people and I will be waiting for you in the corridors to escort you outside when you're ready."
Queen Eclaire and her people left the room. The four slave girls from Drahvelt began undressing the flushed-up Tama (who'd never used attendants for her dress-up) and placing the traditional Drahian bridal robes on her. These comprised a red silken dress with golden dragon depictions and a scarlet veil to hide her nose and mouth. On her feet, they put crimson shoes of the highest quality. They combed her long brown hair and braided small tresses to frame her face from both sides, tying them with yellow silken bands. They placed a golden crown with blue dragon ornaments on her head and golden dragon earrings in her earlobes. They put heavy makeup on her face and dyed her lips red, which Tama disliked since she preferred her original beauty and simple fashion. Finally, Theresa urged Tama to cover her head with a semi-transparent crimson shawl, concealing her face from the outer eyes. When Tama was fully dressed, Theresa ushered her out of the room, while the four slave girls took her luggage and followed them. In the corridor, Queen Eclaire and her people joined the procession. They all headed to the courtyard.
Tama stared at the floor, drifting into her thoughts. She felt like a mannequin doll, prepared meticulously so that an abhorrent man of power would ogle and grope her! She could hardly hear Queen Eclaire's mild tone and Theresa Dienschein's coarse accent exchanging shallow courtesies. Her heart ached with frustration and a lump in her throat burned her. She was determined to see her mission through but felt revolted at royal men, who thought they owned the world and bought and sold women as they pleased! No matter that Princess Amida was a royal from Hasurei – the kingdom which boasted equality among its people – she was sent to the heartless king of the neighbouring country as a prize for his threats! This couldn't be an arrangement made solely by Queen Eclaire, Tama was sure of it. Prince Ishgal must've had a say in it – he was a man who'd sell even his sister for his ambitions! Her blood boiled with hatred for him. She tried to focus on her crimson shoes, battling her tears.
I can't cry now! She kept telling herself. I have to get to Drahvelt and exchange vows without a tear on my face! That'll show my and Princess Amida's strength… Only after I'm alone, perhaps in a dream, can I be myself again. I can't let the cruel Dragon King and his arrogant people gloat over my sorrow! And I can't let Ishgal win… I'll get over these difficulties without fail! I'll make Ishgal pay!
Tama barely noticed how they emerged in the courtyard. A huge carriage of garnet and mahogany plated with gold stood near the palace gates. Golden rails protruded from its four upper corners. Thick metal ropes were attached to those rails. The other ends of the ropes were wrapped around the feet of four giant red wyverns. They sat on the ground with their wings folded up to their arms and grunted like annoyed horses. Two of them belched little sparks of fire into the sky, impatient to take off.
After befriending Ronna in Dreamscape when she was twelve, Tama developed an interest in dragons, so she read every book about them she could find. She learned Drahian – the official language of Drahvelt – while she was at it, so she could read more authentic materials on dragon classification, biology, and history. From those books, she learned that not all dragons could communicate in human language like Ronna, or even access Dreamscape. Only the developed species did that. These red wyverns, for example, were smaller in size than average dragons (although they were as tall as two-storey buildings) and had the intelligence of horses or pegasi rather than humans. They couldn't speak human tongues but only grunt and breathe fire. Nevertheless, they were good at learning commands and served to carry people and cargo. Because of that, they were called Fherd Wyverns, "Fherd" meaning "Horse" in Drahian.
"This is it, Princess Amida!" Theresa said to Tama. "You may bid your queen goodbye and ascend our carriage!"
"Thank you!" Tama replied in her deep but mild voice, battling a lump in her throat. She turned to Queen Eclaire and bowed. "Farewell, Mother! Thank you for everything!"
"Farewell… Amida!" Queen Eclaire smiled bitterly, tiny tears shimmering in her eyes. She returned a bow to Tama. "Take care of yourself!"
Tama straightened up. She cast a final glance at the Vienrose royal palace – the home she'd known for six years – and turned her back to it, stepping into the carriage. Its floor was golden, with illustrations of two dragons intertwined. The puffy seats were scarlet, while in between the seats was a golden tea table. On the seats opposite Tama, were placed two flags – a yellow and a red one. Tama wondered what they were for.
The four slave girls stepped into the carriage after Tama. They placed her luggage in the corner and took seats on their knees on the cold floor. The last one to enter was Theresa, who shut the door behind her and sat down in a scarlet seat opposite Tama, near the windows. She pushed the curtains off, took the wooden pole of the yellow flag and thrust it out, flaunting it in the breeze. Tama heard the Fherd Wyverns give a squeaky roar and flap their wings, rushing into the skies. The carriage lifted from the ground and took off into the air. Theresa pulled the flag back inside and placed it on the seat beside her.
Tama looked out the window. Despite her emotional turmoil, she enjoyed flying in a dragon-drawn carriage. The Fherd Wyverns looked more majestic up in the air, flapping their winged arms. The Vienrose royal palace below resembled the toy castle Tama had often seen in her dreams when she rode on Ronna's back. The city unfolded in its full colours, the blue roofs of the houses reflecting the morning sun. The carriage flew over the rippling sea, the calls of seagulls ringing in Tama's ears. On the horizon, loomed their destination – a grey silhouette of Mt Belphezar, the active volcano harbouring the capital city of Drahvelt.
Tama forgot about her sorrows, enjoying the view, but then Theresa's voice sounded again. Her tone had changed – it wasn't respectful as in the Vienrose royal palace but stringent.
"Princess Amida!" she called.
Tama pulled her head back inside and looked at Theresa with questioning eyes. The court lady's thin white eyebrows knitted into a frown.
"Before we reach the Belphezar royal palace, I must warn you that our engagement ceremonies, especially a marriage with the king, entail strict rules, which must be followed! Since you're a foreigner, you're not expected to perform splendidly, but you'll be judged nevertheless. I've never had my trainees fail in my whole seventy-five years of work and I don't plan for you to be my first!"
"Oh… Okay!" Tama shrugged, trying her hardest not to yell at this self-absorbed woman to remember her place. To show Theresa who she was dealing with, she switched to the Drahian language: "What must I do?"
This caught Theresa off-guard. She stared at Tama wide-eyed, but she wasn't the only one. All four slave girls gaped at her. Tama figured they didn't expect her to speak Drahian, more so with such a beautiful accent close to the native pronunciation. Hasu, the language of Hasurei, was mild and melodious, while Drahian employed a lot of grunting consonants and grumbling vowels like a dragon's breath. For a native Hasu speaker, it was impossible to perfectly replicate Drahian pronunciation, but Tama and her brother were different. They were bilingual, speaking Hasu and Demontongue – the language of monsters in Lunaria – since birth. Demontongue was rougher and coarser than Drahian could ever be, so Tama had no problem pronouncing the Drahian letters.
"Oh, you speak our language?" Theresa asked in Drahian, regaining her respectful tone now that she discovered the foreign bride wasn't as boorish as she expected. "That changes things! You might not be hard to train after all!"
"Let's begin, then, shall we?" Tama grinned, happy that her display of skills had the desired effect.
Theresa told her the many rules she should adhere to when entering the royal palace and meeting the king. After that, the king and the bride would access the Dragon Temple where they'd exchange vows. Hearing so many rules, the necessity of which Tama couldn't comprehend, she began regretting her decision to become the Dragon King's bride. But, determined to see her mission through, she did her best to remember every detail.
They passed the afternoon travelling. Tama felt a strange bump through the air, which meant they crossed the protective shield of Drahvelt. Now, Mt Belphezar looked as huge as Tama remembered it from her dream when she met Draki. The carriage flew over the familiar city of Belphezar, with its many-storey wooden houses and bustling streets, where people whooped in celebration of the royal consort's arrival. The carriage crossed the outer walls of the royal settlement and Tama faced the wonder jewel of Drahvelt again – the golden-roofed crimson palace fit for a demigod, its yard filled with colourful gardens – which she'd seen in her dream. In real life, it looked more fascinating, making Tama's heart pound in awe.
Theresa pushed the red flag out the window and the Fherd Wyverns descended before the golden gates of the main palace. Theresa exited the carriage first and the four slave girls followed, taking Tama's luggage. A man dressed in a crimson robe, carrying a black headdress, approached the carriage and held his hand out to Tama, bowing low.
"Welcome to the Royal Palace of Belphezar, Princess Amida of Hasurei!" he said.
Tama took the man's hand and descended the carriage. Outside, she met thirteen similarly dressed men and six red dragons, much bigger than the Fherd Wyverns but smaller than Ronna. This was the bridal escort.
"Now, my girls and I will prepare the nuptial chamber," Theresa said to Tama. "Your Highness will follow these men to meet His Majesty and will perform every step as I instructed!"
"Yes, Lady Dienschein!" Tama nodded.
Theresa and the four girls left, taking Tama's luggage. Tama looked up at the giant palace, her heart banging.
"Follow us, Princess!" the man, who helped her descend the carriage, reminded her. He, his thirteen colleagues and the six dragons encircled Tama and stepped towards the palace.
Tama took a deep breath and followed her escort, ready to face the Dragon King.