Kneel Before The Dragon Queen

Veya has been gone seven years. The Dragon Queen now moves through the world as a humble healer and beast keeper from the south. At the harbor, she subdues a stray dragon and orders silence. Then she prepares three betrothal gifts for Leon Silvervale—a starsteel crown, a dragon crystal scepter, and a fire dragon egg—because she wants to see who still deserves her trust.

Duke Kael Frostwing is being forced into a betrothal with Lady Cecilia by the Golden Rose Court. If he refuses, they will cut off dragon crystal supplies to the Aurora rampart. Kael meets Veya when she calms his falcon. He offers her a three-year marriage contract: three hundred gold crowns a month, ten thousand gold crowns and a castle when it ends. She refuses. She still has a fiancé.

The front line changes everything. Kael is about to lead a starving army into a desperate attack. Veya stops him. She tells him a frost revenant army will arrive in one hour and hands him a bag of fire dragon dung to burn at the highest beacon. His men mock it. Kael gives her one hour. The enemy appears exactly on time, and the fire dragon dung burns through them. The city wins. Kael says the northern reach owes her survival. She is the woman he will marry.

Later, Veya goes to Leon's investiture as Royal Chancellor. His mother stops her and offers a hundred gold crowns to stay away. Leon calls Grayvale a mistake and tells her to stop throwing herself at him. His mother then claims Regent Martha Ironanchor recognized Leon's talent and funded his rise for seven years. Veya knows the truth: Martha only follows her orders. They are both bragging about a woman who answers to the woman they just discarded.

Kael finds her after the humiliation. He tells her Leon does not deserve her and asks her to marry him again. This time Veya accepts. She promises that for every day he is her husband, she will protect him. She tells him to send the Queen a letter asking for two dragon crystal trade routes and one billion dragon crystals. The Queen will approve. Kael asks who she really is. She does not answer.

At the banquet, Leon and his mother assume Veya snuck in. They mock her clothes and lack of a noble sponsor. Lady Cassandra corners her and raises a whip. Kael arrives and gives one order: anyone who hurts her will not leave the hall. The enemies still see a commoner.