The other maidens echoed her. "True born, true heir."
Jake looked at them kneeling in the dirt.
He looked at Ankerita and Maudlina, who were standing nearby with matching expressions of interest and something that might have been approval.
He looked at Eskar, who was standing by the carriages with his mouth hanging open.
"Can everyone please get up and go back to what they were doing?" Jake said tiredly.
The Dragon Maidens rose. But they were looking at him differently now. Like something had been confirmed. Like a question they'd been holding had been answered.
People started moving again. Back to their tasks. Setting up tents. Tending fires. But they kept glancing at Jake. Kept talking in low voices about what they'd just seen.
He dismissed the system screens and closed his eyes and tried to process the fact that he could apparently talk to snakes now and snakes recognized him as some kind of monarch and this was just his life now.
