Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

As expected, Süren's warships began appearing within the quadrant of space that was on the border between Reptilian space and the wilds of pirate space.

As they arrived, they uncloaked and began winking into existence, one after the other until the deep space all around them was covered with the lights of hundreds of full-sized warships, converging from all directions.

The Crown Prince of Avalia transferred his bride and Lady Gwendolyn to his mothership, the Wyvern Fae, and began working directly with the Emporian ships that had somehow arrived very quickly.

Their rooms were luxurious accommodations, fit for queens and princesses to live on. It was a far cry from the sparse sleeping quarters onboard Erden's Draken Claw.

Süren was so busy that he skipped dinner with Lyra and her mother that evening as well as breakfast the next morning.

By lunch time, Lyra was so bored that she began roaming the ship, looking for interesting things to do.

The Wyvern Fae was a warship so there wasn't a lot of entertainment available, but there was a library—of sorts.

The first time Lyra stepped into the place, she thought she had stumbled upon an antiques shop.

The room looked as if someone had taken everything, from carpets to wood trims to furniture from some place out of time and space, and magically inserted it into an ultra-modern warship.

Since Süren had given her the permission to go anywhere on the ship except for the Command Deck, she clenched her fists with excitement and ran in.

Her eyes took in everything, looking at all the book spines and touching all the sculptures and ancient stuffed furniture.

Everything was pristine. There was not a spec of dust on any of the books and things that looked ancient but had been lovingly cared for. They were all curated and placed with loving care on shelves that ran along the walls, from floor to ceiling.

There were also many priceless objects of art that took up space at the center of the carpeted room. She only recognized one or two pieces but that was enough to know the value of the rest of the collection.

What all these expensive art pieces were doing on the Crown Prince's warship was highly speculative.

To her intense delight, tucked away in one corner was a collection of very old musical equipment from various regions around the galaxy.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a mandolin that she could pick up and play immediately, but fortunately, there were other string instruments which she could pick up and learn fairly quickly.

In the far corner, where she had to dodge a half-dozen other instruments to get to, was a large antique pedal harp. Lyra's eyes widened and she carefully made her way to it.

Her hands touched it with care, noting that it was actually pristine without a speck of dust. Whoever had been taking care of this had kept the harp in good playing shape.

Lyra knew how to play modern harps because her mother was a great harp player.

This was a much older version of the one she could play, but with a bit of fiddling and exploring, Lyra found she could merge her knowledge of modern harp playing to accommodate this more ancient, clunkier version.

Within a matter of thirty minutes, Lyra's playing improved drastically once she figured out the peculiarities of this harp, and then for the next two hours, she was lost to the world and in her own musical zone.

Far from the antiques library, Süren watched his bride as she ran around the music and art library he had insisted on installing within what was once the lounge area for the troops.

Süren had a big grin on his face. He knew she would love them.

He had seen her reaction to all the old musical equipment that was on display at the Grand Recital the first day he had met her. It was the cutest thing he had ever seen.

She had run around with her bright blue eyes, large as saucers, staring at everything and reading all the small blurbs about each instrument.

Since the musical instruments were valuable artifacts on display at the Grand Recital, she was not allowed to touch any of them—and he could tell that his Lyra wanted to reach out and feel them so badly.

It was at that moment that Süren decided he was going to find antique instruments for her to touch to her heart's desires.

The only way to do that was to simply take them from wherever they were located and place them into a small collection for her to play with.

His men had their marching orders. He didn't care where they got them from. They were given less than a week to get the instruments, by hook, by crook, or simply by purchasing them, and then placing them within the musical library that had been reassembled from its original location.

Although there was no way in such a short amount of time, that Süren could get the instruments that she knew how to play, he could at least get her a taste of what draken musical instruments looked and sounded like.

He'd had his men lift items from all the most famous museums on Avalia, along with furniture and decorations to lend an immersive ambiance to the place.

It didn't take long for Lyra to find the stash of instruments he had placed in a corner for her to touch.

And touched them she did.

She went from one instrument to another, plucking and strumming and blowing on them. She banged the steel drums and droned on the didgeridoo, tooted on the pipes and plunked on the keys.

None of the sounds she made were anything that could be considered musical. She was just making random discordant sounds for the fun of making sounds.

But then she found her way to the back of the stash and found the large harp that one of his men had found.

Süren watched with delight as she began touching it with wondrous fingers, getting a feel for the instrument.

Within minutes, she was already fine-tuning it and getting used to the various peculiarities of the harp.

And then suddenly, a delicate melodic sound began to float through the air.

Suddenly, everyone within the Command Deck paused what they were doing and began listening.

Most of his warriors had never heard of a harp let alone hearing one being played by a musician at the caliber of Lyra.

Süren turned up the volume and filled the Command Deck with the music that she was creating from the ancient harp that was supposed to have been a museum piece that Lyra would have never been able to touch.

An hour into the playing, Lyra began to sing along to the song she was playing.

Her voice was soft—until it wasn't. It was low—and then it hit whisper register high. It was expressive and raw, elegant and sweet. It was Lyra at her most expressive.

She sang and played the harp without holding back, gifting everything to the music that was in her to give.

It was all Süren could do just to hold his chest and try to keep from melting onto the floor.