“Well we will cross that river when we get to it” Mary replied. “We need to start building back up all the towns we tore apart as well as replanting the fields we destroyed. I think help along with immunity to paying taxes for all affected for five years will go a long way in helping the healing process. We may even get people moving down there to avoid paying any taxes. For now though, I am ready to make my move to speed along this process. How has your program been going?”
“The Red Devils are better than anything I could have ever expected” Pem replied. “Regular soldiers are in awe of them, especially the theatrics. They have all seen combat, although they were set up for success by going against inferior opposition. Once the Macomian leadership were in tatters, I sent them in to tidy up the disorganized army. The flaming swords, the red color and everything had the enemy troops running from them instead of fighting”.
“Well I hope they are even more ready for what is to come” Mary said as she rubbed her hands in anticipation. “Has your other equipment arrived yet?”
“The other sets of armor have indeed arrived although Max refused” Pem said. “During this war there were people who have really stood apart from their peers in the number of kills they had. I have already given these men the honor of becoming a red devil, they all accepted. They will lead the charge inside of the city, their mission is to protect the passages so the rest of our army can start funneling through. By morning I want our entire army inside the walls, I think this would force many to just give up”.
“Well then by tomorrow I want to be laying down inside my own bed” The Queen said as she let out a smile.
The plan came together brilliantly Mary thought. She had Max fly by the south side of the city, just outside of ballista range. Many men pointed and screamed as the dragon spouted flame into the sky. Max was just a distraction, as were the visible troops backed by the original red devils. When Mary received word that her men were able to get inside the capital, she knew it was all a matter of time. They each had jobs to do, the main one being to stay hidden as the rest of her men slowly broke off from the distraction group and joined the main army inside. By the morning’s light Mary only had less than a tenth of her army outside the walls, she was not surprised when the main gates were opened or to see Duchess Pem waiting for her.
Once inside Mary went to work quickly, she already knew where her enemies were staying, at least those not living in the palace. Mary had them depowered and sent away, given a military escort to the borderlands. The school administration was also overturned all Dragoon riders were sent away as well. Their animals would be given to the Red devils or to Mary’s loyal allies; their former owners would have all of their assets seized as well. The only thing left was to enter the palace itself, Yadia had to worried now. All of her red devils were present, Max was there at the front of her troops as she had the place surrounded. Her palace had a couple of secret exits, Mary would not use them though, they would only serve to let any future enemies know how to sneak in.
“I will only say this once” Mary said ensuring her voice was heard. “Anyone who does wish to die should leave my palace. The rest of my enemies I have shown a mercy to, those of you in my home will be taken out and publicly executed. Come out now or the Red devils are going in”.
Mary kept stone faced as she saw the guards from the palace open the place up and leave. One of them was shot by someone still inside, perhaps seeing them as traitors. What was surprising thought was that none of the people coming out were mages or military leaders that had fled there. Mary sent the order and the first wave of Red Devil’s poured inside. Two of them were killed quickly when they ran into Gaul Blackstone who was duel wielding two thin blades. The men didn’t even have time to defend themselves when he jumped out from behind the door and stabbed them through their helms. A red devil covered his face and charged into the man, Gaul side stepped him and instead plunged his sword deep between the space where the helm and armor met at the back of the neck. This left him with only one sword but the red devils were backing up off of him rethinking their strategy. Just then a heavily armored version of the red devils came stumbling up. The man inside was slow moving with all of that weight but succeeded into throwing the door open and grabbing Blackstone who was then ran through by many swords. Other than that defiance her troops went through the palace efficiently enough, after an hour or so Duchess Pem walked inside to ensure it was safe.
Mary watched as bodies were carried outside and dumped. These were mostly servants with a few soldiers. What she didn’t see was Raisa or Yadia but if they escaped it didn’t bother her too much. After all they will have no power or support, at least not from any of the mages around. Mary stepped into her home and was glad to see not much had changed other than some tapestries. The next part though would test her skill as a leader. Mary walked to her tea room, it was a small place that no one was allowed and made to look sparse. She could see Yadia attempted to do something with it but had not found her secret passage. Mary took it all the way down, even below the dungeon. Once she got there she was relieved to see the various mirrors set up still worked to let in light from above. Curled up in a corner though was what she was looking for, her dragon.
It looked much more delicate than Xander did, there were no horns and the wings were definitely not as pronounced. It probably had flight on par with that of a chicken or turkey, able to get in the air but certainly not able to fly like the griffins. The dragoons favored the huge lizards used in their creation somewhat, they definitely did not have anything on the elegant beast she was looking at. Mary could see the remains of past meals and was happy to see Yadia had still fed her, the dragon ate almost automatically despite its magical sleep. If it was not for this beast who knows where her country would be, its children wreaked havoc amongst the Macomians and they wiped out the famed Macomian cavalry despite its fewer numbers. Mary knew Max would be here soon, or at least he would be looking for her, it was this meeting she was unsure would go well. As Mary looked around at the columns surrounding her she was looking for one in particular, this column had a secret lever that was reportedly used to get the dragon inside. She would need it to bring others inside as well.
CHAPTER 18
“Come on Xander, Mary said to meet her here” Max said as he walked along the side of the palace. He could see a huge area had been dug up that led straight down to a door of some kind that looked like it would barely be able to fit Xander. Max started making his way down the path, now that he was up on the door Xander would need to contort himself to get through. After some wrangling Xander was able to get through the door, but the area inside was somewhat cramped as well.
There were red devils inside, it looked to be almost all of their number. There were also three dragoons inside but that is not what caught Max’s eye. Sleeping alone in the center of the room was a dragon. She was more delicate than the dragoons, from having Xander’s experiences in his head he could tell the dragon knew this female. He had flown with her before, hunted with her and fought for her. Her name was Aubrey, she was one of his daughters. Xander moved on in and nuzzled her head.
“She is his daughter” Max said as he directed his words towards the queen. “During the fall of the dragons he thought them all dead. Aubrey is her name, she was the one he trusted more than any. She might have knowledge about where the rest of the dragons are hidden”.
“Can he wake her?” Mary asked.
“I am not sure, he is not sure” Max replied. “Why are so many people here, why are dragoons here?”
“We are all here to have a feast” Mary replied. “This is a momentous day, I have tables laid out along with the finest food we have to offer. I have even slaughtered one of my finest animals for Xander as thanks for his help. He will always have a place here, you will always have a place here. Let us eat for now, let Xander know I have many books and personal journals at my disposal, tomorrow we can comb over them and see if we can find or locate something useful”
.
Max saw Duchess Pem already seated at a table and went to join her, followed by the Queen and all of the original red devils. Food was brought out but something did not feel right to Max. The conversation seemed forced somewhat, people looked uneasy. The men there were not really drinking their ale, sure they held it up to their lips but Max noticed they had never refilled their tankards. Other things started sticking out to him as well, some of them appeared to be sweating and it was not his imagination that Hector held a smirk.
“Xander something is not right” Max said telepathically to his dragon. He received no reply from Xander, almost like it was when the dragon was asleep. Max said it again before turning around and seeing the dragon was asleep. Why was Xander asleep? This went over in Max’s head as he realized just the movement of turning his head made him dizzy, he had been poisoned. Max sprang out of his seat as Peete used his eating knife to cut the strap which attached Max’s sword to his hip. As Max reached for it Peete tossed the weapon towards Hector who threw it even further out of Max’s reach. Max stabbed down with the tip of his wing catching Peete in the throat before spinning around rapidly and smashing his tail into the heads of the still seated men. The red devils along the wall came for him then as Max leapt up and grabbed a low hanging beam before pushing himself behind the oncoming wave. Armored or not, Max’s claws did massive damage as he attacked only the eyes and other soft spots he found. He could feel his wings were being shredded by attackers behind him, the pain was intense but Max had gotten close enough to snatch a sword out of one of the devil’s hands. Max turned around and stuck his sword into the face of one of the men who were attacking him. After pulling it free he kicked another man so hard he went flying across the room, Max jumped on him and buried his sword into the man’s face and turned to face another enemy. It was during this time Max noticed the door leading to the outside was closed, he couldn’t escape. The men gave Max a big clearance as he looked around and could see the Queen and the duchess were gone. Max saw Hector smirk and charged after him, the combo was impressive Max thought, a high right kick to the head, a left hook to the head followed by a right knee to the face. Hector was splayed out all over the floor as Max went to stab him as suddenly he stumbled a little. Max tried to shake it off but soon all he saw was darkness.
EPILOUGE
“Have you been treated well?” Queen Mary said as she could see Max had not touched any of his food that had been brought out. “I pick your menu personally and it is only made by the finest hands in Gale. Max looked at her and turned his back to gaze at the cell he had been placed in. It really couldn’t be called a cell, it was bigger than many houses and had all kinds of luxuries around it. Furthermore servants had attempted to come in and clean for him every day but he had of course sent them away. His knowledge from Xander had showed him how he could put his body into a hibernation state, it would greatly cut down on his need for food and as long as he spent at least half a mark awake per day to exercise his muscles he would be fine. Xander had done this the first two weeks since he woke up in this place, although this was the first time Mary had visited him.
“Max, I am sorry” Mary began. “I know we had an agreement, but I cannot marry you as you are now. I have no idea what my children would look like and I could be dooming them to relive everything I have went through this past year”.
“Let me go” Max said as he turned around to face Mary. “Let us go”.
“I cannot” Mary said sadly. “You and Xander are too important to this kingdom and I do not think I have your loyalty. Xander would take his daughter far from this place, or even attack us outright for her treatment. My enemies would know if the dragon is no longer present, especially the Macomians who I think are beaten, but not defeated. There is a way I would consider letting you both go, of course the female would need to stay here. Neither of you would attack if I have her in my possession, all you would need to do is give me a little information”.
“I don’t trust you, go away” Max said as he gave her his back again.
“Show some respect when you are talking to the Queen” Max heard one of her guards say.
“Why don’t you come in here and show me my manners?” Max said spinning around and looking at the man. “Anyone can be a tough guy when their target is restrained, why don’t you remove this barrier between us?”
“He is just doing his job Max” Queen Mary replied. “And I give you my word that if your information is acceptable both of you will be let you. Well you would be let go, Xander still has to uphold his part of the bargain before I will let him go”.
“You have lied to me before” Max began. “I may be just a street rat but I am not stupid. Whatever deal or lie you have thought up you can take it and stuff it”.
“Maybe you will change your mind after you are down here for some time” Mary replied. “The first thing I want to know is how does your sword work? We have tried to figure it out but it has proven impossible and has killed two people already. Most of the time it is an ordinary sword but after a certain amount of time it heats up to the point where it kills the wielder. I want to know how this sword was made as well as what metal was used. Ordinary metal should melt from those temperatures, whatever that sword is made out of can heat up without damage and cool in moments, it should not be possible. The next thing I want to know is how you were created, how did you become what you call dragonbreed? This is something that could help out our nation greatly, help me and I will give you all the land and power Yadia had. You would be the first noble male on his own accord instead of being under his mother or sister. Your dragon has a far easier task, all I have asked him to do was lie with the female dragoons. He has killed one already but only after threatening his daughter did he calm down. I just want to see what the offspring would be like, would they be anything like their father? Of course now that I am personally combing through everything in my library that has to do with dragons or magical swords I may not need you at all”.
“Are you threatening me?” Max said as he moved closer to the bars separating them.
“Of course not” Mary said with a smile. “I just wanted to give you something to think on., just don’t think too long”
Max the Dragon Warrior Page 13
