Seron and Oszin didn’t even pay attention to that. This was exactly what I expected. Whenever Dvaro sent me to attack high dragon settlements with rock dragons in our group, I saw how the high dragons treated the lives of mist dragons differently. They were fought with some sense of honor. Rock dragons were a different story.
But Himika…
Himika watched the sight of the rock dragon covering her mate’s body with her own, and she met my eyes. Her hand faltered. This was not a good time for her guard to lower. Oszin and Seron were barely keeping up with the onslaught, and the bulk of them were still rushing forward.
She felt for them.
“Ezeru…is there nothing we can say to stop this!?”
“They don’t understand me!” I said. “Dvaro gives them food. They don’t see his abuse. They don’t trust high dragons and it’s not really any wonder that they don’t.”
“I don’t like it!” she screamed, as Seron cut the head off of a female rock dragon before it could get to her and it rolled at her feet, while Oszin stabbed another one in the belly as it was jumping onto him.
Oszin’s face and chest were bleeding, his clothes scratched by the close call. There was blood on Himika’s clothes, too. He shoved her toward me. “Protect her,” he said. “Moth, be strong. It’s okay. I told you—you don’t want to be fighting.”
She seemed stunned as she was pushed into my arms. “I’ve never been so close to it,” she said. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to be near me. But you have to do something. I think you’re still scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
“You’re hesitant!” she said. “I can see it! And they can see it too, can’t they?”
“It’s not easy when they’re so stupid!” I snapped in frustration.
She put a hand on my arm. Her gentle eyes confronted me with something that made me uncomfortable. “But you love them,” she said.
Seron looked over his shoulder at us. Every second I wasn’t fighting was dangerous for the other two.
My mind briefly considered shaping the rock up around her body to protect her, but then I realized that if I died, she’d be trapped inside it. I would just have to shape the rocks around myself and shield her. But then—
Suddenly I had an idea.
I took her hand, dragging her with me, and ran to a long, thin rock that rested at the bottom of the rock wall. As quickly as I could, I shaped the rock out into the form of a man. Arms, legs…the horns and crown of Dvaro. The claws of a dragon king. I gripped my fists in concentration as I forced the stone king to move toward the rock dragons.
“This is what Dvaro will do to you,” I said. “This is the bad king.”
The rock dragons all watched, backing off from Seron and Oszin, their postures hunched in fear like they didn’t understand what they were seeing. Even Seron let out a low, “Whoa…”
“Dvaro will feed you and pretend to be nice.” I put the string of fish in the hand of the rock creature, and moved it to hand the fish out to the rock dragons. They were too scared to approach. I made the rock creature move in a friendly gesture, holding out a hand. I waited. The rock dragons sniffed, cautiously approaching the fish. They were surely hungry after having traveled here to attack.
They were oddly quiet, still sniffing. They seemed unable to comprehend this magic.
Finally, one of the leader’s sons moved forward, to snatch the fish.
“This is King Dvaro,” I said. “He is lying to you.” The rock creature lifted its hand, pulling the fish back, as its other fist came forward to hit the young dragon.
“He only gives you things so you will battle for him. He’ll hurt you.” I tried to reach for the fish myself, and brought my own creation into collision with me. I had to move very slowly to coordinate my own movements with manipulating the rock, but it grabbed my hand and pulled me against it, and then clapped a hand to my mouth. I pretended to struggle against it, struck its arm and shoved myself out of its grip. I clutched my arm like I was hurt and then knocked the rock creature aside, where it fell back and smoothed out into a lumpy mass.
“I will lead you,” I said. “I am one of you. I am…I was sent to protect you by the spirit of the rock.”
I could not quite bring myself to appoint my own godly status, whatever Himika said.
Seron made a strangled hissing noise under his breath.
The rock dragons chittered.
“You protect us?”
“Yes. I will set you free.”
More chittering. They were making sure all of them agreed with a few little “yay” or “nay” sort of sounds. Most of them did agree, and the family of the fallen leader came forward and bowed their heads to me, acknowledging me as the head of the clan. I made a low, soothing growl back to them, to show that I accepted it.
“They won’t hurt you now,” I said. Now that the leaders had deferred to me, I knew that was the end of the attack. Rock dragons were not deceptive creatures. “They understand.”
“Ezeru!” Himika threw up her arms. “That was amazing!”
Seron raised an eyebrow. “That was amazing, but…uh…what do we do with them now?”
Up until then, I was so caught up in taming them and saving Himika and her champions that I hadn’t really considered what I would do with the rock dragons afterward.
“They will work for food,” I said. “If you treat them well.”
“If I bring these rock dragons back to the palace…” He rubbed his head. “I don’t see how I can trust them to just run loose there. A minute ago they were ready to kill us. And everyone will be scared of them.”
“What if we give them a good meal, and then we’ll set them free and tell them to spread the word?” Himika said. “That Ezeru is their king, not Dvaro.”
“Er…is he?” Seron asked.
“He should be,” Oszin said. “He’s one of them. He cares about them. He’s strong enough to fight and negotiate on their behalf. He should be their representative to the high dragons. And then, as the word gets out, if they turn on the Traitor King and aid us in this fight, that would weaken him tremendously, wouldn’t it?”
“Of course. I don’t need a couple of humans to school me on this,” Seron said, bemused. “It would have been nice not to kick off my first day as the reluctant king with a controversial move like dragging home some rock dragons.”
“I think this is exactly what the prophecy must have meant,” Himika said. “It said you and I would bring peace to the dragons. This is the perfect gesture to show that it’s already beginning. I think Ezeru did come to us for a reason. Oszin is right—he should be the rock dragon king. In fact, I think you should make it official when we get back, especially since the rock dragons seem to respond to the idea of a king. If they saw him in a crown with the claws of a king, just like Dvaro, they would know him as a leader. King Ezeru of the Rock Dragons. That is what he should say, whenever he sees them.”
King Ezeru? Seeing her declare me a king, as breezily as anything, my name on her lips…
…came to us for a reason…
My breath grew short. She knew the way in which I wanted her. And even though I could never expect that from her, she wasn’t pushing me away.
“My queen, I—I don’t think I am worthy of quite that level. I’m no one.”
“You are a powerful mage,” she said. “Well spoken, too. As you said, the rock dragons are more intelligent than animals, but also open for abuse from us. So they really should have their own leader who can advocate for them. Who else would that be?”
The idea of advocating was not pleasant. I imagined having to talk to superior dragons who didn’t want to deal with me at all. “I don’t really like people,” I said.
“You don’t have to like us, but if you care about them, you’d better suck it up.” Seron shrugged. “If they can swim home with us, I guess we’ll take ‘em.”
Chapter Fifteen
Aurek
I must say, it was good to sleep in without worryi
ng that I was holding up the court.
I could have slept forever. I didn’t want to face a world in which I had been disgraced in front of everyone, but my sense of honor—and more than a little anger—finally shoved me out of bed.
Minister Tanair was in the hall just outside my bedroom as if he’d been waiting for me to wake up.
I didn’t really want to see him.
“My lord, I am very sorry about yesterday,” he said. “I realize that we generated unnecessary conflict within the court. I was quite upset that you didn’t tell me the truth about the queen’s cure, but I want you to know that I didn’t stand by Viruta’s handling of the situation. Still, I hope you will go easy on her. She’s having problems at home.” Tanair was Viruta’s second cousin, and they had always been good friends, but she was older and had always led. Still, undermining me in front of the entire court went far beyond ‘she’s having problems at home’.
“I want to speak to Viruta,” I said.
“King Seron—put her in a prison cell already,” he said.
“Ah, I do love Seron,” I said gently. “I’ll pay her a visit, then. What is the mood like this morning?”
“Strange,” Tanair said. “Somewhat tense. Although Queen Himika insisted that no one should take sides, it’s clear that this is happening.”
“This is shameful,” I said. “This isn’t how I want Himika to experience this place.”
I snagged one of my concerned, tearful maidservants to show me downstairs to the prisons, where I rarely ventured. I really had no idea what the atmosphere was even like down here. From my perspective, it seemed warm and dry, just kind of empty. The walls were shaped from a calming crystal. Much more pleasant than the damp Hemara dungeon. But Kir clung to my sleeve. “Oh, my lord, it’s creepy down here…”
“How so?”
“It’s so dark and lonely… I don’t know! I can just tell bad things have happened here.”
I heard some movement to my right side. Footsteps, rustling clothes.
“Hello, Aurekdel,” Viruta said.
“It’s all right, Kir,” I said. “You can go back upstairs.”
“Will you be all right? I can wait to show you back up.”
“No, I can make my own way back.” I patted her hand, dismissing her. Then I turned to Viruta. I didn’t like that she had to see me in the most unfamiliar part of the castle. I was a little disoriented, unsure of the makeup of her cell. To some extent, I sensed the crystal and heard the echoes of my footsteps, but I didn’t like the muddiness.
“Well, as you can see, King Seron already saw fit to punish me,” she said. “You don’t look happy, but I was only doing my duty.”
“Mm…I think you revealed your true motive,” I said.
“My only motive is the truth. And I will never know how long you knew the truth,” she said. “I find it hard to believe that you never knew Tiriana and Morlis were your parents. You seem suspiciously composed.”
“I never knew,” I said. “I am calm because I never knew. People in shock are often calm, I think…but people who know they’ve done something wrong are angry. I know you stole from me.”
“You…should have told us right away,” she said.
“I really am hurt,” I said. “I trusted everyone on my council. You always seemed like a level headed, calm person. But you are no Surim Kroza.” I grimaced, remembering the wise ice dragon who always seemed to be holding some deep pain, having lost two husbands and sacrificed her son Kassu to the Sky World to become the guardian Abel. “You know perfectly well that you are not impartial. You made a point of saying that Mage Morlis is ‘apparently’ my own father. I think you must have particularly disliked my mother. I know she was considered arrogant by many here. I never knew she was my mother.” Damnit, I was not going to get emotional in front of her.
Tiriana was a supremely confident, some might say smug, woman. In light of what we now knew, it was pretty shameless of her, to steal the throne for her own son. As I grew up, I wasn’t as close to her as I was during our exile. Looking back, I wonder if she withdrew from me so that no one would suspect the truth.
But her confidence rubbed off on me; it was something I always took to heart. My job had not been easy. I was a boy king thrust into the middle of an adult council. Everyone wanted to shape me into the king they wanted, and my blindness only made it worse. Some of the adults around me were annoyingly overprotective, many of them thought they could control me.
Tiriana was one of the people who was always on my side.
“Viruta, you said we needed a king who strikes fear into Dvaro’s heart,” I said. “Before all of the people I have fought for all my life, you undermined me. You said that Seron is the strongest man in the kingdom. This shows me how little you understand our relationship. Seron is my heart. He’s noble. He feels people’s pain. But I am a fighter. I’m the one who had to fight to be taken seriously when I took the throne, and it was a very personal fight, over whether a crippled child can even be a king at all.” I huffed. “Our enemy thrives on intimidation and humiliation. This man is the embodiment of all of my demons. But I understand how he thinks. I know how and why he plays dirty. Seron is incapable of truly grasping the idea of a dishonorable warrior. You need me for that.”
“You think highly of yourself,” she said.
“Damn right I do, and that’s why I’m here. I’m justified in thinking highly of myself. I’ve worked hard. I’ve kept us safe.”
“You stole the crown from your best friend.”
“And if he wasn’t my best friend, I would steal it again,” I said. “Do you need to report that to the guards? Enjoy stewing down here.”
Chapter Sixteen
Himika
We returned to Irandal, rock dragons swimming behind us. Seron had some immediate damage control to do as workers down at the docks started fleeing and sounding the alarm.
“Calm down!” Seron tied up the boat, tugging on ropes. “They’re with us. Where is Aurek?”
Aurek came out a few moments later. “Ezeru, are you sure you can control them?”
“I think so.”
“In a perfect world, Dvaro would back off once he realizes he’s lost the rock dragons,” Seron said. “So it’s a risk worth taking. I’m just not sure about referring to Ezeru as a ‘king’. We don’t even know who his parents are, and people are a bit touchy right now.”
“I think we have to!” I said. “The rock dragons obviously understand the idea of a king. We have to give him some legitimacy to get them to follow him.”
“I don’t see why not,” Aurek said. “The rock dragons have always had clan leaders, but it’s been hard for us to have a conversation with them. They should be allowed to have a king of their own. Ezeru, are you prepared to take on such a mantle?”
“I am honored that you would place confidence in me, and give my people this, so I will do it,” Ezeru said, with an air of resignation and duty.
Seron looked like all he really cared about was getting the boats firmly secured and the fish he’d caught unpacked. “Oszin, do you have that? Here—take those to the kitchens…” He handed the fish off to a servant and then brushed off his hands.
The rock dragons had paddled on up to the dock, dozens of scaled black and gray heads staring at us from the water. “Where can I put them?” Ezeru asked.
“Ahh…let’s see…the parade grounds?” Aurek said. He turned to a young servant boy, who was standing back, looking very antsy about being so close to the rock dragons. “Tell the guard to come out here, to get the rock dragons settled.”
Ezeru bowed curtly. He was still avoiding my eyes, for the most part. My eyes kept wandering to him, even when I tried to look away. He feels an urge to mate with me? I was trying very hard not to think about it or care, but how is a girl supposed to forget something like that? It didn’t hurt that Ezeru was good looking in a totally different way from my three guys: he had this tormented, dark, driven aspect that was balanced out by h
ow brave he’d been to come here and how he’d managed to tame the rock dragons attacking us. And then, there was Kajira always snuggling him—I thought of Aurek telling me that winged cats can always find the way home. A person could be a sort of home, too…
Ezeru looked like he could really use a home. A gentle touch. Someone to give him a nice cup of tea and draw a blanket over him at night. And any girl who did that, I could just tell, would be rewarded with fierce loyalty and protection.
Stars above, stop thinking about him like it could actually happen! You do not need a fourth man. Remember that one fairy tale in your storybook about the Queen and Ten Kings?
The queen had no name; she was the villain of the tale, a selfish woman who wasn’t satisfied marrying the prince who wooed her, but must also have his nine brothers.
Maybe I was selfish too. I wasn’t trying to be. My feelings felt so real…
One of the other servants tried to leave with them, but Seron waved a hand at him. “Hey, you there. Can you get these nets untangled and dried and I’ve still got this leftover bait…”
“I think the fishing gear will be all right without you,” Aurek said. “You probably have kingly matters to attend to.”
Seron straightened up. “If you plan on bothering me about every little thing you would do as king, then…I’m finding my own hermit cave.”
“I know you know how to be a king. You’ve watched me long enough, and I don’t doubt your talents.” He patted Seron’s shoulder. “The ministers have edging around me all day, wanting to ask me questions but clearly feeling they should wait for you instead.”
I walked with Seron, panting to keep up with his long strides. “Seron…”
He caught my hand, gripping it tight, and then turning to give me a troubled look once we were inside the palace. “I’m just not good at this,” he said. “I hate it when people expect me to talk to them.”
“Let me help you,” I said. “I might not be as good at sword fighting as I’d like, but I do understand diplomacy. My father made me give so many inspiring, upbeat speeches! Oh, I used to hate him for it. But now I feel confident in them. Will the dragons think any less of us if the queen does more of the talking?”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 38
