by K. G. Wilkie
It have been easy to the March out here with such a large army. The delegates had rushed back from their meeting to arrange things so they could come out with all of their people to fight for the monarchy. It didn’t help that, though in the heat of the moment everyone had felt on fire during yesterday’s battle, sunrise had revealed the truth. Though the wizards had not been trained in warfare and battle magic, they still packed a half decent punch. After being pounded by so many different wizards, there were plenty of injuries on the battlefield. No deaths, thank goodness, but still injuries. It wasn’t a major sacrifice that they’d made, but it was a major inconvenience. Somehow that made it even worse that they’d failed. And find out that not only had the anchor and destroyed, but the only good point of the battle in destroying Domed City and capturing the traitors for their crimes had been destroyed as well. There one success had been taken away right after they’d gotten it. It was beyond frustrating. Rumbles filled the air as the people let their frustrations be known.
With a wave of his hand the King gestured for quiet, and eventually the crowd quieted down. “Yes, I’m as upset as you all are. We will have to re-examine how prisoners are transported in the future. In the meantime, we are moving out,” he said.
“Where to,” a woman in the crowd called out to him.
Vovin busied himself putting on a gauntlet. “I think it’s time to get to the root of the matter, and head on over to Witch City,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Friends of Friends
Diplomacy is an annoying concern every nation has to worry about. Prince Aeron and Prince Richard had to deal with the obnoxiousness of going through all the normal polite procedures when the army entered the gates of Witch City, no matter that they had fugitives to capture and a war to win against the wizards who may or may not have been supported by and allied with the witches themselves. Just because they suspected the wizards had come to this city as their hideout did not guarantee that they were there, and even if they were eventually found here, that wasn’t in and of itself good enough proof to come into the city assuming the witches had anything to do with such treason or even knew about it at all. Besides that though, there still was no guarantee at all that they were even here, and the dragons faced too many battles already to alienate the witches when they might turn out to be perfectly innocent.
That didn’t mean that either royal had to enjoy the pomp and circumstance they were forced to go through. Aeron grimaced through the army trumpeters announcing their presence and peaceful intentions through the traditional blasting of notes. Then they had to walk forward and give their greetings to the Mother Witch. She nodded with a smile at their introductions and bows and sent her lackeys ahead to prepare her rooms to receive guests. Aeron couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose at that, but he knew that the witches always spoke to important visitors in the Mother Witch’s receiving rooms, and the only alternative to it would be designation as an enemy that is shown to the dungeons instead.
The receiving rooms were no doubt meant to inspire such a reaction, though. The rooms were respectable looking, and the couches the brothers were invited to sit on were human sized but comfortable enough for dragons. Most of the decor could even be considered tasteful, Aeron knew, if one liked the aesthetics of humans. But no matter how feminine and elegant the space was, one could never really forget the cabinet. The cabinet took up the whole wall behind the Mother Witch’s seat so anyone who spoke to her could see the grisly reminder. Each cubby behind the glass had a head mounted on an elegant turned wood stand. There was a head for every type of creature in the Shadeworld. Even a human male’s. The rumors never agreed if that human man’s head was one of the leaders of the witch hunts back on Earth the witches had fled here to this realm to escape, or a wizard from this world that had betrayed the witches. One thing was certain though, that the kind of person who filled the cubbies in the cabinet with a male head from every species was sending a strong message that no matter how motherly the Mother Witch could be to her own citizens, all others had to deal with her with dignity and manners or risk becoming just a severed head themselves.
Aeron knew better than to comment on such shows of power though. This wasn’t the first time he’d been forced to play diplomat. Instead he sipped his tea and thanked the grand lady before him for his tea, knowing better than to address her in any way until she’d revealed what title she wanted to go by that day.
Mother Witch smiled at his pleasantries and settled better in her seat. “Very nicely done. I’m sure Vorin is so proud of you two,” she said. Aeron’s eye twitched at the subtle patronization, but he did his best not to say anything. “Now, my dear Richard- well, prince Richard of course, it wouldn’t do to forget that part- why don’t you tell dear Agatha all about it. For example, you can start with telling me why the entire royal army is at our gates. I’m sure I have no reason to be alarmed by this?”
Richard shook his head and did his best to lay aside any of her concerns on the possibility of a potential takeover before he launched into explaining their situation.
The Mother Witch listened to their concerns patiently. Whether she was hiding a band of rebels or not, her expression and body language refused to hint at anything she might or might not know. Eventually King Vovin gave up on explaining matters and decided to just ask her where she stood on the matter instead. She promised him that she stood on the side of the dragons. However, after recent events, it was harder to believe that a promise of fealty had any value at all. Still, Vovin didn’t want to upset her and suggest that she’d lied to him. It simply wouldn’t be the polite way to act when she’d been perfectly hospitable to his entire army so far.
The camp pitched right outside of the city was a diverse lot. They were still waiting there patiently, just in case the wizards would trickle into the city and be easily cut by them. Eric taking any chances–the dragons had also sent in some spies to scout out inside of the city itself for any potential stowaways–but it also seems like a good idea to watch out for any late comers. It made sense to everyone that those academics might not be very speedy at navigating through the forest and roads to find this city on their own, but then one had to factor in that the wizards did leave their dome at least once a year to visit this very city. There is a good chance, they all knew, that if they weren’t here already, they would be soon.
Soon a burst of activity greeted the royal army camp. The harpy tribe, that band of fierce warrior women, was just as happy to see them. It turned out that Gabriella normally talked to her good friend the King every day, and she’d been very concerned when she hadn’t gotten any word back from him. Concerned, the harpy went to check in with some contacts within the royal army to get the latest news. Once the story was told in full Gabriella made haste back to her own people to rally them for the next battle and join up with the royal forces. It wouldn’t do for there to be a next battle at all, of course, but they would be prepared for one. They always were. Just in case.
No one would dare to discourage their prescence here. The harpies were known to be as fierce in battle as they were fiercely entertaining out of it. The harpies had razor claws and wings as well as a razor sharp sarcasm that went over well, but mainly the harpies were accepted as free mercenaries that could be depended on to help in any fight.
But still, no fight took place. The harpies flew over the city to find any escaped captured wizard or just a loose wizard out and about in the city, but they found nothing. Others from the royal army trained in seeking out fugitives came up empty. Even though they sent people out to do reconnaissance every day and every night no sign of wizards or their wizardry was ever found. To make excuses for their constant visits into the city they made endless little purchases from the witches, but the vendors were unfriendly and it was clear that the Army was tolerated here and no better. Even though no sign was ever found of the wizards, Vovin started to find that in itself suspicious. He would’ve thought the witches would be surprised by the news o
f their brother city’s treachery. One might even have expected some burst in outrage out of loyalty to either the wizards or the dragons and the monarchy. But the witches remained perfectly impartial and just barely deferential enough to polite. It was a fairly warm welcome, as far as witches go, but that wasn’t saying much. It still left a sour taste in the King’s mouth.
“I suspected there’s something we still aren’t seeing about this whole matter,” King Vovin said to his sons one night. Once again they had gathered in the King’s tent to talk things over. So much familial closeness and a shared focus on a common cause would have been welcome just months ago. Now it was all overshadowed by the endless failures suffered here in this war against rebellious forces.
Delegates from every and of the kingdom were eventually called in to meet in the tent as well. “What we have here concerns me,” the king said. The rest had to agree. They had been looking so long for these rebels, and once they had finally confirmed exactly who was the source of all of their problems, they disappeared right under their noses.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Betrayed and Inflamed
“I can’t believe it!” The young Dragon paced back and forth. “Is this thing true? Is this all part of his scheming? How can I know,” Richard said. The boy had followed his orders with flawless skill and met up with his handler once again after the meeting. Still, he wouldn’t have expected to be interrupted along the way by his older brother’s weird little minions. Red and Blue, or whatever names the scaly little creatures went by, had seen fit to go directly up to him and stop him in the hallway.
The letter was a simple one.
You don’t know your friends as well as you think you Do. They are trying to stop me–they’re trying to stop you. Because they don’t need you standing in the way their plans to destroy our world, and possibly the world our ancestors came from as well. You need to ask your handler what he knows about the project to destroy the Divide.
Gruzelvelt looked at the slip of paper in hand when they met at their designated meeting place. He simply laughed at it. “Don’t tell me big brother has finally tattled? It seems like he’d never get around to doing that,” he said.
“This isn’t funny,” Richard said. “Tell me the truth! Is he right about this? Were you betraying me this whole time, after all he did for you?”
The old man laughed. “I don’t believe you deserve to know. I will give you the courtesy of answering your questions. You’re just some small Dragon upstart who works for me, a true elite of the superior species. Now isn’t the time for you to be getting ahead of yourself,” Gruzelvelt said.
Richard growled as his fire flashed in his eyes. “Tell me the truth! I can slice you apart right here if you refuse to speak,” he threatened.
The wizard simply laughed. “And how do you propose you’ll do that, little prince?”
Once again the dragons snarled, but before he could shift the wizard had already flashed away. But wizards cannot transport endlessly, so Richard knew his quarry still had to be fairly nearby. He considered all the usual places, everywhere in the Palace, but then he knew where the wizard must have gone off to.
“You mean to tell me this thing is true! I’ve been betraying my people this whole time. I thought I was helping them!” Richard jabbed his finger into the other man’s chest. “You told me you are helping them!”
Gruzelvelt laughed. “Of course I told you that! I told you exactly what you want to hear. You don’t want to help your people–you want to destroy your brother. I gave you what you needed to do that! You are thinking about your people when you’re applying to destroy your brother, and you weren’t thinking about your people when you didn’t bother to ask any questions after your first success against him. This whole time you were happy to see him suffer. I gave you what you needed to make that happen! You should be thanking me for giving you exactly what you asked me for,” he said. The old man shook his head. He leaned close and whispered in the dragon’s ear, “You don’t get to say your complaints now after all this time. Your betrayal runs too deep. No one will trust you didn’t know exactly what you are doing all along,” he whispered.
Richard longed for him–he didn’t know quite what he would do if he caught him–but I didn’t matter. The wizard made himself vanish, leaving only the echo of his laughter left behind.
Richard headed out to the forest. He had a strong suspicion that the wizards would be hiding out in the clearing he’d met Gruzelvelt in last time. It turned out he was right. The old wizard lounged on cushions as the runaway wizards shot him resentful glares during short breaks in their duties setting up their tents and new city around him. Richard stomped up to the old man in poked his finger in his chest. “It must be true then or you wouldn’t have run away like a coward. I can’t believe what you did! I can’t believe what I did for you! Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me you are simply, I don’t know, testing my loyalty to the cause or some such,” Richard said. Gruzelvelt grinned at him.
“I assume you read all of that little letter from your brother. Did you? Good. Although I wouldn’t want to think you were too dense to understand what they mean, you do seem rather dense to have to ask me for a confirmation at all in the first place,” Gruzelvelt said.
Richard gasped. “It’s true then? You really were the force behind this rebellion this whole time, even though you promised you weren’t,” Richard asked.
Gruzelvelt scoffed at that. “What, you think I’m obligated to tell you the truth? I hardly even tell my own people the truth. Unlike them, you are a mere dragon. You are less than nothing to me. You don’t deserve my truth. You are only good enough for my lies,” he said.
Richard growled and the skin on his arms flashed into scales before he managed to keep himself back in his human form. “How could you? I trusted you. You promised me a meeting of equals, a meeting of minds. I thought we were going to work against my brother’s evil schemes together,” Richard said.
Gruzelvelt laughed. “What schemes? All you did was tattle every move your brother and father and the council made to me. You hardly even managed to be a traitor properly. You certainly failed to be a supporter of your throne. It is certainly obvious that even when the whole thing is laid out for you, you still came whining to me. There was no mistake. This is what makes dragons so incredibly useless, always failing to understand even the simplest concepts,” Gruzelvelt said.
Richard gasped at that. Could that mean what it sounded like? Had he truly been so caught up in his own jealousy he hadn’t noticed what was really going on around him to such an extreme extent? Gruzelvelt laughed at his expression again. That settled it. Richard knew he really had screwed up. He also knew he really wanted to strangle that neck.
With proper princely decorum he stripped his gloves and jacket and folded them nicely next to him on the ground. Then Richard spring forward and sink his claws into Gruzelvelt.
Unfortunately, the rest of the wizards wouldn’t just stand by and watch their leader get savaged, not even if some of them secretly had days where they felt he deserved it, and especially recently with the man’s terrible coup they had started to share their concerns about his rule in public, though they had seen what happened to their brethren when their leader had been upset by any conversations questioning his rule before and knew better than to spread their doubts whenever he was around. Those wizards with doubts held back and gave only a half hearted appearance of charging this threat.
There were other wizards, however. These were wizards unswervingly loyal to Dome City, at any cost. They had become loyal to Gruzelvelt before he had taken charge and defeated his predecessor. One lone weak dragon stood no chance against them as the wizards descended on him with their full might.
Richard shifted as quickly as he could to Dragon form, but it still wasn’t enough to protect him from the barrage of spells being thrown around. Richard let out a Dragon roar when one of the spells managed to cut deep into his right leg. The muscles there trembled and
threatened to collapse. A second blow once again damaged both legs. His right leg gave out, but Richard managed to catch himself with a strike at one of his attackers that left one of his attackers wounded and hunched over at the perfect height for an arm rest. But the other wizards persisted in their fight, knowing Gruzelvelt would do much worse to them if they failed. A final blow came at both of the prince‘s legs, and finally his legs couldn‘t hold up any longer against the abuse. A proud prince of the dragons lay collapsed on the ground, heaving in gulps of air as his injuries left him stunned. But still they were merciless and fought him.
Skin started to ooze on Richard as the onslaught of magic weakened his form. He was still too weak from defending himself to shift back into his other undamaged body and was trapped in this form that threatened to give up on him entirely. Slashes opened up on his sides. Frantically the fallen man tried to shift back with one last burst of energy, but once again another spell hit him and held the battered body flickering between both forms endlessly and exhausting any last traces of power.
Desperate and broken, he gave one last roar with the last of his strength.
A handful of miles away the royal army stationed at the palace heard the plea of a broken creature. They stormed the forest and followed the the sound of the cry to the clearing full of wizards. Aeron flew himself behind the army and barreled into Gruzelvelt. The old man blanched at the sight and a mere moment before collision he managed to flash himself away.
With a quick flick of his wings the crown prince managed to steer away from his brother just before he crashed and drifted down to sit next to his little brother. “They sure have done a number on you, haven’t they little brother,” Aeron said.
Richard started to laugh weekly, but it quickly changed to a whimper as his various better and broken body parts made the action a torturous one. “They sure did look, I just want to say –”
