Simeon

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Sir? There’s a call for you.” He asked his man who it was. “They wouldn’t tell me, sir. And when I explained that I’d not put the call through for him, he just laughed and said to tell you that the new king wished to speak to him.”

  His balls, something that he’d not had much use for over the last few centuries, tightened to his body. The king? The new king had found him? Not possible. He cleared his throat and tried to think how that had been possible, and asked Pearson what he’d said. He pulled out a sheet of paper, saying that he’d told him to write it down.

  “He claimed that his name was Asher, named for the fallen castle that you destroyed. That his middle name is Anthony, for the greatest king that ever reigned. And that his parents are Jacob and Sally, friends of the kingdom and all that lived there.” Pearson looked at him. “He said that he is brother to the hatchlings that you knew nothing of. That there are six of them, children of the king and queen.”

  “Not possible.” Pearson said nothing but stared at him, as if he wasn’t going to disagree verbally but knew it to be true. “And he’s on the phone? Right now, awaiting me to talk to him? Why would he be calling me? I don’t want to...did you tell him my name, perchance?”

  “No, sir, I’d not do that, but he seemed to know not only who you were, but why you were here. He said that it would behoove you to speak to him, that you might live longer.” Pearson looked confused. “Are you not an immortal, sir?”

  “I am.” He stood up and began to pace. Really to work off some of his frustrations. He would have to talk to the man, if for no other reason than to see if even a small portion of what he was thinking was going on. Like, how did Asher know of him? Where had he been all these years? What did he mean, he might live longer? He was immortal, the same as the king was. “Send his call to here. I’ll see what he has to say for himself. And Pearson, make sure you see if what he says is true, that there are other dragons of the old king.”

  After he was left alone, he went to sit at his desk. He wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to this person, but he needed to find out what he knew. And that, he figured, was the only way to kill him. Picking up the phone when it beeped, he waited for the man to speak. Only an idiot would give in and speak first as far as he was concerned.

  “Hello, Wilson. We weren’t sure that was what you went by anymore, being that it’s your true name. How are you? Dying, I hope.” The laugher grated on his nerves, so much so that he nearly hung up. “Oh, don’t do that. Hanging up on me might make it so I think you don’t like me. While you will learn to hate me, right now, you need me.”

  “And why is it you think I care? You never said your name, by the way.” Asher told him that he knew it, he’d given it to his man. “So? I’ve forgotten. Meaningless people, I tend to forget their names. I will forget yours too, as soon as this call is disconnected. And you are meaningless to me, Asher the new king, and you’ll soon be dead too.”

  “You’re going to remember me. It might well be the last name you utter before I crush you.” He heard the small laughter, and Wilson knew that he was being played with. “I promised my mom that I’d ask you to stop this nonsense and leave us alone. She has it in her head that you’re not going to come here and make it so we have to kill you. That we can work something out. I tried to tell her that you were stupid as well as stubborn in thinking that you could come out on top, but a promise to my mom is important, don’t you think? How about yours? Did you ever make one to her and not follow through on it?”

  Wilson decided to not answer the questions about his mother and unkept promises. He’d killed her long ago. Or he’d watched her being killed. Pitting brother against brother had been the only way to make the king of his time dead. And if his own family had fallen too, well, so be it.

  “Work out what? How I’m going to take over your kingdom? Or perhaps how you’re going to beg me for mercy? You will, you know. All of you. I might be persuaded to leave your dear mother alone, but it’s doubtful.” Wilson laughed then. “Am I to assume that you’ve been reading up on the books about me? I have been around longer than you have. And in that time, I’ve learned a trick or two about making dragons and humans suffer when I want.”

  “Have you? Doubtful you’ll do much to us. And I’m to tell you that Brynhilde said hi. I wasn’t aware that you knew my sister-in-law until today.” Wilson stood up, then sat again. Brynhilde? She was alive? “She said that you and her crossed paths some time ago, and that she owes you for the death of her family. I don’t think she means that in a good way. She said that you were the last one she needs to kill for their deaths. And she will too, just so you know. I think she’ll take great pleasure in making you suffer as well.”

  “Then she should have done what she’d been told.” He thought of the night she’d refused his order to murder the dragon he’d found. And her words still, to this day, haunted him like none other. “Am I supposed to believe that you have let her become a part of your family, young Asher? That is a fatal mistake on your part. She’s not to be trusted. The things that I could tell you about her would curl your toes, as the saying goes. Perhaps before I kill you, I could have a nice sit down with you. It would be a sharing of horror stories, so to speak.”

  “Thank you, but no. I know her well too. Funny, she said the same about you, about not to be trusted. She also said that you’re a mean bastard that she wants the pleasure of killing.” He pointed out that she couldn’t do that. Not ever. “Can’t she? I think you should check on that, Wilson. With me being the king, I can pretty much let her do whatever she wishes, including ending your life. She was claimed by King Anthony, and I have her services now as well.”

  Was that true? He didn’t think so, but then, he had no idea. While he knew a great deal about the dragons, how they were to be killed and then sold off, he hadn’t a single idea about what the faerie warrior could or couldn’t do. She was a commodity, not a person anyway.

  “I tell you what, young Asher, you take your hold off her and I’ll take her into my house. It’s the least I can do for you, being that she might be spared when I come to claim everything you have.” The laughter again, and Wilson had to let out a long breath before speaking. There wasn’t any point in losing his temper now. “What if I promised you that she’d not kill you? I’ll save that pleasure for myself.”

  “How kind of you.” Wilson smiled. Finally, he was making some headway in this. “And as for Bryn, no, I won’t release her. Not that I could anyway. Anthony holds her, not I. Oh, and before I forget, he and Eve send their condolences.”

  “They’re dead.” Asher told him he was correct. “Yet you tell me that you’ve spoken to them? And their condolences about what?”

  “Your sister. She’s gone.” The line went dead, and he sat there for several seconds before he stood up and went to find Maureen. She’d been with him since he’d taken her from his parents’ burning home. Going to her room, he stood there as he watched her frail body swing back and forth on the rope that was wrapped like a necklace around her pretty neck. She was dead, he knew this even before he realized her delicate neck was snapped.

  The note was handed to him. He didn’t know who had come to help him, but when he looked up, her body had been cut from the beam and now lie in her bed. Going there, with the note in his hand, he thought of the couple who had killed her. The king and queen dragons.

  My darling brother, I have had enough. He looked down at her when he read that, and knew in his heart that she hadn’t had any help from a dead king and queen. Maureen had told him several times over the last few weeks that her body was worn out, she was in constant pain and wanted to die. We both know that I’ve been a drain on your life. You might not say so, but I can see it. Everyone can. So, I’m doing what you will not, ending my suffering. I love you with all that I am, but enough is enough. I’ve loved you with all my heart and then some. You have taken care of me through all my pains and troubles. You have been the best brother that anyone could have asked for, but I h
urt, Wilson. I hurt so badly that I’m no longer able to shed tears for it. They’re as dried up as my willingness to live. Please forgive me, but as I have said, I’ve had enough of this earth.

  He looked at her again, her badly scarred flesh. Her hair that only grew on the one side of her head. Wilson held her hand, what was left of it from the fire, and sobbed. His little sister was gone.

  It didn’t lessen his pain, knowing that she was at peace. Those words said to him about his parents were as meaningless then as they were now. He was alone, and his only friend and companion had taken her own life. As he sat there, holding her hand, he thought of the day that he’d figured out that King Anthony had been a dragon.

  His house has been set to flames, and the only person that could do such a thing, such devastation, had to be a dragon. The king, he had done this to him in order to show who was the bigger man. Wilson had gone to see him, the smell of burnt flesh still upon his clothing. The dragon had wanted his sister dead. The reason, if there had been one, had never been clear to him, then or now, but someone had to be blamed.

  “We didn’t murder your sister, Wilson. I swear this to you.” He didn’t believe him. What was a dragon for but to burn people to death? “The fire was started in the stove, as everyone has told you. The dragons, nor my wife and I, were not involved in their deaths. We liked her very much.”

  Of course, he didn’t believe him. King Asher was as bad as the old king, and he’d make sure that he was just as deceased when the time came. Wilson’s sister was dead now, just as surely as he’d set the rope to her neck.

  “I will see you dead, and all the others that come after you. Death to all dragons. You are no king to me.” He’d stormed off after his threat to Anthony, his mind plotting and planning.

  Days later, he’d gone to see the witch and had convinced her to do harm to the king, telling her that they’d caused the hurt of so many. His sister had lived, thanks in part to his magic and that of the witch, but she’d been badly scarred. And Wilson’s family had not helped when they turned her away when she screamed in so much pain. They paid too, he’d made sure of it.

  Wilson had wanted Anthony dead, and had succeeded in making it happen. He knew that he’d have to have magic, more than the king did, and had made it his life’s mission to get as much as possible. Running into the witch Helena had been the first of many things Wilson did to make his promises run true. And now it was about to come full circle. He’d kill Asher and then all the dragons, and rule the world with all the magic that would come to him.

  Chapter 7

  The castle looked complete, but Asher knew that it needed something more. Something from the book. As he sat there, holding onto it while looking at the massive pile of stone in front of him, he thought of his life thus far. When something snapped beside him, he looked over and saw Bryn coming toward him. Moving so that she could have a seat, he waited for her to speak.

  “The castle was built with such power. I mean, the first one. And it stood for something. Something that none of those watching it being built could have ever guessed. And it’s doubtful that anyone, even after it was fallen, could have known. It was strength, safety as well as hearth. None of those things were here before King Anthony came to live here.” He asked what it had meant to her. “Nothing. I had no allegiances to the king nor his household. I had none to anyone unless they claimed me. And unbeknown to me, he had.”

  “Did you ever really have any allegiances to anyone that claimed you?” She thought about it, but in the end said that she had not. “What about to us? As a family, not a warrior. Do you feel anything toward us? Or Simeon and Akassa?”

  “I don’t love them, if that’s what you’re asking me. I don’t have much in the way of heart left, Asher. It’s been used up, on battlefields. Blood that was shed for no more a reason than greed. People, human or otherwise, will eventually show their true colors. Not here. For some reason, I think that you are just what you say you are. And that is a rarity, even to me.” He nodded. There wasn’t much he could say to her to convince her that Simeon and Akassa loved her…Asher knew that they told her daily that they did. “Did you know that this castle is magical? I don’t mean the stuff that you have put into it, nor the things that the king has given it, but it has a bit more.”

  “Like what?” She told him to watch the walls when she walked to it, pulling her sword from her back. “What are you going to do?”

  He watched her as she slashed her sword toward the stone. Asher wasn’t sure what she’d done and asked her to do it again. This time he stood near her as she slashed out, and couldn’t believe what he saw.

  “Did you do that?” She smiled and told him that she had not. Once more he asked her to try and harm the stone, and he was amazed when the stone moved, slicing itself open as her blade came close to it so that she’d not touch it. “What else can it do? I’m assuming that there is more. Christ, it’s saving itself from harm. That is.... Well fuck, that’s amazing. Show me. I need to see it.”

  “All right. It can hide itself and those that are within. I think that is one of the things that the book brought to it.” He told her that he couldn’t see the words yet. “Yes, I’ve been thinking on that as well.”

  They made their way back to the seat that had been put in some time ago. He didn’t press her. He’d learned that none of the women liked to be hounded with questions, especially this one. She would answer you in time, and hurrying her along wasn’t going to get her to do it any faster. It might well piss her off, and he didn’t want to do that. He was enjoying just sitting with her in the sunlight. He bided his time while watching a group of dragons play in the field beyond.

  He’d been informed just yesterday that all the dragons that could come were here. There were a few, less than a dozen, that didn’t want to travel. Or couldn’t. Some were very old and still banged up from years of attacks. The rest…well, he’d heard that they didn’t believe they could be any safer here than where they currently were, and decided to chance it.

  Also, there were hatchlings being born now. Several a day, as a matter of fact. Not that they’d be overrun by newborns. Hatchlings were only born to dragons every several thousand years. He supposed because they were so large that having one every few months would not only drain the parents, but the land and earth as well. Asher supposed it was a balancing act in that way. When he looked back at Bryn, she spoke.

  “I don’t love them. I’ve thought about it, but there isn’t anything in my heart for either of them. I’m sorry about that. They’re wonderful men and are very kind to me, but I don’t love them as I think I’m supposed to.” He asked her why she thought that. “Because I don’t complete the circle. I don’t love them, not like you guys do each other, and that’s why neither the magic for the book nor the castle works. Because my heart is too hard for it to be opened. I don’t know if it ever will, either.”

  “That makes sense, I suppose.” He thought that she might say she didn’t love them, but he could see the way they looked at her and her at them. There was something there, a spark, he thought. “What if you’re right? I mean, what do you suppose could be holding you back? Not that I want you to do something that you’re not feeling, but how is it you’re so sure that there isn’t love there?”

  “I don’t hate them, if that’s what you’re saying.” He said that it wasn’t. He was just asking to be sure. “I don’t feel anything overwhelming for them. I know that they love me, they tell me that all the time, but I don’t think I’m capable of loving them. I’m hardened, as I said. I’ve seen too much, Asher. Done more than most in the name of greed…not mine, but that of someone else, and even love. That is far worse than greed.”

  “People say that they’re in love a great deal. It has become so common for people to say it to someone that it’s as automatic as asking how they’re feeling, or about the weather.” She leaned back on the stone bench he was sitting on as he continued. “I’m glad that you’re taking your time with this. B
eing honest. You’ve told them, haven’t you? Let them know how you feel?”

  “I have. I don’t think they believe me.” He could see that as well, them telling her that she’d fall in love with them someday. Asher was sure that she would, but it would take some time. “The man, Wilson. You do know that he was my master at one time, don’t you?”

  “Yes, you told me. He’s also the one that killed your family. I don’t know why, but I had assumed that you’d taken care of him. It’s none of my business, but why haven’t you?” She didn’t answer him. “Is that why you can’t love, Bryn?”

  “Some of it, I think, but as I said, it’s what I do, what I’ve seen.” Asher asked her if she’d seen any goodness. “Yes. Not as much as the death and other things, but yes, there was goodness as well. And the reason that I never took care of him, as you said, was because I thought him dead. Along with his household. I killed them all. Killed them in ways that even as old as I am, it sickens me to think that I went that far. I will end him as he did my family. And he will suffer.”

  “We, too, have seen a great deal. All of us…not for as long as you, but we’ve been around a long time. And as you said, greed is there. Love is thrown around like it’s a curse word too, at times. But all I need to do is look at my children, and those of the others, and I know that there is happiness out there. Love too, when I see my wife. And my parents. I’m not saying that you can get over this. No, it’s not that…I do hurt for your loss in that.”

  “It didn’t feel like loss until now. Not when I see so much love around me. Everyday.” He had a feeling that there was hurt because deep down, she loved Simeon and Akassa, but was, like him at first, afraid to admit it. “Wilson is going to die. I’m going to make sure of it. And I would like to ask a favor of you. I don’t want your mom to know just how he dies.”