Agne swallowed hard as she sat down on her hindquarters staring at her sister’s pearl colored tail horns as she trotted away. What had she done? She had only been trying to let Salma know she didn’t agree with Father. She put one ear back, and one ear up, indicating her confusion.
The party momentum died down. She walked over to a Giant Fire Willow tree in the center of the garden and sat under it, staring at the beautiful red-orange blooms that spilled down from its long dangling branches. Using her Air magic, she held her breath to keep from tearing up. Why did no one like her? What made her so unlikeable? She wished she knew so she could change it.
Queen Airyanna put her tail around Agne’s back as she addressed the rest of her sisters. “Why don’t you seven get ready to return to your shared garden.”
Agne hadn’t heard her mother use that tone before; it sounded condescending. She hadn’t considered that she had private chambers and her own garden tailored to her needs. Her sisters shared quarters and a garden in the South Tower. She thought this was strange since they were different breeds of dragons with different needs. It would be uncomfortable for her two Fire Dragon sisters to sleep in a chamber designed for a Water Dragon. She wasn’t sure why they shared quarters, and she had her own. Perhaps it was because she was like Father and could use two powers. She was disappointed this evening had started out so hopeful and was ending with a feeling of further alienation.
Agne felt something under her back leg. One of her Earth Dragon sisters had burrowed under her and slipped her a note. Excitement ran through her. She couldn’t wait to read it.
Her father escorted her back to her chambers for the evening meal, and then trampled her canopy bed of hot rocks for her by turning around in three circles. Fire Dragons like sleeping on hot rocks; to have someone trample a bed for another was an act of love. She sat on her hindquarters with her tail wrapped around her, like a proper lady dragon, while he finished her bed for her. Inside, she was bursting with excitement to read the note. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t wait for Father to leave.
He tucked her into the rocks, gently head-butted her good-night, and then left the room. As soon as she was sure he was gone she read the note. Happy Fifteenth Birthday, Meet us in our garden for the rest of the party, sis.
She wondered if they had a much bigger and more beautiful garden than her. She used to wonder when Father would move her up to the big pup’s room to be with her sisters. When he didn’t do this, she had figured her sisters were now adults and no longer in need of a pup’s room. She had always wanted her sisters to share chambers with her, especially her two Fire Dragon sisters. Perhaps they could teach her Fire Dragon skills. Then they could play instead of fighting.
She snuck out to go meet them. When she arrived in their play yard, she didn’t see them anywhere. Where was the landscaping? There were only the two scorched bushes of her Fire Dragon sisters. While wandering around looking for them, she wondered why she was the only one who ended up with two Elemental powers. Perhaps her mother had good genes.
Another thing that caught her attention; this place wasn’t decorated for a party. She figured she would send her servant Ming-Ah to help them decorate their garden. She was a great Earth Dragon and would do wonders in their play yard. The place looked abandoned. If she fixed this place up for them, they might soften their attitude toward her. She looked around making plans for the alterations to the yard. Salma would need a pond, but her Fire sisters would probably need a firewillow tree, which could pull double duty since Earth dragons also liked them. Maybe she could put in one Fire-willow for each of them.
After a minute, she realized they still weren’t here. Had she misread the note? She was about to check the note again when she felt something sharp in her neck. It pinched, like a needle. “What is hap…?”
“Go to sleep Princess,” A voice said, becoming more distant as she fell asleep.
the execution
Chactau listened to the Fire dragon guard at the rear gate to the palace grounds.
“I swear, I smelled a human. He smelled angry, like rabbit poo, after you have to chase it down.”
Loutic nodded, “Go get TeriMil.” The guard nodded and took off to find the Air Dragon Loutic was asking for. “We can get her to sniff him out.”
“Let’s head to the ….” Chactau’s voice was cut off by a dragon’s roar. It was a high-pitched one, full of sorrow, anger, and fear. He had only heard it once before when the Blood King’s brother had died in battle. “Let’s go,” he said, jumping up to take flight toward the roar. Loutic right behind him.
He landed in the princesses’ shared garden, glancing around at elaborate landscaping. “Majesty! What is it?”
He could see the King rearing up. His rider dug her fingernails into his scales to lend him her Earth Magic, doubling the King’s power with the Earth element. The young Fire Princesses sank up to their snouts, so only their eyes shone out of the ground, then they grew dull as the ground compressed around them, ending their lives. There was nothing either could do to save themselves. With Ja Hua on his back, the King was too powerful for them.
He heard a thud behind him and turned just in time to see Queen Airyanna pull her tail horns out of the back of Princess Salma’s head. Blood spattered her sky-blue scales. His eyes widened. “My Queen!” He ran over to her. “What is going on!”
“Go fetch that dry-scaled betrothed of hers. Selma told me he has taken Princess Agne and sold her to humans,” she said, pointing her tail in his face, blood dripping from it.
“Yes, my Queen.” He glanced over at the King, who had blood dripping from his fangs, he had bitten the neck of one of the other princesses. Ja Hua was smiling in her saddle as she continued to dig her fingernails into the King’s scales.
Loutic grabbed his tail. “Let’s go find him.”
“Bring him to me. I will execute him myself,” the King said with an eerie calm that sent shivers from Chactau’s neck down to his tail horns. “If Princess Agne is still with him, take her to her quarters. She is never to leave them again.”
“Yes, Majesty,” they said in unison as they flew off.
“Did they just kill their own family?” Chactau asked. He had seen gore in battle before, but this was disturbing him. It was taking all his training to keep fear at bay. The fear that life as he knew it was over. Now he wouldn’t be betrothed to a minor princess – she would be the crown princess.
“Yes, but I am not surprised. There is no way any of them would have been allowed to take the throne,” Loutic said, glancing over his shoulder toward the palace. He looked forward, to scan the forest. “There!” He descended toward a grove of tall, skinny fir trees.
“How can you tell.” He squinted in the direction Loutic flew.
“He’s Water; he’s the opposite of me.” He circled low, but didn’t land. “Salma’s betrothed is a spoiled, fat, entitled dragon, he will be easy to catch.”
“You go that way. We’ll box him in.”
Loutic nodded, “He isn’t actually trying to hide from us there, is he?”
Chactau shrugged and banked left as Loutic banked right. He flew down in the trees, now seeing the farm pond. He landed, digging his claws into the ground. He smiled at the ground as he detected a Water Dragon laying on the bottom of the pond. He concentrated on causing an irrigation ditch to form and began to run the water off. There was a slight ripple as the water flowed. He smiled as it stopped; an easy trick for a Water Dragon.
“Yes, you were correct. He’s actually trying to hide in the pond.” He looked up as Loutic landed in a brushy area and nodded that he was ready.
The water began to freeze, another novice Water Dragon trick. “Really; this guy doesn’t know more advanced Water magic than this?” He had been expecting a flash flood, followed by an immediate flash frozen Tsunami that he would have to use his sonic boom roar to escape from. For Loutic, countering the freezing powers of Water Dragons would be pups-play.
Loutic
snorted small sparks. “Queen Airyanna didn’t want him in her way. She would chew this guy up and spit him out over time. That’s why she chose him for Salma. He’s just Salma’s tool – the wrong tool for the wrong job. But the right-incompetent-dragon for the Queen’s job.”
“The Queen still might chew him up.” He dug his claws into the ground further, “Up!” The ground under the pond rose and became even with the rest of the terrain. A slightly heavyset Water Dragon jumped up and tried to fly off. Loutic jumped out breathing fire on him while Chactau flew up and landed on his back, shoving him to the ground. Using his Earth magic, he pulled the mud up and cocooned the prisoner.
Loutic landed, rearing up and breathing fire on the mud ball to remove the water. It hardened around the prisoner. Using his tail horns, he cracked a small hole to talk to the prisoner, who immediately tried to pull more water up from the ground. He breathed fire on the field to dry up the water.
“Stop it: you’re caught. The last thing you want is for us to become bored with you,” Chactau said, sighing. “Where is Princess Agne?” He was curious to meet her to see if the rumors about her were true.
No sound came from the interior.
Loutic leaned into the hole filling it with his super-heated breath. He stepped back. “Water Dragons hate that. They like it cool.”
Silence.
Queen Airyanna landed next to them, startling Chactau. She buried her tail horns in the mud cocoon cracking it open. She was on the dragon in an instant. “Where is she!” She bit his left wing, making the dragon roar and writhe in pain.
The Water Dragon grunted as he said, “Gone. Hopefully forever. Long live Queen Salma.”
“Salma’s dead.” The Queen put her bloody tail horns in his face, and then she leaped forward and bit his right wing, shaking her head back and forth.
Loutic glanced at Chactau. “Told you, chewed up and spit out.”
“Literally.” Chactau didn’t make a face. He had seen the Queen in action before. This dragon would never fly again – if the Queen let him live. Although he wished she would stop, the King said he wanted to execute the traitor himself.
“Where is my daughter,” she said, biting randomly at the Water Dragon’s legs while he flailed about. She scratched at him with her rear claws opening deep wounds.
“We sold her!” the dragon howled. “She is to be executed for your crimes against the nation. You will hurt, as you have caused hurt.”
“Where are they headed?” Chactau asked, thinking that this guy was a wimp. He just coughed up the entire plan with minimal torture. Salma wouldn’t have lasted long on the throne with this pimple under her scales. But, that had probably been the current queen’s plan the whole time; to seat Agne on the throne.
“South Dragons….” His voice cut off as the Queen bit his neck and snapped the bones in her powerful jaws.
“You two,” she said, pointing at them. “Get back to the castle, organize a strike team. I want the ashes of South Dragons Ridge buried three hundred feet into the ground.”
Chactau glanced at Loutic, who frowned, but nodded. “Yes, My Queen.”
They flew off toward the castle.
“She isn’t going to really…,” Chactau asked, unsure if he wanted the answer. He had seen the Queen personally blow villages to kingdom come, and for much less than kidnapping her pup. From the time Princess Agne hatched, the King only handled the day to day operations of the castle. It was like he forgot there was a nation outside the walls. There was something powerful about Princess Agne that tamed the Blood King and put her domineering mother on the throne. He wondered if perhaps he shouldn’t be more afraid of that than worrying about having to marry Agne.
Loutic nodded. “Yes, and perhaps no. She’ll give them the opportunity to turn the traitor over, if they don’t she’ll bury the city just as she said she would.”
“And if they know nothing? What if it really is just a vengeful human, and not the whole village?”
“Then they won’t be able to tell the Queen what she wants to hear, and she’ll bury the city; just like the Water village of South Aquaqueia.”
When they returned to the castle, Chactau learned the King was one step ahead of the Queen. Several battalions, including his own, were already lined up outside the castle. He landed in front of his dragons and stood at attention with his ears forward and tail straight up in the air waiting for the King’s orders. His two majors joined him on either side, with the sixteen captains on either side of them.
The King was ranting like a stark raving lunatic. One thing was clear. Princess Agne’s parents would destroy everything in their path until she was safe in her chambers.
THe party’s over
Small paws shook her shoulder. “Hey, Princess,” a voice said. “Wake up, Lilac. We have some things to discuss.”
“Wha…,” she said trying to wake up. “Wha… happened? I have never felt like thisssss, ever. Can..t wake up. Is dat’a human? A real live human? Your paws …so tiny.” She tried to move, but her legs weren’t cooperating. She lay her head back down, keeping her eyes closed.
“None of that, Lilac. We have your legs tied up tight. You won’t be using those diamond-sharp claws to get out of this. Mingway, you belt her snout,” the voice ordered.
“S-s-she is s-s-still a pup,” said the voice of someone who sounded afraid.
“You mean, the one who has been trained to use her dragon’s breath by the Blood King’s experts? Belt her snout, or you can stand in front of her jaws if you’re so confident.” The voice said, sounding like the other should know of the danger of trying to kidnap a fire breathing dragon who could back it up with gale force winds to create a hurricane of fire.
She struggled to push her eyes open, as they belted her snout. She tried to force herself awake, pleading with her body to cooperate. What was happening? What were they going to do with her? She went limp again, thinking she could smell poo. It almost smelled like horse poo.
“She is still groggy. I think it was too much for her. Go fetch the dragon doctor.” This time, the voice didn’t sound as harsh, it seemed concerned.
“So you can woo her into taking you as a rider while I am gone?” the younger sounding voice asked, the stuttering gone.
“Are you kidding, you are aware of what it means to be her rider; it’s almost certainly a death sentence. Would you like to saddle and ride her? Here is the saddle; go on; do it. Besides, you know full well what I intend to do with her: Punish the Blood King.”
She couldn’t have a rider. It would upset Father. She forced her eyes open trying to talk, but the belt was clamping her snout down tight. She shook her head, lying her head back down on the stone floor. Father would not sit still for this. He would go nuts if someone tried to put a saddle on her back. This human was playing with fire – literally.
Two human boys were standing before her; a dark-haired fellow and a shorter, younger looking blond. Then she realized where she was, a horse barn. Of all the outrageous things, to keep a princess in a horse barn. She lived in a castle, but she knew most dragons lived in proper dragon barns, real homes—not stables for livestock. She frowned, so, the smell really was poo. She curled her lip as she narrowed her silver eyes at them.
She wanted to scream at them; Dragons aren’t livestock! She couldn’t wait to tell Father; he would make them set her free. She looked around her stall. It was made of cement and stone block, and there was no hay on the floor. She was about to think there was nothing in here for a fire-breathing dragon to have fun with when she caught herself: that was the point, there was nothing for her to set the barn on fire with. She tried to wiggle her legs free, then it finally hit her; she really was kidnapped. Wait, she could heat the stone, and force them out of the barn with the superheat, then she could bend down and burn the snout strap off using the hot stone. Oh, no, she couldn’t do that, she needed to open her mouth to roar the fire onto the stone; Oh, if she wasn’t belted, she could just blast them, she wouldn’t ne
ed a convoluted plan. She hated this situation it was confusing her.
“Yes, Lilac, we know, you can breathe fire. I see you looking around for stuff to burn. We took out all the flammable stuff. I am Zhao,” the older boy pointed at himself and then the other boy, “this is Mingway. One of us will be your rider, and you will be our Dragon, or we will execute you,” he said, smoothing his dark blue tunic.
“That’s right,” Mingway’s voice came from just outside her stall, but didn’t sound nearly as confident.
“The other two ran away from the deal when they discovered it was real. I think they thought I was kidding them when I said, I was going to get the Lilac Princess.” Zhao was dressed in a Water Temple student uniform: A knee length dark blue tunic, dark blue leggings, and leather rider boots to match. A dark blue Water Dragon scale belt cinched everything tight around his thin waist. He had dark, almost black hair, cut short. His bright, almost gray, blue eyes looked her over like he was shopping for a pet. The heels of his boots clicked on the floor as he walked around her. Everything about his clothing, from his belt to the silk cord tying his hooded cloak around his neck, suggested wealth. A silver sapphire necklace in the shape of a wave had a pearl set in the center hung around his neck. It identified him as a Water Priest Apprentice.
The other boy wore the same type of uniform, but it looked more like a set of hand-me-downs. Water magic wasn’t easy for humans to learn. They had to study years at the Water temples. It was dangerous because humans could accidentally freeze themselves, but if they could master Water, their healing abilities would be unyielding. Water Dragon’s like freezing things, so that barrier to mastery did not exist for them like it did humans.
She wondered if he was stupid or crazy. But on the other hand, he was Water. She wondered – if she had a Water rider it would give her three elemental powers-four if one considered that she could use base Earth magic…. No! She scowled at her own thoughts, reminding herself these two lumps had kidnapped her. She needed to get away, even bite them if necessary – if she could get this stupid snout belt off.
The Lilac Princess and the Blood King Page 2