“He is...one of them?” the king finally asked.
“Yes. Yes, your majesty. He is one of them.”
Although the current emperor was not the one responsible for what had happened to Melicard’s father, the drake was the son of that fiend. Even despite the fact that Kyl --- as he had been called before his ascension to the imperial throne --- had been raised by the Bedlams did not entirely erase Melicard’s distrust and distaste. A drake was a drake was a drake, despite all the words otherwise the king had used to assure Erini he would never wage war on them again.
Bern leapt back as his monarch abruptly left the chamber. Melicard paused only to seal the locks on the iron door, then place the keys in a pouch on his belt before quickly moving on.
With long strides, Melicard soon left the seneschal in his wake. Aware of just what location Bern would have left the emissary, it did not take the king long to find his ‘visitor’.
The figure stood taller than Melicard, in part because of the high-crested dragonhelm he wore. While the voluminous brown travel cloak --- a curious thing for a drake to be wearing, the king realized --- covered most of the newcomer, the helm and the half-hidden, reptilian face beneath it both bore strong traces of gold in their otherwise dark green scales.
The drake turned as Melicard entered. The king hesitated. He had seen enough drakes to know that there was something amiss, although exactly what it was, he could not yet say.
“King Melicard,” the emissary greeted with a courteous bow. “Thank you for receiving me.”
“I was not aware that I was going to receive one of your kind.” Melicard stepped closer as he spoke. The drake had an odd uncomfortableness about him. “Especially from the Dragon Emperor.”
“Ssso I have dissscovered, much to my dismay, from your ssservant!” A low hiss escaped the emissary. “You were to have been sssent a missive five daysss ago! It should have reached you and you alone! The messenger wasss mossst trusted!”
“I have received nothing. Bern!”
The breathless seneschal had only just arrived in the greeting chamber. “Y-yes, your majesty?”
“He would have known nothing,” the drake interjected. “I sssaid you and you and alone, not sssome mere ssservant!”
“Mind your place, serpent! No drake is the better of any of my subjects!”
Raising his gauntleted hands chest high, the emissary quickly replied, “Forgive me! I wasss remisss! My nervesss are ssso on edge!” He looked to the side, his focus on somewhere else. “If only I could have reached Massster Bedlam! I ssstill don’t ---”
Melicard’s brow rose. Again, the feeling that there was something amiss about the emissary stirred within the king. Master Bedlam?
“You are no emissary,’ Melicard uttered. “You are...you are the emperor himself.”
The drake returned his gaze to the king. As he did, he shrank slightly in height and the fearsome dragon’s head helm faded away. The blunt, scaled face transformed, becoming a dark, exotic one of almost elven handsomeness. Only the latest generation of male drakes could achieve this striking appearance, those from the previous ones able only to create the illusion of a sinister knight.
“Yesss, it isss me.” The lord of all drakes performed another bow. “Forgive thisss --- this foolish charade. It was necessary to evade certain elementsss of --- of my people early on. I should have dispensssed with it before reaching here...but I was too anxiousss.”
Melicard frowned. “Elements of your people? Your majesty, what do you ---”
“Kyl...please...I prefer to be called Kyl. I alwaysss did.”
For a moment, the king saw the young drake child --- the almost human drake child --- who had been nearly like another son to the wizard and his enchantress wife. Kyl had been first among several drakes raised by the spellcasters, first, along with his duplicitous younger brother, Grath. Kyl had survived to become the emperor for whom so many had hoped. For the first time in centuries, there had been belief that peace could sweep over the entire Dragonrealm.
A fool’s dream, that proved to be, Melicard thought not for the first time. And here stands the ultimate proof of that...
The lord of all drakes anxiously glanced around as if wary of even the walls. Much of Melicard’s inherent dislike for the race faded as he read the depths of the young emperor’s concern. With Talak so near the imperial realm, it behooved Melicard to learn just how whatever concerned Kyl might affect the human monarch’s own people.
“Bern...bring some wine for our guest. Your --- Kyl --- please, have a seat.”
Kyl glanced at the plush leather chair nearest him as if it had just magically appeared. With a tired nod, the drake dropped into the chair. The gauntlets fading from his hands, he ran his fingers through a lush head of almost black hair.
Melicard thanked the powers that Lynnette was not in the room. Kyl had an understandable effect on human females, especially those of an impressionable age. The king began trying to decide which suite his guest could use that would keep his presence a secret from the princess.
“I won’t be staying long,” Kyl abruptly remarked. “but it was necessary to come here myssself. Other than my sissster, I trust no one enough anymore, especially asss my bessst messenger appears to have gone missing.”
“I will send some men to check the trails ---”
“No, he’s dead. If he wasss not, he would’ve reached you. I considered long and hard when I chossse him.”
The king shrugged. “As you say, then.” Melicard joined Kyl, but did not sit. “Do you mean to say that you intend to return to your own realm this very night?”
“I must.”
Melicard did not bother to ask by what method the emperor intended to cross a distance that took a swift horse many days. As a drake, Kyl had amazing powers of his own. Still, no one had reported seeing any large beasts in the sky, especially a dragon, so the drake had clearly utilized some more secretive choice.
Bern returned bearing a silver platter upon which had been two silver goblets and a matching wine decanter. It was not Bern’s place to normally serve visitors, but he knew very well the importance of having as few people as possible involved in this unexpected meeting.
Having served both rulers, the seneschal quietly departed. The moment that they were alone, Kyl set down the untouched wine and, without warning, reached for a pouch at his side.
Melicard instinctively twisted his left hand. From his sleeve slipped a thin, silver strand. The king had worn the device holding the strand every day for the past four months. It had been devised by one of his top spies for his use as an emergency weapon against drake assassins.
The strand left Melicard’s hand before Kyl noticed what was happening. The drake gaped and started to say something, but the before he could, the strand had already wrapped itself around his throat.
“I would be still if I were you,” the king muttered, silently cursing his reflexes, but not yet moving to make amends. “What you’ve got around your neck is a variation of an old Dragon Master trick. If you attempt to remove it, it will cut through your throat in an instant.”
“King Melicard! I don’t mean any harm ---”
“That may be the case, but your kind’s past visits to Talak have left me with an inherent distrust for sudden moves.”
Swallowing, Kyl indicated the pouch. “Please. It’s nothing dangerous to you. If anything, by bringing it here, I risk everything.”
The king suddenly heard Erini’s reproving voice saying, you must learn to trust, my love. You must learn to trust even drakes. Not just for your sake, but for those of our subjects...
You were always more understanding, Erini, always, the disfigured monarch thought ruefully. Even though you in many ways had more reason than I to hate the sight of every single one of them.
“I understand your hatred for my kind, for my...family, your majesssty,” the emperor carefully continued. “I disssavow my father. I disssavow my brothers Grath and Kyrg and I mossst definit
ely disssavow my brother Toma...”
Mention of Kyrg initially jolted Melicard, that drake personally responsible for driving the king’s father, Rennek IV, insane. Yet, even more so than Kyrg, the last of the names sent a chill down Melicard’s spine. Duke Toma had been instrumental in nearly driving the entire continent to war more than once. He had even successfully infiltrated the Bedlam domain in an attempt to manipulate just who sat on the imperial throne.
But Toma, Kyrg, Grath, and the former Dragon Emperor were all dead, Kyl’s own sire, in what Melicard thought a bit of justice, also driven mad before his eventual demise. With that to mollify him somewhat, Melicard finally stepped to the drake and carefully removed the strand. As Kyl rubbed his throat, the king returned the strand to his arm.
“A clever tool,” the drake conceded. “Only a touch of magic on it.” Kyl indicated the pouch. “May I now?”
At the king’s nod, the young drake cautiously removed the contents. To both Melicard’s curiosity and frustration, the object proved to be a small steel box.
“I will assume that there is not a smaller container within that,” he remarked without humor.
“The pouch was merely to carry it. The box is designed to preserve and protect.” Kyl indicated the small lock in front. “If I may?”
Despite the measured manner in which Kyl now spoke, Melicard could sense the emperor’s growing anxiety. “Do so.”
The drake passed one hand over the lock. The mechanism clicked and the lid slowly opened.
Melicard had only to take one glance at what lay within to suspect that Kyl had been understating the fact when he had claimed that he was the one who risked everything.
Meeting the human’s gaze, the drake whispered, “King Melicard, into your protection I humbly --- no --- desperately ask you to take not only my future...but that of perhaps the entire drake race...”
Melicard looked again at the small, gleaming white egg in the box...and for one of the few times in his adult life, shivered. Yet, with Erini ever in mind, he did not hesitate in nodding his head.
Kyl exhaled in relief. “My life is yours for this, King Melicard.”
“I don’t care about that. I only care for the safety of my people. Just what is all this about?”
“I know only a little, but what little I know I will tell you as quickly as I can. It is essential I return before dawn. Very essential.”
Downing his drink, Melicard poured more. “Well, then, you’d best begin...”
* * *
The meeting did not last more than a quarter hour longer, but by the time it ended, any animosity between Melicard and the Dragon Emperor had faded. The king summoned Bern back the moment the two rulers were finished, ordering the seneschal to assist Kyl with anything he needed to speed his return to Kivan Grath.
When that was accomplished, the seneschal led Kyl to an obscure gateway near the northern edge of the city. The Dragon Emperor had not revealed the method by which he traveled and Melicard had not asked. All Kyl desired in terms of actually exiting Talak was that he be as near to the mountains as possible.
Again clad as a drake emissary, Kyl trod quietly through the last of the inhabited areas north of the city walls. Few lived here by choice. Little grew between Talak and the Tyber Mountains. Beyond this last settlement, Kyl knew that anyone he might have met had he been riding a horse or drake would have likely been a renegade of some sort.
However, the Dragon Emperor had not ridden here. Nor, as Melicard likely believed, had he transformed into his birth shape. Like all drakes, Kyl had the ability to become the greatest of beasts...a true dragon. To outsiders, it was both a fantastic and horrific ability. To drakes, it was still an inherent skill, but one that seemed harder and harder to do quickly with each new generation. Indeed, Kyl and most of his kind preferred their more humanoid shapes, finding them more useful in a number of ways.
And thus, it would have perhaps not been so surprising to Melicard that once Kyl was away from Talak’s influence, he instead removed from his person a tiny crimson stone. Breathing on it, the drake tossed the stone in front of him.
As the stone landed, it emitted a faint radiance that spread to encompass a circle perhaps five feet in diameter.
The young emperor immediately leapt into the center. As his feet touched the ground surrounding the stone, both he and the gem vanished.
Less than the blink of an eye later, both Kyl and the stone materialized in a location in the southern reaches of the Tyber Mountains. Kyl snatched up the stone and breathed on it once more.
Tossing the stone, the drake again stepped into the radiance. As before, the stone transported him to another area in the immense chain.
As emperor --- and especially as emperor now --- Kyl knew that there were many who would have been happy to have his head. Some were humans who, unlike King Melicard, continued their vendettas against all drakes. Others were of Kyl’s own kind, ambitious drakes who no longer saw the imperial throne as relevant...something Kyl himself on occasion also believed.
The stone was one of many artifacts he had inherited from his predecessor. Kyl had called the previous emperor ‘father’ before Melicard, but only to identify the blood relationship to the human. Very rarely did Kyl use the term otherwise and even less did he think of the former lord of drakes as his sire. Indeed, if Kyl could have eradicated the bond between himself and his birth father, he would have done so without hesitation.
For a third time, the stone brought him to a spot in the Tybers. Each jump ended in a random location that gradually took him nearer to Kivan Grath. Melicard would have found it odd that Kyl took such caution to return to his own sanctum, but recent events demanded that caution. Three trusted servants were already dead --- four, counting the missing messenger --- and all because they had preceded Kyl to destinations he would have once considered absolutely safe.
Two of them had perished in Kivan Grath itself.
Kyl was determined to root out the traitors, but he needed to secure other matters first. Tonight, he had taken the most important step toward that...turning over to one of those no drake could get near without notice the most precious thing he had. The egg carrying his potential heir.
The egg was the first viable one produced by the senior of his three consorts. Thalyssia was an obedient and cooperative enough consort, but both knew the relationship was meant only to produce young and, if fortune smiled upon them, a male heir. The same held true for the other two females. All had been chosen to secure ties with other drake lords, a necessity the Green Dragon --- Master of the vast Dagora Forest --- had insisted had to be made for the realm to survive.
The clatter of rock warned Kyl that he was not alone.
The drake did not reach for his weapon. Instead, he breathed on the stone and threw it forward. At the same time, he heard the sound of movement from other directions.
The stone flared. Kyl stepped forward ---
His surroundings changed. The dark shape of the mightiest of mountains loomed over Kyl. For one of the few times since ascending the throne, Kyl welcomed the sight of Kivan Grath.
“Welcome home...” rasped a voice that echoed throughout the vicinity.
Gasping, the emperor whirled in the direction he though the voice originated. There, four figures the size of humans in armor converged upon him.
Not posssible! The ssstone precludesss knowledge of where I land each time! They could not know I would be here!
The point was moot, though. Kyl had no time to reach for the stone. Still, the day he could not handle four humans was the day he deserved to be overthrown.
He stretched his left hand out. The fingers extended, becoming claws. Kyl had far better control over his ability to change than most drakes.
The attackers neared. Kyl adjusted his sight to make up for the darkness ---
It was a decision he regretted the moment he saw his foes up close.
Hissing in shock, Kyl pushed himself into a full transformation. He swelled in
size. His arms and legs bent to accommodate a creature more at ease on four limbs. From his back burst two webbed wings that grew even faster than his body.
In seconds, where once a slim, almost elven figure had stood, now a golden dragon reared above the puny villains. However monstrous his foes might be, at that moment Kyl only saw them as insects to be crushed.
But again came the raspy voice. “How much you have grown...how well you have kept my empire waiting for me...”
The attackers forgotten, Kyl turned his gaze to the voice. This time he confronted the source.
Horrified, he could only gape.
The winged behemoth filled the golden dragon’s view, yet, as with the armed assassins, it was the details the emperor’s enhanced vision revealed that put utter fear into Kyl.
At last, he managed a single word. “Father?”
A chill wind overwhelmed Kyl, sending the golden dragon colliding with Kivan Grath. A part of his shaken mind wondered why no one noticed what was happening. Some guard --- or better yet, his sister --- should have sensed all this.
He tried to reach out to Ursa, but the unnatural cold enveloped his thoughts, numbing him to the very core. The world receded...save for the voice, which now filled what remained of his mind.
My empire...
IV
Sanctums
The Manor never ceased to amaze Cabe, even after so many years of having called it home. A wondrous melding of living tree and artisan-worked stone, it rose several stories high. Yet, even the magical mixing of mineral and plant life paled in comparison to some of its other attributes. The Manor --- no other name was known for it despite its tremendous age --- was larger inside than out, including having more floors. It boasted a library of magical tomes second only to the great system in Penacles. It also could not be found by any who did not have some link to it, the spell protecting the ancient edifice turning all others off the path without them even realizing that they had changed direction.
The Dragon Throne_Knights of the Frost Pt. I Page 4