War of Dragons

by Andy Holland

John shook his head. "No. I can help myself a little; if I spend more time as a dragon it's thought to help. But it only delays the outcome, nothing more."

  Crystal felt terrible. "Did you know? When you transformed? Did you know this would happen?"

  John laughed. "No, I thought it would be much faster!"

  "John!"

  John shook his head, his laughter dying away. "I knew the risks. But I thought it would either kill me straight away, or I would survive. Once I recovered, I assumed that it meant that I would be alright. The chest pains were a little inconvenient but not that painful, so I didn't think they meant anything and I ignored them."

  "Could you have done anything? If you had known?"

  "Not really," John replied. "I guess not knowing was really for the best. It's all worked out, after all."

  Crystal wondered whether he would have attacked the True Dragons if he hadn't known that he was already dying. Even for John, that was foolhardy, if not suicidal.

  "Who knows about this?" Crystal asked. "Have you told Daisy?"

  John smiled bitterly. "Not yet. I don't know how I can tell her either. Not after everything that she's been through. Only Mark, you and my father know."

  Crystal nodded, remembering how Daisy reacted when John was injured in the caves. She wouldn't take this at all well. "Two years is a long time; maybe the doctors will work out a cure?"

  John smiled and nodded, not pointing out that half a year had passed already. "Maybe they will. Let's keep it a secret for the moment. There's no need to drag everyone else down."

  Before Crystal could reply, she was interrupted by Seth.

  "Put him down, Crystal," Seth said loudly. "And stop looking so miserable, both of you. We won!"

  Crystal realised that she was still embracing John and let go immediately, feeling a little embarrassed.

  "Careful, Crystal," Jenna warned. "You don't want to compete with Daisy. I've seen what she can do when she's angry."

  Crystal laughed. "Where are the twins? And what happens now? Is it all over?"

  "They're with Gerald and Mark," Jenna replied. "They were looking for you as well, John. You should go and see them."

  "As for what happens now," Seth replied. "I think that's obvious. We celebrate!"

  Chapter 34 - Peace Treaty

  "Captain, we have taken prisoners, as instructed, although it has been difficult to prevent the Reds from just slaughtering them all. The storm put them off for a day, but that didn't buy us enough time."

  Timothy was one of the two brothers reporting to Jude and had been tasked with updating the Council via Mark. It was two days after they had watched the Blues thoroughly defeated and the Council had established a new headquarters in a location near the old border with the Blues, an indication of the level of confidence they now felt. The Reds were in no mood to be forgiving and were determined to kill as many Blues as possible, starting with those that were injured and unable to fly. Fortunately, a heavy storm had delayed them from flying, giving the Golden Dragons enough time to save some of them.

  Mark nodded sadly. "Yes, that's to be expected. We haven't the numbers to take many prisoners and the Reds can't be expected to show any mercy. It's not in their nature and if the tables were turned they would be shown none. Where are you holding them?"

  "In the Circle, sir," Timothy replied. "Captain Jude had us dig a dungeon there, sir; he thought it the best solution. The prisoners will be too scared to escape and the Reds too scared to go in after them."

  "Dig a dungeon in the Circle! That sounds risky. How long is that going to take?"

  "It's largely complete already, sir," Timothy replied confidently. "We're just modifying some abandoned Worm Dragon tunnels to our purposes. We found that one part of the Circle is riddled with tunnels; it must have been a major settlement at some point before these creatures set up home. It is perfectly safe; the True Dragons are far too big to sneak up on us and there are multiple ways to get into the tunnels to take refuge from them. And there's no danger of the prisoners escaping; none of them can fly and they know where they are. Our challenge now will be providing food and water for them all."

  "We'll need reinforcements for that. Has Jude sent a request for more help? We're no longer fighting a war—not really—so our mission has changed and they should agree to send more dragons."

  Timothy nodded. "Captain Jude located one of the observers the day before yesterday and a message has been sent back. It'll be some time before anyone gets here though." He was referring to the Golden Dragons that their parliament had sent to monitor the situation. Mark knew that some would be around but hadn't encountered any personally.

  "Very good. I'll speak to the Reds to see if I can persuade them to agree to let us take more prisoners, but I suspect they'll insist on killing them all. Is that all, Timothy?"

  "Just one thing, sir," he replied. "One of the prisoners is a general. Not the supreme leader, but he claims to have led the attack on Obud. Name of Kanesh. Thought you might like to know."

  Mark went white. "You have a general? That's fantastic news; why didn't you tell me straight away? Where's he now?"

  "I'm not sure, sir, but he'll be in the Circle soon, along with the rest."

  Mark shook his head in disbelief. "Right, give me detailed instructions on how to reach this dungeon in the Circle. I will go there shortly. This could be the breakthrough we've been hoping for. This could mean a quick end to this war."

  "Very good, Captain. I'm glad the news was well received." He handed Mark a folded sheet of paper. "I have already prepared details of the camp's location, the current numbers of prisoners and some information we managed to get from the general. I'll go back now to help move more of the prisoners."

  Timothy was a formal man and saluted Mark before transforming and flying away. Mark shook his head, amazed that Timothy didn't bring this up first. This was excellent news that needed to be taken to the Council immediately. The town of Fortune, a small misnamed border town commandeered by the Council, had been overrun by the numbers of troops based there. The Council had taken residence in the largest building in the town, which was some sort of trading house surrounded by a large square. Mark walked there slowly, pondering who to take this news to within the Council. He would have liked to discuss this with Noah first, but Noah was constantly with Prince Henry and he had no doubt of what the Prince's response would be. Public and very painful execution for the general, to pay for the crime of destroying Obud. No, he would need to speak to someone else. Perhaps John would be a good person to discuss it with—if he could find him. His younger brother had a maturity that was beyond his years.

  "Hi, Mark," Prince Gerald said in greeting as he caught sight of him. "You look lost in thought. Anything troubling you?"

  Mark looked up and smiled at the young Prince. This was a man who could be trusted. If only he was a voting member of the Council. "I have some important news," he replied. "And I need to work out who to give it to. Used wisely, this could end the war very quickly. "

  Gerald nodded. "End the war, not win it, of course. It was won two days ago by your brother, but people seem to forget that it hasn't ended yet. Would you tell me? Perhaps I can help."

  Mark scratched his chin, wondering how to tell him. "First, please, try to understand that our customs are very different to yours. We don't wage wars on our neighbours and never have done. We don't try to expand our borders and we have very rarely had to repel invaders seeking to take land from us. This has allowed us to develop a completely different view on life from you."

  "I suspect few would be foolish enough to attack you. Please, go on."

  "Well, our aversion to war extends to our distaste for vengeance on the loser, even when they were the aggressor, although sadly, it's rarely the aggressor who loses. We've taken in many people who have lost wars and there are many races whose only remaining survivors live in our land."

  Gerald smiled. "Yes, Daisy and Arthur told me about your capital city. I was fascinate
d. And I can see where you are going. You want us to show mercy to the Blues. I've heard about your efforts to take prisoners rather than let us kill them all. That will be very hard to sell to the Council."

  "Well, you can't wipe out all the Blues. You don't have the numbers to do so. You'll retake your lands and probably expand your borders to the south without too much trouble, but beyond that, well, you'd lose far too many lives. You'll probably lose many of dragons just retaking your cities."

  Gerald shrugged. "Probably, but that won't stop us. I can't see how it's avoidable and besides, they'll lose more than we will."

  "Maybe. However, if the Blues just left your cities, simply fleeing home without a fight, both sides would benefit. You're right; you almost certainly would lose less than them in the fight to take back your cities, but you would still have a high death toll. Wouldn't it be better to avoid that?"

  "It would and it would be fantastic if they did that. But they won't and I wouldn't either if I was in their position. They know we'd attack them as they fled and without the benefit of a fortified city they would be slaughtered. I suspect that even those that did get away wouldn't be much better off, as I'm guessing their rulers would punish those that survived."

  Mark nodded. "Very true. But what if they had instructions from one of their generals to abandon the cities as well as assurances from us that we wouldn't attack. I'm guessing that would change things."

  Gerald smiled. "Neither things seem likely, but I'm guessing you have a plan of how we could make that happen. Go on, tell me. I'm interested."

  Mark paused. "We have captured one of their generals. I don't know how much you know of their army or their society, but the head of the army is also their ruler. This general is probably just one step down from him and he may be the only surviving member of the army leadership. We're holding him in the Circle and I'd like to negotiate peace with him, the Council and the Browns. If this is handled in the right way this war could end very quickly and we could all avoid a lot of deaths."

  Gerald whistled. "A captive general. Now that is a real prize. I'm guessing that you don't want to go to Prince Henry with this information."

  Mark shook his head. "I'm worried that he won't see what opportunities this offers us. Is there any chance that you could get Noah out of that room? I could really do with his advice. If I go in they'll demand my update from the scouts and I could hardly leave this bit out."

  Gerald nodded. "They will. Leave it with me to deal with. I think I can help you with this one. Don't hang around here though; you'll be spotted sooner or later and called to go in. Wait in that tavern over there. I'll join you shortly."

  Mark crossed over the town square to enter the tavern. It was late morning, and it was bright outside, but the tavern was dark and dingy and Mark felt uncomfortable sitting in there.

  "What can I get you?" A middle-aged stoutly-built lady held a chalk slate and regarded him curiously.

  "Um, I haven't any of your money," Mark replied apologetically. "I'm waiting for a friend to join me."

  The lady shrugged. "Lord Jeremy has orders that should any of you Golden lot enter, to put your meals on his account. You can have what you like."

  "Oh, I see. I'll have the soup and the pork please," Mark replied. "And some water to drink."

  "How will Lord Jeremy afford it?" the lady replied sarcastically. "When he told me there were nearly a hundred of you, I thought he was being very generous. You're the third one I've had in and you're the biggest spender."

  "Oh, I see," Mark replied, not really understanding. "How is this tavern up and serving so soon? I would have thought that the Blues would have stripped the place of anything of value and then destroyed the place. They razed Obud."

  "Obud matters; this place doesn't. We didn't defend it; we just fled, so there was no fighting here. I have a hidden cellar, so I hid everything of value. I have no idea why they didn't torch the place; they did that to many buildings."

  Mark looked around, thinking that maybe the Blues hadn't done them any favours leaving this dismal building alone. There were a lot of people in the town at the moment, but there were just two other customers in the tavern. The lady left him alone in order to go and fetch his food, so he turned to the documents that Timothy had left with him. The map was fairly basic but provided enough information to enable him to find the prison should he choose to do so. He skimmed through the details of the prisoners taken, and saw that other than numbers, they didn't have a lot of details regarding the ranks of the prisoners, other than this general. He was most interested in what they had learnt from this Blue Dragon. The general himself hadn't been particularly forthcoming, but Timothy appeared to have gleaned a number of useful bits of information about him and the rest of the military leadership from some of the other prisoners. He had only just finished reading when Prince Gerald returned, accompanied by Lord Jeremy, Lord Daniel, Lord Robert and Noah.

  "Mark," Prince Gerald began, "meet the peaceful contingent of the Council."

  "A smaller group than we would like," Lord Robert added. "Our politics is probably a little confusing and rather dull to you, but within the Council, there are two factions; us, who are rather less keen on throwing lives away, and the others, who want to crush the Blues at any cost. All of the members from the South and the West, and Lord Daniel from the East, have consistently voted to oppose attacking the Blues, except in retaliation for their raids."

  "It's not the only division by any means," Lord Daniel added. "Other than Prince Gerald here, all those from the West and the East favour having rather less interference from Furnace, whereas all of the South, the Centre and most of those from the North are what we call centralists. We're quite a divided bunch and hardly anyone agrees on anything."

  "Yet here we are," Lord Jeremy interrupted impatiently, "and very keen to know more about this general."

  Mark frowned. "I don't know much. He claims to have led the attack on Obud, apparently, so he's quite senior and probably well respected as that was a spectacularly successful campaign. Apologies, Lord Daniel, I understand it's a painful subject. He's one of a number that the True Dragon injured, but did not kill, so we've taken him prisoner and are holding him in the Circle of Death."

  "The Circle of Death?" Lord Robert asked. "What a marvellous name. I take it that's where those creatures live. Very clever. They won't try to escape and we won't attack them there. As long as your men survive the trips in and out it’s a perfect arrangement."

  "A big if there," Lord Jeremy commented drily. "What do you propose doing with this general? I take it you're in no rush to hand him over to us."

  "The leader of the army, a general called Zygar, is thought to have been killed along with most of the high command. I don't know how much you know about Blue Dragon politics, but the leader of the army is effectively the leader of the country as well and all of the top political positions are filled by retired generals and commanders and being administrative positions they're less powerful than the current generals. If this Zygar is dead, this general may be in a position to negotiate a peace treaty. Considering the devastation left by those monsters, the Blues are likely to be willing to negotiate."

  "A peace treaty?" Lord Daniel asked. "What a novel idea. I can't see it going down well with the rest of the Council and to be fair, I can't see how we could trust the Blues to keep to it."

  "Would the Browns accept it?" Lord Robert asked dubiously. "They'd have to agree too."

  "Depends what we propose," Mark replied. "If we can agree a proposal now, then we can present a united front to the rest of the Council."

  The others paused for a moment to consider this. "I'm keen," Lord Robert stated, breaking the silence. "My cities will share the fate of Obud if we try and retake them. That won't matter to Prince Henry, but Lord Lance will understand."

  "We're all keen for peace," Lord Jeremy pointed out. "That's why we're here. But how can we achieve it?"

  Noah cleared his throat and the others turned to
him expectantly. "As far as I see it, for this treaty to be a success, it has to be acceptable to all three parties or it will not last. To do this, it needs to be carefully balanced. It must include some measure of compensation from the Blues, but not so much that they reject it. It needs to reduce the likelihood that they will attack again, but not in a manner that they feel leaves them weakened and prone to attack. Thirdly, it needs to ensure that the Browns and you receive some sort of reward for success, or your leaders will want more and finally, it needs to facilitate cooperation between all parties involved. I say three parties, although these are just the main parties. There are six parties if you include us, the Wasp and the Sandy Dragons and then even more when you consider the dispossessed peoples living in our land."

  "A good summary of the challenge," Lord Daniel said. "How do we achieve it?"

  "We draft the treaty ourselves, without involving the rest of the Council. The six of us get it finished today. I have already been discussing this with some of my colleagues for two days now and have a good starting point. We then present the treaty tomorrow to the Council, to the Browns, the Sandys and Wasps and most importantly to Kanesh. I'll have Jude send communications to each of the various parties to get them to attend a negotiation meeting the day after tomorrow."

  "That's a little ambitious," Lord Daniel observed politely. "Bear in mind it took the Military Council over three months to draft new regulations for the training of conscripts last year."

  "Which still haven't been approved," Lord Jeremy added. "I don't think that you realise how our Council works yet."

  "That may be," Noah admitted. "But this is unprecedented and extraordinary measures are required. It will be difficult, but it is in interest of every party to agree. The Blues will have limited room to object, seeing as their army is in ruins. The Browns, Sandys and Wasps all know that the Blues would turn their attention to them for revenge if peace was made between you and the Blues and they weren't included in the agreement, so they should be relatively easy to work with. And for all the bluster of your Council since the victory, everyone is aware how large that army was and how near to complete destruction you came. I don't think anyone really knows how badly the Blue Dragon Army has been hurt; if they can be convinced that they still have a fight in them, then it may be easier to persuade them to find a peaceful solution."