by Sam Ferguson
Siravel took advantage of the situation by biting down on the wing bone near the break and rending the wing in half. Blood spurted out over the ground, bubbling and hissing over the grass. The blue dragon shrieked and struck out with her tail, puncturing through one of Siravel’s scales in her side and forcing her away. The blue dragon removed her spiked tail slowly. Siravel looked down and watched the slick spike leave her body as if watching a maggot worm its way out of a carcass.
The blue dragon limped back, hunkering under a large pine tree and hissing menacingly while bearing her fangs. Siravel also backed away, studying the injured queen before her. She had the upper hand, but she knew that the other queen had the strength to hurt her gravely as well. She would have to time her attack perfectly if she wanted to end the fight without any additional wounds.
She stalked to the left, circling around her foe. The blue queen watched her and shifted to keep facing Siravel, but remained backed against the thick pine tree. Siravel rose up on her hind legs. A fire swelled within her breast, rising up her throat and spewing forth from her mouth to envelope all of the trees near the blue dragon. The blue queen hunkered lower, maintaining a careful eye on Siravel, but she did not move away from the fire.
Siravel stretched her wings and batted them, causing the blue dragon to shrink away. She lunged forward with her neck, as if to strike with her teeth, but she stopped just as the blue queen backed away and moved to the right. Siravel’s tail went in fast and hard from the side. It connected with the blue queen’s head and whipped it into a nearby tree. The tree broke and the dragon stood dazed, moaning low and weakly. The top of the tree toppled over onto the dragon’s head, dragging it down to the ground. Siravel shot out quick as lightning and bit into the back of the blue dragon’s neck. The blue queen wrestled and struggled to free herself, but every move only drove Siravel’s fangs deeper into her neck. Soon the fangs struck bone and managed to slice through the nerve inside. The blue dragon went limp and fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
The triumphant queen retrieved the crowned egg and made the journey back to her home mountain. By the time she arrived, the sun was just beginning to emerge from the horizon, and Teratheal sat in the valley below. Siravel tried to fly in silently, but the rival queen saw her, and watched from below as she flew by to land at the entrance.
Siravel knew she would have to deal with Teratheal. She couldn’t allow anyone to thwart her now, not when she had already captured the egg, and was so close to regaining her husband’s love. She stopped just before entering the mountain and looked back over her shoulder at the other queen. The younger, lithe she-dragon arched her neck around, staring back at Siravel from the valley.
The high queen turned away and moved into the mountain, quick to return to her chamber. She would deal with Teratheal soon.
Chapter 15
Siravel lay in her chamber, exhausted from the night and aching in her body. None of her wounds were serious. Most of them would heal with just a few hours of sleep, she knew, but still it might cause her husband to question her activities. For a moment she thought to blame her injuries on the battle, but no, Geldryn had seen her promptly after the green dragon was slain, and he would remember her condition.
A plan came to her then, forming in her mind. It would both explain her injuries, and end her problems with Teratheal, as well as the other treacherous queens. She smiled to herself and lay on the stone floor, still hiding the egg in her mouth.
“Skytes, come to me,” she beckoned. The stone of the wall moved and the two skytes flew out to greet her.
“How can we be of service?” they asked.
“In two hours’ time, go and summon Teratheal to me. Then, after you have escorted her to my chamber, go and fetch my husband.”
The skytes looked to each other, and then back to Siravel and nodded. They flew out of the chamber without a word.
Siravel opened her mouth and set the egg near her hind quarters, under her tail. She then went to her wound in her side, using her tongue to open the flesh and let the blood flow anew. She then used her tongue to spread the blood across the egg, giving the appearance that she had recently born the egg. When she finished painting it with her scarlet blood, she changed sides, laying over the wound and concealing it. Now only the wounds on her neck would show.
The high queen started to moan and groan, imitating the sounds made when laying an egg. She was careful to moan loud enough that she was sure to be heard, but not so much that she might cause alarm. After all, she was the high queen, and though laying an egg was difficult, she had done it many times, and was more used to it than others.
As she put on her show, she began to feel a stirring deep within her body. At first, she thought perhaps her ruse had convinced even her own muscles and organs, but soon she realized that the unexpected was happening. She was actually laying an egg.
Her muscle spasms sharpened and lengthened, causing her great distress as her tissues began to swell and then move apart. A warm, almost burning sensation pulsed down her spine from her midsection down through her tail. Her hearts quickened with each wave, and her breathing became shallow. The egg came quickly, far too quickly to be another crowned egg. It was smaller, holding perhaps a greater dragon, or maybe only a normal sized dragon. Either way, it was not a suitable replacement for Gorliad, and having a second egg present would only make her claim harder to believe. It was rare enough for a she-dragon in her prime years to lay two eggs at once. It would be most unbelievable for a dragon of her age to do such a thing. She looked down and saw the tip of the egg shell poke through. Mucous and blood smeared across the top of it. With a final push she moved the egg out, and a gush of blood came with it. The egg slid alongside the stolen crowned egg, rubbing some of the blood and mucous onto it before falling to the ground and rolling away to rest against her tail.
She surveyed the scene and thought of what to do. Perhaps she could hide the egg, and deposit it in the nursery at a later time. No, that would not do. The nursery workers were too attentive. Maybe she could drop it in the spawning chamber, amidst the many other eggs. She thought on it for a minute, about to settle on that very option when she heard heavy steps echoing down the hall outside her chamber.
Siravel looked up to the skyte roost and realized that the two hours had passed while she was laying the egg. There was no time to hide her new egg. She had to make a choice now. Either present two eggs to her husband and hope against all logic that he would not question such a miraculous event, or dispose of her newly lain egg and present the crowned egg as her own, which would be marvelous in its own right.
The queen made her choice.
She reached down in one fell swoop and took her egg in her mouth. She pressed it against the roof of her mouth with her tongue until the shell broke and the fertilized yolk inside oozed out. She then swallowed the mess down, brushing all of it down with her tongue. She let out one fiery belch, burning the remaining bits in her mouth so as to leave no trace of the egg.
A moment later, Teratheal walked into the chamber.
“I was told you wished to see me, my queen,” she said.
Siravel nodded and looked to the crowned egg, then back to Teratheal. “I desired to speak with you.”
Teratheal’s eyes went to the crowned egg and she bowed her head. “Congratulations,” she offered. Her tone was anything but congratulatory. It lacked all sincerity and dripped with sarcasm and disdain. “Another crowned egg, so soon after Gorliad, it is a blessing from the Aurorean.”
Siravel offered a cold smile. “You covet my position?” she asked bluntly.
Teratheal froze and her eyes widened momentarily. She said nothing in response.
“You need not answer,” Siravel said. “I know of your secret designs and plots against me.”
“No,” Teratheal said curtly. “I have done no such thing.”
Siravel laughed. “You think me a fool?”
“I think perhaps your age has addled your mind,” Ter
atheal fired back.
Siravel raised her head high and looked down upon Teratheal. “Watch your tongue, you still address the high queen!” her voice boomed throughout the chamber, echoing several times before the words finally vanished. “Don’t try to lie to me either. I have seen your secret meetings with strange dwarves. I know you are plotting and scheming against me.”
“Not so,” Teratheal insisted.
“When you ate my skyte, you should have burned his remains. I was able to recover his memories.” Siravel moved to stand, preparing in case Teratheal moved to attack.
Teratheal narrowed her eyes on Siravel and growled. “You should not have sent spies upon me,” she said.
“Apparently I was right to do so,” Siravel replied. “For through them I discovered your treachery.”
“I have done nothing,” Teratheal said.
“You may not have brought the atorats in to the nursery, as I had originally thought, but you are not innocent. It was you who led Gorliad out to the north, and nearly had him killed by a pack of feral snow leopards.”
“I am the one who saved him from the snow leopards!” Teratheal countered.
“You saved him only after leading him to danger in the first place because you wanted to endear yourself to Geldryn. Don’t deny it!”
Teratheal closed her mouth. Smoke and sparks issued out from her nostrils and she stood tall and defiant. She turned to leave, but Siravel reached out with her tail, gripping her around the left foreleg and dragged her in close. Teratheal growled and rebuffed Siravel’s hold. Pushing the high queen back and shot flame at her.
Siravel let out a terrible, blood curdling shriek that caused Teratheal to wince and turn her head away.
No sooner had the squeal ended than Geldryn stood in the chamber’s opening, blowing a stream of fire between the two queens.
“She wants me dead!” Siravel cried out to Geldryn. “Her jealousy has overtaken her and she set upon me while I lay here with a new egg!”
Teratheal snarled and turned on Siravel. “I did no such thing! You summoned me here!”
“Only because I wanted to repair our relationship, to share my joy in my new egg with you. But you repay me with treachery. Look at the bite marks upon my neck. She set to slay me as I laid this new egg!”
“Liar!” Teratheal shouted. She lunged forward to attack, but Geldryn knocked her aside with his left wing.
“What is the meaning of this!” he bellowed. His voice shook the entire chamber. Smoke and flame issued forth from his mouth with his words.
“As you rested from battle, I laid this egg,” Siravel claimed. “A new crowned egg, a new heir for you.”
“That is a lie!” Teratheal shouted. “She was out all night. I saw her return to the mountain only after the sun had risen above the horizon.”
Siravel snarled, her upper lip curling back to reveal a row of nasty fangs. “I should think the blood from between my legs and the egg before you is proof enough that I am not the false queen.”
Geldryn placed a massive foreleg between the two queens and spurted a single flame to end their bickering. “There is a simple solution.” His words held a dangerous finality to them that silenced even the great Siravel. “I shall form the connection and discover the truth of the matter for myself. I shall scan both of your memories and discover which of you has secrets from me.”
Teratheal’s eyes widened and she shrank away, refusing to look at Geldryn or Siravel.
Siravel wailed and moaned. She wrapped the crowned egg in her strong, smooth talons, scraping the outer shell just enough to call everyone’s attention to her. She looked up at Geldryn with her fiery gold-speckled green eyes and said, “Have you lost all love for me that you should discount my word?” Her talons squeezed the egg, stopping just before the shell cracked. “If so, then it is better that I and the egg should perish, rather than languish in the shadows of your feigned affection.”
Geldryn locked gazes with Siravel, but he did not attempt to make the connection. He just looked into her eyes. None moved, nor uttered a sound. The room was still, as if frozen within a single moment, forever trapped as a bug in amber’s wrath. Geldryn blinked. Burning ire stoked the depths of his eyes. He lashed out in a single, lightning-fast strike. He drove his spear-like talons through Teratheal’s neck, just behind her jaw, crunching and shattering the softer scales there. He ripped the queen forward, exposing the back of her neck. He brought his maw down upon her and seized her twisting neck in his sword-like teeth. A blast of orange, sulfuric flame shot out, wrapping around Teratheal’s neck and then the king delivered a killing jerk of his snout, rending her neck in many pieces. He dropped the dead queen’s neck and it lopped onto the stone as the rest of the dragon’s body grotesquely slumped to the ground.
Geldryn roared and placed his left foreleg atop Teratheal’s body.
Only in that moment did Siravel see the other queens and the host of dwarves gathered at the entrance of her chamber. They all stood with wide eyes and gaping mouths. All in attendance shrank away from Geldryn. That is, except for Siravel. A fire burned in her chest that she had not felt for quite some time now. Again, she saw the young, conquering dragon before her that had wooed her those centuries ago, in their youth. In this moment, she saw not a dragon weakened by age or set upon by injuries suffered from challengers. She saw only the glorious champion of her heart.
The king turned then, looked to her and then to the egg still in her grasp. A moment passed and then he exited the chamber. The others parted as if made of mist, not wanting to catch any part of the king’s wrath. They looked to the floor and bowed low, avoiding Geldryn’s gaze entirely until after the king was long gone down the hall. Then, some of them looked up to the new crowned egg. Others left without looking. A few of the dwarves stepped forward to bow and whisper hushed prayers for the new crowned egg. The other queens said nothing. After a few minutes, the whole crowd departed.
Siravel then looked to the egg, her egg. The crowned egg that had returned her husband’s love to her in full and solidified her place as high queen. None would dare to come directly at her now, not with such a display of loyalty from her husband. She pulled the egg in closer to her body and looked down to the crown upon it. You have brought him back to me. Siravel said within her mind. He shall stay with me so long as you thrive. I shall do all in my power to rear and nurture you into the greatest heir that Geldryn has ever had. Then, when age finally takes my bones and I am turned to dust, he shall love me still, as he does now in this moment. No queen shall ever take my place in his heart. I am the first.
Chapter 16
Gorliad opened his eyes, seeing only darkness around him. The entrancing melodies played in his mind and vibrated over his body. His body felt both rejuvenated and fatigued at the same time, as if woken too soon from his deep slumber. Something pulled on his tail, yanking his body backward, but not strong enough to pull him from the mountain of treasure he was covered in.
The burgundy dragon pulled his tail away from the disturbance, curling it up under the treasure and closing his eyes. He was still so tired. He breathed in deeply, allowing the music to overcome all of his senses. Darkness took him in its warm embrace, comforting him. So focused was he on the gold’s melody that he did not notice the digging at the back of the pile. Something latched onto his tail and gave it another tug.
Gorliad resigned himself to the fact that his slumber was over. He slowly turned, shifting the gold and creating an avalanche of gold and gems. He heard a squeak as something released his tail and jumped away. The squeak was followed soon by a high-pitched roar. A puff of fire blasted into the treasure mound. Gorliad only faintly saw the light from the flame, but he could smell the distinct odor of sulfur. A dragon had come to him, and a young one at that.
He continued to push free from the pile of gold and jewels until his burgundy head finally broke through to the surface. He saw that he was inside the upper nursery, where he always was, it seemed. He turned, looking ove
r his back to see the source of his disturbance.
There, near the pile of treasure stood a solid black hatchling. A pair of gray nubs, the beginnings of mighty horns, stuck out from the back of its skull. The hatchling had many bumps over its spine, likely plates that would later form into spikes along its back. It was the tail, though, that grabbed Gorliad’s attention. The end was split, cloven into a pair of nasty looking thorns. They were extremely small, but they almost perfectly mirrored the two-pronged tail of the green dragon. A wave of pain ripped through Gorliad then as he recalled why he had been put into the pile of treasure to begin with.
He tried to push with his legs to remove himself entirely from the pile of gold, but he found his right leg had no strength. Piercing, red pain shot through his right shoulder and his head slumped to the pile.
“Ah, you’re up then?” Algearon asked from somewhere near the chamber’s entrance. Gorliad looked up to see the dwarf making his way toward him. The burgundy dragon said nothing. He just watched, too anxious to see what was under the treasure to acknowledge the dwarf. Algearon went to work pulling and sliding gold pieces away, digging Gorliad out from the pile.
The black hatchling circled around to the front, head low and glaring at Gorliad with its red eyes.
“As I suspected,” Algearon said at last. Gorliad waited for the dwarf to move away and then he surveyed his shoulder. A great scar had formed over the top. Scales grew nearby, but none had grown over the scar tissue. The dragon turned his body to see a withered foreleg.
“It looks shorter,” Gorliad commented flatly.