The White Dragon Revealed (Dragon's Reign #5)

5. Hellfire

HELLFIRE

“ C hione, get Mei and bring her to my throne room,” Valerius growled. “I did promise her a pyre of her robots.”

And that we would roast her upon it! Do not forget that part, Raziel muttered, its red eyes glowing like coals in the dark.

“It will be done,” Chione said with a quick nod and she hustled out of the doors to his room, already contacting the security personnel over her tablet to find out exactly where the Red Dragon Queen was.

“Simi, is the robot still in the dungeon?” Valerius asked.

“Yes, it is destroying its brethren,” Simi explained.

“What?” That was not what he expected to hear. “Nevermind! Have the Claw retreat! I will deal with this!”

“Yes, my king.” Simi crossed one arm over his chest before he was immediately on his com speaking to the Claw.

Valerius did not race past Simi through the doors to get to the dungeon. No, there was a better, faster way. He turned and ran towards the open balcony. He leapt up onto the railing and launched himself into the air, shifting as he tumbled towards the ground. He extended their wings and glided around the curve of the castle to the front where there was an entrance into the dungeon.

People immediately looked up and pointed. Even though seeing him leaving High Reach was a common occurrence, him landing in the courtyard at the lowest level was not. He folded his wings tight to his body just before he shifted back to human form. He took off at a run down the wide stone steps that led to a steel door, six inches thick, that was guarded by half a dozen Claw at the front and over three dozen inside. Although those inside should be evacuating.

I smell burning metal! Raziel growled and pressed close to the front of his chest. The Black Dragon Spirit wanted out again.

As do I. We cannot shift inside the dungeon. Too small. Remember that, Raziel.

The Black Dragon Spirit clawed the ground, but it said, Then I will give you my strength and my fire.

Thank you, my friend.

The two Claw in their red and black uniforms did not see him as they were turned towards the door that had held steady against enraged Werewolves, wild Tiger Shifters, even a massive Griffin Shifter whose beak had ripped open plate armor like it was tinfoil. But the door was shuddering now on its massive hinges. The Claw had their weapons drawn and were aiming at the door as stone dust rained down.

“Step back!” Valerius ordered.

The two Claw jumped into the air like frightened kittens. In fact, both of them were Tiger Shifters from what he remembered. This would have amused him if not for the fact that Mei’s “gift” was destroying his dungeon.

And her other soldiers, which makes no sense unless their destruction is necessary in order to accomplish her plan.

We will melt them all to slag! Raziel sounded excited.

“Get well behind me,” Valerius ordered the Claw.

They dashed behind him just as a large dent appeared in the center of the door. Valerius bared his teeth. There was another crash and the hinges snapped. Valerius gripped the side of the door, his fingers curling around the edges and he pulled.

Shifters were naturally stronger than humans by about a factor of ten depending on the type of Shifter, but to rip a door of this size and weight off its hinges would be near impossible even for the strongest Shifter. But the Dragon Spirits could share strength with their human form and that was what Raziel did for them.

The veins on Valerius’ neck bulged as the door groaned then pulled from the threshold like a tooth from a socket. He threw it behind him with a cry. The Claw skittered back farther even though it had not come close to hitting them.

Valerius spun back towards the entry into the dungeon. The dungeon was made up of three one-hundred feet by one-hundred feet rooms interconnected by choke points. The rooms had rows of cells that were made up of a thick nearly indestructible plastic that allowed the guards to see the prisoners from every angle. There was no privacy. And these clear walls allowed Valerius now to see the insane amount of destruction.

The cells were melted, plastic pooling on the floor in superheated lakes. The bunks had been torn from their brackets and were crushed. They looked like strange sculptures. The ceramic toilets were shattered and most were pulverized into dust.

Mei’s soldiers lay on the ground in charred and smoking heaps. They were missing limbs. Heads had been twisted off and crushed. Torsos were broken open and the insides snapped and sizzled with electricity. Fluids streamed everywhere. It looked like a battlefield.

No, a slaughter…

But the battle was not over.

There was a seething mass of robots ahead of him at the first chokepoint. Someone had taken a stand there and was still fighting. Bright red laser blasts broke through the mass of soldiers, slagging their middles, and nearly hit Valerius. He dodged out of the way at the last moment. That explained why the door had been failing. The high whine of more lasers going off had Valerius crouching down, but those lasers were aimed towards the choke point.

“What are you doing? STOP!” Mei’s voice rose above the whine.

The Red Dragon Queen stood at the base of the stairs. She had on only a short, red silk shift. Her hair was tangled and her face still had the bleariness of sleep imprinted upon it. Mei had clearly been in bed while her robots waged havok. Valerius’ eyebrows rose when he caught sight of Chione behind her.

He looked at his Councillor meaningfully. He had ordered her to bring Mei to the throne room, not here. But she had. His temper had his nostrils flaring. But then Chione pointed at the sophisticated looking tablet in Mei’s hands. It wasn’t exactly a tablet, it was a hologram that was hovering over Mei’s right hand while her left one dashed over the hologram.

The robots had all turned towards her for a bare moment, but then a boomerang came out of the choke point and took off more heads and limbs. That had the robots’ attention again and they went back to attacking this unseen foe.

Valerius stormed over to the Red Dragon Queen. “Turn them off!”

“I cannot!” Mei cried, her voice tight as her fingers flew over the hologram. “Nothing I do works!”

“Is someone else controlling them?” Chione asked. “Or are they on some kind of self-protection program?”

“Unclear,” Mei said through clenched teeth as she furiously tried to control her creations. “They are programmed to protect themselves in a fight, but I have ordered them to not do so.”

“And they are not listening. Then they must be stopped in another way,” Valerius said.

He knew the hellfire of Raziel rolled through his eyes because Chione gave out a slight gasp. Mei’s head jerked up and she realized what was going to happen. Her lips parted.

“Wait--wait--wait! Give me more time!” Mei reached for his shoulder.

Valerius shrugged her off and turned. “There is no more time, Mei. You should never have brought them here.”

Valerius allowed the fire to build up inside of him, to fill his veins, his heart, his head, all of him was suffused with hellfire.

Burn them! Raziel roared in excitement.

Valerius opened his mouth and thrust his hands forward. Raziel opened its mouth at the same time. And its hellfire flowed through him. A stream of fire so hot that it was blue white streamed from him and engulfed the backs of the robots nearest to him. They immediately melted, pooling into molten metal around the feet of their fellow soldiers. Robots turned back towards him, realizing that there was an enemy behind them as well as in front. As they turned, he moved his head towards them and the fire followed. He smothered them with fire too.

Laser blasts streaked towards him from the robots on the other side from his flames. They were racing towards him, firing. One blast skimmed his right arm, but there was no searing line of heat. He was fireproof. Other blasts hit his torso and legs. It was like being punched. He staggered back a step but then regained his footing before swinging his head towards his attackers.

Metal flowed like liquid across the stone floor. Fluids turned instantly into steam, shattering the soldiers’ torsos and limbs.One managed to race towards him, right arm slagged, left arm raised to strike him. Valerius grabbed it around the throat and breathed fire into its face. It melted away in his hands.

When there were no more laser blasts coming his way and he heard no clank of metal feet on stone did Valerius close his mouth and quench the flames. He looked at the aftermath. The stone floor was mostly obscured by slag, which still smoked and glowed. It was cooling quickly. Most of the cells were completely obliterated or filled with that metal. The whole of this part of the dungeon was destroyed and it would take a long time to restore it. Not that he had many prisoners down here. Thankfully, there had been none at this time or they would have been dead. Only Mei’s soldiers had filled this space.

There was a sound from Mei. He looked over at her. She crouched down at the forward edge of the pool of metal and touched it. Her face crumpled and she looked like she would cry for a moment.

“You cry over a bunch of metal?” Valerius hissed. “My Claw could have been killed! My dungeon is a ruin! You will pay for--”

He did not get anything more out as he heard a clank of metal feet coming from the choke point. He had forgotten that the robots had been fighting someone. He had assumed it was Adama, but he had thought that Adama had been slagged with the rest of them. It had not. It emerged from the choke point carrying the head and torso of one of its brethren. Hellfire built in Valerius again.

Chione cried, “Wait! It’s not aggressive.”

Valerius was about to growl that he didn’t care when Adama approached him and knelt on one knee just as it had in the throne room. It offered the head and torso of the other robot as if it was a sacrifice. Valerius scowled.

“For me? Why? You can see that I have made my own trophies. They are melted all over my floor. Perhaps I should do the same to you,” Valerius said.

“King Valerius, I have done this to protect you and yours,” Adama spoke in that mechanical voice that showed little emotion.

“From what?” Valerius couldn’t be that upset about the loss of Mei’s soldiers, but the destruction of his dungeon could not be born.

I wish to slag it! Let me slag it! Raziel wheedled, not caring about this “protecting” business. They needed no protection from anyone! Had their demonstration not shown that?

Mei and Chione were suddenly at his side. Mei was glowering at Adama as if she wanted to slag it herself.

“Why did you do this?” She snapped. “Why did you attack your brothers?”

“They are not my brothers. I serve King Valerius and these others serve you,” Adama said.

Valerius lifted an eyebrow. He was starting to like this Adama. Maybe a little. Mei blinked and then reared back as if to slap the robot. But she curled her hand into a fist at the last moment and dropped her arm to the side.

“Adama, what do you want Valerius to see in that robot’s corpse?” Chione asked.

“May I rise, King Valerius?” Adama asked.

“Yes, you may. Be very careful what you do, Adama. As you can see, my hellfire can destroy you easily,” Valerius warned.

The robot rose to its feet then neatly twisted the head from the “dead” robot’s body and showed him the inside. There was a cylinder. Valerius stiffened. Though he did not know what that cylinder was nor how these robots were made, he knew that cylinder had no business there. Mei looked and gave out a gasp.

Echoing his thoughts, she cried out, “That should not be there! I do not know what that is!”

“It is a cylinder containing poison gas,” Adama answered. “Certain of these others were fitted with them.”

“Oh, by the Gods.” Chione brought a hand up to her lips. Her eyes were wide with horror.

The Red Dragon has betrayed us , Raziel growled and smoke and flames flooded out of its mouth.

Valerius slowly turned towards Mei. Hellfire caused his vision to go red. She lifted a hand as she stepped back from him.

“No, Valerius, I did not do this! It would be insane of me to do this!” Mei cried.

“If these robots had released this gas in my city, how many would have died?” Valerius’ voice sounded so calm.

“The deaths could have been in the thousands, depending on where they released the gas,” Adama answered simply.

His eyes narrowed as rage built. Mei staggered back. For the bandit queen who had never shown fear, she was terrified here. Not even Xipil’s scales could save her from his flames.

“How did you know about the gas, Adama?” Chione asked. “Did you see the cylinders being installed?”

“No,” Adama answered. “I intercepted a message that was sent to the others to leave here and enter the city to deliver their payload. I had to stop them.”

“I did not do this, Valerius!” Mei cried again. “Someone took over control of the soldiers from me!” She held up the hologram she had been tapping on to try and stop the fight. “It wasn’t me! Why would I use my own robots to gas your people and be asleep as it was about to happen?”

That caused Valerius to pause. Mei would hardly have been asleep in bed when she knew that he would come after her immediately.

“It does seem unlikely, but you showed bad judgment to bring them here in the first place,” Chione said dryly.

“And if it was me why would I give you Adama when it was capable of stopping the attack I supposedly was planning?” Mei kept her eyes on Valerius’ face.

That, too, was very true. The fires lowered. Raziel swished its tail angrily though. It wanted to punish Xipil simply for coming here and bringing the tin men in the first place.

“You could have arranged all of this in order for me to trust Adama when you have something else planned,” Valerius said, but he didn’t believe it. This was all too elaborate, not that Mei was above elaborate plans. Yet unlike her tricking of the mayor and his son long ago, this was too much.

Mei shook her head. She gestured at the carnage. “You have no idea what this has cost me!”

“Money--”

“No, time and materials! These represent years of production! That bastard Illarion will hear of this destruction and he will be encouraged to attack our shared border!” Mei sounded almost shrill and she never sounded shrill.

This was a real concern on her part. The fires died. She wasn’t their enemy in this. And she was honestly afraid of Illarion coming after her. Instead of wanting to destroy Mei, he and Raziel almost felt protective of her.

“Mei, considering that your robots were able to be programmed to act against your will perhaps it is best that you not rely upon them in battle?” Chione suggested kindly. “This might have been a good thing in a way.”

“No one should have been able to get through my security walls!” Mei slammed one small fist into the palm of her other hand.

“Yet they did,” Valerius reminded her and Mei’s expression crumpled. She was truly unnerved by this to show so much emotion.

“You intercepted a message, Adama? Can you locate where it came from?” Chione asked the robot .

“It has stopped sending, but I can take you to the last point where the transmission ended,” Adama stated.

Mei’s head jerked up. “Adama, we must go there! We must find out who did this!” Her small hands fisted at her sides and he saw Mei’s temper. “I will kill whoever did this! I will--”

“You will get in line, Mei. I have first dibs,” Valerius interrupted her.

“Just leave me something of them,” she growled. “Adama--”

“I serve King Valerius only. Do you want me to take you to the location?” Adama asked him.

Valerius was amused by Mei’s momentary surprise that again, her creation was not following her orders. She surprised him by laughing at herself.

“I think I programmed him too well.” She gave a rueful smile.

“Adama, take us to this place,” Valerius ordered.

The mechanical man led them out of the dungeon still carrying the other robot carcass. Valerius took one final glance over his shoulder. He grimaced. Mei was not the only one who had work to restore what was lost today. Adama did not take them very far. In fact, they went only so far as the sculpture garden. The robot pointed to a place right behind a bush cut to look like a Dragon’s head roaring at the sky.

“Fitting,” Mei remarked sourly. “There appears to be nothing here.”

“It would be a little too much to ask that they leave a clue,” Chione though sounded downfallen that they hadn’t. “Adama, do you see anything we do not?”

The robot though had no further information. “The device they used has been shut off."

“They have given us one clue. They were able to get into High Reach,” Valerius growled.

“I’ll immediately have the Claw stop anyone from leaving High Reach and go over the footage,” Chione said as she brought up her tablet.

“I doubt they are still here or that they left by the main gate or anywhere else there is video coverage,” Valerius muttered. “Let us go back to the castle.”

As the four of them walked back into the castle’s entrance, Mei said, “Are you seeing the pattern of these attacks as I am?”

“What are you seeing?”

“That Serai was associated with Esme and that the soldiers were associated with me,” Mei pointed out.

“Someone is trying to cause a war between the Dragons,” Valerius suddenly said.

Mei nodded. “Who is behind this? While Illarion is eager for war, he is… well, this is a bit beyond him.”

Valerius quirked a smile. “Yes, I tend to agree. Unless he has been hiding his light under a basket this whole time, I think he is out as the mastermind.”

They were not able to speak further at that moment as Simi, a phalanx of Claw, followed quickly by Esme, Illarion, Tez and Caden were rushing out of the castle’s front doors. Simi and the Claw had known what was happening with the robot war--and Simi looked alarmed at Adama with them--but the others must have sensed his use of hellfire.

“What happened?” Esme cried as she took in Adama carrying a broken robot, Mei in a slip and Valerius naked. Chione looked as put together as always yet it was clear something had happened.

“You used hellfire!” Illarion’s eyes were bright with the lust for battle. His head jerked around as he looked for enemies. “I can smell it in the air! But I did not hear Raziel’s roar!”

Mei’s eyes slid to Valerius. “He used it without shifting.”

“Bah, that’s impossible!” Illarion waved a hand through the air.

“She is not lying,” Esme stated as she stared hard at Valerius. “I did not think it was possible either to use our higher powers when we are not in our Dragon forms, but clearly, I was mistaken.”

Valerius said nothing. All of them kept secrets about their powers: what they were, the extent of them, what could and couldn’t be used outside of the Dragon form. He had revealed something of himself to them, but he was pleased with the result. Illarion looked stumped. Tez was suddenly stepping back from him. Esme appeared impressed, but also a little put out. Her use of the Dragon abilities in her human form was legendary. He had never talked about any of his.

At that moment, Caden snaked his way through the crowd to him. Valerius held himself very still. He knew that Caden had revealed himself to Esme, and Mei had seen him in the mirror--though she, too, held herself still--he did not want to reveal Caden’s identity to the others if they did not already know. But then Caden threw his arms around Valerius’ neck.

“Are you okay? Why did you have to use fire on anybody?” Caden asked.

Valerius wrapped his arms around Caden and ran a hand up and down the boy’s back. “I am fine. The robots are not. Adama and I took care of them.”

Adama lifted the corpse of the robot it still carried as if it were an exhibit. Caden let out a gasp and looked over at Mei with suspicion. He had texted Valerius the other day about her suspected perfidy.

“Mei is not behind this,” Valerius said.

“How can you be so sure?” Esme was now staring at Mei just like Caden was.

“Reasons we will all discuss later,” Valerius answered simply.

Illarion gave out an ugly laugh. “So it looks like your mechanical men have a fatal flaw, Mei. Perhaps we should go back to the negotiating table about that land of yours I desire.”

Mei stared daggers at Illarion. “Never.”

Illarion smirked. “We shall see.” He then turned to Caden and Valerius. Frowning, he said, “Dating the help, Valerius?”

Valerius frowned. “The help…”

“He crashed my breakfast with Esme, and ate my bacon.” Caden’s beautiful face twisted in dismay. “And then assumed I was her servant. So we just went along with it.”

“It was quite amusing,” Esme said.

“If you are not Esme’s servant then who are you?” Illarion demanded .

But it was Tez who figured it out. His face alighted with joy. “Iolaire! You are Iolaire!”

He raced forward and grasped both of Caden’s hands in his and shook them excitedly.

“Oh, you are exactly what I thought you’d be!” Tez beamed. “Clear eyes. An intelligent brow. A noble nose. A welcoming smile!”

“It’s good to meet you too, Tez,” Caden assured him, blushing a little at all the compliments.

“What are you talking about, Tez?!” Illarion snapped. He pointed a finger at Caden’s chest almost accusingly. “This cannot be Iolaire!”

“Why on Earth not?” Esme asked the enraged Green Dragon Shifter.

“Because!”

“Because?” Chione prompted.

“He is a he and Iolaire is a girl! A woman!” Illarion yelled.

Everyone stared at him. Tez tilted his head to the side as if a different view of Illarion would make sense of that sentence. Caden gazed up at Valerius with a questioning look.

“Why did you assume Iolaire’s human counterpart was female?” Esme asked.

“Because Iolaire is--is small and graceful.” Illarion looked like he had swallowed lemons.

“That is so stupid,” Tez said with a shake of his head. “But what does it matter that Caden is male? I don’t--”

“Illarion does not like men romantically. He has, in fact, made many homophobic remarks to his people in his addresses yet he has also proclaimed Iolaire his mate. What will you do now, Illarion? Eat your words?” Valerius remarked with a grin on his lips. “And it seems that you really did have some romantic interest then, didn’t you, Illarion, in Iolaire? Well, well, it seems one learns something new everyday.”

Illarion continued to open and shut his mouth as he gestured at Caden as if it simply could not be and that his disbelief would change Caden into the shapely woman he’d likely been imagining. Everyone else just shook their heads and proceeded to ignore the Green Dragon Shifter.

“Adama, go with Captain Simi and take the robot with you to be examined,” Valerius ordered.

“Valerius, let me assist in this,” Mei suggested. “I know more about them than anyone.”

Valerius nodded after a moment. “Queen Kaila will be here in a few hours. I suggest we hold off on any discussions until then.” He looked down at Caden. “I need to feed you bacon in the meantime since Illarion so cruelly stole yours.”