Chapter 195
Chapter 195
It wasn’t just my legs that carried me up the stairs after Draven. Not just Glimmer’s or Cynane’s, because I held something more than just the three of us in the eggs.
You hold our history in your hands . I turned to see Tanis beside me, all while knowing that wasn’t possible. And our future. Beyond this point, I could not see. It’s up to you and Glimmer to decide what happens next.
A duel, apparently.
We were no timid servants sneaking in and out of a room with cleaning buckets in hand. The lot of us burst out of the door, the screech of the hinges alerting the duke to our presence as he stumbled up the steps, then stopped.
“You little bastard…” He snorted when he saw Brom, looking my husband up and down with thinly veiled scorn. “Brought your little butt boy along, did you?” He peered past the rest of my men at me. “And your boyish whore. I see now where I went wrong with Beatrice.” The woman herself stumbled to a stop, watching the scene unfold warily. “A wife with all the curves of a woman would never appeal to the likes of you. Mannish things like your ‘queen’ are all that stirs you.”
“Are you going to stand around critiquing my choice of romantic partners?” Draven was always at his most dangerous when he sounded bored. “Or are we finally going to finish this?”
“Finish this? Do you think I’m going to waste time in a duel, boy?” The duke pulled out a sword, holding it pointed at his nephew. “There is no need. You fell right into my trap, deploying your entire host, leaving your capital and the throne unprotected, ripe for me to claim.”
We all spun around as a dragon swept in beside the balcony, but Glimmer was already there.
GO!
This wasn’t an order. Instead, she overruled whatever the dragon, its rider thought, replacing their will with hers. The duke stumbled forward, a gleeful smile on his face, only for it to fade entirely as the dragon took off. He followed its path with wide eyes, as if unable to believe what he was seeing.
Draven had no such difficulties.
“You were saying, uncle?”
The duke’s grip on his sword firmed, even as explosions rocked the city. Beyond, I heard the screams, the roars of dragons locked in a fight. Gouts of flame, of lightning, of ice, shot through the air, but all I could focus on was this.
“You killed my brother.” Draven advanced, sword at the ready. “You and my mother both. You hollowed out my father’s skull, until he was little more than a pawn. Your greed couldn’t be contained to simply being the power behind the throne. When I didn’t prove to be as pliable as you hoped, you sought to take it yourself, and it didn’t matter how many people you killed in the process.”
“My father…” Flynn’s voice broke on that. “My brothers. Their wives. Their…” He swallowed hard. “Their children.”
“You’re the Duke of Skane’s boy, aren’t you?” The duke smirked. “Your cousin was a hungry one. I barely had to dangle anything in front of him before he was onboard with assassinating your entire family. What a pity you avoided his knife.”
“You bastard?—!”
Flynn was lunging forward, but Draven was there before him, slashing out only for the duke to block his blade with his own. The smile was gone, anger replacing it as he snarled at his nephew and struck out himself. Draven blocked every single strike with almost casual ease.
“So you fence with the sword as poorly as you do words?” he told his uncle with a smirk. That had the duke fighting back harder, faster. Draven seemed to relish the challenge. “You were always overconfident, uncle. I let you think you bested me on the training ground because Mother made clear you’d take offence if I didn’t.”
He parried a strike, then just as fast, struck and left a stinging slash on his uncle’s cheek. The duke’s sword dropped down as his free hand went to the cut, staring at the blood seeping onto his fingertips.
“All my life I’ve been told I must do this and I must do that, despite being faster, smarter, better than the people that ordered me around.” Draven’s arm moved like lightning, forcing the duke to falter as he slashed the other cheek, then he had the older man stumbling as he struggled to stay out of reach. “You will never be king. You are too arrogant, too vainglorious…”
We all watched the moment when the duke fell to the floor, his sword flying out of his reach. Draven stood on it and shoved it back with his heel, then advanced, sword raised.
“Without your sycophantic coterie of hangers on, you would’ve never gotten ideas above your station.” Draven slammed his boot down on the duke’s hand when he tried to get up, then stood over him. “I will end them now.”
But right as he raised his sword up to deliver the killing blow a scream ripped through the room.
“NO!”
I’d been here before, but I never thought I’d come back to it. A spoiled girl, her bottom lip trembling as tears filled her eyes, right as she held a golden egg above her head. Glimmer! I thought furiously, even though part of me knew it wasn’t her in the shell. The little hatchling, though, I could feel her fear. She was supposed to be warm, safe, tucked up by her mother’s side, and instead she was being held up high.
Ready to be thrown to the ground.
“Step away!” Beatrice’s hysterical voice made clear she would brook no argument. “You will not kill him. You won’t!”
My body was moving, because I knew what I was supposed to do. I’d done it before, and I would again. The stone eggs fell to the floor because there was another I needed to take charge of. My arms went out as Draven’s sword stabbed down. Beatrice’s brow knotted, her eyes filling with horror.
Then a need for revenge when the egg was thrown to the floor.
I flew like a dragon, spearing through the air, my entire focus on that egg. It would not fall. My hands slapped around it and I tucked it into my chest as I slammed into the stone floor.
“Pippin…” I opened my eyes to find my wing surrounding me. “You saved her. Let's get the egg back into the box. It’s too cold for it to be out here.”
I handed it over to Soren gratefully, watching him place it back in the trunk and lock it, but there was no need. Beatrice’s grand gesture was over and so was the duke.
“My love…” she cooed as she dropped to his side. She tried to take his hands, but he pushed her away with what strength he had left, blood pooling around him. He didn’t cry, didn’t shake, didn’t do anything but laugh, a rusty, rattling sound.
“The capital… will still… fall…” He rolled his head with effort, staring at Draven. “You’re too late. No dragons… defend…”
That’s where the ships had gone. Not to the continent, but to the capital. I stared into this man’s dark eyes, each one feeling like an abyss that would suck me under. All of this was a feint. We left the capital undefended to attack him and now he…
That he didn’t get to finish gloating before dying was the one small mercy we’d get. We’d hoped to end this with him, but one look at the war raging outside made clear that wasn’t the case. I moved towards the open balcony, staring in horror. Dragon fought dragon. Man fought man, and the whole world would burn as a result. Killing the duke was the right thing to do, but what next? I felt Cynane’s ebbing strength and understood it now. Sometimes you did everything you could and it still didn’t matter. I sank to my knees, each scream, each cry rocketing through me, until Glimmer came to stand beside me.
We’ve failed , I told her.
No, not yet.
We can’t get to the capital in time, and even if we did, how do we get past these dragons? I stared out at the skies above the city. We were meant to stop a war, but we came too late.
Not yet, she assured me.
I can’t go on , Cynane said inside my mind, her misery, her pain crushing me. I can’t, Hadrian.
You can. His voice was deep, warm, as he tried to pour all his love, all his energy, into his mate. You’ve never backed down from a fight, my love, and you won’t now. You need to fight for our girls, my queen, because this is a battle only you can win.
They’re coming. I stared at the horizon, not seeing Blackreach but Wyrmpeak. The ships… They’re full of soldiers ready to descend on a city completely undefended. It’ll be a bloodbath.
Not completely undefended , Glimmer told me.
Hadrian’s head jerked up, and so did all the other wild dragons inside the cave. They were like hounds that sensed an intruder on their master’s property. The first muffled sound of cannon fire had him standing up.
“Looks like we’re under attack.” Marcus ran across the hatching sands. “I thought we’d use all those crossbows to arm the people against the king, but it looks like we’ve got another fight to win. Be real glad for your help in it.”
Go.
Cynane’s voice was an echo of Glimmer’s order.
I can’t. Other dragons moved towards the exit, taking flight in an instant, but Hadrian stayed with his mate. I can’t, my love, because…
He couldn’t say it, but Cynane could.
Because this is goodbye. She bunted her head against his. In this world, at least. I will wait for you in this world or the next. My eyes ached as I watched their necks entwine, a gentler version of what happened during their mating flight. You must do this to ensure our daughters have a world fit for living in, and I… I sucked in a breath at the same time she did. I must fight to bring them into this world.
Tears spattered the stone floor as Glimmer came and pressed herself into my body. My arms went around her like they did when she was still a tiny thing, wanting to protect her from this.
We have to help her, I said. We need to gift Cynane our strength. Just as you healed me ? —
I know.
She rubbed her muzzle against my cheek, her scales stone smooth. I pressed my forehead to hers as the others ran over.
“Pippin? Glimmer?”
I heard a dragon’s cry and knew it was Darkspire. Another joined it and another, alerting us to the fact that each one of our dragons was entering the fight.
We will ensure they win now.
Glimmer came to stand before me, her eyes burning into mine.
“The eggs,” I croaked, reaching out blindly, because I couldn’t see them anymore. “Bring me the eggs now. If you want our people to survive, we need the eggs.”
Each one felt heavy as they were deposited in my lap, tying me to the floor. That was needed because my soul was elsewhere. I wiped my fingers along my nose, coating them with blood, and then covered the eggs with my hands.