The Plot Thickens
“So the king knew the Dragon Queen would be you?” Zan questioned once I’d filled them in on the letter and my dreams. “Do you think he experienced what you did with the Raven Queen or just had one long vision?”
“That is what I was trying to look for in the study, but we didn’t get far,” I explained, hoping they wouldn’t ask me why we didn’t get more information. Each of them seemed to mull this information over, far too distracted to question the rest of what I said.
“All right, so we all go back with you and sort through what he had left in his study. With all of us helping, it will happen much faster, and then we can come up with a plan of action,” Paxton offered.
I was surprised at Paxton’s idea. He’d been one who was all action and didn’t waste time on the details.
For him to spearhead the idea of spending the day looking through old books and scrolls was not like him.
“It would make things go faster. Have we gotten any reports on the Lost King’s movements? ”
“There hasn’t been much movement. It seems he is making Norden his base, gathering all his troops in one place. There are more of them than we first expected. Even with the dragons, this is going to be a battle that will be told for generations to come,” Izel shared.
Knowing that battle loomed in the distance was one thing, but realizing I was going to be the one to find a way to stop it was something I still couldn’t wrap my head around.
The coronation was in two days, and after that, it would be full speed into battle plans.
We’d already been having the soldier training double-time and having everyone else brush up on their skills since they didn’t practice as much as the soldiers did.
Even in the midst of celebration, we kept the upcoming battle in our minds, never forgetting that danger was lurking out there that could get us killed.
“Shall we head up there now? I think it might be best before anyone else comes to claim me,” I suggested, standing from the table.
“No time like the present,” Gavin agreed as we gathered plates to bring into the kitchen.
Marta made it clear we weren’t allowed to assist in any other way, or we would be slapped on the hand, queen or no queen. It seems all of us mercenary women had a stubborn streak to us, but since she agreed to be our cook, I relented.
“If we pack up things, we should be fine to spend the night at the castle. I heard they got all the basic supplies dropped in by dragon instead of worrying about wagons,” Dayson said with an excited-looking grin.
“It’s about time we all got settled in our real home before we have to leave it again for a short while. ”
Matching his grin, I hugged him, thrilled with the plan. “Sounds amazing to me, and we haven’t spent much time on the fourth floor other than walking through the rooms.”
“You didn’t stay there last night?” Becka asked, a twinkle in her eye.
“No, we ended up in the king’s bedroom since it was so close to the study,” I answered, then caught on to what she was hinting at.
Clearly, she knew that it wasn’t just time alone that led to Jade and I staying there for the night.
I planned to talk to them all once we got the information we needed and settled in for the night.
I didn’t mind May and Becka being around, but when it came to our intimate lives, it should just be us talking.
“Can we take our dragons?” Gavin asked. He’d built quite the bond with his purple dragon he named Gatir.
“Since they are still working on the bridge, I think it’s best,” Izel reasoned. “I’m sure they will be done later since there is much to bring in and prepare for the coronation, but they’ve been managing with dragons dropping people off.”
Some doubled up with others, but those who newly acquired their dragons had difficulty not spending time with them, which I understood.
If I had the option of that when I first bonded with Vasin, I would have, but I pushed thoughts of my mother away before it could cloud this moment with people I cared about.
As if I never left, I found myself back in the king’s study sorting through books again, still not finding what King Cardon had left for me to learn.
I picked up an old scroll brittle with age and written in the old language.
It was an account during the days of the first king where he had to deal with a man who’d gone crazy out of the blue.
He’d been one of the higher-ups in the military because his magic was strongest in his ability to control people’s bodies.
Later, it was discovered his son had been gifted with the same magic, only instead of it being in control of bodies, it was their mind.
He could implant a thought that would change the way a person acted.
This reminded me of Izel’s gift, but his was emotion-based but not to the point of changing your own mental awareness.
This sounded more like what the Lost King could do.
It seems he used his gift on his father, and over time, his father’s brain deteriorated to the point of madness.
It was believed the mind fought to take back control and instead lost itself to the magic that was used. The dragon the boy had was also affected and soon died, taking the young boy with him, both lost to insanity of the mind.
“Pax,” I called out to where he was sprawled out on the floor, napping.
“Huh, what?” he answered, jolting awake as if he were trying to disprove he was sleeping.
Rubbing his eyes, he wandered over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning his chin on my shoulder to look at the scroll.
“Ah, I hope you’re not looking for someone who can read that because I’m going to be zero help. ”
Chuckling, I set the scroll down and turned to face him. “I need you to tell me everything you know or remember about Henry as a boy. You said your father got reports and was asked to deal with a few things throughout the years.”
“What are you looking for specifically?” Paxton asked, his brows knitted together. “There are a lot of things I remember about that time, but I don’t see how any of it would be useful to you.”
“The dragons told me he was bonded to one and somehow the dragon died, but he is still living… how does that happen? In this scroll, I read about a boy who seemed to have a similar power to Henry, and his dragon died because the boy used his powers on that dragon. Shortly after, the boy died along with his father, all of them out of their mind. While I was kidnapped, I heard my captors talking about how people under the Lost King’s influence went mad and turned into puppets who couldn’t even speak,” I explained.
“So we need to figure out why Henry is still alive if his dragon isn’t. ”
“Are they sure his dragon is dead?” Paxton countered.
I opened my mouth to answer but paused. Instead, I closed my eyes and reached out to Vasin. “Why do the dragons think Henry’s dragon is dead?”
“We can no longer connect with Xotha, and that only happens when a dragon has passed on. Otherwise, we can always feel each other’s presence connected to our shared memory, which fades when the dragon does.”
“What type of dragon was Xotha?”
“A blue dragon… by our memories, he was small but vicious. I’m not surprised they were drawn to each other.”
“Do you know how they met or when they bonded?”
“It was when the boy was small, he slipped out of the house and wandered into the fields, and Xotha was drawn to his magic. It was one that connected to him on a level no one else had before. Xotha didn’t waste any time and bit the boy, flooding his little body with venom.
It’s really a miracle that Henry survived.
It explains why his power is so strong, though, and at such a young age. ”
Snapping my eyes back open, I met Paxton’s bright blue curious eyes. “What did Vasin have to say?”
“I don’t think his dragon is dead,” I announced. Everyone paused what they were doing to look at me with questions written all over their faces.
Pulling out of Paxton’s hold, I started to pace up and down the room.
“Hear me out. Vasin said that Henry bonded with his dragon as a child, and his whole body was flooded with venom, making him as strong as he is today. I was reading another account of a child who also had a gift similar to Henry, and he used it on his dragon. What if it didn’t work because that little boy wasn’t strong enough to make it work on a mind as vast as a dragon’s? ”
“Are you suggesting that the Lost King has somehow managed to use his gift on his dragon, having total control over it?” Zan clarified.
Chewing on my lip, I paused to look at them. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? He wants power over everything, and the dragons said they believed he was killed because he wouldn’t follow orders. What if instead of killing his dragon, Henry manipulated its mind?”
“That would turn the dragon insane just as a human would. In everything that I’ve been learning about relationships between dragons, there is no way one could survive being cut off from the collective minds of the others,” Gavin argued.
“I’m not arguing that. I think it’s one reason we haven’t seen his dragon around.
Vasin said that his dragon, Xotha, was vicious by nature.
Now add that he made his dragon go insane.
It would be a loose end with deadly repercussions if it was killed,” I stated, pausing to see if they were catching up to where my mind was already at.
“Holy shit,” Cole blurted out. “If we find his dragon and kill it, we kill him. We could stop this whole war from happening if we can take out that one piece. Then his whole plan would crumble.”
“I think he did it to try and gain the knowledge that the dragons have hidden in their minds. If their bond was so strong and started at an early age, it’s possible they could communicate with each other like Vasin and I can.
The bond’s strength, trust, and venom is what makes that possible, and a child’s trust to its dragon protector would be immense. ”
Now Abbott was on his feet, rolling open a map on the desk. “So where would you hide a dragon that was out of its mind and could destroy everything on site?”
“Errit,” Jade and Paxton said together.
“You two seem pretty certain about that. Why?” Izel inquired.
“If you ever want to keep something a secret, you lose it in the wastelands of Errit,” Paxton explained. “There is nothing out there, and you must have the right set of skills to survive.”
“There are many plateaus, ravines, and caves where you could hide things. It’s the best place to put smuggled goods.
No one’s ever found my hideaway, and that’s where I made it,” Jade said.
“Tahir and I hid out there for a few months after Acton framed me for killing my parents.
I was sent on a job to kill an official and his wife who were going to leak the location of one of the clans to the king and queen.
I was the only one who could get in close enough to get the guy since he was already in Royal City.
What Acton didn’t tell me was that my father was the man who was going to sell us out.
The room was dark, and I don’t make a habit of looking my targets in the eye.
It wasn’t until I’d already done the deed and heard my name on my mother’s dying breath.
Of course, I returned to the clan, confronting Acton about it, but he claimed he had no idea what I was talking about.
Acton always hated our father, who beat on him when he didn’t come out as the best for his training year.
Then our father married my mother once he found out she was pregnant and had me who he doted on.
Acton’s first move as clan leader was to call a meeting of the clan leaders and put me on trial.
Somehow, Acton framed things to look like I’d known what I was getting into and took the job so I could have the leader’s position and would kill him too, if given the chance.
I was banished from the clan lands for a year as punishment, and I was just on my way back when I rescued Cassarah. ”
Jade rubbed the back of his neck as we stared at him in shock.
“All that to say is I hid out in Errit for most of that time working as an assassin since people there will pay a pretty penny to make their problems disappear. After a year exploring the place and hunting down my targets in the canyons, I still didn’t find everything there was to see.
It would be perfect to lose a dragon there. ”
“I have to agree with the man. It’s where people go to lose things,” Paxton added.
“Fine, so we have a place to start looking, but as Jade made clear, it might be impossible to find if you don’t know where to look,” Abbott pointed out.
“Then we give them a reason to use his dragon,” I determined.
“If you were the Lost King, what would you want to stop from happening at all costs?” I could feel their eyes on me as I moved to the window that overlooked the village.
“Send an invitation to my coronation to the King and Queen of Creisal.”