Page 35 of The Dragon Queen
Ethan looked at me as he remained slumped in the chair, doing his best not to look at Queen Eldinar and piss off her guard dog.
Queen Eldinar questioned me with her pointed stare.
Calista didn’t speak, as if she wanted me to do the talking.
“We discovered a lot on our voyage.” I started the conversation and felt the heft of my words. Disappointment was not a strongenough word to describe my feelings. I was wounded by what we discovered, how my glorious kingdom had tarnished and rusted. “The alliance my uncle established with the dark elves continues. They seem to occupy the lands or nearby territory, and as a result of the curse they bear, they’ve poisoned the land. Crops are limited and livestock is rare. The people of the Southern Isles suffer a harsh famine that’s never occurred in its history.”
“That sounds like good news to me,” Ethan said before adding, “No offense…”
Queen Eldinar nodded in agreement. “They’ll be our allies in this fight. No amount of famine will deter the strength that burns in their souls. They love that kingdom as much as you do, Talon. They’ll lay down their lives for it—and their rightful king.”
I’d known something was amiss all those years ago when I’d found Jairo and Kael in the storage room. I was an arrogant young man who’d provoked Barron when I should have slain him with my father’s sword. So much devastation had been caused by my negligence. Families had suffered for decades…needlessly.
Perhaps I deserved what awaited me in the underworld.
“I suspect you have more to share,” Queen Eldinar said.
“I hope you killed that rat in his sleep.” Ethan drummed his fingers on the table.
“Calista snuck into the castle,” I said. “Pretended to be one of the maids. No one questioned her. She discovered that the leader of the dark elves, Astaroth, remains in the Southern Isles because Barron has yet to uphold his end of their deal.”
“Tell us,” Queen Eldinar said.
I didn’t want to say, not when it would put so much pressure on the queen. “They’re searching for the Realm of Caelum. Apparently, there is more than one gateway. Another Great Tree exists in another land, and Astaroth believes he may have found it.”
The silence was so heavy it became physical. Queen Eldinar kept a straight face, like that information meant nothing to her, but the air became so thick was sudden pressure it was hard to breathe.
“He also suspects that I’m the Death King. An astute guess.” The continents were so far apart that I had assumed Barron would never hear the tales, but I was sadly mistaken. He knew there was only one person who had the fuel to strive for such greatness, so perhaps I should take it as a compliment. “They’ve decided to leave the Southern Isles and sail to the Northern Kingdoms to slay me. Then they’ll head to the east, where an entry to the Realm of Caelum lies. A group of elves known as the Ethereal reside there. Their plan is to kill them together so Astaroth and the dark elves can claim it. Once Barron fulfills his obligation, the dark elves will leave his land, and the soil can heal.”
Ethan dragged his fingers across his face as he listened to all of this.
Queen Eldinar didn’t blink, and her eyes sharpened with anger. “What of the dragons?”
It was a subject I wanted to avoid. “They’re in chains. None fly through the skies, so I assume they’ve been imprisoned underground.”
The queen dropped her hostile stare as the sadness softened her hard gaze. Emotion swept across the surface in a swift motion before she bottled it inside.
“Without the dark elves, they have no control over the dragons,” I said. “So, I suspect that once the dark elves vacate their lands, the dragons will remain imprisoned indefinitely to keep Barron and his family alive. And the others are imprisoned simply so they won’t be able to retaliate…”
“Vile,” Queen Eldinar whispered. “Absolutely vile.”
I was grateful that Khazmuda had managed to escape and avoid that horrible fate, that he’d never given up on me. That he’d always believed I was capable of taking back the throne and freeing his kin.
“Sounds like we need to move in—and we need to move in fast.” Ethan stopped drumming his fingers. “I’ve taken many foes on the open sea, but with dragons in the skies and so many unskilled sailors, it could easily turn into a massacre for both parties.”
“I agree,” Queen Eldinar said. “Now is the time to move in before they leave the port.”
“Unfortunately, they’ll be prepared for battle,” General Ezra said. “Not in the expectation of an army arriving on their doorstep, but ready, nonetheless. Those are not the circumstances we wanted, to take their kingdom in the night while they frantically scramble out of their beds, but it must do.”
“No matter how prepared they are,” Queen Eldinar said, “they’ll never be prepared for the dragons we’ve brought with us. Barron will arrogantly assume he has the only living dragons in this world.”
“I agree,” Ethan said. “He’s gonna lose his shit when he sees us coming.”
Queen Eldinar glanced at Ethan.
General Ezra looked at him with disdain.
“Then we need to come up with a plan.” It was a sentence I’d waited so long to say, twenty years in the making, and I never anticipated how heavy the words would feel on my tongue.