'The Taiytakei?' Jehal for once looked like he barely knew where he was.
Poor boy. It's all getting too much, is it? 'If I were to guess, I would say that Zafir – or someone – has promised them what they want.' Meteroa patted him on the shoulder. You killed my brother. Not that he didn't deserve it, but he was mine. 'You wanted to be king, remember? So now you have another reason to stop her.'
'Fine.' Jehal shrugged him off. 'Then get my dragons ready, Eyrie-Master. All of them. We're going to war. How soon can it be done?'
'We're only waiting for you, Your Holiness, nothing else. Just one itsy question: who are we fighting?'
For the first time since he'd landed, Jehal smiled. It was the twisted, lopsided smile of someone who had something broken on the inside. Our family smile. 'Why, I'm going to the Adamantine Palace, Uncle, to fight the speaker's war. You, though… I have something else in mind for you. You can take a few of my dragons and follow along later. Go via the Pinnacles and clear the air for me there.' His smile slipped into a sneer. 'And if you really believe what you say of the Taiytakei, you can burn every one of their ships in the harbour before you leave.'
Meteroa felt himself nodding. 'To war then, my king?'
'To war.' Jehal threw back his head and laughed. 'Our war.' He nodded at the swollen body laid out in the mausoleum. 'Now get rid of that and bring me back my queen. Oh, and send a letter to Jaslyn. Tell her that from now on wherever I go, her sister goes with me. Perhaps that will keep her dragons in their eyries.'
'I wouldn't count on it.'
I won t.
44
Vale Tassan stood in the Chamber of Audience. Arrayed in front of him was what passed for yet another council of kings of queens. With one king and one queen. Worse than the council that put Shezira to death. Nonetheless, he stood there and he told them what the speaker wanted them to hear. They heard of two survivors from the Red Riders who had been taken alive. Two survivors whose confessions Vale had taken. Whose confessions clearly implicated Queen Almiri in their revolt. He watched them nod or shake their heads.
There. I have done my duty. I have obeyed my speaker without question. When he finished there was a bitter taste in his mouth, but as he looked at their faces he understood perfectly that the truth had never actually mattered in the first place. For some reason that made him almost intolerably angry.
'Survivors?' Prince Tichane raised an eyebrow. 'From a dragon fight? That's quite unusual, Night Watchman. What state were they in?'
They were dead. But I can't say that. 'Poor, Your Highness. Very poor. I was surprised that they could be brought to talk at all.' 'Tooth marks?'
Vale bowed. 'I did not examine them, Your Highness. There was a physician. I'm sure he could answer such questions.' Yes, let's bring the blood-mage up here and see what he has to say for himself. He sighed and looked around the council. Half the realms don't even have a voice here.
'Who here will speak for Queen Jaslyn and Queen Almiri?' asked Lord Eisal.
Zafir sniffed. 'They didn't come. That they cannot be bothered to even defend themselves speaks of their guilt, does it not?'
Fisal glowered. 'Does Almiri even know we're holding this council? Does her sister?'
King Silvallan, King of Bazim Crag and the Oordish Moors and as much Zafir's puppet as King Narghon was Jehal's, rolled his eyes and spat. 'What about her? Queen Almiri's guilt has long been obvious, and she wouldn't act alone. I don't know why we're even bothering with this.'
'We have no evidence at all against Queen Jaslyn, Your Holiness,' snapped Jeiros. 'And we're bothering with this because we are the custodians of the nine realms and we have a sacred duty to do whatever is possible to keep the realms at peace and prevent another dragon-war.'
'And yet here we are starting one,' drawled Prince Tichane. Another dragon-prince to despise. Too much like Jehal in too many ways.
Zafir turned her smile on Jeiros. 'And what do you say regarding Queen Almiri, Master Alchemist? Has she been helping the Red Riders or not? How is her supply of potions? Missing any is she?'
Jeiros sank into his chair and shrugged his shoulders. 'I cannot say for sure. The Red Riders stole most of what they need from you, Your Holiness. But yes, if I have to say one way or the other, some are missing.'
As far as Vale could see that sealed Almiri's fate. As soon as he was no longer needed, he left them to it. The south was going to war with the north. Zafir already had her dragons stationed around the palace. Silvallan's were on the way. King Narghon and King Jehal would follow. As many as seven hundred dragons would fly across the Purple Spur. Even if Queen Jaslyn came to her sister's aid, they were still outnumbered two to one. From Eisal's face, King Sirion planned to have no part of the fight either way. So the north would lose and that would be that. Speaker Hyram's legacy would be over. Queen Shezira's line would be finished. And in the middle, almost unnoticed, Evenspire and most of the Blackwind Dales would go up in flames. Idly, Vale wondered how many people would burn and how many would starve. A lot, most likely.
He climbed all the way to the top of the Gatehouse, its gates wide and tall enough to let in a dragon. He stood on the battlements, close to the edge. There was hardly any space. Twenty scorpions filled the platforms on the top of the Gatehouse towers.
He looked down The road from the palace gate curled away to the right. The first things that caught his eye were the three cages. What was left of Queen Shezira, King Valgar and Prince Sakabian. The crows had had their fill and there wasn't much left but bones. He had other cages ready, just in case. There was one in particular that he'd made for Princess Lystra. At least he wouldn't be needing that any more. When the news had reached the palace of Lystra's murder, the speaker had beamed for days.
Beheading kings and hanging their bodies in cages. Executing her own cousins. Hyram would never have done such things.
The road descended around the palace hill towards the City of Dragons and the Mirror Lakes. The city still bore the scars of the Red Riders' attack. Zafir should have crushed them the second they were born. Did she leave them just so that she could have her war?
Probably. Which meant that everyone who'd died in the city that day had died for Zafir's vanity. Vale gritted his teeth. Orders, he reminded himself. The Guard obeys orders. From birth to death. Nothing more, nothing less. It is not our place to praise or to condemn, merely to execute the speaker's will.
Around to the south lay the Hungry Mountain Plain. Out in the distance, a wooden platform still stuck up from the fields. The tower we built to celebrate the end of Speaker Hyram's reign. Ten years of peace. We gave up our lives so that princes and kjngs could have sport with their dragons, so that Hyram could show off how strong we are. And who won that tournament? Zafir. She cheated and Hyram let her get away with it. He ought to have taken the tower down, but somehow he'd never got around to it. Because there was always too much else to do? No. Be honest with yourself, Vale Tassan. Because you can't quite let go of the speaker you used to serve. Not for the one that's come in his place.
He turned his eyes to the north. Zafir would be flying that way soon. She'd be gone from the palace. He looked along the walls. Three hundred scorpions and two thousand men. In the city he could place five hundred more scorpions and the bulk of his soldiers. Putting more scorpions up in the Spur near the mouth of the Diamond Cascade would be sound, although he couldn't for the life of him think how to get them up there without getting some dragons to carry them.
He stopped himself. What am I thinking? Am I really thinking about the best ways to defend the palace? From whom, Night Watchman? From the King of the Crags? Is that who you think you might need to fight? King Jehal? Do you think King Sirion will try to seize the throne while Zafir is away? Or do you fear that Queen Jaslyn will snatch a victory despite the numbers stacked against her? Because if you allow yourself to have an opinion for a moment, any one of them, even the Viper, would make a better speaker than Zafir. So are you really thinking of how to defend yourself against the multitude of enemies that Zafir has made for us in the short months of her reign? Or are you thinking of something else, Vale Tassan?
