Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol. III (89 page)

Only at the end of the corridor did Cabe at last pause. Here at last was the great central chamber that the Green Dragon utilized as his throne room and hall. Here the Dragon King met his guests.

Unlike the caverns of most of his counterparts, that of the Green Dragon was covered with lush plant life, most of it of the kind that should not have been able to thrive so far from the sun. Yet, thanks to the power and skill of the drake lord, vines, shrubs, and flowering plants made the chamber resemble more a forest than a cave. Over the past few years, the Dragon King had redesigned this hall, adding further to his vast collection of foliage.

In the midst of the underground grove and seated upon his throne was the armored form of the Dragon King himself. He was flanked on each side by the fiercest pair of guards that Cabe could recall ever having faced. As was typical of Lord Green, one of the guards was a drake, but the other was a human. It was debatable which was the more terrible of the two. The Green Dragon prided himself in carrying on the ways of his predecessors; here, humans and drakes were almost as equal as at the Manor. What made things different in Cabe’s home, however, was that it was a human who ruled there, not a Dragon King. The experiment at the Manor represented the first time that drakes had ever coexisted peacefully with humans in a place where they did not dominate. The idea had been the Green Dragon’s.

There was so much about his host that the warlock had always admired.

“Thank you for coming, Friend Cabe.” The reptilian knight indicated a chair that had been set near his throne. The chair was set on a level with the Dragon King’s own, which was supposed to indicate the drake’s long-standing belief in the equality of the two races, but the mage had always noticed that both Lord Green and his throne stood
taller.
He had often wondered whether that was intentional, or whether the Dragon King had simply never noticed it.

“Thank you, but I prefer to stand.” Behind him, his escorts vanished down one of the other tunnels.

The Green Dragon straightened a bit. “As you desire. You know the contents of the missive, then?”

“Gwendolyn informed me, yes. It’s not surprising when you think about it. Not even the fact that Lord Blue is coming here. Of all the Dragon Kings, other than yourself, of course, he is the only one I would trust enough to allow entry,
temporary
entry in his case, into the Manor.”

“Yesss, I trust him, too. The others are upssset, Friend Cabe, although none of them would be able to give you the same reasons.”

Cabe frowned. “Imagine what they would have been like if the assassins
had
succeeded in murdering Kyl. Thank goodness for Grath, if that should happen.”

It appeared to take Lord Green time to translate what he was saying. “Yesss, we may be thankful that if some tragedy did seize the life of the heir, may the Dragon of the Depths prevent such, there would be Grath to step in and take hisss place.”

“We’ve often commented to one another that he would make just as good, possibly
better
, an emperor as Kyl.”

The Dragon King shifted position. “That we have, which is not to say that Kyl isss not already coming into his own. He will do sssplendidly, I am sure.”

Cabe walked around the chair set aside for him. He stared the drake lord in the eye. The warlock heard the guards suddenly straighten but paid them little mind.

“
You
are the one who sent the assassins to murder Kyl.
You
, my Lord Green, tried to have your new emperor killed. We both know that, don’t we?”

The guards readied their weapons and started for the warlock, but the armored tyrant raised a mailed hand. Both warriors paused, but the glares they gave Cabe Bedlam were dark and murderous.

“Friend Cabe, are you aware of the wordsss you jussst spoke? We have known each other since you firssst were forced to acknowledge your heritage. I consider you and yours not only close allies but close companionsss as well.”

“Which doesn’t change the fact that
you
tried to murder Kyl and ended up murdering
Toos.
”

There was an edge to the Green Dragon’s voice. “How could you sssay something like that?”

“You captured Darkhorse,” the bitter sorcerer went on, ignoring both the questions of his host and the seething faces of the guards. “As good as tortured him by using that box. I think that you had confidence enough to handle everyone but Darkhorse . . . and you found a way to make use of his power, too. You forgot one thing, though. I know you as well as anyone does. We’ve discussed the history of the Vraad over and over. I’ve seen your collection, and I know from my own researches some of the tricks and toys that my unesteemed ancestors devised, especially when they realized that most of them were losing their vast powers.” Cabe folded his arms. “There was also the band of assassins that I was supposed to think was part of an Aramite plot. Drakes and humans working together on this? Did you
want
to be discovered, my lord? Was that why you made it so obvious to me?”

He knew that he had really said little that could directly be tied to the Dragon King, that would have been considered proof by anyone, but to the warlock’s sad surprise, the Green Dragon slumped back in his throne. He glanced back at the guards and commanded, “Leave usss, pleassse.”

With obvious reluctance, the two obeyed.

When they were alone, the lord of Dagora finally spoke. “I do not know whether I desssired to be found out, Cabe Bedlam, or sssimply wasss so full of anxiety and horror at what I was doing that I did not take more care. Yesss, I
am
the one responsible for nearly assassinating Kyl and inssstead killing the brave and honorable regent of Penacles.”

Try as he might, Cabe could no longer stay angry. Instead, disappointment was all he felt. Great disappointment. It was as if the world he had known had proven to be a falsehood. In some ways, it was even more terrible than when he had been torn from his uninteresting existence as a server at an inn and thrust into a world of sorcery and intrigue. He had learned so much from the Dragon King, shared so much with him. There were few beings that the warlock felt comfortable with; in the small circle of true friends he had thought he had, the Dragon King had been one.

Yet, after what the drake lord had done . . .

“I did what I felt was necessary, warlock. Kyl was an arrogant, conceited creature who threatened to repeat the mistakes of hisss sire. Grath, who the powersss that be had brought to this world
after
his brother, wasss by far a more level sssort. He would deal with the relations of both races fairly, evenly. Kyl might suddenly be of the mind to reconquer the continent, plunging usss all into a war none can afford. He might even be the great enemy of hisss own kind, for I know that he still holdsss much bitterness toward sssome of the surviving kings for abandoning his predecessor. Kyl isss even the sort who might find the renegade, Toma, more of an ally than a danger.”

“I find
that
hard to believe.”

The Green Dragon rose from his throne and looked down at the human. Cabe did not flinch, much less back away. “
I
do not.”

The warlock matched his counterpart’s gaze. He was not pleased, however, when the Dragon King finally looked away. Things should not have deteriorated to such a point that the two had to attempt to stare one another down. “Kyl had Grath to guide him.”

“But our esteemed emperor-to-be doesss not have to
listen
to hisss brother. Should Kyl grow furiousss at something Grath suggests, he has only to order his brother from hisss sight. Then, the voices that whisper in his ears will become those of my fellow kings’ spiesss. Where would the Dragonrealm be then? No, the only certain method by which the stability of the throne could be assured was to remove Kyl and replace him with Grath.”

“I don’t agree.” Cabe shook his head, still unable to completely believe that the figure before him had created so much chaos and tragedy. “That also doesn’t condone what you did to Toos and Darkhorse—or the Gryphon. Toos was a brother to the Gryphon, my Lord Green; you saw what the general’s death meant to him. He wants the one responsible. So does Darkhorse.”

The inhuman knight started to turn away. “I did what I knew
had
to be—”

“
Don’t turn from me!
” roared Cabe. Without meaning to, he almost unleashed a spell on the recalcitrant monarch. Cabe barely contained it in time, and the power was such that his body glowed red for several seconds afterward.

The Green Dragon stared at him, jaw hanging. The warlock calmed enough to see that, for the first time, the Dragon King was truly afraid of him.

“I should tell them the truth, you know! Both Darkhorse and the Gryphon
deserve
to know. Do you realize the extent of Darkhorse’s claustrophobia? He existed in a place without time or end. I know that the Vraad used a box very much like that to capture him! He’s never told me everything, but I’ve never seen as much terror in his eyes as when he is reminded of that!”

“What did you do with the box?” interrupted the drake lord.

“I still have it. It damned you more than anything else; I could recognize your knowledge in it. No one else had access to such an artifact, and no one else would have understood it the way you do!” Again, the accusations were flimsy, but now that Cabe had had confirmation of his suspicions from the Green Dragon himself, the claims had weight. “There was so much. The spells that masked one magical trace with another. The cloaks of the assassins—men you callously assured would not live so that anyone questioning them would discover the truth. They died too easily, Lord Green. Even the Aramite.
More
futile deaths on your shoulders.”

“I will take no blame for their deaths, Cabe Bedlam! They were condemned criminals, one and all. They would have been executed. I am not like Black, who would carelessly send his enchanted human legions against the walls of his enemies again and again until the mindless unfortunates either overran the foe or died to a man!”

The warlock, his face carefully neutral, shrugged. “I don’t know
what
you’re like anymore.”

“I am as I have
always
been.”

“That worries me even more, then. What will you decide next serves your needs? The deaths of me and my loved ones?”

The Dragon King hissed and his talons unsheathed. “Of course not!”

“How can I believe that anymore?”

For several seconds, the tall, armored tyrant stood there, eyes burning embers, claws at the ready. Then, the talons slowly sheathed and the fire in his eyes died. Lord Green returned to his throne and slumped back into it again. “There isss no promise that I could give you that you would believe, isss there?”

Cabe slumped, too. This had taken more out of him than the drake lord knew. “No. There isn’t.”

“Will you tell the others, then? Shall I prepare to receive the visitations of either the eternal or the lionbird?”

“It would mean only more chaos and tragedy, neither of which we can afford these days.”

It was clear that his reply puzzled the Dragon King. “Are you saying that you will keep what you know a sssecret?”

Some of Cabe’s anger returned. “Not because of the friendship we once had, but because if peace is to work in the land, nothing else can go wrong. I may not even tell Gwendolyn, although I probably will. I know that she’ll think as I do, that we can’t afford another war.” He paused. “What she’ll think of you, I couldn’t say.”

His host nodded slowly. “I understand what you sssay. I understand your view of thisss. You will do nothing else?”

“There’s nothing I can do that wouldn’t make the situation worse than it is. I’m more concerned now with seeing this coronation through to the end . . . with Kyl assuming his
rightful
place. When he’s emperor, then we can judge his abilities. No sooner. Prejudgment is no one’s right, however often we
all
fall prey to it.”

Silence filled the chamber for several seconds. The Dragon King finally looked up into the eyes of the warlock and quietly asked, “Isss there more? I had assumed you would be gone the moment your piece had been sssaid.”

Cabe took a deep breath and smoothed his robe. “We still have Lord Blue’s change in plans to talk about. We still have to make all of this work. Are you prepared to accept things the way they are?”

“After Penaclesss, I swore that I would do nothing else to risssk this peace. I desire it as much as you, even if it meansss Kyl on the throne.”

With a small flicker of power, the exhausted warlock brought the other chair to him. He also enlarged it slightly, this in order to allow him to look directly into the eyes of his host, not
up
at them. “Then we should begin. Tell me what I need to know about the Blue Dragon and what he might have planned for Kyl.”

The Dragon King began to discuss his counterpart, but although the conversation became more comfortable as they went on, Cabe knew that his relationship with the drake lord would never be the same.

AURIM SAT CROSS-LEGGED
on his bed while Ursa sat next to him. His fingertips were pressed against his temple and his eyes were shut tight. Although he could not see her, he knew that the drake watched him with concern. Neither of his parents knew what he was doing. That was fine with him; they had far too much on their minds already. He had relied on them and their friends far too long. It was time to prove that all the talk of potential meant something.

The young warlock intended to break Toma’s spell on his own.

Not
completely
on his own. Ursa was assisting him, albeit with reluctance. Some of the paths he had tried required more manipulation than he could muster by himself. She was also there in case something
did
go wrong . . . which he had assured her several times would
not
happen.

His methods of search bordered on the unorthodox. Aurim had already observed his parents and the Gryphon going through most of the more normal paths, and not a few unusual ones they were familiar with, which left him only the ones he was taking. One of those methods, he was certain, had to be the key to unraveling the renegade’s spell.