The King's Allies.
-8-
"I don't know what makes me angrier," Sonoy, the Court Physician, was saying as he paced the field the King had brought him and his wife, the Queen, so he could tell them about what he had done in the caves, telling them both about how he and his knights found the three hatching dragons and slaughtered them, before the knights were burnt to death and then the King related, shamefacedly, he had seen how hopeless the whole thing was, deciding to make a fateful bargain with the dragon, offering up his three daughters for the three dragons he and his men had recklessly killed, "the fact you went after that dragon in the first place, even if the beast hadn't really been interested in us to begin with, that you were stupid enough to kill three hatching dragons, or that you made a bargain with it!"
The King sat on a fallen tree, stone-faced as he listened to the Physicians' rant, it said a lot he didn't immediately threaten the man with execution or capital punishment for what he was saying, since they were old friends, and besides he had known this was coming for a long time. In the meantime, his wife was glaring at him, her ample chest rising and falling as she listened with growing horror to what he was saying, and the terrible implications of the bargain he'd made.
"I told you the dragon would be leaving us alone, if we left it alone, that it wasn't interested in us," Sonoy went on, "but now you've endangered us all!"
"I know, Sonoy," the King sighed heavily.
"So, why did you do it?"
"I was weak," the King admitted; this was not the time for misplaced pride. Look where it had gotten him already. "I realised there wasn't a chance in harming the dragon; it was mobile, watching my every move after the knights died. I had to do something."
"To save yourself?" The words were out of the Queen's mouth before she could even stop it.
The King glared at her. "I had no choice," he argued with a drawn-out sigh. "I know there is a reckoning, but it will have to wait. What matters is what we do now?"
"Now, we run," Sonoy said, "there's no chance we can give the dragon anything."
"I was thinking we could trick the dragon, Sonoy," the King said.
"You want to trick the dragon? That's even worse than killing three hatchlings. Didn't you learn anything about dragons growing up? A dragon mother will destroy anyone or anything that threatens their young."
The King swallowed hard. "The dragon also told me… it's the last of its bloodline."
"Oh, this is getting better by the second!" Sonoy threw up his hands.
"What does that mean?" The Queen asked desperately, frightened for the lives of her children, grandchildren and for everyone else to come, but they wouldn't, if her stupid and reckless husband hadn't made the biggest mistake ever.
"Dragons are not unthinking beasts, your majesty. They are beings of wonder, of mystique, and even magic. They are highly intelligent and rational, but if you threaten them, then they bring their full power and ferocity to bear. Harming the younglings was bad enough as dragons fawn over their young, but harming the last of their bloodline means they won't have anything left to lose," Sonoy explained.
The King closed his eyes when he caught sight of the dark, menacing look from his wife. "I know, I was foolish, but I remembered reading dragons can be fooled, that the scent of their prey can be thrown off. Can we do that here?"
Sonoy scowled, "Dragons are easy to fool. When you made that bargain, it sniffed you. It has the scent of your blood, your lineage, in its memory. If we drop someone down there the dragon will see through it…unless…."
"Unless what?"
"We could mix your blood with that of the intended…sacrifice," Sonoy said thoughtfully, "but it will be hard…."
"How can we mix the blood?" The Queen asked.
Sonoy was silent for a moment, considering the question for a moment. "It would have to be something…simple," he muttered slowly, but the King and the Queen heard him. "It would have to be enough to mix the blood without the act being suspicious…. Wait, a cut in the palm, we cut palms and mix the blood, and then sacrifice them to the dragon."
"Will that work?" The Queen demanded.
"It should, all we need to do is to put the blood in the system; all we have to do is make sure the scent of your bloodline is in the girls," Sonoy said.
"How do we spin this so we don't have anarchy in the kingdom?" The King asked Sonoy, while the Court physician wondered why he was being forced to solve every single problem, but while the physician considered the best way to spin this mess, the Queen couldn't hold it in anymore.
The Queen glared at her husband. "Why did you do this?" She demanded.
The King sighed, tired of this. "Do you remember our original land?" He shot back.
This shut the Queen up. Her expression told both men that she did. But the King went on. "We had originally built our kingdom on a river bank, but the land was under constant attack, subject to harsh winters. And we were hemmed in by other kingdoms, who constantly warred with each other. Every time we fought them, we lost so much, and then our kingdom began shrinking. I inherited the whole mess from my father, and I hated the lands. I hated every thing about it. When I made my decision to send out scouts to find suitable lands, we had just lost one of the most devastating wars in our history, and I ordered everyone to pack up and we left, deciding if they wanted the land so much, they could have it. They were welcome to it.
"And then we came here," the King threw his arms out, turning so he could look at the whole landscape. "This land had no other people. It was rich in minerals, and timber, and there were fertile lands everywhere. When we landed, we found everything so easy, and then we discovered we weren't as alone as we had hoped. You asked why I had gone after the dragon. I'll tell you. I didn't want us to lose everything again," he turned to the Queen and his Court Physician, a hard look in his eyes. "A dragon makes our former enemies look like amateurs in comparison."
The Queen and the Court Physician still didn't like what he had done, but they could understand his reasons. Both of them had long memories, of the wars, the winters, how their lives had been forged in hardships while their every attempt to live came with more problems than solutions. And they knew he was right about the dragon making their former enemies looking like amateurs in comparison.
"I think we should twist the truth," Sonoy spoke slowly, "I think we should say that you and the knights that went with you tracked the dragon down and tried to kill it, and then it killed the knights and before it was about to kill you, it decided to make a bargain with you; sacrifice daughters or destroy the kingdom, and you tried to attack it, but then it forced you to accept its demands."
The Queen frowned. "Do you think we'll be believed?" She asked.
"I think if we spend some time working on the story, the truth will remain hidden. At the same time we can say the dragon will let us stay on the island, and in return we sacrifice three princesses who won't be your daughters," Sonoy said.
Together, the trio spent hours discussing their plans and their options, building the evil legacy of their empire.