They were marching through the palace. More and more guards appeared, but they were letting them pass with little resistance. Several of them gave the group deep nods of respect as they let them pass. The king must have told them he was expecting them.

He didn’t know what they were going to say to the king or how they would get Anders away from Lord Loratyk long enough to whatever it was he knew out of him. There were far too many people around them now for him to feel comfortable enough talking to him. He admitted the lord had something to do with the serpents. They had all suspected it, but no one could prove it outright. He wondered what evidence the boy could share.

They finally arrived at a heavy door that was decorated with runes. The glow they were giving off was blinding. A guard stood in front of it and looked them up and down, assessing them. Lord Loratyk bowed and introduced himself as well as the other lord. The man squinted, crossed his arms, and gave out a huff. Loratyk’s shoulders dropped, and he added on that they had the champions with them.

The man’s eyebrows raised, looked over at the lords to see the young mages. They stood there with all their fancy clothes torn to shreds from the fight and the winds. Water was still damp on the fabric as they looked to him with exhausted annoyance.

He nodded at them and moved out of the way. His hand slid across a rune on the door and a bracelet on his wrist lit up. The two interacted, glowing and pulsing a few times before an audible click was heard. He reached for a hidden handle and pushed the door open before stepping out of the way for them to enter.

Their crowd followed the lords through the door. Inside, it was just the same opulence as the rest of the castle, only in a small confined space. The couches were overly plush. There silks draped from the ceiling. Even in a safe room, the king still had to have a certain quality of life.

On one of the couches was a man, curled up with a blanket and a shocked look on his face. He was even holding a mug of something warm that was drifting away. His eyes slowly rose to look at them. The king was a shell of the man Kaden had seen prancing around mere hours before. This attack really shook him to his core.

Lord Cronley cleared his throat and said, “Your Grace, we have defeated the assailants.”

“All of them?”

The lords shared a look before Loratyk said, “the men are still gathering stragglers.”

“Then I shall not be leaving this room yet.”

Cronley nodded. “That would be wise. We only just rescued Lord Loratyk’s son from some of them. There may still be more in the castle.”

His attention drifted to Anders, and he motioned for him to come near. “Did they chase after you too, boy?”

“Yes, your grace.”

“How did you survive?”

Anders motioned back toward Iratoi. The king smiled and nodded to her. “Lord Cronley’s mage daughter. Ah. That warms my heart that you children are taking care of each other.”

She gave a brief curtsy. “They may have been after me as well, but Anders was an easier target because of his lack of magic.”

He turned back to the Lords as her words looked to have given him a thought. “Were they targeting us then? The leaders of the country?”

Lord Loratyk nodded. “We believe so. I think their idea was to take out the royal family and the lords to take over the country.”

“If Enderton and Mordon had been here, they might have done so,” Cronley mused as he leaned his weight back on his right leg. “Without them here, though, if we had been taken out, the two of them would be able to still manage the country.”

“Or would they? Do you think they rejected my invitation because they knew of the attack?” The king’s voice went up in volume and in octave.

Waving his hands out, Loratyk said, “No, sir. I don’t think that’s the case. This was a very impromptu ball. I think both sides rushed everything. The other lords couldn’t make it, but the serpents may not have thought they would get all four of us here at once anytime soon, so they took what opportunity they could and attacked..”

Kaden’s eyebrow raised. This was an interesting idea he presented. He hadn’t thought of why the serpents attacked when they had. Everything had been a mess. Kaden and his riders had taken out their main contact in the white city. They may have been getting more desperate and felt the need to attack. Loratyk wouldn’t know that, though. He hadn’t been briefed about the Ambassador as far as Kaden knew.

The king nodded slowly before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Slowly pulling them back up, he made eye contact with Kaden. “Riders. I have heard we need to thank you again.”

Kaden shifted nervously from the attention. “We just did what was needed of us, sir.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “No, don’t do that. I would not be alive if it was not for you four. Then we all heard the howls of wind and roars outside. You went into a battle with… they tell me corrupted dragons?”

Reese nodded and said, “yes, sir. There were several dozen corrupted blue dragons that came in to attack.”

Lord Cronley softly put his hand out to stop the young mages from speaking more about it. “Your grace, if you would recall, we the young master Bertoff here had found evidence of dragon trappings in Enderton’s lands. Hence the investigation into Loratyk’s lands.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Ah yes, such a mess.”

Lord Loratyk looked like he was glaring at Lord Cronley. He continued. “We believe these were those victims. They were capturing them and doing something with the creatures. This is what corrupted them.”

“Did we even lose that many dragons, though? You hang out at your temple often, Cronley. Have you noticed a lot of dragons missing?”

He shook his head. “No, sir. A few here and there, but nothing that has raised concerns. I believe they came from the wild matriarch.”

The king’s eyes lit up. “Yes! I heard just now that she joined the others today.”

Kaden felt compelled to interject. “She was the matriarch that blessed me, sir.”

His eyes widened as if things he had once heard finally connected. “Yes! That is right! I forgot that detail of your history. So she was losing her dragons, then. I didn’t even know we had a wild matriarch, much less one that had so many dragons stolen from them.”

Kaden watched as Lord Cronley shifted his weight to the other leg and crossed his arms. “Yes, it’s interesting. The wild dragons are incredibly elusive. We had thought there were only a few here and there. We never thought there was an actual matriarch hiding somewhere.”

The king pointed at Kaden. “She blessed you because you saved one of her children, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Maybe he was her first contact with the humans. It’s no wonder he found more and did such great feats. She knew he would save her children.” He clapped softly and gave a weak smile at Kaden.

“She didn’t really save them,” mumbled Sayori.

His voice was sharp when he said, “speak up, girl.”

Kaden heard her audible gulp. “Sir, she didn’t save them. She ate them.”

“Ate them?” He looked bewildered. Whoever had told him of the tale left out that detail. “They ate the corrupted dragons? Has that ever happened before?”

The two lords both gave awkward shrugs. Loratyk cleared his throat and said, “not that I can recall. It was the first time witnessing such a thing.”

“They ate them. What a wild thing to do…” He looked down at the cup of warm drink he was holding. “Then they just flew away after that? Is that right?”

Reese answered first. “No, your grace. The matriarchs used the magic from those dragons and blessed us riders. They then asked us to take care of their kind in the future.”

That was a delicate way of putting it. They were shown visions of war, told there was an impending war. Of all the people they should probably inform about it, the king would be the person since he controlled an entire realm. There were far too many people in that room that they didn’t trust to have that conversation properly.

The king sat back on his couch and looked at them with awe. “Is that so? All four of you have water magic now from multiple matriarchs? If I hadn’t seen you all so bravely defend me and my people myself, I wouldn’t believe that tale on top of everything else.”

They all gave awkward bows. He waved toward his servant and they brought over some candied fruit and cured meats. He offered them to the crowd and motioned for the two lords to sit with him. Lord Cronley looked irritated, but sat down. Lord Loratyk took some of the offered food before plopping next to the king.

“I need to speak privately with my lords. I appreciate everything you riders have done today. We are honored that you bravely fought for everyone in this castle. We will have to reward you for this. For now though,” he flicked his hand back toward the doors, “you are allowed your rest. I will call for you later.”

They bowed and thanked him for his time before filling out of the room. None of them spoke as they walked past all the soldiers and guards back down the winding hallways. He didn’t know where they were going or if any of them actually knew where they were. They had blindly followed the lords to get to this safe zone.

Eventually, they came upon a large room with a dining table in it. Vixenta spun around on her heel and instructed them all to enter it. Kaden knew what she was doing. They needed to talk with Anders alone, away from and soldiers. Iratoi must have been on the same thought train as she walked around the room, making strange tappings on the walls. Several times, runes lit up before fading away again. They were the listening runes she had mentioned were everywhere.

Both the Cronley sisters took a seat at the top of the table. Kaden was thankful there were experienced mages here for this, but even more thankful they knew about nobility. They waited for everyone else to take a seat before leaning forward on the table.

Iratoi coughed and said, “Anders. This is the second time I’ve had to save your life in the last three months. What the fuck is going on?”

He looked shocked that she was so blunt. Kaden knew better. He had spent enough time with her to know she was irritated by all the pomp and political nonsense. She had put his father and another lord in place before, when they were acting foolish. Of anyone, he knew Iratoi would be the first to tell him how wrong he was.

“I—” he stuttered as he looked to Kaden for help “—don’t know what you mean?”

“You do,” said Vixenta. “Why are your house’s runes all over the goddamn place? What do you know?”

He shifted nervously. “We don’t know why the serpents are using our runes. We think maybe a runebook was stolen or copied from—”

“Bullshit,” said Iratoi. “Stop with that nonsense. You told Kaden you knew something. What is the something?”

Kaden shrugged as Anders gave him a glare for sharing that he had said something to him. He wasn’t going to protect the guy. People were dead and if he knew anything about it, they needed to know.

Sighing, Kaden said, “This is the time to talk. You said you knew about the serpents tonight and it involved your father. Tell us what happened.”

He was wringing his hands in his lap as all their eyes bore into him. “The serpents have the runes because of me.”

Iratoi rolled her eyes and groaned. “Why? Explain.”

“I was trying to help them.”

Vixenta’s hand fell on the table as she shook her head. “This isn’t helping your case. You do know that, right?”

He gritted his teeth and took a few breaths. It looked as if he was getting more and more frustrated trying to form his words.

“You all saw this place. It’s ridiculous! The amount of wealth and disparity is on display! They deserved to be taken down a peg!”

Reese let out a laugh. “That’s really not helping your case.”

Anders groaned. “I wasn’t trying to blow up the king’s castle or corrupt any dragons! I was just trying to help people!”

Evonne had been quiet for some time. Her small voice said, “so you gave some people runes hoping they would use it to do what?”

They all looked at her. While they were frustrated and dismissive of him, which was only angering him, she was going for the calm and collected interrogation.

He nodded to her and said, “the dragons never blessed me. You all know that. My father hasn’t let me ever forget it. I am privileged to live in the family I do. Without magic, I’d have to work my hands numb just for a living.”

Kaden saw Sayori lean back in her chair, intently listening to his words. He wasn’t wrong. Without magic, his farming family was struggling to survive all the taxes. They were lucky he had found Zuma like he had. If they hadn’t, he didn’t know how much longer they would have been able to survive like they had.

“Rune magic works without a blessing. You don’t have to have magic to use it. It uses the natural magic in the world or an amplifier. I thought that if they had rune magic, then maybe they could help others survive. I didn’t… I didn’t think they’d…”

His voice trailed off. Sayori nodded and said, “you thought they’d use it for good and they instead used it for evil.”

“They were using it for good. Until my father found out. That’s when things changed…” He was looking at his hands again, not making eye contact with anyone.

“Your father knew you gave out the rune magic? Did they start using it to attack people because of him trying to stop them?” Asked Vixenta.

“No, they used it that way because he told them to.”