Cantrell looked down at the map spread out on the table He then looked up at the expectant face of Emperor Mandel. Cantrell wondered how someone that wanted as little to do with politics as he did found himself in the position of discussing siege tactics with the emperor.

"What are you expecting me to see here?" asked Cantrell. "I'm sorry but I didn't grow up in the Capitol so I don't really know what I'm looking at."

"Look at the property lines. They mark the great estates." said Mandel. "They are all now held by Argent's daughters. Except for the small gap where your house sits we are completely surrounded."

"I knew when you offered me that house for free it would come with problems." said Cantrell grimacing. "Bad Neighbors!"

"I guess I was overly optimistic when they made that toast." said Mandel. "Now they really do have the city surrounded."

"And again, why would that matter?" asked Cantrell. We hold Argent's palace which is essentially the whole city center"

"It's my Palace now." said Mandel.

"Fine, Your Majesty, your palace." said Cantrell trying not to sound sarcastic and unfortunately failing.

Mandel gave him an amused look so Cantrell continued.

"The palace is unassailable from what I can see. Argent might have been crazy but in his paranoia he made sure overthrowing the government by breaching this stronghold just about impossible." said Cantrell. "The sisters want more dragon eggs. We just need to make sure that they never get any. They are old and soon will be dying off. You will outlive this problem."

"We might find ourselves trapped inside those walls for a very long time." said Mandel. "That is no way to run a kingdom. And remember that even though I am younger than them, I am not bonded."

"Warfare has changed." said Cantrell. The battle of Delora Natine should have taught you that. We have dragons. They do not.”

"Only two that are of fighting size." said Mandel. "Word from Enderline's latest message says that Vanquish and Candasar flew back to Sivantra to deal with some emergency regarding Lothinar. Vanador can't leave all the young dragons completely unattended. He's the only adult dragon left in Delora Natine."

"Isn't Tundor still there?" asked Cantrell.

"He's watching eggs!" said Mandel. "Siophra is with him. They are up in the hills staying at the place that Ronniflass took Lothinar"

"At the risk of sounding like I'm going to be a terrible father, why can't Tundor just move the eggs down to the dairy and let Ardwella and your mother take care of them with the other young dragons?" Cantrell asked.

"That's definitely how Argent did his parenting." said Mandel.

Cantrell winced.

“Tundor is probably where he needs to be. Besides I can’t begin my new alliance with the dragon kingdom by trying to order them to do my bidding. I might suggest something like that but ultimately it has to be up to him. Tundor and I got off to a rocky start as it is.”

”Didn't you did help him get away from Ardwynn?”

”I made a terrible mistake soon afterwards though. I was so excited about finding Crimson after all those years that I tried using the sword's persuasion power on him.”

”Oh! I didn’t know that.” Said Cantrell. “What happened?”

“I’m not really sure how it would have turned out actually. Vanquish knocked the sword out of my hand. Both of them were pretty angry at me. I almost ended up stranded a very long way from home!”

”Then you would have missed all this excitement” grinned Cantrell. “And a substantial promotion.”

”My old job was definitely easier.” Said Mandel smiling himself.

“And probably safer.” Said Cantrell. “Although you were about to ride off to participate in a glorious fight with dragons. That didn’t work out very well for the rest of your brothers.”

Mandel got a sad look on his face. "I’m actually very upset that they killed Myron. Believe it or not he was a decent elf, even if his father was Argent.” “He wasn’t really a brother as you know because Albarad is my real father. But...."

“Even facing death he didn’t sell you out." Said Cantrell "That showed integrity and a surprisingly low desire for political power. That's one of my criteria for being qualified as a leader. Not wanting the job. Maybe you should have offered him the throne. Perhaps he could have persuaded his rebellious siblings to behave better.”

”No, I thought about it and he and I even discussed it. Ultimately it was the eggs.” Said Mandel. “Anyone that has eaten dragon eggs is never going to be accepted as an Elven leader by the dragons. He was lucky that they accepted his conditional surrender without punishment. He knew that.”

“If he could overcome Argent’s blood curse, or whatever it’s called and say no to an egg addiction then he must have had some good in him.” Said Cantrell. “His sister Sahar isn’t turning out to be that easy to deal with. She’s one of the signatories on the declaration that disputes your claim to the throne. She is demanding that you and the elves loyal to you vacate the Capitol.”

“We can hold.... What did you call it?”

”The Unassailable Palace.” Said Cantrell.

’‘Right, I rather like that actually. I think I'm going to have some signs made." said Mandel. “We can definitely hold the Unassailable Palace. They won't dare attack us here and we have enough food stored that they won't be able to starve us out. Unfortunately we won't get a lot done and the common people will suffer. But I think the next real fighting will be elsewhere. We can’t EVER let Argent’s daughters have access to dragon eggs again. I don’t know if the Grey’s are nesting up in the hills yet but even those eggs won't be safe."

“Do you think they are going to try going back to stealing eggs from the wild dragons?”

”They might, but that is fairly high risk low reward. The eggs they are probably going to try for first are actually Candasar’s. Now those are absolutely filled with magic. They could split one of those thirteen ways and add a hundred years to each of their their lifespans”

”Someone needs to warn Tundor and Siophra.” Said Cantrell blanching.

”I’m glad you agree because that is exactly what I want you to do” said Mandel. “But there is going to be a little twist on how we get that done.”

“You are making me nervous” said Cantrell. “I can see that look on your face.”

"The point is that it's really crazy in Delora Natine right now and we need to figure out a way to get updates and information back and forth more quickly. I don't like this but I need to split you and Mavis up."

Cantrell frowned.

"Not like that. You are a great brother in law!" I mean like when you went to the battlefield on Mo-Rung and Mavis stayed behind so that we could know what was going on."

"Oh right." said Cantrell. "But I have a dragon bond now too."

"Correct!" said Mandel. "You are going to ride Mo-Rung back to Delora and leave Esmarilla and Mavis here." Then we will have redundant communication between both of you and your dragons just in case something goes wrong."

"It's what might go wrong that worries me." said Cantrell. "I want you to send Mavis back and I'll stay here. It's getting dangerous here. "

"I want her to be seen in the city." said Mandel. "She's my sister and heir. The common people need that confirmation of seeing us both here. Your a good guy Cantrell but you are just not royalty."

"I married your sister!"

"Sorry, it's just not the same. At least not yet. In time yes but right now I need Mavis here."

"Have you told her about this yet?" asked Cantrell.

"It was her idea."

"She's trying to protect me." said Cantrell.

"Well, you did put a big target on your back at the family dinner with the 'I will never forget' speech.'" said Mandel.

"That was your idea!" said Cantrell.

"Yes, most of the really great ones are." laughed Mandel. "Thanks Cantrell. Mo-Rung is waiting for you up on the roof. You are flying out immediately if not sooner. I need to know if I can expect any help from Enderline and his troops if things deteriorate any further around here. Go warn Siophra. Also, and this is really important. Please see if you can convince Vanador to come back here. I think he would be more useful when paired with his sister. From what I learned from Vanquish, a black and white pair working together can be a powerful force.

"That's probably a good idea" said Cantrell. "Especially since Mo-Rung is leaving with me. I'll see what I can do" He started up the stairs.

"Esmarilla? Did you hear all that? asked Cantrel.

"Vanador will come." said Esmarilla.

"I hope so. I'm worried." He replied.

"Don't worry. I will watch over her." said the black dragon.

"Watch over yourself too. You also are very precious to me. If things get bad I want you to promise me something." said Cantrell through the bond.

"What's that?"

"That you will take Mavis and get out of here as quickly as you can. This city can fall but I can't lose you two."

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"I love you too Cantrell. Fly safe." said Esmarilla.

Mo-Rung didn't say a word as Cantrell climbed on.

"I take it that you don't like this either my friend" said the elf.

"Not even one little bit." said Mo-Rung as he jumped into the air.

--------------------------

Albarad stood near the entrance of the dairy and tried to remain inconspicuous. That was increasingly becoming more difficult because even though there were people everywhere, none of them were elves. He did see Ronniflass the half elf that had begun a relationship with Lothinar. She was talking to a young girl in a wedding dress. Thinking it better to hide in plain sight he walked over to them.

"Albarad!" said Ronni. "What brings you here? You are not thinking about trying to get a bond yourself are you?"

"Is that what's going on right now? No. Not for me. I'm actually looking for a Platinum dragon. I need to talk to her. Have you seen one around here?" he asked.

Ronni looked over toward the large barn.

"She actually just left a few minutes ago. I think Platinum is with the King and Queen. Oh Albarad, forgive me, I should have introduced you to my new friend Heirwynn." She looked at the young girl in the wedding dress. The girl seemed a bit out of sorts. Embarrassed even.

"Very pleased to make your acquaintance." said Albarad as he began to sidle off toward the barn.

"Heirwynn has a fascinating story!" said Ronni. "She is actually Harvey's sister! Do you remember Harvey Albarad?" He was the gate guard that died during the fight with Tempton."

Albarad stopped and turned, taking another look.

"I heard about that," he said. "But I wasn't there. I was with Tundor and the wagon at that point."

He looked at the girl again. She was young. She looked close to tears.

"I'm very sorry for your loss Heriwynn. Your brother probably saved my wife Ardwella's life.

Heirwynn only nodded. That sixth sense that Albarad sometimes felt when there was someone in trouble began to kick in. That feeling that he needed to help. That impulse could be very inconvenient at times. Particularly when his primary goal was to kill a Platinum dragon. In spite of that, he couldn't stop himself.

"What's wrong Heirwynn. Is there something I can do to help? he asked.

"I DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED!" she yelled. Ronni jumped back and a couple of dragons standing nearby quickly scurried further away.

"Perhaps I missed something here." said Albarad. "Why are you wearing a wedding dress?"

"It was a m-m-mistake." she sobbed. "It w-was my mother's. I didn't know what putting on this k-ind of dress r-really meant and n-now that Platinum dragon is trying to m-mary me off to the K-king!"

Albarad looked at Ronni. "I thought the King was already married to your sister." he said.

"She is!" said Ronni. "Pricilla isn't too happy with Platinum right now either by the way Heriwynn."

"That w-was obvious!" said Heirwynn. "Do you think I would even c-consider being the second wife of a m-married man?"

Albarad stepped forward and took Heirwynn's hand. "You don't have to marry him. We are getting you out of here. Nothing is going to happen to you that you don't want to. I'll see to that personally. I'm not very happy with that Platinum dragon either!"

"Where are you planning on taking her Albarad?" asked Ronni. "I know you are Lothinar's father but I just can't let you take this young girl off with you by yourself."

"Come along if you want Ronni. I think this girl needs some time away from this dairy and bossy dragons. I'm taking her to my house. You know where it is. Ardwella and Muina are already there. We will look after her since nobody else seems to be able to!"

"Is that what you want Heirwynn?" asked Ronni.

"Can Snow come?"

"Who's Snow?" asked Albarad.

"Her bonded white dragon." Ronniflass answered.

Albarad rolled his eyes. He looked around. There indeed was a small white dragon standing there. A black one too. They looked at him expectantly.

"Snow can come, but she will have to walk."

"Then I definitely want to go with you" said Heirwynn. She looked at Ronni.

"Please tell the King, I'm sorry but no." she said.

"I'm coming too. We can both fly" said the black dragon in surprisingly clear speech. The white dragon nudged him.

"Snow says we can't actually fly but... Well, we can run and glide pretty well." he said.

"Can you keep up with a horse?"

"Definitely" said Night-Sky. "What's a horse? I can outrun a cow."

"Fine." said Albarad with a surprising smile. "I'll go easy on you."

"Are you going as well Night-Sky?" asked Ronni.

"Where my sister goes, I go." said Night sky.

"Enderline isn't probably going to like you running off without telling him." said Ronni.

"I think taking care of Heirwynn is the most important thing we should be doing right now" said Night-Sky.

"Well that's settled." said Albarad. "Lets go!"

He walked quickly to the dairy gates with Heirwynn following on his heels. The black and white dragons trundled after her. He untied a horse. He grabbed Heirwynn by the waist and hoisted her up. Stepping into the stirrup he climbed up in front of her. She grabbed him around the waist. He turned the horse and started to ride away. Heirwynn's white dress was billowing out behind them. The small black and white dragon began running after him. Ronni was actually surprised to see that they seemed to be able to keep up.

"That elf just took Enderline's potential bride and his dragon." Ronni said to herself. "And I just let him. I wonder why? She considered for a moment. Perhaps it's because he reminds me so much of Lothinar. I've always been weak to handsome elves."

--------------------------

Ardwynn was doing her best not to feel jealous. It was very difficult. There were several very beautiful ladies wearing very pretty dresses completely surrounding her very handsome husband. What made it worse was that it was very much her own fault. Lothinar had brought her to the island of Sivantra and after an initial very brief meeting with King Enderlin's Regent had begun a quiet stay in the Ambassador's mansion. It had been very boring but Lothinar had insisted on keeping her away from almost everyone. It wasn't exactly fair that when he smiled at her she would just melt. She was so glad to have him back in her life. She would do almost anything to make him happy. She knew that she had almost ruined what they had together when she tried to steal Tundor. That would never let anything like that happen again. It was like she had been another person. His coming back for her had given her the chance she needed to prove herself to him again.

Then Firestorm had done everything in her power to keep Ardwynn away from her rightful husband. That wasn't fair at all. She had learned her lesson. It was cruel and a very unnecessary punishment. Then she had figured out what the sword could do. She remembered the night that she had solved the Firestorm problem.

"Where do you think you are going Ardwynn?" Firestorm had asked. "We've been over this."

"You are still young Firestorm. You don't know what it's like to be in love. To love someone as much as I love Lothinar."

"I think you just want sex." said Firestorm. "That's not happening. Tonight or ever."

"What are you going to do? Attack me?"

"I'm big enough now to block the door Ardwynn. Don't make me wake him up to give you another one of those talks."

Ardwynn had stalked off angrily into the common living area. She had been pacing back and forth in frustration when she had seen the red sword poking out from under the couch. She had picked it up. It was pretty heavy. Lothinar must be very strong. She smiled. He had great muscles. She had been surprised when she had heard the sword ask her a question.

"Who are you?" asked the Sword.

"I am Ardwynn." she had said.

"I miss Lothinar." said the sword. "Where is he?"

"He is in the bedroom sleeping"

"Take me to him. We should not be separated." the sword had said.

"I can't!" Ardwynn had said. "There is a dragon blocking the door."

"I can probably help you with that" said the sword. "Who is this dragon."

"Her name is Firestorm. Can you really help me to get past her? I am Lothinar's wife."

"Take me to the dragon" said the sword. "I'm usually pretty good at this kind of thing."

Ardwynn had quietly carried the sword back down the hall to where Firestorm lay across the doorway. The red dragon was dozing.

"Speak the words that you want the dragon to understand." said the sword. "Beware. I will sense any falsehood."

Ardwynn thought for a few moments. Then she began. Her voice was filled with emotion.

"Firestorm, I made a mistake. A terrible mistake. Someone really terrible raised me and always told me what to do. As a child you really want to please your parents, so I did everything I could. I really wanted to please my father. It never seemed to be enough. Then one day they asked me to do a job for my father's brother. He really wanted a white dragon for some reason. I thought that if I could just do that then I'd finally make them happy. They told me I had to get close to Lothinar. He was the key to making a dragon tolerate me. Maybe even like me. You see there is something wrong with me inside. I didn't want to be that way but something just seems to take over. I'm sorry, It's really hard to keep this straight. "

Ardwynn had felt the tears flowing down her face. The sword remained silent.

"I finally met Lothinar. That's when I felt my life actually started. The bad voices inside me were gone! I fell for him hard. I threw myself at him without shame. I thought I was pretty but he just kept being a nice guy. He actually put me in the friend zone. It was breaking my heart. Being around him was the only time I really ever felt right. His family was great! I met new dragon friends and they actually were nice to me. Lothinar finally actually allowed me to love him. I am sure that he loved me back. Then my family figured out that I had changed my loyalties. They came after me. They wanted me to follow through with the plans they had made to get a white dragon for Argent."

"You have to believe me Firestorm. I never wanted to hurt anyone! I want to just go back to being Lothinar's wife and the mother of his child! I will never try to bond a dragon again. The happiest times of my life have been when I am at his side. Please Firestorm! Let me be with him again!"

"Well that should probably do it" said the sword.

Firestorm woke up.

"Hi Ardwynn! What are you doing out here at this time of night?" she asked. "Do you need help with anything?"

Ardwynn sniffed. Wiping her tears.

"Well you could help me out by not falling asleep in the doorway." she had said.

"Sorry" said Firestorm. "I must have dozed off." She squeezed past Ardwynn and down the hall. "I may go see if the cook has any of that lamb left over from dinner. He usually sets me out a bit for a midnight snack."

"Enjoy" said Ardwynn. I certainly am going to."

"Now take me to Lothinar" said the sword.

"Well that's going to be harder than I thought." Ardwynn had said. "I can not really survive anyone having a change of heart about this. It means too much to me."

Ardwynn had quickly walked out of the Villa and out into the garden. There was a small shed holding gardening tools. She shoved the sword deep in a large drum filled with hoes and shovels. It made a terrible scraping sound. She pushed it down until only the tip of the hilt was sticking out.

"This will not do at all" the sword had said. "Lothinar will need me!"

"I need him more" said Ardwynn. Then she had returned to the house. Things got very exiting after that. He had been worth the wait.

Ardwynn had made the mistake the next day of asking Lothinar to take her to meet some of the Sivantra Islanders. They had been clamoring for his and Firestorm's attention ever since they had arrived on the island. It had been no trouble at all to get themselves invited to a party that very evening. Lothinar had even taken them out shopping for some new clothes. It seemed the the Ambassador's villa came with a built in expense account.

They had walked the streets of Sivantra's Capitol with people crowding incessantly around them. Firestorm loved the attention. She even gave some of the children short rides up into the air. They shrieked happily as she carried the laughing children from the marketplace and out over the tropical forest that surrounded the area. Lothinar had put a stop to that fairly quickly as he had concerns that one of them might fall off. They even found some fairly attractive clothes that fit her growing belly. He though looked dashingly handsome in what he found. It was a dark green coat and brown leather pants and vest. It had some gold stitching that really set it off nicely.

They had arrived for dinner at a wealthy nobleman's house and that's when the trouble had started for Ardwynn. Firestorm and Lothinar had been the center of attention. Nobody seemed to want to talk to a plump pregnant elf. After dinner there had been dancing. Ardwynn didn't know that Lothinar could dance. He was fantastic at it. She had been forced to start sitting out the dancing almost immediately as the baby really reduced her mobility and stamina. Ardwynn found herself sitting in a chair watching beautiful women relentlessly hitting on her husband. And it really was very much her own fault.

She looked across the room and finally happened to catch his eye. Then the most amazing thing happened. He politely excused himself and stepped away from all those beautiful women. He came straight to her. The women looked very upset. Devastated in fact. He came over and pulled her to her feet. His smile was sincere and warm. He gave her a kiss. He smelled fantastic.

"We are going to need to get out of here very soon" he said. "I hope you are almost ready to go."

"Yes I am." she said. "I don't know why I thought that this was going to be a good idea."

"You were bored. Dinner was nice but I probably should have turned down the dancing." he said.

"You looked like you were having fun." Ardwynn replied trying not sound too jealous.

"Yes, I did. But I'd rather dance with you." he said.

"Let's go home." she said breathlessly. "We can do a different kind of dancing."

"I'd like that," he said, "but we may not be able to actually stay in the Villa tonight."

"Why's that?" asked Ardwynn.

"Well those beautiful ladies I was dancing with are going to come looking for me." he replied. "They are not going to be willing to take no for an answer. I'm afraid it's the Pheromones again."

"Oh no." How could I forget about that?" exclaimed Ardwynn. "Those women will never leave you alone. I should know. What are we going to do?"

"I was thinking we might be able to hide from them out in the gardener's shed." said Lothinar. "At least until they finally give up and go away. Maybe we can count the shovels. The Gardener told me that there seemed to be an extra one."

Then he winked.

-------------------------------------