Rodgardae woke up alone. Not technically, since there were two nurses and Worthan there, but Mani was not present, so he felt alone in a primal way. He reached out through their bond, as delicately as he could, and felt his connection to Mani’s quick, brilliant mind, but it was faded. He suspected Mani was holding him at a distance after Rodgardae had severed their bond.

He did not regret doing it, as he remembered the feeling of being killed. He had believed he was going to die, and he was not going to drag Mani down into that eternal darkness with him, no matter—

“I know you’re awake,” Worthan said, slapping lightly at the tender skin of his nose.

Rodgardae grumbled and raised his head, shoving Worthan backwards in the process. He looked around the tent. It reeked of blood and medicine, panic and exhaustion. He looked down at Worthan curiously.

“Get up, get up, you lazy kit. Get up.” Worthan flapped his hands at him as the nurses quickly tied back the sides of the tent, opening it up to the field beyond, which did not smell any better than the tent had. He slowly rolled off his side to sit up on his haunches. He picked up his front legs and put them down, stretching out his claws, then carefully and with great trepidation, unfolded his wings.

Nothing hurt.

He looked over at Worthan, confused. He distinctly remembered being literally torn apart by the imperial dragon. Rodgardae was a proud man, but he knew he had lost that brutal fight.

“I know, I was as confused as you are. But it’s true, you’re healed up. In fact, if you actually want to talk to me, maybe shift?” Worthan and the nurses politely turned their backs to him.

Shifting felt easier than it usually did, the magic that created their different forms swirling around and through him as if it was delighted to help him change forms, rather than fighting him as it usually did. It was bizarre to shift as easily as shrugging on a coat.

Speaking of…he looked around and grabbed the clothes laid out for him, a proper uniform, and dressed quickly. “Where is Mani?”

“Straight to it, hm?” Worthan said, but he sounded exhausted.

“Milles?” Worry clawed at his stomach, telling him that something was wrong.

“It’s been thirty-six hours since the end of your fight with the emperor—”

“The emperor?” Rodgardae did not shriek like a kit on their first flight. “I was fighting Emperor Rhezv? Why? How? What on earth would bring him out from behind his forces? That’s madness!” he all but shouted.

Worthan sighed as the nurses scuttled away, leaving them alone. “As I said, it’s been thirty-six hours since you fought him. More accurately, since he nearly killed you. Aren’t you curious about how you’re even alive right now?”

He was, of course he was, but his worry was slowly building into panic. “Milles, where is Mani?”

“He’s not here.”

“I can see that.”

“No, you insufferable lordling. I mean he’s not here, as in, he’s not on Watt at all.”

Rodgardae tried to process that, and failed. “Where?”

“Your sister asked me to bring you to her the moment you were up and about. Let’s go there to—”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell happened.” He folded his arms over his chest.

Worthan looked around as if hoping for backup, then walked over to him. “Stop panicking and focus on who is actually connected to you,” he said, almost pitying.

“What?” Rodgardae asked instinctively, but then did as he was told. He closed his eyes and thought carefully about Mani, imagining him as if his mate were standing next to him. Normally, even in his human form, doing so would immediately bring up the bond between them as a strong emotional connection. Even if they could not talk mentally to each other that way, it was often a good form of communication, and one they used to easily check on each other’s psychological state. He did not expect to feel Mani’s presence vividly, both because of the way he had severed the connection when he was injured, and the knowledge that Mani was not anywhere close by.

What really shocked him was the wave of worry that he felt and the secondary consciousness that was both foreign and familiar – familiar because he recognized immediately that it was a mate bond connection to Agadart, but foreign in that she was very clearly not thinking human thoughts. Which meant, of course, that she was not human. He probed the connection between the three of them and realized that as familiar and comforting as Mani was, even at such a distance and through a fog of confusion, there was a powerful rightness to his connection with Agadart. He opened his eyes and looked over at Worthan, knowing that the surprise and shock he was feeling was written large on his face.

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“So you feel her presence, don’t you?” Worthan asked with a solemn expression. “The queen?”

“Yes. It’s unmistakable.” He had half believed that ver Kleelan was insane, but it was clear that he wasn’t. He looked out at the open field that was still very busy with the wounded being tended to. Then he looked back at the doctor. “Where is Mani, Worthan?” It was a demand that Worthan could not ignore.

“We are not entirely sure, but given what happened we’re convinced that Consort ver Kleelan grabbed Mani to deliver him to the queen, who is on one of the emperor’s urshvalkins.” He shrugged. “We don’t know why.”

Rodgardae blinked a few times trying to process that whole sentence. “Consort ver Kleelan kidnapped him? To take him to…to the queen? Who is on one of the emperor’s urshvalkins?” He felt like he could not stop posing everything as a question because it was all too absurd.

Nonetheless, absurd or not, Worthan nodded. “Again, it is speculation, but from everything our scouts can tell, that is what has happened and where we stand. Speculation is that he might be working with the emperor after all, and using your mate as some kind of ransom against our queen.”

Rodgardae nodded, then shook his head. “What? No! If that even made sense, which it doesn’t, my main question right now is: where is the emperor?”

“Oh I left that part out, didn’t I?” Worthan said with a chuckle that sounded far more grim than amused. “Our queen is apparently holding the emperor hostage on the platform. The emperor’s own forces cannot get close to her. She also has a few of our own dragons acting as her personal guard.”

Rodgardae felt the incredulity on his face. “She is holding the emperor hostage,” he said, just to hear himself say it, in the hopes that maybe it would make more sense to him. It did not.

“Probably. By the way, it looks like that at least four of her personal guard are from your own flight, including one from Endestern.”

“Captain Wildt?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

As he thought about what he had just been told, it all kept getting more and more bizarre. Rodgardae felt the heat in his chest rising. His mate, his flight, and his queen were all faraway and outside of his protection or his ability to help them in any way. The very thought disturbed his usual calm equilibrium. He wasn’t a wild beast, but he suddenly understood why a dragon would go feral if the situation called for it. Everything was out of control. Mani was his guardian, the person whose job was help calm him down and keep him from going feral, but Mani was with their queen, who would herself normally be able to give him guidance and purpose.

Both were too far away, even if he could sense them through their bonds.

“You need to calm down,” Worthan told him, frowning as he looked him over with a critical doctor’s eye. “Flying off into the distance right now is not going to help anyone or anything.”

“It’s a damned sight better than standing around here, waiting for updates!” He looked around. His uniform’s overcoat was folded over a chair. He went to grab it. “There’s absolutely no reason for me to be here if my mate and my queen are surrounded by enemies out in the middle of the ocean!”

The sense that Agadart and Mani were still connected to him was all that kept him from shifting and flying away immediately, but he had no intention of letting anyone stop him from doing just that once he rounded up the remains of his flight to join him. He went to storm out of the tent but stopped dead when he heard the sounds of a group of people approaching.

He stood still as his sister marched toward them along with a fair number of military officers and guards. He suspected it was all of them who had not shifted at the queen’s call. As she strode past him to stand under the awning of the tent, the guards smoothly moved out around the entrance and stood at attention. His sister looked him over critically. The only thing revealing her worry were the slight creases in her crow's-feet around her eyes.

“You’re not leaving yet,” she said simply.

“You can’t stop me,” he snapped In return, the fierceness of his words making at least one officer flinch in reaction to the defiance.

“No, I can’t stop you, and I’m not trying to. I’m trying to make you delay a little bit so that we can work together to figure out what needs to be done.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes flaring with the power of the dragon she was. There was a reason she had risen so high in the Admiralty, and it only nominally had to do with her family name.

Yet Rodgardae had grown up with her, and as intimidating as she could be, she was not a force strong enough to challenge his instinctive call to go to his mate and his queen as soon as possible. He stepped back into the tent to stand next to her. “Then say what you will, and quickly, for I will be going in a moment.” It almost felt like his blood was boiling with the need to get out of there and go to where he was needed.

She nodded once and sank to the ground on one knee, bowing her head.

Rodgardae was too taken aback to react, and in that moment everyone else except the guards standing on duty outside of the tent followed her in showing their fealty. It was an old custom, and it had not been in practice since the death of Queen Esthae. No one got on their knees to honor any of the princes or princesses who had ruled over Watt since her death.

Rodgardae was too stunned to say anything.

His sister looked up at him. “We have come to honor the king of Watt, and to request his orders for us, so that we might help him retrieve our queen,” she said very formally and properly, still down on one knee.

It was as official as it could be given the circumstances, short of his brother the prince crowning him in the Hall of Ashes. Rodgardae was the new king of Watt…the first king in over eight hundred years.

His anger and desperation fell away. He felt a little faint, and it was not from his previous blood loss.