"It doesn't make sense," said Pet. "I mean, yes, they could sneak in during the night and kill some guards. But how could they kill a dozen sun-dragons without making a sound? What could they have done with the bodies? I don't see how the Sisters of the Serpent could be responsible for this. Maybe the sun-dragons learned that Blasphet had a.s.sa.s.sins in the palace once more and fled?"

Charkon, the boss of Dragon Forge, cleared his throat.

"Sire," the elderly dragon said. "Blasphet remains on the loose and you are unable to protect even your own castle. I regretfully must withdraw from these talks. My duty to my brethren at the forge must be my first concern. When you've established security in your kingdom, I'll come back."

"Charkon, you're the wisest of earth-dragons," said Shandrazel. "If Blasphet is planning some master scheme, I would find your presence at my side most helpful. Since Kanst died, my armies have been without a field commander. I'd like to offer you this position."

"Sire?" Charkon said, his one eye opening wide. "No earth-dragon has ever held such rank. It is the birthright of sun-dragons to fill such roles."

"Those are the old ways, Charkon. From this day forward, positions will be filled not by birthright, but by merit. No one can surpa.s.s you in experience and judgment, n.o.ble Charkon. You've fought in countless battles, and proven yourself a worthy leader as boss of the forge. I can think of no better candidate."

Charkon raised a thick paw to scratch at a patch of flaky flesh just behind the scar-tumor where his eye had once been. He looked lost in thought.

"It will be my honor," said Charkon. "I'll start by increasing security here in the palace. You've allowed the gates to be too open. Humans are coming to and fro with impunity."

"Humans who were invited to these talks" said Pet, bothered by Charkon's tone. "However Blasphet's a.s.sa.s.sins are getting in, I don't think they're walking through the front door. Beefing up security at the gates is pointless."

"You would say that... human." Charkon stepped close to Pet, his eye narrowed into a thin slit. "I'm not making accusations. But the ease with which the sisters pa.s.s suggests that they must have inside help."

"And you're saying that I-"

"I'm saying that your loyalties lie with humans, and the Sisters of the Serpent are human."

"Charkon," said Shandrazel. "Your theories have been noted. Your desire to improve security is reasonable. Do what you must; however, the free movement of the human diplomats must be allowed. I trust you'll find an appropriate solution."

Charkon punched his gauntleted fist to his steel breast plate with a loud clang. "At once, sire," he said before marching from the room. The contingent of armored dragons who traveled with him followed. Once in the hall, Charkon began to bark out commands.

Shandrazel sighed wearily. He was still a young dragon, no older than Pet, but recent events were taking their toll. The skin around his eyes was puffy, as if he hadn't been sleeping well. He slouched on his golden cushion, and the feather-scales of his wings weren't groomed as well as they should be. He sounded on the verge of despair as he said, "My father kept Blasphet imprisoned for over a decade. Why am I so powerless to halt his schemes?"

Pet searched for the words to console the sun-dragon. "It was your father who set Blasphet loose, and then gave him an army of construction workers to build the Free City. Blasphet could have a constructed a score of secret entrances with the resources at his command."

"Perhaps," said Shandrazel. "Yet I could have ended his threat. I could have ordered his execution."

"Why didn't you?" Pet asked.

"I don't believe that death should be used as punishment," said Shandrazel. "I know of innocent dragons accused of false crimes and slain by my father for political gain. I wanted to break with the past, and put an end to executions."

"That's a n.o.ble goal," said Pet. "But perhaps, for Blasphet, you can make an exception."

"Perhaps not just for Blasphet," said Shandrazel. "The events of the past few days have opened my eyes. I believed that concepts such as equality and freedom would appeal to the reason of any thinking creature. I held, in my heart, that these truths were self-evident. Obviously, I was deluded. The world has been controlled by force for too long. Rule by brute strength didn't start with my father, and cannot end with him, I fear."

"What are you saying?"

"It's time for me to stop wishing that peace and justice will spontaneously arise. If I'm to be the king who brings an end to kings, it seems I must first embrace the role of king." Shandrazel looked toward the tapestry that depicted Albekizan crushing the human rebellion at Conyers. "I must establish safety and security by capturing Blasphet. I must win back the respect of my fellow sun-dragons by showing that I'm still in control of the greatest army this world has known. And, if I wish to have valkyries present to discuss the future of this Commonwealth, it seems I must drag them here in chains."

"Don't overreact," said Pet. "You've suffered setbacks, yes, but-"

Before Pet could finish his sentence, an earth-dragon guard approached. He was holding a wooden bucket, the interior nearly glowing with the remnants of a lemon-yellow paste.

"Sire, we've found several of these buckets. I thought you'd want to see one."

Androkom took the bucket, examining the contents. He lowered his snout inside and sniffed. "Honey and citrus oils," he said. "And... an undertone of jimsonweed."

"Jimsonweed?" Pet asked.

"There's a whole chapter devoted to it in Dacorn's treatise on botany," Androkom explained. "When ripe, it produces a spiky seedpod filled with pink berries. The juice has hallucinogenic properties. There's only a two or three day window of ripeness when it is effective as a drug, however. If ingested at the wrong stage, it's poisonous."

The earth-dragon guard had something further to say. "Sire, I've also been told that one of the guards on the roof saw two sun-dragons flying away in the night. They didn't appear injured. The only thing that struck the guard as odd was that it looked like they were being ridden."

"Ridden?" asked Androkom.

"By humans," the guard said. "Females, he thinks."

"The Sisters of the Serpent, no doubt," said Androkom.

"What evil is Blasphet planning now?" Shandrazel said, rising from his cushion and stalking to a long sheet of parchment hung on the wall. The parchment bore a map of existing political boundaries in the kingdom. Various cities and landmarks were sketched upon the sheet with dark charcoal. Shandrazel tore the map down and rolled it up roughly. He turned to Androkom and said, "Follow me."

"Where are you going?" Pet asked.

"This is none of you your concern," Shandrazel snapped. His eyes were narrowed in anger as he moved toward the hallway. Androkom gave a nod toward the earth-dragon guards. As Pet attempted to follow, the guards rushed forward, blocking his path.

Pet backed away, wondering what to do next. He cast a glance to the other humans in the room. Kamon, the elderly prophet from the mountains, approached. "What's happening?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"I don't know," Pet said. "Apparently Blasphet has done something to the sun-dragon representatives, and now Shandrazel is mad at us."

Kamon took Pet by the arm and led him further from the earth-dragon guards. "Do you think he's heard of Ragnar's exploits?"

"He hasn't said anythi-exploits? What have you heard?"

"Ragnar's men have been recruiting soldiers from throughout the kingdom," said Kamon. "So far, they haven't killed any dragons. This may be why Shandrazel remains ignorant. The movements of humans throughout the kingdom are of little interest if no dragons are being harmed."

Pet ran his hands through his hair. With Shandrazel looking for a way to prove he was still in charge, the worst thing possible would be for Ragnar to actually start killing dragons. Pet had caught a subtle look of hunger when Shandrazel had looked at the tapestry of Albekizan tearing apart humans. "What's Ragnar hoping to accomplish? Shandrazel isn't Albekizan. He wants peace; if we humans would work with him and try to keep him happy, he'll grant us our freedom."

"It doesn't matter what Shandrazel wants," said Kamon. "You've heard the hatred of his fellow dragons. He's alone in his desire to grant us rights."

"At least we have a dragon on our side right now," said Pet. "Shandrazel was just talking about how he may need to use his army to gain respect. If Ragnar provokes a war, Shandrazel's going to crush him."

Kamon leaned closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "What if the dragons were deprived of Shandrazel's leadership?"

"How? What are you getting at?"

Kamon reached out a boney hand and took Pet by the arm. He pulled Pet further across the room from the guards, guiding him until they were behind a marble pillar, out of sight of the earth-dragons. Standing beneath a tapestry that displayed Albekizan in flight, his forty-foot wingspan depicted lifesize, Kamon whispered, "Shandrazel trusts you. Daily you stand close enough to end his life with a single thrust of a poisoned dagger."

Pet peeked back around the pillar, expecting the earth-dragon guards to be running toward him. They stared in his direction, but gave no sign of having overheard Kamon. Pet found himself feeling dirty for even having heard the idea.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Pet said. "We finally have a dragon king who wants to treat mankind fairly and you're proposing we poison him? I know he sounded angry when he left the room a few minutes ago, but this is only a minor setback. I just need to talk to Shandrazel in private. Get his mind back to where it naturally wants to be. I've had a lot of experience dealing with moody dragons. Chakthalla could get into funks over the smallest things, and I could always cheer her up."

Kamon's face fell. He looked as if he'd just heard the worst news in the world.

"What?" said Pet.

"It's true," said Kamon. "There have been... whispers. Some have said that you aren't the dragon-slayer Bitterwood. That you're an imposter, who lived a life of comfort as the pet of Chakthalla."

"Oh," said Pet. "That. Didn't you know that I just acted as her pet so that I could pa.s.s unnoticed among the dragons?"

"If you've killed so many dragons, why did a look of fear pa.s.s through your eyes when I mentioned killing Shandrazel? The men of the Free City believed you were Bitterwood because of Albekizan's public accusation. Has it all been a lie?"

"I'm not going to waste my breath arguing with you," said Pet. "You stood before the crowd and proclaimed me the savior of humanity. You said G.o.d had revealed the truth to you. Are you going back to your followers now and tell them G.o.d screwed up?"

Kamon looked as if he'd swallowed a bug.

Before they could resume their argument, a faint sound caught Pet's attention. Though m.u.f.fled by stone, Pet recognized the cry of a woman in tremendous pain. He remembered the musician he'd left in his chamber. This wasn't a good morning for an unidentified young woman to be discovered in the palace. His guts knotted as he thought of the consequences of his pointless pa.s.sions. If the girl was harmed, he'd never forgive himself.

Pet moved toward the exit. The earth-dragons lowered their spears to block him. Pet kept advancing, coming right up to the tips of their weapons. He couldn't hear the girl now. Had they stopped hurting her? Or had something worse happened?

"Move back, human," one of the guards said.

"Has no one told you who I am?" Pet said, lowering his voice to a chill growl. "Have you never heard of Bitterwood? The Death of All Dragons, the Ghost Who Kills?"

"Bitterwood isn't real," the first guard scoffed.

"I heard his legend years ago," the second guard said. "You'd have been in diapers."

"I'm older than I look," said Pet. "Also, faster."

Before the guards could react, Pet dove for the hall beyond them, slipping beneath their outthrust spears. Earth-dragons had many virtues as soldiers-strength, toughness, loyalty-but rapid reflexes weren't among these attributes. Pet was halfway down the hall before the guards made it out the door. He turned the corner as a second wail of pain came from below. It wasn't coming from the direction of his bedchamber. Had they taken her to the dungeons?

The stairs down had two parallel tracks, a broad set of steep steps for sun-dragons, and a smaller, more shortly-s.p.a.ced set of stairs for earth-dragons. Pet leapt his way down the sun-dragon stairs. His long years as a companion of a sun-dragon had left him well-practiced in traversing the landscape of giants.

Soon he found the torch-lined tunnel leading to the dungeon. A crew of earth-dragons stood guard, their heads turned to listen to the cries of anguish that came from an iron door standing open at the end of a short hall. Dim lantern light spilled from the chamber, and the jagged shadow of a winged dragon danced into the hall. Pet raced past the guards before they could blink. Their reptilian brains barely realized he'd pa.s.sed them before Pet reached the lantern-lit chamber.

Pet froze, at first unable to untangle the scene before him, the mix of shapes, light and dark. The sounds of the woman screaming echoed so loudly within the windowless chamber he couldn't instantly tell where her voice was coming from. His nose was the first sensory organ to ground him in the reality before him. Deeply wired channels in his brain recognized the smell of urine and vomit, and the stale, acrid stench of a human body unwashed for days. Slowly, his eyes made sense of the nightmare before him. The giant moving lump in the center of the chamber was Shandrazel. Half his body was in shadow, half lit by a single bright lantern. His emerald eyes glowed in the gloom like a cat's. Androkom stood opposite Shandrazel, his blue, shadowy shape ghostly in reflected light. The high biologian's eyes were fixed on a limp thing in Shandrazel's fore-claws, something pale white and shaped vaguely like a human woman. The serpentine tattoo on her scalp identified her as the a.s.sa.s.sin Hex had captured. Her limbs were twisted in ways a human body shouldn't bend. Both her ankles were broken, and her fingers were knotted in unnatural configurations. Nonsense grunts spilled from her blue lips and tears wetted her cheeks. Her eyes were filled with terror as Shandrazel shook her.

On the floor beneath her was the map Shandrazel had ripped from the wall.

"Show me where his temple is," Shandrazel shouted, his deep draconian voice nearly deafening Pet. "Show me or I'll break you further! Show me!"

"Put her down!" Pet shouted, clenching his fists. "Have you lost you mind? Let her go!"

Shandrazel's tail swept through the air, catching Pet in the chest. It knocked him from his feet as easily as Pet could have kicked aside a yapping lap dog. Pet smacked into the stone wall. His knees buckled and he slid down to rest on the slimy floor.

Shandrazel's face was suddenly inches from his own. Shandrazel was normally such a gentle soul, Pet forgot just how big and powerful the full-grown bull sun-dragon truly was. His teeth were longer than Pet's fingers. Pet had time to get a good, careful look at those teeth as Shandrazel growled at him.

Finally, Pet's breath returned in a painful rush. "What's happened to you?" he asked, his voice on the verge of tears. "You're one of the good guys. You don't torture women."

Shandrazel snorted. "You self-righteous fool. I'm doing what I should have done the moment we captured this woman. She knows where Blasphet is. Blasphet is only a danger because humans treat him like a G.o.d. Why haven't your kind stepped up to the responsibility of stopping him?"

Pet swallowed, fighting back his fear. He'd barely heard Shandrazel's words as his attention remained focused on the white teeth flashing only inches from his face. Was Shandrazel somehow blaming humans for Blasphet?

"Blasphet was trying to wipe out humanity in the Free City!" Pet protested. "It's insane to think I'm helping him."

"We hadn't accused you of helping him," said Androkom. "Though, if you were, it would explain many things. Isn't it odd that the Sisters of the Serpent knew to find Shandrazel in the bath while you were there?"

"What?" Pet felt as if he'd gone crazy. "The sisters were attacking at random! And they attacked me! Shandrazel, don't let the actions of a few misguided girls turn you into a monster like your father."

Shandrazel swooped Pet up in his fore-talons, his claws biting into Pet's biceps. He lifted Pet with no more effort than a man would expend picking up a kitten. He shouted, "I am nothing like my father!"

Pain blanked Pet's mind and fear locked every muscle. He wanted to beg for mercy but couldn't find the words and couldn't have spoken them if he had.

Behind Shandrazel, Androkom craned his neck down to the face of the captured sister, who lay crumpled on the map where Shandrazel had discarded her.

"I fear Pet's distraction has cost us," Androkom said. "This human has stopped breathing."

Despite being trapped in Shandrazel's grasp, Pet felt himself stirred to rage at Androkom's words. Suddenly, his mind unlocked, and words gushed out of him. "Are you happy?" he shouted at the sun-dragon. "You've killed a helpless girl! Do you feel strong now? Do you feel like you're the king your father wanted you to be?"

"Silence! My father will be remembered as a tyrant! I will be remembered as the king who brought an end to kings!"

Shandrazel punctuated this sentence by spinning Pet around and slamming him face-first into the bedrock of the dungeon.

Shandrazel growled again, his anger building, "History will proclaim me Shandrazel the just!"

Again the bull-dragon slammed Pet into the stone. Pet heard snapping noises echoing through his skull. With an odd sense of detachment, he realized that his front teeth were loose against his tongue. He pushed them out of his mouth and felt them slide down his chin amid the drool and blood.

Shandrazel dropped him. Pet rolled to his back, staring dumbly at the towering reptile above him. His limp right arm fell against the broken fingers of the dead woman. He coughed as the blood in his mouth hit the back of his throat. Shandrazel gazed down at him with a look that was half rage, half fear.

"Shandrazel... the wise," the sun-dragon said, his voice growing calmer. He swallowed hard as he stared at Pet. Pet could see himself reflected in the sun-dragon's eyes. His once sharp and shapely nose was now flattened against his face. He was bleeding freely from a gash over his right eyebrow. Slowly, his vision faded. Shandrazel's voice sounded dreamy as he said, "Most of all, I shall be remembered as Shandrazel... the merciful."

Pet closed his eyes. He was vaguely aware of the sounds of chainmail jangling; the guards from the hall had finally arrived.

Androkom's calm, authoritative voice said, "Cart the corpse away. This cell has a new occupant."

Distantly, an earth-dragon voice barked out a reply, but Pet could no longer understand the words. His ears filled with a sound like rumbling surf. He felt as if those waves were lifting him, leaving him adrift, tugging him ever further away from the sh.o.r.e of awareness. He floated into darkness, utterly alone.

Chapter Seventeen:.

Attractive Soulless Monsters

The Scholar's Gate was a thick oak door hung on iron hinges. The door was tall enough that a sun-dragon could enter, and so heavy that Graxen feared he wouldn't have the strength to open it. Beyond the Scholar's Gate was the Grand Library, the domain of the high biologian, a research collection surpa.s.sing the contents of all other libraries in the kingdom. Only the high biologian and a few chosen attendants could freely enter the Grand Library. A student needed the high biologian's consent to pa.s.s through the gate, and this consent was rarely granted. was a thick oak door hung on iron hinges. The door was tall enough that a sun-dragon could enter, and so heavy that Graxen feared he wouldn't have the strength to open it. Beyond the Scholar's Gate was the Grand Library, the domain of the high biologian, a research collection surpa.s.sing the contents of all other libraries in the kingdom. Only the high biologian and a few chosen attendants could freely enter the Grand Library. A student needed the high biologian's consent to pa.s.s through the gate, and this consent was rarely granted.