117 False Queens

"So as I was saying, Queen Xueteng was forced by the ancient elder of the red dragon sect to create a red queen, but converting a female dragon to a queen is not a simple matter, a silver queen has to infuse part of her own magic with the egg, as well as sacrificing part of her heart's blood," Lanhuo said sadly.

Xingteng frowned. "Grandfather, I am not sure I understand, why would a silver queen create other queens then, if the price she has to pay is so high."

Everyone knew that sacrificing your heart's blood, meant sacrificing part of your life. It was only through cultivating that one was able to create the heart's blood, and it took years to create a single drop. Each drop of heart's blood extending your life, giving you more time to cultivate the next drop, but each consecutive drop took longer to create.

For a fledging to give up a single drop, was practically ensuring that she would be denied ever becoming an immortal, and at that age, the chances of her living even for a couple of thousands of years would have been impossible.

"Because the stories that of the offspring of a dragon queen are stronger is true. Our queens were meant to give birth to our warriors, the protectors of the dragon race. How could one queen be enough?"

"Oh!" Xingteng exclaimed.

"Then those princes and princesses of the other sect are stronger than us?" Yinglong asked, her voice betraying her depression at the thought.

For thousands of years she and her sister and been bullied by those arrogant and spoilt dragons. Especially Xingteng, the eldest prince of the bronze sect, Elder Shanshe's grandson, had taken a liking to Xingteng and harassed her continuously.

Yinglong wasn't sure what happened a few years back, but Xingteng had disappeared for a few days, when she had come back she had been bruised and battered. She had sworn Yinglong to secrecy, but ever since Xingteng had never been the same. No matter how much Yinglong begged and pleaded with her beautiful and gentle sister, Xingteng never revealed a word of what happened.

But her sister's gentle smile had died at that time, and she refused to leave the family home. Yinglong suspected that Heihuo [1], the first born son of the current bronze queen and Elder Shanshe grandson had something to do with whatever had happened to her sister.

But Xingteng had made Yinglong blood swear to stay away from Heihuo and the bronze dragon sect. While the whole family coddled Xingteng thinking she was fragile, Yinglong knew that her sister was really stubborn when she wanted to be. Yinglong biggest regret was the day she made those two vows to her sister.

"Oh please!" Lanhuo burst out. "Those pissants aren't worth the dirt beneath my paws. Even the weakest shadow dragon could wipe the floor with them."

"Really?" Yinglong asked, perking up.

For years she had dreamed of getting her sister to retract her vow, so she could beat the truth out of that snotty nosed princeling.

"Hmm, and just you five wait, now that your silver dragon blood has awakened, your strength is going to increase drastically, all shadow dragons are finally going to have access to our dormant magic." Lanhuo declared.

At Lanhuo declaration, Xingteng who had been looking down jerked her head up in shock.

"Our powers are going to increase?" she asked tremulously.

"Of course, ever since the fall of the silver dragons, most of our power has been locked away, now that a silver queen walks on Doha, with the powerful magic that she released earlier, she has awakened our silver dragon heritage."

"That's great," Xingteng whispered as she bent her head to quickly hide the tears in her eyes. She couldn't let her family she just how much that statement of her grandfather had affected her. It would make them suspicious and she couldn't bear to go through their interrogation. Not now. Maybe never.

The three brothers didn't pick up on Xingteng unusual behavior, to them their sister had always been delicate and fragile, so they just assumed that she must be happy to gain some more power.

Hulong realized something, that all of them had missed.

"Hold on, then that means that those elders know that those bast... I mean those princes and princesses are no better than any other dragon," he said his voice filled with indignation.

"Of course," Xinglong said quietly.

"What the— you mean to say that those bastards have lorded it over us for thousands of years, and they always knew the truth!" seethed Yinglong.

With her nostril flaring, Yinglong bared her teeth, a small slither of smoke escaped from her mouth. She was close to setting someone ablaze.

"Calm down, little eagle," Xinglong said placating his sister, Yinglong was famous for her hair-trigger temper. Xinglong wouldn't put it past this little firebrand to storm out right now and run off to confront the elders.

"Calm down... how can I calm down," Yinglong yelled.

"Have you any idea of what those bastards and bitches put us through."

"Yinglong enough!" Yulong said quietly but firmly.

"But Mo—"

"We will discuss this later," Yulong said eyeing her daughter sternly.

"Yes Mother," Yinglong said acting demurely.

All of Yulong's children recognized that look in their mother's eye, it was the'don't you push me, or you will end up regretting it' look, every single one of them had ignored that look only once in their lives, and never again.

"May I continue?" Lanhuo asked acidly.

Scratching her nose with one of her paws, a faint red flush crept along Yinglong cheeks.

"Sorry Grandfather," she said softly.

"Hmpf, so as I was saying, the elder of the red dragon sect forced Queen Xueteng to convert one of her eggs to a red queen, weakening the young queen. Of course, when the other sect elders found out, there was a huge outcry, many sects threatened to go to war, and finally, the elders reached a decision, that Queen Xueteng would give birth to a queen for each of them."

Hulong gasped out loud, shaking his head. "By the gods, they didn't?"

"Oh yes, those greedy bastards agreed," Lanhuo sneered.

Jumping to his feet, a vein on Huifu forehead was visibly throbbing, his lips were pulled back showing his fearsome fangs, puffs of black smoke spewed from his nostrils.

"What the hell did our ancestors do?" he snarled.

"What could they do? The young queen refused to listen to them, the other dragon sects were united against them," Xinglong said frankly.

"So the damn cowards did nothing!" Huifu roared.

"No Huifu," Lanhuo sighed tiredly, "they did try to talk to the elders, to the queen, to anyone who would listen, but no one would listen, and at the end of the day all they could do was watch as those bastards slowly destroyed her."

"Talk! What is the use of talking, they should... they should have—"

"Should have what Huifu? Declared war on all the dragons in the Dragon domain?" Xinglong said angrily.

"I would have," Huifu muttered rebelliously.

"Then you are a damn fool," Xinglong stated bluntly. "All that would have accomplished is exterminating every single shadow dragon, and it wouldn't have saved the queen."

"Oh, and I am sure you, oh great brother, would have had some brilliant plan to save her?" Huifu sneered.

"Well, I damn sure as hell wouldn't have gone off half-cocked and gotten my whole sect exterminated!" Xinglong fired back incensed at his younger brothers foolhardy behavior.

"Enough!" Laolong roared.

"Sorry Father, it's just that Xinglong always acts so high and mi—"

Laolong raised his paw interrupting Huifu speech.

"Huifu I said it was enough, I am sick and tired of the two of you always bickering. Up until now, I have left the two of you alone, hoping that you will sort out this issue between the two of you. But no more. This matter is too important for the two of you to have a pissing contest every time something comes up. Huifu do you know why Xinglong was chosen as heir?"

"Yeah because he has the most silver dragon in him compared to us," Huifu said sulking, trying to disguise the envy in his voice.

"No!" Laolong rejected Huifu conclusion immediately.

"Because he thinks. He analyses everything before he makes a decision. He doesn't allow his emotions to rule him. Now I am giving you one last chance, Xinglong is the leader of this mission, if you can't obey his orders, then get the f*ck out of here now. The last thing our new queen needs is some cocksure brain dead imbecile who will run off causing more harm than good. Do you hear me, boy?"

Pure silence reigned over the room after Laolong severe tongue lashing.

Huifu head jerked back as he stared at his father in shock. It was the first time in Huifu life that his father had ever spoken to him so harshly. Glancing at his mother's serious expression Huifu realized that he had really messed up this time.

It slowly dawned on Huifi just how serious this situation was. Up until now his parents and grandfather had always put their family first, and the four younger dragons had been spoiled by everyone. Every time before when he and Xinglong got into one of their arguments, their parents would normally scold Xinglong for being too harsh with him.

He came to the realization that this time, his blood ties with his parents and grandfather meant nothing, they wouldn't jeopardize this young queen just because he was their son.

"I'm am sorry," Huifu said bowing stiffly to his father.

--

Notes

[1] Heihuo – Dark Throat