Chapter 69: How To Tell You Missed the Real Meeting

Chapter 69: How To Tell You Missed the Real Meeting

The returners had been trickling in all morning. Some had stumbled back to Salts Mane voluntarily, rather rougher after their nighttime of navigation. Some had been found by those tracking the dragons. Of those, some had even been happy to be found. For the rest, well. Nets weighted for dragons worked equally well on running men. Some had been found dead, by dragon or other beastie, and been brought back for burning. Not all those taken were accounted for. But most were.

It left Aaron to wonder if morning meetings were always this lively on the dragon front. His Majesty sat at the head of the slowly filling table, having chosen to be present for all conversations rather than arriving with any sort of regal lateness. Aaron sat two chairs down from him, leaving empty seats between them where more important people would sit. Hopefully soon, to erase the awkward gap that separated Orin from everyone else. The rest of the table had filled from the end, the arguments advancing into the room with them.

They should have been penned outside, one woman was saying. They could have gotten loose at any point between the gates and their cells.

Yes, outside, another woman replied dryly. Where any dragons among them would certainly not have held an advantage.

His sister entered at the head of her own small entourage, and neatly filled in all empty seats opposite Aaron. For herself, she claimed the chair at King Orins immediate left. His Majesty greeted her formally, and she responded with the same. Aaron gave her a little wave, and she did not.

Can the cells hold against dragons fire, or their strength? another man was fretting. Has it been tested?

With griffins, it has, when the enclaves were being tamed, another replied. And theyre iron bars. Dragon fire doesnt run hot enough to burn through iron.

The Lady came in, all on her lonesome, and took the seat next to Aaron. She smiled across the table at her daughter. This gesture also went unreturned.

And those that havent been doppeled? another man asked. Youd have them penned? Locked away until youre satisfied? You cannot tell me that two dozen of our finest have all been corrupted in a night. One or two of the weak-minded may have given inNew novel chapters are published on

Or none did, interrupted one of the younger lordlings, his hands on the table, half-risen from his chair. And this is all a bid to paralyze our leadership. What is the chain of command, when my brotheryour commanderis kept locked up like some animal? When even our king stands accused, you cannot tell me this was not their plot from the very beginning

King Orin was, perhaps wisely, choosing to remain silent. His was a biased opinion, no matter what his listeners believed him to be.

The door opened again, and Duchess Morgan entered cloaked in the muted gray-blues of her house, one of her own entourage holding the door for her. She was a woman a few years shy of Adelaides mid-thirties. Paler in face, lighter in hair, but with a strikingly similar number of limbs. Those entering with her filled out the remaining chairs as she continued towards the front.

Those in the dungeon will keep for the length of a meeting, my lords, she spoke as she moved. There will be time to interview them later. If I may be so bold as to suggest She paused, one hand on the back of her chair, her other outstretched to hand her crutches off to an attendant. Lord Sung.

Duchess Morgan, Adelaide replied.

I heard you fought a dragon on your very own balcony last night. I heard that was the only direct combat you participated in.

Your ladyships hearing is as acute as always.

My lady, the duchess said, eyeing the bandages peeking from under Adelaides loose sleeve. Please stop shoving your arms inside of dragons.

As if youve a leg to stand on, Adelaide Sung replied dryly.

There was a moment where no one spoke. Then the duchess snorted. She sat down, taking the final place at the table next to His Majestys right, and gestured to the waiting servants to begin setting out the breakfast platters shed helpfully ordered. Aaron filled his plate quickly, and began the much slower process of filching things away to his poor empty pockets, as the group began its business.

Those from the attack last night had not departed. Trackers had found signs theyd gone further inlandfound the crushed circles of underbrush where bodies far larger than any deer had bedded overnight, found the splintered branches where aching mouths had teethed, found the coughed-up pellets that showed diets changing from fish to land-based prey.

Tracking dragons through their flights was difficult, given how freely they could match their colors to sky and cloud. But they were children, and they had to land sometime.

They knew more than our tactics, Duchess Morgan said. They knew where our highest officers would be stationed. They took Captain Martinson from her post. They scaled the wall to Lord Sungs rooms. And that is without even touching upon those whose deaths they caused seemingly without even touching them.

Aaron had been lifting a fork to his mouth. Scrambled eggs. He put it in his mouth still, because that was less suspicious than setting it back down. But he remembered dead animals outside a village, and a dead man at his feet while the fellows Death warned him off interfering.

Apparently existing was interference enough, so. That boded well.

This, Adelaide said, is on an entirely different level than military tactics thought up by the mind of a fifteen year old. Michaels doppel was smart, but we left our forfeits untutored for a reason. What we saw last night was our own war turned against us by one who knows it. Yet we cannot fight, if we must be suspicious of our own.

Lady, the duchess said, smoothly taking over where her fellow noble had left off, forgive me if this is common knowledge in the capital, but here our doppeling problems tend to fly off soon enough. Is there a reliable test for doppelgngers? Ones who havent yet begun to show?

It is possible to force a shift, the Lady said, leaning back in her chair. In the right circumstances, a doppelgnger pushed to the brink of death will instinctively take on that form most likely to survive. There is a poison we useslow acting, relatively painless. We administer greater doses over the course of several days until the issue is deemed settled. It does not work for the sort we see in the capital, because the human form typically has a stronger constitution than the animal. But for dragons and the greater beasts, it can succeed in revealing their true nature. It can also kill the innocent. It is the Late Wakes position that such a test should only be administered voluntarily, or when the burden of evidence has already condemned the accused to execution. I am not aware of any so condemned here.

Ah. Now people were having trouble looking at their king.

She let that sit in the silence of the room for a moment, before continuing.

I believe in this case, having the accused testify over kirins bone should suffice. So long as they are the people taken from us and not dragons wearing their skins, then they can be loyal enough for this season. Past that well. Doppeling will always show.

Would you and your apprentice see to the interviews, then? King Orin asked, his voice steady.

If I might borrow my daughters sword, the Lady said, inclining her head to her junior.

You may borrow my presence, as well, said Adelaide, rather less indulgently than shed spoken with her mother yesterday.

One more suggestion, Your Majesty, if I may, suggested Duchess Morgan, with the sort of casualness that only came after great deliberation. If the dragons had been aiming to kill rather than capture last night, they could have left our leadership bleeding. In light of their new strategy, it would be wise to spread our leadership out. Perhaps Your Majesty would consider Helland as a suitable location for your spring court?

Helland, in the enclaves. Helland, as far northas far from any meaningful role in the spring battlesas Orin could be sent, while allowing His Majesty to save face. It was still on the coastal front. Technically. That it was nowhere near the narrows where dragons typically crossed was not the point. Or rather, exactly the point.

King Orin opened his mouth, his shoulders stiff.

Its a wise idea, Your Majesty, Lord Adelaide Sung said before he could speak, her eyes steady upon him. She was echoed near immediately by the other southern lords, and those loyal to Morgan. And a few who fell under Orins own banner, though their moments delay did much to exonerate them from whatever pre-meeting had left the others entirely united.

...If that is this assemblys decision, King Orin replied, after a delay that probably had more to do with his inability to find an honest reply than an appropriate one, then who am I to refuse?

A dragon king would have a very hard time sabotaging the war effort, from Helland.