Page 165 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

Alexi sneered. “Takes too long,” he muttered, flapping that impatient hand again. “Too much resource for the weak. Too many answers for the dragons. Need weapons, not watcherss.”

‘Are you hearing this?’ I sent to Kgosi, though he was at the limit of my range to reach, I felt the cold sense of judgment that came in response.

‘I’m listening.’ The chill would have shivered in my spine if I’d heard that tone directed at me. ‘I am not surprised. What I saw in Carnage’s mind… he flew on the periphery of this plot, but he led this herd of hundreds simply by orders. They were told to follow him, so they did. He made no investment. Held no accountability. He punished any who risked a thought of their own. Pah! The taste of this disgusts me.’

‘Me as well. But how did they manage it, Kgosi? How would they even get dragons to agree, let alone be controlled?’

‘I told you, dragons learn how to be dragons by following their mothers and watching their herds. And that dragons who view unity as more important than character will follow when others do. These young were never shown another life. They were taken in their minds from the day they hatched. Now… now they have a choice for the first time, and they are in turmoil.’

He sent me an image of the skies full of flying, exhausted, frightened dragons with no leader and no orders. ‘They are beside themselves. Afraid of me. Devastated by the loss of their captors. They refuse to land.’

Holy shit. ‘Is Barak there? Can he talk to them? Benji won’t arrive for at least a day.’

‘We have called for the Furymaster. Lionheart has not appeared yet—his dragon did choose freedom. I don’t know if they will follow, Donavyn.’

‘But, I told him to go back and tell Voski and Gil—wait…his dragon?’

‘Yes,’ Kgosi sighed. ‘I believe that small gray chose to bond Benji, though the link seemed like nothing I’d seen before. But I felt little Lionheart’s resistance when he realized he could leave you. I… I believe he may have left us. At least for a time.’

My head jerked back in shock. I’d ordered Benji to follow as quickly as he could, safely. But I’d had no time to coach him or even check beyond his physical safety. The conversation was brief. I wasn’t even certain the dragon had bonded him, only that it had chosen to protect him.

‘He was Chosen?’

‘In some way, yes. These dragons… their hearts and minds are not healthy, Donavyn. I’m not sure if a true bond exists, or if the dragon merely… befriended him. Or perhaps, because the dragon was so young—far too young to Choose—it isn’t a true link. I don’t know. And the herd is reluctant to speak with me after watching me kill Carnage.’

I supposed I couldn’t blame them for that.

“What’s going on?” Bren asked quietly, aware that I’d been speaking to Kgosi.

“Kgosi says… what he can gather from the wild dragons—which is limited, they’re afraid of him—aligns with what Alexi’s saying. It seems he is telling the truth,” I said darkly. ‘And it looks like one of them Chose Benji, but let’s keep that to ourselves.’

Bren didn’t show her shock, as Diaan nodded at my words. “I always knew my husband was pragmatic. I didn’t believe he was entirely self-serving. But he’d grown in his impatience in recent months. My guess is he could taste the coming victory with these dragons and grew tired of restraint.”

“Honor is bullshid,” Alexi piped up sullenly. “Issa ‘xcuse to stay safe. To flee. No respect.”

I wanted to rail at him that the lack of respect lay solely in him, but there was no point. The man was drunk, and defeated.

His day would come, I was sure.

“So, we have dragons without minds of their own, men and dragons who are willing to lead them as weapons and… to what purpose?”

“Conquer,” Diaan said briskly. “He planned to take Draeventhall first—Ruin’s team was a forward guard. Reconnaissance and strategy. Then Fyrehold. Once he held both, Sierral would come without a fight. Then he’d send all of them against Ashthorn. Big dreams, my husband,” she said dryly. “And no conscience whatsoever, apparently.”

I felt sick. Bren shook her head sadly.

Diaan stared into the middle distance for a moment, then inhaled deeply. “You were right that he wanted you away from the herd so he could overwhelm the dragons here and take them—either by their choice, or in battle with the other dragons, who would be ruthless. It started with the team in Draeventhall—they were actually there to collect the first half of the herd. Bigger than Fyrehold’s apparently. I can tell you that he did, indeed, have Ruin under specific orders. It seems Ruin believed he could sway the others in that Shadow squad to join them if he got them away from you, but only half had been convinced when that poor dragon that died got wind of what his rider had done. He killed his own rider, informed the rest of the squad—only to discover that half their dragons had already turned. There’s been no news from any of them since Ruin fled to Fyrehold. He presumes they all killed each other. But he didn’t care, because Ruin had taken the wild dragons and continued the mission to gather the Fyrehold herd. Ruin didn’t know that you’d be there that quickly. He’d planned to take control of the dragons there, fly them back—using them to take you out on the way—then arrive here where my dear husband would allow him to overrun the herd, then promote him to your position for his… initiative.”

“Instead, he got greedy and stuck around to weasel a Lord out of his wealth with the promise of dragons,” I croaked. “Then, I arrived, and suddenly he had witnesses who’d miss me if I was gone, but he didn’t want to admit he’d been the one to cause the delay. So, he told the King the orders were underway…”

Bren leaned into my side. God, I felt sick.

“What Lord of wealth?” Diaan asked abruptly.

“Ruin was too selfish,” Bren breathed, staring at the king with clouded eyes. “Hanson was the name of the Lord in Fyrehold. He had an arrangement with Ruin. Something involving money. When I told him I didn’t trust Ruin, he claimed he investigated and discovered that Ruin had… conflicting responsibilities.” She looked up at me. “I think he really thought Ruin was providing a herd to him. Ruin was playing both sides of this—using the dragons the king gave him to gain personal wealth from Fyrehold, while also moving on this plot… God, he’s such a spider.”

“Not anymore,” I reminded her, and felt the tension release in her as she exhaled heavily. “But now we’re here—a traitorous king, a broken herd, wild dragons without leadership, and who knows how many men involved in this scheme?”

Diaan’s face hardened. “I will get to the bottom of that,” she assured me with cold determination. “He had to have kept this circle small to keep it from me. But I will root them out. Every. One. And they will not survive it.”