“I know. I wish that I’d never made the damnable things.” Montfre took another glug, sounding just as depressed as Abioye did now. “You know, the madness of it all is that I had made those toys to bring joy to the world. I thought there were children in Torvald who would be delighted to be able to play with a dragon – albeit just a tiny one.”
“I know,” Abioye agreed. “But Inyene was always like that. She has always been years ahead of everybody.”
“Uh-huh,” Montfre agreed. “She saw how they could be scaled up.” He was silent for a moment and then shook his head. “And to think – I thought she believed in me, in my vision. She made me feel important. If I had known at the start what she was trying to do, then I would never have shown her about the Earth lights or made her that scepter – I thought she just wanted to play with the toys."
“I was really hoping we wouldn’t find enough, or that the Earth lights wouldn’t work to control something so big,” Abioye said. “But… did you see how I got here?”
Earth lights? A scepter? My ears pricked up. So that was how Inyene was doing it. That was why her metal dragons’ eyes glowed an Earth Light blue.
That was the key, I thought. If I can get a hold of that scepter…
“Huh!” Abioye agreed lustily as there was a sound of a hand slapping wood. It seemed as though complaining about his sister was one of his favorite past-times. “You should try being in my shoes! At least you get the freedom here to do your own thing, kind of. To have some peace. She treats me like a slave. I have to fetch and do this or do that for her all the time.” Abioye was warming to his subject.
Spoiled Poison Berry. I scowled.
“But it’s gotten worse still, my friend. She’s talking about building more mechanical dragons. Many more. Enough to,” Abioye’s voice faltered and lowered a little, as if even he were scared of what he might say. But he did in the end, anyway. “Enough to attack the citadel. Torvald.”
“What?” Montfre said. “Is this because of that thing she has about being related to the high queen?”
“Yeah, precisely,” Abioye agreed. “The old High Queen Delia. The first High Queen of the Three Kingdoms. The one to tame the dragons. All of that epic Torvald stuff.” Abioye sounded frustrated. “She tried to show me some new family charts she’s unearthed that prove we’re Delia’s last living relatives, but to be honest it was too complicated for me to follow.” Another pause. “But anyway. That’s what she’s talking about now. She wants to raise a flight of your mechanical dragons that are strong enough to be able to take back the Three Kingdoms for her, so she can be the new High Queen!”
“Pfagh!” Montfre snorted in disgust, which was good because it covered the sound of my own gasp.
But though I was shocked and it was horrible to hear all these crazed plans of my oppressor – there was a certain sort of satisfaction in finally knowing why she had treated my people the way she had.
She was insane, that’s why. She wanted to rule the Three Kingdoms, and to do that had used some weird ancient lawyer trick to turn my people into slaves, so that she could build her monstrous armies.
“But I just don’t get it,” Abioye whined. “We could lead perfectly happy lives without that, you know? Inyene’s worked hard; I’ve worked hard—” I doubt that. I clamped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from sniggering, “—you’ve worked hard all these years. We could live comfortable lives now. We managed to get on the Middle Kingdom’s Noble’s List, for goodness sake!” Abioye ended in a petulant plea. “I don’t want any part of what she’s doing now!”
My suspicions were true! I could have stamped the floor in celebration but refrained for obvious reasons. Abioye was cowed by his sister, but if he detested what she’s doing – I bit my lip – then he might help us.
But, despite my glee at the thought, it was still pleasing to hear that Montfre had just as much time for Abioye’s childishness as I did.
“By. The. Stars, Abioye!” Montfre shouted at him. “Inyene is your sister! Why do you come over here, where your sister has me locked up in a tower”—another rattle of the chains to prove his point— “and complain to me? You think that you’re as much a prisoner as the rest of us – but look at you, with your fine clothes and going off to the city to get drunk every night! If you’re a prisoner of anything at all, then it’s only your own cowardice!” Montfre said.
I think I like this guy, I thought.
“Please, if you thought me a friend at all then you’d stop coming around here, and pretending that I understand your pain”—Montfre went on—“because I really don’t! Come back when you’ve set yourself free!” There was a smash as the now drunken Montfre must have thrown his bottle of Torvald brandy at something.
“Urk! Okay, I’m going! I’m sorry!” Abioye’s chair slid and Abioye jumped to his feet. He was going to come this way, I realized as my heart jumped into my throat, and, without thinking, I turned and ran back up the stairs.
Chapter 15
The Mage Montfre
“It’s the scepter!” I gasped eagerly to Ymmen as soon as he lifted me up in his arms. Abioye was still climbing the stairs of the tower below us, too drunk to either be hasty or notice that I had been there.
“Scepter?” Ymmen echoed in my mind, and I could sense his confusion. He allowed himself to glide down the edge of the foothills as we heard the sputter and cough of engines from behind us. Ymmen didn’t betray our position with the snapping beat of his wings, and instead moved further away, as silent as a ghost.
Not that Abioye was in his right mind to notice, I thought disdainfully. Poison Berry indeed. As we wheeled lower and lower to the ground, I watched as Abioye finally got the mechanical dragon to work and felt that ripple of unease as its blue eyes shone out into the night once more. It leaped from the tower and, rather ungainly, started to clack and growl its way back towards the keep, as Ymmen skimmed the surface of the lower lands.
My heart was still thumping in my chest with everything that I had heard, and the excitement of everything that had occurred. I now knew a way to stop the mechanical dragons! I knew a way to stop Inyene’s crazed plans.
But what of my people? I thought as Ymmen stretched out his rear hind legs to catch the ground at a run, slowing as earth and rocks sprayed around his claws to slowly hunker down once more. He put me down without looking, as his snout was still concentrating on the distant mechanical dragon, winging its way into the dark. I could sense his impatience at the edge of my mind like the coals of a fire sending up sparks and tongues of flame.
“I know,” I said wearily. “But we can stop them now,” I assured him. “Maybe without the dragons, the mine guards would take one look at you and run off, abandoning the mines,” I thought out loud, hopefully. It was the best plan that I had yet.
“Bad magic.” Ymmen sniffed at the air and snorted flame. “Never good.”
The black dragon sounded as though he was speaking from experience, and I would have asked him what he meant – had the weight of the situation not been heavy on my mind. “It is bad magic,” I said out loud. “But that young man in there knows how it works. Maybe he could tell us how to undo it.”