“Undoubtably,” I murmured. Although I could not understand these strange devices that the young man took such pride in, it was clear, just from what I had seen, that he had skill. And it moved me that he had put his family first, above all other concerns. I hoped that I was honorable enough to do the same when it came to it.
“And it was at the market that Inyene sought me out. I had constructed a range of mechanical toy dragons, each one no larger than a house cat,” he said. “They could walk and pounce and glide, and I was working on one that would be able to beat its wings.” Montfre creased his brow. “But the problem was always trying to make them come back, of course. I hadn’t discovered the secret of the Earth lights back then.”
What secret? I wondered. That was what I needed to know if I was to defeat Inyene’s dragons.
For a moment the worry captured me that Montfre might even try to stop me from destroying the metal monsters. But the young man looked so sad-eyed, and so wounded by his past.
Still, I had best bite my tongue and listen. At least at first, I decided, until I knew for sure that I could trust him.
“Inyene was taller, older, beautiful, wealthy. I learned later she had been married to a wealthy young lordling, who allowed her access to the minor circles, balls, and dances of the Torvald lesser Named Families, and when he died, she had his wealth and small house – and his contacts – to use however she wanted. And what she wanted, I thought, was my creations. She showered me with compliments – she seemed amazed at what I had achieved and bought every one of my mechanical dragons. She said that if I had any more marvels to bring them to the market the next day, where she would be sure to buy them, too!” Montfre looked up, a sad look on his face. “Can you imagine what that felt like to a twelve-year-old boy?” He shook his head before he continued.
“The very next day she returned as she had promised, but this time with a retinue of men around her – Dagan Mar was one of them, her right-hand man, her thug and strongman, even then, though I did not realize it – and she did not buy my Euphonias and Light Refractors. She instead presented me with a contract.”
Laws. Debts. “She’s doing the same to my people, too.” I couldn’t keep the contempt from my voice. But this could be my chance to win the mage over to my side – our stories weren’t so different, were they?
I cleared my throat and thought about what Uncle had told me. “Inyene came into the villages, promising everything – but it was all a trick so that she could send in her guards to clear the Plains and bring people here.” I nodded down to his set of manacles. “I know how uncomfortable those things can be – I can’t imagine having to wear them for years.”
Montfre gave me a piercing look with his unsettlingly light eyes before nodding. “Not so different, perhaps. I imagine that Inyene uses the same term for your people that she did for me! It was an indenture – that means that if I signed, I would agree to work for her and her alone, and she would pay me and provide me with food and lodging. On top of that, she was offering a small fortune – well, a fortune to me at the time – that would go to my parents.” Montfre scowled. “I should have realized then that Inyene already knew fully well who I was and what my problems were! But I was young. I finally had a chance to save my parents from the mess they had fallen into. So, of course I signed the form, and within a day I was riding out of the citadel forever as one of Inyene’s retinue.”
It sounded ghastly to me, although I could understand why the younger Montfre had made the choice.
“For the next four years, I worked hard for my personal queen. We were a small band back then, traveling all over the Three Kingdoms as Inyene sought the information and people she needed to make her dreams come true.”
“To be the next high queen.” I repeated what I had overheard, and Montfre nodded.
“Yes. She has some fool idea that she is a descendant of High Queen Delia, just because her family name is D’Lia. Inyene’s mother always thought that meant Delia, as in the High Queen Delia – the very first!” Montfre shook his head as if it was a truly outrageous notion. When he saw my look of incomprehension, he must have realized that we Daza did not have the same histories that Torvald did.
“She was the mother of three princes, each one ruling either the northern, middle, or southern kingdom,” Montfre explained. “She was the ruler of the Midmost Lands entire. And it was she who made a deal with the Great Dragon King Zaxx, which allowed the Dragon Riders of Torvald to be born.”
“Zaxx the Gold,” Ymmen said suddenly, his head turning to hover over us. His eyes were shot through with a crimson red.
“What’s wrong?” Montfre asked, his face blanching paler (if such a thing was possible).
“I don’t know.” I looked up at Ymmen in confusion.
“The Gold was a bad dragon. Cruel,” Ymmen stated, before he swiveled his head back and ruffled his wings indignantly.
“He doesn’t like that dragon you mentioned,” I explained, wondering what had caused such a severe hatred in Ymmen at just a name.
Montfre coughed and resumed his tale. “Anyway, the point was that none of us could see – even back then – how zealous and twisted-up Inyene was inside, and just how this one idea of her fictitious birthright totally ruled her. Or what she was really prepared to do, until it was too late.”
“What was that – make her metal dragons?” I asked.
Montfre nodded. “We traveled everywhere, with Inyene adding tough, strong, and capable people to her entourage. She even married, once, which I later found out was a second time – to a wealthy merchant of the Southern Kingdom, who died not long after their wedding night…” Montfre raised his eyebrows. I understood what he was trying to say.
“First, she was searching for ancient scrolls, anything to do with the first days of the Torvald Kingdom, and the Dragon Monks – a type of mage, like myself, but the very first type. And it was in those scrolls she found talk of something called the Dragon Stones… a type of Earth Light, I think. So, then she searched for alchemists, and finally she searched for mines. I didn’t know it at the time – but this was all a part of her plan to eventually build her own army of dragons. In those four years she kept filling me with confidence in my abilities, encouraging me to study more of the magical scrolls that she had amassed, and directing me to study the power of Earth lights.”
I nodded that I knew what they were. I had mined them, after all.
“The Earth lights capture light – we all know that. But ancient scrolls talked of how they could capture other things, too. Thoughts. Emotions. The alchemists were trying all sorts of doggerels of incantations and old rituals – but nothing seemed to work.” Montfre’s face filled with a deep crimson blush as his voice faltered. “It was my idea to try and use the new techniques that I had learned as an engineer. The science of refraction and concentration, prismatics and so on that we started to be able to harness the power of the rocks, and to me it was a matter of scientific exploration.”
Oh, Montfre, I thought, feeling at the same time both sympathy and horror. Imagine knowing that you were complicit – in some way responsible – for the evil that Inyene has brought into the world?
But apparently, it even got worse.