Chapter 12 - Back to the Blue Mountains.
They all reappeared in the valley of the Blue Dragons and made their way back to the half wrecked great doors to the lair. They were not challenged by any of the Blue Dragons who were hanging around the valley or even the two dragon guards at the entrance. Inside they found Eiddoel still in a deep sleep and snoring at high volume, each breath was accompanied by a little puff of smoke out of one nostril. Tom took his wand and moved it around the sleeping beast.
“He’s doing well, probably eighty percent healed. I’ll bring him back to consciousness. He won’t be dangerous as he is still quite poorly,” Tom spoke with an authority which even surprised him, “he’s well on the mend and will be back to full health by tomorrow.”
Eiddoel stirred, “Where am I? What happened?”
“Don’t worry, you got a bit burnt, but you’re being healed now,” Tom answered.
“Oh yes, you, you beat me in battle and then came and tended my wounds,” Eiddoel said confused.
“Something like that, it wasn’t quite a battle, you accidentally burned yourself is a better explanation,” said Tom, “there, that’s better, you should be okay by the morning, but I wouldn’t try flying for a bit, some of your wing skin has burned away and will need time to regenerate.”
“It’s called patagium,” Eiddoel said condescendingly, “Patagium, not wing skin, really, some people!”
“All right, all right, don’t go all snooty on me, I’m only thirteen, still lots of stuff to learn.”
Llewelyn took over the conversation. “King Eiddoel, King of the Blue Dragons, my name is Llewellyn, I am the father of Jonathan, whom you have met, and of Thomas, who is tending your wounds. Greetings from the Council of the High Elders of Trymyll.”
“I know who you are, I also know the rest of your party, except for the lady. The Master, as you call him sent me mental pictures of you all, plus a short synopsis of each of your characters, his version obviously, so probably not too exact.”
The lady with us is my wife Gwendolyn, and the boys’ mother.”
“That would explain why she stepped forward so quickly to protect your youngest, and it is she who I have to thank for my injuries,” he said without malice.
“I apologise....” Gwen was cut short.
“Don’t, it was my fault, I should not have lost my temper over a couple of doors which can be easily replaced.” Eiddoel continued after a pause, “Now, I am sure you haven’t all returned here just to check on my health. I assume you wish to discuss some business with me?”
“King Eiddoel, your majesty......” This time it was Llewellyn who was cut short.
“Please, drop all the formalities, just call me Ed.”
He was a shrewd old dragon; he knew that being familiar with him would put them on edge and give him an advantage, as humans love their pomp and ceremony when it comes to royalty. Llewellyn, of course, was shrewder.
“Your majesty, I apologise, but I cannot possibly be anything but formal with such an exalted and noble king.”
Putting Eiddoel at a psychological disadvantage. “My first question is simple and straightforward, why did you send over a thousand of your dragons to attack my city?”
“My answer is also simple, I didn’t. As I am sure you know by now, there are several breeds of Blue Dragon, the purebred blues, and the, shall we call them, the servant class of dragons and those bred for fighting. These have little brains and are easily persuaded to do things by anyone or anything that has half a brain. Your misanthropic megalomaniac friend Muenda persuaded a large group of my dragons to go and attack your city. Fortunate for you, but unfortunately for Muenda and the dragons, he knows little of how the fighting classes of dragons operate. Whereas he told them what he wanted them to do, and no doubt offered some great reward on their return, by the time they arrived at your city, with no leader or anyone controlling them, they would have forgotten why they were there and had little idea what to do now they were there. So, they did nothing, but you still destroyed them, every single one. Had your eldest son Jonathan been half the Dragon Master he thinks he is he could have just told them to go home, and they would have done so. So, you see, they all died in vain and for nothing.”
“That’s terrible, I really am sorry,” said Jon.
“Yes, so you said when you arrived earlier. Anyway, what’s done is done and can’t be undone,” Eiddoel said very factually, “anyway, they are of little consequence and can easily be replaced.”
“How did the two classes of Blue Dragon come about,” Flintock asked.
“Careful and selective inbreeding,” was the blunt and unapologetic answer, “there are several types of this underclass of dragons, Fighters, though we make sure they are not particularly good at it, you always win and so never follow up on the whys and wherefores. Then we have the servants, who tend to our everyday needs and wants, and we have the breeding teams; carefully monitored and controlled of course.”
“Why are you telling us all of this? We haven’t asked for any of the ‘whys and wherefores’ as you called it,” asked Llewellyn.
“I know why,” said Jonathan, “and I should have been concentrating more, while we have been listening, several hundred of the pure breeds have assembled in the valley and their fireboxes are white-hot.”
“Well, did you not think it strange that you could just walk in unchallenged? Walking out may not be quite as easy,” as he spoke, he began to fade and then disappeared altogether. “I’ll wait outside for you if you don’t mind,” Eiddoel remarked as a passing gesture.
“Very clever,” said Flintock, now what do we do, they have already rebuilt the iron sections of the doors so we can’t apparate out of here.”
“Don’t panic, something he said has given me an idea,” said Jonathan, “Why don’t you all sit on his throne and watch.”
“Watch what?” asked Tom.
“Well, the watching bit might be difficult as only I know what’s happening,” Jon replied.
Gwen held up her hand and what looked like a massive dome appeared in front of them. Inside the dome they could see the whole of the valley laid out before them, they could also see all the Blue Dragons awaiting their exit, their bellies full of fire. Jon concentrated. A few seconds later, the skies went visibly dark, above them they could see thousands upon thousands of the fighting drones, circling above with their fireboxes glowing white-hot as well.
“Oh no,” said Thomas trembling and holding on to his mother, “there are thousands out there now.”
The drones fell out of the sky and onto the purebred Blue Dragons, it took them completely by surprise, they had assumed they were there to assist, but no, this was rebellion. The purebred Blue Dragons were hopelessly outnumbered, they had relied on the drones for so long that they had all forgotten how to fight properly. What happened was messy, very messy, and not pleasant to look at. Jon was controlling the drones, every one of them, he knew how to fight, and he knew how to fight dirty. The battle raged for several minutes, there was fire, blood, and death all around. It was soon over; all the pure Blue Dragons were dead and a couple of hundred drones lay slaughtered as well. Minutes later, the servant drones darkened the sky. The clean-up squad had arrived, and a few minutes after their arrival, not a body or bone was to be seen. The dome faded and to their surprise, Eiddoel reappeared.
“You have amazed me young Jonathan, you are far more powerful, cunning, and devious than I ever imagined. But it is not over yet, I am still here and between you and the door,” he said, by then addressing them all.
Jon held up his staff and let out one of his mighty blasts of energy vaporising the dragon king completely.
“There,” he said, “sorted. Can we go home now?”
“Oh dear,” a voice came from behind them in the gloom. “You seem to have killed my father, oh, such a shame, I suppose that makes me king now,” another Blue Dragon walked from the rear of the giant hall and sat on the throne.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Evon, well, King Evon now the old man is dead. Perhaps now he’s gone, we can have a bit of freedom.”
Jon answered apologetically, “Sorry your Kingship, it was in self-defence.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him, he didn’t like me, and I didn’t think much of him, so I announce the period of mourning to be officially over. You can all go now. Bye,” he said in a matter of fact way.
“No love lost between you two then?” Llewellyn asked.
“Oh, you’re all still here, could have sworn I said goodbye just now.”
“Yes, we are still here, we came back to help your father but instead of being thankful, he led us into a trap.”
“Well, that was just typical of daddy, no manners and so ungrateful!”
“We also wanted to ask a few questions, perhaps now you are king, you might be able to help.”
“Well, so long as it’s not too long and boring, fire away, but be warned, I get bored very easily,” Evon said in a petulant manner. While he spoke, servant dragons were clearing away the few remains of the former king.
“Why did your father align himself with the Master? He must have been wise enough to know that as soon as the Master had used him for his own ends, he would probably kill him and destroy many more of you.”
“Well actually, you seem to have done a rather good job of that yourselves. If you’re the rescue party, I’d hate to meet the enemy.”
“Yes, we did return to help with your father with his wounds, but it was he who changed to rules and set up a trap for us. What else were we supposed to do? Roll over and play dead?” Llewellyn said with some irritation.
“Oh, I do love a sense of humour. Makes me smile. Yes, of course, you’re correct, daddy was wrong; he should not have done that, you wished him no harm, only good. But he was very miffed about his beautiful carved doors. So, as soon as you brought him round, he organised his troops. Though not very well, I must say.”
Meanwhile, Tom was delving into the new king's mind, it was open and had no sign of any blocking. What he found was surprising, so he thought he would speak. “Your Majesty, for the last thousand years your father has been promoting and organising the selective breeding programme to produce the fighting dragons and the other servant classes. What will you do to end this form of slavery?”
“Good question,” Evon said, “I will end it as soon as I can, it was one of the things we differed upon. Differed? We were at loggerheads over it all the time, probably why we didn’t get on, I believed our strength would come from thousands more purebred Blue Dragons, my father was basically lazy and found controlling the drones as he called them to be far easier than controlling the same number of purebred dragons. I, however, don’t want to control my kingdom, I want to lead it like a true leader. Now because of my father’s untimely demise, that is what I intend to do.”
He suddenly stopped as if interrupted by persons unknown. “Now, I need to call the elders and exert my leadership on them. So, it’s not that I’m bored, it’s just that I must get on. I would, however, like to continue this discussion at some later date as I believe we could be of use to each other. Could you all return in two days? I promise, no traps. Even if I set one, you’d blast your way out of it killing many more of my loyal subjects.”
The little troupe of wizards bowed and exited the cavern warily. Looking for traps on the way, there were none, so as soon as they could, they all apparated away again.
“What was the sudden ending all about?” asked Flintock.
“It was the Elders of the Blue Dragons. They were summoning him, not the other way round. I picked up their message as I was inside his mind. I hope he’s not in trouble as I now know, he’s one of the good guys!”