Dragon 4 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

There was a heavy knocking on my door. “My King.”

“Yes?” I called groggily as my mates shifted in bed around me. I opened my eyes the slightest bit, noting that the sun was just peeking through the trees of the jungle and filtering into the suite.

Everything in the room was magnificent, including the silk-covered bed that was far beyond a typical king size. I had started calling it an emperor size bed. The red silk sheets and the matted velvet pillows screamed for me to go back to sleep.

It was the definition of luxury. And I was annoyed that luxury seemed like it was going to be interrupted. Laying between my three mates and silk sheets had the beast curling up on itself in pure contentment.

“My king. There is a critical issue that demands your attention.” The voice on the other side of the door sounded urgent enough that my brain shook off the grogginess, and I scooted out of bed despite my mates’ half conscious protests.

Morgana was the most lucid of the three. “I’m coming with you. Hold on one second.”

My blue-skinned mate rolled out of bed, nearly falling on her face. Luckily, her instincts kicked in and she caught herself at the last minute and pulling herself to a stand.

I took a moment to enjoy her soft, blue flesh before she squeezed it into her tight leather pants.

Morgana caught me looking. “Are you just going to stare, or are you going to get dressed?” The playful smile on her face told me she didn’t mind one bit.

I knew she enjoyed me watching.

She always loved to tease me whenever the opportunity arose for her to get a rise out of me.

I gave her the answer she wanted and rolled my eyes before I put on my jeans and a T-shirt.

It wasn’t the most kingly attire, but it was what was comfortable for me, and what I wore every day. I wasn’t about to change that.

“I’m coming out. Catch me up.” I pushed open the door with Morgana hot on my heels and dressed in her leathers.

Standing outside my door was a recognizable dragon. He had been the copper seat at the conclave.

I straightened up. For another leader to have come to me and not a messenger, whatever it was meant serious business.

His face was grave, and he couldn’t meet my eyes. “There’s been a murder on the island.”

“Shit.” I cursed under my breath. That could devolve into a battery of duels if dragons tried to handle it their own way, and more than a few deaths.

Morgana nudged me and raised an eyebrow. “We’ve done this plenty of times. This is just another case.”

I realize Morgana was right. She’d trained me for this. While it felt more personal, solving this murder would be like the work we’d done in Philly as mercenaries.

But it felt different now that it was happening under my watch, to my people. There was a new urgency building up inside of me.

It was my second day as king of my people, and I now got to deal with a murder on a sealed island full of magical creatures.

“You are right.” I turned to the copper dragon. “Lead me to the scene of the murder; I want to get a look at this myself.”

“Of course, my king.” The copper bowed, shifting the scales on his hand as he clasped his shoulder.

I waved him to his feet, and he sharply turned, marching down the hall.

My brief wanderings last night gave me an idea of where we were going as we turned down the hall to the healing ward.

A crowd was gathered there, held back by the white dragon leader and Brom, who promptly made space for us.

But that’s where we stopped. A woman, a dragon by the smell of her blood, lay dead on the hallway floor.

“What do we know so far?” I asked, my voice chilling as I tried to impassively examine her.

After looking at her for a few moments, I realized I recognized her. She was the drunk bronze dragon from the night before.

“She was last seen coming in from the party herself. She was mated to Tim.” Brom informed me. “We have people with Tim right now trying to keep him calm.”

The white scoffed. “Just let him rampage through the conclave and figure out which of his enemies killed her.”

I stopped him with a glare. “She was killed, left to bleed out. And now we find her this morning with her blood nearly dry on the stone. If this was done by any dragon, they would have devoured her for her strength, or at least covered it up. This was a message made by somebody who truly wanted to make a point and cares little for dragon dignity. They also chose a moment when she was at her most vulnerable. I’d guess whoever did this wasn’t a dragon, and likely hated her, not Tim.”

The white dragon looked at me curiously. “You got all of that from this?” He gestured at her body.

“Yes.” I growled at him and he shrank back. “Somebody go bring me Tim. I want to know what enemies she had. Also, has anyone checked on the healing ward?”

There was a silent communication that passed between Brom and the white. The white jumped over the dead body and went to check on the wounded black from the day before.

I turned to Brom. “Has that magical barrier been up since we arrived?”

“Yes. It is why we all arrived together and part of what I need to talk to you about this morning.” Brom reminded me of his request last night around my role in the conclave.

“That can wait a little while. We need to investigate her death. You know her name?”

“Stephanie.” Tim’s voice said behind me. “Her name was Stephanie, and she was my mate.” He growled those words, like he was ready to tear off everyone’s head. “Who the hell did this to her?”

I understood his anger. If this had been done to one of my mates, I wasn’t sure there was a dragon that could have stopped me from my rage. I was honestly impressed that Tim was standing with nobody holding him back, although his body was shaking with the control it was taking.

“We don’t know yet. But we will. Consider Morgana and I personally enlisted to solve this and bring you justice.” I injected as much empathy as I could into my voice. I needed him to remain calm so that we wouldn’t have two problems to solve.

“Do you know anyone that had a problem with your mate?” Morgana asked. She kept herself professional and interposed herself between the body and Tim to take his attention. She knew what she was doing.

Tim shook his head, trying to clear it. “I have no idea. Everyone got along with Stephanie. Maybe there were a few tussles in my harem, but nothing that wasn’t smoothed out the next day. Certainly nothing that they would kill her over.”

“What about anyone outside your family?” Morgana asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s not like we interacted with many other dragons besides my brother and mother. Anyone else here besides maybe my mother and brother haven’t seen Stephanie for hundreds of years.” Tim was as baffled as we were.

Despite not having seen her for hundreds of years, she was a Dragon. She likely had existing relationships with others here. Maybe somebody had been patient. “What about her family? Did she have anyone here that would’ve known her prior to your mating?”

Brom interjected. “She was my niece, my sister's daughter. My sister and her mate are no longer with us.”

“I’m sorry; I did mean to open that wound.” I apologized to Brom.

The old bronze Dragon shrugged his shoulders. “It has been a long time, and that is the way of dragons. We often outlive everything we love.”

It was a sad but true aspect of living as a Dragon. I would live far longer and everything else around me.

That meant we didn’t have too many leads, but I was used to that as well. We would dig and find more.

The leader of the white dragons came out of the healing ward, beckoning me to him. “She’s fine, and she’s awake. Maybe these two events are connected? Would you like to talk to her about her attack on the way to the dragon conclave?”

“Yes. Let’s gather whatever intel we can.” I followed the leader of the white dragons to check on the injured black dragon.

Now that daylight streamed into the room, I got a better look at the healing ward. To my surprise, it was fully stocked with all manner of jars and herbs. The jars seemed to contain liquids, but I did not know what was within them. I could only assume that those dragons that master death magic understood which ones killed and which ones healed.

There were four beds laid out along the length of the room. Only one of them was occupied. The young female dragon who had crash landed outside Brom’s mansion back in Dubai lay there dazed and looking at the ceiling.

She was a petite little thing, very much unlike her dragon, with pitch black hair. She was currently wearing a simple brown dress that was at least a bit more flattering than a hospital gown.

“Hello.” I tried to use a calm voice, but she still startled as I entered the room.

“How are you feeling? I don’t know if you remember me, but I visited you last night.” I stepped further into the room.

“Thank you, my king.” She made a grimace as she started to lean forward. It took me a moment to realize she was trying to bow, and I rushed forward to stop her.

“Please don’t do that.”

She continued her pained grimace and apologized. “I’m sorry, but you are my king.”

“And you are injured. Please, relax. But now that you are more alert, I would like to understand more about what happened to you.” I gave her my best warm smile and helped her lie back down on the bed.

She coughed several times and let out a pained breath. “I was on my way to Brom’s palace when I ran into human contraptions that saw through my illusions.”

Brom had just stepped into the room in time to hear her statement. He gave the white dragon leader and me a worried glance.

“Human contraptions? Flying or what? I’m going to need more details than that.” I asked. If she had really been shot down, given her injuries, I would have expected her to have been attacked with a fighter jet.

She frowned. “I don’t stay up to date on new weapons.”

The white dragon snorted. “Thalia here has a reputation for being an extreme recluse, and she’s quite old.”

Thalia frowned. “I can describe them. They were like large, flying arrowheads. And they launched quick stones at me.”

I almost couldn’t believe that she described them in such archaic words. “Those are likely fighter jets, and they fire bullets and missiles. Did one stone explode and wound your side?”

“Yes! It launched a smaller version of itself that created an effect similar to a fireball.” She said excitedly. “I didn’t know humans had such things.” Despite her injuries, she didn’t seem to take this too seriously.

I turned towards Brom, asking him a silent question, but he didn’t seem to understand.

“Was there any significant markings on this… flying arrowhead?” I asked her, hoping to get a little more granularity.

Thalia paused, pinching her brows together in thought. “I don’t remember any specific markings. They moved quite quickly. They were a grayish green color.”

“Thank you.” It would have to be enough. We would not get much more out of her to identify who had attacked her with a fighter jet. It didn’t leave out a paranormal piloting the craft, though. Maybe some of the other leaders would have a way to find out more.

I turned my attention instead to the two leaders of dragons. “We will resume the conclave in an hour. These two incidents need to be our top priority. Brom, would you like to discuss that topic now?”

“Oh, of course.” The former king of dragons now understood what I’d been trying to communicate earlier. “Come with me. This way.”

We left the leader of the white dragons behind as we walked back to the crime scene, picking up Morgana, who had been more closely examining the body.

Brom watched Morgana as she followed us. “This is for-“

“Understood. But I trust my mates completely. Morgana comes with.” With how everything was going, I was going to need my mates. And I didn’t want to have to keep any secrets from them.

“As you wish.” Brom held his hands up in surrender and continued through the tower, winding our way up towards the top.

“Morgana, did you find anything interesting on the body?” I asked. She had far more experience investigating bodies than most at the conclave.

She hesitated for a moment before nodding. “She was killed with a razor-sharp edge. It was not something requiring brute force, and it was precise. The marks do not match the claws of a Dragon or some other shifter. But whatever was used was larger than a sword.”

I looked at her, trying to piece together what sort of weapon matched that description.

Morgana continued. “It was too wide to be a sword.” She clarified. “Whatever was used was both razor-sharp and expanded widely from the base. It was more like she was raked apart by some sort of sharp lance-shaped object.”

I nodded, following her logic. “So, what could have that shape?” I was commenting more to myself as I tried to puzzle through the answer. “Could it have been something like a horn?”

“I would expect a gouge from a horn to be messier.” Morgana replied. “There’s no weapon coming to mind at the moment, but we can speculate that something shifted and used a sharp limb. If it were created by magic, we would’ve seen warping to the stone, or a puddle if it were made of ice.”

Brom made it clear he was listening when he grunted. “And the stone of the tower is resistant to magic. They could not have made it from the stone itself. Ice magic could still make an object like you described, though. After we’re done here, I will ask Thuun if he has any idea what it could have been. He has vast records and might help you identify it, or at least narrow it down.”

“But we have made it to our destination.” Brahm stopped at a window.

I looked around, but it seemed like an ordinary window on the top level of the tower. “If I’m supposed to see something, I’m not.”

The old bronze Dragon let out a chuckle. “No, you are supposed to see nothing. That’s the point.” He winked at me before casting a wary glance back down the way we came to ensure no one was listening. “Just exert the pressure of your aura at this window.”

He hadn’t steered me wrong yet, so I followed his advice.

As I tried to exert my pressure, my eyes shifted. I couldn’t help it; I was curious.

Even with my sight, nothing special stood out around the window.

But as I exerted my aura, it changed right before my eyes.

An incredibly complex weave of enchantments unwound themselves from around the window, opening up and expanding it to a space beyond.

Morgana gasped as she saw the enchantment. “I have never seen something so complex.”

Brom smiled like he was showing off his prized possession. “This is Bahamut’s private study. Within it are the tools to control the enchantments on the island. At the next conclave, you will be the one to lower and raise the shielding. Come. Let me show you everything I’ve learned and everything I was taught before I was given the study.”

I followed him in with Morgana on my heels. Bahamut had organized the space beyond belief. All the books were stacked neatly in alphabetical order, and there were many of them. They had overflowed off the shelves, becoming scattered but organized piles on the floor.

Knickknacks of what looked like half finished experiments lay on shelves covered in dust, but even their parts were organized in such a way to make it seem extremely purposeful.

There was a single tome open on a stone reading platform, and that was where Brom headed, stopping as he stood before it. “I left this one out for you. In it, Bahamut details how the enchantments work. Many generations of dragon kings have added their own knowledge. This place is a treasure trove, filled with secrets. In the past, kings believed some secrets have been hidden here for the heir of Bahamut. I hope you are able to find them.”

“You think there’s something here for me?” I looked around the room. Despite the order in the relatively small size of the study, it still felt like a massively daunting task to look through it, paging through information that once belonged and was written by my great ancestors.

And I doubted I’d find anything monumental. Surely the dragon kings before me had searched the study for the more useful information.

“Let me show you what I have learned.” Brom went up to the tome and pointed out passages he had marked.

It was only then that I realized that none of the words were written in English. They weren’t even any sort of recognizable letters. The entire tome was written in squiggly symbols that looped back and overlapped on each other.

“Uh. Brom, is there a dictionary or a translation book for this?” As I stared at it, the task in front of me felt even more daunting.

The bronze dragon laughed. “Push your aura at the words and open up your draconic mind. This is the language of dragons, but it should come naturally to you. I apologize; sometimes I forget you are not raised as one of us.”

I turned my attention back to the book and did as he said. As I released my aura, it was like a story unfolded before me. The lines unwound themselves, and a voice more ancient than I could possibly imagine spoke to me from the book.