Cradle of Darkness by Tom G H Adams & Andrew Naisbitt

Author:Tom G H Adams & Andrew Naisbitt [Adams, Tom G H & Naisbitt, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Writing in Starlight
Published: 2019-11-25T22:00:00+00:00

Later that evening, Tuh-Ma visited Etezora in her chamber with something that would send her to slumber in a decidedly lighter mood.

“Mistress, come quickly. Tuh-Ma has found something that may help us find the dragon people.”

“Where?” she replied, tetchily. The Hallows within was seeking some form of release — a phenomenon that left her somewhat disquieted.

“In the dragon pens. Zeetor is there already. You should come and see.”

“Don’t leave me in suspense, Tuh-Ma. Out with it. What did you find?”

Tuh-Ma looked crestfallen. She knew he liked to surprise her, but her patience had worn to a thread this day.

“Two of Tayem’s courtiers,” he said. “Tuh-Ma told you he sensed fear. I followed the scent to the enclosures and braved the presence of a wounded dragon to find its source.” He emphasised this last point in an effort to make up for his previous display in the throne room, no doubt.

Etezora wrapped herself in a shawl, summoned her guard and followed the troll to the enclosures. She had hoped to avoid the scene of her humiliation over a decade ago, but the prospect of Tuh-Ma’s find overcame any reluctance.

The smell of dragon dung as they entered the Vrant dragon pens brought these memories back forcibly, but she brushed them off when she laid eyes on the pitiable forms of Disconsolin and his wife, Merdreth. She recognised them from her childhood and wondered at how the ravages of age afflicted any man or woman. They were dishevelled and frightened, two bundles of quaking wretchedness. The guardsmen dragged them across the straw-covered floor and pushed them down before a Queen who had grown from a precocious child into a daunting monarch.

Disconsolin looked upwards at Etezora, mustering his best statesman-like expression. “Your Majesty — ”

Merdreth screamed as Etezora brought her hand down hard across the elderly statesman’s face. “I did not give you permission to speak. Show proper respect, Dragonian.”

It was part calculation and part Hallows-induced cruelty that motivated Etezora’s show of power, but she had to play these two carefully if she was to extract the information she needed. “Your Queen and her court have fled,” she said, “and you only remain. Why is this?”

Disconsolin wiped the blood from his mouth. “Tayem, our Queen is a mighty ruler. But she is impetuous, and I sought to speak with you. See if we could come to some accommodation.”

Etezora strolled around the abject form of the statesman, playing with a beryl amulet she had acquired from Tayem’s dressing table. “Accommodation? You speak as if you have something to trade. But, as you witnessed, we now hold the Dragonian palace and all of Wyverneth. It seems you miscalculated.”

Disconsolin lifted his head higher, daring to look at the Cuscosian Queen. “With all due respect, your Majesty, there is much we can offer in terms of your adaptation to the new royal seat.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“You acquired a city dispossessed of its people. I have held the position of administrator for over twenty sols. I know where

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