A Game of Chi Book I: A Crown of Blood

Chapter 3: Lagravis I

LAGRAVIS

"The phoenixes are not all dead."

King Crominus turned sharply. "What?"

Lagravis looked down at the floor. It was quite an ornate floor.

"What do you mean, the phoenixes aren't all dead?" Crominus repeated.

Lagravis sighed. "There was one who escaped. With her bodyguards, I believe."

"How?" growled Crominus.

"Well, clearly, my men missed them as they escaped."

Crominus shook his head. "Bullshit. Your men might have, but you wouldn't. I know you, Lagravis. You're more my brother than Crokenburg is. If they got away, it's because you let them escape. Why?"

Lagravis had never seen Crominus this angry. "That's beside the point, Crominus. I'm telling you this because—"

"I couldn't shed a scale as to why you're telling me this, Lagravis. I care as to why you let them go. Tell me now, or I'll have you branded as a traitor."

Lagravis gave his old friend a weary look. "Really? After everything I've done for us? I may be a traitor to the phoenixes, but not to you."

Crominus sighed and nodded, calming down. "You're right, Lagravis. You're always right." He sat down in his chair while Lagravis remained standing. "I still want to know why."

Lagravis shifted uncomfortably as Crominus' questions resumed. "Was it the guards? The tiger would have given you trouble, but the others would have fallen. We could have taken them together."

Lagravis' eyes met the king's. "She was newly hatched. I could have held her in my two hands. And I was supposed to kill her?"

"We agreed to get rid of all of them," Crominus reminded him. "Killing the prince was easy enough; the fool engaged me in single combat. You stuck your spear through the pompous emperor's back, just like we planned. Our armies slaughtered the rest. Women, children. We were already killers, Lagravis. Why stop there?"

"It was different. I didn't know she'd hatched. Dashing a faceless, soulless egg against a wall is one thing. But I don't want a hatchling's blood on my hands."

Lagravis held Crominus' stare for a long moment. Then, the king chuckled. "You really are peculiar, Lagravis. We plan a revolution and a genocide. You lie to your emperor, you stab him in the back and you kill his soldiers. You betray the oaths you hold dear, but killing children, that's where you draw the line?"

"I'm not the only one who broke my oath," Lagravis countered defensively. "You had sworn fealty to Fluminox as well."

"I'm not saying that you're the only one. I'm saying it's odd that you suddenly grew a conscience."

"If you had been in my place, would you have done the same?"

This gave Crominus pause. "I don't know, Lagravis," he answered finally. "I truly don't know. What I do know, however," he started, "is that I would have told my king— my friend — about this sooner."

Lagravis smiled sadly and got a chair for himself as well, sitting down. "To be honest, I hadn't intended on telling you now, either. But I had to. I had to tell you because if, somehow, she raises an army and comes back for her throne, we need capable leaders. You and I will be gone not too long from now; it'll fall on our sons. If Cragger is to be king, he will need my son to guide him, just as I do for you."

Crominus frowned. "But Laval wants to be a Kingsguard," he said.

"You're right. But with this threat looming, his talents would be better used advising the future king," Lagravis explained. "He'd serve better in the throne room than on the battlefield."