Prince of Dragons

Chapter 44 - Purpose

Leonaro looked stunned.

"You contacted Wainur," he muttered, barely audible. "Wainur. And he told you." He kneeled. "Forgive me for doubting you."

A confused buzz rose from the crowd of Servants. Someone leant towards the woman Leonaro had told the answer to, and asked something.

"The dragon slayer gave the correct answer," she loudly proclaimed. "Darfith's answer was wrong."

The Servants' murmurs increased. Some of them were throwing shocked looks at Arwund.

"Are you saying this man is legitimate, Leonaro?" a Servant asked, a young, dark-skinned woman.

"I am," Leonaro said, rising to his feet. "This man is utterly, thoroughly, completely legitimate."

"What?" Darfith suddenly shrieked from the Life Crystal, which was still in Leonaro's hands. "WHAT? You would betray me? Desert me? Serve this usurper instead of your lawful lord and king?"

Leonaro looked at the crystal, his face calm. "Darfith," he said – what had happened to lord Darfith? – "if this man speaks the truth, then you never were our lawful lord and king."

Arwund was about as astounded as Leonaro. All he'd had to do was contact Wainur and answer one question correctly, yet many Servants' opinion of him seemed to have changed dramatically. Suddenly, a lot of them appeared to believe him, even seemed ready to follow him and serve him. Leonaro hadn't lied: to several of them, the dragons really were close to sacred.

"You fools!" Darfith suddenly howled. "You weaklings! You cowards! To think that I actually entrusted the restoration of my rule to you lot, you filthy, miserable humans! I had hoped you had a greater sense of honour than this, that you would understand the importance of us dragons and our honourable traditions! But no, no, no, as soon as someone claims to follow that traitor Wainur, even if that person is some human lowlife, you all bow down, betray your lord and obey him. And here I was thinking that you were worthy of serving the dragons, that you had the wisdom to recognise a species superior to your own and subject yourself to that kind! But you, you humans, you puny, dismal, treacherous humans, you once again refuse to bow down, you once again believe yourselves capable of ruling of your own accord!"

There was silence. Many Servants looked even more shocked now, horrified even.

This was when Merigunde stepped in. "What did you call Wainur?" she asked, her voice indignant – perhaps a bit more indignant than was entirely realistic.

"A traitor," Darfith hissed, "a dreadful, foul, conniving traitor!"

Darfith had made a fatal mistake. The atmosphere had grown tense. The Servants were silent, a bit too silent.

Their king, lord and master – that's what it probably felt like to them – had just betrayed them.

"You can count yourself lucky, Darfith," Leonaro said, his voice that of someone trying hard not to cry out in rage, "that I have no idea how to break a Life Crystal." He was struggling to stay calm, Arwund saw, but he was squeezing the crystal so hard, that his fingers, which were sticking out of a fingerless glove, had gone completely white.

Taking deep breaths, he walked towards Arwund and extended the crystal. "This is yours, sire. I do not trust myself with it."

Arwund took the crystal, a bit taken aback. As far as he knew, he'd never been called sire before.

As though that wasn't enough, Leonaro dropped to one knee again. Bowing his head, he said, his voice loud enough to be heard by the others, "I, Leonaro, pledge allegiance to you, my king."