The Order of the Scales Deas - The Order of the Scales

‘Where is she?’ snapped Hyrkallan. He didn’t bow back. Isentine blinked.

‘Brusque even for you, My Lord,’ Isentine bristled. ‘Yes, all is well. Indeed, my back does continue to trouble me. Etcetera, etcetera. You have a lot of dragons with you, My Lord, and not all of them of our realm. I hope they will not be staying long. We don’t have potions to spare for them. Might I ask who are our guests?’

‘The Speaker of the Realms, or what passes for one, has come to your eyrie to see our queen. The dragons are his and they will be gone soon enough. There’s a company of Adamantine Men come to keep you company too. They will be staying after I am gone, or are you short of food too?’

‘Food we have in abundance.’ Isentine frowned. Someone else’s soldiers in his eyrie was never welcome, whoever sent them. Too many chances for a spot of murder or an outbreak of poisonings. He sighed. ‘They’re not wanted.’

‘Just keep them away from the dragons, old man. So. Where is she?’

Isentine shook his head, a sour taste in his mouth. ‘The Hatchling Disease has taken hold despite the medicines. Her mind wanders. The dragon has her enthralled.’

‘Today we will be wed. Tomorrow we will fly once more to war. She will come with us.’

‘I’ll not let you take her by force.’

Hyrkallan rolled his eyes. ‘Ancestors! You want her away and yet you won’t let me take her? Make your choice, man! Perhaps the bleakness of the news I bring will tear her thoughts away to where they belong. Zafir lives. She flies with the King of the Crags. They have taken Furymouth and reclaimed the Pinnacles. She has Jehal’s queen. The one sister might not have been enough to drag our queen from her folly, but I fancy the other will.’

Isentine’s jaw gaped open. ‘Lystra?’

‘Yes, little Lystra. The pretty one with the big wide eyes who never could see the harm in anyone.’ Hyrkallan’s lip curled. ‘Mere weeks since we flew to war against the Viper and now we fight side by side.’ Now it was Hyrkallan’s turn to taste something sour. ‘Don’t tell me that will not get our queen’s attention. Now go and get her!’

Isentine shook his head. ‘I will bow to you when you are a king, Hyrkallan. For now I must show your guest hospitality. Go and get her yourself. I’ll send a Scales with you to remind you of the way.’

Hyrkallan’s face clouded, but after a second he nodded. ‘If I must.’ He tore a small pouch from his belt and placed it into Isentine’s hand. ‘Maiden’s Regret and plenty of it. You said I should bring some. You know what to do with it.’

‘Not until she says yes to you.’ Isentine shook his head.

Hyrkallan ground his teeth. ‘She already said yes. She promised me.’

‘She is our queen, My Lord. Speaker Jehal approaches. Best you be on your way. Be gentle with her. And beware of that dragon. Call her outside. Do not go in the room with it. Not if you value your life.’

He watched Hyrkallan go and then carefully put the pouch in his pocket. Sometimes he felt sorry for Queen Jaslyn. She was too young and the world was much too big. And then he remembered what she was doing, right under his feet, and he wasn’t so sorry any more. He wasn’t sorry for the man limping across the blasted earth of the landing field towards him either. Jehal, the bastard who’d cost his last queen her birthright and then her life. One of the nice things about being old, he thought, was that he really didn’t have much to lose any more. He could do what he liked, and if anyone wanted to hang him for it, well that was a punishment nature would serve him soon enough anyway.

The drawback of getting old was that he no longer had the strength in his hands to throttle the speaker. A knife would have done the trick, but he didn’t have one of those handy.

So until I do…

He fell to his knees as Jehal approached. He kissed the speaker’s feet and struggled to rise again.

‘Having trouble?’ Isentine listened for the mockery in Jehal’s voice but it wasn’t there. Instead the speaker reached out a hand and helped him up. Jehal flashed Isentine an empty grin laced with pain. ‘I know the problem all too well now, you see. Your last queen did that to me. A lesson I could have done without. The first of rather too many.’

‘Your Holiness.’ Isentine met Jehal’s gaze at last. He looked worn out, almost defeated. Broken.

‘Eyrie-Master Isentine.’ Jehal put a hand on each of his shoulders. ‘I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for a very long time. I imagine no one knows more about raising dragons than you. My uncle, I know, was greatly disappointed that you couldn’t come to my wedding.’ The sorrow in the speaker’s face had to be real, didn’t it? But this is the man who ruined our realms.

The eyrie-master bowed again, a little dip from the waist. ‘I live to serve Your Holiness. If there’s anything you would like to see while you are here, I’ll be happy to show you.’ He put on his best smile. ‘Does Your Holiness desire something? We are poorly staffed with so many of our dragons away, but we are not devoid of pleasures. Baths scented with oils, a feast of delicacies from around the realms, men and women who desire nothing more than to serve Your Holiness. You must be tired after your flight…’

‘I want my wife back, Eyrie-Master. I want my son. That’s all. I’ve flown from the Adamantine Palace to Sand in a day, and then from Sand to here, and I barely feel it.’ His brow furrowed. ‘No, wait. Now I mention it, I do feel it. I’m tired. Yes. Baths, feasts and so forth. All of that. Whatever you have. And then I’ll take your dragons.’ Jehal gave a bleak chuckle. ‘Are the whores good here? We always had good whores near Clifftop, and the brothels around the Adamantine Palace are the best in the realms. I don’t see any here, though. Cows and fields surrounded by sand that seems to go on for ever that’s all. Where are your women, Eyrie-Master?’

Isentine bowed. ‘Where they belong, Your Holiness. Kept inside out of harm’s way, or else far far away. You’ll find Sand more to your taste, perhaps, but I can send you whatever you desire.’

‘No, you can’t.’ Jehal’s smile snapped to a sneer in the blink of an eye. ‘I desire my queen. Whatever you’ve got will just be a disappointment, but I suppose it’ll have to make do. Send a few whores later. It might amuse me to watch them frolic together. Who knows? If I manage to drink enough to numb how much it hurts, I might even enjoy myself.’

‘I will have my servants show you to your rooms right away. The women will await your pleasure.’

Jehal waved him away. ‘Master Isentine, I jest with you. I have half a dozen riders and my pot boy with me, that’s all. I don’t need your rooms or your women.’ He gestured at the huge emptiness around them. ‘We’re to have a wedding, after all. I dare say we’ll all piss in our pants and pass out where we sit. No, we’ll wait in your halls for your queen to grace us with her presence.’ They walked across the entrance hall, a gloomy cavern of ochre stone that was the lower level of Outwatch. ‘You might have a few men standing by ready to throw blankets over us while we snore, though. I imagine it grows cold here at night. You should do something about this place. Put some windows in. How do you live in such dreary gloom?’ He paced restlessly about. ‘You know, this is probably bigger than the Chamber of Audience in my palace. Perhaps I should move my throne here. I certainly don’t seem to be very welcome anywhere else any more. Actually never mind the men with the blankets. Let the Night Watchman’s soldiers do that. They might as well make themselves useful.’

‘Yes.’ About that… ‘I hear you mean them to stay, Your Holiness. It is most unusual.’