Stephen Deas - The adamantine palace

'I didn't have her killed.' Jehal yawned. 'I was there. Why can't I move my hands?' The faraway part of him was shouting and screaming something. If he tried, he could almost make it out.

'Because they're t-tied to a wheel. You were there? What do you mean you were th-there?'

'I was with her.' He stared at Hyram. 'On the back of her dragon with her when she fell off. I wasn't ill that day. Your alchemist was so close to the truth of it. She did hide something when she flew out of Clifftop, and Prince Meteroa too, when he came back. Me. We went to such trouble, she and I, so that no one would ever know I was with her. Weeks of careful thought. And now here you are with your silly smoke and now you know.'

'You were w-with her?'

'Why, Speaker Hyram, you don't look well at all. I was in her saddle pack. I'd been seducing her for months. Little glances, little touches. She wanted me, old man. Oh, she ached for me. I just had to look at her and she got wet. So she smuggled me onto her dragon so that no one would know, so we could fly away and just fuck all day.' He leered at Hyram.

'No!'

'Yes, old king.'

'I a-asked you if you were 1-lovers. You said n-no!'

'You were torturing me. I lied so you'd stop. You didn't want to hear it, but you should have believed Queen Zafir. Devious little bitch that she is.'

Hyram's shaking was getting worse. He was clenching and unclenching his fists, pacing up and down in front of the brazier. The faraway voice in Jehal's head was still shouting things. Something about Hyram. Jehal frowned.

'Does it bother you, old man?' he asked. 'Does it trouble you?' He twisted his head from side to side, trying to hear what the voice was saying. Goad him? Make him angry? He looked at Hyram again. 'Does this make you angry?'

Hyram hit him. 'Yes. D-Did you kill her?'

Good. There was blood in Jehal's mouth. 'The ground did that. When she fell. Do you want to know why she fell? You do, don't you. Do you want to know why she wasn't strapped into her riding harness? Can't you see it for yourself? Do you want to know whether her body was naked when they finally found her?'

Hyram hit him again.

'Did she fall or did I push her? Is that what you want to know? Or do you want to know whether it was before or after I'd had her?'

This time Hyram hit him in the stomach. 'Shut up!'

'Maybe you'd like to know how many times I took her?'

'Shut up!'

Jehal coughed. 'No. You wanted to know the truth, old king, and so that's what you're going to get. I was her lover. I was with her when she died. I wanted to have her on the back of her dragon. Have you ever fucked on the back of a dragon in flight, old man? It's a thrill, but it's stupid. People fall.' He cocked his head. Keep talking. 'Do you want to know what she was like, Aliphera? Do you want to know how she moaned when she came? Do you want to know what she liked best of all? Do you want to know that she liked it from behind? Do you want to know what she would whisper when I slipped my fingers inside her? Is that what all this is for? Because you can never have her for yourself and you want to know what it was like? Ask away, old man. I can tell you everything?

That was as far as he got. Hyram, rigid with rage, let out a roar. He swore and screamed at Jehal, hitting him again and again. When it stopped, Jehal had a vague idea that it was because some men in veils had finally dragged the speaker away. Throughout it all Jehal grinned.

I win.

Kemir

He was lying on his back. He was soaking wet and freezing. Ice-cold water rushed around him. The tumble of stones that littered the river bed pressed into his back. He had a death grip on a man he vaguely knew, a knife held at the man's throat, and an enraged dragon glaring down at him. It already had Sollos, crushing him in its tail. Kemir's mind froze. He couldn't think. He was going to die.

Where are the alchemists? The words came from somewhere. He was staring at the dragon's mouth, waiting for the moment when the fire would come. Its mouth didn't move, but the words came anyway. Where are they? They filled him up on the inside, as big as the dragon itself. Where are the others? Where? He thought his head would explode. Alchemists! Where?

He could feel the Scales' skin, soft underneath, hard and brittle as glass where it was flaking away. Will a knife even cut him? 'I know where they are!' he shouted, if only to make the noise in his head go away. 'I know how to find them.'

The rage in the dragon's eyes faded to a simmering anger. It peered at him and snarled, and then it threw Sollos up into the air and caught him with its tail again, holding him head down just inches above Kemir's face.

Tell me!

'Don't tell it!' croaked Sollos, and then he screamed as the tail tightened around him.

Kemir squeezed his arm into the Scales' throat. 'If I tell you and let this one go, you'll burn me.'

Mountains. I see mountains in your mind. They are close. Tell me or I will burn you both.

'There are mountains all around you, dragon. Burn me and you'll never know which one.' Above him, Sollos screwed up his face in agony as the dragon flexed its tail again. Then the monster looked up. Abruptly, it let go of Sollos, turned and ran down the river. A few seconds later, it was rising into the air. Kemir could see two dark dots moving against the clouds high above. Reluctantly, he let go of the Scales and ran to Sollos.

'Are you all right?'

Sollos sat up. Blood covered his face from a shallow gash in his scalp and he held his left hand gingerly. 'Nothing that won't get better.'

'Do your legs work?' Kemir glanced over his shoulder. The Scales was standing up, looking into the sky, dazed and lost. Sollos got up.

'Well enough.'

'That's good. I'll grab him. Let's get running.'

'Wait! The riders.'

Kemir grimaced. 'What about them? They're all dead.'

'No, they're not.' Sollos pointed. In the middle of the river an armoured figure was staggering to his feet. Kemir grinned. Rider Semian. What luck!

'Well that can soon be corrected.' He raised his voice. 'Hey! Rider Rod! Over here.'

'Wait.'

'I'll make it quick. We'll get out of here before his friends come back.'

'Wait!'

Kemir growled. 'What?' Rider Semian was stumbling through the water and the stones towards them.

'Who was telling the white dragon what to do?'

'I don't think anyone was telling it what to do.'

'But that's not right.'

Kemir shrugged. 'Maybe, maybe not. I know shit about dragons, except what they do when they have riders on their backs.' He fingered a knife. Semian was getting closer. He looked bewildered, as though he hadn't the first idea what had happened. Easy prey.

'Let me talk to him.' Sollos picked his way over the stones towards the dazed dragon-knight. From above, a series of soul-rending shrieks echoed through the valley. Kemir winced.

'Rider! Rider Semian! Are you all right?'

Semian didn't say anything. His face was strangely blank. Kemir felt the hairs on his neck prickle. Danger! He took a step towards them. 'Sollos!'

Semian's mouth was half-open, his eyes vacant and distant, but when he moved, he moved with a sudden speed and purpose. In the blink of an eye he had drawn his sword and run Sollos through. Sollos gave a little grunt and doubled up. As Semian pulled free his sword, Sollos crumpled and fell into the water. Kemir found he couldn't move.

'Sollos!'

Semian lifted his sword and thrust down, burying the point in the exposed skin at the back of Sollos's neck.

'Sollos!'

Semian turned to look at Kemir. The vacant stare had gone.

'You bastard!' Kemir hesitated. Fury and revenge surged through him, demanding retribution, immediate and bloody. Yet Semian was armoured. He was a knight. And he'd been so unexpectedly quick.