Apologies didn’t sway Dorim’s sour mood, and after several failed attempts to revive the conversation Niall left for his chambers. They weren’t far from Dorim’s, or Var’s. His younger brothers slept on the opposite side of the palace in order to assist the Monarch whenever he desired. Niall forced himself to think of other things, like the twin moons of life and honor. Their overlapping light created strange shadows in the dark. The pale beauties blocked out the stars, making the sky look like a black canvass for them to shape into their images.
Along the stone palace paths were viewing tiers. Niall stopped and went onto one that overlooked the desert valley beyond the hill country on which the palace was built. Only the occasional tree dotted the flat expanse. Somewhere in the distance the giant red cliffs of the Samaranthine River marked the end of their land and the beginning of their enemy’s on the opposite side.
General Torant marched on their enemy when Niall was sixteen and now, as a grown man, Niall had returned to the city for the first time. He walked the palace halls, smiled to the servants, watched the dragons usher the Monarch’s councilmen from floor to floor so they didn’t have to walk down those cold steps.
The behemoth beasts cast magnified shadows of themselves. Some were white or cream-colored, some as black as the night sky, while others were a strange gray-blue or seemed covered in rust. The dragons were beautiful slaves. Without their power, manipulated by the magic of the Controller, no palace would ever rest along the rocky foothills of the Tall Teeth.
Niall found himself entranced by the magnificence of each building, even the half-crumbled ones in Beggar’s Lane. Dragonbreath melted the metal and stone together in intricate detail. No blacksmith knew how to reproduce the designs the dragons created, and most — Niall included — assumed it was part of the magical mystery that gave birth to the scaled species in the first place, a mystery that only mages and the one Controller understood.
Niall heard the labored breathing of an old man, heard his sliding, awkward gait. “Does it feel foreign to you? This city. Our ways,” said the Monarch.
“No, my Monarch.” Niall bowed to the old man. “It feels as if I returned to a dream I never imagined to experience again. A sincere pleasure.”
The Monarch’s smile revealed his toothless gums, but that didn’t belie the man’s intensity. “Good, good.”
“If I may be blunt, my Monarch, is there something you require of me?”
“No, and I hope I do not have to for a time. Would that I were so fortunate.” He leaned on his cane and hobbled to the tier’s edge. “There are those who want my rule to end at last — you are one of them.” His smile was sad. “And yet you aren’t.”
“I keep my oaths, despite my personal feelings.”
“Ah, you are much like your eldest brother. Have you heard from him?”
Niall frowned. “I haven’t.”
“That’s a shame.” The Monarch stared into the city for a time. Niall shifted his weight, tapped against the columns of the rail. He was about to ask to be excused when the Monarch said, “I wish I could’ve spared your parents. Their loyalty was something I failed to value.”
“As you say,” Niall sighed.
“Tell me, how goes the war?”
Niall suppressed a surprised scoff. “My Monarch? Certainly your advisors update you on the General’s doings with more clarity than I can.”
“You’ve only been in the palace since the new moons, and now they’re full again. My advisors haven’t heard from the General in twice that time.”
Niall wanted to demand why the Monarch was being so amiable and relaxed. He preferred the hardened formality of the Monarch he remembered. This new ease unsettled him.
The Monarch stared into Niall’s eyes and chuckled. “This isn’t a trick, Arth’s son. I’m simply curious.”
“As you say.” Niall inhaled, and then said, “The war is almost over. General Torant was so confident in our good fortune that he sent Vars, myself, and my brothers back home with a squadron of men.”
“And where is Vars?”
“I wish I knew. He said he had matters to attend to that were private in nature.”
“A woman?” The Monarch smiled.
“I don’t know. If I were honest, my Monarch, he’s been distant since we left for home.”
“Strange. Likely there’s a reason. If you can, I’d like you to discover his whereabouts and report back to me.”
Niall stopped himself from asking why the Monarch didn’t ask Vars himself once he returned, and instead nodded. “As you command.”
The Monarch looked up at Niall for a while. He patted Niall on the shoulder, and there were tears in his eyes. “I hope to see you again, some day.”
Niall bowed. “If that is your wish, it will be done.”
As the Monarch hobbled down to the dragon’s landing terrace, where a grand black dragon waited, Niall tried to quell the sudden sense of dread that invaded his senses.