Alhambran king. The drake queen shrieks, and now no one pours water upon me. My arms blister. I smell my hair burn. I remember Kell Raven's last adventure, of how he too listened to the Harbinger's queen mother wail and shriek before her offspring returned to bring doom upon my peoples' hero. The caged drake queen shrieks because it is her offspring that brings the world its doom.
I chuckle. "The world does not hold enough water."
Though the chamber is hot, the warlock's face pales. How long has he suspected the truth? How long has he tried to deny what I am about to confirm?
"You must suspect why we have summoned you to this chamber" speaks the king as electricity arcs around him. "Jeffre has learned all there is to know about the Harbinger except for one thing. He does not know how to tame the Harbinger. He does not know how to place the Harbinger back in its cage."
I grin despite the horror. "And so you call on a Shadow. We have sewn so much fear and have planted so many lies so that you can never know the potential and the limits of our power. Perhaps you think I have the voice to soothe the Harbinger's hate. You think a Shadow can herd such a serpent back to its den. Perhaps you think a Shadow can wave his fingers and cast a spell that will put the Harbinger to sleep. Perhaps you think I can wield a sword to severe the Harbinger's three terrible heads. How can you know? We have kept our armaments a secret from you throughout this long war."
The warlock's lips twist. Soon, I suspect his expression will burn.
"We have captured you for nothing," the warlock hisses. "I have resurrected the most terrible creature your tribes know, so terrible because the Khy'Meir have no defense against it."
The drake queen thrashes in her cage, and a wave of heat sets the warlock's robes ablaze. The king throws off his five-pointed crown as its precious metals burn his bald head. I moan in anguish as the sentries again deny me water as they rush to dump bucket-loads upon themselves and their king. The drake queen shows no mercy. She screams and shrieks, turning the room into an oven. The end is near.
"I have no weapon against the Harbinger!" I hold my head high as I speak to the king.
The king's head slumps. "And what of your hero? What of Kell Raven? How did he defeat the Harbinger?"
I laugh as my arms and legs burn. "Our hero was only fiction."
The ceiling of our subterranean chamber shakes as the drake queen writhes against her chains. A deep roar thunders through the ground. The walls quake. I know the Harbinger drake has arrived in the skies above the ground. I know the Harbinger rains ruin upon the Alhambrans's great city of Rhone. I know the tales of Harbinger too well. I know my tribes are burned away. I know that all of my enemy's towers are falling. I know no temple provides sanctuary from that awful weapon that has returned with an unsatisfied appetite to the kingdom responsible for unleashing it.
The warlock smiles a final time. "We have destroyed our enemy."
The king frowns as his robes smolder. "And I will be remembered as the last King of Alhambra."
I do not agree. I know nothing can be kept from the Harbinger's flame. I know there will be no survivors. Our most terrible monster, and our enemy's most terrible weapon, has won our bitter war.