Sweet Waters Throne

243 Chapter 24Just like what Leoric promised, ten heads of the spies who brought him the dragon eggs were brought to him and Aryan before supper. Leoric trusted One more than anyone, and he always delivers whenever he asks. “Didn’t I tell you, Your Grace. Now, do you trust me?” Leoric asked Aryan with a smile on his face.

Then he didn’t even let Aryan reply to his question before he interrupted her, “I can send men to Sweetfish Retreat and they can bring Olivia here. I don’t if she will be safe all on her own after we announce our…” he paused as if not sure of what to say.

“Our alliance?” Aryan asked.

“Yes, our strong alliance”

“I have left my lions in the island, I must retrieve them as soon as possible. I should be going, but I’ll come back” said Aryan and somehow Leoric’s facial expression changed instantly, he was just smiling but Aryan’s words made him somber.

“But you will come back, won’t you?” he asked like a boy clinging to his mother.

Aryan managed a smile, “Do you trust me?” she asked him, her voice thick and husky as always.

“I do, please tell me I am not making a mistake”

“You are not, or if you want, we can go together to the island. You look like you could use a walk outside of these walls” Aryan threw a joke around but Leoric didn’t chuckle or smile, he wasn’t in the mood to do none of that.

.....

“These walls have protected me for years, I can’t leave. But I’ll do one thing, One will escort you to the island Your Grace. If you betray me, he will take Olivia’s head as you watch, and believe me it won’t be that sweet”

“What’s with the threats my lord, I am on your side here… you need to trust me” Aryan insisted and even though Leoric wanted to desperately believe Aryan, he still made sure to include One amongst the men who will escort Aryan to Sweetfish Retreat.

Well, you may ask yourself, why would Leoric choose One and not other Killers. First of all One was a huge man, he was black and he weighed over two hundred pounds. Not to mention he survived fifty killing attempts on him as he was training to be a gladiator. Since then, his armor has remained untouched. Only a fool will choose a one on one fight with One, not even a skilled knight such as Aryan stood a chance against the big man.

And Aryan knew that Leoric chose his personal bodyguard because she can’t defeat him, even if she had twenty men against One, the result will be twenty men laying down dead while the big man waits to finish her.

Because she was trying to please Leoric and not disappoint him, Aryan accepted Leoric’s plan of installing One as one of the men she will sail with to Sweetfish Retreat, after all it wasn’t like she planned to escape or anything. This is what she wanted, a war against Artemis and she was just close to it.

The preparations for Aryan’s leave were made in a span of two days, and during these two days, Leoric and Aryan were insuperable. They spent most of their time together planning out how exactly the war should turn out, allies to consider and cities to take because they knew some of the lords were loyal to Artemis and they wouldn’t turn on him.

Green Town, Copperstone and Horriss were out of their plans, Leoric said Hawk Aethelind would rather lose his head than betray his cousin and he commanded a great army. “Trying to take Horiss means suicide, he can crush us in one single combat” said Leoric, even with his ego and self-absorption, he knew when to stand down.

The Grimwalds of Green Town have been loyal to Artemis since the beginning of the time, they would never betray him and that’s why Green Town was out of their plans. Now Copperstone, Lord Maureen died a year ago and his son took over as the new Lord of Copperstone, his name was Lord Tommen Maureen. Leoric has never met Tommen but he’s heard about his commitment in helping Artemis ending the riots so Copperstone was out of question.

They discussed Iron Falcon, the city where steel and iron came from. This was the city with thousands of blacksmiths who were experienced in making the best swords in the realm. Lord Finnian, the former ally of Lord Aethelind who graced the sands of Stonedance during the great battle and watched his friend die, was still the lord of Iron Falcon.

The best part about this is, Lord Finnian held a grudge against the king. Finnian believed if Artemis would have joined them during the battle of Stonedance then his friend, Lord Aethelind would still be alive and Lucian Mithandir would be warming the Silver throne now instead of living in Doha with his son who was a Seyyid and king of all Dohans.

One day Lord Finnian wrote a letter to Lucian Mithandir, and he expressed his pain for losing his friend, Lord Aethelind during the Battle of Stonedance. In that letter, he said if he had the means to kill the King, then he would do it. He hated Artemis with all his heart, and everyone knew.

“Lord Finnian will join our team in a heartbeat, he hates Artemis just like us” said Leoric and Aryan agreed. Hence they placed a black stone on Iron Falcon city on a map and rendered it secured.

Then they continued to survey the map which showed all the ten cities of Maldonia and their strongest points, and weak points, where to attack and where to use exit routes and tunnels to try and convince other lords.

In the midst of their conversation, suddenly they heard chaos and screaming coming from outside the city. Leoric quickly hid the map underneath the table and moved to see what was going on, he was with Aryan on their usual spot in the balcony ─ five stories upwards. They both saw a purple dragon floating in the skies of the Mines, this is what made the good folks of the Mines scream and unrest, it seemed dragons just kept following them every day.

It hadn’t even been a week since the green huge beast visited the Mines, and now it was the purple one and the moment they saw their king in his silver hairs and a red cloak, they instantly knew it was Artemis. Artemis landed at the heart of the city, he wanted his people to see him, to fear him just like what Lord Angun told him to do. “Strong men are feared, that’s good if you ask me because weak men die. You will chose your destiny for you, Your Grace. Are you strong or weak?” and we all know the Dragon King wasn’t for the weak.

The market square of the Mines was the most crowded place in the city, usually tens of thousands of people come here for their daily needs, whether to buy bread or simply looking for tasks to do or conduct business. But the moment Artemis landed, everyone started to run as if they had gone mad. Women screamed while carrying their infants, and men who were supposed to be brave, ran like little girls.

This showed how much they feared Artemis, and it was mostly because of his extra-curricular activities which involved burning of cities. First Lawsend’s city and the second one was his own city, in his own kingdom. The reason why many good folks were scared of him was because they asked themselves, “If he burned Old City, what’s to stop him from burning the Mines to the ground?”

Leoric’s slaves rushed to him, “His Grace is at the market square master, he sent us to inform you that he needs his nephew” they said.

Aryan was stunned, all this time she thought perhaps Artemis showed up in the Mines because he knew Aryan was there. But it turned out her secret was safe after all.

“Or what?” asked Leoric, he was enraged beyond control. “What dragon is he flying? The black beast?” he asked his slaves.

“No master, it’s a purple dragon”

Leoric repeated the words, “Purple dragon?” then he turned to Aryan and smiled. “This means it’s true, Artodo died in Old City” he said and suddenly the rage he had a few seconds ago, seemed to be cooled off by the confirmation of the death of Artemis’s dragon.

Not that he didn’t believe Aryan in the first place, he did, but he needed to confirm the death of Artodo by himself and this clearly proved it. Artemis would never leave behind his black beast, it was his pride and ego, the forty feet from head to tail beast was terrifying and it’s flames were hot enough to even melt irons. But he would only ride the purple dragon because his dragon died, and his witch wife was kind enough to grant him another dragon.

Leoric thought Aurora must be so spooked by Artemis, she gives him everything and he somehow always finds a way to blow it all away. “He needs your son, what will you do?” asked Aryan and this brought Leoric to the moment and he realized things weren’t as good as he thought they were.