In a way, ithad.
“I should have been there to see her off,” Lucyan said as he flopped into one of the visitors’ chairs. Drystan downed his glass in one go, and Lucyan followed suit. The liquid scorched his throat, warming his stomach and taking some of the edge off his pain. “Instead I was passed out in my bed like a uselessfool.”
“Dareena didn’t want to wake you,” Drystan said. “She was worried that if she came to see you it would rile you up again, and you needed yourrest.”
“Yes, well, as much as I appreciate everyone’s concern for my well-being, I don’t need you fussing over me anymore. A few cracked ribs are the least of our problems. We need to access the treasury and find out how much gold we have before the elves come demanding theirransom.”
“Do you know how to get the door open?” Drystan asked. “I tried to get into the treasury yesterday, but I couldn’t find thekey.”
“Of course,” Lucyan said with a wave of his hand. “I figured out where father kept his keys years ago. How do you think I always had enough gold on hand to bribe the guards when we werechildren?”
Drystan snorted. “I should have known.” He pushed himself up from his chair. They made their way to their father’s suite, which was located in a tower at the end of the west wing. A strange sense of longing overcame Lucyan as they stepped into their father’s rooms—there was a time when he’d sit on his father’s knee in the winged armchair by the fireplace, where the king often liked to sit and think in the evenings, or perhaps read a book. Or where he would have barged into the bedchamber in the middle of the night, plagued with nightmares, and his mother would lift up the covers and let him climb into bed withthem.
“I miss them too,” Drystan said quietly as a fierce longing ripped through Lucyan. They stood together in silence for a long time, letting their childhood memories wash over them—memories from a time when they had been a happy family instead of the fractured, embittered mess they hadbecome.
“There’s a false wall behind this painting,” Lucyan said, crossing the room. Drystan gently took down the heavy, framed canvas, which depicted a wild, stormy sea, revealing a large hole in the stacked stone wall. Lucyan reached in and grabbed a cedar box, then opened it and fished out the key to thetreasury.
“It’s a bit odd, don’t you think,” Drystan said as he replaced the painting, “that Father chose to move the treasury into hissuite.”
Lucyan shrugged. “We dragons do like to hoard our treasure, and besides, it isn’t like Father was doing anything with these extra rooms.” The royal suite had an interesting design—in the center were the main bedchamber and the salon, but surrounding it were four different bedrooms. The dragon kings of old had been fortunate enough to have multiple wives, hence the plethora of rooms, but after their race had been stricken by Shalia’s Curse, those rooms had become obsolete. The room on the left had traditionally belonged to the Dragon’s Gift, but until their father had taken the throne, the others had satempty.
“What do you think about refurbishing this place?” Lucyan asked as he crossed the salon to the door on the far right. “We can give Dareena the main bedroom and each take one of these smaller rooms for ourselves. That way we can all be together. We’ll need to get rid of these ugly animal heads, though”—he gestured to the stag and bear heads jutting out of the walls— “and I doubt Dareena will care for all the antique weapons strewnabout.”
Drystan laughed. “I like that idea a lot,” he said, the light returning to his eyes as he looked around the space again. “It would be a lovely surprise for Dareena when she returns home. And we could give the weapons to Alistair.” As the soldier of their bunch, their youngest brother was fond of weapons of all kinds, and could wield almost anything you could throw athim.
Lucyan smiled, then turned the key in the lock. It had been years since he’d pilfered from the treasury, but he remembered the piles of gold and jewels well—their kingdom was rich. They should have no trouble paying Dareena’s ransom, and once they proved to the elves that they had no intention of spilling more blood, he was certain they could negotiate some sort oftreaty.
“Lucyan…” Drystan said faintly as the door swung open. “Are you certain this is the rightroom?”
“I…” Lucyan’s jaw sagged. The room was completely empty, save for some cobwebs in the corner. Panic slammed into him as he rushed into the room, looking everywhere, prying at the stones in the walls and floor to see if their father had somehow hidden the treasure from view. But there was nothing. Not so much as a single copper graced the stonefloor.
“How could this happen?” Drystan demanded, his face red with anger. “How could Father have spent all ourmoney?”
“He wouldn’t have,” Lucyan said faintly, leaning against the wall. He looked out the single window toward the Black Mountains. If he stared long enough, would he see his father there, circling the peaks of those chilly mountains, more beast than human now that he’d given in to his madness? “It’s more likely that he’s moved the treasure somewhere else in hisparanoia.”
“We’d bloody well better recover it before the elves come knocking again,” Drystan growled. “If the other kingdoms find out that we’ve become paupers, we’re done for. Do we have any money atall?”
“Tarius has a petty cash box,” Lucyan said absently, his mind racing through various possibilities as he tried to figure out where their father might have hidden the treasure. Most likely, he’d been moving it in small increments over the decades—the treasure was far too large for any one person to carry, even a dragon, and there was the matter of getting it out of the tower unseen. “It will suffice for current expenses until we can recover thetreasury.”
Drystan nodded. “Lucky for us, taxes are due in the next two weeks,” he said. “That will help replenish our coffers. If Father is hiding in the Black Mountains, that is likely where the treasure is, too. We dragons defend our hoards to the death, after all—even in his madness he would not leave all that goldundefended.”
“Right. I’ll ask Tariana to send some troops into the mountains to scout the caves,” Lucyansaid.
They found Tariana in the guardroom, in deep conversation with the captain, and took her aside to inform her of theproblem.
“Blast it,” she growled, her eyes blazing with anger. “I should have known Father would try something like this. He was always going on about how greedy his advisors were, and that everyone was trying to rob from him.” She flicked her reddish-gold braid over her shoulder, a calculating look entering her eyes as she considered the problem. “I have a company of soldiers camped out a few leagues from the Black Mountains,” she finally said. “I can spare a platoon to scout the mountains. I’ll send Xenai with them to make sure they stay ontask.”
“Excellent,” Lucyan said. He wasn’t close with Xenai, but knowing that one of his sisters would keep the scouts in line went a long way toward putting him at ease. “Make sure you instruct them not to approach if they find the king’s lair, and to only observe and report back with theirfindings.”
“And don’t tell them about the treasure either,” Drystan warned. “The last thing we need is for some renegade soldier to decide to make off with ithimself.”
Tariana snorted. “They can try,” she said. “Our father would annihilate them all with a single scorched breath if they tried to enter his cave. Still,” she added, a troubled look crossing her face, “there is always some idiot who will ignore the dangers and become blinded by greed. I won’t tell them what’s inside thelair.”
Decided, Tariana called for some parchment and a quill, then sent Xenai off to the Black Mountains to mobilize the company. Drystan and Lucyan were just about to leave when someone knocked at thedoor.
“Lord Shadley!” Drystan cried, letting the visitor in. Lucyan felt a jolt of surprise at the sight of the spymaster, looking travel-worn, the edges of his cloak crusted with dirt, his face and hair dusty from the road. Tariana shot to her feet, and Lucyan stood up more slowly—his ribs had begun to protest from all thewalking.
“I’m so glad you made it back safe,” Tariana said, throwing her arms around him in an exuberant hug. “Although I confess I am surprised to see you back here sosoon.”
