“Thank you.” I continued to eat and then waved at his plate. “Don't you like breaded meat?”
“Huh?” He looked down at the flattened piece of battered and fried steak. A heap of potatoes lay beside it, and littlecontainers of condiments sat between us. “Oh. Yes, of course.” He scooped some jam onto his meat and sliced off a piece.
As he chewed, I said, “I believe those silver flakes are spores.”
The King looked up. “Spores? As in fungal spores that infect plants?”
“Yes, for lack of a better term. The rot consumes magic, leaving only silver behind. The silver flakes off, and the flakes ride the wind to the next victim, similar to a fungal spore.”
“I see.”
“It spreads randomly. I can't find a pattern. Therefore, it must be airborne. That being said, I can't trace the path until I find the original infection.”
“How will you know it's the original?”
“It will have the greatest amount of rot. In fact, it may be nothing more than a pile of silver by now. After that debacle with Vanre, I'm thinking the cold may preserve it. So, silver spores could ride cold drafts and stay dormant until they land on something warm. But that's just a theory.”
The King frowned over this for a minute and then said, “I may have found something as well.”
“Oh?” I set my fork down.
“While you were supposed to be analyzing the rot, I went through the palace archives to see if there had ever been something similar in the past.”
“And was there?”
“No, but I found architectural drawings of the palace. They show a second armory.”
“A second armory?”
“Yes, the first Dragon King of Sconheit had a different armory. He apparently sealed it off before he left the throne.”
“Why?”
The King shrugged. “I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Either way, it will give me access to weapons.”
“Why do you care about weapons? You're a Dragon.”
“But most of my people are not. If something happens, I want them armed.”
I nodded, but my thoughts were already on the armory. Why would a king seal off an armory? King Falken had done it that very morning, but that was to contain the Silver Rot, and he said there was no mention of the rot in the palace archives. So, why did the first Dragon King do it? Regardless, I doubted there were weapons in it. If you're going to seal off an armory, wouldn't you remove the weapons first? Unless the weapons were the reason for sealing it.
“It doesn't sound safe,” I said.
“Opening the armory?”
I nodded. “Kings don't seal off armories for no reason. We may unleash something worse than the rot.”
“Or we may find the key to destroying it.”
“At least let me look at it first.”
“Very well.” He paused. “Sevarin, you can trust me. I won't hunt you like an animal.”
I lifted my chin. “Isn't that what you just did? You hunted me here.”
“That's not the same!” He took a calming breath. “I went to your guest room to tell you about the armory, and you were gone. I was worried. That's why I resorted to tracking you. Then I found you eating in a fucking cafe! This is irresponsible, Sevarin! Your kingdom needs you, and you run off without guards? What if you had been attacked?”
“I know this city well. I wasn't in any danger.”
