Page 28 of The Forgotten Throne

I didn’t bother to argue with them, feeling the pain that this dragon was in from the wounds and having lost his pair-bond. He bared his teeth at me but that was about all the strength he had at the moment to threaten me with. Reaching out I placed a hand on his head and closed my eyes taking in all that he was feeling the sadness at being unable to protect his person. Interestingly enough I found he also wasn’t in agreement with what had happened here tonight but he would support his pair-bond no matter what.

“Would you like me to end your pain?” I whispered to the dragon. “You honored your bond and if you want, I will set you free from it so you can find them once again in another life.”

The acceptance from the dragon told me everything I needed to know. Calling on that part of me that held my Birthright I forced it through my hand that touched the dragon’s head and within seconds his breathing stilled and he was gone. Never would I leave anyone to suffer if I had the ability to do something about it no matter what side of the fight they were on. No one deserved to die alone, afraid, and in agony, especially not one such as a dragon.

Stepping back from the once majestic creature I faced the others who all paused to watch what I was doing. That’s when I noticed the Clan Leaders bound and on their knees in front of my guardians and Alsten looking worse for the wear. Taking a deep breath I steeled myself for this interaction knowing that I might have to call for the death of one or all of these men. If it came to that I don’t know how I was going to look my guardians in the face seeing as these men were their family, but such is the life of a queen.

Chapter Seventeen

The Choices They Made

“Was this worth it? Lives were lost tonight that didn’t need to end, but because of your selfishness this is where we are at,” I spoke as I walked in their direction. “Did you really think that being able to gain a pair-bond with a dragon would change matters? A quarter of their people here have dragons and it doesn’t make them anymore important than those that don’t. Someone please explain to me what your plan was because I just don’t see it and I’m not one to miss things like that.”

Garold and Xio stayed tightlipped, but Acton surprised me as he spoke up after a few moments of silence. “Tell me how would you feel if someone you didn’t know anything about appeared out of nowhere and took everything from you? We have been groomed from a young age to take over these roles spending our lives learning how best to take care of our people. Then in one moment it’s all stripped from you like it was all a dream. I was willing to work with you, to give you a chance to show us why the black dragon chose you, but then you decided to bring us here and cast us aside. If I was in your position, then I would want the council of those who have been doing the job far longer than you have. Snubbing us and allowing others to fill that role is foolish and shortsighted.”

Hmm, it seems that the half-brothers are more alike than they think. Jade is just as blunt about how he views things, the only difference being that he likes me. Acton did make a fair point, but he was missing half the story in his narrative which led me to make the choices I did.

“If things had happened as you say I could see your point very easily,” I mused. “Let’s get a full perspective on this situation though before you choose to die by your beliefs in this matter. Picture living a life where your role was set, you knew your place in life and believed everything you’ve ever been told about who you are as a person. Then one day you get paired with a black dragon having no idea what that means to the world only knowing that you now have disrupted the plans that have been so carefully laid out for you all your life.

“Some time later when you think life couldn’t be turned even more upside down a group of mysterious men show up and tell you that your dragon means you are queen to a group of people you’ve never really heard about besides the idle gossip. At the request of people you don’t know, you decide to go with them, leaving behind everything, never knowing if you’ll see your family again—or if they’ll want to see you after abandoning them. When you arrive at this new life, you discover it wasn’t quite what they said. Now I have a year to learn a whole new skill and prove that I can be queen. I do as they ask, spending day after day learning what you all spend a lifetime learning. Then I get betrayed by the very people who I’m supposed to be proving myself to. When I’m rescued and have no place to go, I return to these people I don’t really know and haven’t proved myself to yet so they try to kill me.

“Somehow this leads me to becoming crowned queen along with calling eight guardians to protect me. I’m lost, overwhelmed, and floundering trying to keep up with everything that has happened in my life up to that point. I hear there are Clan Leaders and I’m overjoyed to have people I can lean on to help guide me through what it means to be the queen to a people that I was still learning about. Only they prove to be someone I can’t lean on, instead they are questioning me on everything, making me feel small and insignificant. They claimed to be looking out for their own people but I discovered within my first two days that there is a traitor among you. This leads to more hostility from you all even when I offer olive branch after olive branch trying to work with you.

“The final straw came when you decided to use the people you claim to care so much about as a means to undermine me and lie to them. So tell me Acton, would you trust them to guide you in this new era? Because I most certainly wouldn’t. That is the reason I am dissolving the role of Clan Leader on top of the fact that we don’t have multiple clans anymore. We are united once more, and that is what is going to make us stronger. Due to your actions here tonight you will no longer be part of what I am trying to do with the clans.” I was so worked up by my rant that my heart was beating rapidly and my breath was shallow and quick. My anger at them for pushing me to make this call coursed through my veins making my hands shake.

“Why couldn’t they see that I didn’t want this, but they left me with no choice?” I demanded from Vasin, needing to know I wasn’t wrong in my thinking.

“Cass, we can’t change how people see us but what we can do is show them who we really are. You have given them chance after chance to show you a different way to end this, it’s their doing that we ended up here.”

“Am I doing that bad of a job they just won’t give me a chance?”

“This is about power, not about you. They do not want to give up the control they have and the Clan Leaders know that the longer you are in power the more the people will grow to love you. When they lose that last trump card they lose everything. You are doing the right thing removing them from power and starting fresh with this new way you want people to interact as one.”

Even though what Vasin was saying made sense, I still wasn’t feeling any better about this position they put me in.

“Your Highness, what would you like us to do with them?” Alsten asked, his face neutral as he awaited orders.

Taking a moment, I looked at my guardians who all stood just behind the Clan Leaders and I met their eyes, praying they would understand what I had to do. “I, Queen Cassarah, sentence them to death for acts of treason against the crown and the people of Sheca. They will not receive a hearing and will be put to death by beheading at dawn tomorrow.”

“So it shall be done,” Alsten stated as he bowed. “Men take these prisoners to the cells and lock them up for the night. They have an appointment they can’t miss tomorrow.”

“General,” I called out. “Please allow them to say goodbye to any family members as long as it is supervised, please.”

Alsten nodded and headed out with his men taking Acton, Garold, and Xio with them none too gently. I watched them fly off and a part of my spirit broke the further they got knowing this would affect so many more people than just me. Tomorrow people would be losing a son, father, brother, or lover and who knows how they would respond to the event.

“Dayson, Izel, May, do any of you feel the need to head back?” I asked, refusing to look at them as I spoke. I knew that there was no love between Jade and his half-brother and that neither one of them would welcome a visit from the other so I didn’t offer, plus Jade had Tahir if he felt differently than I assumed.

“There will be time later to speak with them,” Izel answered first, sounding much closer to me than he had been moments ago. “Are you alright, little warrior? You didn’t get hurt in the fight, did you?”

This caused me to snap my head in his direction, shocked that he would be asking me that right now. “I’m fine, Vasin and Dayson made sure that I was protected.”

“I’m glad to hear that, it would have been worse if they managed to harm you with their asinine idea,” Izel muttered, his face lined with anger. “How could they be so stupid to pull a stunt like this?”

“That’s what I want to know. My father might be a loose cannon, but he isn’t one to make rash choices unless there is something else that we are missing in all of this,” Dayson interjected.

Watching them all I couldn’t get over how calm everyone was acting, even Gavin and Phillip as they sat with their mother who refused to let go of her husband. For all that they were an arranged marriage it seemed they had found a way to find love. This made the whole thing even worse, now the queen was never going to see eye to eye on anything after my people killed her husband whether we were in the right or not. Unsure of what to do, I walked over to the Queen and her sons needing her to know I never wanted this to happen.

“Your Majesty.” I started kneeling across from her but with plenty of space between us. “I am so sorry,” I whispered, tears pooling in my eyes and my throat constricting with the held back tears.