The scarred commander of the Ashen Brotherhood remained on his knees while the forest filled with blood.
"Welcome back, Dragon King."
Toby stared at him.
"I'm not a king."
The commander's forehead remained pressed to the earth.
"Not yet."
Gareth immediately stepped between them.
"Get up."
The man did not move.
"I said get up."
A strange smile touched the commander's lips.
"I do not kneel to you, oath-breaker."
Gareth's sword came to rest against his neck.
"You know me?"
"Every child of Ash knows your name."
"Then you know what happens when people threaten someone under my protection."
The commander slowly raised his head.
His ritual scars formed concentric patterns around his eyes.
"You still think you are protecting him."
"I am."
"No."
The man's gaze moved toward Toby.
"You are delivering him."
A horn sounded from the ridge.
The kneeling warriors rose simultaneously.
Thane shouted, "Gareth!"
More soldiers were approaching.
This time, crimson banners appeared through the trees.
Morvus.
Three factions had converged on the same patch of forest.
And Toby stood at the center of all of them.
"We move!" Gareth shouted.
He grabbed Toby's wrist.
The boy cried out.
Gareth immediately released him.
The Sovereign Crest was burning hot enough to smoke through his sleeve.
"Toby?"
"It hurts."
Golden veins of light were spreading outward from the mark.
Up his arm.
Toward his shoulder.
Ysara saw them.
Her face filled with terror.
"Stop it."
Toby clenched his teeth.
"How?"
"Command it."
"I don't know how!"
"You have to."
Gareth crouched beside him.
"Look at me."
Toby's breathing was becoming frantic.
"Look at me."
Their eyes met.
"Forget them. Forget the soldiers. Forget whatever is under that castle."
The light reached Toby's neck.
"Listen to my voice."
Toby tried.
"I can't."
"Yes, you can."
The ground trembled.
The Ashen warriors began chanting.
Low.
Rhythmic.
Ancient.
The scarred commander spread his arms.
"The vessel remembers!"
"Silence!" Gareth roared.
The chanting continued.
Toby screamed.
The golden light flashed.
A shockwave exploded outward.
Men were thrown from their feet.
Trees bent.
Gareth struck the ground hard.
For several seconds, he could hear nothing.
Then Toby collapsed.
Gareth crawled toward him.
"Toby!"
The boy was unconscious.
But breathing.
The crest had gone dark.
Gareth lifted him.
"We leave now."
Thane staggered upright.
"There's a hunting lodge west of here."
"You expect me to trust you?"
"No."
Thane wiped blood from his mouth.
"But if we remain here, Morvus will have all of us."
That was difficult to argue with.
Ysara could barely stand.
Gareth looked at Thane.
"Help her."
Thane stared at the wounded woman accused of murdering Queen Elara.
"You're serious?"
"Unfortunately."
They fled west.
Behind them, the Ashen Brotherhood did not pursue.
That worried Gareth more than pursuit would have.
The scarred commander simply watched them disappear.
Smiling.
As though everything had happened exactly as intended.
---
The hunting lodge had belonged to King Aldren.
It stood hidden among ancient cedars, abandoned since his death.
Thane's surviving soldiers secured the perimeter.
Inside, Gareth placed Toby on a narrow bed.
Ysara examined the crest.
The boy remained unconscious.
"Will he wake?"
"Yes."
"You sound certain."
"I'm not."
Gareth glared at her.
Ysara sighed.
"He should wake."
"Better."
She cleaned the wound in her shoulder while Thane stood near the window.
Gareth faced both of them.
"No more half-truths."
Neither responded.
Gareth slammed the black dagger from the archive onto the table.
"I have spent half this day discovering that everyone I trusted is alive, dead, lying, or some combination of the three."
Thane almost smiled.
Gareth pointed at Toby.
"That boy entered High Keep believing he was an orphan. Now Morvus calls him the royal heir, Veyron calls him the wrong heir, you say he's my son, and an army of lunatics calls him the Dragon King."
He looked at Ysara.
"Start explaining."
Ysara glanced at Toby.
"Seraphine's family name was not Vale."
"You said that already."
"She was born Seraphine Vaelor."
Thane turned sharply.
"You never told me that."
"You never asked."
"Vaelor?" Gareth said.
The name was familiar.
Ancient.
Almost forbidden.
"The Dragon Priests."
Ysara nodded.
"Before Aldren's dynasty, the Vaelor bloodline guarded something beneath High Keep."
"The prison."
"Yes."
"What is imprisoned?"
Ysara hesitated.
Gareth reached for his sword.
"Choose your next silence carefully."
She looked at him.
"A creature called Azrath."
Thane whispered a curse.
Gareth frowned.
"Legend says Azrath was the first dragon."
"Legend is wrong."
"What is he?"
"No one knows."
Ysara's silver eye reflected the fire.
"Some records call him a god. Others call him a demon. The oldest texts call him simply the Hunger."
Toby shifted on the bed.
All three adults turned.
He did not wake.
Ysara continued more quietly.
"Centuries ago, the first sovereigns made a pact with the Vaelor guardians. Royal blood would rule above. Vaelor blood would maintain the prison below."
Gareth looked at Toby.
"And the crest?"
"Not royal."
"No."
"The entire kingdom believes it marks the sovereign bloodline."
"Because the royal family stole the symbol."
Thane laughed bitterly.
"That sounds like them."
Ysara continued.
"Over generations, the royal and guardian families intermarried. Eventually the distinction disappeared from public history."
"But Seraphine carried pure Vaelor blood."
"The last known direct descendant."
Gareth understood.
"And Toby inherited it."
"More strongly than she did."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
"Then why call him Dragon King?"
Ysara's expression darkened.
"Because there is an older prophecy."
Gareth closed his eyes.
"Of course there is."
Thane smiled.
"I missed you."
"Don't."
Ysara ignored them.
"The prophecy says that when the prison weakens, a child bearing the complete mark will appear."
"And?"
"The child can renew the prison."
Gareth waited.
Ysara did not continue.
"Or?"
Her silence answered.
"Or what?"
"Open it."
The room became very quiet.
Gareth looked toward Toby.
"So the Ashen Brotherhood wants him to free Azrath."
"Yes."
"And Queen Elara wanted him killed so nobody could use him."
"Yes."
Toby's voice came from the bed.
"So she was trying to save everyone."
They turned.
His eyes were open.
Gareth approached.
"How much did you hear?"
"Enough."
Toby slowly sat up.
His face was pale.
"So Queen Elara wanted me dead because if I died, this Azrath thing couldn't escape."
Ysara answered carefully.
"That was her reasoning."
"Was she right?"
Nobody answered.
Toby laughed once.
It was a bitter sound for a ten-year-old.
"Apparently that's the answer adults give when the truth is terrible."
Gareth sat beside him.
"You're not dying for anyone."
Toby looked at him.
"You barely know me."
"I know enough."
"Because you're my father?"
Gareth hesitated.
Toby saw it.
"You're still not sure."
"I'm sure Seraphine believed it."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
Gareth forced himself to continue.
"But whether I am your father or not, nobody gets to decide your life is expendable."
Toby looked down at his hands.
After a moment, he asked, "What happened to my mother?"
Ysara's face tightened.
"Three days ago, Morvus's men reached Saint Orlan's."
"Did you see them take her?"
"No."
"When I arrived, the monastery was burning."
"Was there a body?"
"No."
Toby looked up.
"Then she's alive."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you."
Gareth almost smiled.
That stubbornness again.
A knock came at the door.
Thane immediately drew his sword.
One of his soldiers entered.
"Commander."
"What?"
"We found someone outside."
"Morvus?"
"No."
The soldier looked confused.
"A girl."
Gareth frowned.
"What girl?"
"Maybe sixteen. Alone."
"Out here?"
"She says she came from High Keep."
Gareth exchanged a look with Ysara.
"Bring her."
Minutes later, two soldiers escorted a young girl inside.
She wore a servant's gray dress.
Her dark hair had been crudely cut with a knife.
Blood stained one sleeve.
Toby recognized her.
"Mira?"
The girl looked at him.
Relief flooded her face.
"Toby!"
She ran forward.
Gareth blocked her.
"Who are you?"
"Mira. I work in the kitchens."
"How did you find us?"
She hesitated.
Wrong answer.
Gareth drew his dagger.
"Try again."
Mira stared at the blade.
"I followed the horse."
"What horse?"
"Tempest."
Gareth's expression changed.
"Tempest is here?"
"He escaped High Keep."
Of course he did.
Mira reached into her dress.
Gareth caught her wrist.
"Slowly."
She removed a folded message.
"It was tied beneath his saddle."
"For whom?"
"For Toby."
Toby took it.
The paper bore no seal.
He unfolded it.
Only one sentence was written inside.
Tobias, if Gareth tells you he is your father, ask him what he did with your brother.
Toby read it twice.
Then looked at Gareth.
"My brother?"
Gareth felt every eye in the room turn toward him.
"I don't know what that means."
Mira whispered, "There's more."
She handed Toby a second piece of paper.
A drawing.
Two newborn infants lay beside one another.
One had the Sovereign Crest on his left arm.
The other bore the same crest on his right.
Beneath them were two names.
TOBIAS.
CAEL.
Toby stared at Gareth.
"Who is Cael?"
Gareth had never heard the name.
But Thane had.
The commander went completely pale.
Ysara noticed.
"Thane?"
He backed away from the table.
"No."
Gareth seized him.
"You know that name."
"No."
"Tell me."
Thane looked toward Toby.
For the first time since appearing in the forest, genuine fear filled his face.
"We were told the second child died."
Toby stood.
"Second child?"
Thane swallowed.
"Seraphine didn't give birth to one son."
The room fell silent.
"She gave birth to twins."
Gareth released him.
Toby stared at the drawing.
"Then where is Cael?"
No one answered.
Suddenly, Mira screamed.
A blade had appeared against her throat from behind.
A man stood in the open doorway.
No soldier had announced him.
No one had heard him enter.
He was young—perhaps twenty.
Black hair.
Dark eyes.
And beneath his torn sleeve, a golden Sovereign Crest burned along his right forearm.
Toby stared at him.
The stranger looked almost like an older reflection of himself.
The young man smiled.
"Hello, little brother."
Gareth raised his sword.
The stranger pressed the blade closer to Mira's throat.
"My name is Cael."
His glowing crest intensified.
"And while all of you were arguing over which one of us is the key..."
A distant roar shook the mountains.
Cael's smile widened.
"...I already opened the first gate."