“Indeed, so it has been written since well before yours or my time, Lady Dana. So it was laid down before our father’s mothers were humped. So it was decreed by our wise ancestors. As such, it is passed onto you, to find these people who we are told can breed dragons, and see what threat they offer. I leave it in your wise council to decide what action to take, if necessary. Thus is the command the serpent-king gives. Do you accept this order?”
Dana stiffened. Theodonis spoke the words every king speaks when issuing an order to his huntmistress. The formality that binds the dragon riders to the serpent throne. No huntmistress, in the centuries since the pact was formed, has ever refused an order from her king. The question is asked lightly but to refuse would mean the breaking the most ancient agreement in the empire of Karne. She answered.
“My leige, my warriors are yours to command. I accept your order.” She bowed stiffly as she spoke the required response. Theodonis gave one of his scanty nods. Still his lips curled and his gaze remained resolute.
“It is so, Lady Dana. I shall leave you in the capable hands of Cordonis and Maldin to work out the details of your journey to Gestat. I shall retire now and leave you to your deliberations.”
The gathered hall rose to attention and stood alert as Theodonis made his exit. He unfolded lithely from his throne and left. One person followed him as he went, an old woman, bent and dressed in haggard clothing. She had the same dark eyes and sinister expression Theodonis had.
***
Theodonis came to his chambers. His honour guard stood outside, two huge men unmoving as statues. Weapons adorned them like clothing. The old lady followed him in.
“My dear huntmistress is becoming quite waspish of late. I suspect she does not like serving her monarch.”
“Like it or no, she cannot break the bond that binds her to the crown. To do so would be unthinkable. Leave her to her tantrums. If she becomes a real problem it can be dealt with.”
“I know that, dear mother. I know that. But it distresses me that the commander of my mightiest weapon could become such a problem. My dear father really should have chosen better.” Theodonos lowered his spindly limbs into a chair in the middle of the room. He reached across the table next to him a picked up a small fruit. He began to cut it into pieces with his ornate belt knife, carefully drawing slices into as if performing surgery. Or torture.
“We know us both that there are many things your father could have done better. Gaia rest his mighty soul.” She herself stood across the room next to a window. Her eyes did not seem interested in anything in front of her.
Theodonos’s twisted smile crept back onto his face. “As always you are correct, dear mother.” He gestured across the room. At the royal bedchamber, several youths lay on the bed. Two women and a young man. They were draped in gossamer togas. One of them, at his command, rose from the bed and came to kneel by the king. He placed a slice of fruit in her mouth and she chewed it. “I do not like Dana.” He said in a rare moment of bluntness. “She walks through court as if all are beneath her. She brings discord into my finely-tuned house. She makes my men and women less focused on their duties to their king.” As the girl chewed the fruit in her mouth, Theodonis moved his hand to her breasts and caressed her through her scant gown.
“You do not like her, Theod, because she was lover to your father. You do not like her because she stays distant from the happenings of her crown, holed up in her dirty dragon’s aerie. You do not like her because your people call her the Dragon Queen, and because they speak as she was equal, or even greater, than your rule.” She stood unconcerned next to the window. She drew out a heavy pipe and filled it with a foul-smelling herb.
Theodonis nodded slightly. His face was now blank. One hand reached into the girl’s dress and bared a small, soft breast. His fingers continued to work their exploration, pressing into her dark nipple. The other hand continued to feed fruit to both his own mouth and his servant’s. “There is that also. You know, my spies tell me that she had now turned her attention to Machil, the captain of my honour guard. I cannot have his attention diverted at such a vital time. The threats of those shadow-worshipping blind druids continue to bring an unsafe atmosphere to my royal personage. They want nothing more than an opportunity to put an assassin’s knife to my throat, and their cursed black magics may very well give them that ability. Why do I continue to have such untrustworthy individuals watching my back?”
The old woman sucked on her pipe, filling the room with heavy smoke. Now it was her who twisted her face into a small dark smile. “Those heathen cultists? Those impotent old cunts? They could not possibly present such a dire threat to your health, Theod. I suspect you resent anyone who is given Lady Dana’s attentions. Could it be that she has denied your demands once too often? You want to hump her, hm? Mount her as one of those beasts she rides? Is that it?”
Theodonos did not alter his perfectly neutral expression. Instead he casually tugged at the servant’s robes and they fell to the floor. Both her pale breasts were now bared and his hand fondled them still. His rising prick was obvious against his trousers. “Machil is welcome to the vapid whore. He should enjoy her while he still has the opportunity. If she returns from this sojourn I fully expect Dana to change her ways, or…” he picked up his knife again and held it to the girl’s throat. She did not change her similarly blank expression. She merely opened the crotch of his breeches and began to caress his cock.
“Careful, Theod.” She scowled. “What you suggest is no small matter. The removal of a huntmistress is a dangerous thing. She is supported by the loyalty of her warriors. If you court their wrath you risk the power of your whole kingdom. She has allies within your own court. Such an act could spell your end.”
Theodonos spoke to the old woman as the serving girl’s head moved up and down on his lap. She made small sucking sounds as she worked. He continued to press his knife against her neck. “That is the very reason why she needs to be tamed. Her power cannot match that of the crown. Such a thing is unthinkable, dear mother. Those dragon-bitches must be muzzled or they would be a danger to my rule. The pact was a foolish bargaining by idiotic old men and I do not see how it still bares credence today.”
“You are a fool!” She hissed. “The pact has stood for centuries! It is the one thing that binds them to you! If you tear it up then the Serpent throne will be castrated!”
“I am king, mother. I am not bound by pacts. I will not have my hands chained by the laws of ancient fools. Their subservience to my will must be absolute. If I perceive it to be less than so I will make steps to remedy it.” By now his eyes were closed. With his free hand, he grasped the girl by her hair and forced her movements over his prick. He pulled up her head sharply and down hard, to make her throat seize and tighten round him. She squirmed but did not get up.
“This is idiocy, Theod. I leave you to your deliberations. I suggest you study some tomes until I see you next. I recommend The Serpent Throne’s Power by Hardin, it goes into great detail as to the specifics of the dragon rider’s pact and how it is necessary to our empire’s rule. No serpent king can retain his throne without it, Theod. Every king before you knew it; it is time you realised that also. I bid you think hard, Theod. Think hard indeed.” With that she swept the door open and was gone.
“I never stop thinking, dear mother. Never.” he said to the closed door. He pushed the girl’s head down a final time. She struggled and made a small sound as he put his seed down her throat. He held her down still. “Swallow it, dear girl. Swallow it all. There you go.” Finally his seed was spent, and she fell back, heaving in wet breaths. “You poor little thing. Let me help you.” He pulled her to her feet, drew back his hand and smacked her face, hard. She fell to the hard ground, and blood welled from her lip. She continued to pull in ragged breaths but otherwise did not move.
He walked across to his bedchamber, the girl on the ground forgotten now. Two more servants waited calmly on his bed – another girl, smaller and darker than the last one. And a young man. Their expressions were as neutral as the first girl. He pulled down his breeches and stepped out of them, his semi-hard cock waving in the air, drops of semen still hanging from it. He pulled the other girl down the bed by her ankles and buried his face between her legs. His tongue explored inside her, his eyes locked onto the youth’s face. The youth stared back, seemingly seeing nothing.
* * *
Dana had left the audience chamber immediately after the king. She had gone first to the training courtyard, where guards practiced. The day was bright, fresh from last night’s rains, a good spring morning. Dana’s mood was not bright.
The courtyard looked over the hills below Kamildan, Karne’s capital and seat of the Serpent King’s throne. Kamildan was an enormous city that rose high above tall, steep hills. Concentric walls ringed the palace proper, and were said to be unassailable. No one was yet fool enough to try. Between each set of enormous walls were further habitations. The most important nobility lived closest to the palace, and the common folk of the city, furthest out. Outside the last walls were a sprawling mass of buildings, the town of the very poorest. From the training courtyard you could not see these dirty slums, only the plains which spread out around Kamildan. A network of roads strung out across the land, connecting Kamildan with its empire, like a spider sat at the centre of its web.
Guards and soldiers were in groups in the courtyard, training and drilling. Dana’s handmaidens were stood at one corner, waiting her return. These were her elite, her personal bodyguard of dragon maidens. As they saw her enter the courtyard they came to her.
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