Dragon 4 Chapter 5

It wasn’t hard to see what had caused all the commotion in front of Brom’s house.

A massive black dragon had crashed into Brom's front lawn, its body wounded and bleeding. It wasn't nearly the same size as the silver slave, but if Brom had lived in any ordinary house, I wasn't sure it would still be standing after the mess the dragon had made with its landing.

I hurried over. The dragon stank of death, but as a black dragon, that was expected. It was alive; I could hear its wheezing breath.

"Someone get a healer." I shouted. There had to be someone among this group.

A woman rushed forward. She was another dragon. "My king." She put her hand on her shoulder and I saw black scales.

But I stopped her before she bowed. "If you waste time bowing to me when there is a dragon to heal, so help me..." I trailed off, leaving it to everyone's imagination.

To my surprise, she only smiled and rushed to the black dragon.

"Black dragons are healers? I figured with their magic, it would be difficult for them." I commented to Brom, who was standing next to me.

"Who better to stave off death than those who understand it best?" He chuckled.

Once he said it, it made perfect sense. They had death magic, but were likely the most well versed in preventing it as well.

I nodded and looked at the wounds. Working with Morgana, I at least had some understanding and could identify them. Though we rarely dealt with the sort of things that could put a hole in a dragon.

The dragon was injured, with large burns surrounding wounds across their body. It was enough to start with. "He was hit with some sort of explosives?"

"She.” The healer corrected me. “Looks like modern military weaponry, see the shrapnel?" Her head was hovering over the worst of them. "But a few of these are magic as well."

Brom snorted. "People are growing bold if they think rockets and guns will be enough to challenge the dragons. Beth was young. Tend to her and get her into a smaller form so we can move."

"You think whoever did this is coming again?" I asked. This was a poor way to start the conclave.

"She has injuries that suggest she flew for quite some time after sustaining these injuries." The healer said. "I can get her stable enough to shift in a few minutes. Please head out."

Even as she said that, the black dragon was shrinking into herself, returning to a human form.

Brom turned to me. "As our new king, I'd like you to lead the flight. My backyard has enough space for us to shift. I will maintain the concealment."

I understood, turning and letting my voice project. "Everyone, we are leaving. To the backyard."

Leading a small army, I walked through Brom's home, heading to where I assumed we could exit out to the back.

As we stepped out, I nearly laughed. Backyard didn’t seem like the right term for the expansive and manicured space behind his home.

Finding a spot on the lawn, I shifted. My bones crackled as I expanded. Gold scales rose from the surface of my human flesh and wings ripped out of my back. Though none of it was painful, it all felt like popping my knuckles. A tight pressure bordering on pain and then relief as things shifted.

There were many eyes on me, staring at my gold scales. They all knew who I was, and the reverence in their eyes made me relax a little. I had been expecting more friction taking my place among the dragons.

I hadn't seen her at the party, but now, as I scanned the crowd, I found a familiar green form rising among the dragons. I smiled, glad Yev was there. At least I’d have another friendly dragon face. Two once I saw Tyrande climb up between her horns and wave at me.

Rising with my transformation, I didn't stop until I was fifty feet long from snout to tip of my tail.

Other dragons bloomed beside me, some smaller than me, others much larger.

They all seemed to reach their max size, except Brom, who kept expanding. Soon he was well over two hundred feet long, with a wingspan to match.

The only other dragon I'd seen that size was the silver slave.

Finished, I felt his magic wrap around the group, concealing us.

Those accompanying their dragon mate but unable to fly were crawling up on their dragon. I felt my three mates clamber up my tail and walk along my spine.

"We fly." I announced as soon as the healer came over and shifted, carrying a half dragon woman.

My wings beat the air, along with a little over fifty other dragons.

The air churned around us as all the wings beat at once.

It was difficult to get lift at first, but the webbing of my wings caught and I lifted high into the air. I knew the island had to be across the water, so I headed that direction.

"You remember the direction?" I asked my wives.

Scarlett sat herself at the base of my neck and tugged on one of my spines.

I smiled. Her tugging did little to me, but it told me which way I should head without her trying to yell over the wind.

She had me heading directly for open water.

Brom flew up next to me. "You are using his strength well."

"Who?" I was using my own strength.

"Servile. The silver." Brom said, his tone solemn with remembrance. “He would be overjoyed to see you leading us to the conclave.”

"You knew him?" I asked.

"Long ago we were like brothers." Brom's voice was tired. "But no longer. Immortality does that. Keep your heading. There is magic to push you aside."

Now that he mentioned it, I could feel it. There was a subtle desire to turn away from where we were headed. Knowing it was there, it was even easier to ignore it and push through.

After a few more beats of my wing, the island became visible, and I frowned, struggling to understand how I hadn't seen it before.

"You don't see it unless you know it is there. We must maintain secrecy for this island." Brom said.

"Why?"

"It holds our history and is sacred to dragons. Our first ancestors built it. Come." Brom nodded rather than led.

I angled my wings downward, entering a slow dive towards the island.

The island was not small, and it was filled with wild vegetation. But sticking out among the wide leaf trees stood a massive stone tower that dominated one half of the small island.

The structure wasn't built with doorways meant for humans. It was built like a palace for giants. The entryway and the windows were several times larger than any I’d seen before. Although some of us would still struggle if we tried to move through them in our current size.

The spire leaned ever so slightly into the sea, likely erosion from the countless years it has stood here.

A space was clear in front of it. Overgrown stone tiles kept the trees away and made the perfect landing for us.

"Is it safe? Not going to topple over on us?" I joked, looking at the structure.

"It's leaned like that ever since I first came to it, and dragons have fought in its halls. Do not worry." Brom chuckled, returning to his short human form at the doorway and putting on a robe.

I followed his lead, shifting and slipping into a pair of jeans, leaving my chest bare. Everyone else followed the two of us, returning to human forms and donning their own clothes.

"You should announce that the conclave is now in session." Brom coached me.

"The Dragon Conclave is now in session. Please join me inside." I boomed. S

I saw Brom staring at the bracer that Jadelyn had given me. After using Morgana’s enchanted bra pad for our adventure through Switzerland, they thought I should get a spatial storage item that was a little more convenient. It even shifted with me.

He caught my eye. "That is a magnificent piece of enchantment."

"A gift from my mates." I told him as I walked in, holding my head high.

Dragons filed in after me, their harems coming in after them.

"Up the stairs, second floor through the doors." Brom whispered.

I didn't quite like having him coach me on the spot, but I also couldn't have done it smoothly without his help.

As I opened the doors, Brom cleared his throat, and his ladies stepped aside. So did mine.

Only Brom and I entered, followed by a select few.

It was clear why when I entered.

It was a large chamber with a single round table. Around it were ten ornate seats made of different materials.

I realized after a moment that they were each made of dragon scales and ornately decorated in various flowing forms to depict their elements.

Without needing to be prompted, I went and sat on the one made of gold scales fanning out like flames.

Across from me on the round table was an empty red throne.

To my right was an empty silver seat. Brom sat one over from that in a seat made of bronze.

Other men followed after Brom.

They quickly took their seats. Tim took his, but his brother hadn't followed us in. Another dragon I hadn't met yet, taking the copper seat.

The seats mirrored each other.

Red sat across from gold, white across from silver, and so forth.

Finally, the seats that were going to be filled were done.

I frowned, looking at the black seat. "Aren't there black dragons?"

"No males." The white dragon said quickly, speaking for the chromatics.

There was a little unease at the table, as if this was going to spark a sudden conflict.

I knew the first decision I was going to make as king right then. "Bring in the eldest woman of the black dragons." I said. "This might break your traditions, but I will make sure that they have representation if it is available."

That task seemed to land on the brass seat. Tim stood and went outside.

Brom cleared this throat. "Traditionally, it was also to prevent too strong of alliances. Though the eldest black dragon is married to Herm, so there should be no conflict."

"We will not fight you on this. It is just how it has been done in the past." The blue dragon said.

I was thankful for the colored chairs; it was helping me know which type of dragon each of them represented.

A woman with black hair came through the door with the brass dragon. She looked stunned, but her eyes landed on me. "You requested me?"

"Please take the black seat for now." I gestured to it as openly as I could, knowing what I was asking was outside the norm.

She paused, almost fearful that this was a test, but sat gingerly and settled in as my gaze shifted.

With that, there were only two empty seats, the red and the silver. And those two gaps bothered me.

"I guess I should call to order the first dragon conclave. As you all know, I have not joined a conclave before, so I am not exactly sure how to help us through this." I stumbled through my opening.

Brom cleared his throat and waited for me to call on him.

"Brom, I would appreciate your guidance." I gestured to him.

He bowed his head before speaking. "Items are brought forward, grievances among the dragons resolved. We each speak for our clans, as dwindled as they are." Brom explained.

I nodded, understanding. "So then, I'll open the table. Does anyone have a problem with me? I am sure at least one of you doesn't appreciate that the youngest among you is suddenly in charge."

The lady howled with laughter. "Oh my. He's going to bring a wave of change."

More than a few of the dragons present looked uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what exactly bothered them, but I planned to find out.

Tim leaned forward to indicate he wanted to speak, and I gestured to him.

"Please. You might not fully understand what you are to us. But rest assured that none of the metallic will challenge you. Our full strength will be behind the son of Bahamut."

For a brief moment, I thought he was saying they were backing another dragon, but then I realized he was talking about me. I’d never heard of Bahamut, but I didn’t miss how the female dragon’s eyes widened. "He's--" She covered her mouth.

"Please, I do not know about my broader history. I was adopted. The few who seem to have information have not spoken clearly to me."

The female dragon looked hesitantly down the line at her chromatic fellows before turning to me and speaking. "The heirs of Bahamut and Tiamat are a legend. I have not experienced the previous one in my lifetime. They are the leaders of the Metallic and Chromatic, respectively."

"This is a sign that I'm the heir of Bahamut?" I lifted my hand, shifting it into golden scales that then rippled and turned silver.

Gasps told me more than words as they all looked at me with awe. I mean dragons, literately the leaders of dragonkind were awed at the simple display of my scales changing color. That was something I was going to have to get used to.

"Yes, that would be fairly definitive." The woman said. "Which means the heir to Tiamat is here in the world as well."

"They would be able to take on multiple dragon colors too, like green?" I asked, while I kept my face as impassive as possible.

"Yes, Tiamat's heir will have the ability to become any of the chromatic dragons." She answered quickly. "Legend says you two will be drawn to each other." But then her expression wilted. “Though you can never be together.”

"Yet you will never find love with her." Brom said in an attempt to clarify her words. "The powers of fate will do everything in its power to keep the two separate. Bahamut and Tiamat’s heirs must not mix."

The star-crossed love between the two didn't concern me. What concerned me was that I could also shift into a green dragon. That hadn't been an illusion. "Could I also shift into a chromatic color?" I asked as innocently as I could.

"Impossible." The blue dragon snorted. "That would break one of the great patterns."

Brom held up a hand to cool his anger. "The great patterns have been broken in the past."

"Heralding a new age for the world." The blue beat his fist hard enough on the table that I expected it to shatter, but it just made a small smack. The table didn't even shudder.

Brom had joked that the structure had held up to dragons fighting, but I hadn’t thought about how reinforced everything within it must be in order to survive that fighting.

Holding up my hand, I silenced both of them. "That was just a question." I wasn’t ready to deal with the full implications of what they’d just said. "I have much to learn, it seems."

"The lower levels of this complex have murals that tell our history." Tim said. "Walking them with someone who knows them well will teach you much."

I quickly added that to my list. I was eager to get more information on dragon history and customs.

"The green dragons would happily take you through our history." The man in the white seat spoke. "They have been the keepers of time since the falling of the silver." The man in the green seat bowed deeply at that.

I nodded my thanks. "If there are no challenges to my leadership, then I guess I can relax. I had wondered when I came if I was coming just to fight." I laughed, but none of them did.

There was an awkward tension in the air after my joke.

Something told me a few of them hadn’t believed my power or my abilities, coming with the thought of challenging me in mind. But what they sensed and saw must have been enough to silence them.

Pushing through the awkwardness, I cleared my throat. "Onto the next item. What should be done with The Church and the celestial? My mates and I have sealed the only known portal between the celestial plane and our own, but they still pose a threat to us."

The blue leaned over the table, his eyes going dragon as he growled. "They have been allowed to grow for too long. While the celestial plane cannot help, we should harvest all of their mana users here. I will feast upon them and remind the world that a dragon cannot be enslaved."

I tried not to shut him down, but that was a little intense. He could have chosen a different word than harvest, for example. But I was glad that they were as outraged as I was about the silver’s enslavement.

I looked around the table for another opinion, but it seemed most of the dragons present wanted to fight.

"Are there other opinions present, or do we all agree that The Church and its followers have grown too strong and overstepped, that they must be weakened and reminded who is the power in this world? Is there any concern that we may draw the attention of the government with such large actions?"

"The governments are well handled." Brom reassured me. "Money makes things disappear quite easily from human minds. You are young. You could grow significantly if you were to devour a portion of The Church’s organization."

"I’m not quite sure they'd just roll over and let me eat them. They might get a few swords stuck in my gums." I joked.

Tim was the only one that laughed.

The blue stared at me. "Are you afraid?"

My beast growled at the word. I maintained a cool composure, but I stared him in the eye. "Patience is a virtue. I have a responsibility to restore the gold and silver dragons to the world. I promised Servile before he died, I would restore the silver. Rushing into a war is not exactly the best way to accomplish that. He didn't ask me to destroy the celestial plane; he asked me to restore his clan."

I paused, watching each of their reactions before speaking again. "However, it would seem that the church has forgotten our strength as we played peacefully in this world. They have overstepped and must be reminded of our authority. Any truce of the past is gone. They enslaved one of ours and tried to use him against us. If you wish to harvest their mana users in your territories, I will not stop you."

The word harvest still didn't sit well with me, but I tried to use their terms. Tried to talk as if I was the same power hungry dragon as the rest of them. I was not. Perhaps being raised as a human made me soft.

The blue had a feral grin that told me many people were about to disappear near his territory. "Yes, remind them of the strength of dragons."

"Is that not war?" The green dragon asked.

"I'm not coordinating a full scale attack. However, breaking peace goes both ways. I will not hold anyone here back from their own means of growing."

The green nodded. "So shall it be recorded. The Church has broken peace. Dragons have a valid casis belli for their own individual disputes."

“Do any object?” I asked.

"You don't need to ask that." Brom said.

I frowned. "Yet I will continue to seek the wisdom of those who have lived far beyond myself. I might be young, but I am not naïve enough to believe that my thoughts are always right. Now, what is the next order of business? Anyone?"