Dragon Rule - E. E. Knight [74]
LaDibar stood a little behind and in between. The seriousness of the occasion forced him to keep his tailtip from exploring various orifices for once. A few other dragons of the Imperial Line stood safely at the rear of the party.
Only NoSohoth stood a little apart, as if declaring his neutrality and waiting to see his Tyr’s reaction.
“Yes, we believe Queen Nilrasha had her murdered,” Ibidio said. “If you loved Halaflora, as I’m sure you did, you would want to see justice done.”
He had loved Halaflora. Despite her weak constitution, she’d devoted herself to being a proper mate when they lived and worked as upholders in Anaea. After the initial embarrassment of a shared life and even having a mate had faded, he’d found himself looking forward to the time they spent together, and missing her if his duties called him away for more than a day. Beyond that, he was deeply grateful to her. She’d been the first of his kind ever to be, well, proud of him and eager for his company.
Murder!
In the Lavadome there had always been two standards for killing another dragon. One was in a duel—an activity participated in more by males than females—a practice the Copper had tried to end, as the richer and more powerful dragons could hire professional Skotl duelists and thus always win disputes at little risk to themselves. There were few enough dragons and more than enough enemies without killing each other off over insults and livestock theft. But even now, duelists were frequently pardoned if the fight was fair and the grievance just, otherwise. Especially in the case of professional duelists, they were exiled to the surface—though not out of the Grand Alliance, so several still found useful employment aiding a Protector.
The other was deliberate murder. The Griffaran Guard saw to it that murderers were torn to pieces. In the case of a dragon murdering a hatchling, the bodies weren’t even burned, they were fed to the Tyr’s Demen Legion.
“We even considered charging her with the murder of a hatchling,” Ibidio said. “Halaflora was so sickly she might as well have been freshly hatched, and she believed herself with a bellyful of eggs when she was killed.”
“I don’t accept her cause of death as murder. She choked. Nilrasha tried to save her. I was there, I saw her eating enthusiastically when she should have been downing her usual tiny bites. You might as well charge me with killing her as well, for she choked.”
“We have witnesses who say otherwise.”
“I see your goal, Ibidio. You’d like me to give up my position as Tyr. You’re using my mate as leverage.”
“I always thought of you as an interim Tyr until others, more worthy, grew to dragonhood,” Ibidio said. “You’ve wrought great changes, my Tyr, but there will be consequences even the wisest of us cannot foresee. You’ve put dragonkind in jeopardy with this Grand Alliance. My mate and his father believed it best to deal with humans in secret, or by proxy, or under carefully selected circumstances such as the men of Anaea. Now you’ve bonded us to the Hypatians, a corrupt and fallen branch of mankind who’ve had its day and should have been washed away long ago by the tides of history.”
Behind him as always, Shadowcatch began to grind his teeth. It’s a wonder they’re not dulled down to nubs, the Copper thought.
Ibidio’s response sounded carefully prepared. He had wanted to throw Ibidio off the track with a counteraccusation, but though Ibidio was well into maturity, she evidently still had a sharp wit. Perhaps he should keep to the subject at hand.
“We know you cared for your mate. There’s no thought that you have been involved,” Ibidio said. “But as her mother and therefore the most aggrieved, I and the Imperial Line want justice for Halaflora.”
The Copper