Dragon Rule - E. E. Knight [96]
What did poor Halaflora matter now? The Copper felt his temper flare. If he could just spit fire properly, he’d flame the old buzzard’s face.
“Don’t say anything, Nilrasha. Ibidio, isn’t seeing me dethroned triumph enough for you?”
“It’s bloodlines that matter,” Ibidio said. “I’ve had enough of rule by unknowns. Such a court! This RuGaard, a usurper, a foundling who mates a nobody from Milkdrinker’s Hill and then brings in a dragon who believes herself a Hypatian and a scaleless hermit to presume to rule as Queen. Arrogance!”
“You think you will do better under the twins?” the Copper said. “You’re a fool if you think so, Ibidio. It’s the Red Queen’s old bargain. NiVom and Imfamnia will rule the Upper World. The Lavadome will exist only at their sufferance.”
“They can be managed. The Ankelenes have the crystal. We’ll keep an eye on them. Imfamnia may be a greedy, vain ninny of a dragon, but she at least comes from a noble line.”
“You nostril-clenching gargoyle,” Nilrasha roared. “With your precious bloodlines and family traditions. You’ve always resented me. RuGaard was perfectly acceptable as Tyr; you put him forward! Until he mated with me, that is. Then you started your whispers. Viper, you’ve spat your last poison!”
With that Nilrasha charged, mouth agape.
Shadowcatch threw himself in front of NiVom, who was moving in to protect Ibidio. Old Ibidio, who’d probably never opened her mouth in battle since she’d breathed her first fire at the end of hatchlinghood, froze in fury. Nilrasha struck her like a charging elephant and they clawed briefly, frantically, at the edge of the parapet before disappearing over the side.
“Nilrasha,” the Copper shrieked, launching himself into the air. His throne didn’t matter. The only thing that counted was his mate.
Together, the combatants plunged into the valley, bouncing off the sheer side of Nilrasha’s eyrie. Ibidio’s wings weren’t up to supporting both.
He folded his wings and dove. If his artificial joint gave way, so be it.
He heard a crashing of timber below. Startled black-and-white birds took to the sky, marking their fall.
The Copper opened his wings, daring them to give way and stop him from striking the valley floor next to his mate. But Rayg’s engineering supported him.
He found Nilrasha, bleeding from torn-away scale but otherwise miraculously uninjured, atop the broken body of Ibidio. Sightless eyes stared in different directions.
So passed the mother of his first mate.
“I can’t even die right,” Nilrasha managed between gasps. She licked him across the snout, exposing a broken fang.
“You’re just lucky,” the Copper said.
NiVom and his gargoyles came down at a safe pace, followed by Shadowcatch and the Aerial Host escort.
“Well, Nilrasha, I suppose I owe you a thank-you,” NiVom said. “Ibidio and her clique would have given me some difficulties. You’ve just strengthened my hold on the Lavadome.”
Nilrasha spat blood at him.
“Why don’t you just kill us and get it over with?” the Copper asked.
“No, RuGaard. I want you to go live with cold memories, in hiding, as I did. As nothing but a memory, you’re bound to improve. The dragons will forget your limp and your stupid expression and only remember your victories. But you and your wretched mate aging in exile, growing ever weaker—that’ll take the glamour off your name.”
“Then at least give me leave to live quietly with my mate, here in her eyrie. I can hunt and fish for us both. I’ll never enter the Lavadome again, or so much as offer advice to a young member of the Aerial Host.”
“No, Nilrasha’s too clever. She’s been your brains for years. You two might get up to something. The best safeguard of your good behavior is your mate, here, where I can keep an eye on her—and you as far away as possible. The other side of the world would do nicely.”
“You would forcibly part mated dragons?” Nilrasha asked.
“Your mating, if those ridiculous ascents you attempt could be called a mating