Thrall - Christie Golden [67]
“I am certain that I will be chosen, however it turns out to work,” Arygos said quickly.
Of course, Kirygosa thought. With their father dead, the blues alone among the dragonflights were without an Aspect. But choosing another? How was such a thing possible? The titans had charged the Aspects. Could lesser beings even do such a thing?
“We have need of you. Our champion must be awakened, and he must have an army if the flights are to be defeated.”
“They will, I swear it!” Arygos’s voice was rapt with desire. “We will defeat them, and destroy this world. All will perish as the Twilight’s Hammer falls!”
An army. An army comprising her own dragonflight …
Kirygosa closed her eyes, fighting back tears. Arygos was as lost as his father had been.
“They shall be delivered to you. Chromatus shall live.” His eyes gleamed in the darkness, his body taut with anticipation.
The Twilight Father smiled.
“You shall have their energy and my own devoted to this task, Twilight Father. But … I need them to be mine before I can give them unto you.”
“But …?”
The Twilight Father had picked up on the uncertainty, as had Kiry. Hope blossomed painfully in her heart. Things were not going smoothly.
“The orc you warned me about. He has come, as you feared he might.”
Thrall! In the shadows, keeping her head turned away, Kirygosa found she could not suppress a smile.
The Twilight Father swore. “This will not make our master happy,” he said. “I was told that Blackmoore would stop Thrall. Tell me what harm he has done so far … and why you have not slain him yourself.”
Arygos bridled. “I attempted to do so, but Kalecgos would not let me, and the scene was public.”
“Thrall is but an orc!” snapped the Twilight Father. “You could have easily killed him before anyone protested!”
“Two Aspects sent him to us! I could not dispatch him without either arousing suspicion or alienating many of my flight—and I need every one of them if I am to become the Aspect!”
“Must I walk you through this like an infant, Arygos?” The mighty dragon actually cringed at the criticism. “Arrange an accident!”
“You are safe here, with no prying eyes watching you for weakness,” spat Arygos angrily. “It is easy for you to talk of accidents when you are not in the heart of the situation! If anything happens, suspicion will fall upon me!”
“Do you think I know nothing of concealing one’s true nature?” The Twilight Father threw back his head and laughed. “I move among my kind as you move among yours, and no one is the wiser as to my true plans. It is a skill you need to master, young blue.”
“There are enough whom Kalec is swaying that I cannot afford anyone wondering why I was so insistent that a simple orc meet his death!”
“He is no simple orc!” the Twilight Father shot back. “Do you not understand? Thrall will destroy you if you do not destroy him first! This is what I will, and what Lord Deathwing wills! Will you defy our master simply because you are afraid of being accused? I think you choose the wrong fear to feed!”
“Kalec has taken him under his wing,” muttered Arygos, but his head was lowering. “I cannot do anything. But at least we know where he is. We can watch him. And perhaps there will be a chance. Soon none of this will matter, because I will become the new Aspect. Then I will be able to do as I please.”
“Did you see him?”
The Twilight Father’s question and apparent change of topic confused both blue dragons, the one to whom it was addressed and the one who was eavesdropping.
“See whom?” Arygos asked.
“Take flight again,” the Twilight Father said, his voice suddenly calm. “Fly to the northwest. Look upon him and return to me. Go.”
Arygos nodded and flew off again into the night. The Twilight Father strode to the edge of the floor and watched, the cold turning his breath to small puffs of air.
Kirygosa swallowed hard. She now knew whom Arygos was being sent to observe.
Chromatus. He of the multiple heads, he who should never draw breath. This was the sort of grotesquery that her blood