A Dragon's Tale Ch. 55

When she exited into the night air, she saw the large form of Lord Delmar striding across the gangplank and onto his favorite airship. There were several lanterns lit on deck to provide light, as well as on the docking berth at the top of the castle as well. Above her, the highest towers of the castle could be seen with the lookouts stationed atop them.

Fiona took a deep breath and then walked forward.

"Good evening Fiona." Lord Delmar said after she stepped off the gangplank and onto the Helene. He was standing on the far side of the weather deck looking towards the south. He glanced at her and gave her a nod of acknowledgment before returning his gaze to the scenery. She got the impression that he was more contemplative than enjoying the view though.

"Good evening milord." She replied as she walked up to stand next to him at the railing, also looking out at the scenery.

"Have you thought about my proposal?" He asked without preamble.

"I've been thinking of little else milord."

"And?" He was still looking out over the railing.

"I'm wondering why you were asking last night." She said after a moment. "That was a big thing to be asking so quickly."

"I began inquiries into you for this purpose the moment you left my office after you passed that test." He replied.

"Really?" Her eyes widened.

"Narlotten needs an heir." He replied as if that explained everything.

"Begging your pardon milord, but why are you needing an heir? Aren't dragons living a long time?"

"Significantly longer than men." He nodded once. "That is why I need a wife to produce an heir, so that in several decades I can appear to die of old age without leaving Narlotten bereft of a ruler. I never wanted another wife after Helene, but the good of Narlotten requires it."

"Oh." She thought about that for a moment. "I'm glad you are loving Narlotten so much."

He made a thoughtful sound and seemed to consider for a few moments before speaking. "I do not love Narlotten."

She looked at him. "What?"

He turned to look at her and he seemed entirely sincere as he spoke. "I do not love Narlotten."

She blinked.

She stared.

She worked her jaw wordlessly for a moment, not entirely sure what to say. "You don't?" She finally managed to get out.

"No." He said simply, as if he was merely talking about the quality of dinner.

"Begging your pardon milord, but your actions are making it seem like your feelings for Narlotten are stronger than mere 'like'."

"I do not even like Narlotten, nor do I dislike it." He replied, again as if they were speaking of some food or drink. "I simply do not care about it, as you would not care about the weather many kingdoms away."

Fiona realized her jaw was hanging open and then closed it.

Then she stared.

Well, kept staring.

One of the things she'd learned when first coming to Karnas was how hard Lord Delmar worked for Narlotten. She knew that he rose before almost everyone else and went to bed after everyone else, taking no time for himself and no vacations. Ever. He worked tirelessly for Narlotten and she'd seen that firsthand more than once.

And yet he was indifferent to it?

How did that even make sense?

And yet she didn't get the sense that he was being untruthful; he seemed sincere. It then occurred to her that he probably hadn't said this to anyone else for obvious reasons, and yet he was saying it to her. She wasn't sure what to make of that. Was he opening up to her? Was he merely ensuring that she was well-informed before she decided?

"Then why are you working so long and so hard for it?" She finally asked.

Lord Delmar swallowed and blinked perhaps a bit more often than was usual. "While Helene was on her deathbed, she made me swear to do what was best for Narlotten after she was gone. I am keeping my promise to her."

Fiona would've been less stunned if Lord Delmar had slapped her.

He was doing all of that for Helene? She frowned; it seemed like there must be more to it though. No one could be working that hard and that long because of that. Although... Hmm, she had long heard that Lord Delmar and Helene had shared a love that few ever do, so maybe?

"I... I'm having a hard time believing that you care so little for Narlotten with how hard you're working for it." She said.

He made a thoughtful sound and then inclined his head as if in concession. "Believe as you wish."

"What about your daughter? Are you caring about her?" Fiona asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Lord Delmar's face became a stony mask as he looked out over the railing again. Despite his stony expression, she got the distinct feeling that he was concealing a rather vast well of emotion. "There is but one thing in all of Illuminar's creation for which I care, and that is the rebellious, wicked, and spitefully vindictive daughter that Illuminar both blessed and cursed me with."

"Vindictive?"

He nodded. "Helene once made a small doily for me because..." He paused, closed his eyes for a moment, and then reopened them and continued. "After she passed, I had it enchanted to be self-repairing because it was very precious to me. One day in a fit of rage, Rachel burned it to ash because I had denied her some whim that she fancied."

"Oh? You couldn't be stopping her?"

"I was not present; Lady Ekthros investigated the matter and presented ironclad evidence that it was Rachel."

It was at this moment that Fiona realized that Lord Delmar was talking more now than she had ever heard him talk about anything to anyone. Ever. He was usually a man of few words, but perhaps that was because he had no one to talk to? Perhaps he was lonely and didn't get to talk much, which perhaps accounted for his relative verboseness now?

"That is but one link in a long chain of events." He continued. "I would not have imagined that she could be so unlike her mother."

"How were you and the Lady Helene meeting?" Fiona asked.

Lord Delmar opened his mouth, then paused. "That story is best left for another time."

...and the terse lord was back.

Fiona almost smiled to herself; she had known that there must be something more to him under his impassive demeanor.

"Do you have objections to my proposal?" He asked.

"I'm not having many." She replied. "I'm hoping I'm not out of line milord, but I was having a question: I thought dragons were only having dragons as offspring and I'm not understanding how Rachel was born nor how we could be having a son."

"I am a dragon; I can enchant myself to produce the effect and also choose the gender."

"Oh." She had never considered that but supposed it made sense. "Okay, then. Um, I'm hoping I'm not out of line milord, but I'm having few conditions."

He scrutinized her for several long seconds. Suddenly, she had a great deal of sympathy for all the men who had been beaten by Lord Delmar in a negotiation.

"Such as?" He finally replied.

"Well, Conner first." She began. "I'm wanting you to promise that -- succession excepted -- that you'll be treating him like he was your own son. I'm wanting you to be treating him no different than any other sons we have, except regarding the throne of course."

"That is acceptable." He replied without even a pause to consider it.

"And if I'm being the First Lady of Narlotten, I'm wanting to use that position to help others." Fiona said, then hastily added. "I'm not asking for any authority or anything, but I am asking that you'll be listening to me when I'm thinking that someone is needing help."

He made a thoughtful sound and waited several seconds before replying. "I will promise to hear you out; I will not promise to act, but I will promise to give serious consideration to action."

"Aye, that's fair." She nodded, having seen enough from him to think that he would indeed listen. "Third, I'm hearing that some lords and ladies are sleeping in separate beds and I'm not wanting that. I'm wanting us to sleep in the same bed."

Lord Delmar again made a thoughtful noise, though this one was decidedly less positive. "That would not be my preference."

"I'm really wanting that." Fiona said. "I'm not saying that I would say no without it, but it would be making me very happy and not having it would be hard."

The lord scrutinized her for almost a whole minute without speaking. Finally, he inhaled deeply and then exhaled just as deeply. "I will agree to that."

"Then there's just one last thing milord." It was her turn to take a deep breath. "If we're going to be married, I'm wanting us to bond."

"That is out of the question." He spoke as if it was a self-evident fact, like water being wet or the sky being large.

"I'm afraid I must be insisting on that milord." Fiona replied. "I could be bending on two of my conditions, but the treatment of Conner and us bonding are things I can't be bending on."

"The former is admirable and I would not even consider denying it." He replied. "The latter is a point on which I cannot and will not be moved. Bonding to a dragon is different than bonding to other species and it carries limitations that I cannot accept."

"Limitation? What are you meaning?"

"They are irrelevant because I cannot accept them."

"I'm understanding that." She gave him a small smile. "I'm feeling flattered that you were offering though."

"You will not reconsider?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm afraid I can't be reconsidering on that point."

Lord Delmar inclined his head in concession and made a thoughtful sound. "Very well. Your service to me last night with the arrow was greatly appreciated. I shall direct my steward to double your pay from now on in gratitude."

Fiona smiled widely at that. "Thank you milord."

"You may go." He said in exactly the same tone he usually used when dismissing her after she had finished dropping off a meal.

She curtsied and he gave a respectful nod of his head before he turned to look out over the Helene's railing again. She walked back across the gangplank and stepped onto the dock, but turned back to face him.

"Yes?" He said after a moment without turning.

"You really are a good lord and I'll be praying that Illuminar will be sending the right woman to ya." She said.

"Thank you Fiona." He replied. His head started to turn and for a moment Fiona thought that he might say something else, then it returned to its previous position and he remained silent.

She wasn't sure what to make of that as she returned to the castle.

She still felt slightly flattered that he had asked her, and that fact brought a smile to her face. She was also glad that she had stood her ground on bonding. She had been bonded with Sean and she didn't want anything less with a future husband. Since she was a widow and could choose her husband herself, she was determined to bond if she ever got married again.

Her smile faltered a bit that Lord Delmar was adamant that he wouldn't bond, but there was nothing she could be doing about that.

* * *

Ethan flew at least a thousand feet above what looked like Paliso's palace looking for a place to land. He had identified a few balconies that looked to be the lord's but wasn't sure which one to land on. Those balconies were all next to each other though, so maybe they all led to the same room or were otherwise connected? He took a minute more and then decided that he would land on one of the side balconies and try to approach more stealthily.

He dived.

He tucked his wings and hurtled towards the balcony, taking note of the guards armed with bows on the walls and airships in the sky and making sure to avoid them. He was pretty sure they couldn't hit him anyway. He kept his wings folded until the last minute, then spread them wide and gave an almighty, magically-strength-enhanced flap to help kill his momentum, then dropped the final few feet onto the balcony.

It was opulent. It almost looked like the railing itself had been gilded in gold. The sconces, candle stands, and much of the crown molding were gilded as well. The fabric on the drapes clearly had gold and silver threads woven through them as well.

It was all a bit much.

His dragon side liked it, but he thought it was gaudy and tasteless; it was a display of obscene wealth for the sake of displaying obscene wealth.

Despite how impressive the balcony was, the room it led to was far less so. The room wasn't very large compared to the balcony, being roughly square and perhaps fifteen feet on a side, whereas the balcony was at least that wide and twice the length. There was a small bed about the size of a twin bed with what looked like silk sheets, but otherwise it was entirely unimpressive.

The woman sitting on it was impressive though.

She was gorgeous.

Drop dead gorgeous.

No, that wasn't a strong enough description.

Frankly, this woman could not only give Selene a run for her money in a beauty competition, but she could legitimately win. If forced to pick a winner, he wasn't sure he could. Maybe flipping a coin would be the best way to decide? Helen of Troy was reputed to have a face that launched a thousand ships; but like Selene, this woman had aneverything to launch a thousand ships.

Her skin was dusky-toned and entirely without a single flaw of any kind anywhere. Her black hair shone and fell in cascading waves and her figure was the stuff of legend. Her silk clothing was a cheerful orange color and covered everything, but was also clearly designed to allure and attract.

It took Ethan a moment to recover, but she seemed not to have noticed him. She was reading a thick book and the title was "The Legal Status of Slaves and Concubines in the Ten Kingdoms and Other Lands with a Focus on Their Treatment and the Permissibility of Their Emancipation."

That's when it clicked.

The small room and bed in such an extravagant palace right off what looked to be the lord's room. This woman was a concubine; a slave. He glanced at her neck and although her hair almost entirely obscured it at this angle, she was indeed wearing a slave collar.

Ethan clenched his fist and a tiny growl escaped his throat.

The woman looked at him. Her eyes widened slightly, though she didn't react otherwise. They were sad eyes, defeated eyes. She looked like all trace of hope had vanished from her soul long ago. She looked like any dreams she might've had or desires she'd once harbored were long gone, crushed into oblivion.

She looked him up and down for a moment before speaking with a slight accent. "Are you going to kill me?"

She sounded almost...

...hopeful?

"Of course I'm not going to kill you." He replied. "I'm here hoping to save someone, not kill someone."

"Oh." She sounded almost disappointed and her shoulders slumped a little further, if that was possible. She went back to her book, somehow looking even more sad than before. He wasn't even sure how that was possible.

Suddenly, Ethan had the urge to rearrange Lord Farbrottan's face -- and maybe his groin -- for how he obviously treated this woman.

A strong urge.

He looked at the only door in this room -- which led towards the rooms attached to the other large balconies -- and strode through it, banging it open as he did so. The room on the other side was beyond extravagant. Gold and silver lined almost everything that wasn't covered by obviously expensive works of art that had been painted on the walls like wallpaper. The candlesticks and other items in the room looked like gold, and his dragon senses confirmed that they were solid gold.

In the middle of the room was a bed that was almost comically large. Sitting on the bed was a man who could only be Lord Farbrotten, though there was a woman and also a child of about ten there as well. The lord and the woman were sitting together with the boy on the lord's lap and the lord was reading a book out loud to the boy.

Lord Farbrottan was about average height, though he was thin and wiry. His hair was an unremarkable brown color and he had no beard. However, there was something seedy about the lord's appearance. He was sitting up straight despite the boy on his lap and appeared to be enjoying reading to him. He had rather a lot of frown lines on his face despite his current smile. The woman next to him was reasonably attractive but not especially beautiful and her sandy blonde hair matched that of the boy's.

That was the exact moment that Ethan realized he'd screwed up.

Badly.

Lord Farbrottan snapped his head up when Ethan banged the door open. Ethan stopped just inside the room, not having expected to find the man with his family. The two men looked at each other for a moment, each sizing the other up.

Lord Farbrottan spoke loudly. "Fevie, get in here and bring your brats with you!"

Another door off the massive room opened and a gorgeous woman came running out, several young children behind her ranging in age from three or four to about ten. From the woman's dress, beauty, and slave collar, he assumed that she was another concubine.

"Come here!" The lord commanded and all of the newcomers practically ran to him, and clearly not because they loved him either. Once the woman and children were in front of him -- conveniently situated directly between the lord and Ethan -- Lord Farbrottan spoke to the woman sitting next to him and the boy on his lap. "Leave as quickly as you can and get the palace guard."

Suddenly, Ethan wanted to rearrange the man's face even worse.

It looked like Lord Farbrottan had called a concubine and her children -- who were presumably also his children -- into the room to function as human shields while the two that Ethan assumed were his wife and son escaped. Once they had left, Lord Farbrottan seemed to relax almost entirely.

"The prophet of Illuminar, Ethan Ejder." Lord Farbrottan said, not getting up and looking as relaxed as he might be if Ethan were in chains, not standing there with a war sword at his side. "Though with midnight blue armor instead of white; I assume to facilitate your entrance to my palace?

Ethan nodded, then spoke through gritted teeth. "Lord Farbrottan." He really wanted to teach the man a lesson but there were children in the room.

The lord smirked. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"You have rather a lot to answer for." Ethan replied, looking at the children and thinking about the over-taxed Ivernians.

"And yet I won't." The lord replied, still perfectly calm as he indicated the children around him. "You wouldn't attack with these young eyes looking on..." He looked Ethan directly in the eye, a bit of malice in his expression. "...would you?"

"Those are your children." Ethan snapped back, gripping the hilt of his war sword with his non-sword hand until it almost hurt.

The lord shrugged. "Yes, but they are the children from a slave." He waved carelessly at the gorgeous concubine next to him. "What are they to me?"

Ethan stared.

He shook his head slightly as if to clear it, sure he'd misheard. "You can't be serious."

"I love my wife and children." The lord replied, indicating the door through which the woman and boy had left. "But my concubines? They are stress relief at the end of a hard day, worth exactly what I paid for them and not a copper more."

Ethan stared.

Moments later, he heard the sound of armor-clad feet hitting the ground and the door through which the lady and the boy had left was flung open and a dozen men dressed in full chainmail armor came in.

"Hold." Lord Farbrottan said, raising his hand.

They stopped, notably on the opposite side of Lord Farbrottan from Ethan, and thus completely out of position to protect their lord.

"I would hear what this dragon has to say." The lord continued. "I'm curious what brings him all the way here just to seek an audience with me."

"Lady Ekthros." Ethan said after a moment. "She kidnapped the demon-possessed innkeeper's daughter and I want to know where she took her."