A Crack in the Stone
High above the city, perched on a tiny plateau of rock overlooking the top of the Diamond Cascade valley, Hyram and Queen Shezira stood side by side, watching the water rush by hundreds of yards beneath their feet.
'Queen Zafir. How is she?' Shezira stood inches from the edge. Hyram was even closer. The tips of his boots were actually sticking out into the void. One good push and both of them would be dead.
'Recovering well.'
'That's good to hear. So was she poisoned or wasn't she?'
'She's been a little unwell of late.'
Shezira cocked her head. 'A little? Hyram, when she collapsed everyone thought she was dead.'
'She choked. That's all.'
'Well then I'm sorry for you that she ruined what was left of your feast.'
Hyram laughed. 'We both know it was ruined already. When Queen Zafir collapsed, most of you couldn't get out of my hall fast enough. She was doing you all a favour. Giving you a polite excuse to leave.'
'Very kind of her, I'm sure.' Shezira swayed slightly as a gust of wind whistled along the valley. 'I would prefer to return to the pavilion now.'
Hyram didn't move. 'This always used to be one of my favourite places when I was younger. You can see right across the realms from up here.'
'I prefer to be on dragonback.'
'I know. But standing here is a reminder of how far the likes of you and I can fall. One missed step and we plunge to our dooms. It's been more than two years since I came here, you know. I couldn't stand like this when I was sick; I would have fallen.'
'Hyram, when we ride we wear harnesses to secure us to the backs of our dragons so we cannot fall, no matter what we do. That is what the dragons do for us. We can be as foolish as we like and our dragons will save us.'
'They didn't save Aliphera. Or Antros.'
'They won't save anyone who refuses to wear a harness.' Shezira turned away. 'If you stand there on the edge for long enough, Hyram, you will fall. Learn from your brother's mistake.'
Set back from the edge was the small pavilion built by Speaker Mehmit some two hundred years ago. The Purple Spur mountains were littered with little follies like this. Most had fallen into ruin, but this one had been popular with the speakers who'd followed him. From the bottom of the cliff it was invisible, and even from above it was almost impossible to spot unless you already knew it was there. It had become a little secret that the speakers had shared, passed down from one to the next. It was also an excellent place to spy on the Diamond Cascade, which had always been a popular place for dragon-lords and dragon-ladies who hungered to be away from the eyes of the palace court.
She went inside. There wasn't much to the pavilion, only a single airy room with open arches instead of windows. At the back were two wide alcoves, both generously piled with luxurious furs and soft cushions. It wasn't hard to guess what the speakers had used those for.
Has he brought Queen Zafir up here? Shezira pursed her lips. Of course he had.
She heard Hyram come in behind her and turned. 'It's good to see you in such good health, Hyram.'
'I can promise you, no one is more pleased than I am.'
'Are you going to marry her?'
That stopped him. For a moment Hyram froze. 'I think Queen Zafir stole the secret of the potions from the Viper to spite him. She knows how I feel about him.'
'Everyone knows how you feel about him.' Shezira cocked her head. 'But I'm not quite sure I understand it.'
'He's poisoning his own father.'
'Is he? Is he really?'
'I am certain of it.' Hyram's brow furrowed. 'Can't you feel it from him? The coldness? He's not human like the rest of it. He's vicious, callous, arrogant, self-obsessed-'
'You could be describing any of us.' She smiled slightly.
'You don't understand, do you?' Hyram shrugged. 'Ask Queen Zafir. She knows exactly what I mean. Maybe she'd be able to explain it better.'
Shezira's smile faded. 'Yes. So are you going to marry her?'
Hyram didn't smile. 'Yes, Shezira, I am.'
'And are you going to name her speaker, so you can carry on in the shadows behind her?'
This time he didn't say anything.
'Does she understand that she has to give up her throne, her crown? Does she have an heir ready to take on those burdens?'
That made him laugh. 'Do you?'
'We have a pact, Hyram. If you name Zafir instead of me, I will challenge her. And you will make a bitter enemy of me. Isn't Jehal enough?'
He looked at her. After a few seconds he turned away.
'I think I shall leave now.' Shezira strode past him back out into the open air. She signalled to the dragon-knights circling high overhead to take her back down to the palace. Almost at once a dragon tipped its wings and almost fell out of the air towards her, landing perfectly on the flat area of rock outside the pavilion. The rider threw down a rope ladder but didn't change position. Shezira frowned. Her riders knew better that that. Whoever it was should have moved aside so that she could take the reins.
When the queen didn't move, the rider lifted her helmet. 'Are you coming up or not, mother?'
Jaslyn. Shezira climbed up to sit behind her daughter.
'I would like to fly Silence back to the palace, please.'
Jaslyn looked at her as though she was mad and didn't move.
Shezira bit back her irritation and buckled herself into the second harness. Jaslyn clucked at Silence, who ambled towards the edge of the cliff and flopped lazily into the air, gliding down over the Diamond Cascade valley, out over the falls and into the immensity of space over the City of Dragons.
'You're upset, mother,' shouted Jaslyn.
Shezira kept her lips tightly pressed together. Upset? Upset?! I'm furious, you stupid girl. More than furious, and you would be too if you knew. If you had any ambition, you'd be seething! There wasn't any point in saying anything to Jaslyn, though. / suppose I should be grateful that she's noticed anything at all.
'Mother, you're making Silence anxious.'
For an instant everything went red. She twitched in the saddle, half of her set on lunging forward to wring Jaslyn's neck, the other half determined to stay in control. Underneath her she felt the dragon twitch too, and lurch suddenly forward.
'Mother!'
Shezira clenched her fists. Jaslyn could tell something was wrong because her dragon could tell something was wrong. That was much more like her daughter.
'Take me straight to the palace,' she snapped.
Jaslyn tipped Silence into a dive. The dragon tucked his wings into his body and simply fell, head first, tail stretched out behind him, towards the palace. They dropped like that, half a mile vertically through the air. The wind was immense. It was impossible to say anything; by the end, as the palace spread out before them, it was almost impossible even to feel anything except the rush of it, and the sharp terror, tightly held in check, that they were going too fast, that they couldn't possibly stop…
Silence spread out his wings. Shezira pitched forward, helpless as the dragon slowed. She couldn't breathe. She must have blacked out, because one moment there was a crushing weight on her back and everything was grey, and the next the weight was gone, and they were floating down in looping circles, already below the tops of the palace towers. When they landed, Jaslyn threw down the ladder. Shezira climbed down very slowly and carefully. She was shaking. When she got to the bottom, Jaslyn was looking down at her with a big grin on her face.
Shezira didn't smile. 'Hyram is going to name Queen Zafir the next speaker,' she said. 'Why don't you take her for a ride and see if you can crush her to death.'
She turned away and strode towards the Tower of Dusk.