Sweet Waters Throne

218 Chapter 21Artodo was brought to a halt by Sir Arryn when he threw a spear which landed on his left eye and penetrated through his head. The spear was meant for Artemis, but Artodo took it and saved his rider. Sir Arryn didn’t live to tell a tale about how he managed to struck down a dragon, maybe if he did survive the singers and murmurs would have written glorifying songs for him. But Artodo made sure to end his existence by burning him to ashes, alongside his men before he fell down.

Lucky for Artemis, he landed on his feet when Artodo fell. He tried to take the spear out of his dragon’s eye but it wasn’t just the eye that was damaged. The spear cut through Artodo’s brain and the dragon couldn’t even function properly, Artemis tried hard to remove the spear.

He succeeded to take it out but the damage was done. The whole city was in flames, people were running in chaos and in the next half an hour, Artemis found himself all alone with a dead Artodo on the ground. Artemis heard of the tales of House Morrow and the death of dragons, how the tribe went from being the most powerful house in the world to being reduced to nothing.

The last dragon Euric Morrow fell from his dragon and died a terrible death, the Dragon Hunters knew that if you struck down a dragon, it’s rider will never survive the fall. And this is what was bound to happen early on, these men belonging to Aryan wanted to struck down Artodo because in that way, Artemis will surely die from the fall. They knew what they were doing.

As Artodo took his final breath, Artemis couldn’t believe his eyes and it all felt like a bad dream. He wished this was a bad dream, and that somehow his dragon will rise once again and they will fly back home. The memories of their flights together passed on Artemis’s head and caused him great agony, a tear fell down on his left eye as he tried to pull himself together.

His white silk coat was covered with sooth and his face too, the heavy smoke which came from burning the whole city covered the air hence making it difficult for him to draw breath. For the first time in his life, Artemis didn’t know what to do. He grew numb and unaware of how to proceed, there was not a single house that he could go and maybe ask for water. Artodo burned everything, there was nothing in sight except burned buildings and smoke.

It wouldn’t be possible carrying the dragon back home, Artodo was heavy and huge, the male dragon was bigger than a carriage. But also Artemis knew leaving him there dead for everyone to see would spark a rumor that would see him and Aurora taken as weak. If his enemies were to know that his dragon fell down and died in Old City, they will stop fearing him and maybe start searching for ways to kill the rest of his dragons.

And then what? What will happen when he goes back to being just the King of Maldonia, and not the Dragon King? Artemis feared if he went back to that, his half-brother will easily take his throne. Only dragons win wars, but not if people know that they can be killed.

Hence that day, all alone without help, Artemis dug a grave for Artodo. He took off his silk coat and remained with his black trouser, then he started digging for two hours in the cold and somehow the fire which was still burning warmed him up. When he finished, he took a rope and dragged Artodo to his grave. Artemis grunted his teeth, pinched his jaws and did all he can until he finally succeeded to drop Artodo to his grave.

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He exhaled and took a rest, then he buried Artodo in the grounds of Old City while still in shock of what just happened. All this time he wondered, what will he tell Aurora? How will he explain Artodo’s death to his wife who happened to the mother of the dragons? These dragons were engraved to her, meant to be passed to her from the last Dragon King.

The Dark Crawlers saw it to fit to bless Aurora with these dragons so that she can multiply them and start a new age of dragons. For the time being everything seemed to be going smoothly, until now. Artodo was the only male dragon, Vizoro already laid out three eggs but what about the other two she-dragons? How will they multiply while the male one was dead?

Series of questions roamed inside Artemis’s head as he buried Artodo. He was grieving and sad over the death of his dragon and friend, when he was done, he dressed himself in rugs and a hoodie robe then he found a horse and made his way towards the capital.

It was not easy for Artemis to be noticed along the road because everyone he met was rather focused on the burning city, not to mention it was already dark and cold. The hoodie also secured him from being noticed, he chose open skies for expensive inns because he didn’t want to be recognized. It was a two day ride from Old City to Blackmount, but news travel faster than that.

That same day during the night Aurora learned of what happened in Old City. The maximum destruction of the city, few people survived but most of them were burned by Artodo and Artemis was on his back. When Aurora asked why would Artodo burn the whole city, the spies replied because some of the men were throwing huge spears at him. This must have angered the dragon and hence it rewarded them with mass destruction.

Amongst the confusion, all Aurora could ask was, “Where is my husband? Where is the King?” but not even Lord Balrus knew about this.

“His dragon was last spotted in Old City, Your Grace. My rodents haven’t seen him ever since, he could be making his way back” replied Lord Balrus.

Aurora sighed softly, then she went on to sit on a chair and take a breather. “Why would he burn the whole city to the ground?” she asked herself. Then she turned to Lord Balrus, “Something is not right, I can feel it in my bones”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know yet”

“Can you see it?”

“It doesn’t work like that my lord. I don’t just see things because I want to, the visions come to me themselves. I am unrest, my head is spinning, something is going on and I fear it’s not good” added Aurora and this time she stood up and started to pace back and forth.

Well the next day came and still Artemis was nowhere to be seen. Aurora spent the morning looking at the skies for any sign of Artodo, the black beast was hard to miss but there was nothing. The rumors spread all over the kingdom about the massive destruction in Old City, and this created terror inside hearts of many, both nobles and good folks.

They started to fear for their lives, what will happen next? Will the dragons come after them and their children and burn everything they knew and cared for? Many of them took this act as offensive and unnecessary, Old City had done nothing to offend the King. That’s because most of these people knew nothing about what was going on in Old City, the riots and rebellions, Sir Arryn barred the gates and hence hiding Old City from the rest of the kingdom.

Now Maldonians shifted their faith to Aprophil in a span of just one day and condemn Artemis for his acts in Old City. There was a march held in Blackmount, ten thousand people joined and they marched as a sign of protesting what Artemis did in Old City. In Green Town people did also take the roads and marched, alongside Iron Falcon, Horriss, Gravestone, Copperstone, in Sea Tone people came out in numbers because they were still in mourning for Matthew’s death.

Those who came out in support of Matthew in Sea Tone spoke about Matthew’s vision when he protested against Artemis early on. “Matthew saw something that many of us refused to see, and that Artemis is a ruthless king and a tyrant. He burned innocent children in Old City, only the gods know when will he turn back to us, we are nothing but fishermen. He will burn us to the sea if we don’t take arms and support Aprophil, he is the true son of King Luca” the speech was delivered by a young man in his early twenties, somehow his words penetrated to even men older than him.

In the Mines, Lord Leoric laid still as he watched how the whole saga will turn out. Just three days past and the ten cities of Maldonia were unrest, crying out for a change of power. The good folks called Artemis, “A cruel and heartless dragon” and they chanted this in the streets as they demanded a new King to come and save them from the dragons.