Sweet Waters Throne

240 Chapter 24After the disappearance of the dragon eggs to which no one knew how many were missing, things never went back to normal between Aurora and Artemis. That day Aurora came back crying after she failed to find the eggs, Artemis tried to ease her suffering but Aurora denied him access. She even moved from their chambers to another chamber still inside Aurora’s Hill and that’s where Aurora spent most of her time with her children.

Jahery was close to his second name day, and Haisa started to crawl. Artemis noticed the distance between him and his wife, he condemn Aurora’s silence while the realm was in turmoil. One day, he told Lord Angun, his Lord Hand. “My wife is supposed to stand beside me, not against me” he said.

“She needs time Your Grace, to heal the loss she has just suffered. Give her time” replied Lord Angun, as usual, always full of wisdom and guidance.

“What about me, my Lord Hand? Haven’t I suffered the worst? I lost my dragon, I watched Artodo dying and there was nothing I could do. The whole realm blames me for burning Old City while it wasn’t my plan to, if Aryan’s men weren’t throwing their spears at me, then perhaps the city would have survived” said Artemis pacing back and forth.

Lord Angun was there to advise the King and give him comfort. The Hand of the King was supposed to be the ear to the king, and his close confidant in everything he’s going through.

“Speaking of Lady Aryan, Your Grace...” Lord Angun said then he took a moment to see how Artemis will react.

“What about her?”

“She was seen last time marching fifty thousand men with Samwell Marshall, the rebel in Sea Tone who took the city”

Artemis sat down and sighed, “I thought we all agreed Samwell was a fool, and that he is not a threat. He’s probably leading sailors and pirates, there are no real fighting men in Sea Tone” said Artemis looking straight at Lord Angun.

.....

“You may be right Your Grace, but it’s Aryan’s presence with him which makes this whole situation... I may say confusing”

“Why so?”

“They were spotted marching towards West of the kingdom. We all know the cities which are in West are —”

Artemis quipped in, “The Mines, Dark Town and Iron Falcon” that’s how much he knew his own kingdom.

Then he sighed softly, “I knew he would take my enemies side, he’s betrayed me once more” and Lord Angun knew straight away who Artemis was talking about, it could be no other than the king’s own brother in law who would betray the king.

There was always bad blood between Lord Leoric of the Mines and Artemis ever since the day Leoric stepped foot inside the main palace in the capital. The only thing which protected Leoric was his power, and of course his one hundred thousand Killers who were known to be the best fighting men in the realm. Plus other hundreds of thousands of slaves he owned, not to mention all the golds mined at his own city. Leoric always bragged that he was richer than the King, and even Artemis knew that he may be right. After all, the realm depended on his golds and coins to fill the royal treasury.

Now this concerned Lord Angun, “If Leoric declares himself a rebel, we will be cut off from the golds. The royal treasury depends heavily on his weekly payments to the crown in form of gold. He will beggar the realm” he said.

Well, if there was anything that Lord Angun shouldn’t be doubted about is his clever mind. Shy away from his sixty eight name day and his brain worked as if he was a twenty year old. Always sharp to find problems and solutions. These two talked for about half an hour inside the council chamber. Then later on they were joined by Lord Akirbus, Lord Hofun who was homeless since his city was sacked and he now resided inside the main palace, and several invited lords from the Liberty Cities.

Artemis knew if he were to bring peace to his kingdom once again, he needed help from every part of the world. It didn’t matter where the help came, what matters was the people he went to were willing to help. Many wealthy lords and ladies joined Artemis’s cause just in case a war erupts, because still there were no official declaration form Aprophil who the people wanted, and nor from the Lords of ten cities, hence so far so good for Artemis.

But it wasn’t that good as he thought he was. Two days ever since Aurora visited the Mines and sort of harassed Leoric, the spies who stole the dragon eggs arrived in the Mines very discreetly. They didn’t dock in the main harbor of the city for fear they will be noticed by birds and rats, hence they used the part of the Sea which was barely used. Lord Leoric’s slaves were there to help them get inside the city.

There were ten spies, five came from West and others from East. Leoric himself praised them for taking such clever routes and maybe that’s why Aurora never found them, because they confused her.

Aryan was present during this day and she stood close to Lord Leoric. The occasion was attended by Leoric himself, his most trusted slave and the lead general to his one hundred and thousand Killers — he named him “One” because his Killers didn’t have names, and Aryan and the ten spies inside the tall walls of the council chamber, that’s because Leoric didn’t trust his partners, he knew they would be the first ones to take the news to Artemis about his rare possession.

So that means there were thirteen people inside the council chamber which was locked up. Between the ten spies, came out two of their group leaders. Those who chose West, pointed out their leader who showed the dragon egg to Leoric. And those who went East pointed their own leader too, and Leoric’s eyes glowed the very first moment he saw the dragon eggs.

The he asked, “Only two eggs?” just to make sure his spies weren’t lying to him.

“Yes, my lord. The dragon laid two eggs”

Leoric turned to Aryan, he needed her to assure him that was normal and his spies weren’t lying to him. Aryan managed to say, “That’s common, they usually lay one egg. Two is a good number” said Aryan and Leoric was convinced.

When he reached out to touch the eggs, the group leaders stopped him.

“We’ve played with fire my lord, we could have burned along the way. Fulfil your end of the bargain first, and then they are all yours” said one of them.

“Argh! I shit gold you assholes. What is one million gold coins to me?” said Leoric so arrogantly.

Then another group leader intervened, “It’s actually two million gold coins, my lord. One was for one egg, and we brought you two eggs” he said with a serious look on his face. These spies weren’t playing games with Leoric, they truly needed their money.

“Alright, One” Leoric called out his general.

“Master”

“Go to my Steward of coins and tell him I need two million gold coins, in the next few minutes or he may find himself flying over a cliff”

“Yes, master”

One walked outside of the chamber with his hands forward. He wore armor with a steel helmet, no one saw his face. It was a rule for Killers to always wear armors and helmets, all the time. This was Leoric’s way of preparing them for war at anytime.

“Shall we sit, you all look tense” said Aryan to the spies.

“No, we prefer standing up” replied one of the group leaders.

Leoric locked eyes with these spies, and right there he saw their arrogance and inability to take orders. He also knew they will betray him to any man with much gold, and hence that meant they can’t be trusted. And if Leoric can’t trust a man, that man never lives for long

One came back five minutes later with two bags full of gold coins, that should show you how much rich Leoric was. He only had to say he needed two million gold coins, and it would be delivered within minutes. “Perfect! Now give the eggs to me” Leoric snatched one of the eggs from the spies and held it in his arms.

Aryan took the other one and she was mesmerized at how beautiful the eggs looked even though they were all black in color and hard like stones. These weren’t chicken eggs which would break in a simple push, the dragon eggs could be thrown to a rock and still remain intact. That’s because they were rocks themselves at this stage.

The spies took the bags from One and started counting the gold coins. But how could they count two million gold coins, they were all shocked at how much they were worth now. “Thank you my lord, thank you...” they said to Leoric, who at this time had no time for them because he was taken by the egg which he was holding. He could see his whole future in it.