Chapter Text
Year AS 560.
The storm howling ceaselessly beyond the ice walls did not ease the tension inside the enormous hall by even a fraction. They were in that legendary structure which the twin animus dragons had grown from the earth centuries ago with their blood and magic, which no flame or blow from outside could crack; The Gift of Splendor At the heart of the IceWing Palace. Today, beneath this dome, the continent's most dangerous dragons were gathered. But the true owner of the hall was nowhere to be seen.
The MudWing queen Marsh struck the ground impatiently with her thick, mud-dried-colored large claws. A dull, irritating sound echoed off the ice.
"Where has she gotten to?" she grumbled, letting out a thick breath from her nose.
Beside her, the SkyWing queen Harrier pulled her wings back irritably against her body. The rubies at her neck clinked against one another.
"If she hasn't frozen solid in her own palace, she'll probably show up soon. Calling us here and keeping us waiting is pure IceWing insolence."
In the corner, the SandWing queen Viper, slowly tapping the venomous barb at the tip of her tail against the floor, had just opened her mouth to speak when the hall's enormous doors creaked open on both sides.
With the freezing wind that poured in came the IceWing Queen Rime. There was neither an apology nor any hurry on her face for having kept them waiting. Her silver scales gleamed like blades in the pale light of the moonglobes set atop the palace. Her steps were slow and unhurried.
She glided past the other queens and climbed up onto her own tall, jagged throne carved from ice, and sat down. When she set her serrated claws into the armrests, the grating sound that resulted set everyone's teeth on edge.
"Do you know," Rime began, "why, in all this snow and chaos, I summoned you here to the foot of my throne?"
Queen Marsh tilted her head, the thick neck muscles beneath her brown scales twitching.
"I'm certain it wasn't to keep us waiting for hours here and watch us freeze. Why did you summon us, Rime?"
Rime's forked blue tongue slipped out from between her lips for a moment, tasting the air. She swept her eyes slowly, heavily, over everyone in the hall, one by one.
"Because of the rainforest," she said in a thick voice.
She hadn't given the name of the tribe. There was no need to. The words "the rainforest" alone were enough to tighten the air in the hall, to make the queens straighten in their seats.
"They've been hunting more and more, growing more vicious these past days," Rime continued. Her voice was quieter now but audible from every corner. "All that's left of the patrols I send to the border are piles of bones. They're not attacking to fill their stomachs. They're skinning them purely for pleasure, purely to spill blood. I know the situation isn't any different on your own borders either."
Rime leaned forward slightly, coiling her tail, which resembled an ice spear, around the step of the throne.
"And I know that the time to put an end to this has come and gone."
An uncomfortable, heavy silence fell among the queens. Each of them knew the savage screams heard along their own forest borders, their soldiers vanishing among the trees like ghosts, but none of them had dared, until today, to speak this brutality aloud, in front of the other queens.
"So why did you gather us here instead of assembling your own army and dealing with it yourself?" asked Viper, slowly swaying her venomous tail behind her. There was clear mockery in her voice. "Didn't the mighty IceWings have enough strength for it?"
Rime's eyes narrowed.
"Because whenever I move my army south and do something, there's a chance that the moment my borders are empty, you'll seize the opportunity to stab me in the back. There's a chance you'll declare war on me. All of you are hungry for power."
Before the queens could open their mouths to object, she raised her claw into the air.
"Don't deny it. I'm not going to deal with your daggers on top of dealing with those cursed monsters in that forest all on my own. That's why, as a last resort, I decided to call you here, to the heart of the Gift of Glory. We are here because we need a joint decision. I've come to hear your thoughts. What course should we follow?"
She leaned back again.
"Who has an idea?"
The queens looked at one another. Silent calculations passed behind their eyes, ruthless tactics forming in their minds. Those 'things' inside the rainforest needed to be either tamed or wiped out entirely, but the forest was their dumping ground; they vanished among the trees, killing silently.
It was the SkyWing queen Harrier, with her enormous wings, who broke the silence. She raised her right claw sharply into the air.
Rime lifted her chin toward her.
"Speak, Harrier. How does the forest look from the sky?"
Harrier cleared her throat, a thin layer of smoke puffing from her nose.
"Entering the forest by land would be suicide," she said, in a confident, predatory tone.
She straightened her neck.
"They're not even visible among the trees. They ambush and tear the soldiers to pieces. Here's my idea: my SkyWing soldiers will rain fire down without pause onto the southern and eastern lines of the forest, from above. For weeks."
The other queens listened to her closely. Harrier smiled.
"We'll turn that part of the forest into hell and drive them north, that is, toward your mud swamps and your ice cliffs. As the trees burn, they'll look for somewhere to flee. And once they're squeezed into a narrow strip, into open ground, your ice breath and Marsh's mud soldiers will crush them where they stand."
The idea rang through the hall. A ruthless, direct, and potentially effective, massive military tactic. But it meant risking the burning of a very large part of the forest, along with the entire ecosystem within it.
Rime tapped her claw against the icy armrest, keeping rhythm, her blue eyes sweeping over the others.
"Setting the south ablaze and driving them north... A destructive but sensible plan," she murmured in a cold tone.
Then she raised her voice, and it echoed through the hall.
"Very well. We move to a vote. Those who accept and those who reject Harrier's idea. Cast your vote openly. Those in favor?"
Harrier's proposal hung in the air. The MudWing queen Marsh curled her thick lips and grumbled.
"I have no intention of filling my swamps with that horde of savage freaks. I refuse."
Viper also shook her head from side to side; fire and chaos did not suit the SandWings.
The voting was short. The idea had been rejected.
When the hall sank once more into a droning silence, from within the shadows rose a voice that had not spoken until that moment. The NightWing queen Umbrashade stepped forward slowly, the silver stars on her wings trembling.
"There is no need for brute force," said Umbrashade. Her voice was like a dark secret whispered into minds. "Why don't we seal their queen?"
Rime's ice-blue eyes narrowed.
Umbrashade continued.
"We have animus power among us. Rime, your own palace was raised at the command of those twin animus dragons. My tribe has one as well. And as far as I know..."
She turned her gaze to the other end of the hall, to the SeaWing queen, salt water still dripping from her scales.
"The SeaWings have one too."
The gills on Queen Trench's neck opened and closed irritably. She struck her large, turquoise tail hard against the floor.
"I'm sorry," she said, in a hoarse, wet voice. "But I cannot put my own blood, my own children, on the line for a war outside my borders. Animus magic is not a toy."
Rime straightened slightly on her throne and bared her teeth.
"There is no war here, Trench. This is a solution! Because of those savages, none of us can move freely within our own borders."
Trench shrugged, unconcerned, the pearls at her neck jingling.
"That may be true for you. Not for me. Those creatures don't even come near the ocean. They hate entering the water. There is no danger here that concerns us."
Umbrashade smiled faintly. That dark NightWing smile, which looked as if it had calculated everything in advance, set even Rime's nerves on edge.
"Yes, they don't come near for now," Umbrashade said softly. "Not until winter arrives. When winter sets in, they shed those colorful hides of theirs and take on a thicker layer, one fully suited to the cold and harsh conditions. When hunger drives them to the coasts, to the freezing surface of the ocean, what will you do then, Trench?"
Rime's jaw clenched. The endless adaptability of the rainforest monsters was irritating her. She had no patience left to waste time.
"The matter is closed," Rime cut in. "We will end this with magic, in a single blow. Those in favor?"
Rime raised her right claw into the air with determination. Right after, Umbrashade's black claw rose.
The idea of getting rid of the trouble in the forest without shedding blood had appealed to the other queens as well; Marsh and Viper raised their claws too.
Trench took a deep breath and shut her eyes tightly. She waited like that for a few seconds. Then she opened one eye slightly and looked around the hall.
Every claw was in the air. The majority vote had been secured; resisting would only make her a target.
The queen of the ocean, with a heavy sigh, reluctantly raised her own claw as well.
A ruthless, cold smile appeared on Rime's lips as she dug her claws into her throne of ice.
"Then," she said, in an echoing voice that drowned out the storm, "we seal that queen."