Becoming a Dragon (51 page)

John nodded. "I would have been surprised if he hadn't stayed. When is the meeting?"

"Oh, that's why I've been sent to find you," Daisy replied. "They're going to start it in a few minutes."

"Daisy!" John said. "Why didn't you tell me straight away?"

Daisy shrugged sheepishly. "I thought it would be nice to spend a few minutes together first. It'll be difficult to see you with my parents here. I suspect my mother will never let me outside alone without guards again. But they won't start without us. Besides, there's nothing we can tell them the others can't."

John shook his head at her. "You're impossible. There's plenty I can tell them the others can't." He took Daisy's hand and stood up. "Come on; show me where the meeting is."

Daisy led him to the meeting hall where nearly everyone was already gathered but she was right, they weren't ready to start yet. Daisy and John sat down with the others in a row of chairs against the wall and watched as the council members took their seats. There were a number of aides and assistants who sat on chairs next to the five.

In addition to the normal attendees and the five young people, there were a number of other guests, including the twins' parents and Crystal's mother (her father being a member), as well as a few people John didn't know. They all sat quietly at the far end of the hall.

John knew all of the commanders from the dinner party, and the head of military intelligence, but there were many faces in the council he didn't recognise. He knew the names of all of the council members, so it was now just a matter of matching faces to names. All of the others were representatives of the old families, the noble and powerful houses that, although they had no formal power, had massive wealth and influence and would finance most of the defence operations.  They had no voting powers on the council over most matters, but according to custom, most policies were agreed according to consensus and little was done without their consent.

Daniel Thorne's father, Lord Thorne, was instantly recognisable, the family likeness and the flamboyant dress of the western region giving him away. He was seated next to Lord Jeremy, the commander from the west, and he assumed the other man beside them was Lord Dominic, another westerner, and rumoured to be the richest man in the Kingdom. John had no time to study the rest of the attendees before the meeting began.

Lord Robert stood up. "Let us begin, gentlemen. This is far from a normal meeting, so let us dispense with the formalities and get straight to business. You all know why we are here, so I propose that we move straight to hearing the testament of these young people. Prince Arthur, I believe you have prepared a statement?"

Arthur nodded and stood up and approached the table, taking a seat beside Crystal's father. Arthur began to read the statement, which he and Seth had prepared with the help of John and the headmaster. Arthur's statement was quite brief, starting with the school trip, the ill-advised flight through the storm, John's arrival, plenty of details of what they had seen on the plain, and their trip back. They missed out the part about the Golden Dragon altogether.

Then the cross examining began. Were they sure they hadn't exaggerated the number of Blue Dragons? Could they be sure the drill had been preparation for an invasion? One council member, Lord Oscar, even implied the whole thing was the product of overactive imaginations.

Eventually, one asked how John had managed to find them. Arthur shrugged, and suggested they ask John these questions.

"Thank, you young man," Lord Lance replied. "I would like to hear from John. I think we can move to our next witness, wouldn't you all agree?"

The table murmured their ascent, and John took Arthur's place at the table.

Lord Lance address John first. "John, we've heard a lot about you since we first met you at that dinner party. An extraordinary year, wouldn't you agree?"

John nodded. "These are extraordinary times, sir."

"Indeed they are, although strangely, it all seems to involve you. First, you present your seemingly impossible theory on the Green Dragons, which turns out to be true, and then you stage that dramatic rescue of Lord Robert, pulling off a stunt that none of our most experienced flight instructors would be willing to attempt. Then we hear of a sneak attack from a group of Blue Dragons, which was inexplicably thwarted, and you're at the scene yet again. Finally, when we hear that a group of youths have been blown over the border and have unearthed invasion plans, I don't think there was a person on this council who was surprised to hear your name amongst the group."

"Indeed an extraordinary year," John agreed.

Prince Henry spoke up. "Indeed. Rather a lot of coincidences though. A man could be forgiven for being suspicious as to why you're always there."

"Perhaps, although I think it's all easy to explain. Hundreds if not thousands saw the attack on Furnace; the only thing that separated me from the rest was that my classmate is his daughter, and she begged me to do something, knowing that I fly well. I just stepped forward when others didn't."

"Fly well might be an understatement," Lord Robert observed drily.

John continued. "Similarly, I wasn't one of the ones blown over the border, I just chose to go and look for them. Many were involved in the search; I just chose to cross the border, as it was the most likely place they would be, considering the direction of the storm and where they were last seen."

"Yes, how did you find your friends?" Prince Henry asked. "Without being caught?"

"I put it down to good fortune, your highness," John replied.

"We could ask these questions all day," Lord Daniel observed. "Where would it get us? Do we really want to know about this young man, and question his motives and means, or to ask about the enemy gathering on our doorstep?"

"Hear, hear," Crystal's father said in support. "Arthur's report was illuminating, but I get the feeling you can add a lot more to it."

John nodded solemnly. "Just as with the Green Dragons, I have the same information as you, but I think I can bring a fresh and different interpretation."

Prince Henry regarded him scornfully. "What other interpretation is there? They're preparing to invade us. It's as simple as that. It's not as if it hasn't happened before. It was bound to happen eventually."

John shook his head. "No, an invasion on this scale has never happened before. They're preparing to wipe us out. They intend to leave no trace of us left."

There was uproar in the room. "How could you possibly know that?" Lord Oscar asked incredulously. "Can you read their minds?"

"It's impossible!" The prince shouted angrily. "You badly underestimate our strength, boy!"

Lord Daniel was one of the few who remained calm. "Gentlemen, I'm sure that the Green Dragons would have greeted this idea in the same way had someone like John presented it to them."

Prince Henry turned to face him. "You can't seriously be entertaining this ridiculous notion? We'll fight them off as we always do."

"Not always, your highness," John pointed out. "King Jerle II lost a city to them, did he not? If anything, we're weaker than then, and the Blues are stronger."

"Bah," Prince Henry replied. "You forget, my Great grandfather, King Henry II defeated both the Greens and Blues in the last of the great wars over a hundred years ago. The Blues amassed a huge force then but it did them no good, just as it won't now."

John shook his head. "Did he really win? He made some modest gains—capturing Black Rock from the Greens and some small movement in the southeast border with the Blues—but the Blues took half of the Green Dragons' territory, and then took the rest twenty years ago. They were the real winners. This time they will only be fighting you, not the Greens as well."

"What nonsense!" Lord Oscar objected. "Do you expect us to believe any of that?"

Lord Nicholas Highwind, one of the lords from the North whose family owned most of Newcastle, spoke up. "Tell me this, boy, where do your predictions of doom get us? What would you have us do?"

John nodded. "Thank you for asking. Something new. An alliance with the enemies of the Blue Dragons. We can't beat them alone, but we might stand a chance with some help."

The uproar that filled the room after this statement surpassed that following his previous statement. John sat calmly, waiting for it to subside.

"An alliance," Lord Dominic replied with a laugh. "With whom? The Rhino Dragons? Those primitive monsters can't be trusted and wouldn't agree anyway."

John turned to address Lord Dominic. "They wouldn't agree, although I'm not sure how you can accuse them of being primitive, since we know almost nothing about them, but the Brown Dragons might agree. They're the Blue Dragons' most obvious next victims. Put yourself back twenty years, with the knowledge you have now. If the Green Dragons had suggested an alliance to fight the Blues, would you have accepted it?"

"No," Prince Henry replied coldly. "We'd have taken advantage of their weakness and attacked them instead. Carved them up between us and the Blues. They were just as hated as the Blues and we don't mourn their demise. The Browns will treat this request in the same light."

Many called out "hear, hear" and other words of agreement, showing this was a popular view, but John was not dissuaded.

"But your highness, they don't share a border with you, and even if they did, there are far fewer of them than you. They're not in a position to take advantage of your weaknesses. Their choice is fight the Blues now and try to contain them, or be swept aside by them in five years' time. Then after the Browns, the Blues get to colour in the whole map."

"With respect," Prince Henry noted coldly, "no one here gives a damn about what happens after our demise. I can't quite see why you would."

John ignored the hostile tone. "Because being able to think from the point of view of people outside of this room is the only way to be able to present an agreement to the Browns that they might accept. I have prepared a draft treaty to be offered to them."

A number of people gasped in surprise as he laid a document on the table. "Don't you think you're being a little presumptuous, John?" Lord Lance asked.

John shook his head. "Time is short. At best I would say you have a month before the Blue Dragons invade. After I presented my theory on the Green Dragons to you it took months before any action was taken. If you take the same approach here, you'll lose this war."

There were some murmurs of agreement following this comment, and Lord Karl reddened but said nothing. Crystal's father reached over for the document and scanned through it quickly. "Some unusual thoughts here, John. But how would we even present this to them? We share no border, and the Blues are between us and them."

John nodded. "I will take it to them. I think there's a narrow point in their territory to the south east which shouldn't take too long to fly across. I will cross there."

"You?" Prince Henry asked scornfully. "Why should we trust something this important to a
boy
?" He twisted the word boy, making no attempt to hide his contempt.

"How many people here have ventured into Blue Dragon territory recently?" John asked him. "How many people alive have done that? I've done it twice within the last year, without detection. Who else would you trust this task to?"

"I've done it more than twice, young man," Lord Lance replied sternly. "But not at your age. There are older, more experienced dragons than you who would be more suitable."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here," Lord Richard pointed out. He was another of the Northern lords. "We haven't agreed whether we should even offer a treaty yet, much less what should be in it, so I can't see why we're discussing who should present it."

Crystal's father nodded. "We'll put it to a vote. Personally, I see nothing to be lost from an alliance. He's right; they can't attack us without going through the Blues first. If they refuse it, then we're no worse off than we are now. If they agree and don't fulfil their side of the bargain then it's the same. But if they agree and fight with us, it will make it that much harder for the Blues. There's nothing to lose, and something to gain. A vote; who thinks we should seek an alliance with the Brown Dragons, rather than to try to fight the Blues on our own?"

John looked around the table. About three quarters of the hands went up slowly, with unanimous support from the South and the East.

"Carried," Lord Robert said. "Next, the details of the treaty. This is what John has put in, if you don't mind me summarising your words: one, we agree to a military alliance, to be continued until this current conflict with the Blue Dragons ends, or whenever either party decides that it is no longer in their interests."

"That doesn't really hold them to much," Lord Greytower pointed out.

"Or us," Lord Robert replied. "I will read out the rest:

Two, that we agree to respect the integrity of each other's territorial borders, and only enter after being granted permission.

Three, if we engage with the Blue Dragons on their territory and come into contact with each other, we agree to come to each other's aid if required, and to treat each other as allies.

Four, if we or the Browns recapture land from the Blue Dragons that was recently land held by the other party, we will forgo the right to claim this land.