The Dragon Society (Obsidian Chronicles Book 2) (26 page)

"And I must ask you, my lord, to speak when addressed, and not to interrupt," Lord Hardior said.

"I did not interrupt," Arlian said mildly. "No one was speaking."

"Yes, but in the future," Hardior said, slightly discomfited. "Now, Belly, you are the accuser. State your charges."

Toribor rose from his chair and looked over the assembled Society with his one good eye.

"Friends and comrades," he said, "you all know the terms of the oath that each of us swore upon joining this organization. We are united in our support for one another, and in our efforts to ensure that the dragons never again ravage the Lands of Man. We are sworn to share our knowledge of the dragons, to keep no secrets from the other members of the Society. Yet two nights ago, Lord Obsidian arrived at our late friend Nail's bedside armed with obsidian-tipped spears, clearly aware of what fate awaited him.

"I assume all of you have heard what happened.

Something
burst from Nail's chest, formed of his heart's blood, something that took the form of a dragon, and Obsidian and his steward slew it with their spears.

"Whether this was truly a dragon I do not know—

but I do know that Obsidian
expected
this apparition to appear, and came prepared to deal with it.

"I think it plain that he has kept secrets about dragons from this Society, in violation of his oath. Furthermore, while I do not know exactly what happened, believe we need to consider the possibility that Obsidian somehow
planned
Nail's death, in further contra-vention of his oath.

"And as if this were not sufficient, last night Obsidian took more stone weapons to Wither's home, and today Wither is dead, as well.

"I think we are entitled to a full explanation, and that at the very least Obsidian must pay some penalty for failing to reveal his knowledge."

Upon completing this speech Toribor looked around the room again, and then sat down.

Hardior nodded. "Does anyone else have further accusations to make?"

To Arlian's surprise, Lord Ticker stood up. He pointed at an ornate cabinet against one wall where a row of skulls filled one shelf.

Arlian had seen the skulls before, of course, but now, for the first time, he noticed that more had been added.

"My lords and ladies, I ask that you count the skulls upon that shelf," Ticker said. "There are eleven. Soon, when we have retrieved Lord Wither's skull from his paramour, there will be an even dozen. Lord Enziet's would be a thirteenth, had we been able to retrieve it. I am sure you all remember, though, that two years ago there were only eight. In seven hundred years, only eight members of this Society had died."

Arlian stared. Those added skulls had belonged to Horim and Drisheen and Nail?

Rime coughed.

Ticker raised his hands. "Yes, there are members who vanished and who may have died—fourteen in all. I believe. Even granting all those, though, that brings the total for seven centuries to twenty-two; usually we will go for decades without a single loss, yet since Obsidian's arrival we have lost no fewer than
five."

Arlian frowned and glanced at Hardior, who said,

"While this unfortunate circumstance is true, I fail to see just what accusation you are directing at Obsidian."

"I am saying that he is a menace, a bringer of disaster. He killed Horim and Drisheen himself, and while he may not have laid a hand directly upon Ilruth or Stiam or Enziet, he was present at
all three
deaths.

Whatever the details, Obsidian is a creature of ill omen, and I think we should exile him from Manfort for our own safety. Let him return to Arithei. whence he came."

Arlian cleared his throat, and Hardior nodded. "You may speak."

"I am not from Arithei," Arlian said. "I was born and raised on the Smoking Mountain, and then spent seven years in Deep Delving before relocating to Manfort; my stay in Arithei was no more than a month."

"Then let him return to the Smoking Mountain,"

Ticker said. "I just want him out of the city." Then he sat down.

Arlian considered this rather vague position with interest. He had never before thought about how rare death was in the Dragon Society, and how disruptive his activities had been; death had been commonplace on the caravan to Arithei, and among the slaves in the mines of Deep Delving, and he had not realized just how rare it was among dragonhearts.

For those who had not been directly involved in his activities, it must indeed have seemed as if he had brought Death Incarnate with him.

And in a way, he had—but if these people thought the carnage already inflicted was bad, they were likely to see far worse soon, when the Society and the dragons fought.

He was also interested to note that Lord Ticker had referred to Wither by his true name, Ilruth—Arlian had only ever heard it spoken once before, at his own initiation into the Society.

"Anyone else?" Hardior asked.

"I want to hear his response," Lady Shard said.

"I would be happy to give it," Arlian said.

"Very well, then," Hardior said. "The accused may speak."

"Thank you, my lord," Arlian said, rising to his feet.

While he had spoken with Hardior and Door and Zaner at the door of the Old Palace, and then while walking to the Street of the Black Spire, Arlian had thought carefully about what he would say, and had decided on telling the complete truth. He was sure that none of these people were in league with the dragons, as Enziet had been. Only Toribor was his sworn enemy, and even he was not utterly blind to the possibility of making common cause with Arlian. These people were all sworn foes of dragonkind, and he had sworn an oath not to conceal knowledge of the dragons from them.

Those dragons would emerge soon enough, Arlian was certain—if he had not already antagonized them sufficiently to trigger a new war, he surely would some day not too far in the future, either deliberately or inadvertently. He was no Enziet, able to plan his every word and action and keep secrets to himself for centuries. He knew that open conflict was inevitable.

And he would not be forsworn for the dragons' benefit. If it would save innocent lives, then he might have abandoned his oath and lied, told them all a slew of comforting stories about Aritheian illusions—but he could not convince himself that lies or silence would save anyone, in the long run.

Therefore, Arlian would explain the situation, give up his legacy of secrets, and let the Society's common sense guide it. In this room were the secret rulers of the Lands of Man; if he could convince them that the Man-Dragon Wars were beginning anew, they could organize defenses, prepare Manfort for a siege, help devise some way of striking at the dragons' hearts with blades of obsidian.

These were surely the people who would aid him in destroying the dragons once and for all. He had merely to tell them all he knew, as he had sworn he would.

Accordingly, he began to speak.

I must immediately confess that there is some ele-ment of truth in these accusations," Arlian began,

"but I hope I can justify my actions and show you that I have not violated the spirit of my oath. I have always acted with the goal of destroying the dragons forever in mind."

"The dragons and half the Society," Toribor muttered.

"Not just half," Arlian said to Toribor before continuing his speech.

"As you all know, I came to Manfort determined to find and destroy Lord Enziet and others who had worked with him in harming me and my friends and family. Only incidentally did I learn of the Dragon Society's existence, and my qualification for membership, and I joined primarily for aid in my pursuit of justice—or vengeance, if you prefer to call it that, and I will not argue if you do. That said, I took my vow seriously. At the time I knew no secrets about dragons I did not reveal, and I felt myself bound by the precise phrasing of the oath not to attempt to kill Enziet or the others
within Manfort's walls.
That Horim, Drisheen, and Enziet left the city meant I could pursue them, and I did; I do not deny killing Horim and Drisheen, and pursuing Enziet intent upon his death. This was no violation of my oath, though it perhaps may have im-pinged upon the spirit of it slightly. Had any of these three remained always in Manfort, he might still live.

"However, as you may recall, in this very room I accused Lord Enziet of the very crime with which I am now charged—withholding information about the dragons. It was the threat of a hearing such as this that caused him to flee the city.

"I did not pursue him immediately, but when other matters had been settled, yes, I set out with the intent of seeking him out and killing him. I slew Drisheen along the way, and followed Enziet into the Desolation.

'1 fought my present accuser, Lord Belly, in the streets of Cork Tree, and although I defeated him I let Him live—an act of generosity I do not regret, though it allowed him to demand this hearing." Toribor stirred uncomfortably at this. "He told me that yes, Enziet knew secrets about those dragons, and that if I slew Enziet there would be dire consequences indeed. Has he, then, told you all everything that Enziet told him about the dragons, or is my accuser as guilty as I am?"

'1 told anyone who asked!" Toribor protested.

"No one
asked
me directly what I had learned," Arlian replied. "At least, no one in this Society. Lady Rime did make plain an interest, but even she did not ask me directly."

"All I knew was hints and rumors, Obsidian," Toribor protested. "You clearly knew more."

"Indeed I did, my lords and ladies—once Enziet was dead. Until that hour I knew no more than Lord Belly. I followed Enziet into the Desolation, as I said, and caught up with him as he entered a cave in the wilderness. There we fought, with swords and words; it was a more even match than you might imagine, as he was old, feeling his age, and I now realize he was beginning to sicken as Nail did. He told me some of his secrets, at first in hopes of discouraging me from trying to kill him, and later to distract me, but without success. One secret he said he possessed, the most important, he would not tell me. When at last he made a careless attack I broke his sword, and had him at my mercy."

"And did you spare
him,
as you did me?" Toribor demanded, sneering.

"No," Arlian said calmly. "I did not have that choice, nor would I have done so. Instead he plunged his own knife into his chest, freeing what had been growing there for so long, and showing me the secret he had withheld."

"A dragon," Rime said.

"An infant dragon, yes, formed of Enziet's heart and blood. I was almost helpless against it, until I found an obsidian knife hidden in Enziet's clothing. Enziet had told me that he had searched for six hundred years for a means of killing dragons, and had thought he was very close; he also had told me that he had looted my village to obtain obsidian. When I found that knife I realized that these facts were related, and I stabbed the dragon with the stone knife, and killed it, though I was injured in the process."

"You were badly injured," Rime said. "I'm not sure an ordinary man would have survived."

"But I, of course, am not an ordinary man," Arlian said. "None of us here are. We are dragonhearts—and that name is far more literal than we had realized."

"I don't understand," Lord Ticker said.

"Don't you?" Arlian said. "The secret Enziet had kept all those years, had withheld from this Society, was how the dragons reproduce. They do not breed as natural beasts do; instead they contaminate men and women and the dragons' young grow within them, like a disease, until they are ready to emerge, killing their hosts. This development takes centuries, so our lives are unnaturally extended, and to ensure we survive long enough to 'hatch,' as it were, we are made immune to other poisons and lesser diseases. Perhaps to keep us from ties that would hold us back, we are made sterile—or perhaps it is merely that once pregnant, we cannot breed again until the offspring is born."

"Then you claim
all
of us here are going to ... to die honibly, when these baby dragons burst from our chests!" Ticker demanded.

"Yes, exactly," Arlian said.

"And why did you not
tell
us this when you first returned to Manfort?" Toribor asked angrily. "Why did you wait until that ghastly scene at Nail's bedside?"

"Well, firstly," Arlian said, "I doubted you would believe me. I had no evidence beyond my word, after all, and many of you mistrusted me then—and mistrust me now. I can hardly blame you, under the circumstances."

"You apparentiy expect us to believe you
now,
though," Lady Shard said.

"Now, my lady, you have
asked
me. Perhaps you'll believe, and perhaps not, but I will not he about it further."

"Go on," Lord Hardior said. "That was your first reason; are there others?"

"Of course." Arlian spread his hands. "Secondly,"

he said, "I was not at all sure how you would react to the news, so I hesitated. I was still struggling with the question of what should be done about it myself; you may recall that I have sworn to destroy the dragons or die in the attempt, and I had to consider the question of whether that included dragons yet unborn."