The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 73

MIDAS

A wave of his hand and the pointed ends of the swords surrounding Adarin and his men fall away.

But the blades themselves remain unsheathed.

"Who else has been in the room with Adarin's son since the stranger dragonkin left?"

The captain of the band of Ryders who has been watching the borders between the two clans steps forward.

"No one my king. The very moment I heard the news, I set guards at the door and instructed that no one was to be allowed in until your arrival."

Midas nods and then turns to the clan chief.

He no longer suspects the older dragonkin man of being behind whatever ambush was laid out for him yet he has to ask.

"Did you go into the room Adarin?"

"No my king, I did not."

"Did any one of your men?"

"I do not believe so my King."

"And no one has seen this stranger since then?"

The men of the clan of Adarin cast questioning glances at one another, whispering furiously between themselves but again the answer to the king's question remains no. "This is not good dragon king....not good at all."

Even Er'gan sounded concerned and Midas grunts inwardly in agreement.

"My queen..."

"Yes Adarin."

"Do you..." Even though he tries to hide it, there is anguish in Adarin's voice, in the way his head hangs and his shoulders droop.

"...do perhaps think that there is a chance that this dragonkin was the one who killed my only son?"

She exhales shakily but she does not look away and Midas sees compassion flood her face.

She says nothing but she does not need to

Adarin roars, his shoulders quaking with rage and grief.

All that time he had spent, fighting his neighbors, his friends, believing them to be at fault when the whole time, the real enemy sat and dined with him in his own house, under his own roof.

His sadness and his anger, etched into what is left visible of his face from beneath his bushy beard is a sight that is both raw and frightening.

And once again Midas replaces himself amazed by the bravery of his little human.

When others would have backed away from the raging dragonkin chief or turned their face away from the sight of such a big man in tears, she simply lays a hand on the arm of the chief, utterly unafraid, comforting him without even saying a word. Dragonkin and dragon Ryders had plundered and destroyed her home, yet here she is, comforting one of them, her heart genuinely breaking for the clan chief's loss.

Slave or princess, she is beyond perfect.

And Midas knows, he does not deserve her.

Some of the men of Adarin break off running in different directions, no doubt intending to try and search for the man.

"They won't replace him."

Her voice is quiet but firm and the king knows that she is right.

It has been many hours since the passing of Adarin's son and the stranger dragonkin, who Midas is beginning to suspect was not actually a dragonkin but some creature using the dark magic of a compelling spell, would have been long gone. His trail cold as ice. Still Midas knows he has to try.

"Adarin?"

The man straightens, nods and Midas nods back.

The chief may be heartbroken but dragonkin are warriors and they honored their dead by making sure those who were responsible, paid dearly for it.

"Chief Ryder, captain."

The king beckons the three men to him and they huddle together, trying to come up with a plan.

They speak quietly and quickly, their tones grave and hard.

"Send men to Rardath, we must inform immediately him of the recent events that have come to light, perhaps the same...creature was responsible for both acts and also..."

So absorbed are they in their scheming and the enormity of their task, that no one notices her step to the side.

No one sees her begin to walk away.

Step after step, the distance between them growing.

No sees what she is about to do until it is too late.

"Your highness, the queen! What is she doing?!"

Midas' head spins around, towards the yelling Ryder and when he sees her, the dragon king's heart seems to stop. "Hera...what do you think you are doing?"

"Finding you answers."

"Hera..."

His voice low, the kind of low that means he is angry or...afraid.

"Hera...I need you to step away from there right this minute and come back here."

She looks back at him. "I have to do this, it is the only way. Trust me"

"Hera No!"

He covers the distance in an instant, his hand reaching out, ready to grab her, to pull her away from the madness she is exhibiting.

But for the first time since the day his dragon awakened in him, Midas is too slow.

His fingers brush against her arm, seeking purchase and replaceing none, grasping nothing but the air in the place where she once stood.

And in the blink of an eye, she disappears through the door of the hut that had once belonged to Adarin's son, walking straight into whatever trap had been set there for him.

Midas moves to go in after her but his chief Ryder is faster and he stops him with a firm hand on the king's arm.

For the second time that day, Midas bares his teeth at his best friend.

"Let me go Leo."

"I am afraid I cannot do that your highness."

"What in all the realms do you think you are doing?"

"As chief Ryder and right hand to the king it is my duty to protect the king's life with my own... even if it means going against your wishes."

"So you expect me to just leave her in there?"

Leo's jaw works and Midas can see that Chief Ryder is just as worried and unhappy as he is.

"No your highness and by all the gods I would go after her myself but if you go in there you will die."

"I do not care."

"Well I care. I cannot allow you go in there."

Midas can feel his rage and worry beginning to simmer and boil, threatening to spill over. "Leo...I will say not say it again..."

The chief Ryder plants his feet and centers his body.

He would not fight the king, would not attack him but he would also not let him pass.

Not unless Midas were to hurt him and hurt him really badly.

Midas does not want to do that but she might be in terrible danger and that is all his mind can focus on right now.

That is all that matters.

Leo sighs, deciding to attempt one last time to reason with him.

"My King, I may not understand what is going on or how she knows those things that she knows, but she has asked you to trust her, can you not do that?" "Trust her! What if she is hurt or...or..."

"She is not."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because were she to be hurting, you would know and you would not just stand here trading words with me. You would have torn me limb from limb to get to her." Midas hates to admit it but Leo is right.

She is not hurt.

He would have known, would have felt it the moment anything happened to her.

He clenches his fist and unclenches them, his eyes remain rimmed with red but he does not draw his sword or attack the man sworn to protect his life.

Midas exhales slowly, forcing himself to slow his heartbeat and stares at his friend.

"You may be right chief Ryder but by the fire gods if anything should happen to her, I will kill you."

It is not a threat or a promise.

It is simply something that will happen, a statement of fact.

The chief Ryder knows this, understands it.

He does not bat an eyelid. "I know."

The next few moments are the most excruciating of Midas long life.

He has even begun to reconsider his decision to stand out here and is about charge past his second in command and into the hut, traps and his own life be damned. But then she steps out again.

Both Midas and Leo see her at the same time, both men say her name.

She appears to be in one piece, everything the way it was before she decided to risk herself.

The king reaches for her, his relief at seeing her alive and unhurt temporarily burying his anger at how she had willingly thrown herself into danger.

"Hera, what were you..."

"He was not dragonkin."

Everyone freezes.

The suspicion on all their hearts has finally confirmed by the human girl who should not know all the things she knows and the implications are enormous. "What was he?"

It is Midas only who remembers to speak, who asks the question they are all thinking, and he knows the answer even before she says it.

"A dark elf."

Ripples travel through all the men present.

A cold chill seems to suddenly hang in the air, raising the hair on the back of their neck and setting their teeth on edge.

"Dark elves!" Adarin, loud and confused.

"What could those shadow worshipping bastards possibly want with Rardath and I?"

"They were sent..."

Midas steps closer to her. "To do what?"

"A distraction...they were to cause a distraction."

The king frowns.

Er'gan is awake and uncomfortable, sending flashes of warning and danger pumping through Midas veins and filling his blood with a heat that echoes the unease rushing through him. "What distraction, what were they trying to distract us from?"

She is trembling and her eyes are closed as she shakes her head furiously. "I do not know..."

He finally touches her, his hand gripping both her arms, gentle but firm.

"Hera...who sent them?"

She finally looks up at him.

"I am not sure but I felt darkness...an evil so strong it had to be chained down, imprisoned. And were it to ever rise again, it would consume us...all of us."

"No!"

Midas freezes but it is neither Er'gan's roar in his head nor just her words that turn his blood to ice and set all his sense on fire at the same time.

It is her eyes.

And before she slumps in his arms, he notes that they were no longer blue.

But that before the darkness took her, her eyes had been completely and utterly white.