Savage Awakening 540. Man vs. Dragon (X)

“A reckoning!” Lyxandor had to laugh.

Then he turned on Sverrex. “That’s what you’re here for, is it?”

The little wyrm wouldn’t meet his eyes.

He went back to the Phoenixes. He’d deal with them one at a time. 

“I got your letter. I told you I’d deal with you tomorrow, didn’t I? I’ve been rather busy, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Enough is enough, Lyxandor,” said the King Phoenix quietly.

“So, what, then?” said Lyxandor, casting around. “I see what this is. An attempt at an ambush, and a pitiful one at that. I’d like to know whose bright idea it was to come at me in my own throne room!”

They must’ve steeled themselves coming in. None of them flinched. They must’ve felt safer in their numbers.

“It’s the judgment of the Azure Flame council,” said the Queen Phoenix archly. “That you’re no longer fit to rule.”

Lyxandor didn’t even have a word for that. He just barked out a harsh laugh.

“You’ve been nothing but a plague on the Azure Flame,” she continued. “You’ve destroyed the foundations of all those who threatened you. You’ve planted heart demons in every Elder you could. You’ve weakened all of our best and crippled the Faction for your own gain. You’ve rigged this very council so you could keep doing it.”

Lyxandor still couldn’t believe this was quite happening. The seriousness of it was only striking him now.

The Queen’s eyes flashed crimson. “If that wasn’t enough, you had the nerve to go after my granddaughter! Did you think I was one of your cronies, that I’d just sit by and let it happen?”

“What lies did that girl tell you?”

“Don’t you dare, Lyxandor.”

The ends of her hair started smoldering with phoenix flame. He could see he wasn’t cowing her; she’d been gray-haired since he’d been a youth. Heavens knew what she saw in that ditz of a girl, but the Queen would die a thousand deaths before she gave up her granddaughter.

“Fine,” he growled. “Fine!”

He whirled on Sverrex. “You. You’ve let this crone sweet-talk you into doing her bidding?” 

Sverrex just shook his head; he looked in pain. “I chose on my own.” 

“You did, did you!” Lyxandor whirled on the rest of them. “This judgment. Just how many of you little rats decided today was the day you’d stab me in the back? You’ll need a majority. You’d better pray you’ve got the votes…” 

“The decision was unanimous,” said the King Phoenix gravely. “It’s over, Lyxandor.”

It felt like a nightmare he’d long had made real, a quiet dread at the back of his mind. For so long, reality could be whatever he wished. But one crack in the facade, and it was all shattering… he felt like he was grabbing at the broken glass.

“And you’ve thought this over,” said Lyxandor quietly. “You forget. I’m not just the Patriarch of this Faction. I am the Patriarch of all dragonkind! You think you can win this War without the greatest race this Galaxy has got?”

Then he had another cold thought.

Lyxandor stared down his dragon Elders. Neither would meet his eyes.

“…No.”

“You’re no Patriarch of Dragons, Lyxandor,” said Sverrex quietly. “Not any longer.”

He reeled. “And who’s to decide that! You?”

“The Grand Councils of True Dragons,” Sverrex said.

“Look at me!”

The Archpriest did, though it made him tremble all over.

“And you went along with this shit?” he snarled at Jaxanor. The little bastard couldn’t even meet his eyes. Even now, while stabbing him in the back!

He laughed again, and there was a jagged edge to the sound. He slashed without warning and brought down a great column. This time he drew a few flinches. He dearly wished to kill one of them right now. But there were too many to fight. 

“Just where did you get the guts?” he asked Sverrex.

“You knew I couldn’t stand for what you’ve done to the First Prince,” said Sverrex. “The way you conducted yourself in the Duel of Destiny…” 

“Zane Walker. That’s what this is about!” He truly couldn’t believe this shit. It was almost comical. The laugh cut off hard.

“There’s not an Empyrean in this damned Galaxy who can match me.”

His voice cracked as it echoed down the hall. “Not a dragon alive who can do what I do! Not you, Sverrex, certainly not you, Jaxanor. Not any of the little wyrms who’ve done this to me—you think you’ve got what it takes, do you?”

Silence.

One last dragon joined them down the hall.

“You’re godsdamned kidding me.”

Kajax stood there, and his bushy face bore a new vicious scar where Lyxandor’s wing had struck him.

“The dragons will have no king,” said Kajax. “They offered me the role… I couldn’t take it. I know I’m no worthy king. You don’t need to tell me that much, Lyxandor.”

He took a breath and pressed on. “While we wait for someone better, we’ll rule as a council. …We’ll try to make things right.”

“‘Make things right!’” spat Lyxandor. “Tell me, you little wyrm. Who will make things right when Malzareth drives a spike through your heart? Ends all damned dragonkind, for that matter! You need me. All of you! When the War comes it’s not your hand-wringing that’ll stop that Monster. It’s dragons like me, who’ve got the strength to fight! But you would purge the strongest of you, in a time like this, for what? Your poor little wounded feelings?”

“There are greater dragons than you,” said Kajax, voice trembling. “That’s what you never could stand. You saw one fight just a few days back. One that still knows the meaning of a dragon’s nobility. Once he finds the strength to heal, he’ll be ten times the dragon you are.”

The prince winced a little at that.

None of them were kneeling. None of them looked the slightest bit inclined to.

…That little bastard Zane Walker.

He had nothing to say to these little wyrms anymore.

He leveled his gaze at his son, a look of pure loathing.

“I should kill you for this, boy.”

“You almost did,” whispered Haxorax.

Lyxandor nearly went for his throat then.

But in the end, he just snarled. 

“When the Endbringers flatten your little strongholds and tear up your little universes like waste paper, you fools will seek me out again, on your knees. You’d better pray it’s not too late.”

He made to leave. “I’ll remember this. All of you. There will be blood for this, one way or another.”

He spread his wings and vanished in an arc of dragonflame. The blowback shuddered the palace. But when the light faded, Lyxandor was gone.

***

A day later, news reached Zane of the Azure Flame Patriarch’s dramatic exit. Reina and Zane had spent the morning privately celebrating and exercising. 

One of Reina’s handmaidens, Aelin, briefed her on the matter as they had salmon lunch on one of the World Tree’s sunnier upper boughs.

Zane did remember Noughtfire saying something about that fellow’s personality—how the problem would wind up resolving itself. It looked like the old fellow knew what he was talking about.

“You look pleased with yourself,” he told Reina.

“It’s just… it’s all happened faster than I thought,” she said. She then told him about how she’d caught up with Princess Dya after this gallery opening and had a heart-to-heart with her.

“I knew something felt off with her,” said Reina, brow furrowed. “She’d been under so much stress… It turned out that Patriarch Azure Flame had gotten to her. He’d filled her head with all kinds of lies.”

“Huh.”

“I wasn’t sure if anything would come of it,” she said. “But I did make her promise to talk to her grandparents, the True Phoenixes, about it. And… things happened from there.”

He blinked. “…You took down Patriarch Azure Flame.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, flushing a bit. “I didn’t coordinate with the Elders, or anything—they all came up with that amongst themselves. I think that Haxorax fight was the end of a lot of folks’ ropes. I just… gave it a little nudge, that’s all.”

She paused. “Zane… if you hadn’t won, I don’t think it would’ve happened at all. I think after that Azure Flame had been winning so long, folks just didn’t really believe you could stand up to him. They needed to see someone do it.”

“You don’t think he was done either way?” said Zane, who had no strong opinion on the matter. He munched on some toast. “Sounded like folks were pretty mad at him already.”

“I think if you keep winning, it excuses a lot.”

He thought about it, swallowed his toast, and nodded. “That does make sense.”

He’d fight that fellow if he had to. But after that whole Haxorax arc, he was a little done fighting these dragon folk. He wasn’t looking forward to getting hounded by his own Patriarch.

So it was rather nice to see things resolve themselves accidentally. Not often that happened in his experience.

Reina blinked. “Oh! I almost forgot.”

She snapped her fingers.

At this point, Avery came along and whacked him with a newspaper.

“What?” he said.

“Thank you, sweetie,” said Reina, and passed her a coin.

“Anytime.” Avery collected it and left.

“…What?”

Reina gave him a very Reina look. “What do you have to say for yourself, Zane Walker?”

“I’ll be honest,” he said, blinking. “I’m a bit lost.”

This felt like a bit of an abrupt turn of events. 

“You could’ve stopped that fight anytime you wanted! But you went and let a once-in-lifetimes golden dragonform hit you with its strongest-ever shot—a shot that took you down to critical. I almost saw your heart stop.” She crossed her arms. “Do you know how much trouble I’ve gone through keeping that heart going? What do you think I would’ve done if it did stop? There’s not exactly another Zane Walker just lying around, I’ll have you know.”

“Yeah,” chirped Avery. “Get ‘em!”

“I kind of thought I could tank it and keep going with the challenge,” said Zane, a bit sheepishly. “Then it hit me, and I realized I couldn’t. So I protected my vitals and got out of there. I wasn’t in any real danger.”

“That’s a good point,” said Avery, nodding wisely.

“If you were just a split-second off...!” Reina deflated a bit. “I know you’ve got to challenge yourself. I’d never stop you from doing that… it’s what makes you Zane, I know that. It’s just… did you have to take all that? It was just a challenge.” 

“Hmm,” said Avery. “I would have to give the edge to Reina at this point.”

“I was a bit stubborn there,” he admitted. “I could’ve probably realized the run was done and ended it early.”

“Oh.” Reina blinked. “Well… fine. As long as you know.” She looked pleased again.

“If it wasn’t a challenge, though,” he said seriously. “If I had to take a shot like that and you were standing behind me… I won’t apologize for taking that kind of risk.”

Reina melted a bit at that. “Zane…” she whispered.

“Zane by TKO!” cried Avery.

That shook Reina out of it. “Just whose side are you on!” 

//

A/N: 

I’ll be at Dragoncon for the next few days—will still try to write and I should still upload on schedule, but if I miss a day that’s why!