Chapter 25.6- The Seadragon's Roar

“What? How the hell is that even possible?” I asked. My sworn shield just shrugged, not bothering to explain further. I didn’t push for now. I had to figure out some way to enhance literacy in this my corner of the world. But that couldn’t be my first priority. A literate but hungry population was a recipe for disaster. Literacy had to come after some sort of industrial development, or at least hand in hand with it. I’d not enjoy ruling over an uneducated population overmuch, I could tell. Being king of the idiots wasn’t going to be very fun.

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“Our farther ranged scouts have spotted the Triarchy’s fleets” Mother said, and that explained why we’d been called so urgently. War had come, I thought. Well ,the war had been here a while ago but still. Pate handed me a glass of wine that had been so watered down, I could barely see its ted colour. Better than nothing, at least. A symbolic easing of Mother’s restrictions. One I appreciated at the very least.

“So we move tomorrow then” Daemon said, accepting his own glass and practically shoving it down his throat. I took sip of mine as I thought it over. Moving tonight would be unwise. Flying in the dark was only possible when the dragon either knew the route or you just had to head in a straight line. In this case, neither were true. Besides, there was no chance the fleets would engage tonight. No one enjoyed fighting with the dark. With their numerical superiority, it would be an unnecessary risk at the least.

“And Dorne?” I asked.

“Not spotted yet as far as we know, but you and Laena will fly out there tomorrow regardless.” She said. I nodded. The divisions had been decided a while ago. Igneel was the smallest dragon, and Vhagar the largest. Dorne was the lighter threat, and while I felt it made more sense for Mother, Daemon and Laena to all focus on the Triarchy while I took Dorne alone, the fact that Dorne was the only one to actually down a dragon in recent history meant we were taking them as more of a threat than their numbers would have suggested.

Pate walked out of the room while Laena seemed to take a long shuddering breath. “Are you okay?” I whispered.

“Yeah. The waiting is killing me though” She whispered back, reaching out to take my hand.

‘Me too’ I tried to say. The words refused to escape my lips. Not just my lips, my whole head was refusing to move. I squeezed her hand as I felt myself losing feeling in that too.

“Daemon” I heard Mother screech as there was a crash somewhere in the room.

“Are you okay?” Laena was asking. I tried shaking my head, I couldn’t do anything. Ben was at my side now.

“They’ve been poisoned” I heard someone say. ‘No shit Sherlock’ I wanted to snark but the pain in my throat was refusing to subside.

Igneel. I could feel him now. Brother, help. I near screamed through our bond. He was flying over. His strength. He was throwing it at me best he could. The distance.

“Igneel” I forced my lips to move with the alien strength that flooded my body.

“Get the Maester” Whose voice was that?

“No. Igneel” I tried to shout, but it came as nothing but a harsh whisper as I felt myself begin to black out.

“Laenor? Stay…brother…don’t” I felt my senses fading in and out. I felt my body be picked up. Had to be Ben. It was strange how clear my mind was. I was dying, and yet I felt…at peace.