Page 9 of Dragon Valley
My heart lifted and even fluttered a little in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. The wine was the last batch from my family’s raspberry farm before our fields got torched by the royal army.
Food was passed out in bowls that also seemed to be made from dragon bones and my hunger soon took over my resolve to be polite. Aron and I inhaled every scrap of fish, meat, bread and vegetable that came across our laps and we soon went back for more, swallowing it down with raspberry wine until we couldn’t eat another bite.
“How long have you been going without food?” asked the dark-haired woman next to Nadiyah when everyone had finished.
“It’s been three days since our last meal with any substance,” Aron said. “But we’ve been low on rations and struggling for nearly a year.”
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” the Chief suggested. “What is the cause of this war? And why is your army faring so poorly?”
Aron sighed deeply and folded his hands in his lap as he prepared to tell our story.
“You may be familiar with the Lascari royal family,” he began. “They’re the longest ruling dynasty of Tannia and have been in control for centuries.”
“Yes, I visited the palace once as a young lad,” the Chief nodded. “King Theseus Lascari was very fond of dragons. My father and I rode there together after my hatchling was able to fly.”
“Well, the current King Anton, Thesesus’ grandson is, quite frankly, evil, sadistic, and power-hungry to an unsustainable degree,” Aron replied. “Tension has been high between the royal family and the common folk ever since he came into power ten years ago. The first thing Anton did was double taxes for no apparent reason,” he went on. “We later found out it was to fund the construction of another summer palace on a private island off of Siren’s Bay. People marched in protest through the streets of the capitol when they found out he was using slave labor to actually build this palace.”
“And I take it the royal family did not respond well to that,” the Chief said, taking another sip of wine.
“Not at all,” Aron answered. “They ordered archers to start shooting into the crowd. Innocent people with no weapons getting shot at. At least ten died. These were peaceful protests, which was our legal right to do. That is, until the crown outlawed all forms of protests one week later.”
“Where was he getting slave labor from?” Nadiyah asked, her green eyes flashing.
I knew what she was thinking of. Centuries ago, the king at the time attempted to enslave the dragon people and take Dragon Valley for themselves. Some said if you visited that king’s crypt in the capitol cemetery, you could taste the ash that fell like snow that day. No bodies remained from that uprising, only ashes.
“That was another scandal that broke out later,” Aron said. “We found out the royal guard rode out to the poorest villages and paid families to give up their children, aged anywhere from five years old to teenagers. They claimed they were going to orphanages run by monks, where they’d be well-fed and educated for free. Naturally, that turned out to be untrue.”
“No one in the nobility spoke out against this?” the dark-haired woman asked. “You have a Parliament, don’t you? Can’t they vote to remove the king for his atrocities?”
“Normally, yes,” Aron responded. “But their power has weakened in recent years. The government has become completely unbalanced. Dissenters have been removed from their seats for various reasons. Those that remain are loyal to the crown due to family ties or because they are paid well to agree.”
“So tension has been mounting for quite some time,” Chief Rhazel observed. “What caused a formal declaration of war to be made?”
Aron drained the rest of his wine before continuing and I suddenly felt the need for an even stiffer drink.
“King Anton and his supporters have steadily gotten richer while the rest of us became poorer to the point of dying off,” he continued. “More and more common folk started seriously considering a rebellion against the crown. One day, a group of rebel assassins planned a hit to assassinate the king.”
“Did they succeed?” Chief’s son asked.
“No.” Aron swallowed. “They missed him but they did kill his son, who was his only child and heir.” He picked up the wine bottle to see that it was all gone. With a sigh, he continued. “The assassins were caught and the king responded by torturing them all to death in the public square. Then he ordered his guard to lay waste to the entire village where they were from.”
His voice grew quiet and thin, no longer with the weight and authority he usually spoke with. “Over five hundred people burned alive in their homes, raped, trampled by horses, cut down like cattle. That’s all it really was, a slaughter.” He looked directly at the chief, his amber eyes haunted. “That was the moment we knew we had to fight back, or it would be the same fate for all of us.”
“Azel, Azaria,” the chief barked at his two dark-haired children. “Find some mead for our guests to drink. Their cups should not be empty.”
They scrambled up and out of the tent, leaving us and Nadiyah with the Chief.
“You’ve been quiet,” Chief Rhazel turned his dark gaze to me. “What are your thoughts on such events, young lieutenant?”
I cleared my throat. “Captain Aron is a far better communicator and leader than I, but everything he’s said is accurate. The assassin’s village was less than a day’s ride from my own. We could see the smoke for miles and were terrified the guard would come for us next.”
“Say you win the war,” the chief mused as his son, Azel, returned with a large clay jug, followed by Azaria carrying a matching jug. “What is your desired outcome for the future?”
“Thank you,” Aron nodded at Azel who refilled his cup with a golden, sweet-smelling liquid. “Well, the king and entire line of succession will be removed from power, either willingly or by force. We’ll choose a new ruler from our own people, most likely in a ceremony dedicated to the Gods, where They will decide the person most fit to rule. The new king will have the common person’s best interests at heart, hopefully.”
He paused after a sip from his drink. “Depending on how much your people choose to involve yourselves, we hope to open lines of communication and trade between Dragon Valley and the rest of Tannia. Perhaps even have one of your people in the new Parliament to ensure you get fair representation.”
“And if we prefer to be left in peace as we have been for the past twenty years?”
