The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 72

MIDAS

Pain... white hot and blinding.

It shoots up his spine, wraps itself around his head like some sort of barbed rope of poisonous thorns.

He staggers backward, away from the yawning entryway of the hut with his head in his hands.

Voices ring out around him.

"Your highness!!"

He registers a hand on his shoulder; Adarin, the dragonkin chief.

"My king, are you okay?"

The king straightens but does not answer.

He is okay.

But only in the sense that the pain he had felt, had not been his.

His instincts take over and he covers the distance with lightning speed, is by her side in an instant.

"Hera..."

She reaches for him, her cheeks stained with tears and he pulls her away from Leo and into the circle of his arms.

"I....I thought...I thought you were..."

She sounds too choked up to even speak properly so he strokes her hair, tries to calm her down.

And then for the first time, Midas whirls on his chief Ryder in anger, his teeth clenched. "I told you to watch her. How did she get hurt?" She sniffs. "It was my fault."

"Leo is faster, he should have stopped you."

Leo in turn does not bat an eyelid in the face of his king's anger.

Neither does he make any attempts to defend himself. He knows better.

He simply bows his head but before he can apologize...

"He did stop me and I am not hurt."

Midas frowns, focusing his attention back to her and pulling away so he can look her in the eyes.

She claims not to be hurt but he knows what he felt and he is about to ask her if she is okay but she beats him to it and he frowns even harder. "What do you mean am I okay?"

Everyone looks on in silence, wondering what in all the realms is going on.

He watches her swallow and glance fearfully at the hut where the body of Adarin's son lay.

The hut he had been just moments away from stepping into.

Instantly his senses sharpen.

Something is terribly wrong and she knows.

"What is it?"

But she does not look directly at him.

He can tell she knows something, something everyone else does not.

He can also tell that she is unsure, that she doubts herself, is afraid that she might be wrong.

All those years of hearing people telling her she was imagining things, making them up for attention.

He tilts her chin so she is looking at no one else but him. "Tell me."

Two simple words; heavy with all the things left unsaid.

And he watches the self-doubt in her eyes fade slightly.

She exhales.

"It was a trap. They wanted you to go in and I am...I am not sure how or why but if you had stepped into that hut...you would never have come back out." Midas freezes.

What she is insinuating...that his own men had just tried to kill him...it can't be.

And yet by Hades he believes her.

More than anything else, enough that he does not even ask her if she is sure of what she says.

He simply looks at Leo and the chief Ryder raises his hand.

A single signal, not a word uttered.

And all the Ryders who had come with the king surround Adarin and his men, sword draw and pointed towards the clansmen and their Chief.

Adarin turns even redder than he was before, indignation seeping out from every pore of his body.

"Your highness! What is the meaning of this?"

But Midas does not care for the clan chief's rage.

He is a thousand times angrier and he struggles to keep Er'gan from bursting to the surface.

He is not only infuriated, he feels...betrayed and more than thoroughly confused.

How dare they?

Why would Adarin's clan do this...what did they possibly stand to gain?

It makes no sense.

He approaches the men, huddled together and surrounded on either side by sharp swords.

"What did you do Adarin?"

The cold, calm manner in which he speaks is somehow worse that it would have been were he to be yelling at the top of his voice.

The dragonkin's eyes go wide at the accusation. "My Lord...I do not understand what you are talking about."

"The queen has cause to believe that there is some sort of trap set in wait in that hut where your son lies."

The chief begins to sweat.

Yet whether it is from indignation at the accusation or from a guilty conscience the king is not sure.

"That is a lie!"

"So you call your queen a liar and accuse her of attempting to frame you?"

"She is but some human lass who knows next to nothing of our people or our customs. How could you possibly believe her words... over me?" Midas bristles and his voice drops even lower. "You will speak about the queen with respect Adarin or you will not speak at all."

"I mean no offense my king. But why would I and my people wish you harm?"

"Why indeed..."

Midas steps closer, the swords of his Ryders falling away to allow him step closer to Adarin.

"You were one of my father's most trusted advisers and I had thought that you were mine as well."

"I am."

"And it is for that reason alone that I have not sent your head flying from your body."

"But my king..."

"So I will ask you one last time Adarin..." Midas reaches behind him, his hand closing around the hilt of his sword. "... What did you do?" Adarin may appear to be telling the truth but even Midas' dragon can sense that something is just not right.

Yet rather than confess, to his surprise, the clan chief raises his chin high in defiance.

"I... have done nothing."

Midas eyes narrow, the red beginning to consume the gold but before he can free his sword from its sheath... "My lord..."

She steps gingerly through the circle of swords, towards them.

"My lord if I may..." She lays a hand on his arm and that is all it takes to calm him down.

Enough for him to let his sword remain sheathed...for now.

He can see that she is still shaken, unsure of herself.

But he also sees her hide it, push it beneath the surface and he nods gently.

She steps towards Adarin who towers over her, large and imposing yet when she finally does speak, her voice is firm and sure.

And a sense of pride that she is his fills the king with unexpected warmth.

"Adarin."

"My queen."

"I am sorry about your son."

The man grunts in response and bows his head, not far enough for Midas' liking but he lets it slide, not wanting to interrupt her.

She lifts her face to the man. "May I ask you a question?"

Adarin glances from her to the king and back to her again.

The bigger, more fearsome man shifts uneasily beneath her gaze as if surprised that the queen would ask his permission before speaking. "Yes..."

A warning growl from Midas.

"My queen...I mean yes, my queen"

"In the beginning, when the troubles in your clan first began, how did you come to know that Rardath was behind them?"

"There is no one else for miles in either direction. The Elder forest stands between us and the capital and the nearest settlement is several leagues away. Who else could it be?" But then she shakes her head as if disappointed in his answer.

"That is not the reason."

At the point even Midas' attention is entirely on her, the wheels in his head spinning so fast, his mind struggles to catch up.

The chief looks away saying nothing.

"Answer the queen Adarin."

The man sighs. "I received word. A dragonkin..."

Midas can feel Er'gan perk up within him and he voices the dragon's question out loud.

"What dragonkin?"

"A stranger, one new to our clan. My son befriended him on a journey to the capital; he helped him watch over his horses and our goods as they rode through the Elder forest." Alarm bells have begun to go off in the king's head.

Getting louder with each word that falls from the mouth of the clan chief Adarin.

"The man returned with my son, deciding to spend a while with us and that night, he saw men from the clan of Rardath, slimy cowards that they are, slinking away in the dead of night and the next morning we awoke to the smell of smoke and fire, half of our crops burned to ashes."

Out the corner of his eyes, Midas sees her beginning to shake slightly as Adarin speaks about this strange dragonkin so he steps up to her, placing his hand on the small of her back until she stills and then he turns back to the chief.

"So you took the word of some stranger and believed that Rardath, your neighbor of more than a hundred years suddenly awoke up one morning and decided to burn your crops to the ground, why?"

Adarin frowns, thinking on the words.

"I...I do not know. He was quite persuasive."

"A compelling spell?"

Perhaps. Midas agrees with his dragon but Adarin is speaking again.

"Be that as it may, why would he lie to me? In fact, when my son was injured in a trap set by the men of Rardath and lay sick in bed, it was he who stayed up, night after night, watching over him...tending to his needs."

She begins to tremble beside him again and though she tries hard to hide it, when she does speak, her voice is no longer calm or controlled. She sounds scared...

"This stranger...was he the one who brought you the news of your son's passing?"

"No, but it was he who discovered...discovered the body and immediately he sent a servant to me but when I arrived, my son was already dead." "And the dragonkin stranger?"

It is Midas who asks this and Adarin frowning, opens his mouth to speak.

"The stranger..."

"He was already gone wasn't he?"

The words fall quietly from her mouth, barely a whisper, but they all hear it.

Adarin frowns, his fists clenching and unclenching as clarity fills his eyes.

It appears he is slowly beginning to understand what is going on.

That he and his entire clan have strung along like a ball of yarn, tossed back and forth in the hands of an enemy far wiser than they have been. The chief has been played.

They all have.