There was the quiet hiss of breath being abruptly drawn in by draconic throats, and reptilian eyes which had been studying me so fixedly from the moment I'd entered the room now swung to regard Ahnkar, who appeared to crumple slightly, as if around some hidden pain. His gaze flinched away from mine, and in that instant suspicion crystallized into certainty. "That was an accident," he replied quietly, still looking away. "Do you think me mad? In what possible way could we have profited from their deaths? We sought to spirit away your child, yes; but that was all. We did not detect that--that creature until it was far too late to stop him."
He turned back to me, and I saw regret in his eyes. "But that does not really matter to you, does it?" He paused, then sighed. "Hasai, if circumstances were different, I would bare my throat to you for what I have done, and await your justice." His eyes hardened. "But circumstances are not different, and what would normally transpire must wait until after the humans are properly dealt with."
I stared at him as regret faded and arrogance reasserted itself, then I turned to the battered ancient that lay coiled at Ahnkar's side. "And you, Ksstha? What do you get out of this?"
Ksstha studied me for several long moments with eyes old beyond imagining, and in their depths there leaped and twisted flames where a soul had once been. Finally, with a long and hissing sigh he spoke. "Enough, young Hasai; enough. For now."
"Ahnkar will not let you kill the humans, Ksstha."
"Not all the humans, true." He tilted his head with grim amusement. "But he will give me most of them, and the rest. . . ." He stared off into the distance, his head nodding slightly at something only he could see." . . . .And the rest will know Pain. As I have known Pain. I am content."
"And now, Hasai, your life among the humans is at an end," Ahnkar rumbled. "Now you will swear your fealty to myself and the council and take your place at our side."
"That is not necessary," I replied, my thoughts racing. "When I discovered that your pawn had given me children, I knew that I now had an obligation. No, not to you Ahnkar, but to them. And I have given Dithra and her agent my word that I will serve, in the way that she envisioned. Give me back my children, Ahnkar. I will do what I was created to do."
Stung, Ahnkar showed his fangs in a quiet snarl. "And just what does Dithra say your purpose is, whelp?" He hissed.
"What it has always been; to be a soldier. To protect others from the ravages of Man until the humans learn respect and agree to share this world. Until dragons no longer find it necessary to skulk about in the night, hiding themselves behind faces of illusion. To see dragons fly in the sunlight without fear. That is my purpose."
"Then she lied, whelp. You were created by us not as a ward, but as a weapon. We will not share this world with the vermin humans. Rather, we will use you and your descendants to utterly sweep them away, both them and their works! We will return this world to the way it was before the humans. To the way it should have been! To the way it always will be!"
Stunned, I stared at him for a moment, then turned to Dithra. I was not cheered by the way she avoided my eyes. "My Lady, is this true? Was I really to be nothing more than a weapon? My children nothing but cannon-fodder? Was that all?"
"Hasai--" She broke off, then resumed in a calmer voice. "Hasai, I will not deny that was the original intention. But as time slipped past us, and the humans grew more powerful, we realized we could no longer win a war against them without losing far more than we could ever hope to gain. It was then that we began to seek co-existence."
"You sought appeasement, dragon!" Ahnkar hissed, no longer bothering with honorifics. "You sought to cringe at their feet, to beg at their kills like dogs! You sought a life that was no life! Better to die, dragon, with our fangs locked in their throat, than to live like craven curs!"
Ahnkar spun to face me. "And now, whelp, we grow tired of this pointless exchange. Take your proper place at our side, and bow to your destiny. Obey!"
That last word echoed and re-echoed through the vast room, at last fading into silence. Ahnkar glared down at me arrogantly, sure of my surrender. Beside him, Ksstha coiled silently, gazing at me the way a cat gazes at a mouse, his eyes glowing with a frightening, hungry light.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated by all this. This was madness. These people would cast our very future to the winds, for nothing more than a moment's personal satisfaction. How very . . . human.
Oh, my children, please forgive me. . . .
Grimly I stood my ground, ignoring the rising anger radiating from the council as I cast about for support. I looked at Pasqual. She held my gaze for a moment, but then wavered and looked away. Slowly, her wings drooping, she moved to the side.
With a cold feeling in my gut I then turned to Dithra, but she once again avoided my eyes, and sighed. "Forgive me, young Hasai. I am Eldest no more. I can do nothing."
But she didn't move to the side, either.
At last I looked to Stefan, to find him staring fixedly at the concrete at his feet. For several long moments he stayed that way, then, ever so slowly, a very un-dragonlike smile began to curl one corner of his mouth. He looked at me sidelong, and in his eyes was that glint of cold humor that I knew so very well.
I felt that same kind of smile begin to touch my own features. "You always were a great enemy, Stefan."
His smile broadened. "You as well, Hasai." He lifted his head then, to look directly into Ahnkar's eyes. "I regret to inform my lord that it seems that my long exposure to the 'vermin humans' has hopelessly corrupted me. I stand with Hasai."
Both Ahnkar and his cronies stared at Stefan in shock, for the moment uncertain how to react. I smiled grimly, heedless of protocol. "Your weapons turn on you, Ahnkar. Are you surprised? Haven't you ever wondered why all but the most foolish of humans have always preferred to work with stone and steel instead of with Life for their weapons? It is because Life pledges allegiance to no one, Ahnkar, and its creator can all-too easily become its prey."
Several heads among the council jerked as if from a blow at the deadly insult. Ahnkar himself was making sputtering noises like a wet fuse, strangling on his own rage. In my peripheral vision I saw Stefan slowly move to position himself protectively between Dithra and the council as I pressed my attack. "Little wyrm," I rumbled "have you any idea how much I despise you? You claim to hate the humans, yet you ape them in every way. They even have a special name for what you've done. It's junta, the overthrow of a guiding body; not by reason or popular demand, but by force. Mindless force. How very human of you, Ahnkar. You even hate like a human, did you know that? Without reserve or remorse, without even a shred of coherent thought, careening your way to self-destruction without the slightest regard for those you drag down with you."
The smile had finally become a carnivore's grin, and I felt that old, black, nihilistic joy begin to surge within me. "Are you quite sure you're a dragon, Ahnkar? The more I look at you, the more I see nothing but a thin paper shell, filled with nothing but arrogance and hate, with what seems to be a tiny, mad human for a heart, pulling at your strings and making you dance like the pathetic little puppet you are." I shook my head in mock sadness. "Ah, dear Ahnkar. Poor, poor little Ahnkar. You have far worse than my hate, little wyrm, you have far worse than my contempt. You have my....pity."
Ahnkar went berserk. Suddenly he threw his head back and bellowed his rage with such violence that the room rang like a bell and dust sifted down from the ceiling. "ENOUGH! FERAL WHELP! IF YOU WILL NOT OBEY, THEN BY THE ANCESTORS YOU WILL BE FORCED!"