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Book 3: Chapter 10: Overdue Explanations

Cressida sighed in agreement. "Yes, they are going to get in trouble, but we can't watch over them every second. They're growing up and have to be allowed to make their own mistakes."

Though Arthur didn't like it, he knew she was right.

Cressida visibly shook herself, then turned to look at Arthur. She tilted her head towards Red Laird, who was waiting patiently for them to continue their discussion as if he had all the time in the world. Maybe he did. Arthur didn't know how long he had stalked Baron Kane’s security cart before he finally struck outside his village.

Meanwhile, Chiblis had made her way over to the blue pair and was talking to them in a low undertone.

"So, you know Laird?" Cressida asked.

"Well," Arthur blew out a breath, "he gave me my Master of Skills card."

"Yes, that was quite the day," Red Laird said. "I had no idea that the seed I planted in the border village would someday bear fruit."

"So… you truly lived in a border village?" Cressida asked Arthur.

"I told you that," Arthur said.

She gave him a look. "You've told me many things since I've known you. I don't know what to believe anymore."

Arthur flushed and Laird chuckled. "Well, I, for one, can verify that I discovered this man, then a young child —”

“I wasn't that young," Arthur muttered.

"—in quite a dire border village under the Baron Kane estate. Despicable place. And a despicable man," he added.

Cressida looked at Arthur with a hard-to-read expression. "How bad was it?"

"Not the worst that I've seen," Laird answered before he could. "There are some border Barons who work their people to death in mines, or pluck the pretty girls for their own uses. But Kane just lets them die of neglect and starvation, mostly."

Arthur shrugged. Those memories were like scar tissue in his mind – terrible, but hard to feel anything underneath. “He had his vindictive moments.”

"I'm sure," Larid rumbled. “However, I am pleased by the reports that came out of his barony after the loss of that card. You successfully kept it away from him, for which you have my thanks.”

"You told me that you would kill my family if the card ever fell into his hands." It seemed a little ludicrous now as an adult, but as a 12-year-old child, having a dragon threaten him had been very effective.

"That was an incentive. And look what you did with yourself," Laird said brightly.

"I don’t understand. Why would you give a card — a Legendary card — to a child you didn't know?" Cressida asked.

Laird shrugged a massive shoulder. "What should I have done with it? Putting a Legendary card in my core would only poison me. Introducing a card of immense wealth into this community would poison it, as well. Humans would tear themselves apart for it. Or the hives would get wind and come after us. No doubt they have their spies here, as well as we have in theirs," he added, with the cock of his head. "Plus," he continued, "I thought it would be funny to stymie Baron Kane. His own land would be the last place that he looked."

"He did look for the card in our village," Arthur said. "If he had thought to search the kids… He would've found me."

"But he didn't.” Laird sounded very self-satisfied. “And now he is leveraged under painful loans to pay that back. Unless he gets very lucky in his harvests, which I doubt—you've seen how hard he works—his family's wealth will be destroyed within a generation.”

Cressida asked, "Kane was using that card as payment, I take it?"

"Yes, for gambling debts," Laird said with a smile. “That’s not his only problem: I still go by every once in a while to steal the best rams and ewes from his flock. Ask any shepherd. That is devastating.”

"It sounds like you know Baron Kane," he said leadingly.

"I do. He is my late rider's grandson, kicked out of Blood Moon hive for deviant behavior—and that says a lot, considering the state of Blood Moon hive," he sighed. "But he had good blood on his father's side and managed to weasel his way into a barony. He is a dangerous, corrupt man. After he was done with the hive… my rider was never quite the same, and we dragons... unless we're killed in a scourge eruption, we live for a very long time." Laird's smile was all threat.

So, this had all started as simple revenge.

Arthur felt like there was much more to the story but there were immediate, pressing questions as well. “What are your plans for us here? For me and my people?"

Some of the maliciousness in Laird's demeanor drained away. He looked towards Chablis, who was talking to Tamya and Len, gesturing towards the hive. If Arthur wasn't mistaken, the woman was giving her best sales pitch. He should probably do something to stop them… but the Blue weren’t children. They should be allowed to hear her out. It didn't take a genius to figure out that a community that lived near a salt sea would find saltwater powers incredibly useful.

"The Free Hive Counsel has been thrown into a tizzy," Laird said, drawing Arthur’s attention back. "They’re unsure whether to use you, kill you, or befriend you. Their hands have been tied by inaction."

“Or you could just let us go,” Cressida said.

“That was also discussed.” Laird made a gesture with spread wings as if to indicate the vast desert beyond. “After all, neither of you would be able to find your way back.”

Arthur and Brixaby could find their way back after they’d copied one of the shimmer green’s portal abilities. He kept his mouth shut.

Laird looked at Arthur as if to judge his reaction, snorted at whatever he saw, and then gestured back toward the mesa. "What do you think of our little hive?"

"I haven't seen very much of it," Arthur admitted, but then, as the Red dragon looked on, he blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Mostly, I want to know if the people I left behind in the border village—the people suffering under Baron Kane-- would have a place here."

"Criminals?" Cressida asked, scandalized.

He turned to her. "Most are the families of criminals or wrongly accused."

Laird hummed under his breath. Though through a dragon voice, it sounded like a very threatening growl. "Our resources are stretched thin, but not that thin. We do have some extra resources, and it has occurred to me to snatch up the peasants under Baron Kane’s rule. The problem is, many have taken an oath to the king to remain there."

An oath that Brixaby could easily rip out of their heart decks, as he had done with his father. Arthur kept the lid on that, too. He sensed Laird was happy to find some leverage over Arthur – and that was what he’d been fishing for.

"I have taken my own oath to the king," Arthur admitted, "though I'm certain it's lighter than what condemned men and women were forced to give. More important to me, as a Legendary Rider, I have to fight the scourgelings, but..." he looked back over his shoulder towards where Brixaby and Joy had gone, "I also want to learn about this place."

"To be frank, Arthur, you and your dragon represent both a great risk and a hope. We don't have a Legendary card in our ranks. We could use somebody with extraordinary skills." Laird looked to Cressida. "What about you? Your pink is a meta—not with a knowledge card, I take it?"

She nodded blandly. "She has random insights."

Which was a very guarded explanation of quests.

Laird shrugged. “I’ll have to report that to the council, but I’m sure they’ll be glad to have you. We are a Free Hive--a community of outcasts. Many of the dragons are like me, who lost their first rider and did not want a second. There are just as many dragon pairs who just became disenchanted with the hive for one reason or another."

Speaking of riderless dragons… Arthur looked around for Shadow and realized that the dragon was gone. He felt bad for not realizing earlier.

Laird continued, "We only wish to live freely and scrape out a little piece of safety in an unsafe world. We don't want anything to do with the kingdom's dramas.”

He said that, but earlier he had admitted to raiding Kingdom lands. Arthur didn’t point this out, but he exchanged a look with Cressida that told him she noted the same thing.

"I will allow you to settle in,” Laird said. “Meanwhile, do not remove those card locks or cause undue trouble. Look around the hive, explore, and ask questions. And get comfortable with the idea that this may very well be your new home."

Laird flew off, leaving him and Cressida alone.

She turned to him.

"I'm still upset with you, you know," she said, suddenly. "You told me so many versions of your life, half the time I don’t even know which name to call you. But…” Her lips pressed into a line, “But I do realize you haven’t had it easy.”

"My father was Duke Rowantree,” Arthur said. They’d had a version of this conversation once, a few weeks ago just after he came back from that near-disaster with the King. He suspected she had been too shocked and angry to properly listen. “That’s my true last name. But my father was caught with Legendary cards from the same set. Now my uncle holds the title."

"Legendries from the same set,” she repeated. “That's treason."

"I have a pair of Legendries," Arthur countered.

"And rumor had it that you almost lost your life to the king," she snapped.

He almost smiled. Was that worry he heard in her voice? "But I got special dispensation.”

Exasperated, she threw her hands in the air. "From what I heard, the king’s moods are… changeable.”

They hadn't spoken much about the king. Arthur was a little shell-shocked when he came back. And every time he wanted to tell her the full story about what he went through that day, he felt the tug at his heart. It strained the loyalty he promised in the oath. Not a lot, but he didn't want to test it in case the king could feel it on his end.

Did the King think he was dead now? Or did the oath tell him that he was alive? "He is… uh, changeable. I'm certainly not out of danger. I have to get stronger for many reasons, but the king is certainly one of them," Arthur agreed.

Cressida looked briefly away. "Well, the bloodline of the Duke is certainly more powerful than the bloodline of a Baron."

Arthur's eyebrows rose.

"What?" She looked back at him. "That matters with the other nobles. And the Rowentree name is more powerful than the baron who lords over prisoners. How old were you when got your card, anyway?"

Arthur almost asked why it mattered, but it didn’t hurt to answer. "Twelve. I left my village soon afterward and took the name of Ernest. He was my best friend at the time. He died.” He swallowed hard. "So many people die out there. Laird spoke of neglect, but those are pretty words. You wouldn’t believe what it’s like unless you see it. The scourge-dust blows in from the deadened lands and sickens people. Any little cut risks your whole limb rotting from under you. My best friend, Ernie, died because his mother was stupid enough to plant her vegetable garden on lands that had not fully been healed by dragon soil yet. They didn't know until it was too late. The scourge rot ate them from the inside out."

"Oh, Arthur," she sighed.

He hadn’t spoken like this before. It was as if a crack in a dam he hadn’t been aware of had formed and everything came spilling out. “No one from a hive can understand. The people there don’t have cards. No one has cards, so they're completely susceptible to every sickness. Families starve and die for the sins of one family member. And yeah, technically the kids can leave, but only after they turn eighteen. They know nothing of the world, have no cards, and can't even read most of the time. Most stay just because there is nowhere to go—" he stopped, hearing his own words turn into a rant.

She was quiet; simply put her hand on his shoulder.

… And he just couldn’t stop speaking.

"I'm sorry I lied to you," he said. "My name really is Arthur Rowantree, but until recently, that name wasn't safe. And it still might not be safe now. The King can change his mind anytime." More things – long-held fears and anxieties bubbled up from deep inside him, and he couldn’t stop them. "Valentina and Whitaker didn't prepare me to face the King. They didn't think I would survive, and they were right. I only got out thanks to luck. Now, the trust is gone between all of us. Whitaker is supposed to train me, but he barely does anything. He cancels more classes than he attends, and when he does bother to show up, I'm doing paperwork I barely understand—his paperwork, I think."

"Valentina allows this?” Cressida asked. “She doesn’t strike me as the type of woman who would."

"I think if she were even ten years younger, she wouldn't. But she's getting old," he said bitterly, "and when she dies, Whitaker is going to be in charge, and..." He couldn’t finish because inside he desperately worried that without Valentina’s influence, the entire hive would be up a creek without a paddle. Or worse, everything would fall on Arthur’s shoulders.

Emotionally flailing, he sidestepped topics. "Meanwhile, have you seen how Athena treats our class? She won't teach me anything because she's terrified of my rank. I know I made mistakes back at the eruption, but I don't know what to do. I don't want to make the wrong move with people's lives in the balance.”

“Arthur, we saved a lot of lives back there… all those people who were trapped and couldn’t flee--"

"I know, but I got our dragons hurt by a Common scourgeling. If I had been thinking, I could have told another veteran group to go and save them. Then we could have searched for Freeacre’s card library. If we had gotten there earlier, maybe we could have done… done something." Though he didn’t know what. Then he stopped because he realized he was just kind of verbally vomiting all of his worries on Cressida. That wasn’t fair to her.

In fact, she looked a little overwhelmed by everything.

"I didn't know this was going through your mind," she said. "You always look so confident."

"That’s my Acting skill," he admitted.

She half-smiled, her hand still moving up and down his forearm, almost like she was gentling a horse.

"Well, I think you did a good job. And, if it wasn't you in charge, it would have been me, and... I don't know if we could have done any better."

"Cressida, you and Joy anchor the class. I'm so glad I have somebody to trust. If I didn’t, I would've gone nuts a long time ago."

"Well, there's not much of a class now," she said.

They both went quiet at that.

After a moment, Arthur said, "If understand things right, Wolf Moon thinks that we're dead."

Cressida winced. “If you don’t go back, then eventually it’ll just be Whitaker in charge. Is that something you’re prepared to live with?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “What about you? Being a rider in a Legendry’s retinue is a good position to have.”

She heaved a sigh and her hand dropped from his arm. “I was expected to either marry well or link with the Rare egg. And now that I have Joy, I’m expected to send shards back to my father.”

“What?” He was shocked. “I didn’t know that.”

“I’m to send back any children I birth, too.” She shrugged as if it didn’t bother her, but Arthur could tell that it did. “My stipend as one of your Retinue would have more than covered what my father expected, even before harvesting from scourge eruptions.”

His fists clenched and he forced himself to relax. Even if the thought of walking up to Noble Icehouse and ripping the cards from his heart deck was tempting. He did share Brixaby’s power, after all. He just hadn’t used it.

“You could just… not send him shards,” he suggested in what he hoped was an even voice.

“No, I can’t.” She crossed her arms, looking away. “I don’t want to talk about it. The point is, I have my responsibilities back at the hive, too. But…” She glanced longingly at the mesa.

“We don’t have to decide now,” Arthur said. “We can take our time and learn about this place. That’s assuming they’ll let us leave.”

“Oh please.” Cressida rolled her eyes, but her next words were fond. “Sooner or later, Joy will get a quest to leave. Then nothing will stop her.”

He smiled and tilted his head toward the mesa. “Think it’s time we check on them?”

“May as well.”