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“Are you finished?” Everett gestured towards Claire’s half eaten plate.
She nodded, pushing it away. She had lost her appetite now. Malcolm frowned but didn’t say anything as she placed it on the floor for Puck to finish. She didn’t want to be wasteful. The Notus scarfed it down quickly, looking much perkier than he had the day prior. Once he was done, Everett took their plates to a small alcove next to the kitchen and placed them on the shelves.
Malcolm placed an arm around Claire’s waist as they exited the dining hall and she snuggled closer into him. She knew that her men had grown up a lot closer to the Council than she had. Desmond’s father was an elected member for the Realm’s sake. Maybe that’s why she was able to look at it from a different view. That or it was because she was the Queen of the Elves now and felt an added responsibility to get to the bottom of it all.
They just needed to keep piecing together information. Not having that final journal from Winona was throwing a wrench into their decoding efforts but she and Desmond were going to have to find a library here one day and spend the day going through it. They needed the answers.
Lost in thought, she trusted Malcolm to guide her as they traveled down two different tunnels and then up three flights of stairs. It felt like they were getting closer to the Mountain’s peak and Claire let her Energy Reading abilities out to play to confirm. Her magic tried to shoot out of her but she rained it back in with a gentle tug. She sent it out much slower and it raced into the rock walls, traveling along the fissures in the stone and through the tunnels as it mapped out her surroundings.
The tunnel system in the Dragon Mountains was extensive and stretched for what felt like miles. Large rooms created air flow pockets in the stone and smaller, cozier living chambers were nestled together. Up ahead, her magic raced down the tunnel and confirmed what she had sensed. About fifty feet of rock separated them from the fresh air whipping against the face of the mountain.
They kept walking towards the face of the mountain as Claire called her magic back to her. Desmond turned around from where he was walking in front of her and arched an eyebrow at her. He must have felt her magic.
“Just practicing,” she smiled at him.
His reply was interrupted when they arrived at two doors that looked like they were carved from the mountain. Everett knocked on the doors, his fist against them barely making a noise but Roderick’s voice still called for them to enter.
Roderick looked up from the paperwork on his desk as they entered. The desk, like everything else in the Mountains it seemed, was carved from stone and seemed to be a part of the floor. To the right, a fire danced in the ornately carved fireplace with a small seating area in front of it. Book cases were carved into the left wall of the room and while the collection had nothing on Frederick’s at Brandlevine, it was still impressive. But the true eye catcher of the room was the stained glass that ran the length of the room behind Roderick above the balcony doors.
The scene started on the left with colorful dragons flying above the mountain range, the colors from the glass making them look like they were dancing in the air. It blended into the mountain range and the centerpiece was a dragon family curled up in one of their living chambers, sleeping in dragon form, a tangle of colors muted by the warm reddish glow of the rock around them.
The final scene on the right was a Dragon shaking hands with a Fae, their people intermixing behind them. The strength of the handclasp between the two leaders spoke to the strength of the alliance. At one point the Fae and Dragons had been closely intertwined in each other’s lives. What changed that?
Thankfully, the cushy chairs in front of the desk were not carved from stone and adorned with pillows and blankets that reminded Claire of Mara’s touch. “Good morning,” she greeted politely as Malcolm guided her into a chair.
“Good morning,” Roderick smiled warmly at Claire, taking the reading glasses off of his nose and folding them to set them aside.
“Since when did you start wearing glasses?” Malcolm asked. “Momma’s been badgering you about it for decades.”
Roderick gave Malcolm an impervious look and said, “what glasses?”
Claire smiled as Malcolm rolled his eyes.
“That window is gorgeous,” she said, changing the subject.
“Thank you,” Roderick smiled warmly at her. “It shows the Dragons in partnership with the Fae. It was put in by my grandfather before the Great War and commissioned from a Dragon and Fae artist pair.”
“Why didn’t you take it out after the Great War?” Desmond asked. “Surely it couldn’t have been a popular piece after the dust settled. I’m surprised the other dragons let you keep it.”
“It’s a part of our history,” Roderick said. “I didn’t want to lose a piece of it and then after the interaction with Claire’s father, I kept it as a reminder of that day.”
“You knew him? My father?” Claire asked tentatively. It was clear earlier that Roderick recognized the Fae dagger Claire had laid on the table but how did he know it was Claire’s father?
Roderick rubbed his face. “I didn’t know him personally. I knew of him though. And after encountering him during the Great War and seeing that dagger you carry with you, I started putting some pieces together last night.”
“He’s the one that gave you the dagger?” Desmond questioned. Claire bit her lip. Were they finally going to get more answers? It had been a long time ago, maybe Roderick had forgotten the details.
“I remember it perfectly. Partly because the whole interaction was so strange.”
“What was strange about it?” Desmond asked.
“The whole thing honestly. I had been out patrolling the borders. I had volunteered because truthfully, I had no stomach for the war. The reasoning had never made sense to me. It was near the middle of the war and your mother was at home with you. My Clan Leader and father at the time let me do the patrols instead.
“The first strange thing was I had come out upon him alone. Fae attack squads were never solitary but nevertheless, I shifted and demanded to know what he was doing here. He refused to answer and comply and I was a bit hot headed and frustrated by the war so I attacked him. And then it was clear he was a skilled warrior. That was the second strange part. He was winning the fight. At one point, he had thrown me away and asked my name. I gave it to him and asked his but he didn’t answer. But it was like once he found out my name, it was like he started throwing the fight and taking blows.
“When I pinned him, I had the prime opportunity to give the killing blow but I couldn’t. We were at war but the Fae had been our allies. I released him and told him never to enter the Dragon Mountains again. He gave this… sad smile and offered me this dagger as a boon for my mercy. It wasn’t till I got back to the mountains that Maxios recognized the dagger as a Royal’s and I realized it must have been Prince Erick. He was the right age for it at the time.”
Roderick paused and looked at Claire. “That’s also how I guessed he was your father.”
