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“Forgive me,” King Ramsenan drawled. We whipped our heads around to see him staring at us with something like amusement, his head propped in his hand as he watched the back and forth. My cheeks heated as I realized I’d forgotten he was there. “But based on this exchange, it seems there must be some truth to Adara’s claim. Or else you would be as clueless as I am as to what she’s speaking of.”
Yaggir shook off the imposter’s hold on his arm, then stepped forward and bowed low to the God-King. “Forgive me, Your Eminence,” he said, keeping his head bent even as he straightened his spine. “I have been complicit in this charade, but given what has come to light here, I can no longer continue.”
“So it is true, then?” the God-King demanded. “You are dragons, and not descendants of Sobek-Ra?”
“Yaggir,” High Priest Inatol pled, his voice sharp with desperation. “Don’t do this.”
Yaggir whirled to face Inatol. “How can I not?” he said, throwing up his hands. “We are dragons, creatures of fire, who have pretended to be the descendants of a water-dwelling reptile for twenty years just so we could be accepted by your people!” He spun to face the God-King again and dropped to his knees, assuming a posture of humility. “Adara wasn’t exaggerating when she said that the Edirian king nearly killed us all off. There used to be thousands of dragons, and those of us who came here are all that are left. We were home-sick and battle weary, and terrified of the possibility that we might repeat history and find ourselves fighting to exist again. So when the opportunity arose for us not only to assimilate into your society, but be venerated as deities, we could not say no.”
The God-King tapped his golden nose as he considered this. “And why are you coming forth now, after all these years?”
Yaggir turned to look at me, his eyes brimming with emotion. “Because Adara’s mate, Einar, was a close friend of mine. He was the general of our army, and I was his deputy. If he sent her to us, then I am honor-bound to do whatever is in my power to help her.” He looked over his shoulder at his fellow dragons. “And so are all of you.”
The other dragons shifted, looking down at their feet. Even the imposter seemed ashamed. The High Priest, for his part, had turned a sickly shade of green beneath his tan. He knew his days were numbered, and while I felt bad for the dragons, I couldn’t bring myself to feel an ounce of pity for him. He had brought this upon himself.
The audience held their breath as they waited for the God-King to speak, and I half-expected him to smite Yaggir where he stood. But to my surprise, he nodded his approval. “I admire your courage and loyalty, even if that loyalty is to your dead comrade, rather than to me, your sovereign.” Yaggir flinched. The God-King turned to me, then asked, “Who is this Ylena to you? I have never heard of her.”
I blinked at that. “You should have. Her mother was the queen of the dragons, which means she should have inherited her title. She is also the priestess of the dragons, and I need her to help me with a sacred ritual that only she can perform.” My stomach sank as I glanced toward the imposter, who must have taken up her role as the leader of the dragons. “What did you do with Ylena? Why is she not here?”
The imposter clenched his jaw, but Yaggir answered for him. “She is not here because she refused to be complicit in the High Priest’s scheme,” he admitted with a sigh. “She found the idea of pretending to be crocodiles an affront to our ancestors, and she wasn’t the only one of us who felt that way. The High Priest had her, as well as the other dissidents, banished to an island so that they would not expose us.”
The audience went into an uproar over this, and it took several tries for the herald to calm them down again. “Silence!” he roared, his voice echoing through the packed chamber. “The God-King needs a moment to confer with his advisors. You will all wait here until he returns.”
The God-King exited the throne room, leaving us alone. As soon as the door shut behind him, the audience broke out into excited chatter, speculating over what verdict their king would hand down. Would he have the dragons executed for their hubris? And what of the High Priest who had orchestrated this scheme? Surely he deserved something worse than a mere hanging!
“Are you okay?” Quye asked, laying a hand on my arm.
I glanced at her, wondering how she could stay so calm during all of this. “I just hope they aren’t really going to execute the dragons,” I said, my stomach churning. “I don’t think I could bear it if I was responsible for their deaths, even if they don’t feel the same way about me.”
“King Ramsenan is not a tyrant,” Anuket said. “I cannot promise he will spare the lives of your kith, but given his favorable response to Yaggir, I suspect he will offer them an alternative to death.” Her mouth thinned as she glanced toward Inatol, who was conferring with the dragons in low voices. “I cannot say the same for Inatol, however. The God-King will punish him to the fullest extent of the law for this.”
I nodded as I stared at the dragons, noticing that Yaggir stood a little off to the side of their group. The others had clearly shunned him for his betrayal. The dragon gave me a small smile when he noticed me staring, and I felt a twinge of pity for him. It was very brave of him to speak out, especially since he didn’t know me. I would have to express my gratitude to him if the God-King decided to show him mercy.
An agonizing twenty minutes passed before the doors opened and the God-King strode back in with his advisors. I held my breath as he took his seat again and the room quieted down, all waiting in anticipation for their king to speak.
“High Priest Inatol,” the God-King said in his rumbling voice. “Come forward.”
The High Priest reluctantly did as the king commanded, bowing low. I caught a glimpse of his trembling hands before he tucked them into their opposite sleeves. “Your Eminence,” he said, “I—”
“Save your excuses,” the God-King said. “I have made my decision. You have been found guilty of committing fraud against the crown and the gods, and will undergo the Rathkir as punishment.”
Gasps echoed through the chamber, and the High Priest fell to his knees. “Please, Your Eminence,” he croaked. “Anything but that. I have been your most faithful—”
“You have been anything but faithful,” the God-King growled, his grip tightening on the arms of his chair. “Not only have you deceived me and the good people of this city, but you have robbed your fellow High Priests and their temples of their acolytes, and insulted Sobek-Ra by installing a false god in his temple!” His voice boomed throughout the chamber, and the walls themselves seemed to vibrate with his rage. “How dare you claim to be faithful to anyone, when you don’t even believe in the god you serve! Get this sniveling coward out of my sight,” he snapped to the guards, “before I kill him myself.”
The guards moved in at once, seizing Inatol by the arms and dragging him away from the platform. “What is the Rathkir?” I whispered to High Priestess Anuket, confused.
“It is a punishment worse than death, reserved for the most heinous of criminals,” Anuket said as she watched the guards haul Inatol away. I expected her to look triumphant, but her expression was grave as she looked on. “Inatol will be bound from head to toe in white linen, then locked inside a coffin and buried alive in a tomb.”
“That’s… gruesome,” Quye said, looking both horrified and impressed. “What if someone tries to break him out?”
“There is no chance of that.” Anuket smiled grimly. “Guards patrol the burial grounds to discourage grave robbers, and the God-King’s priest will place booby traps on the tomb. Should anyone try to free Inatol, they will suffer a terrible curse that will be passed down through their family. No one would dare.”
A chill ran down my spine, and as I looked up at the God-King again, I was thankful that I was, at least for now, on his good side. I expected him to call the imposter forward next, but to my surprise, he summoned Yaggir.
“Because you came forward and confessed, I will exempt you from punishment,” he said. “As for the rest of your kith, they may choose between either banishment or twenty years of service. Except for the imposter,” he added, pointing at the dragon in question. “He must die for his crime.”
Yaggir’s face paled, and the imposter snarled, his wings bursting from his back. “I don’t answer to you!” he roared as his fangs punched through his gums and his claws sprouted. The crowd screamed as he launched himself at the God-King, eyes wild, fists blazing with fire, and I yelled, jumping forward to intervene.
