Frost and Glaciers

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Waning gibbous,
Sun in the Northern Serpent,
Year 404,
Kreon's Era
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The sensation of the wind streaming underneath their wing membranes was something so beloved to dragonkind that their old tongues had over fifty different words to describe it. It was a crime that not one of them had made its way into modern dragon vernacular.

Pennerance, Hess spoke into his mind, remembering one of the words as he drew his wings closer and plunged through a grey cloud. Rainwater dribbled down his horns, forming little streams that flowed through the creases of his hide. He emerged from the cloud's underbelly, threw his wings open and glided over the rolling pastures carpeting the foothills of Aika's Crowns. A river meandered through the vast green expanses and deep ravines, leaving the glittering crescents of oxbow lakes near its curves. The cloud dragon flapped his wings to steady his flight and followed the river's course upstream to its origin in the mountains.

The snow-capped white ranges of Aika's Second Crown had many peaks vying to be called the highest but those of Mons Albine easily outclassed them by several thousand wingspans. The river moved along the base of the mountain, leaving tributaries that fed the marshes and watered the woodlands at its base. Looking up, Hess could see dragon representatives from the three major clans of Thalassus swoop down from the cloud cover and land on the gigantic mountain's summit.

He dipped one wing and flew in a spiral, circling the mountain in an easier and energy-efficient way of ascending than flying straight up. The grim grey faces of the mountain were marbled with narrow veins of ice and dusted with thick snow. The air here smelled of virgin ice, granite and pine pollen blown up from the conifer forests downhill. Finally, the ledge he was looking for came into his view, prompting him to tuck his wings, swoop, glide and land. The sun was merciless to barren mountaintops, eager to get the ice on their peaks flowing.

The ledge was occupied by a dragon lying prostrate on an outcrop with her wings draped over the rocks. Before her stretched the eastern side of Thalassus with the curving black beaches of Aika's Bay, the obsidian mountain range of the First Crown and the lush green forests of Aika's Grove. The Cynthean ocean lying beyond the land was a glittering expanse of aquamarine blue that merged into the horizon.

"You're early," Pruina said, her eyes still shut. Her silver mane scales were braided and arranged on her head to resemble roses by her human pets. Hess thought she looked ridiculous.

To the average dragon without human pets, the very thought of tangled manes would come across as something deplorable or unclean. To the dragons who reared humans, the occasional, single mane braid was a sign of love and bonding with their pets. Not long ago, Carnelian high society however had suddenly found themselves coveting the beautiful braids worn by the human rearers, something about them symbolising how compassionate the dragon was to lesser animals. The impossible standards and niceties of the high society courtships took care of the rest and turned the braids into the newest fad. If Hess had a piece of gold ore for each time a Carnelian had solicited his opinion on their braids, he could've fed five generations of his humans with tropical fruits imported from the South.

Hess had almost forgotten about the braid the little boy had made in his mane. Gleyssier would want him to be presentable to the great clans, preferably without him looking like a farmhand who had just walked out of a human sty with a mane full of knots, braids and buns.

To think that all that effort would be lost in a draw of a talon. The little boy had to braid mane scales taller than he was and he had done it so well. The dragon didn't have the heart to undo the child's handiwork.

That braid can stay on for good luck, Hess thought.

Pruina looked at him through the sliver of her half-opened right eye.

"Oh thank Quersis, he didn't raise you like a country monitor. but do tell them to pin that braid back with a mane ornament the next time."

"I take that I wasn't invited by my sister right before a crucial meeting just to be given grooming advice?"

Pruina laughed but her eyes stayed shut. She shifted in her spot and spoke, letting loose puffs of cold air from her muzzle with each word.

"Has my little brother become so busy that he cannot spare time for his sister anymore?"

"Now is not the time, surely you can have your talk later," Hess said, fighting back the urge to bare his teeth at his sister's nonchalance.

Pruina's palm patted the slab of rock right next to her, warmed by the morning sun. 

"Come sit with me, Hess, you must be hungry," she called. Pruina used that tone while feeding them their share of the day's hunt as hatchlings. Hess knew from experience that her next call wouldn't be as polite, so he obeyed. The stone outcrop, warmed by the sun, was delightful to his hide.

He smelled the seasoned bear meat Pruina had kept underneath one of her draped wings almost immediately. She carefully tore a hindleg off its body and placed it before Hess, letting the thyme, rosemary, basil and southern spices charm the dragon into taking a bite. Her brother resisted briefly before his canines relented and bit into the muscle.

Bit by bit, he ate to his fill, shaking off the juices and spiced blood off his mane. Just as he saw a leathery hand approaching his mane in his periphery he ducked out of its way. Pruina sighed and retracted her hand. Hess did feel a pang of pain in his chest, but as he chewed on, each of her transgressions appeared in his mind with vivid detail.

She had forsaken that right of hers the day she had decided to fly off to Carnelia with her lover.

Her talons had pulled several strings to prevent Gleyssier's ascent to High Lord at the Imperial Court, she had even warned Dianthe about her brother's ambitions ruining another family. His sister had torn his brother Cyremon away from his brood mates, forcing him and his siblings to use a rock as a substitute in their nest to stop themselves from screaming for him at night. She had persuaded the authorities to skip Cyremon during the wyvern war draft, and had watched as the adults dragged the rest of the brood into war. Argyrar, Maestral and Hess had never forgiven her for that, for forsaking them as she 'saved' Cyremon.

The Capitol had turned the love for her clan into lethal venom. She was just another stranger to him now.

The stranger near him was however a guest to Thalassus and to refuse offered meat was most impolite in dragon culture. He chewed each mouthful as thoroughly as possible to grind the tough bear meat and swallow it quickly.

"Now that you're full, let's get on with it."

Pruina opened her eyes, lifted her head and stretched her neck. Hesperion could feel his sister's body language slip from the familiar playfulness to the poise of a dignified court dragon as he ate. Her scent turned more intense and imposing with the change in her posture and Hess could feel it burn his nose. The dragon beside him was no longer his Prue but High Lady Pruina Hellebor of Carnelia.

"I hear your brother is planning to strengthen his connections by bringing the cloud dragon clans from the North and the East together. Not an easy feat convincing them to even listen all unless it's against a common enemy."

Her blue eyes pierced through his as their eyes met briefly.

"Treason's a reckless quest, even for Gleyssier."

"Is that so?" Hess took a bite out of the thigh.

"Your confidence is inspiring, Lord Aleunor. Let's hope it outlasts the spring. Or the meeting you have at hand for that matter."

A barking laugh erupted from Hess' throat.

"Sceptical already? You haven't even heard me speak."

"That won't be necessary," Pruina said, ripping a strip of meat off the bear's flanks with her talons. "I see several orators like you at the Imperial Court every day. Smart, sharp, well-read youngsters with scrubbed muzzles and gleaming horns. You can see the hope shining in their eyes as they enter the halls, they believe that the Crown could help them or their clients. They begin strong but as the case goes on, they stammer, they falter as the High Lords and Ladies pull that spider-web of romance from their eyes, blinding them to the reality they have at hand. I've seen well-prepared arguments sink like boulders before the Lords and Ladies. You're going to need all the luck and charm the heavens can spare to convince them all to agree."

Hess kept his mum and nibbled on the sweet marrow of the bear's broken thigh bone, feeling both insulted and amused. It was amusing, how utterly amusing how she could say with firmness that he would never convince the clan heads to partake in their little power tussle.

"You haven't even heard my proposal, Lady Hellebor, and you've already passed your verdict."

Her nictitating membranes swept a film of water over her eyes.

"I might be Lady Hellebor at the Court but I am your sister at Mons Albine and as your sister, I must keep you from flinging yourself at beasts you know nothing of. Do you think that these big horns would side with you if it comes to war? Why would they side with one clan to stand against the might of an entire archipelago? Commoners are being thrown into the Iron Maw at the faintest whisper of dissent rising from their throats. You think the Crown wouldn't know about your little call to war?"

"I'm sorry but what are you calling my proposal?" Hess asked, hoping to make her spit out the unspeakable, hoping she's utter that one word that had ended plenty of lives at the Iron Maw.

Pruina's eyes narrowed. Cocking her head at her brother, she exhaled sharply.

"Your little-" she made a clicking sound "-rebellion against the Crown."

The word Hess had hoped for treason. Rebellions his father could crush with a flick of his tail. But treason, treason was an entirely different beast on its own, a very hungry one at that, one that had ravaged many an innocent family when released with a slip of a tongue. He was sure of there being Imperial spies posing as the clansfolk who had come along with their clan representatives. It was only a matter of time before the Crown knew and he needed to have an alliance by then.

"Your words not mine," Hess said with an open-jawed smile. "You're calling my proposal, which you haven't even heard, that based on what? Hearsay?"

The mountain was growing warmer with the sun's ascent into the sky. More dragons dropped from the heavens and landed, brewing little snowstorms with their flapping wings as they landed. The meeting was scheduled to begin at noon, Hess wondered if his absence was starting to be noticed.

"Has she told you about her pregnancy yet?" He whispered to Pruina with an anxious wave of his tail. Her jaw stopped working on the morsel in her mouth.

"Who?"

Hess whistled and clicked his tongue. He couldn't believe his luck.

"Why her Imperial eminence herself. She was here just yesterday praying at Mons Sterne. How odd of her to not tell the clan when it's painfully obvious."

"How odd indeed," Pruina repeated. Her tail had gone still with her jaw, her eyes were fixed on the horizon.

Hess moved quick to plant the idea in her head. A clan divided was easier to kill.

"Has the Imperatrix outgrown her clan, Pruina?"

"She has, as is expected of her," came the ready answer. "Her clan's glory grows with hers each day. Sooner or later, she will announce her pregnancy to the clan Matriarch and the heads. The news is not something trivial, at last, the Korallion Empire is going to be ruled by Hellebor blood."

"Not while the first heir still breathes," Hess reminded her.

There was a slow movement to his right, that forced him to stop chewing, turn and look. His sister had dragged the bear's corpse before her, leaving behind a streak of dull red on the snow. Her talons dug into its collapsed chest and tore its ribcage wide open, splattering its fluids all over the rocks and on her blemishless white hide. Her talons reached and ripped out its muscular heart, warm and oozing blood through its new orfices.

"I," Pruina spoke as her eyes studied the organ, "would rather have Pharoan rule the land from the Netherseas than see my elder brother taint the crown. Good luck with your proposal, Hess, Gleyssier would make his death wish known to the Crown with this. I hope you would be sensible enough to not follow him to the Iron Maw."

Her fangs bit into the heart. Blood dripped down her fair muzzle, dying it bright pink.

Hesperion's talons piled the bones and proceeded to claw out a hole in the ground to bury them. Something was weighing him down in his chest and it wasn't a heavy meal.

Ever since he could remember, Gleyssier and Pruina were always locking horns for some reason, be it over who got the best parts of their mother's prey or over the nesting straw. Their brood mate Siderion was ever the unwilling peacekeeper who had to keep their arguments from turning into full-blown brawls. His mother had often joked that Gleyssier and Pruina must have been sworn enemies in a previous life and the spring spirit Imespes must've put them in the same brood to sort their souls.

Hess used to hate picking sides when he was a hatchling. He would've never dreamt that their feud would grow into one that concerned the future of the Empire. Yet here they were on the opposite sides of something historical.

"Thank you, the bear was wonderful, I had missed Siderion's seasoning," he said, trying to rub the heaviness in his chest away. He was a full-grown dragon, he shouldn't be this easy to break.

Pruina's talons found that spot behind his ears through the forest of his mane after all those years. Hess knew she had succeeded in her mission, her opponent's orator was emotionally compromised. But then, why was there a softness in her eyes instead of the usual victorious gleam?

"You're not banned from visiting us in Carnelia, Hess. Come visit once in a while, we'll feed you all the seasoned bear you'd like. Siderion has a spice garden of his own near his cave now, we don't have to raid the neighbour's woods anymore."

"Why? So that you can introduce me to some desperate bachelorette friend of yours over dinner? Not in a million years. Did you get Siderion a mate yet?"

Pruina chuckled. "Sadly no, he hasn't found his match yet. His recipes are all the rage among the high society gastronomes and he's quite the hit with the ladies. We'll get there someday. Cyremon on the other hand-"

The heaviness within his chest was transformed into a fireball in an instant. Cyremon of all his brood mates never deserved a posh life at the Capitol, one so close to his father and with all the luxuries his sister's power could offer. He was never an easy child to raise- he was arrogant, rude, uncouth and callous as a hatchling. Hess had wished a military life upon him hoping that the army would straighten out his misdemeanours. Instead, he was transplanted to the Capitol to live a life of pleasure and satisfaction. He had hated Cyremon then. But what he had nursed for him over the years was nothing but pure resentment. Jealousy was a strong feeling, and Hesperion who had been Cyremon's favourite victim had felt it more than the others.

Quersis is blind, Hess had told himself while sobbing the day Cyremon had left. That's why her sculpture has eyes of stone. She doesn't see things as they are.

Imespes is deaf, he had added when he learnt that Pruina had asked Rybon to accompany her to Carnelia and she had left without telling goodbye.

Hess savoured the bitterness in his heart his envy and heartbreak had festered over the years. He took a deep breath.

"I should go. Will you be staying for the meeting?"

Pruina looked at him, straightening one of her braided roses with a careful tug.

"Yes, you have my curiosity. I'll hear your proposal. Perhaps you might even convince me to switch sides."