Dragon Prince - Chapter Eighteen
(This was made for me by a trio of my wonderful readers who have taken to calling themselves the Gypsies. Thank you so much guys!)
Dragon Prince
Chapter Eighteen
“That is the last of them,” Yunho told the Prince as he followed the last pair of dragons out of what had been their prison.
“Good,” Hyunjoong replied with a nod, watching as they traveled down the trail through the darkness towards freedom.
“Jungmin has already taken the horses ahead to the portal. We are the last,” Yunho informed him.
Hyunjoong nodded. He turned to face the dragon that was standing beside him. In the faint light of the moon, he could just make out the yellow shine to its scales. “My friend, could you destroy this place? I do not want it to ever be used again.”
‘I can collapse it,’ a tired male voice echoed in his head, ‘but to take away the magic in this place would take power that I do not posses.’
“That is alright,” Hyunjoong replied. “Just do what you can.”
‘And what of the humans we have trapped inside?’
The Prince turned to look at the man in command of his guard. “Do you know how these men were selected?”
“Volunteered,” Yunho answered promptly. “Our ever informing guide told me that they volunteered for a special project and knew of what would be asked of them before they were stationed here.”
Hyunjoong nodded. “Then all you need to do is make sure they have clear holes to the top and allow them to find their own way out,” he told the dragon.
Lids closed over its eyes and it swayed for a moment. The ground behind them rumbled and suddenly the hill that they had been standing in front of sunk down filling in the caverns and tunnels beneath it. When the shaking had subsided, the dragon opened its eyes. ‘It is done.’
“Thank you,” Hyunjoong said earnestly. He glanced at the collection of people that had remained behind. His guards were standing in loose formation around him, looking haggard and tired after spending most of the night on their rescue mission. Arunika was present as well, her husband stabilizing her with an arm around her shoulders. A large bundle was cradled in her arms. She had not offered information as to what it contained and Hyunjoong had not asked. Arunika had insisted that she stay until the last dragon was out just in case something happened that needed a healer. Hyunjoong hadn’t been able to argue with her since he himself had insisted on staying much against Youngsaeng’s wishes.
The black dragon had been forced to leave when the first of the dragons were ready to go, as no one but he could open the portal to safety. There had been a brief argument during which Hyunjoong had firmly told the dragon that he had no claim or command over him. Youngsaeng had looked like he had wanted to argue but he had left without saying another word.
“Let’s get out of here,” Hyunjoong ordered softly.
They set out, a weary haggard band of rescuers, following the lead of the dragon who had been shown the road to safety. The dragon had staggered forward at first, its wings hanging as more of a hindrance than any real help. Arunika had immediately moved to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder. At her touch he had sighed and straightened just a bit. Hyunjoong assumed that she was helping him in some way that he couldn’t see. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to be enough.
“Arunika,” he said slowly as they walked together. “I need to know. You saw all of the dragons and what they were contained in?”
“Yes,” she said softly, not looking at him. Beside her, her husband gave him a sharp look.
Hyunjoong ignored it and continued, “I need to know what it was like. I have to know.” For reasons he could not explain, Hyunjoong felt that this information was incredibly important. Besides the room that had contained the water dragons, he had been able to see none of the others as he and Youngsaeng had exited the prison with the children.
She looked at him then, her eyes filled with an unnatural green light. “I can show you, Prince. I can put the images right into your mind, but it will not be pretty.”
“Do it,” he said. Then as an after though, “Please.”
Arunika said nothing, simply looked back ahead of her and for a moment he wondered if she had decided not to. Then it began. The images were slow at first, a small trickle that felt like the briefest brush of a feather. Then, as if they were eager to convey meaning to him, they poured into his mind, drowning it with images.
He saw images of pure white dragons in water. The smaller ones were tied with rope to floatation devices that would keep their heads above water. The largest were submerged complete beneath the surface of the liquid. He didn’t have time to wonder at the water as he felt that it wasn’t simple liquid but something that hurt, stole strength, power, and a will to live. He didn’t have more than a moment to contemplate it before the images vanished.
They were replaced instantly with the image of chains. Chains of every metal known to man crisscrossed and wrapped around yellow scales leaving them helpless and bound on an iron floor. They were chains that drained, chains that burned, and chains that could kill.
The image wavered and was replaced with mounds of dirt. At the base of every mound was the red head of a dragon. Some of the smaller heads were able to extend completely from the mound of earth piled on them. The larger ones had only the very tip of their muzzle extended into the air. There was earth everywhere, above, below, crushing, draining.
A jarring shift and earth was replaced with fire. Hot coals for a floor that didn’t kill but burnt at a touch, sucked the life from anything to lay on them. The air was filled with flame and fire often shot up from the coals covering the floor. In small tight coils green and blue dragons lay, surrounded by rings of fire.
Hyunjoong gasped and the images were gone to be replaced with emotions. Terror, rage, fear, despair, hate, confusion, regret, sorrow, and emotions that ran so deep he couldn’t name them, flowed through him and in a rush were gone, leaving him empty, shaken, and raw. He knew without asking that they had been the emotions of every dragon that they had freed.
Somehow he managed to put one foot in front of the other and continued to walk towards the lake. Hyunjoong didn’t know what to feel. It was as if his mind had been overloaded and he couldn’t make sense of anything any longer, so he settled on feeling numb.
“Hyunjoong?” Jaejoong questioned. The Prince could tell he was worried but he couldn’t find his voice to answer his long time friend. Instead he simply walked.
It seemed like an eternity and only a moment at the same time, before they reached the edge of the lake. At the sight of the water, the dragon beside them picked up his pace considerably. Arunika let him go and he charged head long into the water. As soon as his body was fully in the lake he vanished.
“That is the last of them,” the Prince heard Arunika say.
‘Good,’ the voice was warm and relieved in his mind, and Hyunjoong searched for the source of it. There by the edge of the water stood Youngsaeng, his black scales blending into the night. Hyunjoong must have released a noise, because in an instant the dragon had raced to him and curled around him.
‘What did you do to him?’ he heard the angry hiss, but he didn’t care. The scales to which he was pressed were warm and comforting and the wing that hovered over him shielding him from the world, reminding him of a protective blanket.
“I simply showed him what he wanted to see,” the words were his language but Hyunjoong couldn’t register their meaning anymore.
‘You could have destroyed him. Leave,’ Youngsaeng’s voice was deadly.
Hyunjoong made another noise for a reason he didn’t know, and suddenly Youngsaeng’s head was there and he was gazing into warm golden eyes. ‘Shhh. It is alright. Come back to me my mate,’ the voice was soothing, calming. It pushed away everything else until it was the only thing that remained in his head. Then slowly, carefully, as if warming cold fingers, it began to remove the numbness.
The Prince gasped as if he hadn’t been breathing for some time as his mind returned to awareness. He was almost as surprised to find himself sitting against Youngsaeng’s side with the dragon’s body curled about them as he was to realize that tears were streaming down his face.
It took him a moment to puzzle out exactly what had happened, but when the memory of what he had seen and the emotions tied with it came rushing back, his tears returned anew. “Youngsaeng?” he called softly simply because he needed to say something.
‘I’m here. You are safe now. Rest,’ Youngsaeng’s voice was like a warm balm over a hurt. He could feel the dragon in his mind and it made him believe the words that echoed in his head. Hyunjoong stretched forward and wrapped his arms around the muzzle in front of him, laying his head on it. It was an awkward hug, but if the dragon was bothered by it he said nothing.
A smooth rumbling that Hyunjoong swore sounded more like a purr then anything vibrated through the dragon. It soothed him further and allowed him to relax into the warm scales and security Youngsaeng was providing for him. It was easier, tucked safely like this, to push away the memory of what he had seen until he didn’t feel as raw inside any longer. He could feel Youngsaeng in his mind helping him and he found he didn’t mind it at all even though he felt that he should.
‘Mine,’ he heard a quiet satisfied murmur flowing from the dragon, that he was fairly certain he wasn’t supposed to hear.
“What happened?” Hyunjoong asked softly a moment later.
Youngsaeng opened his eyes fully to regard him, something that took some interesting doing since he was still resting on the end of his nose. ‘Later, Hyunjoong,’ the pause and the way he had said it, made Hyunjoong wonder if the dragon had been intending to say something other than his name but had changed it at the last minute. ‘Are you well enough to move? I do not want to but it is exhausting me keeping this portal open and we should leave as quickly as we can.’
“Yes,” Hyunjoong replied. He unwound his arms and sat up, noting that it took much more will power to do so then it really should have. The wing covering him retreated as did the dragons head and tail, leaving him sitting against Youngsaeng’s side.
“Hyunjoong!” Jaejoong’s urgent voice finally got his attention.
“I’m alright,” he told the man.
“We have been trying to get your attention for the better part of the hour walk here. You wouldn’t respond,” the relief was evident in Yunho’s voice.
“An hour?” Hyunjoong asked startled. “It only took a few moments.”
Yoochun shook his head. “It was like you were mindless. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Hyunjoong looked at Youngsaeng in question but the dragon’s previous answer was still echoing in his mind. “We should go.”
“Let me help you,” Yunho offered, extending his hand. Hyunjoong took it gratefully and he used it to aid him in rising to his feet. Youngsaeng said nothing but he could feel the dragon’s gaze as he stood and leaned against his side.
“Thanks.” Yunho nodded and released him but stayed nearby in case he needed him again. They moved forward as a group as if by a silent command. Hyunjoong kept a hand resting on Youngsaeng’s scales and found that he didn’t want to take it off the dragon. Jaejoong and his guards crowded closer ready to jump in if he needed anything.
Together they walked into the water. It was warm around his ankles and he had a moment to marvel at that before he was sliding through it much like he had so long ago. It took only a moment before they had exited the other side and were standing in front of what appeared to be a sheer cliff face with the huge entrance to a cave in front of them.
“You are alright,” the voice was a female’s and before Hyunjoong knew it he was being enveloped in Soojin’s arms. “When you didn’t follow Arunika through I was worried. She would tell me nothing except there was a problem with you but Youngsaeng was fixing it. I was so worried,” she murmured.
He let himself sink into her hold and wondered for a brief moment if this was what it felt like to have a mother. That thought brought tears to his eyes all over again and he buried his face in her shoulder, his hands rising to clutch at her like a child.
“There there,” she soothed, her hand rubbing circles on his back. “You’ve had a very hard day. How about a dip in the hot springs here to freshen up?”
She was right, it had been an incredibly long day and Hyunjoong knew it was far from over. “I think,” he said pulling away and wiping his eyes. “That I would like that very much.”
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Hyunjoong leaned back into the warm water and closed his eyes, letting it pull the soreness from his muscles. The water was wonderfully warm and he knew it would be easy to simply relax here for much longer then he really should.
Jungmin had, at his mother’s direction, shown the way to the pool and brought him an extra change of clothing. He had made sure that Hyunjoong could find his way to Soojin when he was finished and left shortly after giving him the directions. Soojin had clearly told him to leave the Prince in peace, just as she had ordered Youngsaeng to do the same.
It was nice to have the silence, Hyunjoong decided. He didn’t mind his friends or the company, but for some reason he felt that he was losing himself and returning to himself at the same time and their presence didn’t help him sort through that.
If he had been a different person he may have wondered about how things could have been different. If he had never wandered into the dungeon, he never would have met the gypsies. He never would have questioned everything he knew. He never would have had to see the things he had seen. If he were a different person he may have spent time dwelling on that, but he was not. Hyunjoong knew where thoughts such as those led, and it was never anywhere productive.
He sighed and tipped his head back, allowing his hair to fall into the water. It wouldn’t matter how long he stayed in this little welcoming pool, it would never erase the things that had happened. Hyunjoong had always known that he was the Prince and would one day be the King. He understood the burden that would come with that. He knew of the responsibility. He had the skills to rule and govern a country. He knew the politics. He knew the etiquette. He knew the trade. He knew the battle strategy.
Now it seemed as if all of that knowledge was worthless. What point was it to know government, politics, etiquette, trade, or strategy when it was built on a lie? Inheriting the throne, was inheriting its legacy and the thought of that made the Prince sick.
He rose from the water. His thoughts were headed in no direction he would have liked, and there was too much to do for him to sit and feel sorry for himself as he would inevitably begin to if he pursued those trains of thought.
Hyunjoong climbed from the waist deep pool and picked up the towel that he had been given. He hurriedly patted himself dry and then wrapped it around himself to ward off the chill from the cavern. With it secure he bent to pick up his clothing and paused.
There in front of him were two neatly folded piles of clothing. One of them was the clothing he had just slipped out of, the fine linens of a prince. On top of the rich fabric sat his coronet, gleaming in the dim light of the crystals gathered around. The second pile was the neatly folded fabric that the gypsies had given him to wear. Sitting on top of the simple weave was the Link Micha had made for him.
He contemplated them both for a moment. He could return home, as if nothing had ever happened and try to convince his father that what he was doing was wrong. His father was a reasonable man and had always encouraged him to think through things logically. It was very likely he could put forth a good argument and perhaps that would be enough to sway the King.
Or he could fight. It didn’t take Hyunjoong’s training to realize that the humans and dragons that had taken refuge in these mountain caverns were preparing for war. They would fight to the death for what they believe to be justice and if he stayed he would fight with them.
Hyunjoong stared at the two piles for a long moment and then dropped his towel. There had never been any debate in the first place, not really. He had known from the moment the thought had crossed his mind which he would pick, and he knew he would never regret that. The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile as he bent, and picked up the Link.
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It was easier then he thought it was going to be to find his way through the tunnels that snaked through the mountain. Each tunnel that was supposed to be walked down was brightly lit with small mounted glowing crystals leaving little doubt as to where he was supposed to go. Hyunjoong thought that perhaps the dragons would not be very happy leaving one underground cage to another, but no one had seemed to protest the arrival on the ledge at the mouth of it and he had seen no one other than his friends, when he arrived.
The lit hallways took him directly to the large room that Soojin and her council were meeting in. Hyunjoong supposed that he couldn’t have missed it, even if the large cavern had been completely dark; thanks to the amount of shouting that was emanation from within.
“All there is, is 52 dragons?” he heard Myungki ask incredulously. “So what you are telling me is that we are going to war with only around 100 men to fight against thousands?!”
“Less than that,” he heard Youngsaeng’s voice answer. “Nine of the dragons are children and will not be fighting for us and we do not know how many of the dragons will fight with us.”
“So this was all for nothing!?” he raged.
Hyunjoong rounded the corner and walked right into the brightly lit cavern. Chairs had been arranged in a semi circle facing the entrance of the cavern where he stood. Men and women that he recognized as gypsies filled them. In the center sat Soojin. To her right Myungki looked as though he was barely remaining in his seat. An elderly woman that he didn’t recognize sat to her left with the bundle that Arunika had been carrying in her lap. Youngsaeng leaned on the wall just behind her.
Soojin smiled as Hyunjoong paused in the entry way, and nodded a greeting too him. Myungki didn’t take his presence as kindly. “What are you doing here?!” he accused surging to his feet. “You have no right to be here!”
“He has every right,” Soojin told him calmly. “He is Prince of the land we are going to war with.”
“Not anymore,” Hyunjoong told her quietly. At his words all movement in the room stopped.
“What do you mean?” Soojin asked softly.
“The legacy of the Dragon King isn’t mine. Not anymore. I am no longer qualified to take over his throne, my interests have changed,” Hyunjoong said calmly.
“I would say,” the old woman said, her voice strong despite her frail appearance, “that you are uniquely qualified to be the Dragon King, the true Dragon King.” She rose from her chair and no one made a move to aid her, because she didn’t need the help. On strong legs she walked to him unwrapping the fabric from around the item in her hands as she did so.
When she reached him, the fabric fell away unheeded to the floor. Hyunjoong didn’t spend a moment to contemplate or to even study the woman in front of him. His gaze was transfixed on the item in her hands. Cradled in the palm of her hands was a silvery white egg as large as his head. As she shifted, its shell shimmered in the light.
“Out of 33 eggs, this was the only still alive,” at the sound of her words Hyunjoong’s eyes drifted up to hers. Her eyes were pure black, much like Youngsaeng’s often became, and he found he couldn’t look away. “Do you recognize the evils performed on dragons and humans by your father?”
“Yes,” Hyunjoong breathed.
“Do you know of the injustice that has been done?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember every life that has been stolen, brutalized, destroyed?”
Hyunjoong choked on a sob that bubbled forth, “Yes.”
“Do you intend to seek justice for those souls?”
“Yes,” he replied and the moment he said it, he knew it to be true.
“Then you are the true Dragon King,” she pressed the egg into his hands and he didn’t resist it.
As soon as his skin touched its shell, he could feel that it was warm and alive. It began to glow in his hands, brighter and brighter, until all he could see was white.
Chapter Nineteen
Masterlist
AN: Well I keep sending chapters off to my beta and she keeps sending them back. I can't just let them sit around my hard drive now can I? This is one of those chapters where my little muses trotted up, picked up Plot, and carried it off in the direction they wanted to take it. I just followed along after that...