The Prince of Flame

“There weren't always dragons in the Valley... Your majesty.”

Prince Valen raised his hand to his mouth to try to hide his sudden smile at General Kharld’s heated words. The old general’s renowned temper was clearly getting the better of him; his neck and cheeks had begun to mottle, the pink colouring standing out against the white hair of his head and beard.

The throne room had been emptied for the day so that General Kharld could give his report to the king, so only the royal family of Prince Valen and his parents were present, along with the two guards by the far doors and the steward, Master Jenson. Valen noticed that his mother was also masking a small smile by gently fanning herself with her favourite bright purple fan gifted to her from the ambassador of Sastria on her recent visit. The king was not smiling.

King Dace, the ruler of Taltor for the last thirty years, had leant back into his throne cushions at the General’s words, his eyes narrowing to slits as he fought to control his equally frayed temper. He took a deep breath.

“So, to be clear, General. Your excuse for losing an entire company of recruits on what should have been a simple exercise along our border with Barisey is: dragons?”

General Kharld stood straighter, his eyes fixed on his king. “It isn’t my excuse, your majesty, it’s what the reports are saying.”

“So I have to inform the parents of nearly sixty dead soldiers that they were killed by dragons?”

“No, Sire,” Kharld replied, the colouring on his neck deepening, “as their commanding officer, it falls to me to break the news to their parents, which I shall be doing after we have finished here. But this is sadly more pressing.”

“It would seem so, yes.” Dace agreed. He glanced over at Valen, “What do you think, Val?”

Valen jolted upright. His father very rarely asked for his opinion in the throne room. He was only ever in the room to get an idea of how to act when the day for his ascension to the throne came. His father was still only in his early fifties and built like an ox, so Valen did not see that day coming any time soon.

“If the reports are true, father, then General Kharld is correct. Our western border is exposed. We do not have the ability the defend against dragons with our current troop setup. We need help of some kind, because we can’t leave those few villages in and around the valley defenceless,” A sudden thought came to him, “On the plus side, we do have time to seek help. I doubt the dragons are working for Barisey, so their troops would face the same problem if they suddenly decided to invade and occupy.”

The king nodded and looked back to the General. “Where have our troop fallen back to?”

The General glanced down at the paperwork he was carrying, rifling quickly through the loose sheets. “They’ve created a rough border some ten miles back from the valley, running north to south; both regiments split and stationed at Elgin’s Tor, Keel’s Hamlet, the village of Atherset, and the ruins of Fort Mannar.”

“Okay. Get a message to them to hold at those sites and dig in. Have them try not to engage any dragons hunting out from the valley, but if there are any enemy sightings, we need to know immediately.”

“And my request, sire?” General Kharld asked, tensing a little, as it was his request at the beginning of the audience that had begun the downward spiral that had led to tempers and raised voices.

Valen saw his father’s jaw tighten, but he withheld another outburst. “Have a squad readied and I will write a letter to be delivered to the Hedge Coven, requesting their presence. They may say no, so don’t have the men force the issue.”

“And…” Kharld began, before the king raised a hand, halting him.

“And… after you’ve done that, have some guards bring Calum up from the dungeons for questioning. Make sure he is securely tied.”

Kharld saluted and turned to leave, walking quicker than he had when he entered. Perhaps worried that the king might change his mind.

Valen sat back to wait for the return of the General and the prisoner. In a strange way, he was almost looking forward to seeing his big brother again.

***

Corporal Kell looked up from where he had been stitching closed a gaping wound and realised that the young soldier he had been working on had died, his eyes staring sightlessly up at the roof of the cave. Kell sighed and wiped a bloodied hand on his leg in an attempt to clean it before reaching over and closing the soldier’s eyes. The fact that he had survived as long as he had was miraculous, but that it was all for nought meant the poor lad had spent his last days and hours in excruciating pain.

“Solar take you in his arms”, Kell whispered, glancing around the cave and noticing that the other three occupants were all staring sadly at their fallen comrade.

“You did your best, Kell,” Sergeant Trax whispered from the cave mouth, before turning back to stare out into the valley floor, his loaded crossbow resting across his lap. He and Kell were the only two present that had somehow managed to come out of the battle, or rather slaughter, with the dragons unscathed.

Kell had amputated what was left of Recruit Jonas’ sword arm just below the shoulder when he had lost most of it trying to stab one of the dragons in the mouth. From what he said, the sword blade hadn’t even made a mark inside the dragon’s maw before its teeth had sheared his flesh and bone clean through. The dragon tearing at his arm had thrown Jonas clear of another strike and allowed Trax to grab him and pull him clear in the retreat.

On the call to scatter when the dragons had flown to attack, the other recruit, Roe, had managed to scramble up the steeper side of the valley before the scree gave way and he tumbled back to the valley floor, his left leg twisted out at an awkward angle. Kell and the now-dead recruit, Brys, had pulled him clear and, when a dragon had flown in to attack them, Brys had thrown himself in front of a claw strike that had torn his side and stomach, but saved his fellow soldiers. Another soldier, Kell couldn’t remember who, had stepped in at that point and drawn the dragon’s attention away from their group and they had joined up with Trax and Jonas and all fled to the cave they had now been sat in for two days while Kell worked on the wounded as best he could.

Kell stood and stretched as best he could in the cave. It wasn’t quite high enough for any of them to stand upright, even the Sergeant who was the shortest of them at only a few inches over five foot. Kell made his way slowly across the cave to the entrance and sat behind Trax with his back resting against the cold, rock wall.

“What now, Sarge?” he asked in a low voice.

Trax glanced back at him before answering, his voice also a tight whisper. “The dragons are still out there, but we can’t stay here much longer. Our food and water are all but gone. We haven’t seen any other survivors. We need to try to get back to warn someone about this place and the new dangers.”

“Do you know where we are? What direction we need to go?” This terrain was all new to Kell. This had been his first visit to the western border of the kingdom and the Valley of Fire in particular. He had been serving for five years, all of his time spent training recruits at Fort Calis, never having been chosen to accompany the new recruits as they toured the kingdom to get a rough sense of its size and what locations they could end up being deployed to once their training was complete. These last two days he had spent hoping to make it back to Calis safe and to never have to leave its walls again.

“We’re on the east side of the valley because the sun has been setting ahead of us each night,” Trax explained, “That’s good, because it means we don’t have to head out across the valley floor when we leave.” He looked back and made eye contact with Kell before continuing, “with Roe’s leg injury, we won’t be able to scale the side unless we can find a trail up. My plan is to head out tonight and try to find one.”

“Alone?”

“What choice do we have? Roe can’t walk. Jonas probably won’t be able to climb too good without his arm, and if we both leave, who’s going to look after those two?”

“How long will you be?”

“I’ll head south, away from where we were attacked and travel no more than a few hours. It’ll be slow going because, by all accounts, dragons can see just as well in the dark as the day.” He turned to stare back out onto the valley floor and sighed. “If I’m not back by morning, assume I’m not coming back and make a new plan.”

Kell sat quietly for a few minutes trying to control the knot of fear in his stomach that had arrived with the Sergeant’s words. “I wish you had picked someone else as your Squad healer, Sarge.” He whispered to Trax’s back.

Trax threw him a glance and a small smile over his shoulder. “Ha. It was about time you got out into the world for a tour.”

“But did it have to be out here?”

“This place is beautiful most of the year round.” He said, almost wistfully, “When the trees start to wilt in the fall and the sun hits them just right, it looks like the whole valley is alive with flames. I thought you might like to see that.” He smiled back again. “There weren’t always dragons in the valley.”