Peter didn’t pay too much attention as Andrew narrated their past adventures for the Dwarf lord. His mind drifted to the mountains around them, and the dragons outside. He wondered if he should have stayed to make sure none got too territorial with Jarn. He knew the dragon could handle himself in general. With the local dragons, though, he wasn’t as sure. Plenty were bigger than Jarn. Very few of those were as reasonable.

  Even when Hogarth described the other events that had been going on, he was still distracted by thought’s of the dragons. He did start listening a bit more when he confirmed that, yes, all three of the major nations were now preparing for war. According to his sources, Thalia seemed to think the Wisp Seekers were in league with the other nations to take her children and conquer Grealand with the power of Wisps. So she was martialing forces to march on Selasem and Ryukyuu at least.

  “As for them,” the duke went on, “Their leadership seems to believe many of their warriors and citizens were attacked in the Borac arena without much cause by city guards. With the way Lady Thalia is behaving, they’ve taken this as an intentional assault, and are preparing to attack the kingdom themselves.”

  “Queen Talitha would know that’s not the case,” Andrew said. “She knows about the Wisps.”

  “So does Captain Yamada,” Anna said. “I’m sure he’d try and stop this.”

  Hogarth shrugged. “The Selasi queen, like any other leader, is subject to the desires of her people. And even if she is sympathetic to the Grealish in general, her country is under threat. If you’re right, and she knows she’s being manipulated, there may not be much she can do. She still has to protect her people from Lady Thalia’s retribution. That goes doubly for this Yamada, if he’s merely a captain.”

  “But what about our mother?” Henry asked. “She’s being controlled!”

  Hogarth looked down at the young king and tapped his finger on the chair. “So you say,” he muttered.

  “Do you not believe our story?” Emily asked.

  “I don’t know what to believe,” the Duke replied. “Your story makes more sense of the rumors… given your own behavior, anyway. I believe you are honest. Maybe to the point of naivete. But even if all you say is true… what? Are my people to go to war with Grealand as well? We, who are almost all craftsmen, merchants, and miners? Are we to join another human war, when we’ve kept our own peace for so long?”

  Peter blinked, glancing between the young royals and the Dwarf lord in the silence that followed. He supposed what Hogarth said made sense. Perhaps they’d only be able to get help from their friends and family back home after all.

  “Will you just abandon them, then?” Anna asked. “These children who did nothing but be born in a position that wasn’t convenient for some… warmonger? We don’t know what his plans are, but he’s dragged the whole continent into it. What makes you think he’ll leave you out? The only thing we want is shelter while we try and figure out what to do. Would that bring our people into war?”

  Another silence fell, and this time Peter stared at Anna, along with everyone else in the room. He glanced back up at Hogarth, who was smiling. “I think you underestimate your enemy’s spies and plots,” he said. “He probably already knows you are here. However, I never intended to dismiss the requests of my neighbors out of hand.”

  Hogarth rose to his feet, and Peter was surprised to see he was about the same height standing as sitting. “Tomorrow evening, I shall call you back. In the meantime, I will think on what I am able to do, and what I am willing to do. You may stay at any inn in the city, but my guards shall be keeping an eye on you.”

  He made a gesture of dismissal. As he did, a thought occurred to Peter. He took a step forward and said, “Excuse me, uh, lord duke? Can I ask something?”

  The Dwarf looked at Peter. Peter could see a smile tugging at his lips as he replied, “You mean besides that question, I presume.”

  “Yes, right,” Peter said. “You mentioned any inn in the city, but what about outside the city. I mean, our companion, Jarnvaror, is waiting for us outside. He’s going to want updates about what’s going on in here, even if he doesn’t want to drag himself through the tunnel.”

  “Ah, yes. The Wisp Seeker’s famous dragon,” Hogarth said, his face growing thoughtful. “I imagine a confused dragon coming to look for you would be rather inconvenient. Very well. When you want go and talk to the dragon, let one of the guards know, and they will escort you to him. But this is only for you, the beast tongue, and not for the other members of your Party. They will stay here in the city, so that I have some incentive for you to come back.”

  “Thank you,” Peter said, bowing his head.

  Hogarth nodded and turned toward one of his mages. Peter guessed he wouldn’t take any more questions at the moment.

  As they left, the guards told them of an inn in this central pillar, but there were several others in the south western and eastern pillars. Anna mentioned one she’d stayed at here before when her father had business here. They usually stayed in the eastern pilar, she explained. It may be a bit of a walk, but the inn itself was very nice, and it should be affordable.

  “We should explore the city on the way!” King Henry said. “If we’re going to be here over a day anyway, I don’t want to sit around doing nothing.”

  “Hey, good idea,” Peter said.

  “No, not good idea,” Andrew cut in. He turned back and gave Peter a very sharp look. “We still need to talk about the last time you just went exploring.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “What?” Peter replied, defensively.

  “Oh? Did you have another adventure we haven’t talked about yet,” the king asked.

  “I think he’s talking about in Borac,” Queen Emily pointed out. “You and I need to talk about that as well.”

  “Oh,” the king’s face went scarlet.

  “You too, your Highness,” Andrew said. “I don’t know how well suited I am to lecture royalty,” he began.

  “Then don’t,” the king interupted. “Leave that to my mother.”

  Andrew turned a furious look on the king, who balked, pausing where they were in the middle of the stairs down the pillar. Andrew looked at the guards. “Would you be willing to make sure we have a bit of privacy for this?” he asked.

  The Dwarven guards exchanged a look, then nodded. “There’s a corridor leading to some cleaning rooms a little ways from the base of the stairs. That should be nice and quiet,” said one. Andrew nodded, and allowed the group to be steered to the spot they’d mentioned.

  “You don’t think Halcyon could calm him down a bit for us, do you?” Peter asked Anna in a whisper.

  “He’s already trying,” Anna said. “But that’s a little more for the twins. As for you,” she glowered at him, which was surprisingly effective even though she was barely more than half his height. “I think getting chewed out will do you some good.

  Peter wasn’t sure what to make of that. He decided he just wanted to get it over with, and was disappointed when his brother turned first to the king.

  “Your Majesty, I understand you’re young and that your duties are a bother. I grew up with Peter, and I know the difference relaxation or going out and doing something yourself can make to people like the two of you. I understand that you really need it. But you. Are. A. King.”

  “I’ve had this talk before,” Henry said. “My mother and Daniel both…” he trailed off at the look on Andrews face.

  “You’re having it again, then. And you haven’t had it from someone like me, either. You don’t know what king means to us who grew up in the countryside, do you? And you don’t know what queen means, for that matter,” he added, looking at Emily. Both royals shook their heads. “It means someone who can kill with a word, and no one will fight them on it. The person who controls armies of more man than we’ve ever seen in our lives, at least until we left home. One who can destroy anything. They are supposed to have that power to protect from all kinds of evil and dangers. They are the linchpin holding the kingdom together.

  “So we expect our king and queen to be capable. To be smart. Not to get into situations they can’t get out of. To be responsible. Not to leave their guards behind for a daytrip into town!”

  “I had Peter and Jermey with me,” the king said.

  “Two men to guard a monarch in case of an emergency. And I noticed it didn’t stay that way. You needed to recruit a lot more people to protect you when the actual danger arose.” Henry looked away. “We’re the one’s who told Daniel you’d gone missing,” Andrew said. “That’s how we found out what he was up to. Because Anna and the Wisps felt him take your absence as an opportunity. Only now we know it was to assassinate you and start a war!”

  “Us being there wouldn’t have stopped all that,” the king objected.

  “Maybe not, but it was a good enough opportunity for them that they decided to change their plans to match it,” Andrew said. “We heard Daniel tell Sheil. And you didn’t even let the other guards know.”

  “We were planning to be back in time, to be fair,” Peter said.

  “I’ll get to you!” Andrew snapped. He looked back at the king and queen. “You went off effectively on your own, with hardly any protection. If Daniel hadn’t been planning his… his coup, some thug who recognized you might have decided he had a chance to take you hostage. Did that occur to you? I know it’s terrible not being able to do the things you want, but as king—”

  “I have to be the one making sacrifices of what I want?” Henry demanded. “Always? For everyone else?”

  “Everyone has too make some sacrifices for the life they want,” Andrew said. “But yours are the difference between some people living and dying. You need to treat your decisions that way.”

  Looking down at him, Peter wasn’t sure how Henry would take it. But he wasn’t meeting Andrew’s eyes anymore. From personal experience, Peter guessed that meant he was actually taking the lecture to heart. Well, that he would later, at least. Maybe.

  Emily had crossed her arms and was looking down at her brother with a haughty expression, which vanished as Andrew looked at her. “The same all goes for you! You went after him to prevent an embarrassment, but you neglected your security even worse! You may care a bit more about the responsibility you hold, but I don’t think you understand it. Either of you. You weren’t ready to be king and queen.”

  The queen looked at him aghast, but then turned away. Her eyes watered, and she nodded.

  Finally Andrew turned to Peter, who braced himself. Andrew’s voice was low, almost monotone as he spoke.

  “You’re sixteen now. You and Jeremy both should have realized how childish it was to take up his suggestion and you should have advised the king against it. Or at least informed someone like Sol or their guards. Instead you snuck out like thieves just to have some fun. Again, even without the Wisp Stealers, you put their lives in danger as much as yours. You can’t do that. You can’t just go wandering off to explore whenever you want. Sometimes you have to stay put and do the boring thing.”

  He looked between the three of them. “I’m not your parent,” he said after the silence. “So I can’t make you stay put to think about your actions. But I don’t want any of you going off on your own while we’re here understand? I can’t protect you if you wander off without telling me, and after this, I won’t bother looking if you care so little about yourselves that you put your lives in danger like that again. Understand?”

  “Understood,” Peter said. The king and queen mumbled their own assent. Andrew nodded and asked the guards to lead them to the inn Anna had been talking about.

  The lecture had thoroughly sapped Peter’s desire to go exploring. But, as he’d explained to Hogarth, he did need to check in with Jarnvaror. He mentioned this to Andrew once they’d arrived at the inn. With the lecture out of his system, Andrew seemed a lot less tense. He thought about it for a moment, exchanged a glance with one of the guards still standing by, then sighed and waved for him to go.

  The guards took him back to the entrance. They used a side door close to the gate. Not one right next to it, but a little ways away. The guard explained it was originally a drain way for rainwater, but that sometimes citizens of Highkrag would use it if they wanted to hunt in the woods nearby.

  It took them an extra half hour to reach the site where Jarnvaror was supposed to be waiting. He was not there.

  Instead, two iron wyverns were sitting in the rest spot. Andrew felt a spike of worry, wondering where his friend might be. Both were smaller than Jarnvaror, though not by much. It wouldn’t mean much if they were actually aggressive. But there were no marks of a fight, and no sign of Jarn anywhere. The dear carcass between the two was the only sign of conflict in the area.

  “I don’t suppose you two have seen a strange young dragon in the area, have you?” Peter called to the pair. They looked up. One dragon was male, and it was hard to guess his age. If he was older than Jarn, he was pretty runty. The female was a different story. A very familiar story, in fact. Peter felt his face split into a grin as she recognized him and crowed in surprise.

  “Mjolna!” Peter said. “It has been a while! And yes, I am looking for your little brother.”