Page 48 of The Dragon King’s Claw (The Dragons of Serai #17)

I sent for two more Talon teams, so the team that had been digging out rocks for an hour could rest. The King had lunch brought to them. I say them, because after verifying that the bodies were indeed those of the murdered human miners, the King and I went to arrest Lady Juva and Rulli.

We started with the so-called lady because she had more of a means to escape.

Despite our haste, she had enough time to flee.

Rulli was also missing, along with his wife and daughter.

The King ordered the city gates to be sealed and organized a hunt to search outside Kochan.

Not with Talons or even his Horns. With Dragons. His trusted team.

I watched Tor'rien leave in dragon form—a great sapphire beast that shot into the sky with a roar.

His knights quickly followed, gaining altitude before splitting up and flying off in several directions.

With him off, I led my own hunt on horseback.

We were only one of the many Talon teams searching within the city walls.

If Juva or Rulli had made it out of the city, they would be caught in the claws of a dragon.

If they were still in Kochan, they would be caught by several talons and, hopefully, a single claw.

I wouldn't rest until one of those things happened.

We didn't have to search for long. Less than twenty minutes.

That's how long it took for the Dragon King to find his prey.

I saw him come roaring back to the city, his brilliant blue scales shining and one talon wrapped around a Ricarri woman.

Behind him came another dragon, paler blue than the King.

He held an entire Chelli family in his talon.

I was a little disappointed that I wasn't the one to catch them. But I was also proud of the King's restraint. He hadn't killed them as I thought he might. Instead, he dropped his quarry in front of the Hall of Talons where a group of officers waited to take custody of the criminals.

I dismissed my team and galloped back to the hall. Once I was within sight of it, I had to slow down. The road was congested with carriages and the sidewalks were full of people. Between the dragons and the teams of Talons searching the closed city, people were curious. Beyond curious.

“Make way!” I shouted and nudged my mount around carriages and the overflow of pedestrians. “I said, make way! I'm a claw! Make way!”

I finally made it to the Hall of Talons and handed my horse off to one of the stable hands. I raced inside to find the entry room full of talons. In their midst was a cowering Chelli family and a Ricarri woman shouting for her husband.

“Madam,” I said as I stepped up to Lady Juva. “Madam, that is quite enough!”

“Don't you speak to my wife like that!”

With that many people in the entry of the Hall of Talons, it had been noisy even without Lady Juva's shouting. But it went quiet as the General of the King's Horns barged through the crowd. An imposing man, to say the least, General Batan came storming up to me with violence in his stare.

“Release my wife this instant!”

“The fuck we will! Your wife tried to murder me and an entire Talon team today, General!” I shouted back at him.

He flinched and stopped in his tracks.

Stares slid back and forth between us.

“You're a fucking liar,” the General finally said.

“Am I? I'm the man who saved your son. Don't you remember me?”

He blinked. “You. Yes. So why would Juva try to kill you? Huh? After you saved our son.”

“Why don't you ask her, General?” another voice entered the conversation.

Everyone, including the General, turned to watch the King and all his Dragon knights march into the room. As I said, the room was crowded, but for the King, talons eased back, retreating into corridors to make space.

“Your Majesty!” The General bowed. “I was in the middle of training when I heard about the lockdown. And then I was informed that my wife was arrested.”

“Were you also informed that I was the one to catch her?” King Tor'rien countered. “Because she was fleeing the city with her coconspirators?”

“Coconspirators? What are you talking about? What is she accused of?”

“Batan, these people are crazy!” Juva cried.

“Madam, you were seen,” I said. “Witnessed in the act. There is no denying it now. You and Rulli moved the bodies from the old tunnel of the Hallax Mine into a mass grave, which Sir Gilhu discovered after His Majesty unearthed a Talon team and me from the mine you buried us in.”

“Are you talking about the explosion?” General Batan went to his wife. “That was an accident. They hit a vein of flammable gas.”

“That may have been an accident, General,” the King said.

“But everything else that went on in that mine was deliberate.

The human employees were drugged with frang nectar, so they'd work longer hours without complaint.

When the mine caught fire, the drugged humans weren't aware they were in danger.

They didn't run. The Chelli made it out, leaving the humans behind.

Now, I don't know if your wife and her partners saw an opportunity to save some coin or if they're just murderous bastards.

Whatever the case, they sealed the mine shaft with the humans inside.

And they kept that tunnel sealed because they knew that if anyone inspected those bodies, they'd learn the truth. So, they just dug a new shaft and carried on, leaving the dead to rot. ”

“No,” the General whispered. He looked at his wife.

“It's not true!” Juva cried.

“She made us!” Rulli suddenly shouted and pointed at her.

“She used her status to intimidate us. She was the one who wanted to drug the humans.

She said the humans would be more comfortable drugged.

She was even the one to go to the Eljaffna nectar houses outside the city to buy the nectar.

When the mine caught fire, they were too high to run.

We didn't think about helping them. We were running for our lives. And we couldn't go—”

“Shut up, you fool!” Juva hissed.

“Juva?” General Batan gaped at his wife.

“It's all lies, Batan. I swear.”

“There were children,” I said to the General. “Human children were working in that mine. Drugged. That's why your son was taken, General. A vigilante called Hallaxgral, in honor of the mine, abducted your child and nearly buried him alive to scare your wife. It was an act of retribution.”

“What?” the General whispered. “No. No, she would never hurt children.” He looked at Juva. “Juva, tell them.”

“I'm a mother,” Juva said. “Mothers can't hurt children.”

“You have proved that statement false, Madam,” I said.

“You . . . Juva, did you do this?” The General's shoulders drooped. “How could you? Children? You drugged children? And that criminal came after our son because of it.”

“I didn't do anything wrong!”

“Enough!” the King shouted. He pointed at Juva. “Put her in a cell.” Then he pointed at Rulli. “Put him in another cell far away from hers. I don't want them talking.”

“Sire, what about my family?” Rulli asked. “Please, they had nothing to do with this. They are innocent. I swear.”

“Release his family,” King Tor'rien said to the talons guarding them.

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

“Do not thank me, you miserable piece of shit!” the King roared, silencing the whole building.

Maybe the entire block. He stalked over to Rulli and leaned down as the Chelli cringed away.

“You tried to murder my lover today. You will pay dearly for that.” He swung to face Juva, and the woman's gray skin went nearly white.

“You both will. Do you hear me?” He went to her.

“The only reason you are not dead is because Tekhan asked me not to kill you. He is a claw, and he wants justice served. So, for him, I held back my anger and let you live. But once you are tried and found guilty of multiple counts of murder, I will be your executioner.”

“Your Majesty, please. I'm your general. Does that not earn my wife some mercy?”

The Dragon King narrowed his stare at his general.

“Consider your question, General Butan. I have already controlled my instincts, all of which tell me to tear out your wife's throat for what she did to those humans and what she tried to do to my consort. She is directly responsible for the abuse and murder of many people, including children, and when her crimes were about to be discovered, she tried to entomb an entire Talon team and my Claw to cover them up. When that was unsuccessful, she fled the city—without you and her children, I might add. So, does she warrant further consideration from me? Does she?!”

The General bowed his head. “At least know that my children and I were not a part of this, Your Majesty. Have some mercy on us.”

“I don't punish people for the sins of their spouses, nor do I hurt children, General. You do not need to ask for mercy.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Butan!” Juva shrieked as she was taken away.

The General turned away from his wife and walked away, shoulders hanging and head bent.

Rulli's wife and daughter hugged him, and he went with his talon escort without protest.

I watched Rulli and Juva get taken away, Rulli's wife clutching their sobbing daughter.

Was he a victim of Juva's controlling nature?

Perhaps. But Lansho and he chose to follow her commands.

She couldn't have sealed the mine without them.

It was their magic that brought the rocks down.

And it was his magic that entombed my team and me earlier that day.

So, I felt no sympathy for the Chelli. Only his family.

That would be a hard mantle for them to carry.