Page 150 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

He checked his pocket for what Analise had given him. A scrying mirror to look in the Ancient hall. Great. That way he could know what he was missing, he could look at all the events he’d been cast away from, he could remind himself of all that was lost to him. But she had meant well. And he deserved his exile. He shouldn’t have made such a brash decision on his own. River covered his face with his hands. What other decision should have been made? Had he returned to the Ancient City with the staff, they’d try to use it. He doubted even Ciara would approve that. But she had rushed into Ironhold, why? Now she was gone.

Through the mirror, he noticed some odd movement in the hall of the Ancient City. His father had guards around him, as well as his two remaining children. Three strangers advanced on them, wearing dark blue scintillating armor, including helmets. None of the human armies wore armor like that, as far as he knew. And how could they even have found their city? The Umbraar king was the only one who could find it, and he had to be dead, buried under the palace.

“We’re here in peace,” one of them said, a man. He had an odd accent… Fernian.

They all removed their helmets. There was a woman with fair skin and long blond hair, and a younger man with brown hair and dark skin. The tallest of them, who stood in the middle and seemed to be their leader, was a man with dark brown skin, long, straight black hair, and bright yellow eyes. They had to be the dragons. And yet he couldn’t go there and explain that stealing the staff had been his fault, that it had been a stupid mistake for a foolish hope.

His father sat on his throne. “To what do I owe the pleasure of such a visit? Would you like to offer your help?”

“You destroyed a city,” the woman said. “You used the Krittl staff to cause death.”

Forest got up. “We didn’t use the staff. My brother destroyed it. And we don’t have anything to do with the accident in Formosa.” Strange. Was he lying now? Or had he lied or twisted the truth before?

The leader shook his head. “This is not what your people say. You celebrated the fall of Formosa.”

“They’ve been killing us!” his brother protested. “Destroying everything in their path. Is it a crime to be happy that there will be fewer of them in Aluria?”

“But you claimed you did it,” the leader said.

Forest crossed his arms. “What if I did? What are you going to do?”

“What’s your defense? Your justification?” The woman asked.

His father got up. “You don’t come into our city, into our sacred hall, and demand answers.”

The dragon lords looked at each other. There would be archers in strategic positions right now and he hoped his father wouldn’t be that foolish to anger these visitors who had mysterious magic.

“We’re not demanding anything,” their leader said. “We’re here to listen to your side, to give you a chance to defend yourselves.”

“A chance?” his father roared. “To defend ourselves? They’ve been coming at us with fire and steel and explosions, they’ve been coming at our peaceful folk who’d been living quietly on the land, they’ve been doing everything they can to get rid of us. Are you going to help us fight them?”

“War is a sad thing.” The leader sighed. “It doesn’t justify misusing magic, it doesn’t justify what you’ve done. Not only that, we could all have been killed in our lair, when your thief cast their spell on us. Didn’t they realize it would have left us all vulnerable? It left us vulnerable for over a day, until one of us found the counter spell.”

But it had been just a few minutes that they’d been frozen. Unless… River recalled he hadn’t undone the spell, he’d just assumed that removing the lapse stones would undo it, but apparently it hadn’t. It explained how come nobody had followed him, how come only now they were reaching Aluria. They had probably been rescued by someone who hadn’t been in their palace.

Forest shook his head. “That was my brother. Take your grievances to him.”

His father glared at the dragon lords. “I’m going to ask you to leave. If you, as magical people of this world, aren’t intending on helping us, then I don’t know what to say.”

Their leader shook his head. “You could have taken your grievances to us, and we could have helped. Before.”

“It wasn’t us!” Forest yelled. “It wasn’t me. I don’t know what happened in Formosa. I can’t lie.”

The man stared at him for long seconds. “We’ll look into it. Meanwhile, all we ask is that you stay in this city.”

River’s father snorted. “Who do you think you are? To give us orders?”

“My name’s Ircantari, and I’m one of the seven dragon mages.” He pointed to the woman. “This is Tzaria, representative of the council for peace, and Risomu, defender of dragons. We will investigate the Formosa accident. And we will return. Your lack of cooperation will be noted.”

River’s father glared at them. “I’m letting you walk away with your lives. That should be noted.”

“Your threat will,” the man, Ircantari, said.

River wanted to bang on the scrying mirror. If it hadn’t really been Forest who had destroyed Formosa, it changed everything, and his people shouldn’t be paying for River’s mistake. These dragon lords sure were rigid and thought they knew it all. If they were so worried about justice, why hadn’t they come before? Why hadn’t they helped them?

As the dragon lords walked away, his father laughed. “Or maybe it won’t.”

Oh, no. River wanted to scream, but knew he wouldn’t be heard. A volley of arrows flew in the direction of the dragon lords—and fell halfway through.

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