City of Snakes - Book 2 The Council of the Light

-One-

01

Freddie Blackember's teeth flashed white as he jumped back sucking his thumb, tripped over a stone and landed on his behind, his other hand still gripping his sword. "Ah, you bastard!"

Clarence swung his sword round in and arch and brought it to rest on his shoulder as he laughed at his cousin. "That is no way to address your High King." He clicked his neck and rolled his shoulders, the wind whistling over the rooftop of the Inner Sanctum helped to cool the sweat glistening across his body. It felt like the start of a long hot summer.

Freddie pointed up at Clarence as he sucked his thumb, "If you put your sword like that you're asking to have your head chopped off. I saw a man once who stumbled and sliced through his own neck." He spat on the grass and picked up his sword. "Ready?"

"Are you?" Clarence asked as Freddie pushed himself up from the ground and shook his hand out again.

"I'm always ready, goldilocks," Freddie laughed, the two cousins were as alike as chalk and cheese. Clarence a Leprechaun with thick dark blond hair, green eyes and just shy of five foot ten, whilst Freddie, an exiled Dragon Lord was nearly six four with dark black ringlets and darker eyes.

Clarence went into an attack pose, Freddie took a defensive stance and the two circled, they tested each other's metal, closing the distance for a violent clash of steel before dancing back. Freddie was going easy on him. Clarence could tell by the way he blocked that he was deciding to defend when he could have attacked. Clarence went on the offence again, a few swift moves and Freddie conceded too easily. "Come on Cousin! This is one sided!"

"I'm trying my best," the dark-haired Dragon Lord lied. "You're just too good for me."

Clarence felt the corner of his lip curl with anger, he pictured showing Freddie just how good he actually was with a sword but something in the distance caught his eye and he jumped back and held up a hand to Freddie to stop the fight. "What is that?" He squinted in the morning spring sun, out across the rooftop gardens, the jutting towers and oddments of crumbled masonry, towards a distant but similarly urban horizon.

"The stones?" Freddie asked.

"No- beyond the stone portal and to the left, beyond the canal, all the way over there, above the Dragon's Complex."

A shadow fell across Freddie's face as he cupped his hand to his dark brow. "It's just a bird."

Clarence shook his head, "Birds can't fly above the Inner Sanctum, besides it was too big. Maybe the Dragons have come back?"

"If the Dragons had broken their moot I would know about it."

Clarence turned and studied his cousin; he highly doubted that he would. "Which of your fathers Dragon Riders would come to let you know?" He knew it was cruel to say it but sometimes Freddie's posturing and confidence grated on him.

Freddie ignored him, he was still studying the rooftops of the circular citadel known as the Inner Sanctum. It's buildings rose layer upon layer like a wave caused by a stone in a pond. In the centre, the Stone Circle Portal, known as Stone Henge, sat symbolising the importance of the Transworld Network, a system of interconnected portals that linked thousands of worlds together.

"The Dragons won't come out of their Moot until the next Pendragon has been chosen. When Siberia was assassinated, and Morag the Great fell, the Dragon's took Morag's egg. It will hatch, grow and hunt for a Human partner. Until it has done that, the Dragons will not come back, it could be thousands of years until the Network sees a Dragon again. whatever that is- it's not, well, that."

Clarence turned to look at a silver-haired soldier who stood by the steps leading to the door back into the Inner Sanctum. He had a broad sword resting tip down on the earth placed between his hands. When he saw Clarence looking he stood a little straighter, as if he had been caught lost in his thoughts. "What do you think Silvan?"