CHAPTER TWO
“And you call yourselves dragon warriors?” continued the voice, now even colder and meaner than before. “You two are pathetic. I don’t know why your brother puts up with your nonsense.”
Ayre bowed his head, placed his hands behind his back, and slowly turned around. He couldn’t ignore his eldest brother’s mate no matter how much he wanted to evaporate him from existence every time he opened his mouth.
Instead, he glared at his fancy high-heeled golden buckled shoes that looked very different from his own simple scarlet boots made from soft leather with a curved nose that made them quite bouncy when he fought on the ground or scaled the rocks.
“Khun Pring,” said his brother politely. “You so rarely grace us with your presence in the training arena that it is always an unexpected pleasure to see you here.”
He had come to stand right next to Ayre, his head bowed and his hands placed behind his back just like Ayre’s in deference to Khun Pring’s higher position both within their family and their kingdom.
Their shoulders were pressed together. Ayre closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose, absorbing his brother’s soothing magic. His brother rarely lost his temper and always bore Khun Pring’s mockery with unwavering composure.
“Obviously I have much more important things to do than waste my time in the training arena,” replied Khun Pring so obnoxiously that Ayre ground his teeth together. It was impossible to believe that anyone could be more arrogant than his eldest brother but his mate might have actually surpassed him.
“Of course. I understand,” replied his brother humbly. His shoulder twitched slightly and Ayre wondered if he was trying not to laugh in the other man’s face.
“Those of us in the higher recesses of power,” continued Khun Pring, “have our hands full with great matters of the realm.”
Ayre bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from snorting at that. He knew that all they did was lounge on soft pillows, chew betel leaves, and gossip over a spittoon.
“Could it be that one such great matter has brought you here today?” inquired Ayre’s brother in a polite manner as he finally straightened his back.
Ayre followed his suit a few seconds later – and wished he hadn’t. His eyes began to water at the sight of so many golden ornaments that decorated Khun Pring’s person. They almost completely obscured the scarlet colour of the fire dragon clan he now belonged to and gave him a strong resemblance to a golden statue.
His long black hair was woven into a single braid that was twisted and pulled upwards and held in place on the top of his head by several thick golden circlets. There was a large golden ring in his nose and a whole array of golden earrings of different shapes and sizes in his ears, not to mention arm-rings and anklets.
Ayre never thought about having a mate before – he was still too young to be even allowed a peek into The Great Dragon Book of Mating – but he suddenly wished he had one at the moment, so that he could laugh with him about it through a mind bond all mates shared.
Khun Pring gave them both a lofty look.
“Your brother wishes to see you in the Silent Cave,” he said.
“Now?” asked Ayre before he could stop himself; from the corner of his eye he could see his brother’s minutest head shake, but it was too late to take his question back.
“Well, what do you think, Nong Ayre?” snapped Khun Pring so savagely that all his golden trinkets began to jingle in disapproval. “Would I be standing here now if he wished to see you tomorrow?”
His words were as vicious as a whip. Ayre bowed his head, his cheeks burning with humiliation.
“Let us go then,” said his brother in a pacifying manner. “If Khun Pring himself was asked to give us the message, then the matter must be truly urgent.”
Khun Pring huffed and clapped his hands together. Six young men in short tunics rushed towards him. Four of them were carrying a large scarlet pillow with swinging golden tassels on two long bamboo poles. Their arms shook as they lowered the pillow for him to sit on. Ayre had the distinct impression that they were shaking with fear more than with the effort of carrying him. Two more were holding large palm-leaved fans above his head.
Ayre narrowed his eyes and balled his hands into fists. If only his father was still in his right mind, he would never allow this. He had raised them to be humble and to treat everyone with respect – even if they belonged to lower dragon clans. But ever since he had lost his ability to turn back into his human form, their eldest brother was getting more and more brazen and his mate was using every chance to show and exploit his high status.
“Ayre, stop glaring.”
His brother reappeared next to him and nudged him with his shoulder.
“That’s not right,” muttered Ayre, looking back at him.
“No, it’s not,” agreed Ayzu. “But glaring at him or provoking him is not an option. I hope you understand that. I’m afraid we must prepare ourselves for many more changes now that our father…” He broke off when Ayre’s face crumpled. His own facial expression had become stern. “Your temper and your emotions are out of control. Why? Have you not been meditating?”
“I…”
“Tomorrow you will spend the whole day disciplining yourself.”
Ayre hung his head.
“Yes, Phi.”
“Let’s go.”
They followed Khun Pring’s moving pillow through a barren landscape surrounded by rocks under the scorching sun towards the nearest cave entrance, their steps soft and silent on the sand.
“Why does he want to meet us in the Silent Cave?” whispered Ayre, even though they were keeping just enough distance between themselves and Khun Pring’s entourage so as not to be overheard. Unlike other caves the Silent Cave had no echo and could be used for the most secret of meetings and discussions.
“We will soon find out,” replied Ayzu calmly.
Ayre admired his brother’s cool but sometimes it was very annoying. Ayzu smiled as though he knew exactly what he was thinking about.
“There is no use wasting our time guessing when our brother will be only too happy to tell us.” He lowered his voice. “You know how much he loves to hear the sound of his own voice.”
Ayre’s lips twitched.
“Careful!”
Khun Pring’s warning cry made Ayre jump. For a split second it appeared as though he had heard his brother’s words and Ayre could only imagine the reprimand that would follow. Then –
“Look where you’re going, imbecile! Do you want me to fall?”
As the young men carrying the bamboo poles with the pillow began to bend over and apologise, Khun Pring snatched one of the palm-leaved fans that was used to shield him from the glare of the sun and began to smack one of his attendees with it.
Ayre stopped dead in his tracks, too shocked to speak. Fury, instant and uncontrollable, rose inside him and, without thinking what he was doing or what the repercussions would be, he moved forward, fully intending to take the fan away from Khun Pring and to smack him with it instead.
A strong hand grabbing his upper-arm in a vice-like grip stopped him just in time.
“You don’t want to do that!” hissed his brother in his ear.
“Yes, I do!” argued Ayre, hissing back, dropping formalities in his fury and indignation.
“You know what I mean!” replied Ayzu. “You don’t want to bring painful punishment upon your head for harming your brother’s mate. Seriously, Ayre, haven’t you been practising discipline at all? Do I have to supervise your training as though you were a know-nothing novice?”
His eyes still fixed on the abhorrent scene before him, Ayre ignored his brother’s reprimand and concentrated on the problem at hand.
“I don’t care. This is wrong and it must be stopped. Besides, Aybo hates me anyway,” he gritted out.
“So you want him to hate you even more?”
Ayzu didn’t even try to deny that their eldest brother hated Ayre’s guts. It was, after all, a well-known fact.
Their argument was interrupted by Khun Pring’s piercing shriek.
“A splinter! A splinter!” He yelled and dropped the fan as though it was a poisonous snake and he was a mere human. “Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!”
The same attendee he had been smacking just a second before dropped down on his knees and rushed to help. He took Khun Pring’s hand in his as carefully as though he was dealing with a baby dragon who hadn’t learned to control the power of his flames yet and latched his lips to his palm, sucking out the splinter that got stuck there.
Ayre looked at the scene in disbelief. It was inconceivable that anyone should be so helpless with magic at their disposal. A simple one-motion spell would have been enough to get rid of that splinter and yet the dragon prince’s mate had chosen to make such a fuss over it.
If only his father knew how his eldest son allowed his mate to dishonour his doctrine… Ayre’s eyes began to sting again. Stupid tears. Ayzu was right. He had to devote more time to self-discipline – or else permanently seal his tear ducts shut. He wondered if there was a spell for that.
Khun Pring’s procession had finally resumed its journey. Ayre and Ayzu followed behind, maintaining their distance and silence. They approached the mouth of the cave and continued along a series of spacious tunnels carved out inside the mountain whose rough walls were shimmering with the soft glow of lanthorn flies. As soon as they came to the Silent Cave, Khun Pring alighted and shooed his attendees away. Once they were out of earshot, he walked inside, though not before sneering at the two younger brothers.
Ayre and Ayzu exchanged bewildered looks and entered the inner cavern. Ayre followed a few steps behind Ayzu and walked right into him when the latter had come to an abrupt stop.
“Did someone spill rice?” he heard him ask.
Ayre looked down and noticed that the floor of the cave right in front of them was sprinkled with small white granules that formed a thick strip whose position looked quite deliberate.
Ayre frowned.
“Don’t tell me that you called us here to pick it up,” continued his brother in a joking manner. Though he would never joke with their eldest brother’s mate he would sometimes joke with their eldest brother, even though Ayre was convinced that humour wasn’t something Aybo understood.
“Ayzu, you are my brothers – not my servants,” replied Aybo. “That being said,” he continued in a voice that was so cold it would have pierced even dragonhide, “you are also my dragon warriors and I expect you to behave as such. I simply cannot allow any lapse in discipline or judgement among your lot.”
Ayre lifted his gaze and glared at his eldest brother. Aybo was sitting cross-legged dressed in scarlet and gold among brightly-coloured pillows and lotus-shaped bowls filled with nuts and fruit. He had a broad face that looked quite brutish and his mean dark eyes were so narrow they looked like two horizontal slits.
“Pring has told me about what happened during the training.”
“Ah.”
He must have spilled it all through their bond on their way. Ayre turned his glare at his brother’s mate who was currently lounging among the pillows, picking his way through fruits with an extremely smug look on his face. It would have been a very pretty face if it wasn’t permanently possessed by malicious intent.
“He also pointed out that you failed to punish the warrior responsible for his squadron’s failure simply because he happens to be your younger brother. I cannot allow for such practices to persist. I have things I wish to discuss with you, so I decided to combine our discussion and your punishment.”
Aybo bared his teeth and waved a hand in the direction of rice.
“Kneel.”
