Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

The now-waning full moon hung low in the sky. The night was still early as the weak moonlight shone through the ornate glass windows of a massive, chapel-like room of the dragon king’s castle. At the end of the room, right at the edge of the moonlight pouring through the windows behind him, sat Theravor, sitting half in the shadows in a massive marble throne with gold plated highlights. In front of him stood a long table made of the same marble of his throne, and twelve stone and metal thrones, identical to the one Theravor sat in during Draycos’ trial, were positioned around the table, six to each side. The twelve dragons who sat in these stone thrones all made up the highest governing group of officials in the known world: The Dragon Council.

The Dragon Council is made up of the heads of each of the four royal dragon families, and each head had the heads of their branch families in attendance with them. The four royal families were the Stormfangs, the Managuards, the Killwings, and the Vizards. Every ten years, the head of each family or their heirs competed in a collection of competitions to determine which family would lead the world as king for the next ten years. For the last century, Theravor Stormfang and his family had held possession of the crown without interruption, earning the hate of many opposing dragons.

Each family had different characteristics and responsibilities. The Stormfang family are strong in terms of both physical and magical strengths and have a good head for battle and strategy. They are the ideal battle soldiers and were usually in charge of ending the battles that occasionally broke out between different races and enforcing the laws of this world.

The Killwings are physically strong but lacked the magical power of the Stormfangs. They were placed in charge of expanding upon the territory discovered upon a new leygate being claimed and controlled.

The Managuards are exceptionally adept at magic, and always oversaw the magic-related events in society and developing new spells, as well as magical research.

The Vizards are also gifted in magic, but they used their gifts for research and developing new technology to assist the expanding world. Almost all monumental inventions and everyday magic theories studied were developed by this family.

Since Theravor was currently the Dragon King, he could not occupy the Stormfang family’s spot at the table, so after his father passed away in the middle of the ten year term twenty-eight years ago and he was forced to take up the throne, Theravor’s son, Drax, occupied the seat he once held. Drax may have been young then, but he had a good head on his shoulders and was a quick study, and things remained that way for fifty years now.

On each side of the table sat two royal families and their branch families, and behind them, stationed between the pillars holding the high ceiling above, were royal dragon guardsmen, decked out in royal blue plate armor from head to toe. Two more were stationed behind Theravor on either side of the throne and another pair positioned at the door, guarding the entrance.

Theravor sat at the head of the table in the king’s position, cool as a cucumber as nine sets of sharp eyes furiously attempted to bore holes in him. They had just reached the topic on the theft of the Orb of the First King, and all present were waiting for the king’s summary on what had been discovered thus far.

The head of the Killwing family, a somewhat aged dragon with nearly black gray scales and pale red underbelly scales and wing skin, tapped loudly on the marble tabletop with a claw as he glared at Theravor with intense red eyes. A gold band set with large rubies was fitting around his tail just before the tip, which was shaped much like that of a harpoon head. Scars covered his entire body from head to toe, which were results from clashes between him and the Dragon King during their time in the games. Out of all the families, the rivalry between the Stormfangs and Killwings was by far the strongest and deep-rooted. They’ve come close to winning the games for the crown on more than one occasion, but the Stormfangs always managed to come out on top the last one hundred years, ever since Theravor first started to participate in the games for the title of king.

“Well, Theravor?” he spat, unable to hide his disdain for the Dragon King. “Have you and your underlings been able to find out anything that we can pin on that human? Many of our kind are calling for an immediate public execution. Surely you’re aware of this?”

“Quiet, Vinzgar,” a dragon directly across the table from the dark grey dragon ordered. It was the current representative of the Stormfang family and Theravor’s son, Drax. Drax was the spitting image of his father, except for the eyes. While his pupils were black and his irises gold, the sclera were a deep blue. “My father will give you the report on what he has found, make no mistake about that. Until then, though, please keep those unnecessary comments to yourself.”

“What was that?” Vinzgar growled, turning his gaze to the younger dragon. “I thought you were taught to respect your elders, brat. Where are your manners?”

The two of them glared at each other in silence as the tension in the air thickened. Sighing, Theravor sharply slapped the ground next to his throne with his tail, demanding everyone’s attention.

“Enough,” Theravor commanded, authority in his voice. “It is as Drax says, Vinzgar. I can give my report whenever this foolish bickering of yours ceases.”

If looks could kill, Theravor would’ve been dead long ago as Vinzgar glared daggers at the king, but he said nothing. Theravor went on.

“Now then, I’ll give you a brief summary as to what happened. Last night, an unknown intruder managed to slip into the castle. As far as we can tell, the intruder concealed his magicka pressure in order to go unnoticed by the guards, while also being under the effects of an invisibility spell. That is something that takes an extreme amount of skill. Even I would have a hard time keeping my magic under the radar while constantly under the effects of my own spell; we all know that anyone who is under the effects of a spell is constantly giving of a weak, but still noticeable, output of their magic.”

“We know all of this already,” Vinzgar interrupted, rolling his eyes. “Do you have any new information at all?”

“The criminal managed to sneak into the vault and stole the Orb of the First King,” Theravor continued, ignoring the interruption. “After that, he got out of the castle, where one of my subordinates spotted him. But before he could capture the intruder, his path got blocked off when our current suspect, Draycos, fell out of the sky in a blaze of blue flames.”

There was some muttering from the Council as several members had a quick discussion with their neighbors.

“Blue flames, you say?” one of them spoke up. It was the head of the Managuard family, a female dragon with lavender scales and moonlight-white underbelly scales. Her wings were some of the most unique Theravor had ever seen; they were long and insect-like, almost like a butterfly’s, and they glittered in various shades of green, blue, and red. A solid gold necklace inlaid with three diamonds hung from her graceful, slim neck. The dragon’s arms were long and slim, and several gold bangles hung from each wrist. Her tail was tipped with a fin-shaped membrane that matched her wings. Solid blue eyes flashed as she looked Theravor in the eye. “Are you trying to imply something with that statement, King Theravor?”

“No, not really, Boreta,” Theravor responded. “All I’m saying is that we all keep an open mind about this situation. Anything could be possible at this point.”

There was a short, uncomfortable silence as the dragons around the table exchanged uneasy glances, including Vinzgar. They all knew what their king was talking about when the subject of blue flames came up.

“And?” Boreta queried. “What is the status of this ‘Draycos’ now?”

“Vertex.” Theravor commanded. Vertex and Reothad had been standing against the wall, far from the table and almost hidden in the shadows.

“Sir,” Vertex said, stepping forward and giving a short bow before straightening up. “I left Draycos in the care of Poseidon, the prison warden, to keep a close eye on him. However, I received a report from Poseidon earlier this afternoon that Draycos is already in bed rest after a dispute with an orc over food. The dispute ended with Draycos having three broken ribs and a ruptured stomach, and the orc received a broken nose in exchange.”

Theravor and his son both felt the urge to laugh at the situation and attempted to suppress the urge. Theravor was successful, but Drax left out a soft chuckle.

“Do you find the situation that amusing, Stormfang?” Vinzgar question, immediately picking up on the sound.

“To be honest, yes, I do find it somewhat entertaining,” Drax admitted, still chuckling. “The boy wasn’t even there for thirty minutes and already ended up in a brawl. He either has attitude problems or just bad luck, but I’m guessing both.”

A handful of other dragons sitting at the table cracked a smile at this. One of the dragons belonging to a Killwing’s branch family also chuckled, and he was rewarded with a sharp smack across the face by Vinzgar that caused him to instantly go quiet.

“This isn’t the time to be smiling and laughing,” Vinzgar stated, obviously annoyed. “The longer it takes for us to find our people’s treasure, the more trust we lose from our kind. They won’t support us if we can’t find the Orb.” He returned his attention to the King. “What about Draycos’s personal history?” he asked. “I understand that he hardly gave you anything about his personal life during the trial. Can we get any more out of him and determine if it’s the truth or not?”

“It’s true that he didn’t speak much about his life prior to the trial,” Theravor agreed, “but I can tell that nothing he has said to this point has been a lie. He apparently just lost his hometown and everyone who lived there, so I want to respect his feeling and not dig up any painful memories at this time.”

“Respect his feeling?!” Vinzgar shouted, outraged. “We’re talking about the theft of the Orb of the First King and the effects it will have on us if we don’t recover it! Do you want to risk it all just to respect a mere human’s feelings? I’ll get the info we need out of him myself to protect our standing!” With that, Vinzgar stood up from his chair.

“Vinzgar! Stop this at once!” Theravor ordered, raising his voice for the first time. Vinzgar froze at those words, but it wasn’t the king’s order that kept his feet still. A thick layer of ice had encased the black dragon’s feet, immobilizing him. A coat of frost extended across the floor from Vinzgar’s feet, and the trail lead over to where Reothad still stood. He hadn’t moved at all, except for sliding a foot slightly forward across the floor from which the trail of frost extended from.

“I’d like to ask you to refrain from taking any further aggressive actions, Vinzgar,” Reothad warned him coldly. “Otherwise I’ll be forced to completely freeze you for the remainder of the council meeting.”

“That’s enough, Reothad,” Theravor told him, noticing how Vinzgar was trembling with rage. “Undo you magic and release Vinzgar.”

“Sir,” Reothad responded, taking a slight bow. The frost on the floor quickly dissipated, and the ice around Vinzgar’s feet cracked and shattered. At that moment, a knock was heard from the door. Everyone turned their heads that direction as one of the guards there cracked opened the door for a moment to peer outside. The guard quickly let the door open wide, revealing Damrabe standing on the other side.

Damrabe quickly took in the scene before him. “Am I interrupting something,” he asked, his whiskers twitching slightly. “Do I need to come back later?”

“What is it?” Theravor asked, not bothering to waste any time. This meeting had been thoroughly exhausting for him so far.

Damrabe exchanged a quick glance with Reothad, who rolled his eyes and nodded at Vinzgar, thankfully going unnoticed by the aggressive dragon. Understanding lit up Damrabe’s eyes and he cleared his throat.

“Well, I just finished studying the blood samples I took from Draycos,” he announced. “I thought it would be in all of the Council’s best interest if they heard what I have to say.”