Dragon's Blood

Questions

The dawn's gentle light was kissing the horizon and spreading a hopeful glow towards Cinia, belying the darkness that hung over the table in the Great Hall. Alaric and Alandra were sat at the head of the table, looking in no way as if they had been roused unceremoniously from sleep only a short while before. Camen was sat to Alaric's right, Sam next to him and Bill and Iyla completed the group, with the addition of Grimp, hovering by Iylas chair leg as if he expected to be in trouble at any moment.

"So you believe the young man that this Grimp has seen is Tobias?" Alaric asked.

"I cannot say for certain," Sam admitted, "but if I may explain my theory as to what has happened?"

Alaric nodded and Iyla felt huge relief that he was listening and warmth towards the King that he had not yet brushed her claims aside as nothing but a childs dreams.

Sam continued, "I believe that Iyla has a connection to her brother, which has been growing stronger ever since she arrived in this world. The closer she has got to him, the stronger the connection has become. I have no explanation for how that may have happened. It may be that it has something to do with their mother being a sorceress, it may be something more sinister."

"You have an alternative theory?" Camen asked. Iyla was forcing herself not to scream at them all to stop their useless talk and just help her find her brother. She sat firmly on her hands as if this would somehow stop her from speaking her mind.

"It may be Kade's doing," Sam said, giving her a jolt, "If he has managed to keep a fully grown Dragon and it's tamer captive all this time, there must be dark magic involved. And we must remember too, that we know nothing of Kades time in the Dark Lands. We know he can control Amarok, they do his bidding. I am concerned that he may be able to control other beings, he may now be using Tobias to try and find Iyla."

Iyla couldn't help herself, "You couldn't think of any scenario where Tobias is not in league with Kade?" she asked accusingly.

Sam held up his hands defensively, "Another possibility," he said pointedly, "Is that Kade did have some control over Tobias until the connection with Iyla became stronger. This may be what gave Tobias the push he needed to break free from Kade and save himself and his dragon."

"So this is either really, really good, or really, really bad," said Bill simply.

"And doesn't really help us at all." Camen added wearily as he rubbed his chin, which was dark with stubble.

"Kade has kept Tobias alive to have control of his dragon?" Alandra asked. Her voice was soft and she looked sympathetically at Iyla, aware of how difficult this discussion was for the young girl.

"Not necessarily," Sam admitted, "Once the dragon was captured and chained as Iyla described, he would not have needed Tobias. The fact that he kept him alive is another concern, another unknown. Then of course, there is the fact that Grimp says Tobias hurt people, I just can't fathom why he would do that, no matter what Kade threatened him with, that's not the boy I knew."

"He would have only been a child when Kade took him-" Camen began but Sam cut him off.

"He was his fathers son, the courage that boy had, the sense of what was right and good," he shook his head, "I can't believe he would ever hurt anyone willingly. Kade must have forced him somehow if that's true."

"But we are agreed that without access to dragon's blood, Kade is vulnerable to attack?" Alaric asked, "We could gather the Dragon Tamers and launch an attack on him, yes?"

"I would not advise that yet Your Majesty," Sam cautioned, "We don't know how long he has been without Drago's blood and even then, if he has been drinking it daily for ten years, we have no way of knowing how long it's effects will last. He may also have stored the blood," Sam was beginning to look more and more defeated, "I just don't know."