Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

Reasons

The human, or Draycos, rather, stared at Theravor in shock for a few seconds, unable to process what the king had pronounced. After the shock faded away, Vertex could almost feel the anger and resentment showing in Draycos' body language and expression.

"Why, you--!" Draycos started.

Whack. Vertex decided this moment was the best time to knock Draycos out and did so with a quick and precise strike with his tail to the back of Draycos' neck. Draycos' body went rigid for a second before it went limp, solely being held in place by the chains restricting his movement. Vertex proceeded to bow deeply to his king.

"I apologize for my actions just now, King Theravor," Vertex stated as the crowd of dragons began to disperse and fly out of the grotto. Some were either irritated with the outcome of the trial or puzzled by their king's uncharacteristic behavior during said trial. "I thought it was wise to render him unconscious before the boy said something that would cause a worst-case scenario for himself, so I took preemptive measures. Please excuse me acting on my own accord."

The king snorted in half amusement. Almost all the attending dragons had left at this point. "There's no need to be formal with me now, Vertex," Theravor told him. "If you're going to be like that your whole life, you'll never know how to relax."

"Someone has to be serious all the time here, sir," Vertex retorted pointedly. "You have no regards to document deadlines or meetings with the Council at all. I'm here to keep you from getting out of hand."

"Oh, bother," Theravor snorted. Getting serious again, he stood up from the makeshift throne. Damrabe took a step towards the king.

"Theravor, are you really sure you made the right decisions with what you said?" Damrabe questioned. "Your statements during the trial may have raised many eyebrows. It might come back to bite your tail later."

"I said things the way that I did so the other dragons would keep an opened mind about this whole affair," Theravor explained, his tail thumping the floor. Numerous small cracks appeared in the rock where his tail struck. "I'm almost positive that this human, Draycos, is telling us the truth. So, I indirectly told all those gathered here today not to place the blame on Draycos."

"But you still didn't follow normal protocol with that verdict of yours, either," Reothad spoke up. "Under normal circumstances, if a person is suspected of colluding with a suspect in a large-scale crime, said person is supposed to be kept under close watch for one month with restricted privileges. That's one of the rules that you and the Council developed and enforced yourselves; are you really just going to ignore your own rule and keep Draycos in prison until we actually find out what we need to do?"

"It's for his own protection, really," Theravor responded. "Even though I said what I said to try to keep out kind from placing the blame on Draycos for our loss, there are still plenty of hot-headed dragons that would love to pin the blame on a scapegoat and tear it to shreds. What if our one month of observation ended and Draycos was let loose, and no sooner do we take our eyes off him than one of these hotheads gets the drop on him? Even then, they could still ambush the lad during our one-month observation time frame if they felt like it."

"I get it," Damrabe muttered. "If we keep him in prison, where we have guards stationed all over twenty-four seven, then we can keep an eye on him at all times to ensure his safety, and once we can actually find evidence for the real thief and bring him to justice, Draycos can walk out of prison without any worries."

Theravor nodded. Reothad, however, shook his head and hid his face in a clawed hand before giving a small groan.

"So, you sent him to prison for his own safety? How sadly ironic."