Spike stood in his spot, unable to move. He finally reacted when Kiguroth spoke again.
“I’ll ready the troops. Sarr, go to Ice Heart Tower and gather your best battle mages. We’re moving out as soon as we can.”
“Yes, my King.” Sarr nodded and left the room.
Spike and Kiguroth were left alone. The King sighed and clenched his fists.
“I can’t believe they dare attack us after the truce we made.” He muttered with barely contained anger. “I can’t believe I was so stupid to think they would keep their promise!”
“Dad…” Spike tried to say something, but didn’t know what to say.
Kiguroth landed a fist in the floor, cracking it. He kept shouting to no one. “I won’t spare them again! I will finish what I was supposed to do a hundred years ago, even if it means taking the battle to their own land, and killing every one of them!”
“Dad, stop!” Spike finally shouted, flying to his eye level. “Please, calm down.”
Kiguroth growled under his breath, but at last he sighed. “You’re right, son. But I will do whatever I need to do to protect my people. If the giants threat us, then I won’t hesitate to fight them.” He broke eye contact with Spike, and headed towards a door at the side. “I’ll go grab my armor. I will personally command the troops in the front.”
“I’ll go with you.” Spike tried to follow him. His father turned and faced him again.
“Forget about that. You are not ready to fight, and you have not even reached half of your adult size. I will not send my own son to the line of battle, and that’s final.”
He turned again and left, leaving Spike alone. Spike, however, was not going to stay idly.
‘I’m not going to stay here while you risk your life out there, dad.’ He thought. ‘If you’re not going to let me follow you then I’ll have to go there unnoticed.’
Spike headed to his room. Once there he put on his own armor and sword, made some time ago by the royal blacksmith. Spike was not going to let his father risk his life out there, no matter what he said about it. Once he had strapped the sword to his back, he took flight towards the main perch outside of the mountain, where he knew the troops from the citadel would be assembling.
He passed the entrance gates, and was hit by the freezing air outside. He had got used to it, so it wasn’t too troublesome. He saw the soldiers in formation: at least a hundred dragons, even two hundred. They were clad in grey armor, and carried halberds and swords as well as shields. Facing them was the King’s Honor Guard, also in formation: thirty of the best fighters in the kingdom, and along with them where some other dragons. These wore no armor, and their scales were light blue, with white spines: mages of the Ice Heart.
Spike got closer to them, taking care of not being noticed, and hid behind large crates of supplies that would be taken to the watching post in the frontier. He saw his in front of the soldiers, with Sarr at his side, and heard him speak.
“Soldiers of Draconia, hear me! Those traitorous giants have dared invade our home once more. Are we going to let them do what they want in our own home?!”
“No!” The soldiers shouted at unison.
“Of course not! This is our land, our home! We are dragons! We have pride! We are not going to be defeated by those barbarian storm giants! We are going to do what we were supposed to do a hundred years ago! We are going to end their threat to our kingdom!”
He then roared at the air, followed by every dragon in the terrace. Some even let out fire, inspired by their king’s speech. The roars almost deafened Spike, but thanks to his still small size he was able to hide inside a big crate that was going to be transported. All the dragons took air, with King Kiguroth at the front, leading them.
The flight took about half an hour. When Spike felt they had landed, he poked his head out of the crate. They were now in the watching post, but there was no sign of battle here. It seemed that the giants had retreated, but not before making some damage. Spike saw that the tower and the perch that indicated the place of the watching post near the peak of a low mountain had suffered some damage. He heard some speaking from the outside.
“Report.”
“Y-Your Majesty! I wasn’t expecting you at all.”
“We will have time for formalities later. Now, how is the situation?”
“We were able to drive them back out of the frontier, but many of our soldiers are still down there fighting.”
“Very well.” Kiguroth replied. “Call the wounded back, my soldiers will replace them in the battlefield.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The other dragon bowed and Kiguroth left, flying to the line of battle with his Honor Guard. The commander of the post then commanded some of the soldiers there to take the crates of supplies to the warehouse in the tower. Spike got out of the crate he had been hiding in and hid in another place, near a hallway. He would have to find a place from where he could get out of the tower unnoticed and join the fight, or at least take care that his father wasn’t killed due to his recklessness.
‘Maybe from the warehouse, there has to be a back door somewhere…’ His train of thought was interrupted, however, when he heard a too familiar voice behind him.
“I thought your father had given you an explicit order to stay at the palace.” Spike turned around. Right behind him, previously unnoticed to him despite his size, was Sarr, with his arms crossed and a look of disapproval in his face.
“Sarr!” Spike turned around in a second, shocked. “How long did you know?”
“Since we still were at the Capital Citadel. You weren’t so difficult to spot.” The mage answered without stopping looking at Spike in the eyes. “The only reason I haven’t told your father yet is because I am worried about him too.” He sighed. “Listen, Prince Ka-Hurr. After the war with the giants had ended, and the notice of your disappearance had spread through the whole kingdom, your father wasn’t the same. He became more serious, with a great resentment against the storm giants. That resentment turned into a cold hatred after the Queen, your mother, died of depression. I knew when I became his counselor that he would react like this if conflict with the giants arose again. He won’t listen to me. You are his son, maybe you can make him regain sense if you talk with him. Maybe we can resolve this conflict without any more bloodshed.”
Spike nodded. “I know. I’m worried about him, I don’t want to see him like this. I just hope we can put an end to this before he gets killed.”
Sarr nodded and clasped his hands together. “Very well. We must hurry now and join him in the battlefield, I sense he could be in trouble. Come with me, I’ll take you.”