Kane was not looking at me.
He was looking at Leon.
White plates covered half his face, but his voice remained human.
"You brought him the dragon."
"He came on his own."
"Beasts do nothing on their own. They follow food, flee pain or submit to the stronger will."
The Void Dragon landed beside Leon. After the family hall, the damaged wing was dragging across the floor again. A black vein glowed in his chest, carrying the old contract towards the Crown at Kane's pull.
Styx lay almost motionless in my palms. All I received from her were brief images: the burning in the dragon's chest, the golden circlet on the basilisk, the dark conduit beneath the throne.
Kane touched the Crown.
The mark of the dragon's old collar appeared around his neck.
"Come back."
The beast took a step towards the throne.
Leon went pale, but did not raise his hand. His fingers remembered the command gesture. All he had to do was complete the movement, and the severed contract might close again.
A second step.
Kane opened the titanic core before the dragon. The black plates on the injured wing began to mend. The pain receded. The beast spread the wing farther than he had managed in days.
"I raised him for this power," Kane said. "You were given the finest core, the finest mentors and a position from which you could protect the city. Now you are leading him to his death because you are afraid of becoming like me."
Leon did not answer at once.
"I am."
For a moment, Kane was at a loss.
"And I still won't give the order."
The dragon reached the throne. The titanic core was within easy reach. One touch would restore his former form and free him from dragging a broken wing.
Kane reached for his head.
The beast allowed his fingers to touch the plates.
Leon squeezed his eyes shut but stayed where he was.
The dragon looked at the exposed core, then at the black vein in his own chest. He spun round and struck the void conduit with his tail.
The throne cracked.
Kane staggered back. The healing vanished from the dragon's wing, but the second blow broke open the shaft beneath the Crown.
"You could have come back!" he shouted for the first time.
The Chain Basilisk burst out of the throne. Golden rings closed around the dragon's wings and dragged him into the rift. Both beasts plunged into the lower circuit.
Leon went after them.
Kane thrust out a hand.
"Stay."
The word carried a seal, but beneath it was real fear. Not the fear of a family head losing his heir. The fear of a father watching his son vanish into the same shaft where beasts had been consumed for decades.
Leon stopped at the edge.
It would have been easy to believe that fear cancelled out everything else.
Then came the crunch of the dragon's wing from below.
Leon jumped.
I tucked Styx under my collar and stepped after him.
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