Chp.26: Defeated and humiliated

When they returned to their real bodies, the dragons were exhibiting somewhat different expressions. Some were particularly angry, others were annoyed, but most of them had extremely sad faces. No one could have blamed them: a moment before all of them had been convinced that they had won and that they could be reunited with their brother, and a moment later that hope had vanished with lots of derisive words from their opponent.

Haku wasn't sure if at that moment he was more angry at Marcus' words, furious with himself for letting himself be deceived or depressed for missing the chance to free Rhaegal, but he was pretty sure that the predominant emotion in his mind at that moment moment was the last on that list. He wondered how Rhaegal would react when he knew that; at that moment, based on their normal routine, he was probably still drugged and therefore not noticing anything, but when he woke up instead of being one step away from freedom he would still find himself inside his prison. Haku didn't even know how to begin to explain to him what had happened. And he didn't even know how to explain it to Darbi, who at that moment was still waiting for news from them with a heart full of hope that everything had gone well. Hope that would soon be shattered like a glass bottle thrown against a wall.

It had been a total fiasco. Haku scolded himself for underestimating his opponent. He had assumed that he was the smarter of the two, but Marcus had masterfully deceived him. The king had calculated everything perfectly; since he already knew that Haku would find the place where his brother was locked up, he acted accordingly. He hadn't wasted time trying to figure out how Haku would find the right place, because he already knew he wouldn't be able to figure it out: after all, dragons and newcomers were very different, and all the precautions that would have allowed any newcomer to be hidden from the eyes some other newcomers wouldn't necessarily work with a dragon. On the contrary, instead of focusing on defense, he had simply shifted his target without anyone noticing. He had chosen that place because there was already an underground labyrinth with all the same rooms with which he could have deceived Rhaegal, deluding him that he was always in the same place, when in reality they had moved him using the underground tunnels which they had then collapsed and which therefore Haku and her sisters could not perceive with sound waves. Finally, to deceive them even more, he had left some guards to guard the room, but in reality they were nothing more than people that the king himself wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. Basically, Haku had only done the king a favor by eliminating those people for him, thus saving him from having to get his hands dirty by sending an assassin or having them executed.

The only positive side of this whole affair was that Haku and his sisters had obtained good quality weapons and armor, since they had taken everything they could from the prison before leaving anyway, but that was cold consolation. The weapons and armor didn't lessen the humiliation they'd just suffered, and more importantly, they wouldn't give them Rhaegal back.

It took a while before someone (Kialandì) finally asked: "So, we failed. Now what? What do we do?"

"We have to make them pay!" Malchia immediately exclaimed furiously. "I refuse to let such humiliation go! We must take revenge! That king is blatantly fooling us! I want his head in my jaws and his body in my claws and..."

"Sister, calm down, please" Sisna said placing a paw on her shoulder. "It isn't with anger that we will solve things"

Malchia shivered as if she were boiling inside. As dragons, none of them could tolerate the king's teasing words, which fully demonstrated how superior he felt to them, but some of them could handle humiliation worse than others. Malchia was one of them: she had always given great importance to her pride and consequently knowing that at that moment the king was laughing behind her back made her mad with anger. But fortunately others, like Sisna, knew how to handle the situation more calmly, and above all they managed to say the right words with the right tone to convince their belligerent sisters to calm down at least a little. And in fact Malchia, although she continued to grind her teeth in fury, stopped talking and tried to concentrate on the problem rather than on her fury.

Taking advantage of the calm that had returned, Teramon tried to make a proposal: "Well, we found the first hiding place; we could find the next one too, right? We just have to keep looking and..."

"We're out of time" Haku muttered speaking for the first time since they had left the dungeon. "It would take days to track down another of those structures, days that we don't have. The final negotiation with the king is tomorrow. Forget it, girls. This time we lost"

Marcus had been right about something else: even if it took Haku a rather short time to track down the prison, there was still talk of several days. But the negotiation with the king would have taken place in less than twenty-four hours, so even if Haku had tried to search again, he would have had no chance of finding Rhaegal. Not to mention that there was the possibility that the brother had been moved several times during those days, and that therefore even if he had managed to find another prison it could have easily turned out to be another hole in the water. And he knew that if he tried to stall in the imminent negotiation, the king would immediately understand his intentions and force him to make an immediate decision.

His sisters looked down discouraged. Evidently all of them had imagined that answer, but none of them had wanted to say it aloud. "So now we will negotiate?" Kotaru asked.

Haku nodded. "We have prepared ourselves for the eventuality that we would fail. We have prepared all the necessary countermeasures to meet the king's requests. He wanted to deceive us, so we will return the favor by deceiving him"

It wasn't exactly revenge, but Haku felt that there was some sort of justice in those events: first the king deceived them into thinking they would win, and now they would deceive him into thinking they would win. Haku knew that many newcomers, including humans, believed that by some sort of divine will all deeds, good or bad, were returned equally to the one who did them. Haku obviously didn't believe in such nonsense, given that if this had been true predatory animals wouldn't have existed, indeed all animals wouldn't have really existed since even herbivores technically ate plants and therefore living beings, but nevertheless it seemed to him that there was something strangely poetic about that turn of events. If it had been a story, it would probably have been titled 'The tricked dragon who tricked the tricky king'. Ok, maybe the word 'trick' was repeated a bit too many times, but it would have been a fun story for the kids.

"We will do as we decided: we will give the king some valid alternatives, and then we will take advantage of the situation" Haku said. "Sisna, do you agree with your part?"

His sister shrugged. "I just have to fake my death, it's certainly not a big deal. I'd do it several times if that would take any smile off that asshole's face" she said obviously referring to the king. Even though she was better at controlling anger than her sisters, that didn't mean she didn't have it.

Haku was satisfied. Thanks to Sisna he could have fulfilled the first condition, which he was sure was the one the king cared most about. Marcus would have believed he could gain control of 'The Spider', but in reality he would be left with absolutely nothing, while the criminal organization would continue to be under total control of the family of dragons. By the time the king realized the deception it would have been too late, and all he could have done was howl in rage. Haku wondered if it wasn't the case to write him a letter too to tease him, but he decided he wouldn't stoop to that; and then, even if this action might have seemed harmless, it would still have had a small dose of risk, so it was better to avoid it. He would have contented himself with imagining his face contorted with anger.

Haku looked at Maldor. "I already apologized for turning down your offer, and now I think it might be a good idea. Do you still want to do it?"

"And you even have to ask me? For my brother this and more" Maldor answered without thinking twice.

Haku let out a snort. "Unlike Sisna, you won't be able to fake your death immediately, or you'll generate too much suspicion. You'll have to wait at least a month or even two. Is that still okay with you?"

"I am aware of what I will have to do, brother" Maldor replied. "I proposed it and I want to do it. As long as this gives us Rhaegal back, I'm willing to do anything"

Since Marcus' main concern was 'The spider', Haku was sure he could convince him to accept an alternative to the other two conditions he imposed. Instead of the runes, therefore, he would have given him Maldor and the formula for calculating magic; surely the king would not have given up on having a person who could provide him with such prestige not only internationally in that small corner of the continent, but literally worldwide. Haku didn't much like handing such knowledge into the hands of newcomers, but it was still better than giving Marcus runes, which were an important weapon in dragons' arsenal and would lose their effectiveness if their enemy knew them. Therefore, the fewer peoples in the world who knew how the runes worked, the better it was for Haku and his family.

"Good. Then, as planned, for the third condition I will offer him the alternative of knowing Carrion's secret" Haku concluded. He was sure that the king would also accept that alternative: being able to keep under full control a powerful person who had proven to be quite dangerous like Carrion would be a huge advantage for him. With a little gab, Haku was sure he could convince the ruler to accept that last waiver.

"What will we do if he refuses?" Tikka asked concerned.

"It won't happen. Our alternatives are extremely advantageous. He would have no reason to do that" Haku replied.

But evidently the latest failure had made Tikka very doubtful, for she asked again: "But what if he does?"

Haku let out a growl deep in his throat. "In that case, we'll give him what he wants. Nothing is more important than our brother. We'll get him back, even at the cost of losing numerous benefits for it"

For Haku, Rhaegal's safety was the first priority. If there truly was no room for negotiation, and Marcus would demand exactly what he already asked of Haku, then he would give it to him. He would think later about how to deal with the consequences of that gesture: he didn't want to leave Rhaegal alone with these people one minute longer than he should. He was completely fed up with that situation.

His sisters seemed to agree. Or at least, none of them opined. "I'm going to inform Darbi, and then as soon as he contacts me I will inform Rhaegal as well" Haku said. He didn't know why, since it wasn't his fault, but he thought it was only right that he should break the news to them.

Though their mood had improved a little since Haku as usual had already given them a new path to follow, however, the dragons' mood didn't change much. No one would sleep well that night. The taste of defeat could be bitter indeed, especially when it was so humiliating.