The Dragon's Kiss

Chapter 240 TWENTY ONE: The Perfect Trap

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"The Regent is dead!!"

Harrowing cries echoed through the palace walls just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.

If the aftermath of the previous day's gathering hadn't been chaotic enough, the remaining palace workers ran about causing a huge stir.

Kel and Calix hadn't even set foot out of bed before Thane and other guards were knocking at their bedroom door.

"It seems they've caught the killer," Thane reported as the Emperor and his fiance sat up in their bed. "Thanks to the secret guards placed around the Regent's room last night."

"And pray tell, who dared murder my newly appointed Regent?" Calix rested his chin on his hands, his lips curling into a smug grin.

"It was a group of assassins led by two former council members," Thane detailed. "The members have been detained."

Calix gave a satisfied nod, turning to Kel.

"What a devious little trap you led them into," he smirked. "Though.. I don't think it was on purpose."

Kel blinked a few times, wondering if she was still groggy or if the Emperor's words really just didn't make sense.

A trap? 

Naturally, it must have been Altair and the scarred man who were behind the attack and detained. But how had Kel been the one to lead them there?

She frowned, pondering the situation.

It had been her suggestion to appoint a former prince as the Regent. Is that what he was talking about?

No. Calix could have arrested and punished the two council members at any time before now. He already knew they were guilty.

So what-Gasp!!

Her hunch must have been correct, after all! 

Prince Javid must have been the one behind the rebels. 

And when he chose to retain the other two council members, sending Altair and the other man to banishment, they must have turned on him. That possibility certainly hadn't crossed her mind at the time, but it ended up being the perfect trap after all.

Kel cleared her throat and returned Calix's smirk.

"No. It was definitely on purpose."

The task of cutting out all the roots of the rebellion progressed swiftly from then on.

Evidently, the two council members had been heading a rebellion together for the last year with the goal of placing Prince Javid on the throne. Their desire intensified as Pandreia's king began talks of surrender. 

Unfortunately, the surrender happened before the rebellion could make their move, thanks to the sudden takeover of Mevani. Because the delegation was hastily decided, Prince Javid and Altair along with many other rebel members, wormed their way in. Their goal was to assess the Dragon Emperor and discover his weakness while sending intel to the scarred man and others left in Pandreia.

Whatever their 'move' was--their ultimate goal--it failed the moment the Dragon Emperor appointed Prince Javid as the Regent, thus, dividing them. 

They might have been able to use that decision to their advantage if they had been less greedy.

But the ultimate demise of Altair and the scarred man, Prince Javid, and everyone working underneath them was inner turmoil. Their jealousy and impatience shattered the remnants of their defense, leaving them wide open for the Emperor's wrath.

And his wrath was something to behold.

One by one they were lined up in front of an old wooden block and a man dressed all in black, wielding a large ax.

Altair was the first to be knelt down, his neck stretched across the block waiting to catch the ax's blade as it fell.

The man with dark hair and scarred skin was next. Kel finally learned his name, only by the reading of his execution decree, was Yazdan.

Down to the lowest members of the organization, nobody was spared from the Dragon Emperor's bloody wrath.

Those who had not already been scattered across the rest of the continent, or banished from it entirely, shivered in terror at the gruesome proceedings and did their best to keep their heads down.

Though ruthless, the Emperor's method was certainly effective. Nobody in the territory of Pandreia would so much as lift a finger against him for the foreseeable future.

After a day full of blood and the constant thudding of the ax sinking through outstretched necks, all that remained to be taken care of was appointing a new Regent to replace Javid.

And again, Kel found herself arm in arm with Calix walking to the main hall where a crowd awaited them.

"Another gathering.." Kel mumbled under her breath.

Now that things at Pandreia had been more or less wrapped up, she desired nothing more than a long, undisturbed sleep.

"I'll make it fast," Calix consoled her, squeezing her arm.

With her stomach still churning from the beheadings from the previous day, she took her seat at the head of the hall with the Dragon Emperor.

Around the room, she spied many others with churning stomachs--their eyes downcast and handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths. Kel wondered how many of them had lost family and friends in all the turmoil. Surely, between the people who had been banished and those who had been executed, not one person present had been untouched by the recent proceedings.

Thinking about it made her heart ache in a strange way.

The one Pandreian in the room wearing a calm expression was the man being appointed as the new Regent. The man Calix had originally intended to become the Regent.

Taegus.

Kel had been skeptical of the Emperor's choice. In bringing the case of the rebels to a close, Taegus had contributed nothing. In the end, the only real action the man had taken was selling his soul to the Dragon Emperor.

But, then again, that was exactly what Calix was looking for in a Regent.

Someone bound to him by their desires, with no choice but to be undyingly loyal, but wholly incapable of undertaking large tasks by themselves.

Someone like a foot soldier who decided to blindly chase power.

Someone like Taegus.

After the ceremony ended and the territory of Pandreia was left with a new Regent, Calix, Kel, and Thane all found themselves flopping onto the sofas in the main chamber of the Ruby Room.

"Well, now everything is solved," Thane yawned, stretching his arms over his head.

"... except for one thing," Lucy chimed in, propping herself up.

A bed had been set up in the Ruby Room for the knight to rest in as she recovered from the poison. It was only by strict orders from the Dragon Emperor, however, that she actually made use of it.

Calix nodded at the woman's words and turned to Kel.

"Out of all the possible members of the royal family that could have been leading the rebels, how did you narrow it down to Prince Javid?"

"How did I narrow it down to Prince Javid?"

Kel echoed the Emperor's question.

"Well, it happened accidentally, when I went to find the herbalist from that night…"