The price for the soul of a dragon is your own humanity. Kaelen felt the cold smoke of the abyss replacing the warmth of his blood as he stood atop the giant skull of his new servant.
"Master, your physical form is breaking under the weight of the ancient pact," the shadow dragon whispered with a voice that rattled Kaelen's teeth.
Kaelen looked at his right arm which was now a swirling mass of black ink and violet sparks. He tried to clench his fist but he could no longer feel the texture of his own skin.
"Does it matter if I am human as long as I can finish what I started?" Kaelen asked while staring at the throne room doors.
He stepped off the dragon and landed softly on the balcony floor without making a single sound. The shadows around him bowed low as they felt the shift in his terrifying presence.
Kaelen walked into the throne room where the high nobles were still huddled together in a desperate circle. Their faces were pale and their expensive jewelry clattered as they trembled in unison.
"The king is dead and your protector is now my footstool," Kaelen announced while his voice filled every corner of the hall.
A young duke stepped forward with a shaking sword and eyes that were wide with a mix of pride and pure terror. He was the son of the general who had led the ambush against Kaelen's men.
"I will not let a ghost dictate the future of this great lineage!" the young duke shouted with a voice that cracked.
Kaelen did not even draw his blade to answer the pathetic challenge of the boy. He simply waved his smoke like hand and the shadows on the floor rose to wrap around the duke's legs.
"Lineage is just a fairy tale told to keep the weak in their place," Kaelen said while the duke was dragged to his knees.
The nobles gasped as the shadow tendrils began to squeeze the life out of the young man. No one dared to move or breathe as they watched the price of defiance in the new kingdom.
"Spare him and I will tell you where the royal seal is hidden!" an old woman cried out from the back of the group.
Kaelen turned his head and recognized the queen mother who had always treated his mercenaries as nothing more than dirty tools. He walked toward her while the ground beneath his feet turned to frost.
"The seal is just a piece of metal that means nothing to the dead," Kaelen replied while looking down at her.
He reached out and touched her forehead with his glowing purple finger. The queen mother let out a silent scream as her memories began to flow into Kaelen's mind like a dark river.
"You knew about the plan to kill us before we even reached the city gates," Kaelen whispered with a tone that was colder than death.
The queen mother fell to her knees and began to sob while her mind was burned by the cold touch of the shadow power. She realized that secrets were useless against a man who could talk to the soul.
"We only did what was necessary for the stability of the crown!" the queen mother wailed through her tears.
Kaelen looked at the golden throne and then back at the pathetic woman who had sacrificed his brothers for a chair. He felt the darkness in his chest grow until it threatened to swallow his vision entirely.
"Then it is only necessary that your crown becomes a pile of scrap metal," Kaelen declared while raising his hand high.
The shadows in the room surged upward and began to tear the golden decorations from the walls with a loud and screeching sound. The throne itself began to crack as the weight of a thousand ghosts pressed down upon it.
The nobles began to scream as the ceiling of the throne room started to collapse in large chunks of white marble. Kaelen stood in the middle of the chaos like a statue of black stone that could not be moved.
"Where will you go now that your world is falling apart?" Kaelen asked the crying nobles.
He did not wait for an answer because he knew there was no place left for them in his new order. He turned his back on the screaming hall and walked toward the high window that faced the northern mountains.
Kaelen felt a new and powerful presence approaching from the distance that made his shadow dragon growl in warning. A white bird with silver wings was flying through the smoke of the burning city toward the palace.
"The emissaries of the holy empire are faster than I expected," Kaelen muttered while narrowing his black eyes.
He knew that the kingdom he had just destroyed was only a small piece of a much larger and deadlier game. The real enemies of his bloodline were finally coming out of the shadows to face him.
The king's final breath was only the beginning of a much longer nightmare.