Realms of the Elves/Traitors

"Traitors" is a short story by Richard Lee Byers first published in the 2006 anthology Realms of the Elves.
==Summary==
In -25,090 DR, dragons are bringing the entire continent of Faerûn under their rule. The elf mage Rhespen Ash, Royal Councilor and Magician in service to the gold dragon King Orchtrien, is sent to help with a border invasion, only to be ambushed by rebellious elven subjects. Before he can surrender, the gold dragon prince Bexendral arrives and routs the rebels. Back in Court, Rhespen claims only three families were involved in the rebellion; Orchthrien decides to take the families' heirs and educate them while keeping them as hostages in his own court, so as to dissuade them from further rebellions and impress his power upon the heirs. He chooses Rhespen to be their host and jailor, despite the latter's protests that he wanted to join the King in his conquests.
One of the hostages brought to the Court, the princess Winterflower Duskmere, occupies most of Rhespen Ash's attention, as she is intensely prejudiced against dragons and fearful, requiring him to pay her special attention. During one feast, Winterflower sings a song which a rival mage of Rhespen, the human Maldur, understands as a veiled insult to the King; he punishes her with magic. Standing up for his charge, Rhespen is goaded into a spell-battle by the King, and defeats Maldur. Winterflower later admits privately that she was insulting the king, which Rhespen admits he knows, but he still went against Malyk in order to preserve his own standing. The two grow closer, and she acclimates to court. One later feast, Orchtrien freely admits to Rhespen he knew and enjoyed her insult, and now intends to seduce and bed her. Rhespen protests this, admitting his love for her. The king is unmoved, and sends Rhespen on a mission.
Rhespen leads a border raid in the winter, which is cut short by the arrival of a green dragon from a rival king. The dragon nearly slays his force, but Rhespen narrowly prevails. He returns to court, lauded a hero, but learns that Winterflower has become a consort to the King. He sneaks into her quarters and speaks to her; she claims to be affected by an intermittent charm. Rhespen resolves to break the charm, and to do so, he sneaks into the private laboratory of the King. There, he narrowly avoids the prince, and discovers a bound demon, a ghargatula, which attacks him; Rhespen narrowly prevails, and summons spirits of air to copy the King's spellbooks. After mastering them, he confronts Winterflower again, claiming he can break the charm. As Maldur arrives to stop them, as Rhespen has met with Winterflower against the King's orders, she steals the books, his staff, and teleports away.
Rhespen is captured and tortured; the King cheerfully explains that she was always a spy and a traitor, whom he pursued because it amused him, but she was successful in turning Rhespen against him, and Rhespen is a traitor. He manages to escape the torture room, sneaks into the force tracking her, and manages to find her fortress undetected, where he defeats and confronts her. She admits to her spying and her treachery, regrets she hurt him, but considers her cause to be that much more important, lest elves forever live under the thrall of the dragons. Rhespen agrees to aid them. As Orchtrien's warriors attack the stronghold and then the dragon himself joins the fray, Rhespen uses his new spell-might to battle and thus occupy the dragon until the night. Meanwhile, runners flee from the stronghold carrying copies of the spellbook. Rhespen finally dies, and only one of the tomes avoids interception: the one carried by Duskmere Winterflower. She opens the tome, and realizes it contains no spells, but a study of the relationship between dragons and fundamental forces. Her initial impulse is to almost hurl the tome into the fire, but then she decides to make a study of it, come whatever may.
Eighty-nine years later in the late spring, Orchtrien and his court are gathered outside to watch the spectacle of a red comet on the horizon. The sight of it drives Orchtrien mad, and he ransacks his own palace and has his first taste of human flesh. He is killed after he smashes his way into the fortress where much of his army is quartered. Right before he dies, Orchtrien whispers, “The red star murdered me.”
In the days that follow, all the dragons in Faerûn go insane at once, slaughtering those closest to them, and the red comet comes to be called the King-Killer.
==Index==
==Appendix==
===References===
Category:Short stories