Brotherly love

Dragon Lord Jabez held out his hand so the peregrine could land on it. The scouts he had sent out ahead had attached a small missive to the feet of the bird.

The falconer came and took the bird off his master's outstretched hand so Jabez could read the message with ease.

The peregrine would be brushed down, fed and given water to quench its thirst for another job well done.

Jabez was outraged by what he read in the tiny note, he ripped the paper apart then stomped it furiously beneath his heels.

All of his men that were sent to ambush his half-brother Tiamat were dead.

He spurred his horse forward and, in a few moments, he would come upon the desecrated spot where the mutilated bodies of his soldiers had been left to burn.

Even though this was but a small loss for Jabez since he had more than five times the soldiers in his care. It still irked him that he could not get rid of the only stain on the family's name.

His men were triggered by the grisly sight of the remains of a battle, their shouts of outrage filled the air.

The soldiers all got down on their knees pledging their loyalty to Jabez and vowing to avenge their fallen comrades.

Many had lost a friend or family member and grief hardened their hearts and made them even more bitter than before.

Good.

The fact that some had harbored doubts about following Jabez's orders to kill his half-brother was all but forgotten once they beheld the aftermath of the gruesome battle.

Jabez had always hated his younger brother because he had been the apple of his father's eye when he lived.

It was because Tiamat was the only child of the great dragon lord Azmat and his beautiful concubine Selah.

Though his concubine had died giving birth to Tiamat, his father never once detested his youngest son.

Even though Tiamat was the splitting image of his mother, most thought that Azmat would have rejected him.

In fact, it was the opposite Azmat doted on his mischievous dragon imp of a son.

Tiamat had that same unnatural silver hair as his mother and those turbulent purple amethyst eyes.

Even Jabez used to be in awe of Selah's beauty, as he was just a tween when Tiamat was born.

Jabez was sickly as a child so he looked smaller than his age and strangers would have thought he and Tiamat were in the same age range.

Especially since his brother looked bigger in size and older than his age, many often thought Tiamat was older and the heir to the family fortune.

Melisande, Jabez's mother had many stillborn babies before he was born and as the heir he was cosseted and pampered for the early part of his life.

Until one day his father returned from one of many wars and saw how Melisande was ruining his firstborn and declared that things would change around his home.

"Not my baby, please don't send him away," his mother had wailed.

"It is time Melisande, both boys need to grow as men if they are to take over the reins from me someday," his father said calmly.

"I don't care what you do with that half breed spawn of Selah but don't you dare send my baby away."

Her cries fell on deaf ears and his mother locked herself away in her room after he left.

"Father, do you love Tiamat more than me?" He remembered asking his father one day.

When Jabez had Azmat all alone to himself for a change since Tiamat had been sent to his father's best friend to train as a page and work his way up the chain of command.

"I love both my son's equally," his father replied.

He rubbed his son's shaggy mop of hair in a friendly manner that Jabez secretly hated but tolerated because it was his father.

Then Azmat let out a loud groan.

"Then why did you send me away to school while Tiamat got to foster with your best friend?" asked Jabez.

Try as he could, Jabez wasn't able to mask the jealousy in his voice.

"I guess it would come up eventually," Azmat sighed. "You are both my sons and I love you equally, but Tiamat is not like us. He is part human and part dragon and I fear for my son. The life that he will lead when he gets older will not be easy because not everyone is open minded to accept half dragon breeds. Tiamat would never be granted entrance to school to mix with the pure dragon bloods. I'm afraid that's just the way of the world but until things change, I believe that master Kendon can provide the training that Tiamat will need to survive the cruel world. In truth it would assuage some of the guilt for the burden I have place on my son, because I chose to fall in love with Selah while still married to your mother."

Hearing the truth made Jabez hate Tiamat even more with a passion now that he understood why his own mother was such a broken woman and detested Tiamat.

He was living proof of the unrepentant adultery his father had committed while forcing them to live with the bastard child after Tiamat's mother passed away.

As much as he loved his father, he would never forgive either of them for this travesty.

Now that the bastard knight had been granted his own lands by the king, Tiamat would now be equal to Jabez in station and rank.

Both of them would be treated like dragon lords in the eyes of the king but behind the king's back many doors would still remain closed to Tiamat.

If Jabez could not kill Tiamat on the battlefield he was determined to ruin him at court.

He knew could not kill him in hand-to-hand combat or he would have done it already as Tiamat was a regular at jousts.

So Jabez could only scheme behind the scenes and fight dirty to bring his brother down.

The king was no fool, if word got out that Jabez was doing all he can to circumvent the king's order then it would be his head instead of Tiamat's being on the chopping block.

He couldn't allow his plans to be foiled so he was willing to be patient and wait for the right time.

Jabez believed that his obsession with Tiamat would only end when he was dead.

Perhaps if he played his hand right, he could have his brother beg him for his life, then strip him of everything he considered valuable before he killed him.

He just had to find Tiamat's weakness and use it against him. Jabez was a man tormented but he believed that he could have it all in due time.