The Dragon's Tome, A Novel Options

[Zalphon]

Prologue

King Alu’kar looked at Dragon’s Moon. Hordes of orcs fell to the Knights of Valor in the North. He looked into the sky, the endless, blackness that let down droplets of chilled water. The High Elf walked away from the balcony to his quarters. The warmth of his room caressed him and he grinned weakly, but he saw something on his bed.

“Alu’kar,

I can’t take your torment any longer. Our child will simply become a slave to you, as I have. Or a ‘servant’ as you prefer. You won’t hurt him as you’ve hurt me. I won’t let you.

Saranna”

He looked at the note again in disbelief of what it said. “She dare run from me?” he screamed in rage. “I’ll find her and make her pay for this insolence.” He pulled up his hood and walked down the stairs from his quarters in Castle Everlight.
The Royal Guard kneeled, while the Guard Captain asked, “My lord, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Alu’kar spit in response. The High Elf walked out the door and looked into the city. Rain pelted the ground, and as soon as he took a step out his velvet robes become attacked by the falling water of the sky.

For minutes he walked through the streets scanning for Saranna. However, Alu’kar couldn’t spot his missing consort. “My lord,” a watchman said. “I saw a woman to the South, she appeared to be pregnant. She claimed to be one of your servants.”
The King nodded and started heading towards the Southern Gate. For what felt like an hour, he walked. Finally he reached the gate and found Saranna with her face in her knees. “Guards,” the High Elf ordered. “Take this wench to my dungeon.”
Chain-Mail clad men walked towards her and grabbed Saranna by her arms and legs and carried her towards the castle. The woman was too weak to say anything; her silver hair fell into the puddles on the ground.

When she finally arrived, shackles lined a rectangular wall. Alu’kar barked, “Leave us.” Obediently, they did. He pressed on a stone on the left wall and then three more adjacent to it. The wall rotated again and it allowed them into a dark hall that led to a dome-like building.
“Don’t do this, please,” Saranna begged. “Please, Alu’kar.”

He stared into her dark eyes and looked at the Royal Guards who had their swords drawn; they had appeared shortly after him. “Cut the child out of the treacherous woman,” the King ordered.
She shrieked as a dagger slid across her belly. They stuck their cold, plate-clad hands inside the wound and pulled out an infant. Ebon-black hair fell and his skin was dark gray. “A dark elf?” Alu’kar asked in rage. “My son is a dark elf?”

“Kill his mother and sell Zalphon to a slaver,” Alu’kar ordered as he stormed out.