Page 10

Chapter

Ten

Leo

I t was such a relief to have Diamant close to me again. I’d been feeling worse and worse as the morning progressed, despite the amazement of learning there was actually someone with a legitimate claim to my father’s throne. Not just someone with a claim, but someone who was everything I would have wanted to be as a king myself.

Osric was intelligent and kind. He’d taken us in and welcomed my brothers and I with open arms. He’d made certain that Misha, who was traumatized by all the conflict and stress around him, felt as safe as he could, and he’d answered all of Rumi’s and Obi’s questions openly and in detail. He’d been raised well by Lord Oberlin’s family, and he had a sense of justice that I admired. And a few times he’d said something that hinted to me he might know about the magical world .

All of that was like the answer to a prayer, but it did nothing to ease the ache deep in my gut and in my heart.

And then Diamant had appeared in Osric’s camp and it was as if I’d been washed with clean water and made whole again. Even the egg that continued to grow inside me felt happier and softer within me. Being with my dragon meant all was right with the world again.

Well, almost right with the world.

“We need to head to Freslik’s dastardly work camp first to make certain the prisoners he’s taken are well and that they can be returned to their villages,” Osric declared from the top of his magnificent steed as his army gathered into marching formation. “I doubt my uncle would allow his plans for the camp to simply evaporate.”

“I don’t think it’s likely that the guards who scattered when the villagers revolted would stay away for long either,” Rumi added as he and Emmerich took places on horseback near Osric’s side.

It was curious to watch Rumi interact with Emmerich. I knew they were fated mates and I knew my brother well enough to see that he wanted to be with his dragon right then and there, just like the rest of us who had found our mates. Why Emmerich didn’t simply take him was beyond me.

Then again, despite having bonded and mated with my dragon and having his egg inside me, I was far more determined to see the people of my father’s kingdom saved from tyranny than I was to go play happy house with Diamant.

I didn’t want to go into battle without Diamant by my side, though, and fortunately, I wouldn’t have to.

“You will tell me at any point if you feel too ill to continue,” he said as we waited for the bulk of the army to be ready to start out. “I don’t want you to suffer any longer than you need to.”

If not for the genuineness of concern that I felt from him through our bond, I might have been annoyed with his fussing.

“I will be fine,” I told him, reaching across to grasp his hand. Every touch of my skin against Diamant’s gave me courage and made me feel loved. He made me feel as if I could do anything. “This child of ours will end up being a great warrior at this rate. They started their life as part of the most important battle this kingdom has known for years.”

Diamant huffed a laugh and squeezed my hand. “The two of you will run circles around me, I’m sure.”

“Move on!” one of Osric’s deputies called out in his astoundingly loud voice, breaking the otherwise sweet moment between me and my dragon.

The entire army surged forward, moving as one entity. I was impressed by how closely all the soldiers obeyed Osric’s orders. I’d only ever known guards and soldiers to grudgingly obey my father’s commands on pain of punishment, and they’d never done a very good job of following.

Osric was a good leader, though, and he would be a good king. Just as I would have been a good king if I’d been born an alpha.

If only I’d been born an alpha! I could have risen up and overthrown my father years ago. I could have made life better for everyone in our kingdom and spared so many people so much agony. I could have given my brothers the lives they deserved as well. I wouldn’t be consumed with worry about what would become of me when there was nothing left for me to do but raise children and be a papa, someone I never imagined myself being .

But if I’d been born an alpha, I never would have met Diamant. If I’d been in charge of my brothers from an earlier time, Rumi never would have met Emmerich, and Emmerich never would have given us the doorway into the magical world. None of us would have met our dragons.

It just seemed like an unbalanced trade that I should have to become someone I wasn’t certain I could be because I hadn’t been born who I wanted to be.

“You are brave and strong, Leo,” Diamant said quietly as we rode over the crest of the first hill. “We will find our way together, you’ll see.”

I sent him a sideways smirk, pretending I was more at ease with everything than I was. “I’m not certain how I feel about this ability of yours to read my mind,” I told him with a wink.

Diamant laughed. “We’ll grow used to each other. Or so I’m told.”

We continued on for a few hours, as the sun rose all the way to its zenith. The work camp was half a night away, if my memory of the journey the night before was accurate. We had a while to go, and whether it was the strain of the endeavor or the egg growing within me and sapping my energy, I just wanted to get there and get everything over with.

I didn’t have to wait as long as I’d thought I would for something to happen.

“What’s that on the horizon?” Obi asked less than an hour after we’d resumed our journey after a quick midday meal, standing in his stirrups and pointing forward.

I’d thought the shadows near the top of the next hill were animals of some sort, but they were moving too fast and more of them continued to appear over the crest of the hill .

“They’re people,” one of Osric’s deputies said.

He was right. The closer we came to the hill, the more we could see people running over it, looking like they were fleeing.

“I don’t like the look of that,” Diamant said, walking his horse closer to me. “They look like the villagers from the camp.”

I glanced at Diamant for a moment. His eyes were slitted like a dragon’s, which must have improved his vision.

“Perhaps they’re trying to return to their homes,” I said.

It was wishful thinking, and by the time we met the group of fleeing villagers, my hope that things would be easy and go our way began to fade.

“We had barely begun sorting ourselves and discussing how to return home when the soldiers returned,” one of the bedraggled betas from the group told us as Osric ordered his men to stop so that the villagers could be fed and looked after.

“They had more soldiers with them,” another said. “Men from a separate part of the army who had gone off on a mission but returned.”

“Could that be Rottum’s men and the others who attacked Berk?” I asked.

“They very likely were,” Diamant said, frowning. “Which means the battle you’ve been anticipating could happen sooner rather than later.”

It was a simple observation, but the emotions I felt in Diamant through our bond were anything but simple. He was concerned on a level I hadn’t known from him before, unless it was concern for me. As he watched more and more exhausted, dirty, and bruised villagers appear over the crest of the hill, I felt something in him that was both protective and…heavy.

When I’d first met my dragon, he’d only been concerned with dancing and feasting and flirting. He’d lived a life of luxury and he hadn’t thought very far beyond that.

Something had changed in my mate, something deep and profound.

“If I didn’t know any better,” I told him with a teasing grin, “I would say that my rake dragon has grown a conscience.”

Diamant twitched as if I’d caught him doing something he shouldn’t have done. “I’ve always had a conscience,” he argued, threads of humor returning to his emotions. “I’ve just never had a cause.”

I was so proud of my mate that I could have burst.

I would have to show him later, however. Osric stepped in to take charge of the suffering villagers right away.

“How many of you were able to escape before the soldiers returned and how many of you are still left in the camp?” he asked as more of his men came forward to help the fleeing peasants.

I was concerned when the flood of people coming over the hill petered out. Many of the villagers must have still been stuck in the camp.

“Only about half of us were able to flee before they returned,” the beta told us. “Those among us who were weakest and youngest or oldest were too slow to escape. Milosh stayed behind to care for them. I…I fear for what might become of them since the soldiers are furious.”

“No harm will come to them,” Osric promised, sitting straighter in his saddle and addressing as many of the villagers as could hear him. “At least, no harm will come to them once we’ve rescued them from the camp. ”

“He’ll make such a better king than Father,” Obi breathed out in admiration, gazing fondly at Osric. “It’s too bad he’s our cousin, because he’s a very handsome alpha.”

The comment was so silly in the midst of such a fraught moment that I couldn’t help but laugh. Some people, like Diamant, were in the process of important changes to their hearts and souls. Some, like Obi, would always be who they were, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

“We need to move on,” Osric charged us. “Time is of the essence. A small contingent will stay behind to tend to these people.”

That was all there was to it. When a true leader gave orders they were followed quickly and without question.

“And here I thought dragons were meant to be the strongest and most valiant creatures in the land,” Azurus said as he rode up to Diamant’s side. “This young Osric fellow has all of us beat.”

“Only because Emmerich won’t let us use our magic,” Diamant bantered in return.

Emmerich was close enough to hear and said, “Laws are laws. And now you see that magic isn’t necessary to win in this world.”

Rumi nodded sagely at Emmerich’s words. Those two really were peas in a pod. I wondered when Emmerich would get on with things and claim my brother as his own.

Those lighter thoughts carried me through as the front of the army reached the crest of the last hill. Osric had us dismount and leave our horses far enough down the hill that they would be out of sight to anyone keeping a lookout from the camp. He and his most trusted deputies, my brothers, even Misha, and our dragons crept up the hill until we lay flat on our bellies, or at least as flat as I could with an egg inside me, in a line.

We could just see the camp from where we lay. I noticed that Diamant, Emmerich, and Azurus all changed their eyes to dragon eyes so they could see farther than the rest of us.

“The camp appears to be in disarray,” Emmerich said, his brow knit in thought.

Osric glanced his way. “What makes you say that?”

I had the feeling he knew there was something different about Diamant, Emmerich, and Azurus.

“I see lots of movement,” Azurus reported, “but none of it is toward the fields or workhouses.”

“They’re trying to keep things under control,” I said, thinking out loud. “We need to attack now, while they’re still confused.”

“We need a solid plan of attack before we go in,” Osric said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with me.

“Whatever we do, we can’t let the prisoners be hurt in any way,” Diamant said. I could feel his genuine concern for whatever prisoners might be left through our bond.

“You care about the villagers of this world?” I asked, trying not to give away that Diamant and his kinsmen weren’t from here.

Diamant glanced at me. “I didn’t realize how much they were suffering. They’re good people. Everyone in this world that I’ve met, with a few exceptions, are good people just trying to live their lives and raise their families. They don’t have half the indulgences I’ve been privy to my entire life, but they still have so much happiness within them.”

I smiled and reached out to take my dragon’s hand. The more time we spent together, the two of us alone or us taking part in one epic battle or another, the more I could see how good his soul was. The more I could see how much I loved him.

“I’ve seen enough,” Osric said, inching backwards and crawling down the hill to the point where he could stand without being seen. The rest of us followed suit. “I agree that we need to attack as soon as possible. There’s no telling what my uncle’s mercenaries will do to those innocent lives if we leave it too long.”

“There are more of us than there are of them, aren’t there?” I asked as our entire group moved to stand together in council at the bottom of the hill.

It was just my luck that within seconds of finishing my question, my insides cramped with the need to expel my egg and I stumbled.

Diamant was quick enough to catch me, but not to shield me from the eyes and concerns of the others.

“Cousin Leo, are you certain you’re well enough for this fight?” Osric asked, stepping close and reaching out but not touching me.

“I’m well,” I lied in a strained voice.

For a moment, everyone looked at me with worry. I had the horrible feeling that everyone knew the condition I was in. I even felt somehow like Osric knew I was growing an egg inside me instead of a human child, though I couldn’t say why or if that was true.

“You know that nothing would make me happier than to have my cousins by my side for this fight,” Osric said. “This isn’t just my battle. This is all of your battle, too. I know the sort of cruelty my uncle has subjected you to.”

I caught sight of Misha flinching and of Azurus subtly slipping an arm around him as Osric spoke. Misha even turned to hide against Azurus, who closed him in a protective embrace.

“But if you’re…ill,” Osric went on, handling my condition delicately, “you shouldn’t put yourself at risk for this fi ght.”

I managed to stand straighter through my discomfort. “I have been at risk every day of my life,” I argued, “and it has all led up to this fight. I don’t know what will happen to me afterwards or who I’ll be, but let me fight for what I know is right. Let me be a part of this battle, a part of this family.”

That’s what we all were, after all. Even though my brothers and I hadn’t known definitively of Osric’s existence until that morning. We were family. Even the villagers with whom we shared no blood. Even Diamant, who was of a different world. We were all family in this struggle against a tyrant who sought to make our lives miserable for his own power and glory.

“Very well, then,” Osric said with a wise nod. He peeked at Diamant for a moment, but surprisingly, I didn’t mind that subtle charge for my dragon to look after me. “We will form a plan of attack, and then we will all go forward and take back what my uncle never had the right to take in the first place.”

“Hear, hear!” several people called out in support.

Already, I could feel the surge of battle beginning. I turned to Diamant, reaching for his hand and reaching for him through our bond. Fate had brought us together, passion had united us, and now fighting together for what was right and good would forge our souls together forever.