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I didn’t know the answer. All I knew was my clan would try to kill me if I became Julian’s lifemate. They probably would anyway once they found out my dragon wasn’t the same color as the rest of them.
I looked back toward the double doors as he led me farther and farther into the room. My only chance of escape disappeared with every step. As we made our way toward the table, I noticed a short podium with what looked like a kneeler attached to it.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It is where my people come to voice their grievances or where an accused party must kneel before me to hear his sentence. It was my father’s and one of his greatest treasures. I keep it as a reminder.”
“A reminder of what?”
“That I am not my father.”
He pulled out a chair for me, and I sat down cautiously. My eyes kept glancing at the doors, so I noticed as two children walked into the room. A boy, somewhere in his mid-teens, who was stiffly pressed into a black suit. In human years he was probably closer to sixty. He was on the brink of manhood. His pale skin shone like a beacon against the dark fabric of his clothing, and I could practically feel the excitement coming off of him.
A little girl walked stiffly beside him. She was still childlike, and looked eight or nine rather than the thirty years of age she was closer to. Her black hair was braided into pigtails and her small hand was grasped tightly in her brother’s.
“You allow children to come to thesfara?” I asked surprised.
“Of course. They are our people too and must also be allowed to have a voice. It is a weakness of the other clans that they think adults are the only ones who can have valid ideas. Children think in simplistic terms, and sometimes that is what we need to better our society. How can anyone know their own worth if they must be an adult before they find it?”
It was a good point. The only problem I had was that they might be too close to the action if things got violent. And with this many dragons in the room, things were bound to get violent. I’d no sooner had the thought than an argument broke out in the corner. The heat spiked in the room as two dragons faced each other, already half transformed.
Julian stood and did exactly what he’d done with me earlier. The heat left the room, and the anger that was beginning to call to everyone’s beast evaporated. It was as if Julian were a vacuum for our emotions. A nifty trick. Everyone quickly took their seats as if nothing had happened.
I sat through what seemed like an endless evening. A seven-course meal, followed by what must have been thousands of people swearing their oaths, one by one, to Julian. Twelve marriage proposals were approved, to much rejoicing. And to everyone’s great disappointment, including my own, there were no pregnancies to announce. The punishment portion of the evening came last, and a man was sentenced to forty lashes for owing back child support.
It had to be past midnight, and I was about to fall asleep in my dessert when Xana burst into the room with Olaf and several other guards at her back. Xana was in the center and the other guards fanned out to make aVshape behind her.
All talk and clatter from the tables ceased, and everyone’s attention was focused on the warriors approaching us. The temperature in the room dropped and puffs of air came out of my mouth as I breathed.
Julian stood slowly beside me. I felt the arctic blast of his anger whip through the room hard enough for his people to flinch. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was directed.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Esmerelda.
She was seated on my other side, anciently regal in her petite body and skimpy dress. The only sign that she was bothered by what she saw was the white-knuckled grip she held on her dessert fork.
“Something terrible,” she said, her face ashen and aged by some unseen thought. “Something tragic.”
ChapterSeventeen
Esmerelda turned her head and looked at me. Her dark eyes went completely opaque, much like Calista’s did whenever a vision came upon her. I was told mine did the same. Esmerelda smiled and I knew she was back with me.
“You’ll be okay,” she whispered. “Though I don’t completely understand why you’ll be okay. Just remember that you have great power hidden within you. And try to stay out of the line of fire. I have some salve in my rooms to help with the burns if you need it.”
“That doesn’t sound promising,” I said, already dreading what was to come. How could I be burned bad enough to need salve, but not burned bad enough to turn to ash? I was afraid to find out.
The deep timbre of Julian’s voice resonated through the hall and snapped me back to reality.
“What did you find, Xana?”
“It is as you claimed, my lord. They are all gone. There is no trace that we can find.”
I was beginning to get the picture, and I could feel the swell of Julian’s heat replace the cold and wrap itself around his body like a cloak.
The silence in the hall was deafening, and Drakán throughout the room reached for their mates as their worst nightmares became a reality.
“What happened? Were there any witnesses?” Julian asked.
“It is just as you saw. A group of our clansmen were on their way here tonight, from different locations, using different modes of transportation—none of them were connected in any way other than their destination. They all had their mates with them, and then somewhere between where they began and here, the Drakán just disappeared into nothingness. By my estimation, including the other clans’ losses, the total of missing Drakán is now close to a thousand.”
