“Well, that was strange,” Baldewin declared when they were alone again.
“And not the least bit helpful,” Alric snarled.
Ravi stepped back as their king shoved to his feet. He started to walk toward the gathering of sofa and chairs but stopped and turned in a different direction. Ravi knew this Alric all too well. There were times when their king was too agitated to remain still. He needed to pace.
Not that Ravi could blame him. They were being more cautious about screening the people gathered outside the castle gates, but there was still a chance another Jaeggi might try to sneak inside.
And what if another bomber was out there? What if they were discovered before they could get inside? Would they ignite the bomb, killing innocent humans, just to get to one or two dragons? It was an ugly thought that made him sick to his stomach. They needed to find the Jaeggi now.
“It’s been five days, and we have almost nothing,” Alric snarled.
“We know that a group of them is likely hiding in Czechia,” Gunter reminded him, which only earned him a dark look from Alric. “It’s logical. You can drive from Prague to Sonthofen in a day. It’s less than six hours.”
“Ugh,” Ravi groaned.
He did not like being trapped in a boring car for more than two hours. He preferred to fly, but then that wasn’t an option for the Jaeggi.
“Czechia is a large place, and we don’t even know for sure that she came from Czechia. She could have simply passed through on her way here. The damn Jaeggi could be hiding anywhere in Eastern Europe, for all we know!”
“We could ask the mages from the Sodalicium to help us locate the Jaeggi,” Ravi suggested. “They’re coming here to help us.”
Alric sighed and leaned his backside against the front of his desk. He started to cross his arms over his chest and stopped himself, rolling his left shoulder a little as if he were already in pain.
“I will if I feel like I can.” He paused, and his expression softened when he looked at Ravi. “While I know Sora’s intentions are to help us, which we sorely need, we must proceed with caution. We can’t forget that this is still another dragon clan.”
“Exactly!” Ravi took a couple quick steps toward Alric. “They’re our people. They understand what we’re going through. More than the humans, at least.”
“Except that, for the millennia before we banded together against the Jaeggi, dragons spent a lot of time fighting each other,” Dieter pointed out.
“What?”
“It’s true,” Gunter continued. “The fire and ice dragons have never gotten along. The earth dragons hated everyone. The wind dragons tended to flit from alliance to alliance, even fighting within their own clan at times. The metal dragons tended to only tolerate the earth dragons, and that was a stretch.”
Baldewin chuckled low and deep. “Dragons don’t play with other dragons, especially outside of their own clan.”
“We’re territorial by nature. We want the best land and the best treasure, and that includes the best mages,” Dieter said.
Ravi felt like the floor had fallen out beneath his feet. This couldn’t be true. It certainly wasn’t the world he knew. He was a lone wind dragon surrounded by fire dragons, but they’d always made him feel like part of the clan, like family. Rodrigo had always greeted him with easy warmth. The two kings teased and prodded each other, but it was good-natured.
Alric’s right hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. “If there is one good thing that came out of the war with the Jaeggi, it is the fact that we were forced to put aside our differences to fight a single enemy. But I will forever be cautious around outsiders, in order to keep my clan safe.”
“But…but…I’m a wind—”
With a tug, Alric pulled Ravi against his side and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “You are Burkhard, period. End of story. You are brother to all of us.”
Ravi let himself melt against Alric a little, warmed down to his soul by his words. He felt at home here and couldn’t believe anyone had seen him as an outsider, but then, he didn’t know the long history of dragons. Few people wanted to talk about the time before the war with the Jaeggi. It was too painful to remember what they’d all lost. He’d certainly never expected to discover that dragons had once warred with each other.
“What about you and Rodrigo?” Ravi asked as he straightened again.
Alric’s lips twisted into a strange smile. “Rodrigo and I recognize we have a similar problem—a severe shortage of mages—and we’d be better off working together.”
“But,” Dieter quickly interjected with a knowing look, “they have also found they get along quite well together. I think even after the mage dilemma has been solved, the Valerii and Burkhard Clans will get along just fine.”
“Things have changed, but I’ve found that it’s best to err on the side of caution for now,” Alric said. “Particularly since our numbers are so much smaller than that of the Sodalicium.”
Ravi didn’t blame Alric for his reluctance to trust the Sodalicium. The responsibility of keeping the Burkhard Clan alive and thriving was entirely on his shoulders. Their king was not about to let anyone threaten that, if he could help it.
“Even if we knew exactly where the Jaeggi were hiding right now, we don’t have a viable plan for dealing with them,” Dieter reminded them as he pulled the conversation back to the problem at hand.
“Of course we do. We fire-bomb the damn town,” Alric snapped. His anger returned in a flash, and Ravi was still close enough the see the gold ring around his eyes nearly envelop the deep blue iris. Alric’s dragon was definitely on board with this plan.
Baldewin clapped his hands together and rubbed them, a wicked grin spreading across this face. “Exactly. That’s exactly what we need. Scorched earth. Wipe the bastards off the planet once and for all.”
This time, it was Dieter who groaned. “That’s not an option, and you both know it.”
“It’s definitely an option. They attacked our king,” Ravi countered.
“They attacked our mages,” Baldewin added.
“And they’ve attacked our home. Our home, Dieter,” Alric said in a low, hard voice. “They snuck inside our gates and entered our home, clearly with the intention of harming our people. They need to be stopped once and for all, before anyone else can get hurt.”
“I’m not arguing that they need to be stopped. My problem is that fire-bombing a town where they are hiding will inevitably injure and kill humans who have nothing to do with our war.”
“He’s right,” Gunter grumbled. He sounded as if he didn’t want to agree with Dieter at all, which surprised Ravi a little. Gunter had never been a fire and chaos kind of guy. “Right now, the humans are largely happy and excited that we’re here. Torching a town to ash will give them a very big reason to fear us, even if we are justified. We would be ending one war only to start a new one.”
“Plus, we don’t want to kill innocent people,” Dieter pointed out, looking upset that he had to say those words at all.
Yes, they didn’t want to kill innocent people. That was just a little hard to remember when it came to fighting the Jaeggi.