“Was the artifact your mother’s?” Leif asked him. “There’s probably a safety mechanism in there somewhere.”
He got no further with that conversation, though. Ennar rounded on him with none of the patience she had for Hayn, baring her teeth. “I don’t know what your plan is,” she said, “but it won’t work. You dragons can kill all of us. The rest of our pack will still fight.”
“This betrayal was yours,” Torsten threw back at her, “and if we don’t return, the rest of the Dragonmeet will avenge us.”
“Nobody has to avenge anybody,” Anders insisted. “That’s what we’re trying to—”
“Well,” said another voice, “this looks cozy.”
As they turned around one by one, they saw the mayor and a group of his aides all approaching, their expressions grim.
Valerius dismissed them with a wave of his hand. “Humans,” he said, as though the very word meant that they were not worth any more attention.
“This is theleaderof the humans,” Ennar corrected him, “from Holbard. Herro Mayor, leave this to us.”
Slowly, the mayor shook his head. “Ennar, I don’t think I will. Your pack has made enough decisions on our behalf, and now we have no homes. I’m sick of being afraid, and I’m sick of being silent.”
Anders tried again. “I—” But he was completely drowned out by the argument rising all around him. “I—”
He could see his friends watching from behind the rocks, but he couldn’t get a word in edgewise as voices rose and threats flew.
He was letting them down. They had brought everyone here, and he wasn’t playing his part.
He locked eyes with Rayna, and she pointed to the Mirror of Hekla, still carefully wrapped.You can do this, her eyes said.
Anders dropped to one knee and pulled aside the wrapper, baring the mirror to the sky.
Everyone around him fell silent with a gasp, staringaround the circle, eyes wide.
All Anders could see was a few dozen versions of himself, each of them wearing almost identical expressions of confusion and concern.
The one he knew was Valerius had his mouth open. The one he knew was Torsten—who must be seeing dozens upon dozens of Torstens—stepped up to Ennar and gently poked one finger at the air beneath her chin. But despite what his eyes told him, his touch must have confirmed there was no beard there. Ennar bared her teeth, and Anders saw a version of himself growling like a wolf.
Everyone was confused, but for a moment, nobody was speaking.
This was his chance.
He raised his voice. “I’m the one you came here to find,” he said, “but I’m not the one who brought you here. You were brought here by wolves and dragons and humans, all working together. Wolves and dragons and humans who have learned to be friends. To respect one another and to protect one another, even though we’re different.
“At first, we thought those differences would keep us apart, and that theyshouldkeep us apart. That the others weren’t like us, and it was better to live separately. We were scared of one another. But now we know thosedifferences are what make us so strong that we—just a group of children—have managed to get the leaders of the wolves, dragons, and humans in the same place for the first time since the last great battle. We learned that our ideas are stronger and better if we argue about them, if we forge them in the fire of debate, and share our different points of view so we can find the best way to do something.
“It took us wolves and dragons a while to learn to trust one another, but in time, we did. Then we realized we’d been leaving the humans out of it, thinking we should make decisionsforthem, instead ofwiththem.
“The past ten years might have been a fight between ice wolves and scorch dragons, but this whole thing started because the wolves wanted to control the humans—or at least, they didn’t think the humans could take care of themselves, and nobody has ever thought so since. Nobody’s tried to talk to the humans, but we have to.Humanisn’t an insult. We’re all humans, but the ones who aren’t elementals have to be smart and tough.
“The wolves and dragons and humans who are my friends learned that groups are fairer and stronger if they’re made up of different types of people, who have different ideas about how things should be.
“My sister and I, we’re half wolf and half dragon. Our father was Felix. Our mother was Drifa.”
A gasp went around the circle, and Rayna rose to her feet, walking across to stand beside him, her chin up, as if she were defying anyone to interrupt him. He didn’t give them the chance—he kept talking.
“The fact that Rayna and I are wolf and dragon—and we grew up among humans—means we come from the place where all those things meet. We come from the differences, and the disagreements, and from the strongest part of every point of view. We’ve come from the place where those things clash. We’re battle born, and we’re proud of it.
“The group that brought you here is battle born, and so are our goals. We all have different points of view. We all grew up in different ways. And we’re smarter together because of those differences. We can do things together—find artifacts, evencreateartifacts, protect people, imagine a different way to live—because we’re battle born. It makes us strong.
“At first, we thought that things would be all right if we could only keep you all apart. If we could use the Sun Scepter to balance out the Snowstone, so nobody would have the advantage, and everybody would just continue the way they were, separate.
“But we were wrong, and not just because of what happened to Holbard when we tried that. The answerwas never to keep wolves and dragons and humans apart. What we need is for everyone to cometogether. We need all of you to talk to one another, to listen, to see past all the lies, and realize”—he gestured around, knowing that everyone could only see themselves—“that there’s a part of you in everyone here.”
