“Not magic,” I said. “Enchantment. I don't want to do that to our people.”
“Do what? Empower them? Protect them?” my father shot back. “It could be the edge we need. If you offered to enchant me in that way, I would eagerly accept.”
My mother went silent, looking from him to me.
“Ly, he's right,” Aras said.
I lifted my brows at my mate.
“Think about it,” Aras said. “You could hire spellcasters of other races to help your soldiers. No other Dragon king has thought to do that.”
“Because no other Dragon king has had their dread turn against them,” I muttered. “They all have faith in the support of their dreads and the might of Dragons against anyone or anything else, including magic.”
“Exactly!” my father exclaimed.
I scowled at him in confusion.
“Son, our race is too arrogant to consider spellcraft for enhancement. The nobles would never consider such a thing, nor would they expect you to. But what harm will it do? None. It can only help. And empowering Dragons will—”
“That's just it,” I cut him off. “We don't know what it will do because it's never been done before. We don't even know if it's possible.”
“We gained Water Magic recently,” my mother said. “If we can hold Fire and Water inside us, anything is possible.”
“We won't know until we try,” Aras said. “And we need to do everything we can to increase our chances.”
I sat back and stared around the hall at the Dragons dining there. Farmers, merchants, cobblers, horse trainers, and more. Men and women who had given up their homes and livelihoods to support their king. Not just me, I realized. They were there for themselves. To get the respect they deserved and change our kingdom for the better. So the next generation wouldn't be looked down upon as they were. Would these peoplebalk if I offered them a way to make them more powerful than our enemies?
No, they would embrace it. Because even though they dined in the royal castle, they were also backed into a corner. With their king.
“Mossemas!” I shouted.
The steward came running into the dining room a few minutes later. I don't know how it worked, who relayed what to whom, but one shout always did the trick.
Mossemas stopped before the royal table and bowed. “How may I serve you, Your Majesty?”
“Find me the best magic-users in the kingdom,” I said. “And get them here as fast as possible. If you need a Dragon to fly them, let me know. I'll find someone.”
Mossemas's eyes went wide. “Yes, Your Majesty!” He ran out of the room.
My father chuckled. “There's something else the nobles don't have.”
“What's that?” I asked.
“A Mossemas.”
I grinned after my steward. Once again, I thought to myself that I'd have to reward him when this was over. If I was still in a position to grant rewards.
Chapter Thirty-Six
A week later, I had a team of magic-users in my army. No, they hadn't enlisted exactly, but I was paying them. A magic-user of any race was special. It meant that they could cast magic beyond what they'd been born with. That took great determination, possibly the right bloodline, and often, a bit of luck. Maybe even more than that. I didn't know much about them. Mossemas had found the best of those elite individuals in my kingdom and a few from other kingdoms who'd been willing to travel for the right price. Thus the reason it took a week to gather them all.
Among those magic-users was someone even more rare—a sorcerer. Sorcerers could harness the power of nature, spirits, and even some of the weaker gods. Their power was limited only by what they commanded. And the Eljaffna sorcerer on my team commanded several spirits who worked exclusively with him as well as natural forces. His potential to help our side was unlimited. But it was his race that made him especially valuable to me.
The Eljaffna soldiers in my army were going to pair up with Dragons so they could reach the attacking dragons and drink from them, thus taking control of our enemies. But that would have been risky. Even with the confusion of battle and the explanation I planned to offer, those Dragons could get suspicious. That precious secret might get out. But the sorcerer,being an Eljaffna, already knew what his people could do. And he could make them fly. No dragons necessary.
The training continued as usual but along with it were experiments with the magic-users. We needed to discover exactly what they could do for my soldiers, especially the Dragons. Luck was with us and most of the spells worked on Dragons, doing everything from increasing their agility to making them temporarily invisible.
“Perhaps we won't have to call on the Sea King,” Aras said as he surveyed the training yard with me.
