“Serving you breakfast,” the F said as he finally got the tray steady. “Or attempting to. With all the trouble in the mountain and no Fs around to check attendance, hardly any of the human staff showed up for work this morning. The kitchen was entirely abandoned, so I had to make do with whatever I could find. I’m not quite as good a chef as my sister, but I think I managed.”
From the glorious spread of toast, jam, eggs, and other breakfast items, Julius thought Fredrick had done a lot better than merely “managed,” but that wasn’t what he was concerned about.
“I don’t mean the food,” he snapped, pushing himself up again. “What areyoudoinghere? You’re supposed to be free!”
“Iamfree,” Fredrick said sharply. “That’s why I’m here.”
Before Julius could ask what he meant by that, the dragon dropped gracefully to his knees. His hands hit the floor next, and then Fredrick bowed down, lowering his head until his short hair brushed the stone at Julius’s feet.
“Great Julius,” he said solemnly. “My siblings and I owe you more than we can ever repay. You fought for my clutch’s freedom against the will of Brohomir and the Heartstriker herself. Because of you, we have flown free as dragons for the first time in our lives. But as joyful as I am at this, I cannot be at ease knowing how much my siblings and I owe to you. Therefore, as the eldest, I swear on my fire and my life to serve you faithfully until our clutch’s debt is repaid.”
He bowed lower when he finished, pressing his forehead flush against the floor before rising smoothly back to his feet. He’d already turned to the breakfast tray to start arranging a plate by the time Julius found his voice again.
“Are you kidding me?”
“I assure you, I am not,” Fredrick said, picking up a white porcelain mug. “Tea or coffee? You never mentioned which you prefer to be served, so I brought both.”
“Neither,” Julius snapped. “And I don’t want you to serve me! The whole reason I did this was so you could be free to live your own life!”
“Iamliving my own life,” the F said angrily, turning to glare down at him. “That’s why I’m here. BecauseIknow thatIcan’t live under this debt.”
“But there’s no debt. You don’t owe me—”
“You freed us from six hundred years of slavery under Bethesda,” Fredrick said, staring at him in horror. “What would you have me do? Run away and ignore what we owe?”
“Yes!” Julius yelled at him. “Go! Run! Fly away! Enjoy being a free dragon.That’swhat I freed you for, so you could finally escape this place. If you want to repay me, go dothat.”
By the time he finished, Fredrick looked dangerously insulted. “With all due respect, sir,your estimation of debts is a joke. The whole clan knows you let Bethesda off practically for free. But while softhearted leniency is your right as clan head, I am not so lacking in pride that I will accept it for myself or my siblings. That’s why I swore on my own fire rather than offering you a life debt. I knew you would refuse it, that you would attempt to benice. But this is not a matter of kindness, Great Julius. My clutch might be at the bottom of Heartstriker, but we have always had our honor. I will not allow you to make a mockery of that now with your misplaced pity.”
Julius sighed so hard it hurt. “That’s not what I—”
“You gave me freedom,” Fredrick said over him. “But I’ve been a servant my entire life. It’s all I know how to be. The difference is that now, thanks to you, my service ismineto give, and I choose to give it to you. If you don’t wish me to serve you in this way, I’ll find another, but Iwillrepay our debt to my satisfaction, and you have no right to stop me.”
He was growling deep in his throat by the time he finished, and his eyes—which looked an even brighter green than usual this morning for some reason—had narrowed to deadly slits. It was the same look Julius’s other siblings got when they were threatening to eat him, only much worse, because now that he was unsealed, Julius could feel for the first time just howbiga dragon Fredrick was.
Not that that was a total surprise—F waspretty high up the Heartstriker alphabet—but the reveal was still way more than he’d been prepared for, and the fact that Fredrick’s human form was so much taller than his definitely wasn’t helping. The oldest F loomed over him in every way, and as much as Julius hated the idea of debts, especially ones that involved serving, he didn’t see how he was getting out of this without starting a fight he couldn’t win.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was still wearing his Fang. But while the sword would stop Fredrick from physically attacking, it couldn’t do anything to solve the real problem, which was draconic pride. Now that Fredrick had equated leniency with pity, he would fight any efforts to lessen his burden to the death. That left Julius with two options: challenge his brother, or give up and accept his service. The first was too stupid to consider, but as bad as the second made Julius feel, he had to admit it would be nice to have a dragon who was entirely on his side. And that breakfast tray did lookawfullygood.
“Okay,” he said, slumping back in his chair. “I accept your service, but if you’re going to work for me, I have some rules. Rule one, no bowing. You’re a dragon in the new Heartstriker now, and you lower your head to no one. Rule two, no heroics.” He drummed his fingers against the sword at his side. “I have this to protect me from any threat, but you can be hurt, and I’m telling you right now I won’t count any unnecessary injuries against your debt.”
“I would never be so cheap,” Fredrick said, insulted. “But your Fang only protects you from other Heartstrikers. As your servant, I reserve the right to defend you against enemies from outside the clan.”
Seeing how Julius had zero intention of getting into an altercation with outside powers, that seemed like a decent compromise. “Deal,” he said with a nod. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” Fredrick said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve vowed to serve you and your interests, but in the brief time I’ve known you, you’ve displayed a near-suicidal level of disinterest in your own well-being. Therefore, since you are clearly a terrible judge of your own best interests, I will be ignoring any orders I feel are not in your actual service.”
Julius had lived with dragons long enough to know that that was a dangerously open-ended agreement, but it wasn’t as though he could actually tell Fredrick what to do. Whatever he said, the F was just going to do his own thing, and Julius hadn’t wanted to give him orders in the first place. Either way, it wasn’t worth arguing over, so he just nodded again, holding out his hand. “Welcome aboard.”
The F shook his hand with a triumphant smile, dipping his head just low enough that Julius couldn’t call him out for bowing before turning back to the breakfast tray. “Biscuit or toast?”
“Both,” Julius said eagerly. “And tea is fine. I don’t like the smell of coffee.”
That was a lie. Julius loved the smell of coffee. Especially Marci’s, which was the problem. Even the faint scent from the sealed carafe on Fredrick’s tray was enough to trigger memories that he couldn’t deal with after last night, and he turned away with a grimace. “Get rid of it, please.”
Fredrick arched a curious eyebrow, but he didn’t say a word. He just picked up the insulated pot and carried it out to the hall while Julius poured himself a cup of tea with lots of cream.
From there, breakfast was surprisingly pleasant. Despite Fredrick’s insistence that he was a mediocre cook, his eggs and bacon were much better than anything Julius could have managed on his own. There was plenty to be had, too, which was good. Julius hadn’t eaten a proper meal since the last time Fredrick had fed him after the fight with Gregory. But wrong as it felt to be served by one of the dragons he’d worked so hard to free, a guilty part of Julius was very happy Fredrick was here. After so much conflict and sorrow, it was nice to have company, and once he stopped growling at Julius about debts, the F snapped back to his usual dry, witty self. Even in the bizarre surroundings of Bob’s hoarded room, it was enough to make Julius relax for the first time in ages.
