The Golden Emperor nodded serenely as she finished, and the dragon in blue hurried forward to hand Julius a bound scroll he could only assume was the surrender treaty. He took it out of habit, but he didn’t break the seal or try to read it, mostly because he was still trying to wrap his head around what he’d just heard.
“Let me just make sure I’ve got this straight,” he said slowly. “You’re here because ofAlgonquin?”
“Don’t be fooled,” Bethesda growled. “That’s just their excuse. They’re conquering us because theycan.They put on imperial airs, but the Qilin and his followers are no different from the rest of us. They still want all they can get.”
“Do not presume to compare the august Qilin with your own base desires, Broodmare,” the empress growled. “His mercy is the only reason you are still alive.”
“Suchmagnanimity. Kept alive to bow.” Bethesda’s lips curled in a sneer. “I think I’d rather be eaten.”
“That can be arranged,” the Empress Mother said coldly. “Remember, Heartstriker, this is your fault. Because of your negligence, Algonquin has progressed from a minor annoyance to a threat so large, even the Great Qilin can’t ignore it any longer. But though it would be far simpler to stand back and let the Lady of the Lakes drown you and all your horrid children, the Golden Emperor in his mercy has decided to spare your lives. Your youngest idiot there already holds the key to your salvation. Sign it, and we shall have no more quarrel.”
Bethesda cast a disgusted look at the surrender scroll in Julius’s hands. “And if I don’t?”
The old dragoness smiled. “Then we will kill you and your son and as many other Heartstrikers as it takes until we find one who is capable of reason.”
“You can’t just kill us until someone agrees,” Julius said angrily. “That’s not even how our clan works. We’re not an inheritance system anymore. We—”
“You say that as though you expect me to care,” the empress said over him. “But since you are a young and obviously simple dragon, allow me to explain: we don’t. Your clan and its politics have never been more than worms in our eyes, utterly beneath our concern. Theonlyreason the Golden Emperor has lowered himself to even enter the barren waste you call home is because the weakness, ineptitude, and failure that is Heartstriker has finally become so enormous, so all-encompassing, that it can no longer be ignored. So, you see, it doesn’t matter to us what insane system you’ve convinced your mother to go along with. You lost your right to make decisions when you became too weak to enforce them. The only choice remaining to you, little Heartstriker, is whether you and your whore of a mother bow to your new emperor as the last heads of your clan, or as heads on the ground.”
From the smile on her face, it was clear which choice the empress preferred, and Bethesda looked angry enough to oblige her. If she hadn’t been sealed, she would probably have already attacked, and for once, Julius didn’t think he would have stopped her. It was infuriating to feel so helpless, so cornered by these smug dragons with their unbeatable power, and the fact that the oh-so-merciful Golden Emperor hadn’t deigned to speak to them himself yet only made it worse. Say what you wanted about Bethesda, at least she delivered her own threats. But to demand all of this through yourmotherwhile you just stood there safe behind a veil? That was arrogant even by dragon standards, and though he knew he shouldn’t make any decisions until he’d at least read the surrender agreement, Julius was already positive there was nothing he’d accept from these dragons. Even if the emperor offered to let them all live, Julius would never trust the clan he’d bled for to a dragon who held them all in such obvious contempt.
Unfortunately, telling the Golden Emperor to take a hike was not an option. He might hate it a lot more now that he’d met the enemy, but everything he’d said to Justin downstairs was still true. They couldn’t fight the Qilin’s luck. They couldn’t take his dragons. They couldn’t do anything. They were weak, sitting ducks, just as Bethesda had said. But though the Heartstrikers were outmatched in every possible way, the Empress Motherwaswrong about one thing. There was still one option left to them aside from join or die.
Stall.
“I’m afraid we have a problem, then,” Julius said apologetically.
The Empress Mother glared daggers at him. “What?”
“You just gave us an ultimatum,” he explained. “But I keep trying to tell you, Heartstriker doesn’t work like that anymore. You can threaten us all you want, but we’re only two heads of a clan that’s governed by a council ofthree, and our third member is currently out of the country on business. Since it takes all three of us to make any formal decisions for our clan, I’m afraid we can’t sign or bow until he returns.”
“Any dragon can be made to bow,” the Empress Mother growled, her red eyes narrowing. “But if you are that eager to die, I would be happy to oblige.”
“I’m sure you would,” Julius said quickly. “But you’re still missing the point. This isn’t about our individual lives. Your emperor is demanding thatHeartstrikersurrender and join him, and Heartstriker’s a lot more than just us. We’re two-thirds of the ruling council, but the magic that governs the clan, which used to be Bethesda’s alone, is now split between all of us and only enacted by the Council, whose members are elected. That means even if you chop off our heads, the power to make magically binding decisions affecting all members of the Heartstriker clan—including surrender—won’t pass to an heir who might be ‘more reasonable.’ It’ll go back to the dragons who elected us in the first place, which is where it willstayuntil they choose new leaders. So, unless you’re willing to wait while our clan elects new heads to replace the ones you chop off today, you need to back down. When Ian comes home, we’ll hold a vote on your surrender, but without that vote, the only way you’re getting our clan to surrender is if you chase down every single Heartstriker and force each of them to bow individually, and I don’t think even the Golden Emperor has that kind of patience.”
“It isyouwho tests our patience,” the Empress Mother snarled. “You think I can’t see what you’re doing, whelp? But if you think your pathetic attempts to stall—”
“I’m not trying to hide it,” Julius said with a shrug. “Obviously, I don’t want to die, but that doesn’t mean that everything I’ve said isn’t true. We’re no longer a one-dragon dictatorship with a single point of failure. We’re a true clan now, with power shared by all, so if you want us to surrender, your choices are to defeatallof us—which, while I’m sure you could, would be long, bloody, and expensive even by your august standards—or wait until Ian returns, which should take about a day. Once he’s back, the Council will convene to formally consider your terms. Until then, you’re welcome to stay at Heartstriker Mountain as our guests.”
He finished with a confident smile. On the inside, though, Julius’s whole body was pounding in time with his heart. None of what he’d said was a lie, but if the rest of his family was as frightened of the Golden Emperor as Bethesda seemed to be, the empress could easily kill them and get her surrender from whomever took their place. But even if the next Council came in ready to roll over, they’d still have to wait while the Heartstrikers elected someone to actually do the rolling, and considering how much trouble the last vote had been, Julius was confident he could be a pain in the Golden Emperor’s side to the very end. It was small comfort, but considering his other options had been “surrender or die,” Julius was pretty happy with his play. The Empress Mother, however, looked angrier than ever.
“Do not presume to play games with me, child,” she said, her gnarled hands shaking on the golden handle of her cane with barely restrained fury. “Your clan has already fallen in all but the last, most formal definition. Why should we waste time pretending to be yourguestswhen we’ve already—”
Her voice cut off like a dropped knife. Behind her, the Qilin had inclined his head. It was a tiny gesture, not even a proper nod. Julius wasn’t actually sure how the Empress Mother had noticed it considering she’d been glaring at him the whole time, but the instant her son had moved, the old dragoness had gone utterly silent, leaving the air empty for the deep voice that came next.
And what a voice it was. In magnificent accord with the rest of his perfections, the emperor’s voice sounded like a temple bell mixed with the world’s most well-played cello and…and every other low, beautiful sound Julius could think of. It went straight through him, making him want to immediately agree with whatever was said if only to hear that heartbreaking voice speak again. He was actually daydreaming about what it would sound like when he realized that, lost in the pure joy of hearing the emperor speak, he hadn’t actually comprehended a word of it.
“What?”
“I said, ‘we accept,’” the emperor repeated, his deep voice just as wondrous as before, but slightly more irritated. “I have no interest in a drawn-out conquest. Already, I tire of standing in this sand pit.”
He shifted his bare feet, which were resting on the only seemingly non-rocky patch of the entire New Mexico desert, and his mother clenched her jaw. “My emperor,” she said. “This is obviously a ploy to waste our time.”
“So it is,” he agreed, turning his cloth-draped head to look up at the mountain. “But they would not be Heartstrikers if they did not connive. Still, it matters not. Whether they fall now or tomorrow, the end will be the same. We shall accept their hospitality and wait.”
The enormous dragons surrounding him growled in discontent, but Julius was fighting not to grin. “We’re happy to accommodate you,” he said, holding out his hand to the emperor. “Welcome to Heartstriker Mountain.”
“You don’t have to play host,” the Golden Emperor said, ignoring the offered hand. “We will not be here long. You said your final member was out of the country on business?”
