If their situation was reversed, Julius was pretty sure he’d be dead. “So,” he said nervously. “What brings you here? Not that I’m not happy to see you again, of course.”
She flashed him a feeble smile. “As much as I enjoy your company, I didn’t set a new record for flying cross country just to visit. I’m here because, a few hours ago, Estella and Svena attacked the Heartstriker Champion.”
“What?”
Justin’s yell made everyone except Katya jump, but when Julius whirled around, his brother looked more insulted than angry. “She’s lying,” he snarled. “There’s no way any of her puny sisters could beat Conrad.”
“Svena was toppling clans centuries before your overgrown brother was evenborn!” Katya said fiercely, drawing herself up in righteous fury.
“I don’t care if she was toppling gods,” Justin replied. “Conrad is the top fighter in our clan,andhe has the strongest Fang of the Heartstriker. He is undefeatable!”
Katya bared her teeth at him. “Do you think I flew all this way to lie?”
Justin bared his as well, taking a menacing step forward before Julius could jump between them. “Easy,” he said, putting up his hands. “Justin, calm down. Katya, I believe you, but what my brother says is also true.” Or, he assumed so. He didn’t actually know the Heartstriker rankings of who was strongest or who had the best sword, but Justin definitely would, which was proof enough for him. “Why don’t you explain what happened so we can understand. Was there a fight?”
“I don’t know,” Katya said, frowning at the table. “It happened after we left the party. Estella had us wait in the desert, and then she ordered Svena to teleport the two of them to Conrad’s balcony. I don’t know what happened from there. The pigeon appeared shortly after, and it was the first time they’d left me alone, so…”
“So you took your chance and ran,” Julius said.
She nodded, but Justin rolled his eyes. “If you didn’t stick around to see the end, how do you know they won? Conrad probably wiped the floor with them.”
Katya shot him an icy look. “Two on one? Estella is a seer, and she’s stronger than ever. Your brother didn’t have a chance.”
“Yeah, right,” Justin said. “Sorry to rain on your fantasy, but I think we’d have heard if Conrad died to your sisters. Stuff like that gets around fast.”
That was actually a very good point. Conrad getting killed by another clan inside Heartstriker Mountain would behugenews, but Katya was shaking her head. “They wouldn’t have killed him,” she said confidently. “Estella has a plan. I don’t know what it is, obviously, but she’s setting up the board for something big.”
“Seers always are,” Julius said tiredly, pulling out his phone. “Let me call Bob.”
He tapped through his messages until he found the last one Bob had sent. He didn’t actually think it would work—the seer could be amazingly chatty when he wanted to be, but getting hold of him whenyouneeded something was nigh impossible—but telling any other Heartstriker about Katya would put her in even more danger. He had to saysomething, though, so he typed up a long report about the supposed attack on Conrad and Katya’s warning and dutifully hit send…and immediately got a reply.
Thank you for contacting Everyone’s Favorite Heartstriker! Alas, all of our seers are busy at the moment. Fortunately for you, I already know what you’re calling about. Rest assured that Your Concern will be addressed in the order in which it was received. Assuming I care and/or remember.
Hearts and kisses, your infallible brother,
Bob
“I don’t know what else I expected,” Julius said, shoving his phone back into his pocket with a sigh. “But I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter?” Justin roared. “Her sisters attacked our clan! I don’t know what game Bob is playing, but I say you can’t trust a thing they say. The ice snakes havealwayshated us.”
“Estella has,” Katya said quickly. “But Svena is different. From the moment she took over the clan, she’s been working to make peace with Heartstriker.”
Julius blinked. “Really?”
“Of course,” she said, lifting her chin. “We are proud, not stupid. None of my sisters like your clan, but it’s suicide to try and fight the Heartstrikers now. You outnumber us ten to one. Svena understands this. Why else do you think she’s stayed with Ian so long? Or agreed to go to the party in the first place? I shouldn’t be telling you this, but this last month while Estella was away, Svena was trying to rally the rest of our sisters against her. She was succeeding, too. We’d actually managed to get almost all of them on our side before Estella came back and did…whatever it was she did.”
“I’m sorry,” Marci said, breaking her silence. “I’m out of the loop, here. What did Estella do to Svena?”
“I don’t know,” Katya growled. “But thatthingis not Svena. My sister wouldnevertake orders like that!”
Given what he’d seen of Svena during the fracas last month, Julius didn’t doubt that for a second. He also didn’t doubt Katya’s story about her sister’s plans to form an alliance with Heartstriker. Playing on Bethesda’s obsession with a mating flight to broker peace between their clans was exactly the sort of savvy politics he’d expect from a dragon like Svena. Likewise, ruining that fit right in with what he knew of Estella, who, as they’d discovered last month, seemed to hate Heartstriker to the point of cutting off her nose to spite her face. The only thing Juliusdidn’tunderstand about Katya’s story was, “What about your other sisters?”
Katya looked up. “What?”
“There are twelve daughters of the Three Sisters, right?” he said. “You, Estella, and Svena are accounted for, but where are the rest? If you’re the youngest, then your sisters must all be all-powerful, ancient dragons, so why aren’t they here helping you save your clan?”
By the time he finished, Katya’s expression was the bitterest he’d ever seen it. “No one fears change like old dragons,” she growled. “My family is not like yours. We were once the greatest in the world, the magic-born children of the three most powerful, most ancient dragons to survive the trip from our original home.”
