“Which strong?” Julius said back. “The physically strongest? The smartest? The most guileful?” He threw out his arms. “Look around. We’re the biggest dragon clan in the world! We have all kinds of strengths. Why should we limit ourselves to just one when we can work together and be strong on all fronts?”
“Because that’s not how dragons work,” Gregory snapped, all the humor fading from his face. “I don’t know where you got your ideas, whelp, but dragons aren’t mortals. Our power can’t be given or shared around. It can only be taken, and I for one refuse to bow to any dragon, Council or otherwise, until they make me.”
“Sounds good to me,” Justin snarled, lifting his sword. “Prepare to bow.”
“No!” Julius said, grabbing his own blade. The moment he touched the handle, both of the lumbering dragons froze, along with several others in the crowd he hadn’t even noticed pulling weapons. The force of keeping so many dragons in check made the sharp magic of the Fang stab painfully into his hand, but Julius refused to let go. He hadn’t spared his mother’s life to resort to violence now.
“This is exactly what we’re trying to change,” he said slowly, looking out at the crowd, who seemed uniformly shocked. “All our lives, we’ve been taught that might makes right. That dragons are conquerors and power is something you have to grab with your talons like we’re still hunting prey, and it’s such awaste. How can we conquer anything when we’re spending all our time and resources fighting among ourselves like a bunch of hot-headed animals?” He shook his head. “We can’t. It’s a stupid idea. It’s also completely wrong. There’s more to being a dragon than just taking, and this is proof.”
He drew his Fang, holding the curved, bone-white blade up for everyone to see. “This is the Diplomat’s Fang, the sixth and final Fang of the Quetzalcoatl. For years it lay useless in his skull because no one could pull it. Now that I have, I understand why it took so long. No Heartstriker could pull this Fang because you were all thinking like him.” He pointed at Gregory. “Or like her.” He pointed at Bethesda. “But that’s not the only road to power. This sword has the ability to freeze violent dragons who think with their fangs instead of their heads. It doesn’t do this so I can then walk up and defeat them at my leisure, even though I could, but so that I have a chance to make themlisten.That’s why I was able to pull it when no one else could, because I was theonly onewho’d rejected the same old broken record of might makes right, and thus the only one who could use this weapon as it was intended.”
He turned to Gregory, who was still staring at him with a look of pure hatred on his frozen face. “If what you say is true, then the fact that I can freeze you like this any time I want means I’m stronger and should therefore rule. But you can’t accept that, can you? So you have a choice: you can either stick to your guns and bow, or you can open your mind and accept that maybe there are other ways of being strong. Other ways to win, ones thatdon’trequire cutting off our own feet in the process. The humans figured this out ages ago. Why can’t we?”
By the time he finished, Gregory was looking more murderous than ever. But Julius had a point to make, and so he let him go anyway, turning to face the crowd, which was far more important than the chest thumping of one dragon.
“This is our chance to stop repeating the past,” he said, raising his voice so everyone could hear. “We’re already the biggest clan in the world. Now we have the opportunity to be the best as well. We’ve spent so long treating each other like enemies, and it’s left us too vulnerable and fractured to face our real enemies. That’s how Estella was almost able to destroy our clan, and it’s how Algonquin’s going to finish the job unless we find a better way. An elected Council is just the first step down that road. It gives us all a chance to stop wasting our time fighting each other and start fighting together. For the first time in our lives, we have a choice to do something other than what Bethesda wants. I say we use it to try something new, something different from the same old violence that’s held us back for so many centuries, and I’d very much like it if you joined me.” He looked back down at Gregory. “All of you.”
He hadn’t even finished when his brother looked away. “What you describe doesn’t even sound like a dragon,” he growled. “I see now how you beat Bethesda. That little Fang of yours is quite the parlor trick. But you can’t keep it up. Forcing dragons to stop and listen doesn’t mean we have to agree with your tripe.”
He turned as he finished, walking toward the door as the crowd parted before him.
“Where are you going?” Bethesda snarled. “I don’t care if you attack Julius, but I didnotgive you permission to leave.”
“Too bad,” Gregory said as he kept walking. “You lost your power, which means you don’t get to give permission anymore.” He looked around at the crowd of Heartstrikers. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I remember what it means to be a dragon. I have no problem with Bethesda being overthrown by someone who actually earned it, but I’d rather get drowned by Algonquin than sit around taking orders from some beta whelp who lucked his way into an unbeatable sword and is using it to share power instead of taking it for himself. Assuming such a creature could even be called a dragon.”
A handful of dragons laughed at that, and Julius clenched his fists. “What gives you the right to say who’s a dragon and who isn’t?”
“I do,” Gregory growled back, stopping at the doors. “Make whatever claims you want, it won’t hide the truth. You’re a weakling and a failure coasting by on the power of a dragon who died centuries ago. You didn’t earn any of this, you don’t deserve it, and you can’t keep it.” His lips curled in a sneer. “You’ll be dead before sunset tomorrow.” He turned around, waving over his shoulder as he walked out of the throne room. “Go ahead and hold your vote if you want, but I’m out. This is all a waste of time.”
“Stop!” Julius called, but it was too late. Gregory was already walking toward the elevator, and he wasn’t alone. Several other dragons were following him, sneering at Julius on the stage as they strolled out, which, for some reason, was making Bethesda steam. “How dare they ignore our authority!” she snarled. “Conrad! Teach them some manners!”
The big dragon sighed and stepped forward, but Julius stepped in front of him. “No.”
Bethesda’s eyes widened. “You don’t get to tell me no!”
“Actually, on this he does,” Bob said, speaking up for the first time since this had started. “In matters of the clan, you and Julius are technically even, and until you get the tie-breaking vote, I’m afraid it’s going to stay that way.”
“Then call the stupid vote,” Bethesda snapped. “If they want to walk, fine. We don’t need them.”
“No,” Julius said again, making his mother throw up her hands.
“Is that your answer to everything?”
The wordnowas on the tip of his tongue before he decided not to push it. “Wedoneed them,” he said instead. “The whole point of this Council was to represent the will of the entire clan. If the only ones who get to vote are the ones who agree with us, that doesn’t count.”
“Then we’llmakethem come back,” she said.
“Coercion doesn’t work either,” Julius said, dropping his voice to a whisper as he did a quick estimated head count of the remaining crowd. “This is a delicate situation. It looks like Gregory just walked out with almost a quarter of our clan. If they decide to fight, we could have a civil war on our hands.”
“And whose fault would that be?” his mother growled. “You’re the one letting them walk.”
“Yes,” Julius said firmly. “But we’re trying to sell a Council based on fairness and rule of law here, and we can’t do that if we’re forcing people to participate in the electoral process at gunpoint. This is just a hiccup. All we have to do is wait a few days, just until they see we’re here to stay and—”
“A few days?” Bethesda hissed. “I’m not waitingdaysto be unsealed!”
“Better than plunging the whole clan into civil war!” Julius hissed back. “This could all go south in a moment, and you know it, so stop being selfish and look at the bigger picture. Strategic magic like Algonquin used to take down the Three Sisters isn’t the sort of thing you can rapid-fire. Whatever she did, it’s probably going to be a while before she can do it again. Plus, we’ve already got Svena’s promise to protect us. We have no excuse not to do this right. All we have to do is be patient. Gregory’s whole argument is that I won’t live long enough to make this work, so when I don’t die, everyone will see that he’s wrong and the Council’s here to stay. Once that happens, his followers will leave him, we’ll have our vote, and this whole mess will wrap up peaceably.”
“Your not dying is a pretty big assumption,” Bethesda said. “Personally, I thought Gregory was giving you too much credit when he said you’d make it to sundown tomorrow. My money’s on you getting knifed tonight.”
