“Yes, yes, no killing her. I understand that. But you’ve explained nothing more. What is the plan for her?”
“I was not aware I needed to explain my actions and motives.”
“We are a pride. The actions of one affect all. You’ve taught us that.”
I bristle, adjusting my weight from foot to foot. It was excruciating—being discussed as though I’m an object of no value. Not anyone of free will. A voice that does not matter.
“She will stay here. Help out with chores.”
Even to my ears, this rings weakly.
“Permanently?” Arvos demands.
Silence meets Arvos’s question and I long to see Tage’s face, togauge his expression. My body leans forward, waiting in anticipation for his eventual response.
“Indefinitely.”
“Indefinitely,” Arvos echoes with a ring of dissatisfaction.
“Yes.”
“So...she is to be our servant indefinitely.”
“She is notyouranything,” Tage is quick to rebut.
“Oh, but she isyours.”
“Watch yourself,” Tage warns.
Arvos does not. He presses on. “Tell me, does she still sleep on the bench by the firepit? Or have you moved her into her own den? There’s a vacancy, after all.”
My face burns. Not my own den.Tage’s den.
Tage does not reply to the pointed question. His silence is not overlooked.
“Where does she sleep now?” he pushes.
At last, Tage replies evenly, “My den.”
Arvos makes a choking sound. “You keep her in your den? In your furs?”
Tage’s voice is void of all patience as he replies, “Wiser than leaving her unprotected out in the open.”
“Come now, Tage,” Arvos grunts out. “Be honest with yourself. You’re keeping her in your den for no other reason than that you want her to be there.”
I wait, expecting to hear Tage refute this with a denial. There is no sound from him, though, and his continued silence rings in my ears.
Arvos continues. “I understand the compulsion, of course. There are so few of our kind...and she has her charms, but it won’t work.Youandshewon’t work, Tage. You need a proper mate. As do we all. We need to grow this pride for our survival, and we will. But you can’t do that with her.”
I strain, holding my breathing, hoping...well, I’m not sure what I’m hoping for, but when I finally hear Tage speak, when I finally hear his words, they are not what I expect.
“This is a new world we find ourselves in, Arvos. We are making up the rules. We are not the same dragons of old. We’re this. Neither fully human nor dragon. Who is to say what will or won’t work?”
A bewildering mixture of relief and jubilation zips through me until Arvos’s voice lashes out in a fiery rush. “Isay. Heed me...Tage, my friend.Shewon’t work here. She is too different. She isn’t one of us. She’ll never fit.” I flinch at the blunt words, and then he drives home his point with, “She is dangerous.”
Ah.This.
Iamdangerous.Dangerous. The fear-inducing word every tyrant has ever used to vanquish the group they wish to suppress...to break them into bits and pieces and dust beneath their boots.
