“My name is Brielle Laurent. I think you all know what’s about to happen.”
“War,” one of the male members of the council said. “A war between dragons and wolves, which the world has not seen in several centuries. A war that may well spell the doom of dragon shifters.”
“Wow,” Rasp said. “You guys really don’t beat around the bush, do you?
Ow!
“
Delphine had reached up and pinched Rasp’s earlobe. A light chuckle rippled through the group. Another good sign, I hoped.
“True,” I said. “War is coming. Prince Aurelius Decimus has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner. The Laurents say they will execute him. I am here to ask for your help.”
The man shook his head. “This is a matter between wolves and dragons. It has nothing to do with the fae. This is the same as if the United States declared war on Canada. There is nothing about this that pertains to us.”
“But that’s not true,” I said, doing my best to keep the exasperation from my voice. “What about the wellsprings?”
“What of them?” Achakos asked.
“We all know that the remaining wellsprings balance themselves. Magic runs through the planet and rises to the surface in the springs. Similar to the way blood would show through my arm if I fell and skinned myself?-“
“My dear,” Kaskawan said in a kind, but tired voice. “Are you truly trying to explain the wellsprings to a group of fae?”
Heat rose to my cheeks, but I pushed on. “Perhaps I am. This balance has been in place for millennia. Eons. If the dragons are slaughtered or die off, what will happen to the wellsprings? They are linked to dragons.”
“A theory,” another woman said. “Nothing more.”
“I don’t know that it’s merely a theory,” a younger woman said. I recognized her as the young lady Rasp had been dancing with at the gala. “My research tells me that the old story of creation is true.”
“Sahalie,” Achakos said. “Stories are just that. None of us here were alive when the wellsprings were created. We have no way of knowing what is true and what isn’t.”
“We have oral histories,” Sahalie said, unperturbed. “The legends say that the first dragon shifter emerged from a cleft in a mountain that was created by the internal magic of Earth. He breathed fire for the first time, scorching the ground, which created the first wellspring.”
Kaskawan and several other fae didn’t outright denounce the claim, but many shook their heads or rolled their eyes. I’d heard the old stories that proclaimed dragon shifters were the first of the shifter species, and that all others had been born into existence by the wellsprings in strange and forgotten ways. The legends about wolf shifters didn’t go as far back as dragons, but they were considered the origin of the werewolf stories first made popular by the loup-garou legends in France as well as the jackal-headed gods of ancient Egypt.
“Sahalie is right,” I said. “Even if the stories are nothing but myths, the dragons and other shifters do create a balance. If one of the species, especially one of the most powerful like dragons, were to go extinct, there’s no telling what might happen to the…the… I don’t know, the magical ecosystem. We already know the wellsprings are depleting. Do you really want to see that happen faster?”
That struck home. The fae exchanged nervous glances, and I had a feeling they were conversing silently.
“Okay,” Kaskawan said. “What if we did throw our support behind the dragons? It wouldn’t be unheard of for fae to take sides. I’ve read stories of them doing it in the old country. It could benefit us. We’ve already entered into a partnership with the Decimus family. Why not give them support?”
“Kas!” Achakos exclaimed. “It’s all fine and good to enter into a business partnership. Though, many of us weren’t happy about that either. The dragons and wolves use magic for financial gain. It goes against our culture, our very principles, but I was swayed by Prince Aurelius’s words. Being swayed to allow the use of a wellspring is much different than being asked to fight.
“Do you really think we could hold off the Laurents? Word will spread, and Bastien Laurent will not be happy. We have magic, yes, but not the numbers. It’s the same problem the dragons have. The wolves will-quite literally-be at the gate.”
“And if King Decimus and his entire line are gone?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the arguments that were breaking out. “What then? If the dragons are defeated, then there will be nothing stopping Bastien from coming here and taking what he wants. The same thing will happen, but you’ll have no dragon shifters as your allies.”
Achakos pressed her lips into a thin line. “There are others. The moose shifters? The bears?”
“Oh please,” Kaskawan muttered. “Those shifters have fewer numbers than the dragons do. Even if we allied with every other shifter race in all of North America, the wolves would still outnumber us, and none of those races are as strong fighters as the dragons.”
Sahalie rose from her chair. “I know how to settle this.” She smiled at me in a pleasant but courteous way. It was the kind of smile you’d give a clerk at a store. “Would anyone like to hear it?”
Most of the fae gave her a strange look, and I recalled what Cassius had said about her when we’d danced at the gala. That she was a bit of an outlier among her people. It surprised me that she had been given such a high place of honor on this council, especially since she looked younger than anyone else by at least two decades.
“I’d like to hear,” I said at last.
“Yes,” Vincent spoke up, startling me. I turned and saw him eyeing the woman with a strange intensity.
“We let the wellspring decide,” Sahalie said.
“What?” Achakos, Kaskawan, and several others said in unison.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Sahalie turned to her people, addressing them rather than me. “Do we honor the wellsprings? In all things, are they what we hold most sacred?”
Several people nodded along, though they still looked curious and confused.
“If that is the case,” Sahalie said, “then Brielle should be given the chance to plead her case directly to the source.”
Achakos’s eyes widened in understanding. “You want her to… Sahalie, are you serious?”
“Yes,” Sahalie replied. “Brielle will walk into the wellspring. She will do a dream walk.”
Kaskawan stood up from his chair. “Sahalie. none but a fae has ever done that. You have no clue what it might do to a shifter.”
“Technically, she’s not really a shifter,” Rasp said. “She doesn’t have an inner wolf. Maybe that would be a good thing?”
Every eye in the room turned to glare at him.
“We are aware, my friend,” Kaskawan said patiently. “That doesn’t change the fact that she still is a shifter by blood.”
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