***
“Merlin,” he said with a smile, pulling the man in for a brief hug.
“Hello, Father,” the dragon shifter said, relief evident in his voice.
It had been him that the shifters had seen, swooping low over the ground to join the battle. Charging along the road under him, Ana had whipped herself into a frenzy to keep up. He was glad they had; the fight would have been much closer than he preferred to think about if they hadn’t gotten there so quickly.
Releasing his son, he turned to Ana.
“I told you to run,” he said, not completely successful in keeping the smile off his face.
“I did,” she said, coming forward and allowing herself to be swept up into his arms. “But you let one of them go. So I had to deal with him. Then I found backup.”
He chuckled at her interpretation of the events, knowing she was just teasing him. They were able to do that now, because they had won. It had been a close thing, but for the time, they would be free of any attackers.
“We need to go,” he ordered, glad to see the pair nod in agreement with his assessment. “We have killed enough of them that they will send more powerful ones next time. They will realize who they are up against, if they do not already.”
Despite the seeming ease of his words, Ferro’s voice was heavy. So many dragons had already died, and things were just beginning. Where would the race be when the dust settled?
He knew instinctively that their numbers could be replaced. The mining operations in Genesis Valley saw to that. Dragons could reproduce one of two ways. Although uncommon, mating with a human could—and had—produced a full-blooded dragon. Many dragons, especially those born to a mixed human-dragon partnership, found it hard to live as long as they did, seeing all of their family and friends pass away while they remained unchanged.
The second way had been discovered by accident. If a dragon chose to, they too could give up their hold on life while in their dragon form. When that happened, their form would turn to cold gray stone. But deep within, near where their heart would have been, they would leave behind a gemstone a little bigger than a human head. If a mature dragon turned their breath upon one of these stones, they would breathe life into it, turning the stone into an egg, and a new dragon would be born.
There were a number of dragon stones in possession of the miners of Genesis Valley, enough to replace the lost population. But he couldn’t do it all at once, and some of the dragons they were bound to come up against would be old, like his son Luthor. Ferro did not relish the idea of extinguishing the life of such magnificent creatures who had seen and lived so much.
It was a waste.
There was no way around it, however, because more lives would be lost if he didn’t do it. It was a heavy burden, and one that Ferro would ask no one but himself to bear. He had a sneaking suspicion of where people like Ana and Merlin would tell him to stick it if he tried to force them to stay behind. So he gave them the choice.
“Neither of you need to come with me,” he said at last. “We need to leave here, but you can go on your own. Disappear, and live in peace.” He paused. “I will deal with the mess I have created.”
“That you created?” Merlin said in disbelief.
Ferro nodded. “I stood by while you and the other members of the Council were under attack. I could have intervened and ended this a long time ago, but I did not. I thought it was best if I stayed hidden, in the shadows and uninvolved.” He snarled. “I was wrong. No more will I sit idly by while my family is murdered. If they want to come after you, they will have to go through me.”
“And me,” Ana said firmly, taking a step back to look him squarely in the eye. Her glare brooked no argument.
“You do not have to do this,” he told her, instead of outright telling her no. He knew doing that would not be a smart idea. This path was the only slightly more intelligent one. Slightly.
“Of course I don’t,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “But at the same time, these nutjobs wanted to kill me before they even knew you were back in the game. That sort of makes me more ticked off than you. Besides, now they’ve threatened you. You need someone to watch your back.” She crossed her arms, her eyes daring him to argue.
Being a man who valued his life, Ferro decided not to. “Very well,” he said. “And you?” he asked, turning to Merlin.
“I may have been the youngest member of the Council,” he began, though Ferro cut him off with a snort.
He may have been the youngest member, but he was still much older than most of the other dragons out there, even if he was smaller in stature than any of them.
“Anyway,” he said with a glare at Ferro. “But my junior status doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. Really, you’re the one who is late to the game, Father. I stayed here after the Council scattered, just in case something like this happened. It’s actually me who is responsible for such a high concentration of Order agents nearby. They’ve been hunting me for months now.” He glanced at Ana.
“So I just happened to wander into a warzone between everyone?” she asked in disbelief.
Merlin nodded. “Yep, pretty much. Bad luck, that.”
Ana looked up at Ferro. “Oh, I’m not so sure about that,” she said slowly, giving his hand a squeeze.
Merlin looked back and forth between the two of them, as if realizing their connection for the first time. He nodded repeatedly, a smile breaking out on his face. “Good for you, Pops!” he crowed.
Ferro rolled his eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?” he growled. He hated that moniker.
Merlin and Ana laughed.
The younger dragon’s expression drew grim once more. “I cannot go with you. I have other duties.” He continued at Ferro’s questioning look. “I’ve been tasked with organizing any and all resistance, as well as turning away any unaffiliated dragons before the Order catches them.”
Ferro nodded, absently slipping his arm around Ana’s shoulder as he contemplated what their next move should be.
You’re doing it again, his inner voice cautioned. Don’t go planning things without involving Ana!
Right. For now, the pair of them needed information to make the decision on their next move.
“Merlin, do we have any idea on just how many supporters of the Order there are?”
His offspring looked unhappy. “A lot,” he replied.
“Was Luthor their leader?” he asked.
Merlin shook his head. “No, but from what I’ve managed to gather, he was one of the most vocal of the group, and most willing to take action. He’d been helping guide it, but no, he isn’t their leader.” Merlin paused as something in Ferro’s tone sunk in. “Why do you say was?”
Ferro bowed his head slightly. “I was forced to end Luthor.”
“What? Why?” Merlin exclaimed.
“He was trying to invade Genesis Valley. He kidnapped Karlie to keep me neutral, and he got a lot of good people killed in the process,” Ferro said angrily.
Karlie was Luthor’s daughter, and thus Ferro’s granddaughter. Only Luthor and Karlie were not at all close. In fact, his son hated her. It had been a mess. He was still waiting to hear if Karlie had been rescued safely. He wished he could have done it himself, but his mission to locate the Dragon Council and to help restore order to the shifter world was much more important just then.
Merlin took a moment to process that information. “I see.”
“Do we know who the leader is?” Ana injected, trying to keep the conversation focused.
“One of us,” Merlin said at last. “It had to be. Their strike was carried out too precisely.” He shook his head angrily. “I just wish I knew who!”
“One of the other Council members is the head of the Order?” Ana asked in disbelief, looking back and forth between them.
“There’s no other explanation,” Merlin said, spreading his hands wide, his shoulders shrugging to show he didn’t know. “We were in a meeting, the entire Council. All of a sudden they came pouring in to the chambers in numbers.”
His eyes went glassy as he looked far away, remembering the events.
“Did any others make it out?” Ferro asked softly. He needed to know the truth, even though he had no desire to hear about the end of any of his children.
“Most of us,” Merlin said softly. “I saw Karthorax go down.” He swore. “His own son.”
“Korbin has been dealt with,” Ferro promised.
Merlin nodded, continuing. “Parlanah never made it out either,” he said softly.
Ferro felt himself crumple. If it weren’t for the support of Ana, standing at his side, he wouldn’t have been able to remain standing.
Luthor. Karthorax, and now Parlanah. His three eldest. All gone.
“My fault,” he whispered.
Ana glared at him. He could feel the heat of her eyes as they hit him like laser beams, but he didn’t care. Not right then.
“It is not your fault,” she hissed angrily.
When he still didn’t respond, she tightened her grip on his arm until he thought she was going to break it.
“Ow,” he remarked. “What are you doing?” His face came up to look at her, accusingly.
Ana’s palm rocked against his face, sending him back a step under the unexpected blow.
“What the fuck?” he snarled, losing all propriety. His eyes blazed, blood singing through his veins as his anger boiled over.
“What I am doing,” she snapped, getting in his face, “is getting your attention, so that I can tell you that you’re being an idiot.”
He recoiled at her tone of voice, unprepared for such intensity of emotion.
“This is absolutely the farthest thing from your fault,” she told him, using a hard jabbing finger into his sternum to accentuate her point.
“Shut it!” she told him, wagging her finger with a warning as he tried to speak. “I’m not done yet. Everyone involved in this, even the youngest ones, is going to be decades, if not centuries old. They may not age physically the way humans do, but we all age the same mentally. So they are adults. Capable of making their own decisions. You gave them that freedom, because it is the right thing to do.”
“But I obviously did not teach them properly,” he said heavily.
Ana relented, her body language relaxing. “Perhaps,” she admitted. “Parenting, even after all these thousands of years, is not exactly a scientific process. Besides,” she added before he could mope some more, “it’s not like most of them were your children. They were raised by others, some even by those you had no influence upon. You can’t blame yourself for that, and you know it.”
His shoulders sagged. “What do we do?” he asked, looking for some guidance.
Ana gave him a look of steel. “You gave them their freedom. They abused it. So we regroup, then we find them and remove their freedom, one way or another.”
Ferro nodded. “Very well. We will take the fight to them.”
Merlin was shaking his head.
“You disagree?”
The smaller shifter hesitated. “Not entirely,” he said, speaking slowly, choosing his words carefully. “Something must be done, I agree. The Council is still scattered and many of us are being hunted, as you’ve witnessed,” he said with a wave at the bodies. “You two represent our best chance at striking back. But,” he admonished, “I can’t support a head-on strike.”
Ferro frowned.
“They’re too strong, Ferro. They have the numbers, and even you would get overwhelmed.”
He wanted to protest, but something in Merlin’s voice said he didn’t fully understand the scope of it.
“How bad was the attack on the Council?” he asked in a soft voice.
Merlin looked away briefly. “Bad,” he whispered.
Beside Ferro, Ana moved in closer to him. He relished her presence there. How had he managed all of these years without her? It was like they fit together perfectly, two pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle, forever searching for their only match. It scared him to realize how much he’d come to rely on her already. But just the same, he was intrigued to discover how his life would change now that she was a part of it. Whatever was to come of them would have to wait though. The Order needed their focus for the moment.
“What kind of numbers did they have?” Ana asked, her arm tightening around his waist as they waited for answers.
“Last count was over three dozen,” Merlin said, his features visibly wilting as he revealed how strong the Order had become. “We think they hit us with everything, all at once.” He shrugged helplessly. “Who knows if they’ve recruited more since then,” he finished.
“Damn,” Ferro said, looking away for a moment. That was a lot of enemies. Even if they hadn’t grown in size, and minus the eight who had perished already, that was still a lot of enemies. Several of whom, by the sounds of it, were extremely powerful. The odds were not good.
“When I took down Korbin yesterday, he said they had their base at the Blood King’s Castle,” he told Merlin. “What do you make of that?”
Beside him, he heard Ana jolt at the name. “The Red Devil’s place?” she asked, using the alternative name for it.
He blinked in surprise. “You have heard of it?”
She nodded. “Yeah, legend had it that a real asshole lived there. Even when I was young and just traveling, he was barely more than a legend. A guy who did whatever he wanted. Who was immortal…” she trailed off, comprehension dawning. “Holy. Shit. You. It was you!” she exclaimed.
Ferro grimaced, nodding unhappily. He wasn’t proud of the actions of his earlier life. This was one of a very few remaining legacies of it. Even then, time had eradicated much of the memories of the place. Only a few local stories still mentioned him, and even then, he was more of a boogeyman than an actual figure. Only those in the dragon shifter world still knew of it.
And apparently at least one outside of it, he corrected.
“Who else knows?” he grumped, unhappy about the whole situation.
Ana smiled. “I would wager very few. It’s not like most people live as long as I have, or are as widely traveled.”
She squeezed his hand tightly, letting him know she was okay with it.
“So, Merlin?” he asked, returning to his original question.
His son shrugged. “Perhaps,” he agreed. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it. More than likely it’s a trap though. I wouldn’t follow it up just yet.”
Ferro was forced to agree, glad that he and his son’s instincts were the same on this one. The look Korbin had given him as he revealed the information had all but given it away.
“We should be going though,” Merlin said as the sun began to dip over the forest to the west. “The Order will be back, and we don’t want to be around when they are.”
“You go,” Ferro said. “We are going to figure out a plan of attack. Continue to organize the Council, and do your best to protect those of us who still are uninvolved. Try to keep them that way.”
Merlin nodded. “Best of luck, Father,” he said, enveloping his arms around Ferro. He and Ana exchanged a brief hug, and he whispered something into her ear so quietly even Ferro couldn’t pick it up. Then he turned, and disappeared back into the village.
“Where to now?” Ana asked once he was gone.
“First, we get our things from in there,” he said, pointing at the place they had stayed the night.
“And then what?” she pressed, following alongside him as they headed indoors.
“Then,” he said with a smile. “Then we are going to fly.”