Chapter Fifteen

Levi

I t was working even better than I had hoped.

The crowd filling the plaza swelled with the parade. Malakai and I launched into our most vehement rhetoric, using our carefully placed plants in the crowd to urge others along.

And it worked. Jaded dragons returned from the front lines, those tired of the war, tired of killing humans all because one woman got upset her son was taken.

" We are not hers to call whenever she is upset!" I shouted to those listening. " We deserve to have a say. A voice in what we do as a people!"

Another round of agreement came back at me. I stifled a smile, turning it into a sneer instead.

"We went to war all over one person. Her son. Because this ‘sovereign' of ours couldn't solve her own problems without having a hissy fit. And she used YOU to get it done. You were used. We were ALL used. What kind of leader resorts to war as the first option? She did it because she COULD and because none of us were allowed to say NO! And to that I say NO MORE!"

Roars of approval went up from around us. I shot Lydia a grin, receiving a matching one in return.

When I glanced across the plaza at Malakai, who was giving his own speech to another part of the crowd, the look I got in return wasn't as positive. His head jerked slightly to the side, drawing my attention toward the edge of the plaza.

What I saw there made me tense.

A distinct separation was forming among the crowd. Masses of dragons interested in our message crowded around the podiums that had hastily been erected for us to speak on. Little more than planks of wood nailed together, they gave us the elevation to be able to project.

It also showed there were knots of dragons watching but not participating. Not only that, but they were blocking all the exits to the plaza. Tough, hardened people waiting. Watching.

Loyalists, then, those who wanted to stay true to the sovereign and her outdated ways.

I decided to use that, then.

" There are those that would disagree! " I shouted, deviating from the planned speech.

Lydia's head whipped around, not recognizing where I was going with it.

"Trust me," I whispered to her under my breath. "This will work."

" There are those who say we are in the wrong, simply for wanting a say in our future, in what is to be done with us. A say in those who lead us. They think we are the bad people!"

The angry rumblings intensified.

" These people think we should be little more than cattle! Following along, asking no questions, and simply doing as we're told. They think us too stupid to see the truth behind it all!"

I patted myself on the back for that line. Nobody liked to be thought of as dumb.

" Look around you! Look at those watching us. Judging us, thinking themselves better than us. They've come to try to stop you from having an opinion!"

Heads twisted as the crowd members looked over their shoulders and saw the knots of loyalists at the various exits from the plaza. Spines straightened, and faces tightened.

That was it. The turning point. Our recruits would soar after the dustup that was to come. We would finally have a chance at properly taking on the sovereign and winning!

I smiled to myself. One day, I would tell Jakub about what happened and what it meant for him as a dragon. Hopefully, he would be proud of me for sticking up for what I believed in.

" They think to tell you what to do. Just like the sovereign! They want you to fall in line. To not question anything! Well, I say enough! I say that today we show them we're not willing to be treated like drones anymore. We want a say!"

I slapped a hand against my side, which was our signal to those in the crowd to take up our shout. It crashed over me now.

" We want a say! We want a say! We want a say!"

I pumped my fist in the air in time with the shouts, adding my own voice to the crescendo.

Nobody ever knew how it happened. Who moved first or set it off. Yet it happened so fast it must have been multiple points. Multiple people. The crowd surged. Not for the exits, but for the men and women waiting for them there. Men and women who didn't believe like they did. Who wanted to stop us from having a say, from having a choice in how we were ruled.

And as they rushed together, a blood-curdling scream echoed over all of them.

It wasn't the sound that ran steel nails down my spine. It was what they said.

" JAKUB!"

My head whipped around, searching for the source, fearing what I might see.

The blood in my veins turned to ice as I saw the small form in the crowd, sheer terror on her face as she reached out, wildly trying to grab a hold of an even tinier arm before it was sucked into the fast-moving crowd.

She was too slow. Our son was hauled away, disappearing into the raging mob. A child, caught up in a fury created by my hand.

There was only one choice open to me. Only one thing I could do.

A parental protection instinct I didn't know I possessed kicked in, and I was moving before my brain even acknowledged the decision.