by Rinelle Grey
Ostrian hesitated. “It certainly does indicate that, yes,” he agreed. “But it’s not enough. It has convinced me I need to look at this more closely, but I need proof, if I’m going to take this to the prince.”
He winced, wondering if she would see his admission as a rejection of what they had shared together, but she didn’t even blink. Just nodded, and said, “Of course. What’s the plan?”
Her business like voice helped him focus on the task at hand. “I need to look at the records again,” Ostrian said firmly. “If this is true, the answer must be there.”
Mary nodded. “What can I do to help?”
Ostrian hesitated. His first impulse was to tell her that he needed to do this for himself, but that was unfair to her. She’d been with him all the way so far, gone above and beyond in order to help him, she deserved to participate in this too.
“We need a pen and paper. Just reading through the records and trying to guess what the numbers are telling me isn’t enough. We need to do this systematically.”
Mary followed him as he crossed to the bench that held the records book and flipped it open to the beginning again. “There’s a pen and paper there, I’ll search the book, you can keep records.”
Mary fetched the pen and paper and took a seat beside him. Ostrian was momentarily diverted by her closeness, a feeling of need welling up in him and threatening to overwhelm him, but he pushed it away. He needed to focus.
Mary didn’t seem to be having the same problem, she drew up some columns on the page, and scribbled headings. “Right, I’m ready.”
Ostrian began at the beginning again. He noted the first two parings, both with dragon names, and Mary drew two marks in the dragon parents column. Then Ostrian came to the entry with only one parent named.
He hesitated, staring at the page.
If his ancestors had objected to dragon/human pairings as much as he had, and the letter seemed to indicate that they had, then perhaps they had tried to hide the sheer number. “We need another column, one for only one parent named,” he told Mary. “At least some of those missing parents could be human.”
Her lips pursed, and for a moment, he thought she was going to argue, but she simply nodded her head.
Ostrian scanned through the pages until he came to another life dragon birth. This one also had two dragon parents. So far, this wasn’t bearing out the letter’s statistics. Ostrian was surprised to feel disappointment settle heavily in the pit of his stomach.
This wasn’t what he’d expected to find. After his experience with Mary, he’d actually started to believe that the dragon writing the letter had been onto something.
Even the memory of mating with Mary sent a wave of desire and warmth over him. Whatever else it was, it couldn’t be normal. Something was going on here. But if it wasn’t related to life dragon magic, what could it be?
For some reason, he couldn’t make himself believe that it was deliberate or malicious, it had felt too good for that.
“What is it?” Mary asked, and Ostrian realised he’d been staring at the page for several long moments.
“Every life dragon I find has either only one parent, or two dragon parents,” Ostrian explained. “Even if all the instances of one parent mean the other parent is human, that still doesn’t even come close to the statistics the letter mentioned.”
Mary frowned, tapping the pen against her lips, thinking.
The gesture was endearing. Ostrian couldn’t help letting an unfamiliar smile lift the corners of his mouth.
“You said there hadn’t been a life dragon born in over a hundred years?” Mary asked.
Ostrian nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
“So how often was a life dragon born to the clan back before you left England?”
That one, Ostrian had researched more than once. And the record boon only confirmed it. “There were two born in one year just here,” he said, waving his hand at the open book.
“Then something must have changed in the intervening time,” Mary pointed. “Leaving humans behind is the obvious answer.”
Ostrian nodded. Her words made sense, but they weren’t enough. “Not if none of these dragons were born to human parents,” he argued.
“Let me have a look.” Mary put the pen down and leaned over his shoulder. “Which one is the life dragon birth?”
Ostrian pointed to the appropriate record. “This symbol here indicates that the baby was a life dragon.”
Mary nodded, leaning on his shoulder as she stared at the page.
Ostrian wasn’t unaware of her closeness, of the warmth from her body, but he was able to push it to the background, to not let it break his concentration. Not much anyway.
“What does this symbol mean?” Mary asked, pointing to the symbol next to the father’s name.
“That indicates that the father was a water dragon,” Ostrian explained.
“Why is there no symbol next to the mother’s name?” Mary asked. “Is that normal?”
Ostrian shrugged. “Quite a few of the births seem to lack symbols for one of the parents. I assume…” Ostrian broke off staring at the page. He’d been assuming that the lack of a symbol was a clerical error. But what if it wasn’t?
“What if it means that the parent was a human?” Mary demanded, her voice excited.
Ostrian was staring at the page. He shook his head. “It can’t be. The mother has a dragon name. A Rian clan name. Humans don’t have dragon names.”
The words rang hollow, even to his ears.
What if he was wrong? What if...?
Mary voiced his doubts. “What if the dragons who loved those humans wanted them to be part of the clan?”
Ostrian flipped through the pages, checking each one again.
Both of the first two life dragon babies had one parent with a dragon symbol and one without.
Ostrian stared at the page, not seeing it, his mind running riot. What other explanation could there possibly be for a dragon without a magic symbol?
Excitement filled his heart. “They have to be humans.”
He and Mary stared at each other. Then both turned back to the records and began at the beginning again, filling in Mary’s chart with this new information.
They didn’t have to go through many pages to realise that even if the letter writing dragon’s statistics were a little off, there was definitely something to them. A surprisingly large number of life dragon births had a human parent. An uncanny number.
Ostrian was a little surprised that he’d missed it up until now. But then, he’d always just dismissed the records that only listed one parent with a dragon symbol. He’d skipped right past them. And, of course, he’d also ignored those where only one parent was named, of which there were more than he remembered.
If his earlier assumption was correct, that they had been left out because they were human, those statistics brought their tally even closer to the letter’s astounding claims.
“To prove the statistics, we need to find all the births involving a human parent,” he told Mary, and back to the beginning they went again. This time, the numbers they were recording were close enough to the letter’s claims to be proof.
The proof they’d been looking for.
Ostrian’s hands trembled, half excitement, half fear. This truth could change everything. Not only Rian clan’s future actions, but everything the dragons had believed in. The connection between dragons and humans seemed far closer than anyone had ever suspected.
Just one thought still bothered him. If human involvement created life dragons, then why were some life dragons born to two dragon parents? He knew there were enough of those recorded, he’d studied them thoroughly in the past, looking for answers as to why his clan had no life dragons.
If dragons could be born to two dragon parents as well, why had that not happened in the last fifty years? Even if they were rare, they should have had at least one.
The answer hit him, and he flicked back through the pages as
he spoke. “What if…” he didn’t complete his sentence, even though Mary was staring at him, just stared at the record of a life dragon born to two dragon parents and checked the names. He recognised one immediately. The mother of this dragon was already on their list as having a human parent.
“This life dragon born to two dragon parents had a human grandparent.”
Mary’s eyes widened, seeing the implication immediately. “Has any life dragon come from purely dragon blood, or did all of them have human ancestry somewhere?”
“Let’s find out.” Together they searched back through all the records again.
Every single name they checked came up with a human, or an unnamed parent somewhere in their past.
Even the last recorded case of a life dragon birth, many years after the dragons had left England, had two human ancestors when they traced the lineage back far enough.
Ostrian sat back in his chair, staring at Mary. The implications were staggering. Unbelievable.
But inescapable.
Ostrian had spent years pouring over these records trying to figure out what had gone wrong, why the life dragon births had slowly petered out over the last few centuries, and how he could bring them back. But he’d never expected to find this. He’d been sure that the answer lay in a particular dragon pairing, when in reality, he’d been actively discouraging the very thing that would have achieved his goal.
The evidence had been right here, in front of his eyes all along, he just hadn’t been able to see it.
His experience with Mary just backed that up. With all the humans in the lair, if the truth be told. Ever since the first human had appeared in their midst, hope had returned to the clan.
The magic that humans wielded wasn’t as defined as the dragons, in fact, it didn’t appear to be magic at all. But the humans held something in their heart that dragons had lacked. Something they needed.
A determination. A constant sense of fighting for what was right. Of not giving up, no matter how dire things might seem.
They brought out the best in dragons, not only magically, by creating life dragons, but spiritually as well.
Dragons needed humans.
He’d let his prejudices cloud his judgement, and blind him to the truth.
Some elder he was.
If he’d realised this earlier, he might have been able to facilitate the dragon’s relationship with humans, to bring them into his clan earlier. By now, they could have had several fully grown life dragons, and have been able to stand up to Ultrima and wake the princes and princesses years ago.
Ostrian allowed himself a moment of mourning for what could have been, if only he hadn’t been so stupid.
Then he straightened his back. Nothing could be achieved by regretting the past. He could only change the future. And he intended to do that. Even though Prince Taurian seemed willing to allow their clan to mate with humans despite his lack of this knowledge, with this information he could silence the last of the doubters. Ostrian’s support would silence the rest.
He owed his prince that.
Chapter 11
Ostrian found Prince Taurian in the main cave, striding through, looking busy. For a moment, he was tempted to chicken out. His prince was busy, he could tell him later.
Mary’s hand on his elbow, warm and strong, helped him straighten his back and ignore the nervousness. What he had to tell Prince Taurian could be important. It could affect the prince’s decisions, especially when dealing with the police or the other humans.
Before he could speak up, Prince Taurian frowned. “There you are, Ostrian. Where have you been? Are you ready to evacuate?”
Ostrian blinked a few times. Evacuate? How long had he and Mary been down in the archives? A glance towards the cave entrance showed it was light outside, so all night apparently.
But… evacuate?
“What’s going on, Prince Taurian?” he demanded, trying to temper his irritated tone part way through the sentence. “Why are we evacuating, and why wasn’t I informed?”
Prince Taurian stared at him a bit harder then, his focus moving from Ostrian’s face, to Mary’s arm, looped through his. Ostrian braced himself for a smile or a joke, but when Prince Taurian’s eyes returned to his face, they were annoyed rather than amused.
“You’ve apparently been too busy to keep up, and out of sight long enough, no one could find you. The police are aware of our location and are returning to the lair. We’ve decided that the only option to keep the clan safe is to evacuate.”
The prince was tight lipped as he spoke the words, and Ostrian knew without being told that evacuation hadn’t been his idea, and he hadn’t agreed. But apparently now there were two other royal dragons awake, he’d been overruled.
Meaning he wasn’t happy. Ostrian needed to be careful what he said, and how he said it. He didn’t want to upset the prince more.
Mary though, was unaware of that. She patted Ostrian’s arm and smiled at Prince Taurian. “We’ve discovered something you need to know, before we do anything like evacuate,” she said firmly. Then she looked at Ostrian expectantly, as though waiting for him to break the news.
Prince Taurian’s frown didn’t lift. “What is it? I’m rather busy right now. This had better be important.”
“Oh, it is,” Mary said with certainty.
Ostrian bit back a sigh. It looked like he didn’t have a choice. “I’m sorry for my absence, Prince Taurian, but I was researching a theory in the archives, and I do believe that the information we found is very important, especially right now.”
“Then stop dithering and spit it out,” the prince said sharply.
Ostrian took a deep breath, a little irritated at being accused of dithering. He most certainly didn’t dither. He drew himself up and said firmly, “It appears that when humans and dragons mate, something special happens.” He couldn’t help a glance at Mary as he spoke, an involuntary smile on his lips. Special was an understatement.
She met his smile with a brilliant one of her own, causing his heart and stomach to do a few somersaults.
When Ostrian looked back to his prince, the dragon’s frown had been replaced with a slight smile. “Research, hey? Well, many of us have noticed the special qualities of our human mates. We can debate that later. Right now, the clan’s safety is paramount.”
Ostrian felt his face heat. “That’s not the sort of research I mean,” he said, stumbling over the words.
Not the only sort, anyway.
Prince Taurian raised an eyebrow. “It certainly looks like the sort of research you were engaged in. If you have something more to say, get on with it, I’m a very busy man.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Ostrian saw Princess Lyrian walking across the room. Good, if he could convince two dragons, maybe that would mean a majority. He drew himself up, trying to look imposing. He needed to get these dragons to listen to him. “My research indicates that there’s far more to humans mating with dragons than I ever would have expected. Don’t you see? We have to find a way to make peace with these humans because they are essential to our survival.”
He winced, expecting an amused look from the princess as well, but she looked interested in his words. Briefly anyway. Then her eyes took in Mary, still hanging onto his arm, and she looked them both up and down.
What they had been up to was probably obvious. Their clothes must be rumpled from being on the floor, and Mary’s usually neat hair was mussed, meaning his probably was too.
A slow smile spread across Princess Lyrian’s face, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking. What he was feeling.
Well, he could use that. These dragons with human mates should be easy to convince. They would know the truth when he said it, they would feel it from the connection they had to their mates, just as he had.
He patted Mary’s arm as he spoke. “I don’t know how I’ve missed it up until now. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places.”
And he would have kept looking in t
he wrong place if it weren’t for Mary. Ostrian turned to smile at her, and she smiled back. She knew exactly what he was thinking, even without the mate bond.
Ostrian turned back to the prince and princess before he could get distracted. “But it appears that our ancestor’s relationship with the humans gained them far more than just a bit of fun.”
“What do you mean?” Prince Taurian asked sharply.
Now he had their attention. Both the prince and princess were staring at him, their looks intense. Interested.
Ostrian took a deep breath. “I’ve spent all night checking the records from before we left England, and there’s no way around it. I can’t find any record of a life dragon that doesn’t have a human ancestor somewhere. It appears that life dragons aren’t just another dragon group, they’re a dragon human group. Something special that happens when humans and dragons mate.”
Prince Taurian stared at him, as did Princess Lyrian, her eyes widening. Around them, other dragons who’d been striding through the cave with bags and furs stopped to stare as well.
A mocking smile spread across Prince Taurian’s face.
Ostrian winced, knowing what was coming.
“So you’re telling me that when you tried to convince me to mate with your granddaughter, you would have been decreasing our chances of producing a life dragon?” The prince’s voice was rough, as much annoyance as amusement in his tone.
Ostrian could see it in his eyes. He was judging Ostrian. Not just for his change of heart, but for his clear connection to Mary.
And Ostrian didn’t blame him one bit. In fact, he would have done the same to any dragon who had done the same thing. He hadn’t hidden his suspicion and distrust of humans. The opposite. He’d been loud and vehement in his opinion. Now he was trying to convince his prince the opposite was true.
But he couldn’t shirk from his duty because it was personally unpleasant. Ignoring this fact because it was counter to the things he’d believed in the past would be dishonest, and it wouldn’t serve his prince or his clan.
Ostrian drew himself up and looked Taurian straight in the eye. “I didn’t know this at the time, or I would not have made that suggestion. I had the clan’s best interest at heart, even if my information was incorrect.”
