by Rachel Aaron
“Serving you breakfast,” the F said as he finally got the tray steady. “Or attempting to. With all the trouble in the mountain and no Fs around to check attendance, hardly any of the human staff showed up for work this morning. The kitchen was entirely abandoned, so I had to make do with whatever I could find. I’m not quite as good a chef as my sister, but I think I managed.”
From the glorious spread of toast, jam, eggs, and other breakfast items, Julius thought Fredrick had done a lot better than merely “managed,” but that wasn’t what he was concerned about.
“I don’t mean the food,” he snapped, pushing himself up again. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be free!”
“I am free,” Fredrick said sharply. “That’s why I’m here.”
Before Julius could ask what he meant by that, the dragon dropped gracefully to his knees. His hands hit the floor next, and then Fredrick bowed down, lowering his head until his short hair brushed the stone at Julius’s feet.
“Great Julius,” he said solemnly. “My siblings and I owe you more than we can ever repay. You fought for my clutch’s freedom against the will of Brohomir and the Heartstriker herself. Because of you, we have flown free as dragons for the first time in our lives. But as joyful as I am at this, I cannot be at ease knowing how much my siblings and I owe to you. Therefore, as the eldest, I swear on my fire and my life to serve you faithfully until our clutch’s debt is repaid.”
He bowed lower when he finished, pressing his forehead flush against the floor before rising smoothly back to his feet. He’d already turned to the breakfast tray to start arranging a plate by the time Julius found his voice again.
“Are you kidding me?”
“I assure you, I am not,” Fredrick said, picking up a white porcelain mug. “Tea or coffee? You never mentioned which you prefer to be served, so I brought both.”
“Neither,” Julius snapped. “And I don’t want you to serve me! The whole reason I did this was so you could be free to live your own life!”
“I am living my own life,” the F said angrily, turning to glare down at him. “That’s why I’m here. Because I know that I can’t live under this debt.”
“But there’s no debt. You don’t owe me—”
“You freed us from six hundred years of slavery under Bethesda,” Fredrick said, staring at him in horror. “What would you have me do? Run away and ignore what we owe?”
“Yes!” Julius yelled at him. “Go! Run! Fly away! Enjoy being a free dragon. That’s what I freed you for, so you could finally escape this place. If you want to repay me, go do that.”
By the time he finished, Fredrick looked dangerously insulted. “With all due respect, sir, your estimation of debts is a joke. The whole clan knows you let Bethesda off practically for free. But while softhearted leniency is your right as clan head, I am not so lacking in pride that I will accept it for myself or my siblings. That’s why I swore on my own fire rather than offering you a life debt. I knew you would refuse it, that you would attempt to be nice. But this is not a matter of kindness, Great Julius. My clutch might be at the bottom of Heartstriker, but we have always had our honor. I will not allow you to make a mockery of that now with your misplaced pity.”
Julius sighed so hard it hurt. “That’s not what I—”
“You gave me freedom,” Fredrick said over him. “But I’ve been a servant my entire life. It’s all I know how to be. The difference is that now, thanks to you, my service is mine to give, and I choose to give it to you. If you don’t wish me to serve you in this way, I’ll find another, but I will repay our debt to my satisfaction, and you have no right to stop me.”
He was growling deep in his throat by the time he finished, and his eyes—which looked an even brighter green than usual this morning for some reason—had narrowed to deadly slits. It was the same look Julius’s other siblings got when they were threatening to eat him, only much worse, because now that he was unsealed, Julius could feel for the first time just how big a dragon Fredrick was.
Not that that was a total surprise—F was pretty high up the Heartstriker alphabet—but the reveal was still way more than he’d been prepared for, and the fact that Fredrick’s human form was so much taller than his definitely wasn’t helping. The oldest F loomed over him in every way, and as much as Julius hated the idea of debts, especially ones that involved serving, he didn’t see how he was getting out of this without starting a fight he couldn’t win.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was still wearing his Fang. But while the sword would stop Fredrick from physically attacking, it couldn’t do anything to solve the real problem, which was draconic pride. Now that Fredrick had equated leniency with pity, he would fight any efforts to lessen his burden to the death. That left Julius with two options: challenge his brother, or give up and accept his service. The first was too stupid to consider, but as bad as the second made Julius feel, he had to admit it would be nice to have a dragon who was entirely on his side. And that breakfast tray did look awfully good.
“Okay,” he said, slumping back in his chair. “I accept your service, but if you’re going to work for me, I have some rules. Rule one, no bowing. You’re a dragon in the new Heartstriker now, and you lower your head to no one. Rule two, no heroics.” He drummed his fingers against the sword at his side. “I have this to protect me from any threat, but you can be hurt, and I’m telling you right now I won’t count any unnecessary injuries against your debt.”
“I would never be so cheap,” Fredrick said, insulted. “But your Fang only protects you from other Heartstrikers. As your servant, I reserve the right to defend you against enemies from outside the clan.”
Seeing how Julius had zero intention of getting into an altercation with outside powers, that seemed like a decent compromise. “Deal,” he said with a nod. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” Fredrick said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve vowed to serve you and your interests, but in the brief time I’ve known you, you’ve displayed a near-suicidal level of disinterest in your own well-being. Therefore, since you are clearly a terrible judge of your own best interests, I will be ignoring any orders I feel are not in your actual service.”
Julius had lived with dragons long enough to know that that was a dangerously open-ended agreement, but it wasn’t as though he could actually tell Fredrick what to do. Whatever he said, the F was just going to do his own thing, and Julius hadn’t wanted to give him orders in the first place. Either way, it wasn’t worth arguing over, so he just nodded again, holding out his hand. “Welcome aboard.”
The F shook his hand with a triumphant smile, dipping his head just low enough that Julius couldn’t call him out for bowing before turning back to the breakfast tray. “Biscuit or toast?”
“Both,” Julius said eagerly. “And tea is fine. I don’t like the smell of coffee.”
That was a lie. Julius loved the smell of coffee. Especially Marci’s, which was the problem. Even the faint scent from the sealed carafe on Fredrick’s tray was enough to trigger memories that he couldn’t deal with after last night, and he turned away with a grimace. “Get rid of it, please.”
Fredrick arched a curious eyebrow, but he didn’t say a word. He just picked up the insulated pot and carried it out to the hall while Julius poured himself a cup of tea with lots of cream.
From there, breakfast was surprisingly pleasant. Despite Fredrick’s insistence that he was a mediocre cook, his eggs and bacon were much better than anything Julius could have managed on his own. There was plenty to be had, too, which was good. Julius hadn’t eaten a proper meal since the last time Fredrick had fed him after the fight with Gregory. But wrong as it felt to be served by one of the dragons he’d worked so hard to free, a guilty part of Julius was very happy Fredrick was here. After so much conflict and sorrow, it was nice to have company, and once he stopped growling at Julius about debts, the F snapped back to his usual dry, witty self. Even in the bizarre surroundings of Bob’s hoarded
room, it was enough to make Julius relax for the first time in ages.
At least until he heard the familiar footsteps banging down the hall.
Julius closed his eyes with a long sigh. He barely had time to put down his fork before someone started pounding on the door to Bob’s room like they were trying to break it down. Fredrick didn’t even have time to get over there before the door slammed open, and Justin stomped into the room.
“There you are,” he snarled, going straight for Julius. “I was looking everywhere for…” He trailed off when he saw the tray and Fredrick, and then his eyes went wide. “No fair!” he cried. “Why do you still have an F? No one else got one!”
Fredrick stiffened, and Julius put a hand over his face. “Justin…”
“I volunteered to serve the Great Julius,” Fredrick said, his scornful voice sharp enough to cut. “The rest of my clutch is free to do as they please.”
“Oh, well, good thing I’m the Great Julius’s knight, then,” Justin said, walking eagerly over to the tray. “Are those blueberry muffins?”
He was reaching for pastries when Fredrick smacked his hand. “I serve the Great Julius only,” he said in a deadly voice. “If you wish to eat, the kitchen is downstairs.”
Justin’s answer to that was to bare his teeth, and Julius leaped to intervene before something got bitten off. “You can have mine,” he said, offering Justin his plate. “I can’t eat all of this, and I would hate for Fredrick’s work to go to waste.”
“I’d rather it go to waste than to him,” Fredrick growled as Justin took the plate. “He might be your full brother, but now that I’m free to say it, you should know that the Knight of the Heartstrikers is a spoiled, undisciplined, ungrateful—”
“That’s how it is, eh?” Justin said, looking Fredrick straight in the eyes as he plucked a muffin off Julius’s plate and shoved it into his mouth. “You want to show off your freedom, Freddy? I’m game. I’ll take you anytime, anywhere. I win, you cook for me for a month.”
For a terrifying moment, Fredrick looked like he was actually going to take that bet, but he never got the chance. Julius grabbed his Fang before the F could get a growl out, freezing both dragons in place.
“That’s enough,” he said firmly, glaring at both of them. “We’ve got plenty of enemies already. Let’s not give them a head start by biting chunks out of each other.”
Neither dragon looked happy about that, but eventually, they both relaxed enough for the Fang’s magic to let them go. Julius held on to his sword a bit longer anyway, just to be sure. When he was certain no one was going to do anything too stupid, he turned back to Justin. “Why were you looking for me?”
“Do I need a reason?” Justin said, pausing to scrape the rest of Julius’s loaded plate into his mouth, where he swallowed it all in one impressive gulp. “I’m your knight. My place is at your side. I would’ve been here sooner, but that hack of a doctor wouldn’t let me out of the infirmary.”
That was worrisome. True, Chelsie had eviscerated him during the fight in the treasury, but that was days ago, and this was Justin. He never took more than twenty-four hours to heal from anything. “Why were you still in the infirmary?”
“Nothing serious,” Justin said casually, grabbing another muffin off the tray before Fredrick could stop him. “I just used up a lot of my fire smoking Vann Jeger, so I’m a bit slower on the recovery than normal.”
To prove it, he pulled up his shirt, and Julius gasped. Justin’s torso was covered in bandages, some of which were spotted with red. “We have to get you back to bed.”
“Nothing doing,” Justin said, popping the muffin into his mouth before yanking his shirt down again. “One, there’s no bed to go back to. The infirmary’s as empty as the rest of the mountain since the F in charge of doctoring flew the coop. And two, my place is with you. A knight stays by his clan head’s side at all times. Not that you’re making it easy, hiding away up here.” He snorted and reached for the platter of bacon. “I should put a leash on you.”
Worried as he was, Julius couldn’t help but smile at that. Justin had an odd way of showing it, but it was nice to know he cared. “You should still sit down,” he said, hopping up from Bob’s chair. “I hurt just looking at you.”
Justin rolled his eyes. “No way. I’m not a wuss like you who has to sit down every time he bleeds, and I need to be on my guard. With Conrad gone, I’m the only fighter left. If you die on my watch in an empty freaking mountain, I will never live it down.”
That last bit was so Justin, it took Julius several seconds to realize the rest of what he’d said. “Wait, Conrad’s gone? When did that happen?”
“Last night,” Justin said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her, but Mother’s dead serious about evacuating the mountain. She sent Conrad to Washington, DC last night to help David prepare our emergency fallback position.”
This was the first Julius had heard of a fallback position. “So why didn’t anyone tell me?” he cried angrily. “Bethesda doesn’t get to order an evacuation. That’s a Council decision!”
“You weren’t around,” Justin said with a shrug. “And it’s not as if there’s much to evacuate. Between Chelsie’s rage quit, Amelia kicking the bucket, Bob vanishing, the Fs on strike, and everyone else running off to hunker down in their own territories, Heartstriker Mountain’s a ghost town. Even the human staff is playing hooky. The only reason Mother’s still here is because she hasn’t finished moving her treasury into the security vaults downstairs.”
“Of course she is,” Fredrick growled. “God forbid Bethesda put anything ahead of her gold.”
“Well, she still should have called me,” Julius snapped, but his heart wasn’t in it. Other than pride and the fact that it was their home, there wasn’t much reason to stay at Heartstriker Mountain if there was no one here to protect, and while he was angry she hadn’t discussed it with him first, DC wasn’t actually a bad move. They had allies there thanks to David’s congressional seat, and staying in the US capital meant that any large-scale attack would be seen as an act of aggression against the United States as well as Heartstriker. Strategically speaking, they couldn’t ask for a better place to lie low.
He just wished it didn’t feel so much like running away.
“Hey,” Justin said, lowering his voice. “I know it sucks to be driven back, but this doesn’t have to be all bad. Conrad can handle Bethesda, but you’re my charge, and our birthday’s coming up.”
Julius blinked in surprise. With everything that was happening, he’d forgotten all about his birthday until Justin mentioned it. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Nothing,” Justin said with a shrug. “But twenty-five is a milestone, and if we have to run anyway, why not go somewhere fun? I was thinking Vegas. I know you hate gambling, but the food’s great, and the girls are—”
“Not Vegas.”
Justin stared at him. “Why not?”
Because Marci was from Vegas. “Just not there.”
His brother crossed his arms over his chest. “This is about your human, isn’t it?”
When Julius didn’t reply, the knight began to growl. “You can’t mope about her forever, you know.”
“It’s only been three days,” Julius reminded him.
“Yeah, well, it’s not like you didn’t know this was going to happen,” Justin snapped back. “She’s mortal. Death’s in her definition.”
Julius’s jaw clenched. “Drop it, Justin.”
“No,” he said angrily. “This is ridiculous. You’re a dragon. I’m not going to let you waste your time pining for a—”
“I said drop it!”
The words came out in a roar that made everyone jump, including Julius. He hadn’t known he was capable of making a sound like that. At the same time, though, he had no intention of taking it back. He might not be hiding in his room anymore, but the memory of Marci’s death was still an angry wound in his chest. If Justin didn’t stop poking it, Julius coul
dn’t be held responsible for his actions.
“I’m not going to Vegas,” he said, more calmly now. “I’m not going anywhere until—”
A loud noise cut him off. All through the mountain, claxons were sounding, their high-pitched wails cutting through the stone. The emergency lights cut on a second later, filling Bob’s dark cave with a red glow punctuated by bright-white flashes.
“What’s that?” Julius yelled, covering his ears against the painfully loud noise.
“The panic alarm,” Fredrick yelled back.
Julius paled. He’d never heard the panic alarm before. “What does it mean?”
“That there’s something worth panicking about,” Justin said, grabbing Julius’s arm and yanking him toward the door. “We need to get to the bunker STAT.”
“Shouldn’t we be running?” Because if there was something a mountain full of dragons needed to panic about, a bunker didn’t seem like it would do much good.
“No time,” Justin said as he pulled his brother into the hall. “Fredrick?”
“On it,” Fredrick said, darting past them down the flashing hall to the elevator, and then past that to what looked like a blank space on the wall. A space that turned out not to be blank at all when Fredrick pressed his fingers against a crack in the stone.
“Here,” he said, swinging the wall open to reveal a small emergency stair leading down.
Justin grinned. “Always count on an F to know the bolt-holes,” he said, shoving Julius inside. “Move.”
Julius didn’t wait to be told twice. He was already running down the stairs after Fredrick. Justin followed on his heels, pausing just long enough to close the secret door on the alarms blaring behind them.
***
They changed tunnels several times, following Fredrick through a labyrinth of secret passages that crisscrossed the normal hallways and staircases before eventually stopping at an elevator. Not a nice one, either. This was a terrifying-looking steel box on a cable at the top of an open shaft that went straight down. In all his years in the mountain, Julius had never seen anything like it. He couldn’t even say where in the fortress they were after all those turns, but he didn’t waste time asking questions. He just followed his brothers through the elevator’s open gate, sticking close to Justin as he hit the lone red button to start the drop.
