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  “Of course. None of us wants anyone to get hurt but we must also be realistic. Even the best-laid plans can fail as you yourself discovered the other night.”

  “Now that I know that blood is the answer, I know not to bleed on any of the swords until they are safely away.” The last thing I needed was to destroy any more of the village with fire.

  “I’m sure that you didn’t intend to bleed on the last sword, but you did.”

  “That’s true, but it won’t happen again.” Of course, I couldn’t know that for sure, but I was certainly planning to keep my blood in my own body for as long as possible.

  “Let’s hope so for all of our sakes.”

  Spear was really beginning to annoy me with his condescending attitude. I wanted to tell him to go shove it but I knew I couldn’t. I’d already committed to helping them out.

  “So,” carried on Spear to the rest of the crowd, “those of you who have volunteered to go down into Dronios must do their level best not to do anything that might get anyone hurt. I know that retribution must be in all your minds as you fly down the mountain and that after centuries of them murdering our people, you’ll want to have your revenge, but you must keep this instinct in check.”

  “That’s not fair!” I shouted, standing up and knocking over my second cup of coffee. The waitress immediately ran over to mop up the spill. “My people are not murderers!”

  “How do you explain all of our people that have been murdered by yours then?”

  He had such a smug smirk on his face, I had half a mind to punch him in it. I didn’t want to point out that not a single dragon had been murdered, just imprisoned within the swords. He already knew that; he was just baiting me.

  “My people didn’t know you were shifters. Had they known, we would have let you be. We thought the dragons were a threat to our safety. That is why we became slayers.”

  “Slayers. Yes, such an interesting term for a girl who doesn’t think of herself as a murderer.”

  “Spear,” Ash stood, matching my own indignation. “You’ve gone too far. You know as well as I do that Julianna isn’t a murderer. Hasn’t the fact that she’s just agreed to help you been enough proof for you?”

  “Maybe not,” replied Spear, “but she’s wrong about her people not knowing. Maybe she’s just ignorant of it, but her people have always known.”

  I didn’t like being called ignorant, but the alternative was worse—that my family and I had always known about the dragons being shifters and I was lying about it.

  “I am not ignorant and I’m not lying. I know my family and I know my friends. They would never harm another soul.” I was still shouting and I didn’t care. I was the only one here that could defend my people.

  “Interesting choice of words considering that’s exactly what your people have been doing for centuries. I didn’t mean to call you ignorant, but the fact of the matter is, the slayers have known about us being shifters for centuries. There’s a book about it in the library here in town that I’m sure we can check out.”

  “Maybe it’s a work of fiction?” I tried desperately, sitting back down in my seat. Another cup of coffee had magically appeared on the table in front of me. I had to be careful not to spill this one.

  “It’s called The History of Frokontas. Does that sound like a work of fiction to you?”

  He directed the question at me but didn’t wait for an answer. Not that I was planning on giving him one anyway.

  “In the book, there is a whole chapter about the slayers. It is said that there was a meeting way back when between the elder from Dronios and the elder from Frokontas. They sat with each other and discussed their differences. It was made very clear to your elder at the time that we were shifters and that we were a peace-loving people, but your elder refused to cease slaying. He said it was all his people had ever known and they would keep fighting us until there wasn’t a dragon left in the sky.”

  “That can’t be!” I cried out. Surely the book was wrong. I looked to Ash for support, but he only whispered that he’d read the book too.

  “Let’s be clear on one thing, Julianna. Humans have always had a deep mistrust of shifters. From the battles of the wolves in the north to the war of the sea-shifters in the east, humans have never let us be. Where there is a community of shifters, there is a settlement of humans who believe it is their destiny to destroy them. Your village is no different.”

  He was right, but how could he possibly be? He’d used practically the same words my father had said to me—that it was our destiny to destroy them. How could my father have known? How could he have kept this from me, his own flesh and blood, his own daughter? I remembered the words he said to me the day before my birthday. After today you will know everything there is to know about being a slayer. You will learn our secrets.

  At the time, I thought he was talking about learning to fight, but maybe he was going to tell me that the dragons were shifters. Maybe he knew all along. Jasper knew too. I remembered how haughty he had been about me not knowing everything.

  They were going to tell me after my first kill. Once I’d already killed a dragon—or thought I had—it would have been too late to back out. I’d already be a murderer. The memory of all those parties came back to me. All the times we danced around the body of a dragon and celebrated the kill. They had known that it was a person. How could anyone do that, let alone a whole village? And they must have known. Everyone killed a dragon on their eighteenth birthday. There were few exceptions. Many didn’t carry on in the pursuit of killing them, but almost everyone had blood on their hands. The thought made me sick.

  I stood up quickly and ran into the café bathroom. Once there, I retched but nothing came up. Looking in the bathroom mirror while washing my hands, I wasn’t surprised to see I’d been crying. My eyes were red-rimmed and salty tears had left tracks down my grimy face. I’d not even felt the tears falling. Perhaps I was in shock.

  Someone knocked at the bathroom door.

  “Julianna? Are you ok?” It was Ash.

  “Not really.” I splashed water on my face before stepping out of the bathroom. As soon as I’d closed the door behind me, he enveloped me into a soothing hug. I hated him seeing me like this again, all sad and misty-eyed. I’d been brought up as a warrior, not a cry baby.

  “My whole life has been a lie. I swear I never knew.”

  “I know, Julianna. I’ve already told you I believe you. Whether your ancestors knew is another matter.”

  I pulled back and looked him in the eye. “You say ancestors as though they all died long ago. We’re talking about my father, my mother, everyone! Is what Spear said the truth?”

  “I’ve read the book he talked about. Everyone here has. We don’t have school here like you do, but we’re taught by our parents from a young age, and that book is the most frequently checked out book from the library.”

  “I can’t believe it. I just can’t.”

  “I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. That book was written a long time ago about a conversation that happened a long time before that. Stories change over time. What’s to say this one didn’t? For all we know, the two elders were drinking mead together and having a good time like old friends. It doesn’t sound too dramatic now, does it?” Ash shrugged his shoulders. “The author had to add some excitement in there so he fabricated a fight.”

  I punched him playfully on the shoulder. “You’re just teasing me.”

  “I wanted to see you smile, that’s all.”

  “What now?” Outside, Spear appeared to have moved on to some other topic as he gestured wildly at the burned remains of the building.

  “Now we carry on with our plan.”

  “To get the swords?”

  “Yes, that is important. We need our people back, but that is Spear’s plan. Our plan is to make the dragons and the slayers see eye to eye.”

  I sighed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen in a hurry. Not if what Spear said is true.”r />
  “When my dad was taken from us, I was so angry. I wanted to go down the mountain and burn all your houses and hurt as many of you as I could.”

  “What stopped you?” I was fascinated to hear this. It didn’t seem like Ash at all.

  “Lucy. She asked me what that would solve and I realized she was right. It would solve nothing. Killing your people wouldn’t bring my father back; it would just make the slayers angrier so they would come after more dragons. It was a self-perpetuating circle of hate, and I decided right there to break it. Of course, I could only think and act for myself, not for others, so the hate continued, but I’ve tried very hard to make the dragons see both sides of the story and not just what they want to see.”

  I looked at him and realized how brave he was. I wouldn’t have been able to do the same if I were in his position.

  I leaned forward, full of a need I’d not known before and brushed his lips with mine. This was nothing like the small peck I’d given him all those days before on the training ground with Stone and Ally. This was a kiss brought about by a fear of my past and a yearning to be with another person who understood what I was going through. I was aware that I was using the kiss to take away my pain, but perhaps it would take away some of his too. The intensity of the feelings rushing through me took me by surprise as our lips worked together. When he eventually pulled back, I knew that for both our sakes, the plan had to work.

  “Come on. We should go back outside. They’ll be wondering where we are.”

  “Can’t we just stay in here forever?” I asked, only half-joking, but I knew we couldn’t. Sooner or later, we’d have to go back to reality.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  To give Spear his due, he didn’t make any mention of my sudden disappearance. The talk had turned very animated in my absence and it seemed they were discussing how the new town hall should look.

  “I’ll tell you everything you need to know, but we have to do it now.” I didn’t want to give myself time to change my mind.

  Everyone stopped talking and, not for the first time, all eyes were on me.

  “Okay then,” said Spear, looking directly at me. “I think we should discuss this somewhere a little less crowded. You can come to my house. Those of you that have agreed to go to the slayer village can come with us. Everyone else, thank you for your input, but I think we should adjourn this meeting here.”

  The sound of a hundred chairs being pulled back all at once filled the air. A group of people walked over to Spear. Ally was among them, as was the girl who had been with Stone at the time of his soul being taken. I didn’t recognize the rest apart from Lucy, who had pulled away from Edeline and Fiere.

  “I think you are a little too small to fight, Lucy,” Ash said with a grin, ruffling her hair.

  “Fight? Who said anything about fighting?” I asked, feeling nervous at what I was about to do.

  “You know what I mean,” he said to me. To Lucy, he said, “Go with Mom and Dad. I’ll be home later.”

  “I can fight!” she said, pulling herself up to her full height which wasn’t much. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at her older brother with indignation.

  He kissed her lightly on the cheek. “I know you can, but we want to give the slayers a chance, don’t we?”

  I knew he was joking, but his words made my stomach churn.

  “You’ve not seen Dad in a year. I have to go to this meeting because Julianna needs me, but Dad would be awfully upset if neither of his children was there for his homecoming.”

  She seemed to weigh it in her mind, then jogged back to her parents.

  “Sorry about how I phrased it. I hope there won’t be any fighting, but she’s so young and doesn’t really know what’s going on. It was easier to word it like I did than explain.”

  “Surely that’s precisely the reason we’re in this mess in the first place?” I ventured.

  “Okay, everyone,” began Spear, not leaving Ash time to respond. “Let’s go.”

  Frokontas was a small place so it didn’t take long until we were at Ash’s house on the opposite end of town. There were quite a few farms and pretty houses dotted around the landscape, but it didn’t take a genius to guess which one belonged to Spear.

  It was the largest house in the whole town and the only one that had more than two stories. Made out of white painted wood, it rose from the ground like a monolith. On the very top was a landing pad, but it was not there that we entered. Instead, we walked up a tree-flanked walkway to a huge door that must have been ten feet tall.

  “It’s so I can entertain people in their dragon form,” he explained as he opened the door. “I don’t like people coming in from the top and going through my house.”

  I followed him into a huge hallway with a polished floor and a wide, sweeping staircase.

  A woman in a smart white uniform appeared. “Sir, can I get you anything?”

  “Just bring some lemonade into the parlor, please. I think we’ve all had enough coffee to last a lifetime.”

  She curtsied and left through the door she had come from.

  The parlor was a huge room with large windows that made it much brighter than the entrance hall had been.

  Even though there were about twenty of us, we all found somewhere to sit comfortably on the sofas that were spread around the room.

  “So,” I began, feeling nervous. What I was about to do was a betrayal to my whole family. I cleared my throat and started again. “So, the swords. Everyone in Dronios gets one on their eighteenth birthday. They’re all unique, although they all look similar to mine.” I held my sword aloft for them to see.

  “This one is light because it has never killed another being or taken a soul. Essentially, it’s just a piece of hollow metal.”

  “You make your swords hollow?” someone asked. “Surely that would make them weaker.”

  “These are special swords. Yes, they are hollow. They need to be to hold souls but don’t make the mistake of thinking that weakens them. They are imbibed with goblin magic.”

  “The goblins make them?” he asked, impressed now.

  I knew why. Anything made by goblins was expensive. They mined the metal in the Triad Mountains and put their own magic into everything they made. Those that could afford it invariably ordered magic crowns, necklaces or other jewelry, but the slayers decided that was a waste of magic long ago and commissioned swords instead. Each one cost as much as a house in Dronios, but it was worth it. If a slayer lost their sword, they’d never be able to afford another one.

  “Yes, so you can understand that this isn’t going to be easy. Now I know that I said everyone in the village over the age of eighteen had a sword. That’s true, but there are also others. When a person dies, their sword is deemed too special to give to someone else so they’re put in the village stronghold.”

  “That’s fine. We’ll just go in there after we’ve found the other swords,” said Ash.

  “Not quite. I don’t know where it is. I only know it exists because my mother told me that my grandfather’s sword was put in there when he died ten years ago.”

  “This is going to be much harder than I imagined,” said Spear. He’d not sat down yet but was instead pacing the room while I spoke. “We need a map. How are your drawing skills?”

  He didn’t wait for me to answer before unrolling a length of parchment on a table at the edge of the room and handing me a pot of ink and a quill.

  I closed my eyes, trying to picture just how my village would look from above. On the far left of the paper, I drew a small square to symbolize my house. Of course, that had been burnt down, and I didn’t know where my family was staying, but I felt that I should put it on the map anyway. If the dragons were flying in, they’d need to get the full picture. To the right, I drew the track that led to the heart of the village and a big circle to denote the center, with five houses around it. Then, to the far right, I drew another house. There were others of course, but as I drew the map, it o
ccurred to me that only seven of them mattered. The seven I’d drawn in belonged to the founding families of the village and the only ones that were really considered slayers. In each building, I put a large cross, before filling in another few houses.

  “What do the crosses mean?” Spear asked, looking over my shoulder.

  “Dronios is a slayer village, but that doesn’t mean that everyone in the village is a slayer. There are seven main families in the village. These are the ones that have swords, or at least the ones that have swords like mine. I’ve marked a cross in the houses where I know there will be the most valuable sword.”

  “Ok, seven families. Got it. Can you write the number of swords in each household next to it on the map? That way, we’ll have a good idea what we’re up against.”

  I nodded my head. Next to my house, I wrote the number four before crossing it out and writing three. I’d forgotten for a second that I had my own sword with me. Next to it, I drew a question mark.

  “This is my house,” I explained to Spear. “It burned down the other night and I don’t know where my family is.”

  I was just about to write a five beside the next house when the maid bustled in with a large try of cups and a jug of lemonade.

  “I’m afraid we ‘e using the table, so you’ll all have to pour your own lemonade and pass the jug around.” Spear turned back to the chart.

  I mentally added up everyone in the village and wrote the numbers in.

  “Thirty-three,” said Spear adding the numbers. “There are thirty-three people in your village with slayer swords?”

  “Thirty-four,” I replied, indicating mine. “Mine is the only empty one though. As I’ve only just turned eighteen, mine is the newest in the village. You’ve got to remember the ones that were owned by my ancestors though. I have no way of knowing just how many there are.” I drew another box at the top of the paper and put a large question mark in it. Underneath I wrote “Stronghold.”