Page 21 of The Diamond Dragon Prince
Leo slowed down as we approached the part of the castle where he explained in a quick whisper that his and his brothers’ bedchamber was located. I suspected his reason for slowing down as we approached and was proven right when we peered around the last corner to find four bored guards loungingin front of the door.
Two of the guards were playing some sort of dice game while sitting on the floor. One of the others was sitting in a corner, arms crossed, eyes closed, snoring. The fourth stood with his back against the door, picking his teeth with his fingernail.
“Your father doesn’t think much of you princes if these are the men he’s put in charge of guarding you,” I said with a bitter smirk.
“My father doesn’t think much of us at all,” Leo sighed. He swung back around the corner to look at me and whisper, “Do you think you can draw them away from the door?”
I grinned with particularly dragon-like zeal. “Easily.”
I gestured for Leo to lean back against the wall with me, and after reviving the spell to make us unnoticeable, I called out, “Guards! You four! Attend me at once!”
The order came out in King Freslik’s voice. Mimicking voices was a party trick I’d mastered, but never imagined using in any serious context. It worked, though. From where we waited around the corner, Leo and I could only hear the sudden scramble and clumsy shuffle as the guards leapt to attention.
“Your Majesty?” one of them asked.
“Follow me!” I shouted in Freslik’s voice. “You’re too slow! Attend me in the throne room!”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” all four of the guards grunted and blurted.
A moment later, the four of them rushed around the corner. They breezed right past us, not noticing Leo and I were there at all, and hurried on down the hall, as though they believed they were at fault for losing sight of their liege.
“I wish I could do that trick,” Leo laughed as we turnedthe corner and sped up to the door to the omega prince’s bedchamber. “I can think of a dozen times when it would have come in handy.”
“Given time, I’m sure you could do it,” I said as we reached the door and worked to lift the bar keeping it closed, then to turn the lock. When Leo looked at me with excited questioning, I said, “You’re a dragon’s mate. You share my magic. It takes time to learn to use it, but you have all the time in the world now.”
“I do?” Leo asked breathlessly.
I laughed as we turned the last lock. “Dragons live so long we are considered immortal, and our mates live as long as we do.”
“You mean I won’t ever die?” Leo’s eyes went wide with surprise.
“We all die eventually,” I said. “You and I will be blessed with a very long life indeed, though. If we can avoid being killed in an effort to defeat your father.”
There wasn’t time for all the questions I could feel Leo suddenly had about our future. As soon as we opened the door, Prince Rumi, Prince Misha, and Prince Obi leapt up from where they’d been reading, or in Prince Misha’s case, mending, in an arrangement of chairs in the center of the room.
“Leo?” Prince Rumi asked, coming forward ahead of the others. “What are you doing here?”
“Why are you coming in this way instead of—” Prince Obi glanced back to one of the bed, then blushed and glanced to me, as if he wasn’t certain he could reveal secrets in front of me.
“We need your help,” Leo said, gesturing for his brothers to leave their bedchamber and follow us. “Father’s mercenary army attacked the village of Berk and kidnappedmany of their people. And just now, we heard Father and some of his advisors talking about this vile work camp he has established. We need to do whatever we can to find out where it is so that we can?—”
We’d only just reached the end of the hallway outside the princes’ bedchamber when the voice that I’d just imitated rang from the connecting hallway.
“I would never demean myself by calling the likes of you to my throne room,” King Freslik shouted in a temper. “You have one job and one alone, to guard the princes.”
There was no time to change course or open a doorway so that we could escape. A second later, King Freslik turned the corner, the four guards and two advisors with him. The omega princes pulled up short, eyes wide, as our two groups converged.
“You!” King Freslik bellowed, glaring at his sons. I could tell from the way he looked at them that he saw only three of them and not Leo. The cloaking magic I’d used earlier was still in effect. “How dare you?” Freslik went on. He turned to the guards. “How dare you allow my sons to escape. Are you in league with the sorceress?”
“We didn’t…They weren’t…Your Majesty,” all four of the guards stammered their weak defense, bowing and lowering themselves.
Prince Rumi stood straighter, valiantly taking charge. “We’ve heard about your wicked plot to keep your own people prisoner in a work camp, Father,” he said. “We won’t let you get away with this.”
King Freslik looked shocked at first, then his eyes narrowed. “If you are so concerned about the fate of a few, pitiful peasants, then perhaps you should share their fate,” he said.
I felt Leo tense by my side and through our bond, butnot with fear or horror. My omega had just been struck by an idea. “Yes,” he said, stepping forward and breaking the spell that kept him hidden. “We should experience it for ourselves.”
King Freslik blinked and shook his head as he noticed his other son. His brow knit with suspicion, but instead of contradicting Leo, he snapped, “Guards! Take these sniveling omega whores to the work camp at once.”
