Page 28 of The Diamond Dragon Prince
“He was overheard saying that someone had offered to buy the princes,” a young omega man added, glancing to the three of us as if he might never trust another alpha for the rest of his life.
“Buy them?” I asked, instantly furious. “Who would dare?”
“We have no idea,” Milosh said. “Baylin is as corrupt as could be. Well,wascorrupt. He was one of the first to go when our rebellion began this morning.”
I nodded. That was all I needed to know about the fight. What the villagers did to avenge themselves was their business. I only wanted to find Leo.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and reached out to him through our bond. It was much stronger, now that we were in the same world. I could feel his presence to my right, though he was many miles away.
“You’ve bonded, I see,” Emmerich said, interrupting my concentration. “You lot are in such a hurry to domesticate yourselves. But I suppose bonds have their use.”
I ignored his teasing as now was not the time for it.
“They’re that way,” I said, pointing to the western horizon.
“Then that’s the way we go,” Azurus said, setting off at once. “Are you coming?” he asked Emmerich as he passed him.
“Of course.”
I turned to the freed villagers even as I started walking after them. “Congratulations on freeing yourselves. You are good and strong people, and I know that you will ultimately be victorious.”
“Thank you,” Milosh called after us.
I heard him but didn’t acknowledge him. My mind was already ahead of me, plotting how I could rescue my beloved from whoever would dare to purchase him.
Leo
For the secondtime in the same day, my brothers and I were tied up and thrown in a vehicle. Only this time, we were bound with ropes instead of shackles, and we had blindfolds put over our eyes.
I couldn’t decide if it was better or worse than the way our father had disposed of us from the castle. I didn’t like not being able to see and I felt as sick and sore as ever, but the wagon bed was filled with hay and blankets, and we were even given bread, cheese, and water after we were settled.
It wasn’t an ordinary kidnapping.
That didn’t stop Misha from weeping and sniffling as he lay pressed against my side. The rocking of the wagon and the exhaustion of the day had lulled us to sleep, but when we woke up as the first rays of morning light brought a hint of warmth and some small bit of light under the bottom edge of my blindfold, Misha was still breathing heavily and sniffing beside me.
“It’ll be alright,” I told him, rolling as much as I could toward him. My arms were bound in front of me so I couldn’t hug him properly, but I did find and hold his hands. “We are the mates of dragons. No harm can come to us for long.”
“I hope you’re right,” Misha said in a trembling voice.
“You might want to sit up and remove your blindfolds,” Rumi said.
I realized then how loose my blindfold was, and by rubbing my head against the bottom of the wagon, I was able to remove it entirely. I then lifted my head to see that Rumi and Obi were sitting and looking in the direction the wagon was traveling. I took a moment to struggle, helpingMisha remove his blindfold with my teeth, until Misha and I were sitting with them.
“Where are we?” I asked, checking the surrounding countryside.
For most of our lives, my brothers and I had been kept close to the castle. We’d been able to ride off into the countryside closest to the castle from time to time, though not for years. Villages like Berk were so far beyond any of the places I’d ever traveled within my own kingdom. Now, as I glanced around at the rolling hills and fields of grass, the edge of a forest in the distance one way and what looked like a great, meandering river in the other, I realized that I knew far too little of my own kingdom.
If we were still in my father’s kingdom.
“We must be in the hinterlands,” Rumi answered me.
I nodded, but was too distracted by what I realized was in front of us to give him proper acknowledgement.
We were heading toward a camp. Not a work camp, like we’d come from, or a camp filled with useless mercenary soldiers, like Diamant and I had had so much fun confusing the other night. No, we were headed straight toward what looked like an organized, well-appointed army camp.
There weren’t any walls or barriers, telling me it was a moving camp. There were soldiers, however. Hundreds of them. They appeared clean and well-ordered. I could smell campfires and the beginnings of breakfast cooking. Flags on long poles flapped in the breeze marking what could have been specific areas or leaders within the camp. They all bore the same sigil, though.
They bore the sigil of a dragon.
