Page 7 of The Diamond Dragon Prince
“Oh, I’ve no doubt,” the man on horseback, Rottum, said. “We’ll hold this lot hostage along with the rest of them.”
“The rest of them, sir?” the mercenary said.
“There won’t be enough room,” the second man on horseback said.
“Then we’ll make more room,” Rottum snapped. “King Freslik wants as many hostages as possible from among his people. He says they’ll be easier to control if we have a corral filled with their sons and daughters to threaten every time they step out of line.”
“Father is planning to take hostages from among his own people?” Rumi murmured behind where Leo and I crouched.
“Oh, sorry,” Rottum said, almost as if he’d heard Rumi but addressing the other man on horseback instead. “Not acorral, awork camp. All of those sons and daughters will be put to work for the benefit and glory of King Freslik.”
“Including this lot?” the other man asked.
“Yes, why not,” Rottum said, sounding as if he were having a grand evening. “They can work building more houses for the other hostages, I meanworkers, to live in.”
“You cannot take us away from our homes,” one of the villagers pleaded. “My omega is with child, and he’ll give birth any day now. He cannot work.”
“He’ll work if he knows what’s good for him,” Rottum said with a sniff.
“What should we do with this lot, then?” the lead mercenary asked.
“Round them up and move them on,” Rottum said. “We won’t reach the camp by daylight, but we can get part of the way there in a few hours.”
“Yes, sir,” the mercenary said.
The soldiers closed in on the villagers, forcing them to stand and jostling the poor people into a clump so they could be prodded and pushed on, as if they were cattle.
“What do we do?” Prince Obi asked as Leo and I turned toward him and Prince Rumi.
“Someone has to tell the others,” Prince Rumi said. “Maybe there’s a way we can reach out to the other villages of the kingdom to let them know what Father has planned.”
“Holding our own people hostage and forcing them to work is barbaric,” Leo said. “Every time I think Father has sunk as low as he can go, he finds something worse to do.”
“Can we stop him?” Prince Obi asked.
“Every tyrant can be stopped,” I said. “How we do that depends on the resources we have available, not to mention the care we need to take to make certain no one else is harmed.”
Leo glanced at me with a smile. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” he said.
I winked back at him, wishing on the one hand that we didn’t have the mercenaries of an evil king to battle, but relishing the opportunity to fight by my omega’s side on the other.
“Rumi, you should take Obi and head back to the pavilion to let the others know what’s going on,” Leo went on. “Diamant and I will follow the soldiers, and when they make camp tonight, we’ll do whatever we can to sabotage them and help the villagers to escape.”
“A brilliant and noble plan,” I said, nodding to my omega. I was game for this adventure if he was.
“Are you certain the two of you will be safe on your own?” Prince Rumi asked.
“I’m a dragon,” I reminded him.
“And I’m a prince with a will of iron,” Leo said in a similar tone of voice.
Prince Obi made a long, low sound. “They really are fated mates, aren’t they.”
Prince Rumi chuckled as he stood, offering his brother a hand so that he could stand as well. “I’m almost afraid to leave them behind because I know they’ll get into all sorts of trouble together.”
“That’s the best part,” Leo said, grinning at me.
Prince Rumi shook his head, then turned said to Prince Obi, “Come on. I assume the doorway will be where we left it?”
