are honorable we admit to those mistakes, accept our punishment and move on with our honor and dignity intact. This has always been the way of dragon warriors. I have no complaints, for it clarified much to my mind that was a jumble of thoughts before.”
Korak refills my mug with ale and then finally drops back down beside his queen.
“I learned that having multiple queens in our midst is going to make life much more complicated than before. We must rely upon the goodwill and intelligence of our queens moving forward. The queens of our clade will need to cease giving conflicting commands and learn to work cooperatively together. I will not have my scions subjected to the same punishment that befell me for failing to follow conflicting commands given by our queens.” Thinking for a moment, I add some information for clarification. “My failure was magnitudes more grievous because I had been tasked with rescuing any vulnerable queens we encountered. Therefore, my poor judgement was seen also as a dereliction of duty. I do not believe you would face such harsh punishment for disagreements within our clade, but I have no wish to risk it.”
Looking from one queen to another, I make sure my next words are clear to all. “If there is dissension among the queens, their mates will remove them from our mountain home and seek out new territory to create a clade their own. It is the only way to protect ourselves from suffering the whims of our queens.”
Molly is the first to speak, although I can tell she is thunderstruck by my pronouncement. “We will cooperate. You can count on me to make it happen.”
Chantel nods her agreement as she clutches onto Korak. “I promise we won’t do anything to split your clade up. I know how close you all are.”
All eyes turn to Queen Pelop. She cringes away slightly. “Why are you all looking at me? I’ll do whatever it takes to get along. I don’t even have a male to take me anyplace safe.”
Pleased with our precious queens, I continue. “Now I speak to the part that is important to my heart. I wish to make Juliet my queen. She spoke to me today and made it clear she is open to selecting me.”
Again, my clade is shocked by hearing this news. I can tell because they all wear similar expressions communicating as much. If I expected negative feedback from Queen Pelop, I would have been mistaken. Her face is blank and she simply nods when I glance her way.
Queen Molly’s head drops forward until her chin hits her chest. After a moment of silence, she gently queries me. “Are you certain this is what you want?”
I dip my head, indicating in the affirmative. My wings are tight against my back and my tail is wrapped around the leg of my chair, as if it will ground me in case my clade explodes.
Chantel makes her thoughts known. “My mother once said that mating with you wouldn’t prove to be a hardship. I thought she was making another point, but now I think she was trying to tell me that she saw you as a potential mate.”
“Your dame told me this very day that she feels we are well-suited for one another, and I am inclined to agree. However, I well know of human mating traditions. I studied them in great detail in the hopes of securing queens for my scions. It never occurred to me to wish for my own queen until my eyes fell upon your dame. To my mind, she is all a queen should be.”
“She’d be amazed to hear you say that, because she’s convinced that she’s screwed up everything she’s touched lately.”
I am familiar with this screw up term, for Queen Molly says it when her sweets do not turn out like she expects. “In the before times, when we were under the claw of the Draconian queens, it was thought that queens could do no wrong. No matter what decision they made, it must be the correct one because they were a queen.”
Chantel laughs. “That’s a nice bit of circular reasoning.”
I grin at our smart and clever queen. “I can now see with new eyes. We were taught much nonsense by our former queens. But it matters not, for now we are ruled by human queens. Queen Cassandra has declared that males do not have to follow the commands of queens when they wish to mate with us.