it comes to decisions. That’s what drove them to move to their own city in the Forgotten Kingdom. They seldom even bother addressing the Council of the Dragonni now.” Ashera paused, then laughed lightly. “And now you know much more about my people than I had intended, but no harm, no foul, no damage.”
The last thing I wanted to meet was one of the dagoids, but I appreciated the fact that the Spiral Web took their name from one of nature’s architects.
“If you have no more questions, I should be off. I have to return to the island tonight. We’re meeting again to discuss—among other things—this meeting I’ve had with you today.” As she stood, Herne and the other men stood with her.
“Thank you for being so open with us. We need all the help we can get,” Herne said, holding out his hand. She extended hers.
Ashera regarded him solemnly. “You do need our help, and we need yours. Together, perhaps we can stave off the worst of the damage.”
A vision of the future rose up in my mind, with humans and Crypto alike enslaved, forced to work for Typhon, and forced to die to feed the hungry dragons.
“Ashera,” I said before she turned away. “We’ve established that the Luminous Warriors will eat humans…but…what do you eat? And the other dragons who make up the Celestial Warriors and Mountain Dreamers?”
She paused for a moment, then said, “Blue dragons eat mostly fish and seaweed and, of course, human food when we’re in our shiftings, as we call our human shapes. We also gain a certain amount of energy from being in the water. All dragons gain sustenance from eating large animals—or small, though something like a dog would be a snack. Silver and gold dragons can gain energy from being under the stars or the sun, respectively. Green dragons gain energy from the forests—from living among the trees. Black dragons are able to breathe in life force from being underground. Red dragons from being near magma or large fires, white—from the upper reaches of the world where the air is thin and the snow is deep. And shadow dragons, from the underworld.”
“So, humans, for example, would fall under the…”
“Large animal category. One of the reasons that the dragons are not nearly as numerous as we could be is the lack of food in the Forgotten Kingdom. There is food to go around, but we have kept to a strict protocol when it comes to laying eggs, and there are a number of hoops to jump through in order to be permitted a birthing license. But here…” She ducked her head. “Here, we could breed without end—humans breed so quickly, there would be an unending supply of food. Yet, regardless of that temptation, the Celestial Wanderers and the Mountain Dreamers do not yield. We will not help the Luminous Warriors enslave you, nor will we feed off your kind unless it’s in self-defense.”
With that, she turned and left the room. Angel silently followed her out to unlock the elevator for her.
I stared at the table. Typhon’s end game could spell the end of life as we knew it. If we didn’t stop him and the Luminous Warriors, we’d all be under enslavement and we’d not only provide free labor, but our very lives for the Dragonni’s continued existence.
“What do we do?” Talia asked. She stared at the table, unmoving. “Even when I had my powers, the harpies were never this deadly. We preyed on people, I admit that, and as a harpy I ate more than my share of…” She paused, looking miserable. “As a harpy, we fed on humans as well. But we never set out to enslave them.”
“Ogres seldom forage for humans, though I won’t say that’s never happened.” Viktor rubbed his temples. “Herne, when will you tell the others about this? They need to know.”
“I texted my mother and father while we were sitting here, but I’ll go…I can’t tonight, we have to meet Dormant Reins in the Catacombs. I’ll go tomorrow. Ember, will you and Yutani do the intake on Henny Jessaphy?”
I nodded. “Yes, of course. When will you leave?”
“After we talk to Dormant Reins, I’ll go. This will take a little time. I’ll text for Morgana to gather the gods to meet at dawn.” He looked preoccupied. “All right, back to work. Given the severity of the issue at this point, I think we need to devote most of our time to finding Pandora, Gyell, Aso, and