CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cami
Cami looked up at the towering, foreboding facade of the building the dragon Elders used for their tribunals, feeling her heart starting to beat faster. She had given cavalier answers to anyone who had questioned her about her participation in the tribunal, but actually walking toward the entrance of the building, knowing only a little about what lay in front of her—and the Overtons—was a different matter.
Lachlan and Eoin had been very informative on the subject of the power the Elders wielded in dragon affairs, even if they hadn’t told her any specifics of how the trial would go. The Elders were the oldest, most powerful dragons; it wasn’t just a question of hitting a certain age and getting to join the ranks. The Elders had the strongest abilities, and Lachlan had hinted that as they grew older, their draconic characteristics started to dominate more and more—both in their physical appearance and in their personalities.
“Dragons can live up to two, three hundred years; we used to live longer, but making the change to have a human form makes long lives harder,” Eoin had explained. “The Elders are all north of a hundred, and most of them don’t ‘officially’ exist anymore. They have an official death when they reach an age that is just shy of records, and then go into hiding.”
Cami had wondered at the fact that a group of people who the governments of the world agreed didn’t exist could wield power over anyone; but then, she thought, if they were the most powerful, most experienced dragons, it made an odd kind of sense.
She spotted the Overton contingent in the lobby of the building, with the Egan group standing on the opposite corner of the big, vaulting space. The building was easily as tall as the standard Manhattan landmark, but something about even just the lobby space told Cami that there were not nearly as many floors—that instead, each level was tens of feet in height. Did they design it so that someone could change into a dragon without breaking anything? The lobby would otherwise have been perfectly in place in any other building in the world: marble tiled floors, discreetly greige walls, no ostentatious markers that wealthy and powerful beings had the use of it.
Cami started to approach the Overton men and then stopped short, feeling the Egan contingent’s gazes on her. If she went to the Overton cousins, she would be declaring her informal allegiance right away. Her conversations with different representatives of the local dragon families had given Cami the definite feeling that she needed to hang back as much as possible, avoid any obvious moves to take the side of any one clan before she had a chance to testify to the Elders. The Egans needed to think that there was a possibility they would side with her; the Overtons needed the security of her not obviously siding with them, potentially wrecking their defense against the Egans’ accusations. Cami sighed and settled in to wait, standing by herself, for things to get started.
It became obvious to Cami very quickly that each group wanted to approach her, to try and get her to side with them before the tribunal happened, right before it happened. She thought about what Vanessa Egan had said: that the situation between the Egans and the Overtons was like the Hatfields and the McCoys, that they were acting out a longtime feud and would just keep acting it out. She had her doubts about the Egans’ perspective on things, but she had to give credit to the matriarch’s forthright description of the rivalry. The Overtons hadn’t exactly covered it up either, but it was one thing for them to say that the Egans wanted to take them out, and another for the Egans to own up to it.
The big double doors at the end of the lobby opened up, and a group of older—but not Elder—dragons appeared, dressed in formalwear that Cami thought was probably fit more in a medieval period piece than a twenty-first century gathering of any kind. Stitched onto the fronts of the outfits were emblems—like the tattoos she’d seen on all four Overton men—in different colors. It was like the courier’s suit, but instead of a multitude of colors, each representative only sported embroidery in one color, one pattern. One of the representatives, who Cami didn’t recognize, looked around the lobby, seemingly counting heads.
“Now that everyone has arrived and is ready, the tribunal will begin,” the man said.
Cami took advantage of the relative lack of attention on herself to suss out what the different representatives’ secondary abilities were. The man who’d made the announcement had an affinity for metals; the woman next to him was adept at weather. One of the others had a secondary ability involving fire, which to Cami seemed like kind of a moot point when it came to a species that had, as a baseline, the ability to produce fire at will.
“Everyone will enter the tribunal chamber,” the man continued. “First, Egans as the accusing party, then Overtons as the defense party, and finally, Ms. Keane.”
“I am not Ms. Keane,” Cami said, scowling at the man. “My name is Camille Bakersfield.”
“In this chamber, you are Camille Keane,” the man told her. “Your relationship to dragon-kind is through your father.”
Cami thought about contesting that idea, but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble it would doubtless cause. She continued cataloging the different secondary abilities of the various dragons she saw instead, as first the Egan contingent and then the Overton group filed through the double doors. There was a brief moment when Cami considered not participating at all, one way or another; what could they do if she just turned around and left the building? But there was too much riding on the tribunal, and Cami knew that she had better encounter the Elders sooner rather than later.
She moved forward, not making eye contact with the Elders’ representatives as she walked past them through the doors. The chamber truly deserved its name; even as she first stepped into it, Cami could tell that it was even more spacious than the lobby, with a ceiling that might have been at the top of the building itself. It was circular, with the Elders—apparent by their signs of age and the energy humming around them, visible to Cami’s enhanced eyes—in a balcony overlooking the floor. They were dressed in what looked like hopelessly outdated clothes, and some of the pairs of eyes that looked down at her had more of a dragon-like appearance than human. The Egans and the Overtons faced the group of would-be judges, each group off to one side, leaving a space in the middle for Cami. She took the obvious position, directly in the middle, and felt the Elders watching her intently. After a moment, the doors behind her closed with a heavy thud.
“We are here today to decide a very complicated issue,” one of the Elders—a man who had the secondary ability of being able to read minds, like Dylan—said. “The Egans have accused the Overton clan of engaging in highly criminal behaviors in the hopes of enriching themselves. Egans: state your accusations for the tribunal in detail.”
Jordan Egan stepped forward. “Beloved Elders,” Jordan said. “We heard that the Overton family had potentially abducted a dragon heir and were keeping her in their home, intent on activating her on their own. As we did further investigations, we had reason to believe that the heir in question wasn’t simply someone who didn’t know they had a draconic inheritance but instead a woman that all of us have been hoping to find: the lost Keane heir. In the interests of making sure that the Elders remained informed, we brought our concerns to you, and of course, this tribunal acted appropriately. However, the Overtons worked to thwart the process, to obstruct the issue so that they could keep the Keane heir to themselves.”
“This is the meat of the accusation, yes?” the man who’d spoken first asked.
“The fact that they didn’t bring this heir to the Elders’ attention, that they worked to cover up their crimes, is the primary complaint,” Jordan confirmed. “There is also the question of their attempts to bond the heir to their family before she had a chance to meet with any other members of our species, to learn more than their limited viewpoint.”
“This is where the situation becomes complicated,” one of the other Elders intoned. “There is the question of the prophecy. Has the Seer been given this girl’s blood?”
&
nbsp; “There is no need at this point for such verification,” a third Elder countered. “It has been confirmed that she is the blood of Keane. There’s no need to bring the Seer into this.”
“I believe there is,” the first of the Elders said. “The question of the prophecy is relevant here.”
“We should hear the Overtons’ answer to the accusations, and their justification for what they have done,” the third Elder said. “If there is a question of the validity of their understanding of the prophecy, we can consult the Seer then.”
Cami forced herself to remain as patient as possible as the group of Elders—she counted about a dozen—wrangled amongst themselves. How do they get anything done at all?
“We get things done by discussing them, young woman,” the Elder who was able to read minds said. “You young dragons always want to solve things the fastest way possible, but there is more damage done in the name of haste than anything else.”
“I will keep my thoughts quieter in the future,” Cami said, “though I would point out that it’s hardly courteous to eavesdrop.”
“The Keane girl has a point,” the second Elder said. “In regard to getting things done. Let us hear what the Overtons have to say for themselves, and then we can move forward.”
Jordan Egan stepped back to his group, and Alistair stepped forward. Cami could tell by the looks on some of the women Elders’ faces that Alistair was a favorite for reasons other than diplomatic manner. She could hope that the favoritism would serve him well.
“Beloved Elders,” Alistair began. “We will admit that we acted rashly in bringing Camille into our midst. But our actions are fully justified in history and in the context of who she is. Our understanding of the prophecy is that she must mate with one of our clan in order to produce the child that will save us all. The Egans are willing to put our entire species at risk to attempt to harm the Overton clan—where is the tribunal for them?”
“If you had concerns about the Egans’ long rivalry with your clan, it would have served you better to bring them to our attention when you found the Keane heir,” the third Elder pointed out.
“The age-old adage comes to mind: two wrongs don’t make a right,” an Elder—Cami thought it was one of the ones toward the back of the group—interjected.
“While the rivalry provides context for both the accusation and the event, it does not mean that the original event was right,” the first Elder said. “Did you abduct the Keane heir?”
“Technically, I both did and did not,” Alistair replied.
“You are your family’s representative to this body, and you participated in the alleged crime?” the second Elder asked.
“I encountered Camille at a club,” Alistair explained. “I immediately suspected who she was, and her name seemed to confirm my suspicions, since it matched up with the information we had from the Seer.”
“Get to the point, young man,” the third Elder said.
“I used my ability to hypnotize Camille into falling asleep,” Alistair said. “I brought her to our home and let her sleep in our guest room without molesting or harming her in any way. The next morning, my cousins and I made our case to her: she was perfectly welcome to leave if she wanted to, but we would prefer if she stayed and embraced the opportunity to become what she was destined to be.”
The Elders turned their attention onto Cami. “Is what he is saying true?”
Cami could feel the full weight of both the Egans’ and the Overtons’ gazes on her. “It is true that he made me fall asleep,” Cami said. “It is also true that there was no threat against me, no coercion. I was offered more than my annual salary to stay at the Overton residence with them for a week.”
“On the premise that you would fully become a dragon? And you didn’t state that you weren’t molested or harmed in any way,” the second Elder pointed out.
Cami considered as quickly as possible. “I will admit that the Overtons gave me limited information to start with,” she said. “They told me about being a dragon, but they didn’t tell me about becoming activated until later on.”
“And you weren’t harmed or molested in any way?” one of the other Elders insisted.
“They attempted to bond her!” one of the Egans protested.
“The night that I arrived, I was undressed and put into pajamas, into a bed,” Cami said. “While unconscious.”
“That is highly unethical but not exactly molesting her,” one of the Elders said. “For a human, likely mortifying. For one of our kind?”
“She was fully human at the time,” the second Elder pointed out. “And I doubt that it endeared her to the Overton clan overmuch.”
“I made sure to let them have it when I first woke up,” Cami said. A few of the Elders looked amused; most of them didn’t.
“The Keane heir was not in a position to consent to being taken to the Overton home,” the first Elder said. “This was remedied, somewhat, by giving her the freedom to leave.”
“But that is compromised by the slanted perspective they gave,” one of the other Elders countered.
“Can we verify that there is cause for concern on that point?”
Cami didn’t see who asked that.
“They took her and tried to brainwash her into believing they were the only people of our species she should associate with,” Jamie called out. “How can you just let something like that slide, especially knowing how important she is to all of us?”
“You will respect these proceedings,” the first Elder said.
“I think we can agree that the crime is not always in the result but the attempt and the intentions,” the second Elder intoned, ignoring Jamie’s outburst. “If someone attempts to steal but doesn’t make it to the door, they still attempted to steal.”
“But if someone attempts to steal but doesn’t make it to the door, they haven’t completed a theft,” one of the other Elders countered.
“Ultimately, the issue is this,” the first Elder said. “Knowing that the methods that the Overton clan used were not fully ethical: do they rise to the level of requiring us to act?”
“Yes, absolutely,” one of the other Elders replied. “They abducted an heir. They tried to manipulate her into choosing them, siding with them.”
“They had good reason to avoid the Egans,” another Elder said.
Cami could feel the tension ratcheting up in the room, and it wasn’t entirely the Elders that fueled it. The Egans were starting to shift and change; the Overtons were as well, their draconic essences reacting to the debate raging on about each of their clans.
“Are the Egans wronged? That is a material question here.”
“All other clans are wronged by an individual clan isolating an heir from the mating pool. That is why it’s against our laws.”
“The Egans made the accusation because the Overtons broke with our laws. They have not been personally wronged. The wrong is to us as the ruling body and to the community as a whole.”
As the debate raged, Cami watched the two rival clans shifting and moving even more, not necessarily transforming into their draconic forms but definitely taking on postures that told her that a fight was on the verge of breaking out. She could see it happen the instant before Jamie lunged in the direction of Nicholas; when the two dragons launched themselves at each other, Cami let out an instinctive, reactionary shout, without even knowing who she was trying to alert.
Everything erupted in chaos: the two clans pitched themselves into a physical fight, with wings and tails and other draconic features emerging. The space suddenly got much smaller, and Cami moved out of the way as the Elders struggled to regain control of the proceedings. All at once, there were two full dragons—each of them far larger than Cami could believe possible, given the human forms—clawing at each other, flapping wings. One was blue-green, with deeper scales almost black along his sides. The other was a vivid golden orange, with almost red scales toward his haunches.
It wasn’t just the presence of
actual dragons that was at issue either; Cami realized that the Egan men were using their abilities to try and fling and maneuver the Overtons, and that Alistair had stayed in his human form enough to use his hypnosis, singing words she couldn’t understand but which were having an effect all the same—not on her, but clearly on the Egans. She closed her eyes, her heart pounding, and felt her own ability throbbing at her temples. The Elders started to move instead of talking, and all Cami could think of was the need for everything to stop.
She reached out with her ability as broadly and widely as she could, identifying each of the dragons in the room by their unique energetic hums. Cami felt the switch in her mind, felt the ability hovering like something just under her fingertips. Everything needs to stop, she thought, and reached through her ability to nullify everyone in the room, all at once. She couldn’t stop the transformations from happening—that wasn’t in her talent—but she could put a stop to the use of the secondary abilities, and that might be enough to slow things down.
After a few moments, everyone realized what had happened, and Cami opened her eyes to see every eye—human and dragon alike—turned onto her. The Elders had managed to regain some of their composure, but they were obviously not pleased that their abilities were shut off, along with everyone else’s.
“Put her in iron,” the first Elder said.
“What? What the hell? All I did was try to reinstate some goddamn order!” Cami shouted.
Two of the representatives flanked her, holding iron chains with heavy shackles on them in their hands carefully. Cami realized they were wearing gloves to keep from having contact with the metal.
“This has gone on long enough, and far enough,” the first Elder said. “The Keane girl is clearly not safe to leave to her own devices until she can be taught the proper use of her ability.”
House Of Dragons (The Cami Bakersfield Saga Book 1) Page 20