Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
For a moment, no one moved. It seemed liked no one was even breathing.
“Abe?” Gunter finally exhaled.
“The Lost Clan?” Dieter asked.
Gunter took a shaky step backward toward the chair he’d likely been sitting in earlier and attempted to sit. But his backside seemed to skim the edge of the seat, and he ended up on the floor entirely. His gaze never wavered from Sora, his expression dazed and filled with what looked to be wonder.
Dieter looked as if he were about to join Gunter on the floor but managed to catch enough of his chair to keep from hitting the carpet.
Sora was most anxious to see Ravi’s reaction and jerked around to find Ravi simply staring at him with his mouth hanging open. He didn’t seem to know how to process this information, and it was clear he needed another second.
King Alric looked pale. No one was paying attention to the fact that Gunter had yet to pick himself up off the floor.
Oh dear. Maybe he should have eased them into this a bit more.
“I thought this might be shocking, but—”
A loud bark of laughter erupted from King Alric, and it woke everyone up from their trance. Gunter sputtered and clambered gracelessly into his chair while Ravi stumbled over to the nearby sofa, looking as if his legs were going to give out.
“Shocking, yes. The Lost Clan—sorry, the Sodalicium, I…well, we weren’t sure if they even existed any longer,” King Alric started.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at Sora wordlessly for a moment. He rubbed his right hand across his mouth and then shook his head.
“I remember the remnants of various dragon and mage clans banding together and deciding to go off somewhere hidden, but there were few mates among them.”
“And there has been no word from the Lost Clan in over five hundred years,” Dieter added.
Sora shifted from one foot to the other, a feeling of unease slithering through his stomach. He’d always understood why the people of the Abe clan and the other dragons and mages who made up the Sodalicium kept to themselves. He’d heard plenty of stories about the war and how so many dragons and mages had lost their lives to the Jaeggi. It was all too clear that they’d felt the need to protect themselves.
But it wasn’t until he’d come to stay with the Burkhard Clan that he’d learned how the other mages and dragons had suffered and struggled on their own because of the Sodalicium’s decision. Knowing what he did now, he wished that he’d somehow known about them before. That he had asked more questions and gotten here that much sooner. It pained him to think they’d been on their own this long.
“We certainly don’t blame the members of the Sodalicium for choosing their path,” King Alric said, as if he could read the guilt that was swirling in Sora’s stomach.
“Thank you, King Alric,” Sora replied with a slight bow of his head. “From my understanding, the dragons and mages that would become the Lost Clan traveled east. We settled in a hidden valley in a mountainous region near the Indian-Nepalese border. There, we were able to stay apart from much of the world. We shared all the knowledge we had, wrote down everything.”
A little whimper escaped Gunter, and Ravi cackled wildly at him.
“All that knowledge. We’ve been trying to recover so much knowledge that has been lost over the years. And now there’s a chance some of it is actually with the Sodalicium,” Gunter said in a slightly choked voice.
“Yes, we’ve managed to preserve much.” Sora looked up at King Alric to find the dragon frowning down at his desktop. “I’ve already petitioned my family to share our records, and they’ve agreed.”
King Alric’s frown eased a bit. “Thank you. We’ve done the best we could, but being able to regain what was lost to us would be an amazing boon to me and mine. Our lack of knowledge and smaller numbers have hampered us. Gaining access to your clan’s knowledge will be immensely helpful. Thank you.”
“But why did you return now?” Dieter inquired.
Ravi darted up to place his hand on Sora’s arm and lightly squeezed. A look of intense worry filled his eyes. “The Jaeggi haven’t found your clan, have they?”
“No,” Sora said, and Ravi breathed an immediate sigh of relief. “We’ve heard not a peep from the Jaeggi in all this time. In fact, we’d begun to hope that they’d all been wiped out.”
King Alric grinned. “The interviews.”
Sora nodded, huffing a small laugh.
“Yes. Many of us watched your interview with Cameron with a mix of great interest and surprise.” His expression twisted into something a bit wry. “While we have been hidden, we have tried to keep up with news and technology. We’ve seen the rumors on the internet over the years about dragon sightings. We knew we weren’t the only ones left, but when you conducted that interview, we—no, I thought that we’d become too cut off from our own kind. It was clear that things have changed in the past five centuries. While the Sodalicium might not be ready to come out to the entire world, I thought we needed to at least be in contact with our own kind.”