Melting the Ice Witch by Mell Eight Page B

wish to remain autonomous," Lor finally spoke. "Your king is not our king."
    Bast didn't look surprised at that demand. "That's understandable. I believe the precedent is to apply hoard law?" he asked, turning to Nyle for confirmation.
    But Nyle was shaking his head in the negative. "That has been the stance taken with the werewolves and the maji, true, but they were not already part of a hoard. The White Dragon and the Eldest must come to an official decision first, but I believe that total autonomy and perhaps an official peace treaty signed by all sides would be better in this case. I can sign for the dragons, Leon for the wolves, you for the humans, Bast, and Evan can sign for the maji," he finished with a nod for the strange feeling human in Bast's group.
    "That is certainly an option," Bast agreed, but before he could say more a giant shadow swooped over them, startling the sled dogs and the horses. Kam looked up and saw a flash of pale white high in the sky.
    White had arrived as promised.
    A second gigantic shadow flew overhead, also high in the sky, but the shocked and frozen reaction from both Nyle and Tori proved to Kam what he could already feel: age, immense age even older than White, and no small bit of anger. White was angry too, but the Eldest's rage flared stronger. Something intense had happened between them a very long time ago, because the feelings Kam was getting from the golden speck high in the sky were deep and personal.
    Then the two shadows collided in midair.
    Fire flared high above, countered swiftly by a jet of ice. Claws grabbed and missed, wings beating furiously to keep them aloft and out of harm's way.
    "Are they fighting?" Tori asked, sounding horribly betrayed.
    "It will be okay," Jerney soothed softly. "You fight with Bast all the time, but you still like him," he added, garnering a sharp look from Bast for the comment.
    Tori nodded. "I just wish they would get to the making up stage already."
    Kam could feel pain up above and knew that someone had scored a hit. It took the blood a few seconds to hit the ground, but when it did Nyle and Tori both moaned.
    Toel came diving into their camp, panting for breath and too flustered to begin shifting forms. "They must be stopped!" he gasped. "If the Eldest dies society crumbles and if White dies so too do the ice wastes."
    He was followed by a red dragon, who shifted form into a willowy female. She quickly joined Jerney in holding Tori still. "He's actually flying," she breathed. "It's been centuries since he left the ground."
    "Have you ever wondered why?" Lor asked.
    "I asked him once, when I was younger," the woman, who Kam guessed was most likely Tori's mother, replied. "He said he couldn't. A terrible wrong had been committed and until it could be solved he was staying earthbound. I pestered the Eldest about it a number of times, but that's all I ever learned."
    "But why are they fighting, Mama-Gail?" Tori asked piteously. "They shouldn't be fighting."
    "I don't know how to stop them, Tori," Gail replied sadly. "This argument of theirs is almost as old as Toel."
    Kam could feel the worry and sadness in the dragons around him. He could feel the pain hidden deeply underneath fury high in the sky. Frightened sled dogs kept trying to climb into Kam's lap for comfort. The fight was clearly doing more harm than good, but neither gigantic battling dragon seemed willing to give in.
    Kam could feel the pull of Tori's horrified emotions more strongly than the double rage above. He pulled Tori's emotions inside of himself, feeling the fear and sadness coalesce into one large mass inside. Kam drew Gail's sadness, Toel's frantic worry, and Nyle's pain. He spun all the emotions together until he could feel the tight ball of it resting harshly against his chest, like he was about to burst out crying.
    The ball burst free when Kam almost sobbed for breath, still spinning tighter and tighter in the air in front of Kam. No one else seemed to notice, but Kam