The Dragon Prince - Ladon

Chapter 4

-Rivanna-

“It’s not perfect, but it is something,” Tristan remarked.

“But will it be enough?” I inquired.

“Only time will tell,” he replied, as we studied the iron ropes on the ground in front of us.

I shook my head, not liking this. Our plans couldn’t be sloppy. Sloppy meant death, and we had to make sure as many of our men stayed alive.

“We are talking about capturing a dragon,” I stated. “And not just any dragon. The Dragon Prince. We can’t just hope for the best. We need to know we can do this.”

Tristan nodded beside me yet remained silent. What was he going to say anyway? Catching The Dragon Prince... it seemed insane, but it was also what we believed would really change things. We would execute him in a very public way. It would drive the king mad, and he would become careless. Therefore, this had to work.

“How are you feeling about this?” Tristan inquired as we left the tent where all the things had been gathered for our mission.

“Not good.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he observed.

I was always good at listening to my gut, and Tristan would often ask me how I felt before a mission.

“We can do this, Ri,” Tristan asserted.

“I know we can, but I am just not sure how many we might lose. The prince is merciless. He does not care about anyone. You know that,” I remarked, turning to face him.

Tristan had dark blond hair and blue eyes. Very strong northern genes for certain.

“I know, but after this, he will never bother us anymore.”

“Then we still have the king to deal with and his allies.”

“We could try to bargain,” he proposed.

“Bargain?” I queried, halting so I could look at him.

He nodded.

“With his brother?"

He nodded once more.

“How well did that go for the rebels who wanted The Town of Slaves?” I retorted.

We weren’t the only ones who had wanted some power from the dragons, but they had won each time. We were different, though. We weren’t thieves or mindless killers.

“I am just saying—"

I shook my head, cutting him off.

“We can’t count on that to work. It will only hold The Dragon King off for a while, but as soon as he has his brother back, we will all burn,” I asserted.

Tristan sighed, acknowledging I was right, and so we walked over to the next tent, where we had our meetings. In here, a big table stood with chairs all around it, and other group leaders were already waiting. We would need more people for this if we wanted to take down the prince.

“Is everything ready?” one of the leaders asked me.

He had a scar going down his cheek and was known as one of the best fighters we had. He was also a bit temperamental and not very patient. I was the best strategist here, and I was often the one who made the plans for all of us.

“Yes,” I confirmed, nodding. “Now we just need to lure him out.”

“How do we do that? No one has seen him patrol the sky for a long time now. It is like he has disappeared,” another leader remarked.

“He is out there somewhere. He can’t just have disappeared out of the blue. He loves hunting us,” I replied.

“Then why has no one seen him?”

I glanced at Tristan, who always sat on my right side, and I could see he was wondering the same thing. Where was The Dragon Prince?

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But that is why we need to find a way to lure him out.”

“With what? How do we not know we will just attract the king?”

I looked around at the men at the table. They had a point. Maybe this was why my gut was telling me this was a bad idea.

“We divide,” I proposed.

“What? But we had agreed to all help with this capture of the prince.”

I nodded.

“I know,” I acknowledged, hearing them mumble slightly, probably thinking I didn’t know what I was talking about.

It wasn’t the first time I had been questioned, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last one. The thing about being the only woman at the table was that I had to prove myself over and over.

“We create too many problems for them,” I clarified. “The Dragon King can’t be in more than one place at a time.”

“And The Elf King?” one of the men asked.

“The Elf King doesn’t leave his kingdom now that he has a child and wife to take care of.”

“But his men do.”

“The men will also be struggling with all the problems we make for them. The prince has to come out of hiding,” I insisted.

“But then we won’t be enough to capture him,” Tristan pointed out. “And we have no idea which group he will attack. We don’t have enough ropes and potions for that.”

“Then we make more,” I asserted.

“That is going to cost us a lot of time.”

I didn’t mind Tristan pointing out all the flaws here. The thing about me and him was that we always tried to improve each other, and we knew this.

“If time is what we have to sacrifice, then so be it,” I affirmed.

“We have already used months,” he reminded.

“I know.”

I looked over at my friend, and I knew he wasn’t very happy about wasting more time, but what other choice did we have?

“Tell me if you have another plan,” I urged.

He looked at me for a little while and then sighed, shaking his head.

“We should start making more iron ropes and ask Atilius to produce more potions for our dragon. We need to weaken him when he finally shows up.”

“Why not use our time on the king instead?” one of the men inquired.

We had discussed this before. Why not the king? Ashes was simply too hard to take down. He was stronger, older, and smarter. It was clear the prince was more reckless, and he often traveled alone.

“You know why,” I reiterated. “I know we all want to see the king bow, and we will once we crush him.”

They all nodded, accepting that this was the way it was going to be. So, we all left the meeting, going to prepare for the attacks we were going to make on the king’s people. Tristan and I walked together out of the tent.

“Feeling better?” he inquired.

“No, I feel worse,” I confessed.

“I fear splitting up will cost us,” he remarked. “So, I understand the bad feeling.”

“I know, but how else do we get the prince to show up?”

“By doing what you suggested and praying it works,” he advised, placing a hand on my shoulder before heading over to his horse.