But as serious as the room was, Cameron’s presence seemed to change the air slightly. The young man’s ever-present smile and look of love at his mate lightened the mood a little. He sat on Alric’s right, forcing Dieter to move down a seat. Not that the old advisor minded one bit.
Dieter had bragged to Baldewin more than once that Cameron had an incredibly quick mind and was incredibly astute when it came to reading people. Two very good traits, since Dieter was already training Cameron to act as a type of advisor to Alric. Both Alric and Dieter subscribed to the theory that a king was only as good as the people who advised him.
Baldewin walked around the table to take his usual seat next to Dieter. Across the table sat Gunter, the royal researcher, on Alric’s immediate left. Ravi was next to Gunter, excitedly telling Cameron about some game he’d been playing the night before with some of the other dragons who served as guards.
“I’m sorry I’m tardy, Hoheit,” Baldewin said as he pulled his seat out.
“You’re not. We’re still waiting on Lisette,” Alric said easily.
Baldewin paused above his chair and looked down the table at his old friend. “Lisette is attending this meeting?” The head mage occasionally made an appearance, but not regularly.
“It would be best if she shares her thoughts in regards to the Jaeggi with everyone personally,” Dieter replied.
Lisette sailed into the room in a swirl of long skirts, wearing a determined look. Baldewin’s stomach dropped. The mage’s eyes immediately landed on Baldewin, and a bright smile broke across her face.
“Breathe, Baldewin. I left your sweet mage in one piece,” she teased, and Baldewin’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Last I saw, he was working with Ha Na, a smile on his lips.”
Baldewin nodded, not bothering to argue about the ‘your mage’ part. He wanted Tori to be his mage, but it was more important that Tori felt comfortable at Burkhard and with the rest of the clan. He needed to be comfortable and proud of his skills. Finding a mate was not at the top of his priority list.
“Now that everyone is here, I think we should recap what has been happening recently so we’re all operating with the same information,” Alric began. The king quickly ran through the events in Helsinki and during their road trip, bringing Gunter and Ravi fully up to speed.
“Draining her?” Gunter gasped in horror. “Mages attacked another mage and were draining her of her powers? That doesn’t make a bit of sense.” The dragon shook his head, as if it was all too impossible to believe. “Why would they even do such a thing? If they’re hungry for power, why choose a mage over a dragon? Everyone knows our power is near limitless.”
Cameron shuddered, his hand sliding across the table to wrap around Alric’s wrist. “Isn’t that just a lovely idea? The Jaeggi getting ahold of their own dragon.”
Lisette lifted her hand to claim the floor, silencing any additional chatter. “Actually, I think I can shed a little light on the problem, at least based on what Tori was able to tell me from their encounter with the Jaeggi.” She paused and frowned at the table’s surface for a moment, as if gathering and organizing her thoughts. “While Cameron has had direct encounters with the Jaeggi, Tori is the first experienced mage we know who has interacted with them. He grew up in a mage clan—for better or worse—and knows what magic should look like when it comes to another mage. He noticed in his interactions with the Jaeggi that something is off—or rather, broken—about their magic.”
“I thought you’d mentioned something about that as well, my love,” Dieter murmured.
Lisette smiled sweetly at her mate. “I’ve only seen a residue of their magic or when they were heavily cloaked. Tori got to see them as they naturally are, without the cloaking. The Jaeggi Clan—and I believe it’s the entire clan—has broken magic. It’s infected all of them on a genetic level.”
“How?” Gunter breathed, his tone thick with a macabre interest.
“I think it dates back to the Great War and the blood spell that was cast, killing the major mage clans. I suspect Kaiser Jaeggi cast an anti-spell. While the curse ultimately worked and killed the mages, I think it also reverberated backward and damaged the Jaeggi down to their magical core.”
“Tori noticed Cassie’s power flowing into a device,” Alric added. “It looks as if they are stealing power from mages.”
A shudder ran through Baldewin as he thought back on that fight, running in to find Tori desperately fighting back four mages with nothing more than sunlight at his disposal. His heart had stopped for a moment, and then he’d heard only the raging roar of his dragon in his head, demanding that he protect, kill, destroy. He honestly wasn’t sure how he’d managed to not shift.