Lake Rodney Kill Wanheda, and you command death.

Much to his delight, the girl continued in his mother tongue. To hear it again brought a flutter to the pit of his belly, a contained excitement to speak it with another so fluidly. At once he wanted to push the conversation in the direction of the kru she'd come from, eager to suggest that he and his sister were willing to serve their commander until Drageda could reestablish on the coast.

The offering of a name, Praimfaya, alongside the title of Roankru, was enough to deflate him a little. Dacio's pale gaze sharpened a little in quiet scrutiny. This pack held no connection to the coalition that Drageda had been part of, likely did not answer to Heda as he did. So who was responsible for its creation?

An assumption came swiftly when the sterling youth shared another name with him, and he firmly believed that Blodreina had assembled this false kru. A muscle in his jaw tightened out of frustrated disappointment. He had known her by another name, Eske, the Wanlida who'd played a part in the training of Drageda's last litters. She'd gone away to war with Heda for a time, having been close to her. Dacio had been fond of her too, back then, until she turned her tail on them as natrona following the commander's suicide.

"I am Dacio Drakru," he answered, and for the first time considered how desperately he clung to his own title. Was it even appropriate to call himself such, if Drageda had fallen? Dacio cocked an ear, torn between his reluctance to associate with a traitor's offspring and a yearning for his own kind. He chose to continue, hungry to know more: "are the others with you? Vercingetorix, Aure?"