“You will fight for Dimilioc, will you?” Alejandro asked her sharply. “My father taught me that it is right to protect human people against cur black dogs. What did yours teach you?”
Keziah grinned, a dangerous flash of white teeth with very little humor in it. “I should hardly have acquired a conscience from my father. Such a commodity was not in high demand in my family. So, now I make my own choices, Toland.”
Alejandro smiled, showing his own teeth. “Then your father did teach you something important.”
The Saudi girl lifted one shoulder a fraction in a minimal shrug. “Amira and I, we are not really Dimilioc. Not yet.” She lifted a scornful eyebrow. “No more than you, Toland, which you know, if you are not a fool. Those of us who are foreign to Dimilioc must show that we will fight Dimilioc’s enemies, and also that we will protect these human people who owe allegiance to Dimilioc. If we do not, then Dimilioc will shut us out in the cold wind.”
“Exactly!” cried Miguel. “That’s what I was going to say! All of us need to stick together, that’s obvious! Listen, if Grayson leads you all out to fight Vonhausel and his lot, then you’re going to need that new black dog, aren’t you? Thaddeus Williams, I mean. Even one more black dog on your side could make a big difference. Territorial as you all are, that’s something I don’t think Grayson’s going to realize. I mean, he’ll certainly figure it out when you’re actually in Lewis, fighting a million black dogs. But then it’ll be too late! But you…” He glanced quickly from Alejandro to Keziah and back. “You see already that you’re going to need Thaddeus, don’t you?”
It would not have occurred to Alejandro to try to recruit Thaddeus Williams for a big fight the very day he’d been brought, by force, to Dimilioc. He glanced at Keziah, whose eyebrows had gone up in surprise or thought.
She said slowly, as though this was difficult to believe, “The human boy is right. That is perfectly true. I will fight for Dimilioc, but I did not come here to die. Certainly I do not wish to die for human townspeople I do not even know. If we go to fight in Lewis, it would be better to win.”
Alejandro found himself smiling again, and did not know whether he was pleased because Keziah had admitted that Miguel was right, or because of her dry understatement. “He is very strong, that one,” he conceded. “But will he fight for Dimilioc?”
Miguel jumped up and paced back and forth, thinking out loud. “Natividad, you need to work on Grayson. He’ll listen to you even if he’s angry, won’t he? I mean, any male Dimilioc wolf will obviously listen to anything you say, isn’t that right?”
“Wow, that’s a reassuring idea,” Natividad said drily. Amira was still tucked against her. Natividad was stroking her hair.
“It is true,” Keziah said. “So, you would be a fool not to use that, Pure girl.”
Miguel said very fast, before Natividad could answer, “You need to get Grayson to see that he shouldn’t delay with Thaddeus, he has to make him that offer about joining Dimilioc, he has to do it right now. He’s going to need everyone.” He glanced uncertainly at Amira.
“My sister is strong,” Keziah said, still amused.
“She isn’t going to fight!” said Natividad, horrified. She put both arms around Amira as though cuddling a much younger child and glared at Keziah. Alejandro wanted to laugh, but he instantly moved forward, warning Keziah to keep back with a hard look. He said sharply to his sister, “Amira is not a tame little puppy, Natividad!”
Keziah had not moved. Now she laughed, with hard-edged aggressive humor. “This Pure Girl thinks Amira is just little. No, girl. You make her shadow settle low, so low you do not see it, but it is a good, strong shadow. Amira fights with me. Grayson knows that.”
“If she can fight, we will need her,” Alejandro said, though privately he wondered how much use a cowering little creature like Amira could possibly be during a real fight. But he said, “Natividad, think of me when I was twelve, thirteen – she is that old.”
“She’s not like you!” Natividad protested. “Look at her! She’s a baby!”
Without looking up, Amira said all in one breath, muffled against Natividad’s shoulder, “I can fight, I can fight better than anybody, I won’t let anybody hurt Keziah – or you.” She looked up at last, though she kept her arms around Natividad. “I like you. I do. I don’t want to kill you and you don’t want to kill me. That’s because you are Pure.”