I had two reasons for interrupting the open Council session. The first was to keep them nice and passive, too worried about messing anything up and letting me deal with Mother Dearest without interference. The other was to get the gold they owed me for making contact with Reaper, as per our agreement.

  I’d hoped that telling them that Reaper was both interested in me, and a destructive force of nature, would accomplish both. It seemed reasonable enough: On the one hand we have a nice dragon trying to help us out. On the other we have an unknown dragon that can split mountains and boil seas, and who feels that you haven’t been showing the first, nice dragon enough respect. Best pay up, right?

  Lord Hierophant Nahasia, Lady Admiral Yakamo and, to my great disappointment, Lord Exchequer Soandel disagreed.

  I could see Lord Hierophant Nahasia speak, apparently normally, and the lord speaker nodded and touched something I couldn't see. There was a flare of magic around everyone on the platform but him, and a multitude of soft sounds that I hadn't realized were missing came to me from the councilors.

  “I leave the floor open for discussion,” the lord speaker said.

  “Thank you.” The lord hierophant nodded to the lord speaker, then faced me. When he next spoke, his tone was dismissive. “How do we know that Reaper is even here? We have no reports to corroborate Lady Draka’s claims! How could we possibly pay out anything, let alone such a large sum, on not only hearsay, but on the word of the one who stands to benefit?”

  “I agree with the lord hierophant,” the lady admiral said, though her tone was more thoughtful. “Lady Draka, when is it you claim the other dragon arrived?”

  Inside me, Instinct stirred.

  “Sometime before midday. I met her on Vanar and we flew here together.”

  “And where did you cross our shore?”

  I had to think about that a little. I’d been aiming for the rear entrance to my mountain, where I’d hidden Herald, so… “Thirty miles north of the city. Perhaps forty.”

  “I have ships with experienced crews spaced out all along the coast for seventy miles north, all of them with excellent, high Advancement lookouts. We should have had a report by now if the two of you had been spotted.”

  “Yeah, don’t know what to tell you, Lady Admiral. No idea how anyone could miss her. My friend spotted her from miles and miles away. Maybe the rain messed with the lookouts’ vision?”

  She scowled at that. Was it her pride, I wondered, or was she just protective of her sailors?

  When the lady admiral didn’t say anything, Soandel spoke up. “I am terribly sorry, Lady Draka, but I must agree with my colleagues. Being ultimately responsible for the city’s finances, I cannot agree with paying out such a large sum without proof. I really am sorry.” The lord exchequer’s voice was as apologetic as could be, but that didn’t do anything to calm the anger swelling in my gut. Not only were they questioning my word — they were trying to cheat me out of my gold!

  “I met her on Vanar,” I ground out. “Because I wanted to know where on Mallin she was headed. And make no mistake: She was headed for Mallin. Your people’s failure to spot over a hundred feet of dragon flying low in the sky is not my fault. Count yourselves blessed that I steered her away from the city when she chose to follow me.”

  “I thought I must have misheard you the first time, Lady Draka. Are you saying that you brought this dragon to our shores?” the lord hierophant said, and his voice was so thick with accusation that I had to suppress a growl.

  “We had an agreement, lord hierophant. Me, and the Council. When Sower of Embers, Reaper of Flame arrived on Mallin, and I made contact with her, I was to be paid two pounds of gold. Preferably in coin, but the form it takes is not important. Are you attempting to renege on our agreement?”

  “I call for a vote,” the lord hierophant said.

  “Seconded.” That was, of course, the lady admiral.

  The lord speaker looked less than pleased, as did Lady Sempralia. He sighed. “A vote then. Those who feel that Lady Draka has completed her task, and is owed the agreed-upon sum?”

  Three hands raised. Lady Sempralia, the lord commander, and the lord speaker himself.

  “Those who believe that the task is not yet accomplished, and no compensation is yet owed?”

  Four hands. The lord hierophant, the lady admiral, the lord justice, and Soandel.

  “The Nos have it, then. I am sorry, Lady Draka, but we will need some kind of proof before we can pay you.”

  “Thieves! A single leap! One single leap, and we will be among them!” Instinct hissed. Her anger was just on the survivable side of overwhelming, the red creeping into my vision. “Show them what happens to those to keep what is ours by right! They already have five seats to fill, what is four more?”

  I growled, a low, slow rumble that echoed throughout the chamber. My claws emerged, grinding against the stone, and my muscles were taut with the effort of restraining myself, stopping myself from destroying any hope of a cordial relationship with these people.

  Then, I had an idea.

  “Proof?” I said, and my voice was so icy calm that Sempralia sat up straight and looked at me with genuine worry. “I’ll get you your proof.”

  Then I stepped down from the tiers and left. I shouldered the large doors of the council chamber open without waiting, then walked out the doors of the Palace. What few people there were scattered as I descended the steps and crossed the Forum. I walked most of the way across, stopping at about the two-thirds point and turning around. There I sat down, with my wings above my head, and waited.

  They wanted proof that I’d made contact with Reaper. I’d give them goddamned proof.

  I was good at many things. Sneaking. Terrifying people. Being a combination heated mattress and blanket for my favorite humans. But if I had to pick the one thing I was best at, it would probably be waiting patiently.

  Well, when I had a good reason for it at least. Such as anticipation. Or curiosity. Or spite.

  And so, I waited patiently in the Forum, curling up and making myself comfortable. The cold didn’t bother me. I could ignore whatever rain my wings didn’t shield me from. Nobody dared get close and disturb me. It wasn’t bad.

  No, it was pretty bad. It just wasn’t terrible enough to compete with the bitter resentment and the burning sense of righteous outrage I felt.

  The distance that the crowds kept slowly grew a little closer, but almost everyone stayed a good thirty feet or more away. The exceptions were the occasional kid or adolescent who, spurred by their friends, dared to get a little closer.

  One girl almost got close enough to lay hands on me. Almost. She was two feet away when I shifted my head just a little. I gave her a look. Not even an annoyed one. I was just curious if she’d have the guts to actually touch me.

  The answer was no, though I might have changed the outcome by observing her. She shrieked and sprinted away as fast as she could, losing her umbrella as she ran. I moved for the first time since lying down, picking up the umbrella, figuring out how to fold it, and then going and lying down again.

  Four guards showed up to keep people from bothering me after that.

  I had a decent night’s sleep. I hadn’t relied on Instinct to wake me if necessary for a long time, but I had full confidence that she would. I woke with the sunrise, to the sound of careful steps and nervous voices, as early risers took the long way around me to cross the heart of the city.

  A few hours after sunrise Sempralia came to me, Kalder walking next to her with a large umbrella. The current guards bowed and stepped away, giving us some semblance of privacy.

  “Good morning, Lady Draka,” the lady justice said, her normally neutral tone instead telling me that the morning was anything but. “May I ask what you’re doing?”

  “Getting you your proof.”

  “Is there any chance you could do that elsewhere? You are causing quite a disturbance.”

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  I looked around as though this was the first I’d heard of it. People were crossing the Forum, but there was a roughly hundred foot wide lane around me where it was entirely empty. “Oh. Am I doing anything illegal?”

  “Technically, no,” she sighed.

  “Not causing a breach of the peace or anything like that?”

  “I suppose not. But your placement is… unfortunate.”

  “Your colleagues’ decision to dishonor our agreement was unfortunate.”

  “It really was,” she said under her breath, only barely loud enough for me to hear.

  “Is anyone going to try and make me leave?” I looked pointedly at Kalder, who looked mildly amused by the whole situation.

  “No. As you said, you’re not doing anything… well, at all. But I am asking you.”

  “I’d love to, but unfortunately, I can’t do that. As a lady of honor I feel I must provide you and your colleagues with the proof you demand.”

  “And you feel that you can best do that by sitting here, in the rain?”

  “Indeed.”

  She looked decidedly uncomfortable with the whole situation. Probably, I figured, because she knew that she, or at least the Council as a whole, were in the wrong here, and there wasn’t much she valued above fairness and justice.

  It was very odd to see her looking embarrassed.

  “I hope very much that you can see past this… unfortunate situation,” she said, finally looking me in the eye again. “The Tekereteki naval officer you took prisoner has already proven invaluable. His interrogation was very effective in convincing the League ambassadors that the situation is rapidly escalating. And General Sarvalian has written, requesting in very strong terms that we attempt to enlist your help at the front, as a scout and to demoralize the enemy. Please, believe me that I say that I would like our relationship to stay cordial and cooperative after this situation with Reaper — excuse me, Sower of Embers, Reaper of Flames — is past.”

  “Me too. But that depends on you and your colleagues.”

  She nodded, and that was the end of that conversation. About an hour later I felt Herald and Mak approach. When they arrived I could only see Mak, along with Ardek and a gaggle of wide-eyed children. They stopped at the edge of the Forum, as though they’d just come to gawk at the dragon. But Mak’s umbrella was big enough for two, and after she stopped I didn’t need shadowsight to notice Herald flitting from shadow to shadow, until I felt her presence next to me.

  “Hello, dear sister.” She didn’t Shift back, and her voice came as though from far away. “Do you think your guards speak Tekereteki?”

  “Hello, little dragon. I doubt it,” I said quietly.

  “We were worried when you did not return, but Mak insisted we leave you to whatever it is you are doing.”

  “I appreciate the confidence.”

  “And we were going to do that, until Sempralia’s man Kalder came to the inn. He asked us to try and get you to leave the Forum. Care to explain what you are doing here?”

  “Waiting for Reaper.”

  For a long moment all I could hear was the rain. It was long enough that if I couldn’t feel her presence, I would have thought she’d left.

  “Is that wise?” she finally asked.

  “They refused to pay me,” I said, and I commended myself on how calm I was.

  Herald wasn’t. “How dare they?” she growled, and it was enough to bring a toothy smile to my lips. She wanted that gold as much as I did, and I loved that about her. We were so much alike.

  “They said they could not pay me without proof. Well, Mother Dearest promised to come find me, so I am having the proof come to them.”

  “Regrettably,” she said, and even with the strange things that her shadow form did to her voice, I could hear her reluctance, “I am still not sure that is a good idea.”

  “But why?” My word came out a little whinier than I might have liked, but Herald, bless her, didn’t acknowledge that.

  “Please consider: If Reaper comes here, and lands in the forum, how will she react if there are guards around you? When she speaks to you, will she care who is listening, and what they might hear? And what if, Mercies forbid, some idiot tries something? Do you think she will care about innocent bystanders?”

  “No,” I huffed. “That all sounds rather bad.”

  “Right? And while the Council may have dishonored your agreement, I know that you do not want the innocent people of this city to suffer.”

  “Two pounds of gold, Herald!”

  “I know,” Herald growled out, and she really sounded like a little dragon right then. “They will pay up, and they will pay up in full. But for now, I think patience must take precedence over righteousness.”

  I huffed. I scratched the marble surfacing of the Forum with my claws, hard enough that I left actual scratches in the stone. I whinged about the injustice of it all. And, in the end, sitting there in the rain I might as well have been made of cardboard for how well I held up to the weight of Herald’s arguments.

  I didn’t like being told to stop what I was doing. I wasn’t used to it, and I’d been looking forward to seeing the looks on everyone’s faces when twenty tons of dragon landed in the heart of the city. But I also found it unbearably difficult to say no to Herald, especially when she was being reasonable. “Fine,” I grumbled. “I will go and wait for her outside the city.”

  “And I am coming with you.”

  “What? No! Herald, I think she hates you!”

  “Which is why I must go with you. I must speak with her, or at least state my case properly. If I can win her over, that might do wonders for her general opinion of us. I would say that it might be better to take Mak, to truly show what your relationship to us is, but…” I heard her swallow, hard. “But she is needed here. The head of our House cannot be seen to disappear at the same time as you, in case the wrong people suspect that we are connected before we are ready. Please, Draka.”

  Mercies, she was terrified. She didn’t want to face Reaper again. Once had been bad enough, with how my mother had reacted to her. But she needed to do this. She believed that it was the best course of action, so she’d push her fear to the side, and she’d do it. Assuming I let her. Assuming I didn’t stand up to her, and stand by my “No.”

  I sighed in defeat. Yep. Might as well have been made of cardboard.

  “Get your stuff and come back here. I will not go far out of the city, but some food at least. A small tent, too, if you have it, so you can at least be comfortable.”

  “Thank you.” I felt her shadowy arms wrap around my neck, and then she was gone. Shortly thereafter Mak nodded my way, and left, Herald invisible by her side in the shadow of the umbrella. Ardek and the kids stayed.

  I laid down, feeling… not great. Maybe I should just leave before she comes back, I thought, but no. I didn’t need Conscience’s disapproval to know that telling Herald that I’d do something was as good as a promise, and I took my promises seriously. Especially to my family, and especially to her.

  I was going to have to apologize to the others when we got back. I was putting Herald in danger, again, because I was so damn weak when she’d made her mind up. Of course, Reaper was going to have to kill me before I let her so much as touch Herald, and I didn’t think she’d be willing to do that, but that assumed that I was strong enough to stop her.

  Well, if I wasn’t strong enough, I’d just have to be clever. Because she wasn’t hurting Herald. I was not going to be responsible, even partially, for anything happening to the most precious person in this world. It didn’t matter how big or powerful Reaper was. It wasn’t happening.

  “Warrior’s boots, she’s big, ain’t she?” a young voice whispered.

  “That’s as close as you get, boy. The Lady Dragon is not to be bothered.”

  I cracked an eye open. About half of the dozen or so kids that Ardek had brought with him were standing nearby, two guards between me and them and one boy squatting as close to me as the guards would allow.

  “Am I as scary as you expected?” I asked softly, making the guards jump and the kid fall back on his butt.

  “Fucking aye,” the boy whispered back, eyes barely staying in their sockets.

  “Do you have the guts to touch me?”

  “Fucking aye,” the boy repeated, weighing himself back onto his feet. There was something manic in his eyes.

  “Ah, Lady— Lady Dragon,” one of the guards stammered. “Our orders—”

  “I’m not to be bothered, yeah?”

  “That’s— yes, Lady Dragon.”

  “It’s bothering me that you’re not letting this little bravo test himself. Come on, kid. If you’ve got it in you.” To drive my point home, to both guards and kid, I flashed my finest, toothiest smile.

  At the wild look the kid gave me I thought he was going to take off immediately. Then, with a scratch of leather on stone, he sprinted my way, like fear and good decisions were something he could outrun. He skidded to a stop, slipped onto his side, put one hand on my snout, then sprinted back towards his friend to loud cheers and calls of “Tarry! Tarry! Tarry!”

  I could only assume that Tarry was his name. I didn’t ask. Ardek gave me a cheerful grin, and they all left after that.

  Mak and Herald returned around midday. Herald was invisible again, of course, and this time Mak simply passed, giving me a nod and the closest she could come to a scowl with me. She continued towards the Palace as our younger sister flitted between the shadows to join me.

  I was impressed with her endurance. She couldn’t have much left of what she’d taken from the Nest Heart, not with how long she was spending Shifted. And now she was, I hoped, carrying a pack, which I knew tired her even faster.

  “Are you ready?” I asked as I felt her presence beside me.

  “When I am with you: Always. But wait for it, yeah?”

  Nothing more needed to be said. I lowered myself flat to the ground, drawing some confused and worried looks from the guards. Herald climbed on my back — it felt more like having a weighted blanket thrown over me, her arms around my neck a gentle pressure instead of the firm grip I knew she’d have. Once she’d settled she whispered, “Ready!”

  I sat up to my full height, and leaped into the rain. Her full weight and the nearly strangling strength of her embrace came quickly, fading in as she Shifted back a few hundred feet above the city.

  “Are you sure about this?” I called to her once we’d passed the city walls. “It’s never too late to turn back.”

  “As though I would let you do this alone!”

  No nine words had ever brought me as much relief as those.

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