“Lady Draka! This is quite the surprise!”

  Though she smiled, the exasperation in Sempralia’s voice was enough to make me shrink. I ducked my head in shame before I remembered myself and tried to play it off as a simple gesture of acknowledgement.

  “Lady Justice Sempralia,” I said, then nodded to the man beside her as well. “Lord Commander Barvon. I’ve brought you evidence, like you asked.”

  “And this gentleman, I assume, is that evidence?” Sempralia gestured to Terek. He was standing in front of me with my hands enveloping his shoulders, and looked about ready to piss himself.

  “Right. Found a whole fleet of them, anchored at a Happaran island. I figure he can tell you and the ambassadors anything you want to know.”

  Sempralia looked at the crowd that had gathered on the Palace steps, sighed, and gave me a tight smile that came nowhere close to her eyes.

  By all rights, Sempralia should be happy to see me. And she probably would have been, if not for the place and time. The place was at the top of the steps of the Palace, where anyone on the Forum could see me. The time was shortly after breakfast, less than an hour after sunrise, and a very busy time on the Forum despite the rain, as people crossed the city, hurrying to their jobs.

  I may have made something of a spectacle of myself.

  It hadn’t taken long for Sempralia to show up. The Palace guards hadn’t taken me landing in front of the doors well, but none of them had wanted to be the first to make a move. Once I told them to let the Lord Commander know that I was there, they’d been happy to declare the whole problem above their pay grade. I could only assume that once Barvon heard he went and fetched Sempralia, because they’d arrived together, leading to my current situation.

  Sempralia would have preferred me to be a little more discreet. I got that. She liked control. But I had been promised recognition, and I didn’t intend to let them put it off. So here I stood, deliberately, speaking to two members of the city’s Council on the steps of its beating heart.

  If the last few weeks had left a single doubt about me having a working relationship with the city of Karakan, I hoped to have shredded it this morning.

  “Let’s take this inside,” I said, nodding to the double doors. They were each five feet wide, several feet taller than I was, and must have weighed hundreds of pounds. This early in the morning the Palace wasn’t yet open to the public, and so the doors stood closed, with only a smaller side door being open.

  Sempralia looked at me, then at the doors. I could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to decide what message that would send. She was still thinking when Lord Commander Barvon barked, “Well? You heard the lady dragon! Open up! Or do you expect her to squeeze in through the morning door?”

  Two of the guards hopped to attention and ran inside. There was a Clunk and a long rasping sound, and with a heavy groan the doors swung open to admit me to the Palace.

  The entry hall was wide open, the ceiling, painted with complicated geometric designs, far above us. “This way, please,” Sempralia said and tried to lead the way, but I stopped her.

  “This will do nicely,” I said, sitting down. “There’s not much left to say. I just wanted to see the inside of this place. Do take good care of Semterekene, here. He’s been nothing but polite and cooperative so far.”

  I gave Terek a little push, and two guards came to take the scared young man by the arms. I took General Servalian’s message from around my neck and held it out until a third guard accepted it.

  “Remember what I said,” I told Terek. “Cooperate, and everything will be fine.”

  “I will, Great One.”

  I couldn’t really tell if he meant it. I hadn’t broken him, so he may just have been telling me what I wanted to hear. But that wasn’t my problem anymore. I’d held up my end of the deal, and now it was up to the Council to deliver on theirs.

  “When can I expect the declaration?” I asked the two councilors as the guards led Terek away.

  Sempralia sucked her teeth, then said, “Today, following the afternoon’s closed session. We’ll vote on it then.”

  “You’ll vote on it?” I said, unable to keep a growl of displeasure out of my voice. It was enough that Sempralia had to put a hand out to keep Kalder back.

  “Yes, Lady Draka. But it’s only a formality. The vote will pass.”

  “See that it does,” I hissed. “We had an agreement, and I have delivered! I refuse to hide any longer from the city I’m expected to protect!”

  For the first time since I’d met her, I saw a flash of fear on the lady justice’s face. Quickly gone, but unmistakable. “You have nothing to worry about,” she insisted.

  “Then I will be here in the afternoon. Good day to you, Lady Justice. Lord Commander.”

  “Wait!”

  The lord commander’s voice stopped me in my tracks, and I turned back around, giving him my attention.

  “Thank you. Since you’re here, there is one more thing. We were going to send you a message, but this saves us some time. It’s about Reaper.”

  I tried to swallow, but found my mouth dry. “Oh? What about them?”

  “They arrived on the eastern end of Vanar three days ago, settling on East Mountain. We had a message by ship last night. Lady Draka, that’s less than five hundred miles away. If their pattern of rest and travel holds, we should expect them to cross the Sarey in two days.”

  “Two days? Right. Thanks for telling me. They’ll be coming from the north-east?”

  “That’s what we expect.”

  “All right. Two days.” I turned and walked out the doors, barely paying attention to the humans around me. “Two days.”

  I leaped forward at the steps, and took to the air, sending people stumbling and tumbling in their haste to get out of my way. It was lucky for them that no one had gone much higher than three or four steps, or someone probably would have gotten seriously hurt.

  Two days. God dammit.

  “I need to fly out and try to meet them. I don’t see what else I can do.”

  Herald threw her hands up, almost shouting with exasperation, as she paced around the cellar. “You could just not risk your life for no reason!”

  “It’s not for no reason! I need to know where they’re going, and to do that I need to get out of the rain, where I can actually see, and I need to be closer to where they’re starting from!”

  “So you’re gonna fly to Tavvanar? It’s a hundred and fifty miles! And then what, you’ll just fly around hoping to spot them?”

  “I mean… yeah? And halfway across Vanar if I have to.” I didn’t know what else to say. That was my plan exactly. But the urgency in Herald’s voice, and the desperation on her face, like she was begging me to understand what an utterly idiotic idea this was, had me second guessing myself. “Herald, please. Two days! Two damn days, that’s what the lord commander said! I can’t just sit here and wait. This may not be the best possible idea, but at least it’s something. I know roughly where the dragon is right now. The closer I get to there, the smaller the area where they could be, and the easier they’ll be to find. And if I find them, if I can tell where they’re going, if I can meet them somewhere far from here even, that might buy us all another day or two to decide what to do!”

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  “And if you do find them? If you meet them? What then?”

  “Then I’ll use their direction to figure out where on the island they’re going, or I’ll talk to them, or… I don’t know! Why are you so against this?”

  “Because I don’t want you to leave and not come back!” she wailed, stopping her pacing and turning to face me. “You’re going out to face a dragon, Draka! An adult dragon! And you’re strong, and clever, and stealthy, but—”

  Her voice broke, but she didn’t look away as tears streaked her cheeks. “But I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want today to be the last time I see you!”

  “I won’t fight!” I promised her. “I won’t go anywhere near them! I’ll—”

  “What if they can see you long before you see them?” she asked. “They could have any number of Advancements. What if they are faster than you? Is it worth the reward the city has promised you?”

  “That’s always going to be a risk I’ll have to take,” I said softly. “Today, tomorrow, or four days from now, I’m going to have to face them. Forget about my agreement with the Council. They’re coming to my city. My territory. I can’t just let them fly in here unopposed. You understand? I can’t. No more than I could just let someone take something from my hoard.”

  Her shoulders slumped. She was trying to fight me. She couldn’t. She didn’t even want to, but she was trying anyway. I could see it in her eyes, a defiance buried deep beneath the love and, as much as I hated to admit it, obedience that smothered everything else she might feel for me.

  She was terrified of losing me, and she couldn’t even argue with me once I’d put my foot down. It was killing her. And the pain in her eyes was killing me.

  Maybe she could see me wavering, or maybe it was a coincidence. Either way she pounced.

  “Take me with you,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “Take me with you! The harness I ordered is ready. I have it. You can fly as fast and as hard as you need to, and I will not fall off. Take me to a Nest Heart and let me top up my power, and I can see a sparrow on the horizon. Fly high, and I will see them at least as soon as they see us. Take me with you. And if things go bad, if the worst happens, let us not come home. Together.”

  Mercies forgive me. I was so weak. I would have done anything to stop her tears right then. So when she demanded to come with me, all I could do was to say, “Yeah. Okay. Get your gear ready, and food and water for at least a day. And the, uh… the harness. We need to try it on, adjust it, whatever.”

  She threw herself at me, her arms tight around my neck. No warning at all. One moment she was standing five feet away, near tears, the next she was choking me. “Thank you,” she said, her cheek pressed into my scales. “You will never leave me, right? Promise me?”

  “Never.” I wrapped my neck and my wings around her, pulling her close, and I promised. I didn’t know if it was a promise I could keep, but I’d never break it willingly, and that would have to be good enough.

  The next two hours were a whirlwind of activity. We, the family plus Ardek and Kira, mostly stayed in the cellar. Meanwhile the staff, Avjilan included, came and went, going about their jobs and throwing us curious looks as the others dressed me up in the harness, fiddled with straps, and generally tried to get everything as ready as possible.

  The harness was… Well, it certainly wasn’t a saddle. It was no more restrictive than it absolutely had to be. There was nothing in the design that would let someone even attempt to control me; with straps around my neck, chest, and legs keeping everything firmly in place, it was a rig to strap someone firmly to my back or my chest, and that was it. I was in control, and they were, as safely as possible, along for the ride.

  There were also some provisions for strapping on what one might call saddlebags, but I had no complaints. That was just practical, a step up from the harnessed bag that Herald had gifted me months before. I hadn’t used it much lately, since being able to Shift was so damned useful, but if I was going to be traveling with a passenger anyway there was no reason not to have a convenient way of carrying stuff.

  The whole time we were working the air was thick with anxiety. Maybe I was the only one who could tell, because Herald, in her excitement, appeared entirely oblivious. But it was unquestionably there, and every time I looked at the others, or at least at Tam or Val, I could see the worry etched into their faces. Mak understood why I was going. She knew that she’d have to go to the Palace on my behalf for the declaration, and that they’d all have to be on their guard in case there was some kind of backlash against my existence being made public. That was all fine. But, while she didn’t say anything, I could tell that she was not happy about our decision to have Herald come along with me. Neither were Tam or Val. But they all understood the reasoning, and even if they didn’t fully agree they understood that there was no arguing Herald out of it.

  As we were finishing up, Herald ran off to get the last of the things she needed for our short trip, which admittedly wasn’t much. As soon as the cellar door closed I told the others, “I won’t let her get hurt. I promise you: Whatever happens, as long as I’m alive, I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  “That’s quite a loophole you’ve got there,” Tam said. He laughed mirthlessly. “‘As long as you’re alive,’ eh?”

  “I’ll be careful. I promise you that as well.”

  “Sure. Yeah. It’s just… you mean ‘as careful as you can be while still doing what you need to do,’ right?”

  “Insolent,” Instinct grumbled, but even she couldn’t deny that there was a lot of truth in what he said. I tended to be as reckless as I had to. But this was different, and I needed them to understand that.

  “I love Herald,” I said, willing them to believe me. “I will keep her out of harm’s way if I possibly can. Even if it means failing to protect this city, I will not risk her getting hurt. I swear, on my pride and on my hoard and on my love for our sister, that I will take her to the darkest depths of the mountain if that’s what it takes to keep her safe. I. Will. Not. Let. Anything. Happen. To. Her. All right?”

  Mak was nodding, but to her my words were gospel. It was Tam I watched, until he relaxed and, looking me in the eye, said, “All right. I believe you. You’ll bring her home safe.”

  “Yeah. Of course I will.”

  I thought that would be that, but Tam disagreed. He didn’t break eye contact. Instead his voice hardened, and he said, “You won’t come back without her.”

  It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. And I wouldn’t say that he stared me down, but I was the one to break the silence and the tension that followed. We didn’t have time for ridiculous games like that, after all. “Yeah,” I told him. “We’re both coming back.”

  “Right.” He nodded. He didn’t look angry, or defiant, only determined. And I knew that while we both loved one other, it couldn’t compare to how much we each loved Herald. When he told me that I shouldn’t bother coming back without her, he meant it.

  The spell only broke fully when the cellar door opened and Relki came down the stairs, looking for a bag of… I don’t know. Beans or lentils or something. I had trouble paying attention to anything besides the sound of Instinct raging inside my head, and the struggle to keep her from taking over. I couldn’t tell what I might do if I lost that struggle — nothing too terrible, I was sure, but even snapping or raging at him would be bad enough. He’d accepted our — really Herald’s — arguments for why Herald should come along, but he was still afraid for her. That was all, and I refused to let myself fault him for how he dealt with it.

  A minute later Herald came down, having fetched something from the room she shared with Mak. That was it for the preparations. She got her gear on while the others fastened her bags to my harness, and then she got on my back and strapped herself in. She threw herself left and right, back and forwards to test the straps. Everything was solid. I barely felt the straps as she thrashed around, and she couldn’t fall off if she wanted to. We were ready to go.

  Mak brought everyone down to wish us good luck. Most of them had no idea what we were doing, but that didn’t matter. I appreciated it all the same. I only wished that Garal and Lalia and the Terriallons were there to see me off. Despite what I’d told the others, despite the fact that I had the most important person in the world with me, I couldn’t help but think that I would have liked to see them for what might be one last time. But with the White Cranes gone all the Wolves were on almost permanent patrol. They only rarely visited the city, and I hadn’t seen Garal or Lalia since the aftermath of rescuing Zabra and Kesra. It had been even longer in the case of Rib and Pot.

  I wanted to leave a message for them. The last thing anyone needed to hear was me acknowledging that Herald and I might not come back, but I wanted to say something. So, once the doors were open and we were staring out into the rain, I turned to Tam and said, “If the Wolves come around while we’re out, tell them I’m sorry I missed them, yeah?”

  He nodded. “Sure. See you in two days, yeah, Draka? Kitten?”

  “You have to stop calling me that, Tam!” Herald laughed on my back. “But yes, a day or two. Right, Draka?”

  “Right.” My voice came out flat, and I tried to channel her excitement. She didn’t care that we’d be flying in the rain for a while, or that we were intentionally putting ourselves in the way of a fully grown dragon. She was just happy to be going somewhere with me. We’d be crossing the Sareyan Sea. We’d see the city of Tavvanar, and the great island of Vanar. Disregarding the terrible danger, why wouldn’t we be excited?

  I tried again, and this time I managed to mirror some of Herald’s energy. “Right! See you all in two days! Hold on!”

  Herald gave off a loud whoop. Without looking back, I sprang through the doors, took two long strides across the yard, and leaped into the air.

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