“All right, I don’t expect a different answer than the last time I asked, but are you absolutely sure?” I asked Herald as she climbed off me on the ledge.

  “I am,” she said confidently. “We cannot let them leave as they are, and I would not ask you to burden yourself with them.”’

  “And you’re sure this will work?”

  “It was frighteningly easy the first time. And what better time to practice than now? This is the best outcome they can reasonably hope for.”

  Finding a suitable Rift to refill Herald’s Heart had been fairly quick. Once she’d taken what she could, we left. I did need to fill myself up, having burned off some of my own power in lieu of food during last night’s growth spurt — I was damned hungry, too, so hunting was on the list as well — but held off. Most likely we’d need to return for Herald to top herself up twice in short order, and I’d rather not have to hunt down another Rift that fit my criteria of being easy to land by, but not surrounded by goblins.

  There were a few of those, now. And while I was still a little concerned by what my people in Lady’s Rest had said about these new goblins, that they didn’t trade or make deals, I hoped that they could adapt. I had a soft spot for the little buggers, and a vague plan to find and enlist Nallekka, the only goblin I’d actually spoken to, to help assimilate the newcomers.

  We entered the mountain, beginning the descent to where Mak and our two captives waited. “And again,” I said, “the reason you’re so against killing them has nothing to do with the fact that you were crying about how much in love they were?”

  “I was not—!” Herald paused, unable to complete the direct lie. “I may have been a little bit teary-eyed,” she admitted. “They love each other so much, and they were just so… you did not see them! But that is not why I do not want to kill them! It is better this way!”

  I sighed softly, and it turned into a relieved chuckle. I honestly didn’t want to kill them, either. I was okay with it; they’d come here intending to plunder my hoard after all. But they hadn’t made it any deeper than Rib and Pot had. They hadn’t actually laid eye or hand on anything that was mine, and while I was angry that they had come at all, it still felt a little too close to killing for convenience for me to be entirely comfortable.

  To be honest with myself, I would have probably taken them rather than ending their lives, and I was grateful to Herald for shouldering that burden instead. I just wanted to be sure that she knew what she was getting into. She wasn’t getting antsy about checking up on the lord exchequer yet, but it was less than a full day since she’d used her shadow magic to dominate him. It would come, and if she took these two would be hoard-raiders, she’d feel the same about them.

  “We can have them come by the inn regularly,” she said, like she’d read my damn mind. I looked at her, and she looked back coolly. “What? It is an easy way to keep an eye on them. And the woman apparently has a nose for treasure, almost literally. Tell me that would not be amazingly useful!”

  “Nah, yeah, it would,” I agreed.

  “She did not even need to be close! She had a feeling that this was where your hoard was, and she was right!”

  “You understand how that makes me worried, yeah?”

  “About others?”

  “Right. If there’s one, there may be more. This one just happened to have a husband who’s good at climbing. He can’t be the only one. What’s to say a treasure seeker and a climber won’t get together at the Adventurer’s Guild, or even in our own damn common room, and set up a little expedition?”

  “Good thing we will have two more sets of eyes and ears in the adventuring community, then,” she said smugly. She was really invested in those two!

  “Yeah. Good thing. You know you’ll need to take care of them, right? They’ll need you. They won’t feel right if they don’t get your approval every so often, and if you have them working for you you’ll need to make sure they have money and all.”

  She said one word in response to that: “Soandel.”

  What the hell could I say to that? She was entirely right. She had one of the richest men in the city under her thumb. We couldn’t engage in any kind of massive wealth transfer without raising the kinds of questions we absolutely did not want to answer, but nobody would bat an eye to him adding them to his payroll, or to him just slipping us a bit of gold whenever we met him for lunch. Hell, he was already going to do that, to “reward” me for “saving his life” when his bodyguard “turned on him!”

  “They may even want to take a room at the inn,” she said after it became clear that I wasn’t going to argue. “It is starting to look more like a boarding house every day, so why not? Although I will let them make an honest choice about that. I will not force them to give up their home or anything, if they have one.”

  “That’s nice of you,” I deadpanned.

  “I am a kind and merciful queen,” she said primly, straightening her back and raising her nose in the air. Then she ran her hand up my neck until she reached my stubby left horn and gave it a good scratch around the base. “I try to emulate my magnanimous goddess in that.”

  “Please, don’t even joke about that,” I said as I leaned into the scritches. “Just Mak is bad enough right now.”

  “That is not going to change. You know that, right? She needs to be honest with you, and to her, you are her mistress first, and her sister and friend second.”

  “Yeah,” I said heavily. “I know.”

  “You. Sarina, correct? Get up and come with me.”

  When we reached the place where we’d left Mak and the prisoners, Herald was all business. It was clear from the sound of soft, if stilted, conversation as we approached that everything was fine, so there was no reason to delay.

  The woman, Sarina presumably, got up slowly. She and her husband exchanged anxious looks, and he was reluctant to let go of her hand. In the end she had to gently pry his fingers loose, telling him, “I love you, all right?”

  “I love you, too,” he replied, and I could see what Herald had meant. The way they looked at each other, the fragile hope in the face of whatever they thought was about to happen, it really tugged at the old heartstrings. Then he turned to face me and Herald, and he mustered all the courage he could to ask, “What are you going to do with her.”

  I actually believed that this man would try to fight us. For the right reasons, too, and that always impressed me. Maybe having him around wouldn’t be so bad!

  “We are going to have a private conversation,” Herald said, “and then I am going to return her to you unharmed. Assuming, of course, that you do not do anything stupid. I very much doubt that we could trust one of you if we had to dispose of the other. Are we clear?”

  “It’ll be fine,” Sarina said soothingly. “I’ll be fine. You’ll see.” Then she followed Herald back up the passage.

  I settled in on the floor, effectively blocking off the passage upward. It wasn’t hard to do; my last growth spurt had left me a foot or so taller by my sisters’ estimation, and proportionally longer and wider. That would have to slow down soon, for one very simple reason: my mother.

  I was sure that her hoard must be massive. Based on how much more I needed for every threshold, and how many Advancements she must have, her hoard must be on the scale of what a nation could accumulate over decades or centuries. But she was “only” about twice as tall as I was at the shoulder, instead of the size of a mountain. There had to be some point of diminishing returns.

  But that was beside the point. I was nothing like the little labrador-sized lizard I’d been when I first crawled into the sun. In less than a year I’d grown into something truly majestic. And while I sort of missed being smaller than Herald — I understood what Mak had meant when she told me that she liked being little — this felt so much more right. There was a confidence that came with being so much bigger than everyone, and with every inch I grew I felt more like my image of a dragon.

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  “So, what’s your name?” I asked the man on the floor.

  He was still managing to somehow stare past me, as though he hoped to see his wife through the stone. When I spoke to him he stirred, though, looking me in the eyes. Not defiantly; just a little too out of it to be immediately afraid. “Me? Uh, Lady Dragon?”

  “Draka. My name is Draka. Get used to it. And yes, you. Your name?”

  “Marvan, Lady Draka.”

  “And you like to climb, yeah?”

  “I do, yes.”

  “I always wondered what it would be like to climb that cliff. Care to tell me?”

  “What?” The man blinked.

  “The cliff. What was it like to climb it? I never met anyone here who climbs. It’s fairly rough, right, so I figure there must be plenty of holds. You use some kind of equipment, or did you free climb it?”

  “Did I—? Pitons and rope! I could have gone without, but my wife…” He gestured lamely past me, clearly baffled by my question.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected. I’d wanted to distract him, so asking about a common interest seemed like the natural thing to do. I’d “climbed” the cliff beneath my ledge in shadow form, extending and sort of wedging myself into cracks and crevices before pulling myself up, but I’d always been curious what it would have been like to actually climb it. To him, though? It must have been beyond bizarre to have a dragon lay down and ask you about things that there was no reason for her to have an interest in.

  “Nah, yeah, I understand. You’re the expert, and she’s more of an enthusiast. So, what have you all been talking about while Herald and I were away? Getting to know each other?”

  “Somewhat,” Mak said, when Marvan remained too baffled to answer. “I’ve made sure that they were being honest about not telling anyone about this place.”

  “And?”

  “I believe them.”

  “Good. Wouldn’t want to have to track down their friends.”

  Mak nodded sympathetically. “I know how much that would bother you. I don’t think there’s any need. Although… Herald should ask again once we’re done.”

  “Right,” I said. “I trust you, you know that. But best to be sure.”

  Marvan’s face turned back and forth between us in bewildered silence as we spoke.

  “They’ve been together for… how long was it, Marvan?” Mak asked. “Almost ten years, now?”

  “Ten years, right around the equinox,” he answered.

  “How amazing is that?” she asked me, smiling slightly. “Look at him. He’s around Ardek’s age, isn’t he? They would’ve been just kids!”

  “Met at thirteen, married at sixteen, never regretted it,” Marvan whispered.

  “A little older then. But ten years! And now they hoped to strike it rich, retire, and have some kids. That’s what this was all about!”

  I snorted. Wouldn’t have saved them if they made it to my hoard, but sure. It was all very sweet. “We should introduce them to Kira,” I said.

  “That will be unavoidable,” Mak laughed.

  “Kira?” Marvan asked hopefully. Us talking about introducing them to people must have sounded very good for their prospects of having a future.

  “A healer in our House,” Mak answered. “You’ll like her. Most people do.”

  “You’re really not going to kill us,” he said, and relaxed a little. It wasn’t a question. For the first time I could see that he actually believed it.

  “Not if we can help it. We just need to make sure that you can be trusted. And speaking of…” Mak trailed off, looking past me.

  I turned my neck to look behind myself, and there came Herald, Sarina walking a few steps behind her, meek and reverential. I half-stood and shuffled over to let them pass more easily. Herald stopped beside me with a small “Thanks” and gestured for her new follower to keep going. She looked exceedingly pleased with herself, I thought. Gone was the doubt of the previous night, after she’d taken Soandel. In its place was a new self-assurance, and a possessiveness when she looked at Sarina which I recognized all too well.

  “Sarina?” Marvan said as his wife went and sat down next to him again. “Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s going to be fine,” Sarina said contentedly. She snuggled up against her husband, then turned to look at Herald with an almost Tammy-like adoration. “Lady Herald’s going to take care of everything. We’ll never want for money again, my love! And we may not be able to move to Marbek, but we’ll be able to start a family soon, if we want.”

  “Shall we?” Herald whispered to me.

  For a moment I wondered if this was really a good idea. But only for a moment. It was too late now. I nodded and told Mak, “We’ll be right back,” then rose to turn around. It was harder than I’d expected in the small space, and I had to really watch my wings and tail not to bang them on anything.

  “Lady Herald? Are you leaving?” Sarina asked anxiously as we got moving.

  “Only for a short while. Until then, explain everything to your husband,” Herald said over her shoulder. She had a natural command to her that I’d rarely heard before, and which pleased me no end. Even Instinct, my inner dragon, stirred with interest. Herald had been joking when she called herself a queen up on the ledge, but I could see it. Tall, beautiful, and intelligent, well spoken and with a proud bearing; if we put her in a dress worth a lifetime’s wages and I introduced her as the heiress to the imperial throne of Tekeretek, we might be able to pull it off.

  “With us as her goddess,” Instinct whispered inside me. “The old Tekereteki knew the right way of things.”

  I didn’t quite agree, but neither could I bring myself to dismiss the idea entirely. Not even Conscience, my human side, argued against it. She was all for democracy, justice, and compassion, but with what we’d seen so far, pretty much anywhere around here would be better off with someone like Herald at the top.

  When we returned, with Herald again brimming with power, Marvan gave us a look of… not resignation. Grim determination, perhaps. Whichever it was, he clearly knew what was going to happen, at least to some degree. By the way he and Sarina still held each other, though, he’d accepted it.

  “I’m ready,” he told Herald after a quick nod of greeting to me.

  “Come with me, then,” Herald said, turning to gesture up the passage.

  “Please don’t treat it like something you have to go through, love,” Sarina said softly. She took Marvan’s chin in one hand and kissed him on the corner of the mouth. “It’s wonderful. You’ll see. And I’ll be right here when it’s done.”

  Marvan stroked his wife’s hair, then kissed her back. “Then I’ll see you soon, dove,” he said before getting to his feet.

  “Can’t you just do it here?” Mak suggested. “Or, I can come with you.”

  Herald shook her head firmly. “Thank you,” she said, “but it feels… private. It is hard to explain, but I would rather it were just the two of us.”

  The funny thing was that once she’d said it, I understood what she meant. I hadn’t ever really reflected on it since I’d always wanted to do it secretly anyway — I didn’t want to give away my powers. But there was something weirdly intimate about it. A lot of emotions involved, perhaps? And I wasn’t alone. The two in the room who’d been on the other end, Mak months ago and Sarina only just recently, were both nodding slowly.

  “Go on, then,” I said, and Herald led Marvan off.

  “No jokes?” Mak asked once they were gone.

  “Me? What about you?” I fired back.

  “She’s our little sister!” she said with mock outrage. “Besides, his wife is right here. I wouldn’t joke about that right in front of her.”

  “Joke all you wish,” Sarina said calmly. “Lady Herald is beautiful, but I know my husband. He’s got a strange condition where his neck doesn’t turn, you see.”

  Mak snorted. “I haven’t heard that one before.”

  “It sounds better in Tavvanarian,” Sarina admitted. Then she repeated herself in that language, and while the differences were small, she was right. Something about the melody and cultural context, I was pretty sure.

  It only took a minute or three after that for Herald and Marvan to return. Three sets of eyebrows raised at the way Herald was straightening her clothes.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Anything happen back there?” I asked carefully. I knew that she wouldn’t lie to me, but despite everything I knew about her I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the answer.

  Herald looked down at herself, then shrugged. “He tried to take my dagger from me. Why did you do that, again?” she asked Marvan, who looked down with embarrassment.

  “To take you hostage and get you to release Sarina, Lady Herald,” he said.

  “And why was that not going to work?”

  “Because your blessing can’t be taken back, Lady Herald. And because I couldn’t have hurt you to begin with.”

  “Right. Well, I am not angry with you. If anything I am touched by your loyalty. And you will never try anything like that again, will you?”

  Marvan raised his face again, and his eyes were wide with horror. “Never, Lady Herald! I can’t even imagine— no! Never!”

  “Good. Go on now. Join your wife. We need to talk about where to go from here.”

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