When we left the mountain, we — or rather Herald — gave our new conscripts a choice: climb, or catch a ride with the dragon. They took a long look at me, conferred with each other in some kind of married couple telepathy, and chose to fly.

  I approved. Who wouldn’t choose to ride the dragon, if given the opportunity?

  They didn’t even argue over who should go on my back, and who in my arms. With my shoulder fixed from a nice, long nap on my hoard I could safely carry either of them, and by silent agreement they decided on Sarina climbing on my back, while Maravan took the front. I had a few theories as to why: a false idea that being on my back was safer, an entirely correct idea that being in my arms was safer, or Marvan being tired of always being the big spoon and wanting to feel little for a moment — that idea had been on my mind a lot lately. But I didn’t ask for the real reason — that would have taken all the fun out of guessing.

  Whatever the reasons, they were both in the group of first time flyers who were able to just enjoy the experience. In my not at all biased opinion this was probably because they were both climbers — heights were unlikely to be a problem for them, and if you can’t handle the possibility of falling, you’re never going to get very high on a wall. Marvan was a whooper, and Sarina was a giggler. Despite their thieving hearts, I quite enjoyed flying with them for the minute or so it took to get into the air, fly down to Lady’s Rest, and drop them off.

  “This is Sarina and Marvan,” I told Jekrie when he came jogging to greet me. “I’d like you to make them comfortable until I return. It shouldn’t be more than a few hours — or possibly by morning, depending on how lonely my mother is.”

  “Of course, Great Lady!” Jekrie said. “Sarina. Marvan. Welcome to Lady’s Rest. If you enter the longhouse there and tell anyone that you came with the lady, you’ll be made welcome.”

  There was no hesitation. Not a single question about who these people were or what they were doing here, just unflinching hospitality. We may have had a rough start, but Jekrie really had grown on me. “How are your other guests doing?” I asked him.

  “Happy as the fox that caught the hare, Great Lady. They came out yesterday when their supply of food and torches ran low, had a meal and a bath in the stream, and went back in. Talked with great excitement the whole time to any who would listen.”

  “What about?”

  “Apologies, but I could barely follow a word they said. Half their words were not familiar to me.”

  I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, that sounds like two scholars in their element. Tell them I’m happy for them, yeah? And that I’ll be back to check on them. Now I have to get back to Herald and Mak.”

  “Aye, as you say, Great Lady. All the best to them.”

  “And to Tinir and everyone else,” I told him, before returning to the girls on the mountainside.

  I couldn’t go back to the city without at least speaking with my mother. Not because it would look bad, but because I genuinely wanted to.

  Sower of Embers, Reaper of Flame, the one who’d laid the egg from which I’d hatched and who had recently inserted herself into my life, was terrifying — a living manifestation of power so far beyond me that there was little to nothing I could do against her. And yet, none of that power was used to threaten me. She was here to keep me safe and to make sure I learned how to be a dragon, but instead of forcing me to come with her back to her home somewhere in the frozen north, she’d chosen to give me space and independence.

  She could have forced me. Easily. Hell, she could have just grabbed me and flown off with me — it wasn’t like my venom, teeth, or claws could touch her. But Embers — Mother — wanted me to be happy, and she’d quickly realized that I wouldn’t be that if she took me away. So instead she’d stayed to keep an eye on me. To have that kind of power, yet choose to compromise… Yeah. I was grateful, and I respected her, and I was growing to truly like being around her.

  The fact that Instinct adored her helped, too. Anything that Instinct or Conscience felt strongly enough bled through to me, and with Mother it could be hard to know if my desire to impress her came from me wanting to show her that she didn’t need to control me, because I myself wanted her to be impressed, or from Instinct’s adorably childish need for her mommy’s approval. It didn’t matter; the end result was the same. I wanted to meet my mother. I wanted to have a chat, get her and my sisters more familiar with each other, and show off how much I’d grown since I last saw her only a few days ago. I was looking forward to seeing that happy little crinkle of her eyes when she was pleased, and as we flew toward Mother’s lair Mak hummed happily beneath me, feeling and responding to my anticipation.

  Mother was nowhere to be found. I’d been surprised that she hadn’t come out to look for me when I was in the area, but I’d just figured that she was taking a nice, long nap. I wasn’t ready for the disappointment of finding her lair empty, and stood for a while looking hopefully at the sky until Herald, with her far sharper eyes, told me, “She is not there, Draka. Come. Let us go home. We can have Avjilan use his magic to find out where she is, all right?”

  “Yeah,” I said with one last forlorn look around the surrounding mountaintops. “Sure.”

  By the time I’d brought my sisters back to our inn, then returned to Lady’s Rest and brought our two new additions as well, it was getting dark. The cellar door stood open as I landed, first carefully dropping Marvan and letting him get clear before setting down and letting Sarina slide off.

  At the door stood not only Herald and Mak, but Tam and Val as well. “This is Tamor, my brother,” I told the two humans with me, “and Valmik, his… honestly, why don’t the two of you just get married again? You’re closer than most married couples I’ve seen. Anyway: Tam, Val, this is Marvan and Sarina. I’m guessing the girls will have told you about them?”

  “Words have been had, yes,” Val said, rubbing his smooth head uncomfortably. “Marvan, Sarina; we have not spoken, but there are friends mutual to us, I think. You’ve worked with Dalman, the Marbeki?”

  “Quite a few times, yes!” Sarina said brightly. “Guessing from your accent, you’re Marbeki, too?”

  “My first twenty years were spent there, but I am a citizen of Karakan now. But that is good to hear. We shall have to have Dalman here for drinks, but now, you must be hungry. Tam, my love, would you bring our new friends upstairs and get them settled? I would like to stay and speak with Draka and your sisters.”

  “Of course!” Tam said. “Come on, you two! Let’s get you out of the cellar and into the common room. Can’t believe I’ve never seen you around here! We’ll get your packs squared away, find you a room, and get some food and wine in you — sound good?”

  “Sounds great,” Marvan said. I didn’t miss his questioning look at Herald, nor her small nod. “Lead the way, Lord Tamor.”

  A little snort escaped Tam at the title. “Gods and Mercies, man, Tam will do. Tamor if you must! And the same goes for you, Sarina. I’m no lord!”

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  “I will not be long,” Val said once the upstairs door had closed. “I would have spoken with you privately, Herald, but including Draka seemed necessary. Herald, it is hard to accept that you can… do what Draka can, but I know your character. I do not truly believe this to be necessary, yet my conscience demands that I ask this of you: be kind to them! Herald, Mak, you have both met Dalman. He is a good and reliable man who helped me much when I first came here, and he cares for those two. He has told me as much. Do not break my old friend’s heart by getting them into trouble.”

  “I would not!” Herald said indignantly, crossing her arms.

  “She wouldn’t,” I agreed confidently. “They’re far too cute together for her to risk either of them getting hurt.”

  Herald blushed furiously. “That is not… entirely why. I know what I have done. I am aware of my responsibility.”

  “I know,” I said, nudging her with my snout. “Believe me, I know. But it’s adorable how invested you are.”

  “You did not see them when they thought they might die,” she muttered.

  Val let out something between a relieved sigh and chuckle. “It gladdens me to hear that. In that case I will join Tam upstairs in getting to know our new friends.”

  “You may as well go with him,” I told my sisters. “I’m going out. I’m hungry, and I don’t think a box of fish is going to cut it. Besides, I don’t hunt nearly as often as I should.”

  “What about Avjilan, then?” Mak asked. “I thought you wanted to find your mother?”

  “I do, but that can wait until tomorrow. Besides, she might just come find me if I stay out long enough.”

  It hadn’t been a week since I last hunted, but it had been far too long since I did so at night. My day/night cycle had been all over the place — again — for ages, to the point where I was surprised to be pleasantly reminded of how right it felt to hunt at night.

  I’d taken a goat when I first brought Mak to my hoard, but I’d ranged a ways to find it, leaving the goats near my mountain alone. They’d need some time to recover their numbers after my first few months there. But that night I didn’t feel like goat. Instead I headed north over the forest to right around the line where the southernmost Rifts were to see what I could find. I told myself that it was to not compete with the humans, but if to be honest with myself, I was hoping that Mother would have just gone back to Old Mallin, and would come meet me when she felt me heading in her direction.

  She didn’t. I found myself an old deer buck, grabbed it from the shadows, and ate myself half into a stupor, but Mother never showed. Only half into a stupor, though — the deer wasn’t that big, and I’d grown significantly from the days when a single meal could send me into a meat-coma. I’d let myself go, and I was uncomfortably full, but I could still fly without lurching this way and that with every beat of my wings.

  I took a long turn over the forest, getting a better feel for the Rifts there than when I’d been here with Herald earlier — the line of their advance south hadn’t moved, but I was sure that there were more of the things than there had been a week or three ago. Then, when it was getting closer to morning than midnight, I headed back home.

  I could barely tell if the disappointment I felt at Mother not showing up was Instinct’s or my own. Or perhaps it would be better to say that I couldn’t tell where hers ended and mine began, because it certainly wasn’t all her.

  I entered the city through the sewers. Not because of any need for secrecy, but because I’d told my sisters on no uncertain terms that I didn’t want them getting out of bed just to let me in. Instead we’d left the hatch to the tunnel connecting our cellar to the storm drains open, and I went in that way.

  Sure, a rat or two might have gotten in, but that was their problem. I may have just eaten a whole deer, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have room for a squeaky little desert.

  I’d only napped for a few hours when the morning bustle started. The staff had slowly gotten used to having a dragon in their cellar, and they knew not to let me keep them from going about their jobs. They tried not to disturb me if I was sleeping, but this particular morning I was woken by a modest cough and a nervous, “Your pardon, Lady Draka, but I can’t quite get by.”

  I cracked an eye open and muttered, “Mornin’, Terna.”

  Before me stood one of the maids holding an empty basket. She was the former owner’s granddaughter, a third generation employee of the inn, and one I hadn’t seen much of since the place was attacked in the night a few weeks earlier. The poor girl had been stabbed, and even with healing potions on hand and two healers in the house her recovery had taken some time. She was still scared of the dark, from what I’d been told.

  But she’d said that she couldn’t get by. I raised my head, and yeah, I could see that. I was about fifteen feet from my snout to the tip of my tail now, and even curled up I’d managed to block off the space between the central row of shelves and the stone wall by the stairs. “Right, here you go,” I said, shuffling over toward the wall a bit and curling up on myself to make room.

  “Thank you, good morning, milady,” she said with a quick little half-bow, half-curtsey, and scurried past to get whatever it was she needed for the breakfast service.

  “Hey, Terna?” I asked as she went about filling her basket. “You doing all right?”

  “Thank you, milady, I am.”

  “Yeah? I heard about how you got hurt. They’re not pushing you too hard to get back to work, are they?”

  “Not at all milady,” she said, and I detected a distinct tone of tell-her-what-she-wants-to-hear in her voice. “I’m much better now. Lady Drakonum and Miss Kira have been very kind, and Mister Avjilan has been talking with me about, ah, trauma? Getting hurt and how… how it can stay with you, even when you’ve healed. I’m much better now!”

  “Nah, yeah, that’s good,” I said, as she passed me with her basket filled. “I’m glad. But you know Mak would still pay you even if you weren’t quite ready, yeah?”

  “I’m sure, Lady Draka,” she said. “Thank you. I prefer to make myself useful.” Then she hurried up the stairs and out of my morning, leaving me to wonder how much of that was her actually being okay, and how much was just her not wanting to look weak in front of the dragon.

  I woke again what felt like a few hours later. I’d been dimly aware of people coming and going a few times, but I didn’t actually wake up until Herald and Mak came down with Avjilan in tow.

  “Good morning, great sleepy one!” Herald proclaimed before unceremoniously flopping onto me, pinning my right wing to my side.

  “Yeah, mornin’,” I said, shifting my wing a bit until she got the message and moved so I could free it and put it over her instead. “You too, Mak. Avjilan.”

  Mak watched Herald and me fondly and just nodded. Avjilan, though, stood with his mouth slightly open, watching Herald’s antics in silence before he managed a confused, “Good morning, my lady.”

  “I heard you’ve been helping Terna.”

  He immediately looked more comfortable. Probably had to do with having something to focus on other than the woman using his reason for being as a glorified bean bag. “I’ve been trying to, my lady,” he said. “I have had plenty of opportunity to see and experience loss, pain, and tragedy. I’ve spoken to priests, healers, and wise men and women. I like to think that I can pass on at least some of their wisdom. Terna… she’s strong willed, and she puts on a brave face, but she has trouble with the dark and around strangers.”

  “That sounds like a problem when you’re working at an inn.”

  “Just so, my lady.”

  “Well, thanks. So, you’ve got the scale with you, so you know what I want. Let’s get to it.”

  “As you say,” he said, unwrapping the small cloth package he’d been carrying. A single large scale lay inside, fiery brass in color and gleaming faintly in the light of Herald’s lightstone. He sat down on the floor, holding the scale in both hands, then said, “At what time would you like to find your mother, my lady?”

  “Right now would be fine. I want to know where she is more than where she will be.”

  “Of course.” With that Avjilan focused, the magic growing in his heart until it flowed into the scale, where it coalesced before shooting out and dissipating in the air, pulling the scale gently along as it did.

  It didn’t point toward the north, as I’d expected.

  “All of you, which direction was that?” I said, hoping that I’d been wrong.

  “South,” Herald said. Her amusement from just a few minutes earlier was gone.

  “Well, shit. I was afraid you’d say that.”

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