I left early the next morning with my mother’s blessing. Instinct grumbled a bit about me taking back full control, but it was all theater. She didn’t resist or make a fuss, especially after we agreed that she’d be allowed more free rein when it was only us and Embers.

  Conscience never expressed any desire to be in charge the way Instinct had been. We’re similar enough. The fact that you worry about me should make that clear enough, she said when I pressed her. And you’ll know if you piss me off. Believe me.

  I did. Instinct could make me suspicious, jealous, and angry to the point of straight-up murder. Conscience could fill me with shame and regret. Instinct could make me want to hurt others, but Conscience could hurt me.

  Flying with my new Grace Advancement was almost like discovering the pleasure of soaring through the air all over again. On the way north it had been raining, and I hadn’t been in the mood for anything fancy. Flying with Embers, I’d tried to focus on learning her signals, and staying close for her sake. Now, with a long flight south ahead of me, I really stretched my wings, and it was glorious.

  I’d played around plenty with aerobatics. Loops and rolls and climbs and dives and swoops; flying was fun. Flying was freeing. Flying was awesome. Flying was one of the best parts of being a dragon. I didn’t have much need for fancy flying; I didn’t fight in the air, I didn’t strike prey in the air, and I certainly wasn’t prey myself. But I wanted to fly fancy because it was fun, and it felt good, and it made humans Oooh and Aaah. Those were all excellent reasons in my mind.

  Grace took everything I’d been able to do, everything my body had been capable of and everything I’d learned, and dialed it up to eleven. My control, reflexes, and instincts were so much sharper that looking back on the tricks I’d been so proud of before made me feel clumsy. Before I’d rolled; now I could spin around my center axis like a bullet from a rifle. Before I’d been able to take some pretty tight turns; now I could change direction so suddenly that my digits and the tip of my tail ached from the blood being forced into them. I was so aerodynamic that in level flight I could sprint at a speed at least half again as fast as my previous best, and I had no idea how fast I could go in a dive, simply because I’d need to climb higher than I was strictly comfortable with to find out.

  I still didn’t think I could outpace Mother, but I suspected that I could outfly her if I had to. Or just to tease her, which she might actually abide or even enjoy by now.

  I was not the least bit surprised that everyone was outside enjoying the sun when I arrived at Jekrie’s village. They crowded around me — some out of reverence, others out of obligation. I didn’t much care why, as long as they showed some respect and kept my secrets.

  No one seemed inclined to speak. No one commented on my increased size, but then, they rarely did. Even Jekrie, who’d usually have some polite greeting for me, stood patiently silent before me until I almost started to worry.

  “So, Jekrie,” I said, mostly to break the silence. “Did you name this place yet?”

  “This place” now consisted of a long-house, four completed cabins, and a number of garden plots and even a pen with those big, meaty turkey-like birds that people in the forest loved to raise. I had no idea where they’d gotten them from; they hadn’t been there when I’d visited a week before.

  “We have,” he answered with a satisfied smile. “There’s been heated talk among us for a time now, but I should think that we’re agreed?” He looked around the group, getting nods back, enthusiastic or grudging. “If it please you, Great Lady, we should like to call our home Lady’s Rest.”

  “Still say we should call ‘er Dragonhame,” muttered a tall, broad shouldered teenager. Foren, if I remembered correctly. He got a light cuff on the back of the head for it.

  “It does please me!” I told them, getting a few pleased smiles out of it. “You, kid. Foren?”

  The teenager’s eyes went huge when I addressed him, and he stammered, “Yes, milady?”

  “Not a bad suggestion. Bit too obvious, though. We’re trying to hide that you belong to me, yeah?”

  “Oh, uh, right. Thank you, milady?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  I turned back to Jekrie. “Any trouble, lately?”

  “Some wolves, Great Lady, but we’ve seen to them. One monstrous elk came through and had a great nibble at the gardens before it moved on, but no great loss. There wasn’t much to lose.”

  “Great. You all getting ready to go to the city?”

  “We are, Great Lady! Speaking of wolves, we’ve gathered a great deal of hides and furs and the like. We’re planning to be on our way when the ground dries. A day or two, we hope. And the city is a long days’ march?”

  I nodded to the two latest additions, the adventurers from Karakan, and said, “I’d say Elem and Darvellan—?” I wasn’t sure of the second name and drew it out uncertainly, and the man in question nodded. “I’d say they can tell you better than me. I fly, you know?”

  “These are tough people,” Elem said. “They’ll manage it by nightfall if we start at sunrise.”

  “And you all know where to go? Her Grace’s Favor, in the Merchant’s Quarter?”

  “We can show them,” Darvellan said, quickly adding, “Ah, your ladyship.”

  “Great. I’ll make sure Reben and the others are expecting you sometime in the next few days, then.” I paused, then added, “I don’t know how you all do this, but belated happy Solstice?”

  There was some awkwardness, then some smiles and soft, kind laughter until Jekrie’s wife Tinir said, “And a prosperous year to you, Great Lady.”

  On a whim, I decided to enter the city through the sewers. I could fly freely above the city. I could have landed anywhere I wished, and keeping my connection to the House Drakonum secret was not a thing anymore; I’d walked into the Council chamber with Mak at my side. But I got bizarrely nostalgic for my old, secret route as I approached the city, so I took a detour to the sea caves and went in that way.

  The water level was higher than normal in the storm drains, but only six inches to a foot or so, depending on where I was. All the narrower channels that I used to shortcut between areas were halfway up the tunnel walls, and while they were slimy and generally awful, there was nothing stopping me from getting through them. I’d worried that my increased size might cause a problem or three, but either I was getting better at stretching my shadow form, the energy in my Heart was helping, or my latest Advancement applied to movement while Shifted as well. Stretching and squeezing had never been easier.

  I barely even had to wait to be let into the Favor; though, I did have to Shift back in the corridor rather than in the small room. “It’s not like there could be many reasons for you to be down there,” Mak said, grinning as I praised her for her quick response time. “Mercies, I’m glad you finally got to use the hatch. Damn rains came too early this year! How do you like it?”

  “Love it. I think sneaking around is in my blood.”

  She closed the hatch and led me into the main cellar, saying, “That and wreaking havoc, from what Herald’s told me about your mother.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Oh, you don’t know? Embers told her how she laid waste to some city or other, a few hundred years ago. Mercies know how true it was, but I saw her up there when you flew together. I could believe it.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “She never told me about burning down any cities,” I grumbled, but I could understand it on some level. Back before I probably wouldn’t have told my baby niece about half the hell I raised until she was in her teens, at least. And Mother knew that I liked humans.

  Again, almost like she was reading my mind, Mak said, “She probably didn’t want to worry you.”

  “Yeah. Hey, I really did think it’d take longer to get in here. Where’s that Sari woman?”

  “Oh, we got rid of her.”

  I lay down, looking at her with concern. “‘Got rid of?’”

  “Oh, not like that,” she laughed. “We set her free. Didn’t even hand her over to the guard — told her she was welcome back if she ever needed to rent a room.” The grin she gave me would have made Mother proud. “I’m curious if she’ll take us up on that. Doubt she’ll ever trouble us again, though.”

  “Any reason you’re so sure?”

  She shrugged. “I told her that we’d know if she moved against us, and that if she was lucky it would be you who found her and not me. I’ve found that with the right tone, people take my threats very seriously. Something about the contrast of that and me being, well, me.”

  She gestured to herself in general. If you looked at her with fresh eyes, the first word that came to mind was “cute.” But I knew the dead way she could speak when she wanted to.

  Yeah. I could believe that people took her threats seriously.

  “All right, I trust you know what you’re about,” I told her and dropped the subject. “Where’s Herald?”

  “Meeting with Master Rasarian. That’s the enchanter I found who agreed to tutor her. It’s just an initial get-to-know before we formalize anything, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes home earlier than she might have now that you’re back.”

  “I love that you did that for her,” I said, meaning it as warmly as I could, and the brightness of her smile told me that she felt it. “It was one of the first things I really learned about her, you know? How she wanted to be an enchantress, if she could? I love you for getting her a step closer to that.”

  “Mmm,” she hummed happily. “And I love you for getting us the kind of money we need to pay the good master. He does not come cheap.”

  “I’m sure,” I laughed. “Hey, when she comes back, how do you feel about going for a flight? You wouldn’t believe…”

  At that point we just settled in to talk about everything and nothing. Things like how they’d celebrated the solstice, how nice it was that the rain had finally stopped, and how Jekrie and the people from Lady’s Rest were coming to visit.

  “Really?” Mak asked about the name. “A little on the nose, don’t you think?” That was her only complaint, though, and she assured me that we’d find room for them.

  One thing Mak kept coming back to was how fine of a figure one of the city guards hanging around the inn apparently cut. “Where’s this coming from, suddenly?” I asked her. Talking about guys with her was new. The way she explained it, she’d just been too stressed to have a love-life for the past twelve years or so. But now she’d mentally shunted a lot of the responsibility onto me, and I’d accepted that, and that let her finally think about herself a little.

  “Besides,” she said. “You haven’t had to suffer through Kira and Ardek being disgustingly cute together this past week.”

  “About… ever since she was almost kidnapped?”

  “Well, yes. Doesn’t make me any less envious. I think I want that.”

  “I thought you didn’t get along with Ardek?”

  Mak snorted out a giggle. It was a beautiful thing to see, really — she had a way of just relaxing completely when she was around me and the situation allowed. So, for what must have been an hour, that’s what we did: just relaxing, taking some time together before we got back to more serious things.

  “So, no repercussions yet?” I asked after our conversation had petered out, and the comfortable silence had stretched long enough. She immediately sobered up.

  “Not a sound. Which I don’t like at all. I’d expected a sternly worded letter from the lady justice’s office by now, but nothing. The guard on the inn is the same as ever, though they’re officially watching the square, of course. Same people, same number, none of them acting strangely. And before you ask, Ardek’s minions haven’t seen anything strange either.”

  “You know,” I sighed, “I really want that to mean that everything’s going to be fine.”

  Mak nodded. “But.”

  “But,” I agreed, then gave her a head-wiggle shrug that only got me a confused look back. “How are things going with this Parvion security guy?”

  “Nowhere, yet. We haven’t decided how to approach it. We don’t know what he looks like, we’re not sure how to find out, and sending a letter to the Parvion patriarch asking to meet his head of security seems risky and pointless. We may be in the rolls, but barely. And we’re new. And we’re, you know. Tekereteki. Gods only know how he’d respond to a message from us considering he raised a man like Tark.”

  “Seems easy enough to me. I’ll go. I can take Herald with me.”

  Mak nodded. “That was Herald’s suggestion. But it’s dangerous, and…”

  “And you know it’s the best idea we have, but you’d like me to sign off on it,” I suggested, though I was sure it was more like she wanted me to take responsibility. “Well, I like it. And I’ll be going with her.”

  Mak relaxed again, leaning back into me. “Thank you.”

  “Appreciated, but no need. They messed with my girls. With my humans. Nobody walks away from that.”

  “Again. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  It took another little while before Herald came back. I felt her bustle around a bit upstairs before she came practically skipping down the stairs in a sunshine-and-rainbows kind of mood. Which made perfect sense considering the change in the weather, but that wasn’t the reason. She hadn’t stopped to change and was dressed like she was seeing the Council, with her golden dragon shining on her ear. I doubted that she’d taken if off once since Mak put it on.

  “Master Rasarian is an old goat!” she said cheerfully. “Stubborn, cantankerous, smells vaguely bad, eats anything, and an absolute dear. Thank you again, Mak. Thank you so much!”

  “I guess the meeting went well?” Mak said, and Herald just kept on grinning.

  “I will see him tomorrow afternoon for an introduction to enchanting and some recommended reading. Ah, and I am to bring the rest of the payment in full that you agreed on.”

  “Is that how it’s usually done?” I asked. “What if something happens? Can you get your money back?”

  “Probably not. But once I show him what my magic can do, I expect him to want to stay on good terms. I am not worried.”

  “Are you sure it’s a good thing to let him know that you can, you know, go invisible? It’s fairly unique, isn’t it?”

  “It is. But, again, if I tell him that I want my capabilities kept secret, I do not expect him to tell anyone. Nobody wants the shadows to grow teeth, after all.”

  “So you’d, what? Stab him? I thought you liked this old man.”

  “I would not stab him as a first resort,” Herald laughed. “I would simply appear in his home while he is sleeping and explain how disappointed I am. But again, I do not expect him to do anything to make that necessary. He had a good… what was that word you taught me, the one with no Karakani translation? Vibe?”

  I would simply appear in his bedroom. I had to laugh, and once I did, my laughter dragged the girls along. That was straight out of my playbook, just one more sign of how she, just like Mak, was taking after me.

  “You know,” I said as our laughter wound down, “that reminds me. I doubt she’d ever say it outright, but I think my mother misses you already.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah. She talked about you a bunch, you know?”

  “I am flattered. Give her my love if you see her before I do, would you?”

  “Wait,” Mak said, looking between us. “I must’ve missed something. This is Draka’s mother? The thirty ton dragon?"

  “That’s her,” I confirmed.

  “You told me that she kept you safe while Draka was away,” Mak said. “I didn’t quite get that you were friends.”

  “Oh… I do not know about friends,” Herald said placidly. “I think she sees me mostly as Draka’s favorite pet. So she likes me because Draka likes me, and she’s nice to me to make Draka happy, something like that. But we did have some very nice conversation, when I took a break from writing.”

  “Speaking of my mom liking you… Mak. How would you feel about meeting her?”

  Mak went very still and quiet, to the point where I couldn’t tell if she was thinking or if she’d blanked out on me.

  “I’m working on getting her to understand how happy I am here, with you,” I said gently. “Ideally I want her to meet all of you, in time. But I’d like you to be next, after Herald. The two of you are the most important to me.”

  Mak still didn’t speak for another long while and only barely relaxed when Herald put a concerned hand on her shoulder. When she finally said something her voice was barely above a whisper. “Does she know what I did?”

  “No, Mak,” I said. “I’m not going to tell her. And if she finds out somehow, she’ll just have to accept that we’ve forgiven each other.”

  “Would it— would it be soon?”

  “It doesn’t have to be, but I’d prefer it.”

  “Okay. I could use a few days to get used to the idea. Could I have that?”

  “She is nice,” Herald insisted.

  “You can have a few days,” I said. “I don’t even have a plan or anything. Of course you can have a few days.”

  “Okay. Yeah. Sure. I’d love to meet your mother.”

  I’d never seen Mak sweat like that.

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