The temple was a great hit. I would have expected the idea of camping on holy ground to make some of my companions uncomfortable — specifically Tam, Val, and Maglan — but no. Not at all.

  “Honestly,” Tam said, “if any god still claims this place, I’d hope they’re happy to have some people around again. Besides, we have walls and a roof, and I’m willing to risk some divine ire if that’s what it takes to sleep indoors again!”

  Herald and I showed the others around the neighborhood, as it were, and reminded them about the trolls before we settled in. Then, as darkness was falling, Mother showed up. She popped her head through the open doors, waited patiently for everyone to get out of the way and calm the mules down, then squeezed through and made her way to her regular sleeping spot.

  “I knew that you would make it,” she rumbled after she’d settled in. “Well done, little ones.”

  Her presence was a mixed blessing. They’d slept near each other many times by then, and having her around was an absolute guarantee that not so much as a rat would sneak through the temple doors, but sharing an enclosed space with not just a but what may be the apex predator made some of the humans just a bit uncomfortable.

  Instinct didn’t give a damn how the humans felt. She happily left them to their own devices and went to tell Mother all about how that cat had snatched Mak, and how the eagle had tried to do the same to Sarina. She talked a lot about what an amazing shot Herald was. It was adorable, really.

  The next morning, everyone was very excited. Even Mak managed to put on a brave face, despite being both hungover and absolutely knackered. That morning, they were going to see the archaeological find of the age. Val was practically vibrating with excitement and Sarina wasn’t much better, but none of them, no matter how cultured or not, no matter how educated or not, could deny what a privilege that was.

  Herald and I were taking them to the library.

  We put Mak on my back and left Mother sleeping in the temple. Then we led the others up the wide street, past ruins that hadn’t been blessed with the protections that lay on the temple, the library, and some few other buildings around the city. There was a weight to the procession, a sense that they were moving toward something immense and solemn, almost holy; not in the way that the temple was or had once been, but in a much more personal way.

  Well, perhaps not to Ardek; I doubted that he gave a damn for his own sake. But the woman he loved cared, and his friends cared, and I cared, and for all that he could be an utter bogan when he wanted to, he could also be shockingly respectful when the situation called for it.

  When we arrived at our destination, the doors still stood closed, just as we’d left them. When Herald reverently pulled them open and let everyone in, the books and papers she’d collected lay just as they had when last we were there. Not a page was disturbed, and there wasn’t so much as a speck of dust on anything. Whatever enchantment lay on the place, the enchanter had known their business.

  “Look around,” Herald told them, raising her arms to take in the entirety of the collection. “Enjoy yourselves. But be careful. As much as I love you all, if anyone ruins one of these books I swear that they will never have another good night’s sleep in their life. Sarina, if you feel that anything is of special importance, whether or not you can tell why, let me know immediately.”

  “Of course, Lady Herald!” Sarina said, excited to have a task. Turning to Marvan she said, “Come, love! Let’s see what there is to find!” before striding off among the shelves.

  “I thought she could literally smell treasure from miles away,” I whispered to Herald.

  She gave a little half-shrug. “That only works for gold, silver, gems… things that would excite you, really. But she told me that sometimes when she touches something, no matter what it is, she gets a good feeling for it. Who knows? We may get lucky.”

  We did not get lucky. Sarina didn’t find any hidden gems among the books; to her, they were all just books. Nor did she sniff out any concealed stashes of gold or silver. In the end, while everyone recognized the importance of what we’d found and how valuable it was, they just weren’t that interested after the initial wow-factor. We only stayed for half an hour, at most. Herald couldn’t get any work done with everyone running around, and even Val, who was most excited of anyone about being there, lost most of his momentum when he ran into the wall of not being able to read so much as the titles.

  The pivotal moment that drove us back outside was when Sarina approached Herald and me and guiltily said, “As wonderful as this is, Lady Herald, all my instinct are telling me we should continue up the hill.”

  “To the palace?” Herald asked flatly. She hadn’t made any secret of her disappointment that the others didn’t share her scholarly excitement.

  “Perhaps, my lady. Or near it,” Sarina said. The words clearly pained her to the point where it was impossible not to sympathize. At the same time, it was interesting to see. I’d been watching her for some time before she approached, and she’d been struggling. My best guess was that she’d been torn between the two most important things in her life right now: Herald’s happiness, and what was likely to be best for Herald overall. That is, should Sarina make an effort to enjoy the library and encourage the others to do the same, or should she try to steer us toward where her nose told her the treasure was?

  I knew that Herald and Mak had faced the same struggle with me; they’d told me as much. But it was much harder to see when it was directed toward myself. Right then, with the way Sarina looked around the place, at the others milling about, and at Herald, it was hard to miss.

  No matter how disappointed Herald was when we left, she couldn’t stay that way for long. She was an adventurer to her bones, and we were exploring an ancient ruin, searching for treasure. If she hadn’t gotten caught up in everyone’s excitement, I would’ve had Mak and Kira examine her to find what was wrong.

  To be entirely honest, I was excited, too. The library was important, for sure, but it was Herald’s place much more than it was mine. I thought finding a whole building full of old books was bloody tops, but she was the scholar. I’d happily learn to read and understand some Old Mallinean to help her, but I’d never be more than her assistant. Now, though, we were moving on to places I’d only seen from above, obscured by trees and rubble. We had some kind of human treasure detector with us, and we’d probably be getting a look at the palace, which Mother had specifically asked for us to do. No part of me wasn’t excited about that!

  A quick flight showed that we were less than half a mile from the palace, but it was half a mile of dense forest, with plenty of distractions along the way. It took us over an hour to cover. Herald insisting that we follow Sarina’s nose and not get too stuck into anything interesting along the way was handily balanced out by just how rough the terrain was.

  The streets of the high city had been steep, and lined with stairs. The going had been tough, but not impossible. Closer to the palace, it got worse.

  “My guess would be that the cliff rises sharply here,” Avjilan said as we stood before a tall, steep slope. From what we could see it was made up mostly of brick and cut stone, and it looked to me as though several buildings had simply collapsed. My body-snatching hunter didn’t think so, though. “It’s possible that what we see is the result of a landslide which brought down part of a neighborhood, but I doubt it. If it was, we’d’ve seen more debris further downhill, and more damage to the buildings there. No, I think the Old Mallineans took an uneven cliff face and built on it, perhaps with terracing, providing ramps and stairs for wagons and people to move up to the highest part of the city. Possibly even lifts; I’ve seen similar things in Marbek. Then, either in the Collapse or later, it, well… collapsed. They were architects beyond compare, but nothing last forever.”

  “Your theory is welcome, and sound, and to know for certain would be most welcome,” Val said, looking up at the mass of debris. “But the issue at hand is, what do we do now?”

  “It’s like at the city wall, isn’t it?” Maglan said, drawing everyone’s attention. He didn’t speak much except for small talk, so having him weigh in on an actual problem was a bit of a novelty. “We can all climb this, and in the worst case, Lady Draka may be willing to carry us. The problem is the mules. I don’t see us lifting them…” he squinted and considered the height of the slope. “Eighty feet or so. Not with ropes, as uneven as this all is. And I think we all agree that Lady Draka flying them up there isn’t an option.”

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  “Poor things,” Mak said. She was still sitting quite happily on my back, only having gotten off when I went for my short flight. “Stalwart may survive it, but after yesterday, and after spending all night in the temple with Embers, Ashen and Apple may actually die if we try.”

  “So… there is only one real option, is there not?” Herald sighed. “We cannot leave them here alone. We cannot split the group, so that some stay with them. That leaves only one choice: we will have to return them to the temple, where we can close the doors on them and leave them in something resembling safety.”

  So that was what we did. No one was particularly happy about that decision, since it took us almost an hour to return to the temple even with the track already broken. By the time we got back it was past midday, and people were getting hungry. We couldn’t just ignore that. Then, once everyone had eaten, it would be an hour back to the wall of rubble, and getting up would take a while unless I just flew them up, and then we’d have to make it the final distance to the palace itself.

  All that to say, we decided to put it off for the next day. Or we did, until Val sighed heavily and spoke up.

  “Draka, there is little reason for the rest of the day to be wasted,” he said reluctantly. “You should take Herald and Sarina and go.”

  “What?” I asked from where I lay on the floor. Herald had been tutoring me on Malyoni writing. “Just fly them to the palace?”

  “Just so.”

  “But what about the rest of you? I thought this would be something we did together, all of us. I’d feel bad just going ahead.”

  “Please don’t,” Tam said. “Feel bad, I mean. It’s a palace! A huge bloody building! It’ll take days to go through it, even if parts of it are in ruin. Hell, with parts of it in ruin, it’ll take longer! So go, you three! Sarina can tell you where we should start looking tomorrow, and you all can get a look at the place so we know what to expect. And with only the three of you, you can get out quickly if you find anything nasty.”

  “Yes!” Herald said, leaping to her feet. “Good idea! Sarina, get your gear on, light pack! Marvan, help her!”

  I’d been quite content sitting there with Herald, but in the sudden whirlwind of her excitement I slowly got up and looked around the small group. “I mean, if you’re all fine with it…”

  Ardek, Kira, Marvan, and Maglan had been playing some kind of card game while Mak and Avjilan watched. With Marvan suddenly rushing to help his wife, the game paused, and Ardek laid down his cards and leaned back. “Boss,” he said, “we have no idea what to expect up there. The fewer surprises, the better, I say. Does anyone think otherwise?”

  He looked around the others — those who weren’t busy getting ready — and no one disagreed.

  “There,” he said with great satisfaction. “Val’s idea is great. Everyone agrees, and no one’s offended that they don’t get to be first to stick their head into what might be a troll’s den or some other ancient monster’s lair.”

  “Okay, yeah.” I felt a bit off balance, but I couldn’t pretend that I was unhappy about how things were developing. “I guess we’ll be back in a few hours, then. And you all be careful, all right? Doors closed unless you have to—”

  “Unless someone needs to take a piss, and no one goes out alone. Aye, boss!” Ardek finished for me. “We’ll be fine. You just have fun with the girls, and don’t worry about us!”

  With the entire camp seemingly united behind the idea, I saw absolutely no reason to delay. Herald and Sarina had their gear on in record time, carrying only light packs with the most essential gear: waterskins, some rope, torches, emergency bandages and healing potions, things like that. Then we were on our way. The palace was less than a mile away, and what had taken so much time and effort to cover on foot took less than two minutes by air, and that was with me going slowly for Sarina’s sake. Not that she seemed to mind. She’d been a little wary of hanging below me at first, but then Herald had promised her that she’d be safe, and that was that.

  I flew a few long, lazy circles around the ruin, really giving us time. I’d seen it from the air multiple times, of course, but I hadn’t ever taken a really close look at it. I’d avoided it, in a way, because I’d wanted to see it for the first time together with Herald. And now I was!

  The palace — and I really couldn’t see what else it might be — covered the entirety of the peak of the lonely rock around which the city was built. It was a walled-off complex, shaped roughly like an arrowhead since the rock narrowed to a point toward the sea, and it wasn’t huge by any means; a thousand feet long from the inland side to the point, perhaps, and a bit less across at the widest point. But they’d done a lot with it. Even with all the trees we could clearly see a number of buildings, jagged bits of broken wall jutting among the branches. Breaks in the vegetation suggested several more, and places where the trees grew closer showed where there may once have been gardens and other open spaces.

  Covering the very point of the rock was what I thought of as the palace proper: a half collapsed structure which, despite its sorry state, rose proudly above the foliage. Going by the remaining walls, it must have once stood at least as tall as the Citadel in Karakan. Humbled as it was, it dominated the ruins of the city, the steep rock on which it stood putting it just over the top of the tallest of the four giant trees that had grown over the centuries.

  Even overgrown and in ruins, it was easy to imagine how impressive the entire complex must once have been, and I was glad that I’d put off exploring it until I had Herald with me. I felt in my bones that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it would have felt like a terrible waste not to share it with someone. Nor could I imagine anyone else I’d rather have with me.

  No. I had Herald laughing and chatting excitedly on my back. We had a clear sky above, and a mystery below. It was perfect.

  I didn’t even mind having Sarina along. She mostly just hung relaxed in my arms, content in her certainty that she was safe, and I probably wouldn’t have paid her much attention at all if Herald hadn’t kept her a part of our running conversation. The two of them kept pointing things out to me and each other, and it wasn’t like I could ignore someone who was literally in my arms, no matter how much I wanted to focus on the one on my back.

  “Oh, there!” Sarina exclaimed during our third turn around the complex. “Lady Herald, look! Directly west of the main structure. Doesn’t that building look untouched?” She must have been pointing, but with her dangling underneath me, looking was awkward.

  Herald leaned forward and to the side, though — like that would make any difference — and called back, “I see it! Draka! Do you see that spot of brick red sticking out of the trees a bit? That building still has a cupola! There is not even much moss on it!”

  “Wanna start there?” I asked, raising my voice so Sarina would be able to hear.

  “Sarina?” Herald asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I’ve got a good feeling about it!” the treasure hunter answered, and that was good enough for me. I flew above the area until I found a break in the canopy where I could see ground rather than rubble, not far from the building. There I set down, quickly discovering that it must have been a pond or something at one point. A number of small somethings, frogs or turtles or something else, fled with a chaotic jumble of splashes as I sank down to my knees in scummy water. Good thing I’d been so careful to land on my hind legs, or poor Sarina would’ve gotten dunked!

  After making my way out of the water — a circus-act and a half, with me balancing precariously on my hind legs and using my wings for stability — and struggling a short distance on a broken, overgrown street under the crowding trees, we finally stood before the building.

  It was a rotunda; perfectly round as far as I could tell, maybe sixty feet or so across and equally tall, with the cupola being a perfect half-sphere. It looked for all the world as though someone had taken a sixty-foot ball of brick and put a marble wall around its lower half.

  “Damn, but those are some huge doors, aren’t they?” Sarina commented as we stood before what must have been the entrance. “Why did they make them so big, do you think? You couldn’t fit all that many people inside.”

  “Good question,” Herald said. “I suppose we will just have to get inside. Just let me finish copying the inscription and we will take a look.”

  We were on the south side of the rotunda, which faced what must once have been a courtyard shared with the palace proper. Sarina wasn’t exaggerating about the doors; they were indeed huge. Seemingly cut out of the marble wall, they were more than half its height and followed the curve of the facade. Above those doors was an inscription; Herald carefully copied it, letter by letter, sounding out completed words as she went and muttering about needing her notes.

  “How do we get in, though?” Sarina asked. “I know Lady Draka is strong, but those things must be absolutely massive, and I don’t even see any handles.”

  “Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem,” I told her confidently. I could see something she couldn’t. The doors were edged with a golden light, and I was sure, completely sure, that all it would take to open them was a pulse of magic.

  “All right, I am done,” Herald finally said as she carefully put away her paper and charcoal. “Draka, will you do the honors?”

  “Love to,” I said. Then I placed my hand against the hair-fine line where the doors met, gathered my magic, and pushed. And pushed. And then, as the doors seemed to latch onto the power within me, I stopped pushing, but the power kept flowing. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t remove my hand. The doors drank me in, drawing greedily on my Heart until they’d had a full Rift’s worth, and only then did they release me.

  The doors, for all their enormous size, swung outward smoothly. Nothing hindered them; feet of soil that had accumulated before them was plowed away as though it wasn’t even there. And though I felt like a dish cloth that had been wrung too hard, as the sun fell on the inside of the building my heart soared. It was worth it.

  If there had been any possibility of doubt of my father’s relationship with this city, it vanished then and there. Because inside that building was a platform that could only be called a throne. And all around that throne, from one side of the great door to the other, was a mural telling the story of a city, and the dragon that had saved it.

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