I was saved from my horrified fascination with Tammy’s newfound happiness by a cheerful male voice, which effortlessly pierced my focus and dragged me back to my own surroundings. “My lady!” the man called as he came down the stairs. “An unexpected pleasure to see you! How may I serve?”

  As I retreated from Tammy’s senses, I opened my eyes, blinking as they focused on the man in front of me. It was Barro, but I’d known that from his voice. I was slightly confused, though; last I’d known, he was at the market, looking at silver accessories. How long had I spent looking through other people’s eyes? “Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked, trying to cover my disorientation.

  “Hmm? What I was— oh! Were you watching? I’m flattered! No, the search goes on, I’m afraid. But I have some time yet!”

  “Great, great. Who’s the present for?”

  “Oh, another one of my nieces is having her sixteenth name day soon. She’s a sweet girl, but very… particular about her accessories.”

  Two thoughts struck me. The first was that, judging by the hint of a wince that passed over his face, Barro’s niece probably wasn’t quite as sweet as he wanted to believe. At least, not when she got a present she didn’t like. The second was that I knew very little about the man and nothing about his family. “Another one of my nieces,” he’d said. How many did he have? How many siblings? Were his parents still alive? Was I separating him from people who loved him, keeping him away from important events, when I asked him to do something?

  Would he ever tell me unless I asked him directly?

  I had no idea.

  “You’re making time for your family, yeah? That’s good,” I said, vaguely uneasy at the reminder of just how inconsiderate I could be.

  “I try,” he said neutrally. “Working for you has been a blessing there, mostly. Fewer jobs taking me away from the city, you know? Though it does make it hard to beg off certain obligations when they know I’m around. Oh, not that they know I’m working for you,” he added quickly. “I’m keeping that silent. But they know I’m here a lot, so…”

  “Mixed blessing?”

  “A bit. I love my family, but even the best of them can be a bit much sometimes.”

  “Can’t they just,” I mused. That sounded terribly familiar, frankly. I remembered loving my family to death back when I was human, but being the only person without a degree in a family of academics had made me viscerally familiar with well disguised disappointment. And Embers… Mother was lovely in many ways, but “overbearing” was only the beginning. I was literally hiding my true nature from her, and it sometimes felt like everything I did was at her sufferance.

  I didn’t know the specifics of Barro’s situation; maybe it was completely different from both of my experiences. What I was sure of was that I could sympathize, and that I needn’t worry quite so much about keeping our head of security busy.

  Barro was waiting patiently to learn what I’d called him down there for, so I got to it. “Ramban and Tavia,” I said. “Any news?”

  “Not as such,” Barro said. “They got home safe and all, I made sure of that, but we got back rather late. There hasn’t been much time for mischief, really. But… well, there is one thing you should know.”

  “Oh? And what’s that?”

  “I think Mister Ramban may be, well, one of us.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “You know… one of yours.”

  “One of mine?” I said, perking up curiously. “Why would you think that?”

  “It’s the way he talks about you when you’re not around. He’s so… defensive, I guess. I listened to the two of them — in secret, you know? — and even when it’s just them, he doesn’t like Tavia to speak ill of you.”

  “Tavia’s been slagging me off?” I wasn’t even mad. Not really. If anything I felt a little hurt. She didn’t seem the type.

  “No, not as such,” Barro said quickly. “But she’s scared of you, you know? And Herald, now. She’s just more curious than she is frightened, or she’d never have come along to the mountain. But, like, when they showed you that wall carving and you lost your temper, that really terrified her. After you’d left, she was crying a bit and saying how she thought you were going to kill them, and Mister Ramban was saying, ‘No, no, she was just upset about this Night fellow, she’d never hurt us. She’s not like that, she’d never hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it.’ Things like that. And it didn’t sound at all like he was just saying that to calm her down. I’ve got a decent ear for that sort of thing, and I think he really believed it.”

  “All right, but that doesn’t have to mean that I’ve dominated him. It just means he doesn’t think I’m all that bad. I’m pretty happy about that, to be honest.”

  “Well, yes,” Barro agreed, “but there’s the way he talked when they found those letters, too. He was rather excited about possibly finding something that would help you. And that just… Mister Ramban was always a decent enough fellow, but he put his studies above all else. To hear him talk about how ‘Lady Draka is going to love this,’ or ‘Imagine how happy Lady Draka will be if we find out what happened to this Sekteretesh,’ and not about the discoveries themselves, it’s… he’s changed. That’s what I’m trying to say, I guess. He’s changed since that first time, when you chased us out, and he’s changed more now ever since you invited him back.”

  I was grinning by the end of Barro’s explanation. I was as pleased as anything, and for a very simple reason: I knew that Ramban didn’t belong to me. I’d touched him, yes, but I hadn’t broken him. And I knew that for certain. I could see his dreams, but that was true of most people my shadows had touched. But I couldn’t look through his eyes now, or listen through his ears. I’d tried before, and I tried again now, to be sure. Tavia, too. But there was nothing.

  Besides, the man just didn’t smell right. All my humans had a certain smell to them. I wasn’t even sure if it was a real smell or something entirely magical, but it was unmistakable, and all my humans carried it. Ramban didn’t, thus he was still a free man. QED as my ex would have said, whatever that means.

  It wasn’t hard to convince Barro that no, Ramban just seemed to like me — or respect me at least. Apparently, coming from me, “Trust me, I’d know,” was an entirely valid argument.

  Since I had him there, I took the opportunity to ask Barro about security. I really did trust that Lina would tell me anything she knew, but that was the thing; she was a maid, kept busy by the basic functioning of the inn. There was no reason for her to know everything that went on. When I asked Barro, though, I was relieved to find that he had much the same view as Lina did: there hadn’t been any real trouble.

  Then he spoiled my relief a bit by adding, “No real trouble yet, anyway. There have been some people asking if this is where the dragon is or loitering about on the square. Small groups, twos and threes, mostly drunk. The guards have been seeing them off before they can make nuisances of themselves.”

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  It seemed the lord commander’s concern hadn’t been entirely baseless.

  By the time I finished my talk with Barro, it was getting late in the afternoon, and I decided to return to my family. My little test run with leaving them alone had gone fine, but I wouldn’t lie to myself and pretend like I wasn’t anxious. Besides, the sun would be setting soon. I’d promised to return before nightfall.

  As I flew north, I checked in on Herald, and she noticed immediately. “So, you did not forget about us!” she murmured softly, her voice low enough for the remark to be just between us. “Since you are not fully here, I assume that you are flying,” she continued. “I will tell the others to start looking for a likely spot to camp. See you soon!”

  They’d made it another good fifteen miles since I left them. All that really meant was that my return trip took fifteen minutes longer. When I got there, they’d chosen a site to set up camp but were still in the early stages of clearing the ground and setting up the tents. It was a testament to how used to me they were that, as I landed on the nearby road and covered the last hundred feet or so on foot, only Avjilan, Sarina, and Marvan stopped what they were doing to greet me. The rest just looked up, gave me a “Welcome back!” and went on with what they were doing.

  An hour later, as we relaxed by the fire, it really hit home how little difference my absence had made. Their day had been entirely undramatic. The most interesting thing that had happened was when an eight foot tall deer — not an elk, a deer — crossed the road in front of them; the animal had given them a long, entirely unimpressed look and then kept going.

  “I almost wish something interesting would have come and had a crack at us,” Tam said as Val gently kneaded his feet. “It’s been a while since all I did the whole day was walk.”

  “Yeah, but if we’d been attacked by trolls or something we’d have been delayed,” Mak pointed out. “We might not have found this lovely campsite.”

  “I would not have minded that deer, though,” Herald said. “A nice chunk of roast venison would beat the hell out of this stuff.” She gestured with a piece of dried meat before taking a bite, which she chewed long and well.

  Ardek looked up from the big pot that hung steaming over the fire and said, “Well, Young Lady Drakonum, if that sad little bit of dried up birdflesh isn’t to your liking, you could’ve waited a bit. Then you’d’ve had a nice meal of pottage instead.”

  “My money’s still on Ardek,” Tam said, as Sarina and Marvan non-too-quietly asked Herald if she wanted them to rough Ardek up a little. “Besides,” he continued, looking at the couple, “if you touch him you’ll have to deal with Kira. Don’t let that sweet face and kind personality fool you! She can be vicious if she needs to be.”

  “One time,” Kira said, looking down in embarrassment. “Only one time!”

  “You made it count though!” Tam said, clapping her on the shoulder. “That girl trying to carry you off never saw what hit her.”

  “Which is ironic, since the kids said that lightstone was the brightest thing they’d ever seen!” Mak laughed.

  “Tell them the story, Tam!” I suggested.

  I didn’t need to ask him twice. Hell, I wondered if I’d even needed to ask him once; he complied so quickly, and so happily, that I suspected he’d been hoping someone would ask.

  Now, Tam wasn’t all that good at recounting events as they happened, but he was great at telling stories. He was also of the opinion that a story should get better with every telling. When I first heard about the attack on the inn, they’d recounted events as a group effort, with Mak, Tam, Val, Ardek, and Kira all taking part. I was pretty sure that what I’d heard was as factual and as close to the truth as I could reasonably hope, considering all the confusion of that night. Hearing about that same night from Tam alone was an experience, and only resembled what I’d first heard in the sense that a factory fresh Lamborghini might resemble someone’s beat-up old Holden. They’d have mostly the same parts, after all, just vastly different.

  When Tam told the story, the half-dozen attackers had multiplied to some unknown number. Ardek, instead of doing his best to prevent a single man from entering the room he shared with Kira, had apparently turned the corridor into an abattoir, armed with nothing but a candlestick and his birthday suit. As terrified guests hid in their rooms, villains were cut down by the dozen all throughout the building, leading up to a pitched battle in the common room. The climax of the story came after Kira was dragged, kicking and screaming, out into the square. Exactly how she got free was glossed over — Tam hadn’t been outside, after all — but it all ended with Kira standing proud and unflinching in the rain, between a flock of shivering, crippled orphans and her would-be kidnappers. All she had to defend herself with was a lightstone, which “shone with a light to match her righteous fury, so bright it burned out the eyes of her wicked foes.”

  She won, of course. She even prevented the aforementioned orphans from finishing off the cowed villains, delivering an impassioned speech about mercy and forgiveness which, when Tam recounted it, had the real Kira giggling with embarrassment and begging him to stop.

  I’m not sure what Sarina and Marvan made of it all — they looked pretty skeptical — but it was a bloody entertaining story.

  At Herald and Mak’s encouragement, I returned to Karakan early the next day. It was basically separation training.

  I began with the Citadel. This time I circled a few times then landed on the roof. Alanna came out soon after, but it ended up being a quick visit — I had nothing new to ask, and she had nothing new to tell. Her grandfather hadn’t come back with a day for us to meet, and nothing of interest to me had happened in the city. We exchanged pleasantries, I told her about Tam’s wild embellishments while telling his story the night before, and we had a good laugh together. It was nice, but I couldn’t have stayed longer than ten minutes. Fifteen at most.

  With nothing better to do, I decided to take a long flight over the sea. It was still early morning, and I figured I could do a long loop down the coast, past Happar, and then back north further out to sea. On my return flight, I did spot a sizable group of ships that looked like they were heading southwest, toward Happar. Flying closer, it looked like a convoy of some sort, either troop transports or merchant vessels being escorted by ships with catapults and those huge crossbows on them. I kept my distance from those; I really didn’t want to find out if they could hit a dragon in flight.

  I returned to the city late in the afternoon, reporting my findings and getting a shiny gold coin in return. It was sort of funny; most of the people at the admiralty were absolutely terrified of me, but one young clerk jumped at the chance to be the one to give me the coin. His name was Dratal — he made sure to tell me — and he managed to remain polite and respectful despite being absolutely starstruck. I liked Dratal.

  As I was leaving, the lady admiral Yakamo herself emerged from somewhere in the building. She was lightly flushed and breathing a little faster than normal; I guessed that she’d heard that I was visiting and had hurried to catch me.

  “I am very uncomfortable with Young Lady Herald being out of the city,” Yakamo told me as soon as we were in private, with the bluntness that I had come to understand as being normal for her. “When will she return?”

  “I can’t say,” I told her honestly, glancing at her bodyguard. How much did the woman know?

  “Why not? I’ve taken a liking to the young lady, and I want to be sure that she’s safe!”

  “That, I can promise you. It’s why I took her and the rest of the House north. She’s most likely safer where she is now than she’d be in the city.”

  Yakamo frowned. Then she glanced at her bodyguard, who nodded. “You’re sure?” she finally asked.

  “As sure as I can be,” I said. Then, after a moment’s pause, I added, “I can tell her that you said hello, if you want.”

  “Yes. Tell her that, please,” Yakamo agreed quickly. “And also that I would really prefer if she returned to the city.”

  “I’ll tell her,” I promised, “but I don’t think she will.”

  Yakamo gave a frustrated sigh. “Very well. She will do what’s best. But please do tell her.”

  “I will,” I promised again.

  Mercies, but I felt bad for Yakamo. She seemed like the kind of person who depended on a few trusted people in her life, such as Soandel and her bodyguard. Now, Herald had put herself at the top of that list, right before we left for what would most likely be several weeks. It couldn’t be easy for her.

  I passed on the lady admiral’s message to Herald that evening, over dinner. We were having a lovely meal of roast venison — or rather, the humans were. I was quite satisfied already. Avjilan had shot a perfectly normal deer, but at Mak’s urging, he’d set aside all the best bits for me; the lungs, heart, liver, and so on. And from an adult deer, that all added up, even for a big girl like me.

  “Maybe I should come with you tomorrow,” Herald suggested. “I admit I would like to see the lady admiral as well. Her and the lord exchequer.”

  “Are you going to be okay, going all the way to Malyon?” I asked softly. “If you’re feeling the separation already…”

  “I think so,” she said, matching my volume. “It is like a persistent itch. I can ignore it most of the time, but if I pay it any attention… I think seeing them would scratch it, so to speak.”

  I hummed my agreement. I knew exactly what she meant.

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