The Shrine was almost entirely silent for a long while after we all settled inside. Once Herald got the last few sniffles, sobs, and hiccups out of her system, the loudest sounds were the nervous brays and whimpers of the mules, and the rasp of a small, improvised shovel as Sarina and Marvan cleared out the manure. The poor animals hadn’t handled Embers’ aura of terror well.

  Mostly we all just needed comforting and reassurance. Herald and Maglan clung to each other, as did Kira and Ardek. Mak, Avjilan, Zabra, and Tammy all clustered around me, and once Herald’s two minions finished cleaning up after and soothing the mules, they both sat down near their mistress, Sarina sitting between her husband’s legs with his arms wrapped tightly around her. And like that we just sat, together but each of us alone with our thoughts.

  Except for me.

  Seems bloody childish to keep away any longer, Conscience said, interrupting my whirling thoughts of murderous dragons and the very real possibility of being driven out of my home. This doesn’t mean I’ve changed my opinion about those Tekereteki royals, all right? But, I mean… how’re you holding up?

  My first impulse was, embarrassingly enough, to continue the argument that led to her skipping out on me. That quickly gave way to an immense relief at having her back. Now we just needed Instinct to return where she belonged, and I’d be complete again.

  Not great, I admitted. I was worried that one or another of these dragons might kill me already. Now I’ve had to add Embers to that group. So, yeah. Not great. Then, to distract myself, I asked, Where were you?

  Kira, mostly, but a little all over the place off and on. Barro and Onur are both doing all right, if you’re interested. I tried Herald but couldn’t get in, though I figured that was because she was drifting in and out of sleep. Didn’t connect it to Instinct until Embers mentioned feeling her daughter here when we’d all been away. By the way, ah… well done with the gents. Grace and Presence, I mean. Really. I’m proud of you for doing what you did, and saying what you said. You probably could’ve squeezed them, once they saw— sorry, bad choice of words there. But once Kira and Mak showed that they could help. You didn’t.

  Kira would have hated that, I said. It wasn’t the only reason, but on some reflection, it was probably the most important. She would have understood, but she would have hated it.

  She would have begged you to let her do it anyway.

  Oh, Mercies, she would have, wouldn’t she? That hadn’t occurred to me, but when Conscience said it, I could see it clearly. She’d’ve put her forehead to the ground and spoken in her most formal Tekereteki.

  And you would’ve folded like a house of cards.

  Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes, but I would have, I admitted. It would’ve been mortifying, but I would have.

  And that’s your most endearing quality. You may be a mind-controlling tyrant, but at least you honestly care.

  I thought it was a bit petty of her to throw that in my face at a time like this, but I didn’t have the energy to argue or bite back.

  At least Conscience’s interruption knocked me out of my doom spiral and back on a more productive track. Everyone seemed to be expecting me to be the first to speak, so after gathering my thoughts, that’s what I did.

  “We need to be ready to flee,” I declared into the waiting silence. “With Embers gone I have no doubt that Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End will try something, and she strikes me as the type to kill you out of spite, just to hurt me. There are others who may try something, too, especially the younger pair. Mak, I leave it to you to decide what needs doing.”

  “As you say,” she said solemnly. Then she turned and looked around the group. “We’ll pack up everything we don’t need. All the most essential stuff in our own packs, the loot divided equally. Anything we can live without needs to be ready to go on the mules. Same as when travelling in dangerous territory. Most of us know the drill.”

  The only ones who didn’t look like they did were Ardek and Zabra. Everyone else had plenty of experience, either adventuring or military. Even Kira, for all that she’d never been a fighter, looked comfortable with Mak’s directions.

  “Good,” Mak said to their nods and murmured confirmations. “Now all we need to know is where to go. Running from a dragon in the open seems unlikely to work, so it’ll need to be close. That leaves us with very few options.”

  She looked at me for a decision, and I was sure I knew what she expected me to say. There was an obvious answer. I just really didn’t like it. The food court, as I still thought of it, was deep underground, and the chamber with the crystal even deeper. There were tunnels leading off the main chamber which we hadn’t explored, and the doors so far had all been human sized. And there was, I hoped, enough rock between there and the surface that Behold Her should have trouble getting through. She didn’t have Embers’ flames to soften up the stone before tearing it out, after all; her breath only seemed to affect living things.

  But the chamber was still flooded with ambient magic, and while I didn’t know what that would do to a human, I couldn’t let go of my comparison with radiation. Saving their lives only for them to die slowly over days, weeks, or even months would be a terrible tragedy.

  “We should try the palace first,” I decided. “It’s closer. Has anyone snuck out to explore it, yet?”

  Nobody had, at least not inside. “I’ve walked outside it a bit,” Sarina said. “Some parts are completely collapsed, but others, I think, can be explored. And I’m sure that there’s a cellar. My sense tells me that there’s great treasure in there, and every Old Mallinean ruin I’ve been to had its treasure below ground. That’s just how they did it.”

  Marvan nodded, agreeing emphatically, and then Avjilan spoke up, saying, “It’s the same in their ruins all around the Sarey. Their vaults are always underground. And even if that wasn’t the case, a palace needs storerooms, and possibly cells. And there was a tunnel leading from that big chamber toward the palace, yes? There must be a cellar there!”

  “I’ll trust you on that,” I said. “Right, here’s what we’ll do. I’m going up to keep an eye on things. The rest of you, pack as fast as you can. Sarina, Avjilan, only do your own packs, then head across the courtyard and see if you can get into the palace. The sooner we can get in there, the better.”

  That said, I turned for the exit. I considered taking Herald up with me; I wanted to talk to both her and Instinct, and with her latest Advancement I was sure she could hang on, no matter how exhausted she was. But it wasn’t worth the risk. Not that I was worried about my pride being wounded, but I couldn’t afford to be seen being ridden by a human now of all times. Especially not by Embers, if she came back around. So I left her with the others and took to the air, flying slow, tight circles around the palace grounds. I was on full alert, my eyes mostly focused on the south but occasionally glancing west, just in case Grace made an appearance, and east, hoping and dreading to see Embers returning.

  No one came for me. Nor did Embers return. Oh, dragons took to the sky; I had a scare when the emerald male, As He Moves, So Do The Trees Quake, took wing, but he headed east, toward Splendor’s part of the city. And my heart almost stopped when there was a bright flash of bronze from the southeast, but it didn’t come my way; either Embers wasn’t ready to talk, or it was Sandstorm stretching her wings. At that distance, I couldn’t tell.

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  I’d asked Conscience to keep an eye on how things were coming along inside the shrine, and she was happy enough to do so. It wasn’t much after noon when she returned to tell me that they were done packing, and that Sarina and Avjilan were eager to start their exploration of the palace.

  She also told me that there had been some talk about what I’d revealed to Embers; tentative and hushed speculation on what it all meant. Of course there had been. I’d have to address that soon. I hadn’t wanted them all to know about my split origins, but it was too late for secrecy now. Might as well deal with it once things calmed down a little.

  I threw one last careful look at the southern sky, then went in to land.

  Nobody asked me about my human half; nobody talked much at all, really. But Sarina and Avjilan were raring to go, just as Conscience had said. Exploring the palace was the primary reason we were here, after all, and everyone had wanted to do just that for days. I’d barely given them the all clear before they were heading into the trees of the overgrown courtyard.

  Hopefully we’d all be able to move there soon, but there was something I wanted to do before that, just in case. There were four mages in our group, and Mak and Kira had just drained themselves healing Presence. I couldn’t say how much Herald had to work with, but considering I’d drained her as much as I could, I figured she’d be down to whatever she could provide naturally herself. That wouldn’t do. And while Avjilan still had whatever he’d absorbed from the magical explosion I’d never taken him to absorb a Rift before, and I saw no reason not to try. In case something happened, I wanted to make sure that all the mages had as much power to work with as possible.

  Finding that power would be easy. There were Rifts nearby, at the foot of the rock of the high city, so I planned to take them there. The logistics were a bit awkward, though. I would have liked to take all four at once, and thought that I might be able to. But I needed someone to remain to close the door on the shrine in case one of our enemies came around. I still didn’t want to risk being seen with a human on my back, and while Herald could hang onto me just fine while Shifted, going at any kind of speed made the experience extremely taxing on her. Combined with the daylight, any attempt to fly with her Shifted on my back would end with her exhausted in seconds. I’d just have to do it in three trips.

  I took Mak and Kira first, since I could carry both of them in my arms at the same time. We found a nice, isolated Rift on the north side of the hill, which Kira drained completely, to Mak’s amazement. We’d told her, of course, but seeing and believing and all that. Then we moved to another a little ways west, a short distance into Presence’s enclave.

  “Oh! Oh gods and Mercies and Sorrows for good measure!” Mak said after doing the same thing, as the light seeped into her flesh. “I just took a whole Nest Heart. A whole damn one. And I feel… I feel beyond amazing! Like I wasn’t even wiped out just an hour ago! I feel like I’ve never been tired in my life!”

  “Right?!” Kira agreed, her face alight with excitement. “I wish it stayed like this. But, no. The feeling goes away, but the power stays.”

  Mak shrugged. “Too bad, but I don’t think that I want to get used to this. Probably better to get it now and then, so you can really feel it. Gods, I could wrestle a troll right now,” she said then laughed and added, “Literally, for all I know!”

  “I wouldn’t try it,” I said. “You still weigh as much as a drowned kitten. It’d throw you across the city!”

  “Awful comparison, and! Not if I get a good grip on it first. Actually…” She looked around and found a branch below a nearby tree, which she picked up in one hand. Then she focused, tightened her hand, and flexed.

  The dry wood creaked. After a second it cracked, and then it snapped, splintering and folding in her hand around the break.

  At the snap Kira jumped. “Gods, show me your hand!” she demanded, taking Mak’s hand by the wrist and turning it over so she could inspect the palm.

  Mak happily let herself be manhandled. There was no way that Kira could have moved her hand so much as a hair otherwise.

  “Not a scratch,” Kira said with wonder. “Not so much as a… word? Long, thin bit of wood?”

  “Splinter,” Mak supplied.

  “Not so much as a splinter.”

  I returned them to the shrine at the right time to meet Sarina and Avjilan, who’d returned for some tools. “The front gate is solid, and barred on the inside, we think,” Avjilan explained. “But we found a servants’ entrance with some give. A pry bar should do it.”

  “Great,” I replied. “Mak, do you want to go with them?”

  “Sure, yeah!” she agreed, fetching her spear. “For birds,” she explained as she hefted it. “Or fuck-off giant cats.”

  “Right,” I said, turning to our sister. “Herald, are you all right to fly?”

  I’d decided to take her next, since having her powered up felt more important than Avjilan. Besides, the archer was helping break into the palace.

  “Not like I will be doing any of the work,” Herald said with tired cheer from where she lay, her head in Maglan’s lap. “Sure. Give me a second.” Then — and this would never stop being disturbing — her voice changed, and Instinct said, “It will be interesting to fly in the grip of another. I have wondered what the humans feel when we carry them.”

  Maglan seemed to agree with me. He didn’t push her away, or even let go of her, but his surprised grimace definitely wasn’t pleased.

  That little scene was on my mind as I flew us down from the hill, back into Presence’s enclave. I didn’t like hearing Instinct speak through Herald. And it wasn’t just that hearing what was essentially my voice coming out of Herald’s mouth was disturbing. More than that, I simply didn’t like sharing, even though being jealous and possessive toward someone who was part of me was the height of ridiculousness. I knew how silly I was being, but I couldn’t help it.

  I was never going to admit this to Conscience, because she’d verbally flay me alive, and she’d be right to. But as hypocritical as it was, I just didn’t like anyone other than me stepping on Herald’s autonomy like that. I knew very well that if Instinct was stuck, then this was her only way of communicating with anyone — I’d never been able to speak inside Herald’s mind, or anyone else’s, and I had no reason to think that Instinct could. It was monstrously unfair to expect her to simply be a silent observer until we figured out how to get her back where she belonged. But as Conscience would be only too happy to agree, monstrously unfair could be a very good description of me when I felt like it.

  We really needed to get back to my hoard and see if there was anything we could do about the whole situation. I’d get on that as soon as I could. Just as soon as there were no massive magical predators waiting to chase me down and kill me.

  To get to the Rift for which I’d been aiming we had to land in a glade, then walk a few minutes. It was tiring for Herald, but soon we stood before it. I’d had to leave Herald in a tree and chase off some trolls from this one, but they’d gone without a fight, and I refused to feel bad about it.

  Herald stood a little unsteadily, but I figured she’d be able to stay on her feet for long enough to get powered up. Looking up at the swirling mass of shadow and magic hanging in the air before us, there was a dreamy quality to her voice as she said, “So, Mak and Kira can both swallow a whole Nest Heart now. Do you think…?”

  “I don’t see why not,” I replied. “Unless having Instinct there interferes somehow, but I don’t see why it should.”

  “Right,” she said. “Only one way to find out.”

  With me hovering protectively over her in case she fell, she extended her arm and stepped carefully into range.

  Her fingers dipped into the swirling mass. The way the tendrils of gold and shadow licked at her seemed almost familiar. Welcoming, even. And perhaps it was my imagination, but I could have sworn that the way they flowed into her was almost eager, like water running downhill.

  Before I knew it, it was over. The Rift was gone, and Herald gave off a contented sigh. “That went well, I think,” she said. “Though I do not feel any of the euphoria Mak and Kira described.”

  “Right,” I whispered. I barely heard her. Because while nothing had been normal about how she’d practically inhaled this Rift, the least normal thing was what happened inside her.

  Inside Herald, as she absorbed the power of the Rift, there was the familiar golden orb in or around or perhaps overlaid on her heart; more larger and brighter than usual, just like with Kira and then Mak. And right beside it, mirrored on the right and almost mashed up against it, was another one, even greater than her own. And I knew, beyond any doubt, that I was looking at Instinct.

  “Are you feeling all right?” I asked.

  “I am! Stronger and more energetic than before, at least. No euphoria, like I said, but I don’t mind.”

  “And Instinct? She’s… you’re all right, too?”

  Herald’s voice changed, and Instinct said, “Besides the imprisonment, I am well.”

  “Right. We should head back then, yeah?”

  “We should,” Instinct agreed, followed by Herald’s, “The sooner we get into the palace, the better.”

  We’d barely started the walk back when Herald stopped, getting a faraway look on her face. “Did you hear that?” she asked.

  “All I hear are leaves and birds,” I replied. “Your ears are better than mine, though. What was it?”

  “I could have sworn— There it is again! I could swear it sounded like a roar!”

  At the same time as Herald spoke I felt Conscience barrel into my mind. Hurry! she screamed frantically. You have to hurry! Kira’s closed the doors and I haven’t checked on Mak and the others but— It’s Behold Her! The big ruby bitch is here!

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