When Conscience alerted me that Behold Her had made her move, I didn’t think. I just acted. It wasn’t for the sake of propriety that I scooped Herald up in my arms to fly. It was simple, practical necessity. I wasn’t leaving Herald for the trolls, but I also wasn’t going to waste two minutes running back to the glade where we’d landed. The trees grew dense near where the Rift had been, so I held Herald close to my chest, protecting her fragile human body with my own far tougher one when I smashed my way up through the branches. Mercies only knew what would have happened if she’d been on my back.

  Herald was screaming. Being grabbed by a nearly nine foot tall predator without warning or explanation then sent crashing through the canopy and hurtling through the sky would do that to a girl, no matter how brave she was. To her credit, it wasn’t just wordless fear, though.

  “Draka!” she shouted. “What’s happening?!”

  Thanks to her latest Advancement I would have heard her perfectly even if she’d spoken normally, but she’d earned the right to shout in those last few moments. “Behold Her!” I replied. “The big ruby monster. She hates me. Wants me dead. And now she’s come looking for me!”

  “And you’re flying?! Draka, you need to hide!”

  “She’s at the shrine!”

  “Oh.” Herald’s reply was a horrified whisper, and I agreed with the sentiment entirely. Gods and Mercies, I thought, please don’t let that lethal mist she breathes slip in through any cracks!

  When I first saw what Behold Her’s breath did to a tree, I’d been frightened. Now that I’d seen what it could do to a dragon in the prime of his life, I was plagued by visions of opening the shrine, and finding nothing but bleached bone and dust within. Kira, Ardek, Marvan, Maglan, Zabra, and Tammy; they were all trapped inside, utterly helpless.

  They’re fine. Terrified, but fine, Conscience comforted me in response to my thoughts. She’d been in and out of my mind, flitting between me and my humans. Mak’s keeping an eye on the shrine from a distance. The big ruby bitch is just lying there watching the sky, not trying to break in or anything. I think she’s waiting for you.

  Not making any noise so I won’t hear her, I guessed. Using the trees so I won’t see her as I approach. Fuck, why couldn’t she be stupid?

  Behold Her was practically created to be seen. Where some dragons, like Embers, shone in the sunlight, and others disappeared against the sky or clouds or even the green of the ground, the big ruby stood out against any background. But that didn’t stop her from being sneaky when she wanted to.

  Well, I didn’t care how old and experienced she was. She wanted sneaky? I’d show her bloody sneaky!

  I approached the palace low to the ground, keeping below the level of the highest part of the rock as I skimmed over the treetops of the high city, then only barely skipping over the wall of the palace grounds proper. “Can you find the entrance to the tunnels from here?” I asked Herald, keeping my voice low in case Behold Her had preternatural hearing or something.

  “I can,” Herald said reluctantly. “But Draka—”

  “Herald,” I said, lowering my head so we were eye to eye and trying to force the fear out of my voice. “Sweetest sister. Dearest friend. I won’t command you not to try to help. I want to. Mercies, I want to! But I once promised not to hold you back, and I’ll… I’ll try to keep that promise. But I’ve seen what Behold Her’s breath can do, and the thought of you coming anywhere near her terrifies me like nothing else. So. You know where you can hide, if you need to. Let’s leave it at that.”

  “All right,” she said, voice choked with emotion. Her hands trembled slightly as she placed them on either side of my jaw before kissing me on the snout. “Be careful,” she whispered. “Before, losing you would have broken me. Now… I think I might actually die of grief. Please. Be careful.”

  “I will. I promise,” I said. “I’m just going to lead her away into the city, and then I’ll hide somewhere and sneak back up. I’ll be fine.”

  Gods, I wished that I believed that. I was going to try, certainly, but I had no idea what Behold Her was truly capable of. I’d never even seen two dragons fight. But I remembered well how easily Embers and Splendor had each caught up to me, only not catching me because neither had wanted to. Behold Her… my best hope was that she wanted to toy with me before scouring the flesh from my bones.

  And then Herald’s mouth opened again, and it was Instinct who spoke. “That is my body you are putting in harm’s way,” she said. “I will be furious if you lose it.”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed. A shocked, terrified, madly affectionate little snort-and-hiccup of a laugh. I wasn’t entirely sure that Instinct had just made a joke to relieve the tension, but I was sure as hell going to take it that way!

  “All right!” I said. “Yeah. I’ll keep that in mind. Take care of Herald while I’m busy, will you?”

  “Of course I will,” she said regally, even though there was not a damn thing she could do. “The Herald is as much mine as yours, is she not?”

  “Sure. Yeah. Thanks.” I might have agreed to anything right then. “Let’s get on with it, then. Herald, I’m sure as hell not going to say goodbye, but remember that I love you.”

  Then, without waiting for a reply, I Shifted and set off toward the shrine.

  Herald followed a few moments later. Along the way she turned for the entrance to the tunnels, and my heart became an order of magnitude lighter.

  Outside the shrine, Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End lay as still as the stone beneath her feet, and as patient as death. I waited in the shadows, and in all that time I watched her I didn’t see her so much as breathe. The only sign that she wasn’t some kind of giant ruby statue was in her eyes, which moved slowly, scanning the patch of sky that was visible through the trees.

  Across the clearing, toward the palace, Mak crouched in some bushes. Even knowing where she was, I couldn’t see any trace of her. I prayed that Behold Her couldn’t either. Or smell her, or hear her, or sense her in any other way. Far behind her by the palace walls, Conscience told me, were Sarina and Avjilan, waiting in tense silence. And inside the shrine, she said, the six trapped humans prayed for deliverance, not knowing if they dared open the door.

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  Kira’s crying, Conscience said. Ardek’s doing his best to comfort her. They all are, really. Tammy’s the only one who’s calm.

  Really? I asked, only half paying attention as I focused on the ruby monster squatting outside of my temporary home. I’d’ve thought she’d be out of her mind with fear that I might get hurt.

  Pretty sure she thinks you’re invincible. Like, literally.

  That sounds about right for her, unfortunately. She’s not annoying the others, is she?

  Shockingly, no. Relentless optimism seems to be what they need right now.

  For the longest time, we just sat there. All of us. I didn’t dare go to Mak in case Behold Her detected us, so I stayed where I was. Mak seemed to have the same idea. And it didn’t seem worth the risk to go and provoke Behold Her when she wasn’t doing anything, so I just watched her and hoped that Embers might return to see her off. But Embers never came, and as the afternoon wore on, Behold Her lost her patience.

  When it happened it was so sudden that my entire shadowy form twitched with surprise. It was as though a boulder that had always been there suddenly and without warning launched itself at a nearby house. One moment Behold Her lay there, completely unmoving; the next she slammed herself into the wall of the shrine, her claws tearing into the stone as she roared in what I thought must be Draconic, but was such a mess of hissing and spitting that I could barely recognize the language.

  For a short, beautiful moment I thought the shrine might hold. That the ancient enchantments on the building might somehow keep all those tons of magically empowered muscle out. Then I saw the first flakes and chunks break off from the facade and tumble to the ground.

  My humans were in immediate danger. I moved.

  I might have stayed Shifted and moved in my shadow form, but that was an ace I wanted to keep up my sleeve for as long as possible. Besides, I could be terrifyingly sneaky when I wanted to even without my magic; my body was built for stealth as much as strength, and I had not only my Stealth Advancement bolstering that, but Grace as well. And Behold Her, encouraged by her success in damaging the walls of the shrine, was not at her most attentive. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a marching band could have snuck up on her. Against me, she didn’t even know I was there until I had already leapt and crashed into her back.

  That got her attention, and I immediately regretted my approach as a startled toss off her head sent me sliding off, claws only barely catching under her scales but finding no real purchase in her hide. Then she twisted her head around and locked eyes with me. Her expression went from rage and surprise to cold, cruel delight. There was a level of malice there that I’d never in my life seen before, not even in Tarkarran the torturer’s eyes, and my courage deserted me as I felt that I had just made a terrible mistake.

  I did the only thing that I could; I emptied my venom glands right in her face. I didn’t stick around to see what effect, if any, it might have had. It made her blink and pull back, and that was enough. I leaped off her, twisted in the air, and was climbing before I even touched the ground.

  Behind me, Behold Her roared. Whether in pain or simple fury, I had no idea. I didn’t want to know. I wanted to be sure that she was following me for long enough for everyone to evacuate the shrine and get into the palace, and then I wanted to hide somewhere and just shake and cry for a while.

  There must have been some Advancement of Behold Her’s involved. I couldn’t explain it any other way. When she’d seen me, when I looked into those shimmering, almost blindingly white eyes, they’d come alive with interest. Delight, even. Anticipation. Anticipation of my immeasurable anguish and suffering. She hadn’t said a word, but I knew in my bones that she did not just intend to kill me, not if she could draw it out.

  Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End was evil. I was sure of it. Utterly and irredeemably. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she could have killed either or both of Presence and Grace if she’d so desired, but chose to horribly maim Presence and leave him like that for the sake of maximizing their suffering.

  Gods only knew what she might do to me. Not only did she blame me for having what should be hers, but Embers, my mother, had insulted her. Behold Her couldn’t know about the rift between us at the moment. Mercies, she might not even kill me. What delight might she take from destroying everything I loved and taking me apart, leaving me broken and suffering for Embers to find?

  I was still close enough to hear the thunderclap of her wings as she exploded off the ground to pursue me. It only took seconds for her to catch up. But she didn’t scour me with her breath, rend me with her claws, or shear through any part of me with her jaws. Instead she clipped me, a sharp snap of her mighty wing that sent pain lancing up my own and sent me tumbling toward the ground. I barely had time to recover before it was too late, Grace and practice letting me level out just above the treetops.

  I was not going to outrun her. I hadn’t expected to. I hadn’t expected her to catch me that quickly, but I’d been sure that she’d be faster than me. No, my hope lay in outflying her. I was smaller, lighter for all my bulk, and I had that Grace Advancement that let me perform some spectacular feats of aerobatics when I wanted to — which I often did. It was amazing fun when you weren’t fleeing for your life. Now I hoped that it might keep me alive for long enough that my humans could get to safety.

  I locked my eyes on Behold Her, high above me, and she was already diving after me. In a near panic I did the same, despite being almost in the trees. I found the first opening large enough that I could be confident not to smash into a tree trunk, and dove in.

  Birds and small things among the undergrowth scattered. Treelimbs broke against me and my landing was among the roughest I’d ever experienced, but I barely felt it. As soon as my feet touched the ground I was running, taking a sharp turn from the direction I’d been heading. Somewhere above me, Behold Her roared, and from close behind, about where I’d gone through the canopy, I thought, came the sound of multiple trees crashing to the ground, tearing their neighbors down with them in part or whole.

  When I threw a glance over my shoulder I saw a red mist spreading, eating away at anything it touched. But it seemed to be spreading fastest in the direction I’d just turned from, so my decision to sacrifice speed for misdirection turned out to be a good one.

  Then there was the unmistakable sound of several tons of dragon landing in the clearing she’d made. “Small thief!” Behold Her’s voice boomed through the forest, roaring in her archaic Sareyan as she crashed through the trees. “Find you, I will, and catch you! Pointless, this is! Surrender!”

  Like hell I will, I thought, but I wasn’t dumb enough to announce my position like that. Still, despite my desire to just hide, I knew that I had to keep her distracted. Conscience would tell me when the humans were safe, and she hadn’t done that yet. So I ran through the forest, changing directions every so often, and hearing her raging grow increasingly distant as she failed to follow me. Then, before she could grow bored or frustrated enough to go and take it out on my humans, I found a break in the trees and threw myself back into the air.

  I had a pretty good idea of which direction she was in, which was proven correct before long. It took less than a minute before she spotted me and pursued.

  I didn’t want to make it too obvious that I was keeping her away from the humans. I wasn’t sure how intelligent she was, but I knew that she was cunning enough to lie in wait, using them as bait, and I had no doubt she’d go after them if she suspected what I was doing. Nor did I want to remind her of them by flying too near, in case she decided that a quick aside to destroy something precious to me would be worth the delay in catching me. So instead of flying away from or toward the palace ground, I flew parallel to it, low enough that I’d be able to dip in among the trees and buildings of the high city when she inevitably caught up again.

  And it was inevitable. She was on my tail and closing fast. The only question was whether I’d avoid getting maimed when she did.

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