“Wake up, little one!” Mother’s urgent command burrowed into my sleepy brain, forcing me to open one eye to look toward the door. “There is no more time for sleep! The peace of the conclave has been violated!”

  “Hmm? What?” I asked, rising as gently as I could so the humans resting against me could settle rather than falling onto the floor. “What’s happened?”

  “What has not? There have been two arrivals in the night, an old amber and a young brass, and that would have been enough to rouse you early. But it is more dire than that. Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End has made an attempt on the life of The Sun Need Not Rise In His Presence!”

  My eyes flew fully open, my skin prickling under my scales as adrenaline hit me like a physical blow. “Is he dead?!” I asked, rushing toward her. “No, you said an attempt… how is he? Did she hurt him? How is The Winds Weep To See His Grace?”

  She gave me an odd look at my questions. It was curious. Almost suspicious, even. “The Sun Need Not Rise In His Presence is injured,” she said. “Quite grievously so. He may live, or he may not. The Winds Weep To See His Grace is barely hurt, but quite furious. But it is not their health you should be inquiring about. The peace of the conclave is broken, daughter. Once that happens, things tend to devolve into open conflict quickly.”

  I wasn’t satisfied with that. “What about Behold Her, then? If she didn’t manage to finish Grace off, then Presence must have driven her off. Is she hurt? How badly? Could we finish her off?”

  “Ah, a much better question,” she said, her eyes crinkling with approval. “Her flight was limping somewhat as she made her escape, but I have not gotten a close look at her. I cannot say how badly she may be wounded. Either or both of the males certainly dealt her some kind of injury. As for finishing her off, as you say, that depends on what she does next. But come. We must greet the newcomers. I know the amber, and he cannot be ignored.”

  Nobody had slept through our short conversation, but I made sure that Kira was rested enough to stay alert. If things were as precarious as Mother said, I wasn’t going to leave them without someone ready to close the door at the first sign of danger. Then, before we left, I told Mother, “I wish to see Presence.”

  She looked down at me with genuine confusion “Oh? Why?”

  For a moment I was just as confused, until I reminded myself that she was not a human, and I couldn’t expect her to think like one. Still, it was important enough for me to push. “He and his… ally may be the only two here I can tolerate. You said that he may not even survive. Well… Mak and Kira may be able to help with that. They’ve healed me before, why not him?”

  Mother’s eyes narrowed. She tilted her head slightly, then lowered it to within a few feet of my own. “What possible reason could you have for offering a rival aid?” she asked, and her tone might have been the most suspicious I’d ever heard from her. “He has come here to extract a concession from you. Now he may be removed, with no effort or culpability on your part. Why would you interfere in that?”

  Why, indeed? The idea had felt entirely natural. He was hurt, and Mak and Kira could help. But Mother was right. He was here because he wanted what was mine? Why shouldn’t I just let him live or die as chance might have it?

  Well, for one it had been Behold Her who attacked him. There was also a 99% chance that she’d done it because Grace and Presence demonstrated so clearly that they intended to curry my favor, but I wasn’t going to take responsibility for that. I did, however, like the idea of showing her a nice big double forks. That, and helping Presence seemed like a solid way of getting them firmly on my side, assuming that gratitude was something they experienced. But I couldn’t pretend that it was all spite or self-interest. Grace and Presence had both been… all right, I supposed. They’d been honest without being asses about it, and while they respected me more for who my mother was than for myself, Presence had come to speak with me, and Grace had been supposed to meet me this very morning, not her. Maybe that shouldn’t count for much of anything, but it did. In my eyes, Presence didn’t deserve to die.

  But I suspected that Mother would only care about, or even really understand, two of those. “Offering to save Presence would strengthen my position in a negotiation,” I told her bluntly. “If those two are as close as I suspect, I could probably tell Grace to just leave and swear to stay away as a condition. And I doubt Grace and Presence will ever forgive Behold Her. Why should we not keep her enemies alive to revenge themselves on her?”

  She kept me pinned with that look, far too suspicious for my liking, and it was all I could do not to cringe away. Then, after an eternity, she huffed lightly and backed off. “Fair points,” she said. “We will see if Winds Weep To See His Grace will allow us to visit once we greet the new arrivals. Now: they came across the sea from the southeast and have taken up residence in that part of the city, usurping territory from both Splendor and the young pair. We shall have to fly across the harbor for some short time to reach them. If Behold Her And Know All Things Must End leaves her tree, fly for the shrine at all haste. I shall prevent her from approaching you however I must. Do you understand?”

  “I do.” I couldn’t keep my nerves out of my voice, and I had every intention of doing exactly as she said.

  “Good. Then let us fly.”

  The interlopers had each claimed temporary territory in the city, something I was forced to tolerate for the sake of peace — or at least, that had been the idea. In the north, on the rock that held the high city and the palace, were Mother and I. To our west were Grace and Presence. Each had claimed only a tiny territory, which I took as a message. “Look,” they seemed to say, “we’re not here to be greedy. We’re just your new, friendly neighbors.” Even together they were the smallest save for what Mother and I resolutely held as our own. South of them was Behold Her. She’d claimed most of the western part of the city, which she watched over from one of the forest giants, its limbs thick enough to carry her weight. Continuing counter-clockwise, in the south were Unquenchable and Quake, who together had held the largest part of the city — which sent the opposite message to the two males in the northwest. And then, across the harbor from us and having claimed pretty much the entire east of the city, was Splendor.

  Now, apparently, these two newcomers had carved out a claim from what the young pair and Splendor had held, apparently without a fight. From Splendor I could believe it; he seemed rather laid-back for a dragon, especially when it came to fake territory that he’d never expected to keep in the first place. The two young dragons, though? I would have expected them to fight, for the sake of their pride if nothing else. That they hadn’t said a lot about the old amber.

  To bring us to them Mother took us on a circuitous route, keeping us as far from Behold Her as possible. We flew directly east out across the harbor, keeping a wary eye on Behold Her’s tree all the while, and only turned south when we were past the new eastern border of Unquenchable and Quake’s territory. Then we crossed above Splendor’s claim. Mother did an entirely unnecessary courtesy dip when she saw him sunning himself in a glade that might have been a plaza once, fueling my unpleasant suspicion that she wasn’t quite as dismissive of him as she pretended. And then we were above what the old amber and the young brass had claimed.

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  There was no sign of the two, but the forest was no less dense there than anywhere else. They could be almost anywhere, and we’d never see them, even if Mother could apparently home in on any male within a thousand miles or so — an ability that was as useful as it was uncomfortable for me to know about. But it didn’t matter if we couldn’t see them; we’d come to “their” territory, but when it came to dialogue, they’d have to come to us, if they so chose. That was apparently just how it was done, and was why Presence had waited at the edge of the palace grounds. He could not come to me; I’d had to accept his request for a talk by approaching, or reject it by staying away. Now Mother and I did the same.

  There was an aqueduct passing through the towering city wall that bordered the section of the city we were in, and that was where Mother took us.

  Even after half a millennium of neglect, the aqueduct still stood. It stretched away from the city, through and above the forest, and clear water still poured through it from the distant mountains. It was a feat of engineering that inspired nothing less than awe; there was not a shred of doubt in me that no one on Earth, from any time period including my own, could have matched what the Old Mallineans had accomplished. The wall itself was another marvel, only having partially collapsed in a few places, and as we landed on opposite sides of the bridge that spanned the aqueduct where it crossed the fortification, I never even considered that it wouldn’t be able to bear Mother’s weight, never mind my own.

  “So now we just wait?” I asked Mother after we’d settled in.

  “Just so,” she said. “Though if they do not choose to come meet us soon, we shall leave. As this conclave is in your territory I will observe politeness and offer to greet them, but there is no call for us to put up with disrespect.”

  “Right. But this amber, he’s someone you respect, right?”

  Mother snorted. “I suppose I do. He is an uncle of mine, and a century older. Though I will not pretend to like him, and I cannot fathom why he is here.”

  And just like that, I had a great uncle. I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with emotion, but it was interesting to know. “Should he not be?” I asked.

  “Not at all. He belongs far, far from here, closer to my own territory. I can only assume that he is sensitive beyond what I would have suspected, and that he has made great haste to arrive so soon.”

  “Maybe he knew that you were here, and took an interest because of that?” I suggested.

  Mother just snorted again, rather more dismissively this time. “If so, nothing good can come of it.”

  “Oh,” I said. I wasn’t sure how to follow that, so we waited in silence for a few minutes until it occurred to me that she’d never mentioned her uncle’s name. “What’s he called?” I asked.

  Mother, looking lost in thought, gave me a questioning, “Hrrm?”

  “What is your uncle’s name?”

  “Oh. That,” she huffed. “I suppose you will know soon enough.” Then, with more reluctance than I could remember seeing from her, she murmured, “Indomitable.” The way she said it was as though the word itself was distasteful.

  “No, his full name,” I clarified.

  “That is his full name,” she said, her face contorting with displeasure. “Indomitable.”

  “One word. That’s all?”

  “He insists that a name should describe its owner as elegantly as possible. And that, he says, describes him perfectly. The arrogant old wyvern.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Indeed.”

  Indomitable. One word. A dragon older than Mother, with a single word for a name. I wasn’t sure what to do with that. Especially considering how Mother had called him arrogant. Mother, who made no secret of the fact that she considered herself the greatest and most powerful being in… well, the world, pretty much.

  I couldn’t tell if that was her lack of self reflection or if he was really that full of himself, but I was about to find out. Because from among the branches of the giant that grew in Indomitable’s claim, two forms were taking flight. Both appeared gold in the light of dawn, one fiery, the other bright and reflective, and they were coming our way.

  It was time to meet great uncle Indomitable.

  “When we speak with them,” Mother said as softly as she could, “you should introduce yourself. Ask their names if they do not offer them freely, and ask why they are here. Other than that, I will let you know if you say anything rude. They should be quite forgiving, with our relation and your age.”

  I quickly confirmed, keeping my eyes on the two approaching dragons. I wasn’t sure what I expected as the two rapidly approached, but one thing surprised me. I quickly came to realize that though he may be older than Mother, if only by a century, I couldn’t say for sure if he was any larger. I’d just assumed that, with all the dragons present being sized pretty much in order of age, dragons grew at a fairly steady pace throughout their lives, however long those might be. Although, there was the hoard-size factor to consider. Even though I’d hit some kind of diminishing returns since my third Major Advancement, I’d still grown the last time I added to my hoard. So maybe Indomitable simply hadn’t been as diligent — or successful — in growing his own as Mother had?

  Whatever the reason, he was of a similar size to Mother, if not of the same shape. Mother was built like a brawler. She was tall, solid, and compact, with a relatively shorter body and neck than mine. Her uncle, on the other hand, was more sinuous; longer overall, and with a wider wingspan. He also had no horns, instead sporting a collection of long, thin spines coming off his jaw and up along the sides of his face, then growing denser and more numerous on the top of his head and upper neck. It had the odd effect of making his head look rather like an echidna, only a deep, golden honey color.

  He also shone with magic. And in this he outclassed Mother, if nothing else and if only by a fraction. The brass beside him might reflect the dawn sun, but Indomitable himself was dazzling until I accustomed myself to his brilliance.

  When they got close, Indomitable and his younger companion banked and flew along the wall without a word, with the old male only speaking on their return pass after they’d turned around at the edge of his claim. He spoke in Draconic, so all I picked up was “little” and “come.” Mother, though, huffed in annoyance before she said, “Come, daughter. Let us follow the old wyvern to his tree and get this over with.”

  We did just that. The two flew directly for the giant tree, bringing us into the crown.

  We couldn’t land on the uppermost branches, of course. Even on the giants, those were far too thin to hold a dragon. But at its top, the mighty trunk split into three, each part branching out at an angle before going horizontal and then splitting again and again. That was where we landed, simply ignoring smaller branches and dodging the larger ones to land near the center, where each of those branches was thick enough to easily bear the weight of a fully grown dragon or two.

  It was quite nice, really. The smaller branches that grew out of the three main ones climbed to form a leafy canopy, creating the effect of a living cave of sorts. I was kicking myself for not having visited one of these trees earlier; I’d have to take the girls with me once we next had the opportunity. Or, maybe just Herald. Mak didn’t love heights, and these trees in particular might not inspire the same kind of awe and excitement in her that I expected from our younger sister.

  But this was no time for planning excursions. All four of us were settling in, facing each other, Indomitable and his young companion on one branch, Mother and I on another. While the two elders exchanged a few words in Draconic, the brass and I stared each other down.

  She was female. I still couldn’t say how I knew that, but I did. Her coloration was almost identical to Mother’s, and so was the general shape of her body, though she had a longer neck and tail and lacked the sharp spikes that covered Mother’s jaw and neck. I wondered if that was a sign of her youth, or if there was some inheritance thing going on. After all, I knew very little about different types or breeds or races or what-have-you of dragons beyond what I’d read in a very nicely illustrated book, much of what had turned out to be wrong.

  She was also bigger than me by at least a foot and a half at the shoulder, but what else was new? And she used that size advantage to look down at me like she wished I’d spontaneously break every bone in my body and fall to my death, hundreds of yards below.

  We hadn’t even spoken, and I was pretty sure that she already hated me.

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